A Spartan Effort

Michigan State University (MSU), East Lansing, Mich., has been known as an agriculture school and as a university with a green-and-white clad championship basketball team led by Coach Tom Izzo.

Now, the Big Ten University is attempting to add “environmental school” to its reputation with the addition of its new MSU Surplus Store & Recycling Center, which pursues numerous recycling-related efforts, including running a materials recovery facility (MRF).

While its home lies in the state of Michigan, with its struggling economy, the university is still making attention to the environment a priority by following what it calls the five Rs: Reduce, Reuse/Recycle, Research/Reeducate, Re-design, and Re-think.

CREATING A STRATEGY
In 2005, Lou Anna Simon, president of Michigan State University, initiated a strategic positioning process for MSU titled “Boldness by Design.” The title reflects her aspirations for the university and is designed to offer a challenge to the campus to embark on a bold and purposeful march into the 21st century by increasing recycling, decreasing energy use, and changing the outlooks and behaviors of the 46,000 faculty, staff, and students.

An environmental stewardship program started from the “Be Spartan Green” initiative, which assists the MSU Recycling Center with a comprehensive recycling program in all 579 campus buildings. In January 2008, the MSU Board of Trustees authorized the construction of the new MSU Surplus Store & Recycling facility to further the campus’s efforts. The new facility opened in August of 2009.

MSU used sustainable practices while building the new facility. To reduce the environmental impact of building on undisturbed land, the MSU Surplus Store & Recycling Center was constructed on a formerly developed site, a portion of it consisting of a previous coal ash dumping ground.

To ensure a suitable building site, nearly 800 aggregate piers were buried through the unsuitable soils remaining after the site was graded to its required elevations. During construction, contractors diverted more than 80 percent of the construction scrap and debris from the landfill by collecting and recycling the materials generated throughout the building process.

LEED SILVER STATUS
The building incorporates Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification elements in anticipation of achieving Silver Certification from the United States Green Building Council, designers of the LEED system.

One way to keep glass out of the landfill is to mix it into concrete. The heated sidewalk, driveway approaches and curbs around the facility, which amount to 15 percent of the exterior concrete, include recycled, crushed green glass particles. The conference room table and Education Center counters are also constructed with a 100 percent recycled glass known as EnviroGLAS. The counters are also made from recycled porcelain and recycled aluminum, making the durable surfaces free of volatile organic compounds (VOCs,) which means they did not require the removal of granite from the earth through mining practices.

Many of the remainder of the LEED points pertained to energy-savings and rainwater runoff.

Photovoltaic panels (192 total) are located on the roof, with a total system rating estimated at 37,257 kilowatt-hours per year of energy at a value of $2,831 per year. The system also has a real-time display showing electricity generated, hourly, daily, and monthly read-outs, a weather station, and will provide up to 10 percent of the building’s electrical needs.

A rainwater harvesting system uses rooftop rainwater to replace domestic water that would have been required for flushing toilets and urinals, and for the MRF’s pressure washer. The system collects and routes water to seven collection tanks that, in total, hold approximately 15,000 gallons of water. It is estimated the system will supply 73,000 gallons of water annually, providing 60 percent of the building’s water supply. This system will help achieve two water efficiency credits towards MSU’s LEED-certification.

Four rain gardens were strategically placed on the outside edges of the pavement around the building. The rain flows into the garden instead of filtering into nearby rivers and storm drains, reducing river and stream pollution.
The facility also has porous asphalt in the parking lots. Standard asphalt drains water into streams, rivers, or storm sewers. As a way to help manage storm runoff, the northeast parking lot was paved with porous asphalt. Unlike standard asphalt, porous asphalt is open to water, so the water drains through the porous asphalt into a stone bed then slowly infiltrates into the soil, which is a natural process that cleanses water, filtering out particulates before it returns to the earth.

In order to provide an environment that promotes productivity and the well-being of the building’s occupants, five giant fans were installed throughout the building. They are tied into the building management system, allowing them to be set on a schedule, only turning on when necessary. The large fans move air at a low speed, which means less energy consumption. They will produce a breeze that causes the air to feel 8 to 16 degrees cooler in the summer, while the fans gently drive hot air trapped in the ceilings down to the floor, resulting in reduced heating expenses during the winter months.

There is also an energy recovery ventilation (ERV) system, which conditions air exhausted from the restrooms, powering the ERV system to help cool incoming fresh outdoor air. This reduces the cost to otherwise cool or heat the fresh air and helps eliminate ozone-depleting refrigerants in the air conditioning systems.
Inside the building, all of the paints, adhesives, carpeting and interior furnishings are in accordance with LEED standards of having low or no VOCs. 

Many of the above systems will help achieve more than 50 percent of the building’s energy cost savings over the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers baseline. Additional features that will achieve energy savings include: motion sensors in high-traffic areas to control lighting,  use of natural lighting from the large number of windows in facility, and low-flow fixtures to decrease water and energy use in restrooms. C&DR