College campuses, with significant numbers of older facilities, have the opportunity to lead the green building movement while reaping economic, health, environmental, educational, and marketing benefits. This project assessed the current status of green building programs at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), the costs and benefits of building green, and the costs and benefits of LEED certification to make the business case for LEED-certified buildings. This project also proposed a strategic plan for green building programs at WPI to promote and measure green building improvements to new and existing facilities. Lastly, this project assessed the feasibility of certifying existing facilities with the LEED Existing Building rating system. By evaluating all of the costs and the major benefits, the results of this project demonstrate that the benefits of building green and LEED certification outweigh the costs and that through strategic planning WPI can become a leader among colleges implementing green building programs.

Creator

• Peyser, Suzanne M

Contributors

• Nitsch, Judith
• Richardson, Janet B.
• DiMauro, Alfredo
• Solomon, Jeffrey S.
• Salazar, Guillermo F.
• Albano, Leonard D.

Degree

• MS

Unit

• Civil & Environmental Engineering

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Language

• English

Identifier

• etd-043008-121318

Keyword

• LEED
• Balanced Scorecard
• Green Building

Advisor

• Salazar, Guillermo F.

Committee

• Nitsch, Judith
• Albano, Leonard D.
• Richardson, Janet
• DiMauro, Alfredo
• Solomon, Jeffrey

Defense date

• 2008-04-18

Year

• 2008

Date created

• 2008-04-30

Resource type

• Thesis

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Last modified

• 2023-11-07