Â鶹´«Ã½

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Energy, water, and green buildings

Learn about green building practices being applied on our campuses and explore our plan highlighting key goals, strategies, and performance targets.

Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s buildings

In addition to theÌýpositive environmental impacts of creating green buildings, an organization’s operating costs can be substantially reduced, and human health can be improved through better indoor air quality and reduced levels of toxic substances in the building process.

Building green involves seeking efficiencies in energy, water, and use of materials through better design and construction, more efficient operations, and properly re-using and disposing materials at the end of a building’s life cycle.Ìý

Â鶹´«Ã½ has four campuses. Three campuses are mixed into the downtown core of the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia and one campus is located in the rural village of Bible Hill, Nova Scotia. OverÌýone hundred and fifty buildings cover approximately 6 million square feet of space.ÌýÂ鶹´«Ã½'s buildings and houses date from 1850 to the present. Â鶹´«Ã½ is a member of theÌý

New construction

In 2010, Â鶹´«Ã½ passed a Green Building Policy that states all new buildings over 10,000 square feet should aim for LEED® Gold Certified or higher. Some buildings started the planning process before or during 2010, and in some of these cases LEED® Silver was achieved.Ìý

Each building has unique green features including a self-guided green building signs, bubble decks, solar walls, solar thermal, rain water cisterns, green roofs, Optinet sensors, LED lighting, electric car charge stations, chilled beam cooling, and permeable pavement.

Existing building upgrades

Under the UniversityÌýSustainability Policy,Ìýgreen building requirements recommend existing building upgrades follow a green building standard as outlined in ourÌýDesign Guidelines.Ìý

Review our existing building upgrades.

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