Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Innosphere earns LEED Platinum | Northern Colorado Business Report

July 22, 2011 --
FORT COLLINS - The Rocky Mountain Innosphere, 320 E. Vine St. in Fort Collins, has earned LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute. The Innosphere was recognized for its low energy and water use, natural lighting, solar generation, regionally sourced materials and diverting construction waste from the landfill.

The 32,260-square-foot building opened in January and houses about two dozen startup companies in the fields of clean energy, bioscience, information technology, innovation and research. The nonprofit Innosphere was formerly known as the Rocky Mountain Innovation Initiative or RMI2.

LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, certification provides an objective and internationally recognized standard for what constitutes a "green" or high-performance building. A very small percentage of buildings across the country actually achieve the Platinum designation, the highest level awarded.

The Innosphere's sustainable building milestones included 35 percent less indoor water use than a typical office building; 80 percent construction waste diversion; 32 percent recycled content of materials; 21 percent regional material procurement, and the generation of 27 percent of total energy cost of the building through on-site solar cells, according to the USGBC. Other notable features include abundant natural day-lighting, low-emitting and nontoxic materials, paints and finishes, and the implementation of a measurement and verification plan to track energy and systems that can quickly identify any efficiency issues.

"The success of the Innosphere is a result of a focused community effort that involved excellent collaboration from project conception through integrated design and construction," according to Brian Dunbar, executive director of the Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado State University, part of the Innosphere project team. Other members included Preview Architecture, Sherman Design LLC, Beaudin Ganze Consulting Engineers, Verde Project Development, Dohn Construction and Wirsol Solar.

For more information on the Innosphere, go to www.rmi2.org.

Article published by NCBR.

Call for Applicants!

Student Team Member, 
R2P2 (Research to Practice Program) Team

The Institute for the Built Environment has been selected by the U.S. Green Building Council to pilot a national initiative to develop educational products from green building case studies.  The goal of these “teaching case studies” is to illustrate general green building principles, to illustrate the application of specific green strategies, and to give learners the tools to apply principles and strategies in their own unique situations.  The R2P2 team will work together to develop issue-based stories based on case study data, guided analysis for learners, and teaching notes for instructors.

Position Description

IBE staff and a small, diverse group of graduate students will form the R2P2 Team.  A student is desired from the programs of Construction Management, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Business Management, Technical Journalism, and Education with interests in green building, sustainable schools, teaching, and/or curriculum development.

The diverse Student Team Member experience will closely resemble a graduate level course.  Each student will design and develop an educational product, guided by team leaders.  Students will be required to attend weekly team meetings and periodic individual meetings with team leaders.  A strong sense of self direction, motivation, and innovation is required. Skills in design, video, communication and web are a plus.

This single semester experience will end with the completion of example educational products in early December.  The student created projects will be compiled into a publication for dissemination to teachers and professionals across the nation. Total expected time commitment is estimated at 45-55 hours. Course credit may be pursued through an independent study if desired.  Stipends of $500 will be granted to students upon project completion.

If you are interested, please send a resume and letter of interest to Stephanie Barr, s.barr@colostate.edu , and copy Brian Dunbar, brian.dunbar@colostate.edu.  Applications due by August 26th.