By SHANNON O. WELLS

When the west wing of Scaife Hall on Terrace Street was built, several tons of building materials that otherwise would’ve been landfill bound — theater seats, wood flooring and aluminum panels among them — were instead salvaged and put to use in the new construction or donated to other projects.

“A number of building materials were reused during demolition in the construction of the west wing, and that is just cool to think that they took those materials, stored them and actually put them back into the building that is the west wing now,” said Annie Shvach, sustainability manager in Planning, Design, and Construction. “I think we were able to donate about five tons of material instead of having that waste to go within a landfill.

“In total, we were able to divert 75% of the entire waste to other places that’s not a landfill.”

This was among the sustainability-oriented elements that led to Scaife Hall’s west wing earning a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification this year from the U.S. Green Building Council, making it Pitt’s 20th LEED-certified building since 2005. The buildings are in Oakland as well as the regional campuses and seven are part of Pitt Health Sciences.

The project included adding a seven-story wing to Scaife Hall, which houses Pitt’s School of Medicine, with updated learning spaces, a renovated library and new café. Among the sustainable features are LED lighting; heat recovery systems; occupancy-based ventilation; 100% renewable electricity, including a rooftop solar array; native plantings around the building; and a stormwater feature along the Lothrop Street side.

“We try to be very particular with LEED,” Shvach explained. “We have to upload those receipts.”

She admitted being a “little shocked” to learn that contractors “were excited” by the provision, “because they’re not having to deal with as much waste as they started with. They’re able to divert and take back some of that revenue,” she said. “It’s a benefit for them to just grab and to repurpose the materials as well. Our contractors have been one of our biggest allies in helping divert waste.”

The new 134.2-kilowatt solar panel array on the roof of Scaife Hall’s west wing, including 244 individual bifacial solar panels, became operational in April, noted Aurora Sharrard, assistant vice chancellor for Pitt Sustainability.

“They produce just under 160,000 kilowatt-hours annually, which saves the University about $275,000 in electric costs,” she said.

LEED-certification standards also require a life-cycle analysis on the building.

“It really helped with our energy modeling. Something else that’s cool about the building that’s not as apparent … is doing this intensive modeling to see what energy performance looks like for the building in the design phase,” Shvach said. “We can tweak and actually update and fix some of those things so we have a better outcome for energy reduction.”

Sharrard explained that energy modeling is a process done in partnership with a project’s architect and the mechanical engineer.

“They do this ‘envelope modeling.’ If you look at the building from the outside, they modeled it in different ways, like, ‘What if it was just a box? What if it had this like bump-out where the first floor actually sits back a little bit and the other floors hang over the ground, what does that do for the building? What if you tweak these different aspects?’” she said.

The Scaife Hall project included vertical exterior fins that were the “end result of all the energy modeling” that help the overall energy performance of the building. “They modeled that, and there was quantitative analysis that went into making that decision,” Sharrard noted.  

Need for LEED

Pursuing LEED certification is common practice on any Pitt building set to undergo major renovations.

“When we say major renovations, it’s (based on) the cost of the scope of work, but when I started here, it wasn’t a huge leap for us to continue to pursue LEED,” Shvach said, adding that Pitt Sustainability is “really embedded” in how the Office of Planning, Design & Construction functions as a whole. “Some of the basic practices that we do are requiring a construction waste plan on most of our projects, where contractors have to tell us where our waste is going.

“That’s something that applies to all projects, not just LEED projects,” she added. “We have a University Design Manual, which is something that I’m updating. Within Division C, specifically, we have our sustainability standards, and they reference LEED for most of our projects.”

Sharrard called the Pitt Sustainability Plan 2025 Amendment to embed LEED standards for renovated Pitt buildings a matter of “really putting a stake in the ground of what we think is a meaningful achievement.”

LEED, she noted, considers energy and water use, the indoor environment, quality of materials, “all the things. And as an owner, when you pursue a big building certification, you can prioritize what makes sense for you for that project.

“What this goal did specifically for the University is saying, ‘Yes, we’re going to continue to pursue LEED as we always have (and) we’re going to call out a level of LEED certification that is important to us, LEED Gold or better,’” Sharrard said.

The approach also indicates Pitt “cares deeply about the actual performance of buildings,” not just the design and construction, she noted. “It’s something that we track in detail across campus for both new and existing buildings.”

Sustainable summer

Although Pitt Sustainability offers fewer activities and programs in summer than during the academic year, Sharrard emphasizes that “there’s never a slow time for sustainability.”

“We’re always working part of our team operationally … but regardless of what their role is in sustainability, our team is busy year-round,” she said. “For instance, our academic partners at the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation have their largest-ever cohort of summer sustainability research students.

“Right now, I think they have 39 students across different disciplines working with faculty partners on sustainability-focused research all summer. They also have a service associated with that program as community partners and sessions on different educational topics across both academics and more general things.”

Some upcoming Pitt Sustainability events include:

• “Pollinators in the Light Tour, a partnership with Heinz Chapel for National Pollinator Month,” taking place from noon-1 p.m. June 30.

• “Weaving Calm: Paper, Process & Presence,” a discussion of the history of women’s roles in crafting, as well as the meditative qualities of artmaking and the value of slowing down through creative practice, as you develop your own unique woven piece, from 4-5 p.m. June 30 in Hillman Library’s Text and conText Lab in Room 310.

• “How to Grow Your Green Office: An Introduction to Pitt’s Green Office Program,” on from noon-1 p.m. June 14.

To register and for more details and events, visit the Pitt Sustainability Events Calendar.

Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.

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