10/10/2019 Mike Koon
The $55 million transformation of Everitt Laboratory, which reopened in 2018, has earned the facility an LEED® gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
Written by Mike Koon
Everitt Lab, located at 1406 West Green Street, Urbana, is the new home to the Department of Bioengineering, which is training the next generation of health care innovators and leaders, while conducting research that helps improve the human condition. Everitt provides students and faculty with state-of-the-art instructional and research facilities, where they can learn, create, and innovate. The Grainger Foundation provided a lead $20 million gift through its Grainger Breakthroughs Initiative to the launch the renovation. In addition, Jump Trading provided a $10 million gift to establish the Jump Simulation Center as part of the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. The Sim Center will train medical students in various settings, including an operating room, ICU, and hospital or clinic patient room.
“I appreciate the foresight of campus planners and engineers who recognized the opportunity to encourage integration of LEED® principals to the building renovation,” said Mark Anastasio, head of the Department of Bioengineering. “Not only will LEED® certification assist us in being good stewards of our current resources by the inherent lower operating costs of a LEED certified building, but our students, faculty and staff will benefit greatly from a healthier working environment for years to come.”
Everitt achieved LEED® certification for implementing practical and measurable strategies and solutions aimed at achieving high performance in sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.
“Transforming an existing building, originally built in 1949, into an exceptional modern LEED® Gold facility, is a real accomplishment,” said Mohamed Attalla, Executive Director of Facilities & Services (F&S), “F&S is proud to add Everitt Lab as the 20th project on campus to receive LEED® certification.”
Some of the highlights of the renovations that help earn the project the distinction were optimizing energy performance savings of 28 percent and contracting Green Power to procure 70 percent of the electricity. In addition, over 92 percent of the on-site generated construction waste was saved from the landfill and the project encompassed water efficient landscaping, which included the installation of a rain garden.
LEED® efforts are one part of the overall campus sustainability strategy, called the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP).
“Everitt Laboratory’s LEED® certification demonstrates tremendous green building leadership,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, president and CEO, USGBC. “LEED® was created to make the world a better place and revolutionize the built environment by providing everyone with a healthy, green and high performing buildings. Everitt serves as a prime example of how the work of innovative building projects can use local solutions to make a global impact on the environment.”