The Living Building Challenge (LBC) is the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment. To meet the challenge, the Environmental Center must use for 12 consecutive months only the electricity it can generate and the water it can collect on-site. Additionally, 35 percent of its landscaping must be dedicated to food production.
To learn more about the LBC at Williams, watch this video.
The Environmental Center is intended as a living laboratory and a hub of student activity. Its design incorporates a historic wood-framed structure that was once home to early presidents of Williams College. Formerly known as the Kellogg House, the house was built in 1794 as a residence for the college’s first president, Ebenezer Fitch. It has been renovated and moved three times and was used as faculty housing for many years. In 1978, it became the home of the Center for Environmental Studies program.
Today the Environmental Center, which was dedicated in April, houses both academic programs and the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives, the administrative operation that focuses on sustainability across the college. In addition to faculty and staff offices, the building has a classroom, kitchen, reading room, and an outdoor amphitheater.
“We wanted to push the boundaries for what a sustainable building means on a college campus,” said Amy Johns, director of the Zilkha Center. “This building is well-used by students, and that will not change in the time we are pursuing the LBC certification. This building represents a way to teach our community about sustainable living every day.”
The newer part of the structure was built with locally sourced and sustainably manufactured materials. In some cases, the college worked with manufacturers to change material specifications of products to meet a higher environmental standard.
The landscape around the building features edible plants, fruits, herbs, and vegetables. Rain gardens collect storm water and filter it naturally.
“This is an endeavor in which failure is an option—and it’s also a great educational opportunity,” said Ralph Bradburd, David A. Wells Professor of Political Economy and chair of the Environmental Studies program.
Living Building certification is based on actual, rather than anticipated, performance, and so data on electric and water use will be collected monthly and displayed at the center during the performance period. In addition to achieving net-zero energy and water use, the Environmental Center must meet a series of imperatives within seven performance areas: site, water, energy, health, materials, equity, and beauty. A project pursuing LBC may stop its performance period and restart it at any time, incorporating learning and behavior changes as necessary to meet the imperatives for a consecutive 12-month period.
“There’s not a lot of accumulated knowledge yet for us to draw from when it comes to this challenge. We may fail in the first attempt at reaching this certification, but the lessons we will learn in our efforts are knowledge we can share with others.” Bradburd said.
Mike Evans, assistant director of the Zilkha Center, said the Environmental Center’s greatest value may be in those long-lasting lessons about how to steward the planet.
“We’re asking the Williams community to be more intentional about the use of resources,” Evans said. “And these are skills and behaviors we can take with us wherever we go in our lives.”
For more information on the Class of 1966 Environmental Center and the Living Building Challenge, go to www.env-center.williams.edu/.
Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second-oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college’s 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students’ educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions on U.S. applicants are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.
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