Iredell takes 'common sense' approach to building

By Jason King
Assistant Communications Director

Iredell County had the nation's first K-12 facility to achieve gold certification by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, but the county doesn't plan to have another one. That doesn't mean the county isn't using environmentally friendly building practices.

In 2002, Third Creek Elementary in Iredell County became the nation's first school to meet LEED Gold certification standards. (Photo courtesy Spark Productions)

Iredell-Statesville Schools Construction Coordinator Rob Jackson said that LEED brought together many of the building standards that the county and community were seeking during the design and construction of Third Creek Elementary, which opened in 2002. But there was an extra cost involved in pursuing certification.

"I challenge all my architects and engineers in our work these days to use the LEED criteria for their design, but we're not going for certification. There is a cost that goes along with that," said Jackson, who told attendees at the April 16 district meeting in Iredell County that the county works to build efficient and effective schools that utilize concepts such as natural lighting to produce a good learning environment.

"Now how do we achieve that without breaking the bank? We think we've found a good way, and that is part of this LEED program, but you have to know where to stop."

LEED guidelines recognize performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

Jackson said Iredell has moved past LEED standards in some areas and found more efficient and cost-effective solutions.

For example, instead of using a large chiller for heating and cooling a facility, Jackson will have smaller heat pumps installed. During the summer, when the majority of rooms in a school wouldn't be in use, Jackson said facility managers can scale back energy and water use by 50 percent to 60 percent by programming individual units to turn on and off at certain times. Since certain rooms would be used, a large chiller, with a larger cost factor for startup, would cost more to use.

Jackson said counties pursuing LEED certification won't be able to meet some criteria. State requirements or county or city ordinances come into play and could impact potential points awarded through LEED guidelines. For example, he said, the state does not recognize the use of waterless urinals on a septic system or other applications where there is no water flow.

"It does challenge our architects and engineers to really think outside the box," he said.

While Jackson calls LEED "a wonderful program," he said county leaders shouldn't be fooled into thinking it has to cost more in order to build a more efficient, effective school facility or county government building.

"Use standard common sense in design for all of your building projects and think outside-the-box," Jackson said. "It doesn't cost more. It's just a better, more efficient way of doing business."

For more information, contact Jackson at (704) 872-8931.

Editor's note: Iredell County also presented on its methane recovery project, a topic that will be the subject of a future article in CountyLines.