Rochester Location a LEED Silver Designed Building

You have entered a LEED Silver Designed Building.

LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across these metrics: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED provides building owners and operators a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

The college's Brighton location is certified LEED Silver.

Green design strategies used at SUNY Empire’s Brighton location include:

  • sustainable sites:
    • Preferred parking is provided for low-emitting and fuel efficient vehicles for 5% of the total vehicle parking capacity.
    • 90% of the average annual rainfall is treated in the sites bio-retention area by slowing the flow to allow for percolation into the soil.
  • water efficiency:
    • Low flow fixtures and dual-flush toilets reduce potable water use by 42% from a calculated baseline case.
  • energy and atmosphere:
    • 91% of the roof is made of solar reflecting materials.
    • Evacuated Tube Solar Thermal Collectors on the roof use the sun’s energy to heat water for the building domestic hot water system.
    • The building was designed to achieve a 15% energy cost savings by the addition of the following features:  
    • A highly efficient HVAC system.
    • CO2 sensors located in conference rooms and other large spaces that control the amount of outside air introduced based on occupancy. This helps reduce heat load.
    • Photo sensor controls that reduce artificial lighting in response to daylight.
    • Variable speed hot and chilled water pumps that automatically adjust their speed based on demand.