COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Students in an Ohio State University class are helping the owners of a home now under construction find out if it can officially be "green."

The class, "CSM 670 -- Green Building and Sustainable Construction," is a new offering in the Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering in Ohio State's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. Instructor Victoria Chen first offered the class as a "group study" course in spring 2009, and began offering it as a permanent course beginning in the fall. Chen hopes to include a "service learning" component every time she offers the class, not only to provide a service to the local community, but also to help students apply the theories they learn in the class to the real world. For example, the spring class developed "green building" fact sheets and displayed the materials at the 2009 Green Building Expo organized by the Columbus Green Building Forum. In the fall, the class developed two proposals including a green roof design and an energy-efficiency retrofit plan for the Summit on 16th United Methodist Church in the University District. (Detailed reports and class presentations are online at http://www.cgbf.org/osu-csm.html.)

This quarter, students are assisting a local couple, Rosemarie Rossetti, paralyzed in 1998 when a tree limb fell on her during an afternoon bike ride, and her husband Mark Leder, who are in the process of building a new home. After years of research and discussions with local builders, the couple is building their dream home just outside of Gahanna in Jefferson Township. The home, designed by Columbus architect Patrick Manley, will be a national demonstration home featuring the concept of Universal Design, which is aimed to make living spaces accessible and comfortable for the widest possible range of people without special or separate design. After construction is completed this summer and before the couple moves in, they are planning educational programs and tours to help spread the word about the advantages of Universal Design for all people. Dozens of companies and consultants have contributed time and materials toward the project. (See details at http://www.udll.com.)

Leder and Rossetti, a motivational speaker and former college faculty member, also want the home to be as environmentally friendly as possible, and hope to achieve "green" certification for their home under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and a similar national green building program overseen by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Leder is acting as the general contractor, and he initially attempted to review and complete the guidelines himself but was quickly overwhelmed. Both the LEED and NAHB programs have dozens of guidelines that require specific measurements and detailed information for certification.

Chen, a strong advocate for green buildings, admits it's not an easy process.

"The Green Building Council encourages this type of construction, but they don't tell you how hard it is, especially being attempted by individual homeowners in this case" she said.

Leder said he and Rossetti hope to achieve a high-level certification in the LEED for Homes program -- there are four levels available -- "but it will be a challenge," he told the class at the beginning of the quarter. "Your job will help me find what I'm missing and plug the holes."

Megan Welsh, a student who took Chen's class in the fall, is helping coordinate the undertaking this quarter as part of an independent study.

"The class has been divided into two teams, LEED and NAHB, to carefully comb through the project," Welsh said. The students are focusing on the verification process outlined by both LEED and NAHB and the information required to qualify for the credits that can be earned for environmentally friendly construction practices and design elements. The more credits they can help Leder identify, the closer he will be to attaining "green" certification.

"The systems are complicated, in particular LEED for Homes," Chen said. "Some students are familiar with USGBC's LEED programs for commercial buildings, but the requirements and the verification process are different for single-family homes." By assisting the new homeowners wade through the paperwork necessary for fulfilling the programs' requirements, the students will be learning valuable information to be able to assist clients in the future.

Students are examining the home according to the eight areas of the LEED program: innovation and design process; location and linkages; sustainable sites; water efficiency; energy and atmosphere; materials and resources; indoor environmental quality; and awareness and education, as well as the six areas of the NAHB program: lot design, preparation and development; water efficiency; energy efficiency; resource efficiency; indoor environmental quality; and operation, maintenance, and building owner education. Each area has specific requirements that must be met in order to attain credit.

Chen said the new class seems to be striking a chord with students.

"The class is attracting students from all sorts of majors, from our own Construction Systems Management major to architecture, civil engineering, city and regional planning, systems engineering -- I've even had a couple students from the business school and the law school," Chen said. "It's not a required course under any curriculum, but students really want to work in this area and learn more about environmental sustainability and energy efficiency. They're just really interested in it."

For more information about the Construction Systems Management program at Ohio State, see the Web site of the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering at http://fabe.osu.edu/.

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Caption information for photo: Property owner Mark Leder (second from right) discussed "green" plans for his home with instructor Victoria Chen (in gray coat, third from left), Megan Welsh (center, with clipboard) and other students and guests on the construction site last December.     

Writers

Martha Filipic
filipic.3@cfaes.osu.edu
614-292-9833

Sources

Victoria Chen, Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering
614-292-2254
chen.1399@osu.edu

Megan Welsh
megan1123@gmail.com
614-949-6008

Mark Leder
mark@markleder.com
614-478-4670