Sustainability and the Kenyon Library

Kenyon's new library will be certified to the environmental standards described by the national Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) policy. While Kenyon’s policy is that all new buildings on campus meet the LEED silver standards, the College anticipates making the new library LEED gold or better.

In measuring a building’s carbon footprint, LEED standards examine water usage, the materials of its construction, the flow of solid waste by the users of the building and the energy systems that heat and cool the building.

The design of the Kenyon library will receive LEED points for such planned features as:

• Using natural light and having window views from 90 percent of the interior spaces

• Reducing light pollution emitting from the library at night 
• Using landscaping that does not require heavy irrigation
• Reducing the amount of impervious concrete surfaces, which reduces stormwater runoff
• Providing 14 dedicated parking spots for low-emitting, fuel-efficient vehicles and 14 spaces for people who carpool in the adjacent underground parking garage
• Diverting about 75 percent of the construction waste materials (measured by weight) away from landfills
• Certifying that at least 50 percent of the wood used in the new library comes from sustainable forestry, as measured by the Forest Stewardship Council
• Hiring a third party engineer to review that the library design and construction meets the goals established for the project.

Kenyon will also be awarded additional LEED points on the new library for solar units  located elsewhere on campus during the project. Existing solar units on campus currently generate 28Kw of power, and the College has plans to increase capacity to 100Kw of solar power in 2019.