Summer 2005 -- Vol. 58, No. 3

by Liz Newall
Photos by Patrick Wright

To understand the nature of a thing, you must know how it changes. And how it remains unchanged. How its outside layer adjusts to the environment. What is at its center, the heart that sustains it, the beat that gives it balance and life.

When we talk about the nature of Clemson, we often tell you what Clemson is creating, improving, winning. But we may not tell you enough about what Clemson is saving and restoring.

As the University works to improve the economy and quality of life in South Carolina through the latest advances in technology and business, it also works to preserve wildlife, restore historical structures, teach ecology and be good stewards of the land in all endeavors. This is at the heart of Clemson.

We can’t possibly cover the scope and diversity of Clemson’s environmental stewardship in one feature or even one issue of Clemson World, but we can give you examples of the University’s latest efforts.

In the LEED

Several years ago, the Clemson University Master Plan identified “building green” as a way to support and promote sustainability. The benefits include reducing long-term energy costs, improving air quality, introducing daylight into work spaces, reducing the use of precious resources and other results that promote health and the environment.

As a tool to understand the complexity of green building, the University adopted the use of LEED for new construction. LEED stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.” It’s used as a guide during the design and construction of new buildings to ensure that they meet specific standards.

Clemson is also committed to operating and maintaining existing facilities at standards that will help the University become a national leader in environmental and sustainable design.

On the quad

Clemson’s newly renovated Fraternity Quad maintains the rich architectural traditions of Clemson while embracing a “green building” commitment to the environment. Originally built as barracks in 1935, the quadrangle dormitories were later designated for some of Clemson’s fraternities.

After two years of renovations, the quad is set to reopen this fall. To make sure the quad project met all requirements, the University hired an independent consulting firm to maximize efforts in becoming LEED-certified at the Silver level.

Stairways have windows to provide natural light. Interior fixtures use high-efficiency fluorescent bulbs that conserve electricity and transmit less heat. Outside lighting is shoebox-shaped and directed down to provide brighter sidewalk light at night. For water conservation, new showerheads reduce output by more than half of the average showerhead, and toilets have automatic flush and low-flow features. The quad is equipped with energy-efficient appliances, and much of its materials are of recycled components.

The outdoors area next to the quad remains an open green space. As an alternative to cars, the CAT bus offers transportation from the quad to anywhere on campus and to many popular sites off campus. The renovation also includes covered and locked storage areas for bikes. (For more on Clemson facilities, go to facilities.clemson.edu.)

In the lab

Clemson’s Advanced Materials Research Laboratory, completed in August 2004, is the first LEED-certified public building in South Carolina. It’s located in the Clemson Research Park in Anderson County near the campus and I-85.

The 111,000-square-foot building houses Clemson’s Center for Optical Materials Science and Engineering Technologies (COMSET), one of the nation’s top optical materials centers, coupled with a state-of-the-art electron microscopy facility. The laboratory supports University research across disciplines along with industrial and corporate clients.

More than 20 acres surrounding the building is maintained as green space. The facility uses water-conserving plumbing and energy-efficient heating and cooling systems. The building also contains recycled construction materials including structural steel, ceiling tiles and carpeting. (For more on COMSET, go to www.ces.clemson.edu/comset.)

Shaping Clemson-ICAR

Meanwhile, at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research in Greenville, the University is making the same commitment. Clemson-ICAR is maintaining a high standard of environmental responsibility throughout the 250-acre campus.

The center will become a model for sustainable, economic development that minimizes environmental impact and that seeks to restore and balance the environmental resources of the site.

One priority is to manage storm-water runoff and to integrate corresponding landscape aesthetics. Another is to conserve riparian corridors — certain corridors encompassing perennial stream and river features — to connect and support the natural habitat and to provide research, teaching and service opportunities.

Building sites will be landscaped with native plant material. Site circulation will stack parking and reduce internal roadways. Off-site parking and shuttle access will meet additional needs. (For the latest on Clemson-ICAR, go to www.clemson.edu/autoresearch.)

Transforming Sandhill Center
Clemson’s Sandhill Research and Education Center (REC) in northeast Columbia is a prime example of environmental stewardship in transition. The center has changed from a traditional agricultural experiment station to a community and economic development facility.

Established in 1926, the center has evolved over the years with the changing economy. In the 1990s, research and Extension programs at Sandhill moved from traditional agriculture to environmental horticulture. Its resulting demonstration gardens are visited by thousands of school children, civic groups, families and landscaping professionals each year.

With the recent booming growth rate of northeast Columbia, the center has gained a new mission of economic and community development. It has created a network of surrounding communities, state agencies, nonprofits, faith-based institutions and universities. Throughout such development, the center remains focused on natural resource and environmental conservation and sustainability.

Earlier this year, one of the nation’s leading architectural firms for “green construction” unveiled designs for new and renovated facilities for Sandhill REC. (For more on the center’s services, go to www.clemson.edu/sandhill.)

Dollars and sense of restoration
Before almost anything new can be built, something else has to be repaired, restored or preserved. The “restoration economy” — the revitalization of existing urban and natural areas through rehabilitation and redevelopment — cuts across a wide range of interests, from health to hydrology, from materials engineering to historic preservation.

Nationwide, 94 cents of every construction dollar is now spent on repairing or reviving existing infrastructure and landscapes. The restoration economy promises to be one of the most lucrative economic sectors of the 21st century. It offers enormous economic opportunities for South Carolina, both in terms of private and public investment within the state and the export of restoration knowledge capital throughout the world.

The newly formed Clemson University Restoration Institute (CURI) is creating a formal network of existing experts to tackle the demands of a growing economy based on restoration. The initiative will include Charleston, where Clemson already has a presence with its Charleston Architecture Center. Charleston is also home to a new graduate program in historic preservation, a joint program with the College of Charleston.

With facilities both on the coast and in the Upstate — and the academic strength and diversity to support such an innovative effort — Clemson is uniquely positioned to lead the state, the Southeast and the nation in the restoration sector. (For more on CURI, go to www.clemson.edu/caah/restorationinstitute.)

Trees of Clemson
Clemson trees have long been valued for their beauty, shade, character, history and natural habitat. Now, thanks to the University’s landscape services, along with faculty and students, most trees on the main campus have a name, an ID number and an image on a comprehensive map. Clemson’s Tree Inventory System employs a GPS mapping system and catalogs the University’s more than 5,000 trees.

The inventory contains more than 100 varieties of trees and includes the newest additions to campus as well as the oldest, such as the ancient bur oak outside of Newman Hall, the Eastern red cedar in front of Fort Hill and the magnificent magnolias around the President’s Home. The inventory has become an invaluable aid to the arbor crew in the management and preservation of Clemson’s trees.

Beyond campus, Clemson’s forestry and natural resources department and the S.C. Forestry Commission have launched the S.C. Champion Tree project.

A Champion Tree is one that is judged to be the largest of its species according to a standard measuring formula. It must be native to or naturalized in the United States (including Alaska but not Hawaii and excluding hybrids and minor varieties).

Identifying these trees helps preserve them and the wealth of history and botanical information they hold within their branches. (For more on the project, go to www.clemson.edu/champtree.)

Students care
Organic Style magazine (April 2005) named Clemson, along with Yale, Carnegie Mellon and Colorado State, as making extraordinary strides in helping the environment. Clemson’s recycling efforts, especially those of Students for Environmental Awareness (SEA), earned recognition.

Among SEA’s campus projects are recycling from football home games. Students work with the University’s recycling center and others to keep about a third of the disposable material from tailgaters and the stadium out of landfills. The group recently joined forces with several other S.C. colleges to create the S.C. Alliance for Sustainable Campuses.

Students from Clemson’s environmental engineering and science department were winners at the international Annual Environmental Design Contest in April. The team won first place for developing a cost-effective, energy-efficient method to remove arsenic and nitrate from drinking water in rural, isolated communities.

Renee Keydoszius, a Clemson graduate student in plant and environmental sciences, won a Southern Region of the American Society for Horticulture Science award for her ecology project. She designed a children’s water garden in the S.C. Botanical Garden as an outdoor learning lab on the importance of protecting aquatic ecosystems.

She also received a first place award at the International K-H Service-Learning Research Conference and is certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a “Habitat Steward.”

(For information about Students for Environmental Awareness, go to www.clemson.edu/~stuenva.)

So much more

Like the good earth beneath our feet, Clemson is constantly changing. The University adapts to the needs of the state, the citizens and especially the students.

But throughout its evolving research, teaching and outreach, Clemson’s environmental stewardship remains at its core.

These efforts permeate campus in the Strom Thurmond Institute’s environmental science and policy program, in the vigilance of the Clemson University Environmental Committee, the curriculum of many courses, in budding and future projects such as the health care building project between nursing and Health + Architecture Studio students. In the beautiful S.C. Botanical Garden. In the Campus Master Plan itself.

Clemson’s stewardship is visible beyond campus in highly collaborative efforts such as the award-winning Reedy River project in Greenville and in the long green reach of Public Service Activities throughout the state.

As Clemson rolls toward its goal of becoming a top-20 public university, it does so at a speed that respects the culture and history of the place and with a motion geared toward sustaining our environment.