Buildings and grounds
Virginia Commonwealth University and VCU Health are committed to creating a more sustainable built environment on campus. This includes building to U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, encouraging responsible energy use and upgrading fixtures to sustainable alternatives, VCU continues to strive to reduce its impact on the environment.
24 LEED certified buildings
VCU and VCU Health have 24 LEED certified buildings, an independent verification of a building’s green features, allowing for the design, construction, operations and maintenance of resource-efficient, high-performing, healthy and cost-effective buildings. VCU is committed to reducing its environmental footprint by building and renovating facilities to a minimum of the LEED Silver standards.
- Academic Learning Commons
- Basketball Development Center
- Cary Street Gym
- Institute for Contemporary Art at the Markel Center
- Some features include: Geothermal heating and cooling system
- Raleigh Building Renovation
- Some features include: Efficient heat-pump heating and cooling system and insulation added to exterior walls
- STEM Building
- Some features include: Innovative ventilation-energy-recovery system and cooling with chilled beam
- Engineering Research Building
- Gladding Residence Center
- Grace & Broad Residence Center - Building A
- Grace & Broad Residence Center - Building B
- Henry Street Parking Deck - West
- Henry Street Parking Deck - East
- James Branch Cabell Library Addition
- Jonah L. Larrick Student Center
- Laurel Street Parking Deck
- McGlothlin Medical Education Center
- Molecular Medicine Research Building
- Technology Operations Center
- W. Baxter Perkinson, Jr. Building
- West Grace Street Student Housing - North
- West Grace Street Student Housing - South
- Facilities Operations Administration Building (previously referred to as Physical Plant Administration Building)
Reducing stormwater runoff
VCU is beginning to employ strategies to reduce stormwater runoff buildings and grounds and protect the James River. This includes converting an approximately 4,000 square foot hillside south of Cary St. field into an urban meadow with native plantings that will provide habitat for insects and birds, a collaboration between VCU Sustainability and VCU Grounds.
Urban Gardens
The Urban Gardens Program provides community members with opportunities to learn about and participate in seasonal growing and organic gardening practices. Additionally, the program helps alleviate food insecurity at VCU, as all produce grown is donated to the VCU Ram Pantry, an on-campus food pantry supporting VCU students in-need.
VCU Community Forestry
The Community Forestry Program partners with local community organizations in and around Richmond to plan and implement tree planting projects, provide tree maintenance, and estimate tree benefits. Through this program, VCU engages with local communities to support and elevate urban forestry practices that provide a variety of benefits, including mitigating urban heat islands, providing habitat for urban wildlife and reducing stormwater runoff.
Residence halls
VCU Residential Life and Housing recognizes the importance of sustainability for quality of life now and for future generations, and works to continually improve sustainability in the residence halls. Within the residence halls, VCU strives be more sustainable by:
- Utilizing single stream recycling in all residence halls, with recycling bins located on each floor in each residence hall
- Offering front-load, high-efficiency washing machines in all 9-month residence halls, which reduce the amount of water used and detergent necessary
- Using eco-friendly housekeeping chemicals, with the exception of disinfectant, which is not available in an eco-friendly form
- Installing low-flow and motion-sensor-activated fixtures in most residence halls
- Providing water bottle filling stations in all new and renovated residence halls, in place of traditional water fountains
- Holding major donation drives at the end of each semester to collect school supplies, appliances and household items for the VCU Free Store
- Building any new residence halls to LEED Silver certification to include:
- Low-flow water fixtures (toilets, urinals, showers, and bathroom and kitchen sinks)
- High-efficiency washing machines
- Low-emitting paints and coatings
Green roofs
VCU has installed green roofs, vegetation planted on top of a waterproofing system installed on a roof, on various buildings across campus. Extensive green roofs are installed on the VCU Rice Rivers Center and the Pollak Building. Other buildings on campus with green roofs include the Academic Learning Commons, the Honors College Building and the Institute for Contemporary Art, which has green roofs on different parts of the building. Green roofs offer many benefits, including:
- Reduced heat island effect, due to the cooling effect of the green roof plants
- Reduced stormwater volumes, resulting from the rainwater-retention capacity of the plants and soil
- Reduced stormwater flow rates, resulting from the ability of the system to slow the flow of heavy rains through the system
- Reduced energy use, due to improved insulating characteristics of the system
- New wildlife habitat, primarily for insects and birds
- New passive recreational space, accessible to the entire VCU community
Click the dropdown below to learn more about the Pollak Building green roof.
Pollak Building green roof
A vegetated roof, completed in fall 2011, was installed on the southeast-facing roof of the Pollak Building. This green roof serves as an educational asset and has a variety of sustainable features. Most materials were sourced locally, within 500 miles of VCU, including a terrace paved in Pennsylvania Bluestone, a built-in wood bench crafted of Black Locust (a local, native and rot-resistant substitute for Teak), and salvaged steel planters – cut from various diameters of salvaged steel pipe found at S.B. Cox in the east end of Richmond.
- The roof includes three different types of green roof planting strategies: conventional, meadow and native.
- The area of conventional green roof, the center portion of the roof, features a variety of low-growing sedum species, planted in three to four inches of growth media (sedum species, like cacti, are succulent plants, which can store water within their plant structures). Sedums in this area are non-native species, selected for their hardiness and ornamental characteristics.
- A second type of roof, a green roof meadow, occupies the outer, long edge of the roof. This section features somewhat taller plants, bedded in approximately six inches of growth media. Plants in this area are a mix of native and non-native species.
- The largest portion of the roofscape, closest to the building, features only plants native to Virginia – the first such green roof in the Commonwealth. Growth media in this section of the roof is approximately 12 inches deep, and can therefore retain more moisture than the other two sections of the roof.