UC Merced's commitment to environmental stewardship has been shown throughout the construction of its buildings. The landscaping surrounding those buildings will be no different.
The university will be one of the first landscapes to participate in the Sustainable Sites Initiative, taking part in a pilot program to test the nation's first rating system for green landscape design, construction and maintenance.
Sustainable landscapes can clean water, reduce pollution and restore habitats, while providing significant economic and social benefits to land owners and municipalities. For example, shade provided by landscaping can be used to cool buildings during warmer months, reducing the amount of energy needed for cooling.
The Sustainable Sites Initiative was founded in 2005 as a partnership of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas, Austin, and the United States Botanic Garden.
UC Merced is the only university in the country to have all of its buildings LEED-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, and it has set a minimum standard of LEED Gold or better for all new buildings. In addition, UC Merced has made the ambitious "Triple Zero Commitment" to produce as much energy as is used, eliminate landfill waste and produce zero net greenhouse gas emissions, all by 2020.
UC Merced will use its planned Science and Engineering 2 building as the template for the pilot project. The initiative will use feedback from UC Merced and the other selected projects during the pilot phase, which runs through June 2012, to revise the final rating system and reference guide by early 2013.
A fellowship of ideas
Eric Berlow, director of UC Merced's Yosemite Field Station, will take part next month in an annual international conference organized by TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), a nonprofit that has gained global notoriety for focusing on what it calls "ideas worth spreading."
Berlow was one of an eclectic group of 23 TED Fellows chosen for TEDGlobal 2010 at Oxford, England, July 12-16.
"TED is great because it rewards thinking big and thinking weird, so I'm going with a wide open mind ready to engage in new ideas," Berlow said.
In addition to participating as full members of the TEDGlobal conference audience, fellows will participate in a two-day preconference, where they will receive world-class communication training, deliver a short "TEDTalk" and collaborate with their peers.
UC Merced Connect is a collection of news items written by the university's Office of Communications. To contact the communications team, e-mail communications@ucmerced.edu.
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