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Butler University goes green with new pharmacy building

 

07-May-2008: The green thinking behind the new pharmacy building at Butler University starts in the bathrooms, where some of the plumbing will flush without water and there will be no need for paper towels.

The theme continues right out to the parking lot, where spots will be reserved for hybrid cars.

The $14 million environmentally friendly project features four stories and 40,000 square feet of new classrooms, laboratories and offices for pharmacy and health programs. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2009.

Groundbreaking is today for the project, which follows a growing national trend on campuses and corporate office parks to "go green" with new construction.

Butler's new building will be designed to make less of an impact on the environment while providing more of an impact on its pharmacy program, adding space to accommodate more students and faculty.

Going green is not cheap up front. The extra steps are likely to boost the construction costs 2 percent to 5 percent, according to Mike Gardner, vice president for operations at the private university. But, he added, the annual energy savings should make up the difference during time.

"And, frankly, it's the responsible thing to do," Gardner said.

Although there is no formal commitment to make every new campus project green, "assuming this is a good experience for us, I think it is safe to say we are committed to doing this," he said.

The U.S. Green Building Council started providing guidelines and rating construction projects in 2000, developing a rating system for such factors as water efficiency, energy usage and indoor environmental quality.

A perfect score would be 69 points, or "Platinum," which means the building has a reduced impact and actually contributes to a better environment. Heading down the scale are Gold, Silver and Certified rankings.

Butler's new building would score "in the high 30s," according to Gardner, which would earn it a Silver designation.

In the past eight years, 3.2 billion square feet of commercial building space has become part of the national program -- but not much has been done locally.

Butler's new building will be the second project to earn a rating. The first was the Innovative Design Offerings building at 601 N. Capitol Ave., which was certified last year.

Jill Mendoza, president and founder of IDO, was leasing office space when she bought the building and decided to gut the insides for a new interior.

A year ago, it was certified as Indy's first green project by the Green Building Council. Today, the 10-person firm is reaping financial benefits as well.

"We measured our electric bill and compared it to the bills we had before we moved," said Mendoza. "Our electricity was 94 cents per square foot in the leased space and it's just 83 cents now, with twice the square footage."

That was an annual $7,300 boost, she said, or a 124 percent return on investment.

Local construction firm Shiel Sexton will build Butler's pharmacy building, one of many green projects it has completed across Indiana -- including the IDO building, Madison State Hospital and campus buildings at DePauw, Notre Dame and Ball State universities.

Cameron Smith, a project coordinator for Shiel Sexton, said the firm also is building a new green Keep Indianapolis Beautiful office on Fletcher Avenue and is planning a new green headquarters and family center for the Indianapolis Children's Bureau on West 16th Street.

The Butler project, funded in part by a $25 million grant from Lilly Endowment, will help Butler grow its pharmaceutical sciences program. And with the addition of a new lab, the college's physician assistant program -- currently spread out among various hospital facilities -- can be in one spot for the first time.

According to Mary Andritz, dean of the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, some of the courses took place at Clarian Health because of a lack of space on campus. And the new building will allow for more transfer students; two years ago, Andritz said, 697 students applied for five openings.

Source: Indianapolis Star