CMTA, Inc.

Architect:

HASTINGS+CHIVETTA

Scope Of Work

$2,000,000 in Energy Savings over 25 years

 in Berea, Kentucky, Berea College has long enjoyed a reputation for energy consciousness and environmental support. They contracted CMTA for their expertise in creating the world’s most energy efficient residence hall, which they’ve named Deep Green.

THE CHALLENGES

Optimizing Energy Performance

Committed to pursuing the Living Building Challenge

Creating a highly capitalized sustainable building

THE SOLUTIONS

To achieve the ambitious goal of creating the most sustainable residence hall in the world, CMTA engaged team members from the beginning and utilized our Innovate via Research approach to activate sustainable system discussions with the student body, other schools in the area, and community partners.

In an effort to optimize the energy performance, we looked to ASHRAE 90.1, US Department of Energy and other CMTA designed residence halls. The target for the Deep Green residence hall was a 35% reduction from the first ENERGY STAR residence hall we designed for Transylvania University. The chart below provides the detailed energy breakdown that was evaluated.

The Deep Green team's strategies to reduce the HVAC energy included selecting a geothermal central plant that not only  Deep Green, but other campus residence halls. The domestic water system included a solar thermal hot water heating system. Natural lighting was incorporated into the facility to minimize lighting energy consumption. A 50-kW solar photovoltaic system provides a clean, renewable energy source to minimize this building's carbon footprint.