The Pi Beta Phi sorority house was honored as the first sorority or fraternity house in the nation to receive certification by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
Leah Fitzgerald, business development manager at MW Builders, said LEED certification is administered by the United States Green Building Council, a non-profit organization, and is given to buildings that are almost entirely environmentally friendly.
Structures with LEED certification have a few characteristics that distinguish them from regular buildings, she said. The buildings must meet certain requirements before they are LEED certified.
“(The USGBC) takes all the different components — the wood, paint, drywall, flooring, mechanical and electrical systems and rates them,” Fitzgerald said.
For example, she said rapidly renewable products, such as flooring with bamboo components, would qualify as a point for certification, as would the site location and its proximity to transportation. The use of materials that contain recycled products is strongly encouraged by the commission.
Another unique aspect of the certification is it encourages the use of locally or regionally produced products. Most of the building materials used in structures that obtain LEED certification come from within a 500-mile radius of the site, Fitzgerald said.
One of the biggest differences with a LEED certified house is the type of heating and cooling system used. There are several different kinds of systems. The cheapest and most inefficient way to heat or cool a building is a split system with a central unit, which is what is used in most houses, she said. The Pi Phi house has a Mitsubishi system set up on a room-to-room basis and is much more energy efficient.
Fitzgerald said there is no difference in the time to build a LEED certified house as opposed to a regular home and the other differences are minor.
“LEED requires no volatile organic compounds to be found in the paint, floor adhesives, et cetera,” Fitzgerald said. “The indoor air quality is very high.”
Caitlin Lesley, chapter president of Pi Beta Phi, said in an email the sorority is thankful to have the house, and its certification is an added perk.
“Pi Phi is an organization that focuses on leading with values, and this house allows us to help the environment and lead the way for future groups to focus on being environmentally friendly,” she said.
Lesley said several features of the house make it stand out as LEED certified. It has motion-sensor lights that automatically switch on when a person enters a room and turn off when there is no motion in the room for a certain period of time. The faucets in the house’s bathrooms are low-flow and the washers and dryers are high-efficiency machines.
Each room has individual thermostats and closets with motion sensors as well, Lesley said. There is also reserved parking for low-emission cars and a bike rack in front of the house.
“There really haven’t been any (negative aspects), just some aspects of living in such an eco-friendly house that take a little time to get used to,” Lesley added.
Jeremiah Dumas, head of the Mississippi State University Environmental Collaborative Office ECO Team, said it is important for the MSU campus to host the first sorority house with LEED certification in the nation and the first building of its kind on campus because it sets a positive precedent for other structures to be built in a similar manner.
“It is most important to have a building that meets these standards because of its sustainability,” Dumas said. “It is such an energy-efficient building.”
Editor’s note: News Editor Megan McKeown and Managing Editor Julia Pendley are members of Pi Beta Phi.