Estrategias para la certificación del nuevo edificio de residencias estudiantiles del Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica bajo el sistema LEED v4 O+M: EB

Abstract

The infrastructure development is one of the most lucrative human activities around the world, nevertheless, it also represents a significant environmental impact. Buildings are associated with high rates of energy consumption, as well with ecosystems disruption due to the excessive use of natural resources. In addition, all around the world buildings are responsible for a large part of greenhouse gas emissions. The existence of green buildings has become a necessity, rather than just an option. There is a widespread variety of certification systems that evaluates the performance of a sustainable building, among them is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) created by the US. Green Building Council. LEED is one of the most widely used systems, which offers different system categories according to the project's characteristics. In this case, the system LEED for Building Operations and Maintenance for Existing Buildings (LEED O+M: EB V4) was used for the evaluation of the most recent students’ residence at the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica. The actual conditions of the building were evaluated according to each aspect of the system. Specific strategies were proposed in order to achieve the prerequisite and credits requirements. It was shown that the recent students' residence could achieve a total of 66 points, which implies the possible achievement of a Gold LEED certification.