Norwalk Students Decry ‘the Last Obsolete Building in Connecticut’

Norwalk Community College administrators are taking a little heat for a new 55,000-square-foot building because it will not be as green as some students and other sustainability advocates at the college think it should be, according to the Stamford Advocate.

Designers say that the $40-million science center, now in the design and planning stages, would probably get close to a basic certification in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, but they say that striving for certification or for more green features would cost too much and delay construction. The State of Connecticut recently required all state-funded projects to meet a LEED silver standard, but this project was planned before the requirement was put in place and therefore does not have to meet the standard.

Still, students are pushing, asking the college to look into geothermal heating and other sustainable elements. Matt Loter, president of the college’s chapter of the Student World Assembly, said the college was “building the last obsolete building in Connecticut.”