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Warren Wilson, the first college or university in North Carolina with a LEED Gold Certified Building, now has a third Gold building on campus.
The Village North residence hall, part of a two-building, 80-bed community that opened in August 2006, joins Village South in achieving LEED Gold certification. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the rating system of the U.S. Green Building Council that sets standards for the “design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.”
Designed and built with extensive input from students, the Village features apartment-style dorms and an arts-and-crafts, environmentally responsible design. The LEED Gold rating certifies that Village North and South meet several green building criteria, including benchmarks for energy and water conservation; reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and waste sent to landfills; and indoor environmental quality.
The Village residence halls follow in the green footsteps of the Doug and Darcy Orr Cottage, which houses the Warren Wilson College admission and advancement offices. In 2006, Orr Cottage became the second building of any type in North Carolina to achieve LEED Gold certification.
William Schlesinger to speak on climate change
William H. Schlesinger, Ph.D., a biogeochemist who has been investigating the link between environmental chemistry and global climate change for more than 30 years, will give a free public lecture on campus Feb. 13. His talk, “Climate Change: Causes, Impacts and Solutions,” begins at 4 p.m. in the College Chapel.
Schlesinger, whose recent work has focused on the influence of trees and soil on atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, will discuss the potential for humans to achieve sustainability amid population growth and increased resource use. Schlesinger was dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University for six years before becoming president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., in 2007. He is now the university’s James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of Biogeochemistry.
Schlesinger’s presentation is a prologue of sorts to the first Headwaters Gathering March 27-29 on the Warren Wilson campus. Jointly hosted by Warren Wilson, Orion Magazine and The Wilderness Society, the gathering focuses on climate-change issues and has a theme of “Southern Appalachia at the Crossroads: A Call to Action.”
Register for the Headwaters Gathering
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