Setting the Groundwork

By Adam Gushansky

Hello, we’re the SAR Energy Team! This year we’ll be focusing our efforts on Pauley Pavilion; UCLA’s on-campus arena that hosts men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, and women’s gymnastics. Our goal is to reassess Pauley Pavilion using LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), a rating system used for buildings that considers net energy usage, water management, air quality, and other metrics to reflect the overall sustainability of construction. Pauley opened in 1965 and was reopened in 2012 following renovation. The modified building was consequently certified LEED Gold by the U.S. Green Building Council. Although Pauley is just one of 30 LEED-certified buildings on campus, its seating capacity of 13,800 and area of 240,000 square-feet render it a significant point of potential energy and water savings.

Our goal this year is to recertify Pauley Pavilion under current LEED Gold standards and perhaps reach LEED Platinum, the highest benchmark. This will entail conducting a full energy audit of the arena, which we’ll do in collaboration with the Southern California Gas Company. Depending on our progress with the audit, if time permits we will also look into ways to improve water efficiency and transportation before applying for recertification.

Earlier this week we met with our primary stakeholder, Professor Todd Lynch, who serves as the Principal Project Planner for UCLA Capital Programs. He established the groundwork for what we hope to achieve here at UCLA this year. In the next week or so, we’ll work on completing a literature review to better understand the LEED framework and also learn about certain sustainability efforts other universities have pursued for their respective athletic facilities.