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Tours

1. Sustainable Smith

   Smith is committed to reducing carbon emissions by controlling resource consumption.

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   1. Campus Center

      The Campus Center houses a post office, campus store, numerous meeting spaces, student government offices, and a café named in honor of alumna Julia Child. An unusual shape made this structure complicated to insulate, but the building envelope includes thermal-paned windows with a low-e coating to reduce the amount of heat passing through them. The roof has five inches of foam insulation, bringing it to a rating of R35. Walls have two inches of foam outside with air-tight detailing and one inch of glue-based cellulose on the interior, bringing the wall rating to R20.

       

      The center houses common recycling containers including kiosks for used batteries, phones and CFL bulbs. The roof has a 29 kilowatt solar electric system which produces about 30,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year, enough to power about three average U.S. homes.

       

      The Campus Center accounts for as much as three percent of the college's total electricity load. The Class of 1961 spearheaded efforts to make the Center more sustainable by supporting upgrades that added daylight sensors to atrium lighting to maximize use of natural light. Energy dashboards in the Campus Center and nine houses provide real-time data on energy use.

       

      The majority of the content for this tour was created by Kiersten Mailler '10.

       

   2. Northrop-Gillett

      Vegetarian and fresh salad bars are available at all dining locations, and Gillett dining always provides vegan meals. Whenever possible, Dining Services uses seasonal food from local farms. In 2011, Dining spent $650,000 on locally grown food including vegetables, fresh fruit, goat cheese, honey, maple syrup, yogurt, turkey, beef, granola, bread items, milk and soy milk. Purchasing local food reduces transportation and keeps valuable farmland in tillage; many farmers are also organic growers. Smith dining locations compost food and paper waste, which the college delivers to a local farm permitted to process it. This has a huge impact on the amount of solid waste Smith generates. Smith dining has eliminated disposable cups; reusable mugs are the norm for students. Smith has never used trays in dining rooms, which saves washing and related water and energy use.

   3. Smith College Community Garden

      Throughout the summer students raise arugula, red oak leaf lettuce, radishes, kale, herbs, carrots, beets and more in the garden. The group meets regularly and offers workshops each semester on topics ranging from canning and pickling to making lip balm with plant essential oils.

       

      Text provided by Stephanie Huynh '15.

   4. Conway House

      Conway House, built in 2006 for Ada Comstock Scholars with families, is the most energy-efficient Smith building to date and boasts a 5+ EnergyStar rating from the U.S. EPA. Its 10 apartments have EnergyStar appliances, but the key to this building's low energy use is extensive insulation. Walls and ceilings hold more than a foot of expanded polystyrene foam, the least toxic type. The building envelope is nearly airtight, thanks to superior precast concrete with built-in R5 insulation and additional insulation that reaches R36. Conway House has triple-glazed windows made with pultruded fiberglass. Pultrusion, a continuous molding process, uses glass or fibrous reinforcement in a polyester or vinyl ester resin matrix; the windows produced are strong, safe and corrosion resistant.

   5. Office of Campus Sustainability

      The Office of Campus Sustainability integrates environmentally sustainable practices into institutional operations. The office works closely with the Committee on Sustainability to develop campus policy and oversees the Eco Rep program in Smith's student houses. The office also cooperates with Facilities Management, Dining Services and other campus organizations to develop and implement key operational initiatives. Student learning is enhanced by collaborative efforts between the Office of Campus Sustainability with with the Center for the Environment, Ecological Design and Sustainability and the Environmental Science and Policy program.

       

   6. Center for the Environment, Ecological Design & Sustainability

      The Center for the Environment, Ecological Design & Sustainability (CEEDS) exists to graduate women who excel at integrating knowledge across disciplines in support of environmental decisions and action. CEEDS connects students to green initiatives and academic pursuits and supports faculty in deepening their understanding of salient environmental issues.

   7. Neilson Library

      Opened in 1909, Neilson Library was built in Italian Renaissance Revival style with funding from Andrew Carnegie. The main social sciences and humanities library contains thousands of books and an outstanding rare book collection. The building is used 18 hours a day throughout the year and requires air conditioning in the summer. Due to heavy use and the sensitivity of collections, Neilson's HVAC system used a lot of energy. Smith replaced old pneumatic (compressed air) controls with digital controls, adding energy recovery ventilation (which brings in fresh air from outside but heats/cools it with the air exiting the building), and increasing attic insulation. Neilson is now cooled by an absorption chiller connected to the co-generation facility. In 2015, Smith announced that acclaimed designer Maya Lin was selected to redesign the library. 

   8. Ford Hall

      Ford Hall was completed in 2009. It is LEED certified at Gold level and one of the most energy-efficient buildings of its type.

       

      Because lab venting hoods are always on, science buildings must have a constant supply of fresh air. One of Ford Hall's most impressive controls is the energy recovery system, which allows fresh air changeover without losing the heat in used air. In addition, by separating the building into laboratory and office areas, some heated/cooled air can be reused in the office area, which includes a large atrium. The office end has operable windows. Classroom lighting is monitored by ballast controls that adjust to natural light levels, are motion-sensitive, and 40 percent more efficient compared to traditional classrooms.

       

      During construction, Ford Hall achieved a 95 percent waste recycling rate, significantly higher than the usual 70 to 75 percent. Recycled materials were also used in construction.

       

      The building uses a 19,000-square foot green roof planted with sedum, a succulent plant that has water-storing leaves, to help recapture and filter substantial amounts of rainwater, which is stored in a 30,000-gallon tank under the landscaping and used in laboratory sinks and toilets throughout the building. The green roof allows Ford Hall to use about 40 percent less heat and 60 percent less water. In 2012, a 44.66 kilowatt solar array was added to Ford Hall's roof.

       

      Partial content provided by Stephanie Huynh '15.

   9. Indoor Track and Tennis Facility

      The Indoor Track and Tennis facility (ITT) is used year-round. Lighting retrofit upgrades and motion sensors for this single facility reduced campus total electricity use by one percent or about 250 thousand kilowatt hours. The lighting has the added benefits of increased brightness and better color rendition. The facility's large roof hosts a 434 kilowatt solar array. In exchange for hosting that installation, Smith obtains a 20-year fixed rate to purchase the energy produced.

   10. Strategic Energy Management

       A tall stack locates the Facilities Management building and Smith's power plant. Facilities Management maintains and monitors all heating, cooling and electrical systems and manages renovation and retrofitting work on campus buildings. Smith started up its co-generation plant in fall 2008. This facility simultaneously generates electricity and heat, using much less energy than generating either output by itself.

        

       In summer 2010, Smith began operating an absorption chiller (chiller plant pictured here), which uses heat created by the co-generation facility to make chilled water to air-condition buildings.

        

       Running co-generation in warmer months increases energy efficiency in hot weather. In 2012, Smith began working with National Grid and Columbia Gas in an incentivized program of energy management. After intensive assessment of key buildings, sealing, upgrading portions of HVAC systems, and adding tuning controls and lighting retrofits, Smith aimed to reduce energy use by 15 percent below 2011 levels.

   11. Mill River Greenway

       The Mill River Greenway is a coalition of area groups working to restore and improve the Mill River as an environmental and recreational asset to the towns along its banks. Smith faculty, students and staff are participating in assessing the needs and impact of the work, as well as restoring the portion of the river that winds through the Smith campus, an area severely affected by wind storms and flooding in 2011.

        

       The environmental science department at Smith maintains two Mill River monitoring stations: one underneath Lamont Bridge and one at the end of the dam. These stations contribute to research at Smith by monitoring things like air temperature, turbidity and the height of the water over the dam, or "stage." The results can be viewed live here.

        

       Content provided by Smith's Spatial Analysis Laboratory. 

   12. Lyman Conservatory

       Lyman Plant House, a Lloyd and Burnham design, is one of the oldest greenhouses in North America. The Botanic Garden is the site of botanical and interdisciplinary research, a public visitor center, and the locus for area school programs, exhibitions in its Church gallery, and the spring bulb and fall chrysanthemum shows. Renovations from 2001 to 2003 provided new classrooms and offices built into the hillside that adjoins the building. HVAC controls provide better regulation of heat and humidity for the various plant zones included in the greenhouses, as well as classrooms, labs and public areas. The adjacent pond was dredged to remove invasive plants and reroute underground water to help maintain the flow of fresh water into the pond.

   13. MacLeish Field Station

       Just 11 miles from campus, the Ada and Archibald MacLeish Field Station is a 240-acre living laboratory of fields and forest located in West Whately. This beautiful natural setting provides opportunities for faculty and students to pursue environmental research, outdoor education and low-impact recreation. The site is home to the Bechtel Environmental Classroom, designed to be one of the greenest buildings in the United States.