Sustainable Peralta

The 18,000 sq. ft. building will be made of steel, glass and concrete. Source: Gould Evans Baum Thornley

Beginning this month (December), Gilbane Building Company begins construction on Laney’s Athletic Field Complex, a new two-story 18,000 sq. ft. athletic facility for Laney men’s and women’s sports. The building is part of a larger project that also includes the complete replacement of the baseball diamond and the multi-use field. When finished, Laney will host events on a new turf fields and have an additional 100 parking spaces on the East side of the campus.

“This building has everyone in the Department [of General Services] excited,” said Dr. Sadiq B. Ikharo, Vice Chancellor of General Services. “Using a Design-Build method, our staff and our designers consulted with many faculty and staff at Laney, and the result is a building that fits their program requirements and our desire to build green.” … continue reading »

The long, rectangular lights (containing high-efficiency fluorescent lamps) will replace the circular lights (containing high-intensity discharge lamps).

In December 2008, Peralta completed a massive lighting upgrade through Enlight Energy Efficient Lighting of Pleasanton: retrofitting 9,000 lighting fixtures at Laney College and Merritt College to save an estimated $90,000 on nearly 800,000 kWh of electricity every year.

The project reduces Peralta’s carbon footprint by nearly 1 million lbs. of CO2 every year. This is the equivalent to approximately 73 average North American homes or 50 average North American sedans (source: BEF carbon calculator). Peralta will receive $133,000 in rebates from PG&E for this project, which will help pay 30% of the $431,000 price tag. Then, after 4 years, the District will have full recovered the cost of the project through savings on the utility bill.

“The savings realized through sustainability projects is a win-win for the environment and for academics,” says Dr. Sadiq B. Ikharo, Vice Chancellor of General Services for the Peralta Community College District. “This is just the beginning of Peralta’s Energy Master Planning and Implementation process that will reduce energy use and make more funds available to the classroom in a time of budget cuts.” … continue reading »

In April of 2007, College of Alameda completed a $590,000 carpet renovation that replaced aging and mildewed carpet in the Library, Buildings F, G and D. The new carpet is manufactured by Bentley Prince Street, sister company to carpet and rug industry pioneer InterfaceFLOR.

Building	Squard Yards	lbs. CO2	Equivalent Cars
Library	5,605	196,175
Building D	1,227	58,896
Building F	250	20,750
Building G	220	10,560

Former COA President Cecilia Cervantes led a committee that selected carpets in the BPS Cool Carpet line.  Cool Carpet is an energy offset program, which allows the District to permanently retire tons of GHG (greenhouse gases) by its use.  In addition, BPS offers a reclamation program for the existing old carpet and repurposes it or recycles it.  By BPS’s recycling program they are able to divert tons of waste from California’s landfills.

… continue reading »