With building a new recreational center, there are a lot of ways to go about making it a sustainable facility. When first thinking about the design and layout of this new rec center, Steve Najera, the Associate Director of facilities at the University of Colorado knew that sustainability would play a big role. The project cost as a whole will be $63.5 million, $2 million of which is focused on being sustainable. The new rec center will be built with LEED Gold Certification standards and requirements, meaning that it will be sustainable in water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, innovation, and regional priority. (USGBC, 2013) By doing so, the University is focused on making the extra financial investment now to be sustainable. This is with the hope that there will be a decrease in their impact on the environment and an increase in financial savings. .
One of the first things that the design team did with this facility was change the location of the Ice Rink from upstairs where it currently is at to downstairs. Being located upstairs, there is a lot of energy wasted with the ice rink not being on the ground. Because it was located on the second floor, it took more energy to keep the ice cold. The warmth from heating the first floor rose to where the rink was, leading to an increase in energy to keep the rink cold. In addition to the relocation of the ice rink, the new one will have brand new equipment and thinner ice. Both of these things will decrease the cost of maintenance and energy use. The new rink will also use wasted heat to heat the ice rink sub-floor so that they are able to save money with producing "new" heat. With the relocation, new equipment, and thinner ice, there will be an annual savings of $62,780. .
Another thing that the design team wanted to focus on was the lighting. They wanted to take advantage of the 300+ days of sunshine that Colorado has.
