Bechtel Environmental Classroom
Supported by a grant from the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, Smith College completed the construction of a 2300-square-foot environmental classroom at the MacLeish Field Station in 2012. The BEC is designed to be one of the “greenest” buildings in the United States. It uses solar panels to generate more energy than it uses on an annual basis, and Smith students and the building’s designers vetted all of its building materials to ensure that they were the most sustainably sourced materials available. The BEC is registered in the Living Building Challenge, a green-building standard overseen by the Living Futures Institute. CEEDS anticipates that the building will be certified as a “Living Building” in late 2013 or early 2014. It will most likely be the first such certified building in Massachusetts and only one of a few in the world.
