June, 2003

Contact: Sarah Ray



802-443-5794

sray@middlebury.edu

Posted: June 4, 2003

MIDDLEBURY,

Vt.—The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources has selected Middlebury

College to receive a 2002 Vermont Governor’s Award for Environmental

Excellence and Pollution Prevention. Middlebury, which won its award in

the category of Environmental Excellence in Resource Conservation, will

receive the award for the deconstruction and recycling of its former science

center. According to agency officials, the transition of gubernatorial

administrations necessitated recognition of the recipients of the 2002

awards in 2003.

In a letter to Nan Jenks-Jay, Middlebury College

director of environmental affairs, Elizabeth “Wibs” McLain,

secretary of the agency, stated, “Your award-winning project stands

out as a model that should inspire all Vermonters to find innovative approaches

to conserve natural resources and to prevent pollution before it is generated.”

Tom McGinn, project manager in the College’s

facilities planning office, attended a ceremony in the House Chamber of

the Vermont State House on May 29, and accepted the award on behalf of

Middlebury from McLain and Governor Jim Douglas.

Opened in 1968, the College’s old science

center was in use through the spring of 1999. Bicentennial Hall, a new

science center on the western edge of campus, opened in the fall of that

year.

In 2001, several teams of consultants determined

that the old science building was not a candidate for renovation or reuse.

Once the science center’s site was identified as the location for

the new library, college officials decided that, rather than haul the

rubble to the landfill, they would recycle what ended up being more than

97 percent of the entire six-story building.

Recycling the facility was consistent with the College’s

own waste management standards. Middlebury’s trustees had endorsed

sustainable design and building principles for the College in 1999. In

addition to these guidelines, a construction and demolition waste policy

was adopted in 2000. “The removal of the old science center truly

put these self-imposed regulations to the test,” said Jenks-Jay.

The College tracked the weights and destination

of all material that came from the building in order to fully document

the actual volume and reuse of materials in the deconstruction process.

“With deconstruction, a much higher percentage of the structure

can be recycled compared to the traditional demolition process, in which

only 25 percent or less can be salvaged. It was quite fascinating to watch

a structure being taken apart with the same care and level of skill that

was used when it was assembled,” added Jenks-Jay.

The building contained large amounts of material

for recycling, including more than 650 tons of concrete and glass, 178

tons of light mixed iron and 48 tons of wood. The majority of the building

consisted of concrete. Workers loaded the concrete chunks piece by piece

into a “crusher” which was located on-site. The material was

used as project fill for the new library and other campus construction

sites as well as roads. Portions of the exterior walls made up largely

of limestone were salvaged for reuse. Another portion of the building

consisted of recyclable metals such as copper, steel and aluminum. The

remaining debris included wood, which was turned into chips and then sent

to a wood-burning electricity plant.

According to McGinn, while deconstruction required

more labor and time, estimates for a straight imploding and demolition

of the old science center proved equally expensive, particularly given

the high fees charged by local landfills.