Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs

Sustainability at Colorado Mountain College

Colorado Mountain College made a first in green history in 1981. We opened the Glenwood Center, the first public, passive-solar facility to receive a large grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Central to the passive-solar concept in this facility was almost 1,500 square feet of south-facing glass, providing natural daylight and heat, as well as a masonry “Trombe” wall that would either radiate heat (in winter) or retain heat (in summer).

Both the green building industry and we as an institution have learned vast amounts since those early days of solar. Over time, it became obvious we needed to modify our building design to overcome a number of challenges. There were more students, more classes, more services and staff. Spaces which had once been offices were converted to classrooms.

Within the past twelve years, we’ve remodeled the building with consideration of newer, environmentally friendly solutions that would help reduce energy waste. Our upgrades have included:

• Replacing the original wood siding with structurally insulated panels (SIPs) that do not rot and do not require painting or staining
• Replacing original windows with low-emissivity (low-E) tinted glass windows, and making upper-level classroom windows shorter than the original floor-to-ceiling glass panels that were creating heating loads, for which the mechanical system could not compensate
• Trespa rain screen panels, an exterior “floating” skin engineered to prevent moisture intrusion
• Front desk area remodel uses bark-beetle-kill wood paneling
• Drinking fountains distributed throughout the building are equipped with bottle fill stations, reducing our plastic footprint and encouraging sustainable use of refillable bottles
• A class II electric vehicle charging station has been installed on campus

We’re also proud to incorporate the student-led efforts to provide both recycling and composting bins throughout the facility.