Tate II will not be LEED certified, but it should meet or exceed certification requirements anyway, said Project Architect Joe Powell.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a rating system for the “greenness” of buildings.

Last year, a group of students petitioned to put Tate II LEED certification as one of the five student priorities for the building.

The University received criticism for not having a certified building as Georgia Tech and Emory do.

After the student group presentation, Tate II advisory board kept the original decision to form a multi-purpose room.

Kira Self, a senior from Norman, Okla., who has served on the advisory board five semesters, said the board decided on the multi-purpose room because making the building environmentally sound, like the Student Learning Center, was a central concern before LEED certification was introduced.

“(LEED) was brought up after (building) plans had been drawn,” Self said. “We were always sensitive to environmental issues.”

Powell said he understood the students’ concern and the need for a University standard for sustainability. He said LEED certification was discussed during the planning stages of Tate II, but there was never a big push because the building was going to be environmentally sustainable and certification essentially would be an expensive label.

“We’re going to make the building as green as possible,” he said. “(But) we’re not going for the medallion.”

Powell said certification amounted to identification of greenness, a “bragging right,” “rather than trusting University experts.”

The certification process would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, starting with a registration fee, he said. The University would have had to hire a LEED consultant. Powell estimated a consultant would cost approximately $100,000.

“We would have liked to have LEED, but Tate is on such a strict budget,” Self said.

To accommodate these extra costs would have been at the expense of another part of the project.

The Board of Regents approved a $17 million increase in Tate Student Center Expansion budget at its October meeting.

Powell said building construction would follow the LEED score sheet, which rates a building’s sustainability based on site selection, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources and indoor environmental quality.

The checklist qualifies buildings for certification. Buildings can be designated as silver, gold or platinum.

“We want the building to be as close to certified as possible without actual certification,” Self said.

Powell said he expects Tate II to meet the qualifications for the silver designation. He said he hopes to publish the building’s score sheet after construction.