Wednesday night, the Sierra Club Falls James group did a walking tour of green projects on the Monroe Park campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. It was lead by longtime SCFOJ member and VCU Sustainability Program Coordinator Steven Heintz.

Thermal Solar on top of the Shafer Court Dining Hall:

Vegetated Roof on top of Pollak Building:

Solar PV Dual Axis Tracker behind Institute for Engineering and Medicine:

It was great to see some of the steps that VCU has taken over the years to improve their environmental rankings. Its good to see progress with promises of more to come. It is notable that VCU plans to build its new Institute For Contemporary Art as ‘LEED Platinum’.

VCU’s new Director of Sustainability, Erin Stanforth, also took part in the tour. She is new to Richmond and she is excited to be here. She is particularly interested in doing more with recycling and composting.