Date of Award
2016
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.S. in Sport and Recreation Administration
Department
Health, Exercise Science, and Recreation Management
First Advisor
Kim R. Beason
Second Advisor
Martha Bass
Third Advisor
Kofan Lee
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
Bryant (1995), found that students “were at least 20% more likely to take part in recreational activity than in any other listed campus activity”. Campus recreation facilities (CRF)s promote “healthy living” programs and services for students. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a certification program housed within the United States Green Building Council and a LEED certification indicates the facility has a “green” status. LEED certification standard measures include Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality. Interestingly, southeastern states have the fewest LEED certified CRFs (Kiernan, 2015). The purpose of this study was to explore LEED certification knowledge among campus recreation associates (CRA) and university architects (UA) at four-year public universities in the Southeastern United States. This study explored how well prepared CRF professionals are to lead LEED certification efforts. Data was collected via survey to determine the breadth and depth of facility professional knowledge of LEED certification criteria for the Building Design and Construction certification. 119 complete responses were used in this study, and the response rate was 41%. As a control, the survey was sent to 16 campuses currently LEED certified and listed as best CRFs in the USA (Church, 2013). Data was analyzed using SPSS software to determine the differences in hypotheses centered on LEED certification awareness among the participants (ANOVA, Paired T-Test, and Independent T-Test) as well as to determine the certification standards met and not met (Means and Standard Deviations). The main findings revealed that UAs at universities that have a certified CRF are the most knowledgeable about LEED standards. However, hypothesis two found that there was a significant difference between the LEED survey scores of UAs and CRAs and the known LEED score of the CRF at the university of which they were employed in the categories of Materials and Resources (p=.00), Indoor Environmental Quality (p=.00), Total LEED (p=.01), and Prerequisite (p=.00). This shows that, even though UAs at universities that have a certified CRF may have the most LEED knowledge, they may not know all of the criteria that each facility on their campus meets. CRAs at universities with a CRF that is not certified had the least amount of LEED knowledge about their CRF. This could be true because the CRAs have less to do with LEED certification than UAs. There were some LEED standards that no respondent had knowledge about. For example, Prerequisites measured whether facilities used chlorofluorocarbon-based refrigerants. The three most met standards among UAs and CRAs at universities with a noncertified CRF were Materials and Resources, Indoor Air Quality, and Prerequisites. Results suggest that at universities with a noncertified CRF at least 50% of UAs indicated their facilities met 36 out of 56 standards and CRAs met 32 out of 56 standards. Further research needs to continue to investigate the benefits of LEED certification as it goes through updates. Also, future research should investigate why southeastern states are so far behind when it comes to sustainability.
Recommended Citation
Jordan, William, "Professionals Knowledge Of Standards Required For Leed Certification Of Indoor Recreation Facilities At Four Year Public Universities" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 718.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/718