By Bev Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

The new medical school in Kaka'ako is the first structure to be built under the new powers of autonomy granted the University of Hawai'i, but it's also the first that will use only the latest technologies in recycled building materials and energy-saving systems.

It will be a prototype for future university construction, said UH President Evan Dobelle.

"They're going to be held to a higher standard," said Dobelle. "I haven't signed off on anything at the medical school and I won't unless the materials and the concepts are state-of-the-art."

That standard and commitment is all part of a new Charter of Sustainability that Dobelle, interim chancellor Deane Neubauer and sustainability coordinator Bruce Miller will unveil on Earth Day next Monday.

"We have to make our commitment and lead by example," said Dobelle. "We can't have scientists studying alternative forms of energy and then build buildings that don't have it."

Under Miller's guidance, the university hopes to become the standard-bearer for sustainability statewide, beginning with finding alternatives to high energy and water use, and other savings that will eventually be put to use systemwide.

"What can we do that will make the biggest difference?" said Miller. "We'll come up with implementation plans that we will fast-track."

The efforts will begin on Coconut Island, where there has already been a yearlong effort to look at sustainability. Zoology professor E. Gordon Grau said scientists there have already looked at energy, water and waste independence.

"Ground-source heat pumps have twice the efficiency of air-conditioning systems that pump into air," said Grau. "There's enough sunlight to do photovoltaic cells to make electricity, and that's already economically feasible on Kaua'i and Moloka'i."

A catchment system could provide drinking water, while there are systems that purify water at the site "and even turn sewage into potable water."

An "engineered environment" on Coconut Island, said Grau, would set an example for the Manoa campus and the Islands as a whole. For instance, "ground-source heat pumping could be done easily in Waikiki to use deep-ocean cold water to air-condition" the area by running a pipe out to bring the water in.

The Manoa campus alone spends about $1 million a month for electricity, said Miller. Grau said that's probably about 80 percent of its energy costs, "so it's probably similar in Waikiki."

"Lighting cost is relatively unimportant," Grau said. "That's why we're concentrating on air-conditioning, and there are technologies available."

In the final months of design planning for the medical school, UH has hired the Boulder, Colo.-based ENSAR Group as an environmental consultant to make sure the new project has cutting-edge, energy-efficient systems, and meets LEED Green Building Rating System standards developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. While the firm will oversee appropriate applications of new technology for the project, UH can do the same for the community as a whole, said Dobelle.

"The real power of the university is applied research," he said. "The planners and scientists and business faculty and architects really can become a pro bono center of knowledge of sustainability for the Islands."