It's not always easy being green.

In an attempt to promote environmental responsibility in University buildings, the Michigan Student Assembly passed a resolution last night's urging that plans for the new North Quad adhere to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards.

LEED is a rating system designed to assess buildings' efficiency and soften their blows to the environment. There are five levels that a building can reach: certified, bronze, silver, gold or platinum. The MSA resolution will result in a letter being sent to Phil Hanlon, associate provost for academic and budgetary affairs, suggesting North Quad achieve at least a silver level.

The Environment Committee of the College Democrats met with Hanlon yesterday to deliver 750 postcards advocating designing the building with LEED certification in mind.

The North Quad schematic designs were pulled from the schedule of the University Board of Regents meeting last month at which the regents were slated to be asked to approve them.

It's much easier to integrate LEED into a building during the formation of the plans, said Sarah Duffy, who started the Environment Committee.

One of the primary roadblocks in the way of certification is its costs.

But Duffy said that the price should not be greatly altered by meeting regulations in the original plans, and the energy and water efficiency required by the certification will eventually cut down costs.

Though higher LEED levels are encouraged, silver is the goal stated in the resolution.

"Silver is the industry standard in that it's the best balance between environmental issues and fiscal impact," said Shari Pomerantz, one the resolution's cosponsors.

Each level of LEED certification is based on a series of point values dealing with different aspects of the building. The categories are site sustainability, water and energy efficiency, use of recycled materials and indoor environmental quality.

Along with environmental friendliness, LEED certification is also designed to increase the productivity of those working and living in the building. Indoor environmental quality deals explicitly with this goal, encouraging more window space to motivate inhabitants.

Duffy, who has been meeting with University administrators, said her main concern is that officials may think the building can be environmentally safe without LEED.

The University's Samuel Dana Building attained a gold-level LEED certification last May. Efforts are underway to obtain certification for the new C.S. Mott Children's and Women's Hospital.

A new assembly
At last night's meeting, the first for newly sworn in President Nicole Stallings, Michigan Student Assembly appointed three new members to its executive board:
- Treasurer: Josh Kersey
- Student General Counsel: Zach Yost
- Chief of Staff: Ally Jacobs