 EnviroCitizen.org has found that old buildings are typically inefficient. They cost a huge amount of money to maintain and they do not conserve water or energy. The building that houses the Utah Museum of Natural History is a perfect example. The current building is an energy juggernaut and poses a threat to the collections due to its instability. However, thanks to a donation from Kennecott Utah Copper, the largest open pit copper mine in the world, the Utah Museum of Natural History will have a new home in 2011!
The new building, which will be called the Rio Tinto Center, is being built to be certified by the United States Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). It will be beautifully adorned with 42,000 square feet of copper, which is not surprising considering the fact that Kennecott Utah Copper is one of the primary financial contributors. The new building will also be outfitted with all of the latest, greatest green features, like energy efficient lighting and an energy efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system. These two features alone will shrink the carbon footprint of the Utah Museum of Natural History by more than half, since the current building is so inefficient.
The project has had some bumps along the way, though. The location of the new building has been hotly debated. To start, it is on federal land. More than 70% of the State of Utah is federally owned and the committee who was in charge of designing the new building asked the National Park Service (NPS) to contribute about one quarter of the funds necessary to build the new building, or about $15 million. The problem with this is that the NPS has very limited funds. The concern that many have is that the NPS is already financially limited and they work hard to preserve and protect more than 84 million acres of land, so giving $15 million to construction costs doesn't make it easy for them to continue with their mission. The other problem is that the new building is located in the wilderness urban interface (WUI). The wilderness urban interface is the place where, as you may have guessed, urban areas meet with wilderness areas. To humans, the distinction between urban and wilderness is clear. However, animals do not understand the imaginary line between the two. Mountains are home to many animals, such as moose, deer, elk, and mountain lions. This situation can be negative for both humans and animals. Animals entering urban areas in search of food can be in danger of harm and humans in the same area can be in danger of the wildlife that wanders over.
The new building for the Utah Museum of Natural History will be green in the sense that it will be energy-efficient, but they must be mindful of the effect they will have on neighboring wildlife. EnviroCitizen.org hopes that with the right mindset and additional effort they are able to find options that set environmentalists' minds at ease.
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