Colorado University Athletics
Buffs Win USGBC's #LEEDbracket Championship
April 08, 2016 | General
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Colorado Buffaloes and specifically the Coors Events Center won the inaugural U.S. Green Building Council #LEEDBracket National Championship, a twitter-based, four-round competition of LEED-certified college basketball arenas in the United States.
The Buffs were one of 16 schools picked for the competition along with Arizona State, Georgia Tech, George Washington, Iowa, Michigan, New Mexico, Notre Dame, Oregon, South Florida, SMU, Texas A&M, Texas-Arlington, Toledo, Towson and UCLA.
The Buffs were pitted against UCLA and Pauley Pavilion in the first round and the Buffs dominating, winning 95 percent of the votes cast. The Buffs garnered more votes in the first round than the other 15 teams combined.
New Mexico and The Pit awaited the Buffs in the second round and CU again dominated, garnering 63 percent of the vote.
Onto the Final Four where the Buffs matched up against SMU and Moody Coliseum and again the Buffs dominated the Mustangs, garnering 76 percent of the vote and again garnering more votes than the other three teams in the Final Four combined.
It came down to a match-up between Pac-12 powers in the championship match-up with Oregon and Matthew Knight Arena, and again the Buffs won in dominant fashion, picking up 86 percent of the vote.
The Coors Events Center's practice facility was added in 2011 and is a LEED platinum building and when it was awarded that status in 2012 it was one of only two platinum-rated athletic facilities in the Pac-12 and currently it is one of just five buildings on CU's campus and 41 in the city of Boulder that meet the highest LEED standard.
Last year, the main arena at the Coors Events Center completed major energy upgrades, as well, reducing the building's annual energy consumption by over 44 percent and included efforts to improve water conservation, lighting upgrades, new mechanical equipment, insulation and a recommissioning of existing systems and controls.
The recently completed Indoor Practice Facility is expected to meet LEED Platinum standards and be a "net-zero" energy facility, furthering the Buffs as the national leader in the space. Starting in 2008, the Buffs were the first Division I zero-waste athletics program and Folsom Field became the first pro or college football stadium to commit to zero-waste and more than 90 percent of waste accumulated from football games is diverted from landfills.
