Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 75.90
Liaison Deborah Steinberg
Submission Date Dec. 6, 2021

STARS v2.2

Carnegie Mellon University
OP-22: Rainwater Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 2.00 Martin Altschul
Director of Strategic Facilities Initiatives of FMCS
Facilities Management Services
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Which of the following best describes the institution’s approach to rainwater management?:
Less comprehensive policies, plans or guidelines that incorporate green infrastructure

A brief description of the institution’s green infrastructure and LID practices:

Carnegie Mellon University follows all local, state and federal storm water management regulations. More information can be found here http://www.3riverswetweather.org/

All new buildings and large renovation projects are required to meet a minimum LEED Silver rating, which more often than not includes stormwater management strategies.

The Simonds Principles ensure that new construction and major renovations, while remaining true to their immediate purpose, are a constructive and contributive part to the larger whole that is the Carnegie Mellon footprint and influence. The principles have been incorporated into the University's capital planning process, under the auspices of Campus Design and Facility Development. One tenet of these principles is sustainability, which states that the "highest-level environmental sensibilities should be integral... with particular emphasis on energy and water efficiency". This results in low impact and green infrastructure practices on the majority of new construction projects.


A copy of the institution’s rainwater management policy, plan, and/or guidelines:
A brief description of the institution’s rainwater management policy, plan, and/or guidelines that supports the responses above:

Carnegie Mellon University is committed to reducing rainwater runoff from coming to its campus from surrounding areas and to reduce the runoff from its own buildings, to protect flooding inside its campus buildings. Since 2009 we have experienced a 100-year flood twice, and have made several infrastructure upgrades to reduce flooding.

Since 2009 the University has implemented 488,200 gal of storm water structures and have an additional 36,5000 gal structures in construction.

We are also working with a surrounding community coalition to reduce water runoff.

The Simonds Principles were adopted by our Board of Trustees in 2013.
https://www.cmu.edu/cdfd/simonds-principles/


Website URL where information about the institution’s green infrastructure and LID practices is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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