by Sarah McNair

View of the solar array located at the APUS Finance Center currently under construction.

APUS has undertaken many green building projects, such as energy efficiency retrofits and a brand new Academic Center that boasts efficient lighting, HVAC, landscaping, and 99 solar panels.  (The Academic Center is still in the LEED Certification process.)  The newest green building is the university’s Finance Center, which sits just behind the Academic Center in Charles Town, WV.  The Center will be approximately 105,000 square feet and built to LEED Gold standards.  Construction has already begun, transforming the existing abandoned warehouse into a green masterpiece. 

The most impressive aspect of this new building is the amount of solar energy it will utilize.  Over 1,600 solar panels will be installed in the parking lot that will also act as a canopy for parking.  The expected annual output of these panels is a whopping 480,000 kilowatt hours!  Approximately 60 percent of the Center’s energy use will be supplied by the solar panels, offsetting approximately 350 tons of carbon each year.  Based on historic utility rate increases in the area, the solar array is anticipated to save the university some $9,000,000 in energy costs over the course of the system’s lifetime. 

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by Elizabeth Gray

In 2003 when American Public University System (APUS) moved to Charles Town, West Virginia from its original home of Manassas, Virginia (where the university system continues to maintain its student services and marketing offices), the system’s leadership was cognizant of the historic nature of their new home.  As the institution has grown in student population and added additional employees, adequate parking for employees commuting to work became an ongoing problem.  APUS currently owns eight structures in the downtown area of the city and leases six additional buildings and space in three others.  Several of these buildings do not have their own parking lots and this has forced employees to contend with other downtown businesses and residences for parking on the street. Read the rest of this entry »