2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Due to the significant role that buildings play in changing the environment, sustainability has become one of the most critical topics in the building industry. The leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program developed by U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is one of the most popular sustainability practices that provide guidelines for the design and construction of any type of building. Due to its comprehensive and practical approach, it is very helpful to implement LEED guidelines and standards into the construction education curriculum to provide opportunities for students to become familiar with and learn how to apply these sustainability standards to the projects. In order to facilitate this, the US. Green Building Council (USGBC) has developed the LEED Lab program to provide this opportunity for students to become involved in a real-world project and practice sustainability during their education. […] University is one of the few universities that is offering LEED Lab to undergraduate students through which two campus buildings have been certified to date. In this course, students become involved in the process of certifying a campus building under LEED Operation and Maintenance (LEED O+M) for Existing Buildings. The purpose of this course is to provide a chance for students to gain hands-on experience and improve several skills besides learning a valuable experience about sustainability. However, this goal will not be achieved if the necessary skills are not infused into the course syllabus. Therefore, the aim of this study is to indicate how the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) recommended competencies for a Career-Ready Workforce can be infused into the process of teaching LEED Lab to make sure the students are ready to use their pieces of training in their career. In this study, the NACE competencies (teamwork, Leadership, Professionalism, Technology, critical thinking, and communication) and the initial course learning outcomes of the LEED Lab are correlated to investigate the implementation of those competencies in the course. After discovering the lacking competencies in the course learning outcome, the appropriate learning outcomes were added to the course to cover those competencies. Specific assignments were then added to help achieve the new learning outcomes. This study can help building sustainability educators to prepare students for careers in the sustainable construction industry.