Yale Divinity School Living Village

Complete with its own rainwater harvesting and wastewater treatment and water reuse systems, the Yale Divinity School’s Living Village is an ecologically restorative campus community.

As the first university residence designed to meet the stringent standards of the Living Building Challenge, the Yale Divinity School Living Village demonstrates environmental leadership at the highest level and serves as a replicable model for other institutions worldwide. Through the framework of the Living Building Challenge’s seven petals (Place, Water, Energy, Health, Materials, Equity, and Beauty), the project created a healthier, more culturally rich, and ecologically restorative campus.

As a key member of the master planning and design team led by Bruner/Cott Architects, Biohabitats led design and engineering related to the achievement of the Water petal. Water Petal requirements call for responsible water use and net positive water. This involved determining the campus water balance, assessing the feasibility of various integrated water strategies, and designing onsite systems for rainwater harvesting and wastewater treatment and reuse.

The 2,600 gallon per day (gpd) wastewater treatment and reuse system collects wastewater from the building’s laundry, sinks, showers, and toilets, and treats it on site for reuse in toilet flushing and drip irrigation. Before reuse, the wastewater is treated through a primary tank, recirculating trickling filters, a vertical flow constructed wetland, a sand filter, and mechanical filtration and disinfection. The wetland and sand filter are integrated into the Village’s expansive outdoor deck and seating area. The rainwater collection and reuse system harvests rainwater from the building’s roof and stores it in two below-ground, 10,000-gallon cisterns. Rainwater is treated via filtration and disinfection and is then available for reuse for laundry and spray irrigation for Living Village landscaping. Together, the systems are projected to reduce potable water use by 56% relative to a representative baseline that represents ‘business as usual.’

As part of the project, Biohabitats also studied water challenges faced by the larger Yale campus and broader New Haven metropolitan region and facilitated water stewardship workshops to begin identifying potential solutions. This was part of the water advocacy effort, a compliance pathway to achieve the intent of the Water Petal – Imperative 06 – Net Positive Water.