Faces of Sustainability: Paul Borick
Behind every green building, there is a team of designers and builders who imagined and built it. For several buildings at Wake Forest, Paul Borick is an important member of that team. Borick is a Registered Architect and Senior Project Manager for WFU Facilities & Campus Services. He manages design and construction projects anywhere from $1,000 to over $50 million.
This Senior Project Manager incorporates sustainability into both his work and daily life. The majority of the larger capital projects that he manages are designed to meet at least LEED Silver certification. With this standard, design and construction of facilities must consider all facets of sustainability in buildings and site selection.
The new residence halls and dining hall on the North campus are no exception to this standard. As one of his favorite LEED projects thus far, he believes that the new residence halls feature many important sustainable design features. In particular, an air driven mechanical system, will help alleviate bad-smelling fan coils and satisfy residents climatic requirements while saving energy. He is also excited to show off the new glass solar canopy trellis at the new North Dining Hall. Ultimately, he hopes that “the solar trellis will make people think: ‘I could do that. That would look great on my back patio or maybe on the facade of a building I may commission or design in the future.’ Seeing technology like this displayed prominently may inspire people to think of other ways to use technology, such as tidal power or the moons gravitational forces to generate power.”
Mr. Borick is a strong supporter of photovoltaic technology. He is currently lobbying for for the installation of a solar canopy on our facilities building. “What better place to show off this technology than right next to our power plant?” he asks. The project could help power our campus, while inspiring others to be more sustainable. Borick says, “I really do feel it is the future solution to all of our energy needs. I have this vision of producing power all day with solar energy and then turning it into hydrogen and then using hydrogen to fuel our cars, homes and factories. When hydrogen is burned, all it produces is water — kind of a win-win.”
In addition to his work on campus, Paul Borick has grown up to incorporate sustainable decisions in his everyday life. “I think I have always thought of myself as kind of an ‘earth man.’ I feel we have been put on this planet to be good stewards for all of God’s creations,” Borick says. “I think this mindset comes from early hiking and Boy Scout experience. I always strive to leave things better than I found them. That goes for something as little as picking up a piece of trash to making sure we leave things in good order for generations to come.” As a promoter of being a good steward to the Earth, Borick is also a bit of a recycling junkie. While the north campus project has recycled about 85% of its construction and demolition waste, he also prides himself on his recycling bin always being fuller than the trash bin.
As we move towards a more sustainable future, Mr. Borick encourages everyone to think through their decisions more completely: “I always like to remind people to think about the final outcome. Did I do the most good using as few resources as I could? I think that is why I am such a big solar technology fan because other than the production of the PV itself the impact to the environment is somewhat minimal.” His final words of encouragement for living a sustainable life are to “never forget the little things like turning off a light when no one is around or turning off a dripping faucet. Use one paper towel instead of two. If everyone does that just think how big the impact can be.
Written by Kiana Courtney, Communications and Outreach Intern