Banner Campus Projects

Green Building Projects

This section lists a few sustainability and green building projects on campuses around the nation.

Meant to serve as a clearinghouse of current programs and initiatives related to green building, this section of the portal invites higher education administrators and leaders to share green building lessons and experiences with the community by clicking here. 

MINORITY SERVING INSTITUTIONS

California State University, Fullerton

  • Student Recreation Center

    This is a two-story, 95,000-square-foot Student Recreation Center that has received LEED® Gold certification.

California State University, Monterey Bay

California State University, San Bernardino

  • The Palm Desert Health Sciences Building

    This is a $14.5 million, 23,000 square-foot building, designed and built with the goal of achieving LEED® Gold certification. Amongst other “green” traits, this building boasts being constructed from recycled materials. 90 percent of the total construction waste was recycled.

College of Menominee Nation

Saginaw Valley State University

  • Health & Human Sciences Building

    This is a $28 million, 90,000 square feet project designed to meet LEED® Silver standards.

  • Pioneer Hall

    This is a $16 million renovation and addition project awaiting LEED® Silver certification.

 

COMMUNITY AND TECHNICAL COLLEGES

Skagit Valley College

  • Laura Angst Hall
    This is the first higher education building in Washington state to achieve LEED Platinum certification.  Opened in September 2009, Laura Angst Hall has since achieved a total of 72% reduction in overall energy use, which equates to an annual reduction of 1,167 metric ton in CO2 emissions.  Some highlighted sustainable practices include the sunscreens at all south-facing windows to control sunlight, and the large photovoltaic array on the roof to generate power from sunlight.

De Anza College

Northeast Texas Community College

Western Technical College

  • Lunda Center
    This LEED® certified, 26,000 square-foot community conference center building features a multi-use conference room with the capacity to accommodate 600 people.

 

OTHER SCHOOLS - PRIVATE

Beloit College

  • Center for the Sciences
    This LEED® Platinum science center features a green roof, storm-water cisterns for greenhouse watering, native plant landscaping, high recycled content for building materials and furnishings and energy-efficient design management systems and windows. The 117,000-square-foot facility also features a rooftop renewable energy research area and kiosks that provide live data on the building.

Central College

  • Education and Psychology Building
    This LEED® Platinum facility houses Central’s Education, Psychology, Communication and Community-based Learning programs in addition to the Center for Global Sustainability Education. The building’s sustainable features include a gray water system that collects roof rain water run-off which is used for flushing toilets; a radiant floor heating/cooling system that uses pipes under the floors help to heat and cool the building and reduces the requirements of the air moving system; reuse of materials from the demolished University Apartments, and a green roof that filters and reduces roof water run-off and lowers roof temperature to ease energy consumption.

College of the Atlantic

  • Kathryn W. Davis Student Residence Village
    Named for its benefactor, this student residence is built with an exceptional level of thermal integrity and a super-insulated design, and the three duplex buildings feature a minimal heating load. The wood pellet furnace burns local, renewable energy, while composting toilets minimize water use. Recycling is evident from the exterior fiber cement clapboards to the foot of cellulose insulation created from shredded newspapers. During the heating season, an energy recovery central ventilation preheats fresh air coming into the building.

Columbia University

  • Gary C. Comer Geochemistry Laboratory
    This LEED® Silver research facility supports the work of Columbia’s Geochemistry department and houses extensive lab space directly supporting research and development to advance the understanding of climate science. The facility features an air conditioning system that uses high efficiency chillers with non-depleting refrigerants, natural ventilation for offices, occupancy sensors to control lighting and temperatures, energy recovery from the ventilation system, daylight harvesting and high efficiency light fixtures. The building is also supports sustainable transportation systems.

Drew University

  • McLendon Hall
    This is Drew's first sustainable construction project, and one of the first dorms in New Jersey to pursue LEED® certification. Students worked closely with the architects to include green features such as a geothermal heating and cooling system; a highly-insulated R-30 building envelope;recycled rubber roof shingles and reflective materials on the roof to deflect sunlight; compact fluorescent bulbs throughout the building; and drought-resistant plants in the landscaping that do not require mechanical irrigation. The lobby also features an interactive "green screen" that allows students to monitor the building’s eco-friendly features.

Furman University

  • Cliffs Cottage
    This LEED® Gold certified facility was built with natural building materials, a geothermal ground source heat pump, a photovoltaic system, and Energy Star-rated appliances. Cliffs Cottage also uses Xeriscaping, drought resistant plants in the surrounding garden, uses in order to minimize the facility’s water consumption. The building currently houses Furman’s David E. Shi Center for Sustainability and was built as a showcase home in collaboration with Southern Living Magazine.

Guilford College

  • Archdale Hall 
    This LEED® Silver restoration project included the addition of a rainwater collection system, waterless urinals, and blown-in insulation. Project managers were able to add sustainable features while preserving the building’s original construction. Changes meant to restore Archdale’s historical character, such as removing drop ceilings and rebuilding transoms above doors also improved air quality and natural light.

Ithaca College

  • Peggy Ryan Williams Center
    Designed to LEED® Platinum Specifications, this building has Nearly 6,500 square feet of vegetated roof area to replace land taken by the building, reducing airborne pollutants and adding oxygen to the atmosphere; natural convection ventilation, and a 12,000-gallon tank below the garden that collects rainwater from the roof, serving over 85% of the building’s yearly water needs.

Luther College

  • Sampson Hoffland Laboratories
    Sampson Hoffland Laboratories is one of only eight LEED® gold certified buildings in Iowa. The project features a rain garden that collects water from the roof and returns it to the water table , a chilled-water recirculation loop that uses water used to remove heat from scientific instrumentation, and a Dedicated Outdoor Air System (DOAS) provides the building with 100 percent fresh air while saving energy.

Maharishi University of Management

  • Argiro Student Center

    This is a 50,000-square-foot student center constructed according to the ancient principles of Vedic architecture for harmony with the natural law.

  • Sustainable Living Center

    This project is supported by a $50,000 planning grant from the Kresge Foundation’s Green Building Initiative, which will cover some of the expenses associated with the design of this sustainable building, such as ecological site planning, energy analysis and modeling, and LEED® certification.

Manhattanville College

  • Richard A. Berman Students’ Center
    This LEED® Gold facility represents Manhattanville’s commitment to environmental stewardship and houses a performance center, fitness facility, lounge, dance studio, radio station, and art gallery. The building was constructed of natural, locally obtained, non-toxic materials and features solar collectors that provide 13 percent of the buildings energy needs. As a result of its sustainable design, the building requires only 50% of the total energy needed by a conventional building of the same size. News Article

Oberlin College

Saint Xavier University

  • Rubloff Hall

    This is the first university building in the state of Illinois to be designated LEED® Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council for its green building features.

  • O'Brien Hall

    Saint Xavier’s second LEED® Gold certified residence hall, emulates Rubloff Hall by offering quality living quarters for students without increasing the school’s carbon footprint.

Santa Clara University

  • Green Building Project Portal
    Santa Clara University is committed to providing leadership in developing a more sustainable way of living .The Office of Sustainability maintains a database of green building projects at the university that furthers Santa Clara's mission to act as a voice of reason, conscience, and service to society in embracing sustainability.

Stanford University

  • Munger Graduate Residence
    This 460,000-square-foot project features large windows to allow for natural lighting, water and energy conserving fixtures, as well as steam and chilled water systems for heating and cooling.

Swarthmore College

  • The Wister Education Center and Greenhouse
    This 5,200 square-foot structure provides a classroom, exhibit areas for horticultural displays and plant evaluations, a greenhouse for cultivation and propagation, and space for staff and volunteers. In addition to many other green features, the roof captures rainwater for the irrigation of the surrounding gardens and the heating-air conditioning system uses exchanged energy with the campus’s underground chilled water loop, taking advantage of existing infrastructure to reduce initial construction costs and generate ongoing energy savings.

Syracuse University

  • Ernie Davis Residence Hall
    This 134,000-square-foot building was built to LEED® Silver certification and features a 500-seat dining facility, a 10,600-square-foot recreation facility and 2,000 square feet of academic space.
  • Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center
    This 52,000-square-foot athletic facility supports the university’s basketball programs and was built to LEED® standards with 20 percent recycled materials, high-efficiency mechanical system filtration, and was designed to use almost 20 percent less energy than a typical new building.
  • IBM Green Data Center
    This building can operate off the grid using gas-fired microturbines that generate electricity, and the resulting heat can be used to fire absorption coolers to cool computers.

Unity College in Maine

  • Unity House

    This building is the President’s residential home, which has achieved LEED® Platinum certification.

  • Unity College's Carbon Emission Reductions

    In order to meet the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment’s requirement to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, Unity College announced an agreement with MaineHousing (Maine State Housing Authority), creating funds for more energy efficient affordable housing, contributing to further reductions in carbon emissions, and extending the benefits of the carbon market to low-income families.

University of Pennsylvania

  • Music Building
    This 25,000-square-foot facility, originally designed to achieve LEED®Silver criterica, exceed these targets by including efficient lightings, passive storm water management techniques, and many more features.  It is noted that the project recycles and salvages 95% of construction waste.  As a result, the project received LEED®Gold certification.
  • Joe's Café
    This on-campus eatery also received LEED® Gold certification for its commercial interior renovation, food-service practices, recycling, composting and chemical-free cleaning methods.
  • Annenberg Public Policy Center
    This building is not formally LEED® rated but it has sustainable features such as a double skin wall that acts as an insulating airlock and ventilation with outside air.
  • Morris Arboretum Horticultural Center
    This learning center is the university’s greenest building to date and received LEED® Platinum certification.

Vanderbilt University

  • Benson Hall
    This facility was awarded LEED® Silver Certification for Commercial Interiors (CI) and serves as the home of the English and History departments. Some of the building’s sustainable features include energy-efficient lighting fixtures and water-conserving plumbing fixtures; Energy Star-rated appliances; locally sourced and materials with post-consumer recycled content and little or no volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
  • Jean and Alexander Heard Library Archival Storage Facility
    This facility received LEED® Silver Certification for New Construction and features Reflective roofing materials; building materials with post-consumer recycled content and little or no volatile organic compounds (VOCs); and automatic lighting controls and water-conserving plumbing fixtures. Originally constructed in 1910, the facility was renovated to ensure the preservation and durability of the archived materials.

Warren Wilson College

  • EcoDorm

    Opened in 2003, Warren Wilson’s EcoDorm is the first building on this college campus to achieve LEED® Existing Buildings (EB) Platinum certification.

  • The Village North Residence Hall

    This residence hall is a two-building, 80-bed community that joins two other buildings on the Warren Wilson College campus has achieved LEED® Gold certification.

Washington University in St. Louis

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

  • East Hall
    This is a modern, 232-bed, apartment style residence hall featuring all of the amenities of independent living that was designed as a "green" building using sustainable design principles under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) program. Click here for additional information provided by ACUHO-I and Cannon Designs.

Yale University

  • Kroon Hall
    A LEED® Platinum building that serves as the home of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, showcasing the latest developments in green building technology, Learn more about this project here.

 

OTHER SCHOOLS - PUBLIC

University of South Carolina-Columbia

  • Honors Residence Hall
    Opened in Fall 2009, this 191,000 square-foot LEED® Gold facility features 537 suite-style bedrooms, multiple smart classrooms and faculty offices, an indoor bicycle room with shower, and a dining hall.  This new residence hall consumes 30% less energy and 38% less water than a similar building utilizing a traditional design.  The building was constructed using recycled materials from previous sited buildings and other resources from within a 500-mile radius of Columbia.

Black Hills State University

  • David B. Miller Yellow Jacket Student Union
    This LEED® Silver certified project features a roof garden, a vertical wind turbine, solar panels, and other energy efficient building features.  The project also received the 2011 Association of College Unions International (ACUI) Facility Design Award of Excellence.

Bridgewater State College

  • Current & Future Projects

    A resource describing capital projects on campus, including both new construction and renovation, with various plans to achieve LEED® certification.

  • Energy & Water Conservation Project

    A resource describing the design, planning, and the savings from the Bridgewater State College’s Energy & Water Conversation program, including Green Strategies for LEED® Silver certification.

Grand Valley State University

  • The Michigan Alternative Energy Center
    This LEED® Gold facility is a self-sustaining distributive energy center that produces the energy it needs to heat, cool, light, and power the building. The 25,000-square-foot MAREC facility is powered, in part, by a fuel cell which turns natural gas into electricity. In addition, the building's photovoltaic solar roof tiles harness the solar power generated by the sun to create useful energy.
  • Lake Ontario Hall
    This LEED® Silver facility is home to the GVSU Sustainability Initiative's main office and serves as as a monument to the goal of making Grand Valley State University a completely sustainable campus that gives back as much as it takes. The building features Indoor Air Quality management, a heat-reflective roof to save heating energy in the winter and cooling energy in the summer, daylight harvesting energy efficient windows with built-in blinds, and was built on part of a former parking lot to save green space.
  • The John C. Kennedy Hall of Engineering
    The LEED® Certified facility adds an additional 52,000 square feet of classrooms, laboratories, and faculty offices to the GVSU campus. The building features exposed structural, mechanical and electrical systems to provide students with a living laboratory, a rooftop deck allowing students to conduct experiments outside, and laboratories for instruction and research in electronics, instrumentation and controls, manufacturing processes and control, materials, vibrations, and fluid and thermal systems.
  • The Glenn A. Niemeyer Learning and Living Center
    This facility was constructed to LEED® specifications and provides 187,000 square feet residential space in the form of 4-bedroom, 2-bedroom, and studio apartments, as well as 17 small meeting rooms and 5 great rooms/lounges. The Learning and Living Center features ADA accessibility, habitat restoration, storm water runoff reduction by use of site vegetation and green roofing, light pollution reduction, and improved occupant productivity through electrical and mechanical system controllability.
  • Laker Turf Building
    This facility was also constructed to LEED® specifications and provides 138,000 gross square feet of space for an indoor track with 9 sprint lanes, long jump and triple jump lanes, indoor pole vault, shot put, and high jump space, and a 100 yard indoor sport turf field, in addition to training rooms and showers. The building features a geothermal heat pump, a photovoltaic roof, a rain garden, and a solar wall.

Iowa State University

  • King Pavilion
    This LEED® Platinum facility is Part of Iowa States College of Design and will house a number of freshman and sophomore design majors. The 23,735-square-foot building features a green roof with 20 varieties of hardy, colorful plants; natural lighting features; water-retention features such as detention cells and permeable paver; and low- or non-emitting of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) materials. The university intends that King Pavilion will be a living laboratory for study of sustainable design practices and help establish the principles of environmental stewardship within the collegiate and university culture.

The Evergreen State College

  • Seminar II Building 

    The Seminar II green building serves as a model for higher education institutions looking to ensure that their green buildings achieve efficiency objectives.

Plymouth State University

  • Langdon Woods Hall
    Langdon Woods is the State of New Hampshire's first building—and one of the nation’s largest residence halls—to earn gold-level certification by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership-Energy-Environmental Design (LEED®) program. Click here for additional information provided by ACUHO-I and Cannon Designs.

University of California, Davis

  • Maurice J. Gallagher Hall
    This project is expected to be the first building on the UC Davis campus and the first business school in California to qualify for Gold Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED®) program. The eco-friendly structure will reduce storm water runoff by 25 percent, with rainwater captured and treated on site. A white roof and light-colored paving will keep the building and its immediate surroundings cooler. In addition, the building is 30 percent more energy-efficient than a typical office building, with tall windows that maximize natural daylight and motion-sensitive lighting controls in every room.
  • Tahoe Environmental Research Center
    This is one of only five science laboratories in the world to receive a LEED®-Platinum Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The center was given top marks in all of the LEED® criteria and uses 60 percent less energy and 65 percent less potable water than a building of the same function, climate and size designed to current code standards.
  • Veterinary Medicine Instructional Facility
    This building is the first at UC Davis to have undergone LEED® certification for environmentally responsible design. Some of the facilities green features are a mixed-mode cooling strategy, indirect evaporative cooling, displacement ventilation and low VOC-emitting materials for high indoor air quality.

University of Illinois at Chicago

  • Lincoln Hall
    This project is a renovation of a 1960's era building designed by Walter Netsch. It utilizes geothermal heating and cooling which keeps the classrooms comfortable throughout the year. Other features include highly insulated glass curtain wall, automated blinds to control heat load, light sensors, recycled materials, high efficiency lighting, water saving features, and a PV solar electricity supply. Click here to watch the solar panels being installed.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • Business Instructional Facility
    This LEED® Platinum building in the College of Business at UIUC is a first among public universities in the world. The facility provides more than 160,000 square feet for teaching, career development, events and student programs. The facility was designed to minimize its impact on the environment and provide a healthy atmosphere for students and faculty. Green features include a CO2 monitoring system, water efficient landscaping, 4,000 square feet of solar panels, and high quality finishes with low embodied energy.

University of Louisville

  • Clinical and Translational Research Building
    This 287,970-square-foot facility was awarded LEED® Gold certification for its sustainable features which include a reflective roof that keeps down heating costs; special louvers and light shelves that control the amount of sun entering the building; landscape irrigation using condensed water from the air conditioning system; and built-in showers and bicycle racks that make it easier for employees to avoid driving to work.

University of Michigan

  • Ross School of Business
    This LEED® Silver educational facility was designed to help catalyze business education by supporting the Ross School of Business’ commitment to action-based learning. Sustainable features include occupancy sensors in faculty offices that automatically lower the heat when offices have been vacant for a period of time; a non-ozone-depleting refrigeration system that cools the building; three green roofs that filter rainfall as part of a natural storm-water management system; and quiet and durable cork flooring, a rapidly renewable resource, is used in public spaces.

Universities at Shady Grove, University System of Maryland

  • Camille Kendall Academic Center

    The new Camille Kendall Academic Center is the largest “green” higher education building in the state of Maryland and one of the first University System of Maryland (USM) buildings to achieve a LEED® Gold certification.

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

  • School of Nursing and Student Community Center
    Encompassing 195,160 gross square feet of space, the School of Nursing building was designed by Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell Architects (BNIM), a Kansas City, MO firm with a history of distinction in designing green buildings. BNIM worked in partnership with Lake/Flato Architects Inc. of San Antonio, recipients of the 2004 AIA Architecture Firm Award.

 

GREEN BUILDING PROJECT DATABASES AND CASE STUDIES

 

RESOURCE USAGE MONITORING

Many higher education institutions have turned to building and campus resource usage monitoring systems to track the performance of their green buildings.