Campus Sustainability

Sustainable Building

Campuses have a significant impact on the built and natural environment and are under increased pressure from governments, students, and community members to carefully mitigate their environmental footprint. CU-Boulder is no exception. Nationally, campus development initiatives are factoring in the economic and social needs of surrounding neighborhoods and incorporating design elements that contribute to environmental health as well as architectural aesthetics. New approaches are propelled by a valuable insight: what’s good for the community is good for the campus.

Goals:

• All new buildings and major renovations are built to a LEED® Gold Standard plus extra attention is focused on energy and water credits (CU-Boulder’s term of LEED Gold “Plus”). This helps ensure that buildings are as energy and water conserving as possible and provide the greatest long-term payback for the investments made. Also, projects are to achieve performance at a minimum level of 45 percent better than the ASHRAE standards in place at the time of the project’s construction.

• Ensure that all new and renovated facilities underway be near net-zero carbon facilities. A net-zero energy facility collects as much energy from renewable sources as the facility uses on an annual basis while maintaining an acceptable level of service and functionality. Buildings can exchange energy with the power grid as long as the net energy balance is zero on an annual basis.

• Install visible energy monitoring devices on buildings and make information available to inform and help occupants track conservation behaviors.

• As appropriate, plan and construct facilities that intertwine indoor space with nature to capitalize on the benefits of biophilic design—the term is derived from biophilia, coined in 1984 by a Harvard biologist, Edward O. Wilson, to describe what he considered the innate human attraction to nature—that incorporates real or simulated natural elements in an effort to promote well-being.

Currently on CU-Boulder’s campus LEED certified buildings include the following: (view map)

• LEED Platinum:
  • Center for Community
  • Coors Event Center – Basketball/Volleyball Practice Facility
  • Institute of Behavioral Science
  • Systems Biotechnology
  • Williams Village North
• LEED Gold:
  • Andrews Hall
  • Arnett Hall
  • ATLAS
  • Buckingham Hall
  • JILA Addition
  • Koelbel
  • Smith Hall
  • Visual Arts Complex
  • Wolf Law
• LEED Silver:
  • UMC Addition

Click here for more information on LEED buildings on campus.

LEED building certification scorecards- view each building's total score and individual credit amounts.