Building Design

USGBC Membership

Rice University is a member institution of the US Green Building Council, which develops and administers the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System.  Benefits of USGBC membership - including discounts on conferences, publications, and workshops - are available to all employees of Rice University.  Please direct any questions to the primary contact person for Rice's USGBC membership, Richard Johnson, at (713) 348-5003.

LEED and Future Construction

All future new construction at Rice University will achieve some level of LEED certification.  This includes Rice's planned Collaborative Research Center (read more), the two new residential colleges, the Undergraduate Engineering Laboratory, and the Recreation Center. 

Duncan College, Rice's 11th residential college, will be Rice's first LEED-Gold building (read more).

Green Building Successes

We are thinking about sustainability as it applies to buildings at Rice from a very large scale - as described above with the Collaborative Research Center - to a small scale.  Here are a few recent examples of green technologies, practices, and products that we have implemented:

• Building deconstruction.  In September 2007, Rice "de-constructed" three buildings in the Rice Village to make way for a child care center.  The buildings were carefully taken apart so that the materials could be preserved for reuse or recycled.  Click here for details.
• 100% recyclable carpet.  During the summer of 2005, new carpet was installed on the first floor of the Rice Memorial Center between the Miner Lounge and Farnsworth Pavillion.  These carpet tiles were specifically designed using the cradle-to-cradle design concept to be 100% recyclable, with fiber recycled into new fiber and backing into new backing, infinitely.  The manufacturer will collect the carpet tiles from Rice for free once they are removed so that they will be processed into new carpet, rather than ending up in a landfill.
• Waterless urinals.  The first floor men's room of the M.D. Anderson Biological Laboratories features two waterless urinals.  These were installed in the fall of 2004 as part of an effort to research and monitor environmentally-friendly building products.  Additional waterless urinals have been installed in the Herman Brown building, the Abercrombie Engineering Lab, and the Facilities Engineering and Planning building.
• Sensor-activated hand dryers.  The first floor men's restroom in the Rice Memorial Center adjacent to the Grand Hall features two hands-free hand dryers that dry hands in 10-15 seconds (as opposed to the standard 30-35 seconds).  These hand dryers use 80% less electricity than conventional models and completely eliminate the waste stream associated with paper towels.

Last updated: November 21, 2007