by Shane Henson — March 23, 2012—Arup, an independent firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists offering a broad range of professional services, has assisted the Knight Management Center at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) in becoming certified at the LEED Platinum level—the highest achievable rating offered through the U.S. Green Building Council.
The certification provides third-party verification that a building or community has been designed and built to meet key areas of environmental and human health, including energy efficiency and water savings.
Scoring a total of 60 points, Stanford’s GSB qualifies to be the highest-scoring LEED Platinum campus of its scale, says Arup.
The Knight Management Center—a sprawling 360,000 square-foot eight-building complex designed to house the school’s innovative Master of Business Administration (MBA) curriculum—demonstrates Stanford’s commitment to environmental leadership.
“As we train new generations of managerial leaders, we hope that Stanford’s commitment to sustainability will inspire our students to promote sustainable business practices in the future,” said Garth Saloner, dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
“Innovation and integration is at the heart of all of Arup’s work. We started by evaluating the needs and wants of the campus stakeholders, the site constraints and desired building forms. Our team collaborated to create a sustainable building design that reduced energy consumption and achieved a high quality indoor environment,” said John Williams, an associate at Arup.
Sustainable features of the Knight Management Center include natural day lighting to reduce need for electrical lighting and photovoltaic panels to harvest solar power to help supply energy demand. Recycled grey water replaces potable water for sewage conveyance, while harvested rainwater is used to meet the irrigation demand.
