UC Merced’s sustainable practices have earned the campus its 15th Platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. All for new construction and its first platinum LEED certification. That’s for building operations and maintenance.

UC Merced continues to be the only campus in the nation with LEED certification for all its facilities. The Classroom and Office Building 2, under construction. For it is also expected to achieve platinum status.

Platinum Campus

Half Dome’s platinum certificate is the first the campus has earned for a housing building. The dining expansion, the Social Science and Management Building, the Student Activities and Athletic Center and the Student Services Building all earned platinum status, too. The campus also has eight gold certificates and a silver certificate, and the Early Childhood Education Center is one of the first LEED gold modular buildings in the country.

Some of Half Dome’s green features:

Ninety-six percent of construction waste was diverted from landfills;
Forty-eight percent of the building materials are recycled content;
Ninety-eight percent of the wood in the building came from Forest Stewardship Council-certified forests, which are operated sustainably;

Furthermore, landscape water use is 60 percent more efficient than California Code. For it only requires the building is 40 percent more water efficient than California Code requires.

Finally, this is one of the first campus buildings equipped with an armature for a rooftop solar-energy system. All for which the solar panels will be installed later this year.

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