KU takes the "LEED" in sustainability

After a tornado destroyed the small Kansas town of Greensburg, University of Kansas architecture students committed to design and construct a sustainable arts center for the devastated city.

The building, which features wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, geothermal climate control, recycled building materials and other ecologically minded features, became the first LEED Platinum certified building designed and constructed by students. Since then, architecture students in the Studio 804 design/build program have completed a LEED Platinum house and achieved Passive House Certification for another home.

These successes reflect a dedicated focus on sustainability at KU. Highlights include:

•  A Center for Sustainability, which works to position the university as a leader in sustainable practices and education by providing research and other learning opportunities for students and faculty.

•  More than 230 sustainability-related courses offered in 25 academic areas

•  KU’s dining services were cited by a trade magazine as “a leader when it comes to health, sustainability and local ingredients in its foodservice programs.” About two-thirds of the fresh produce it uses comes from its rooftop garden. “Going trayless” in dining halls reduced food waste by 38 percent and beverage waste by 54 percent and saved 230,000 gallons of water in the first year.

•  More than 640 tons of cardboard, office paper, newspaper, and beverage containers recycled annually by the campus recycling service.

•  15 elliptical machines in student recreation center convert kinetic power into electricity to help power the building

•  KU’s bus system and Facilities Operations mowers use biodiesel and the campus police force uses ethanol fuel in cruisers

•  The student recreation center’s rain garden sustains 2,000 plants in 19 species with runoff rainwater.

•  Ongoing energy audits of campus buildings and practices have saved more than $7 million through conservation measures.

•  A new $18.8 million Measurement, Materials and Sustainable Environment Center is being constructed to LEED Silver standards. It will provide space for engineering and other research groups to cooperate on developing projects in biofuels, remote sensing technologies, commercial avionics, and materials fracture and fatigue.

•  KU is pioneering studies of polar ice sheets and global climate change through its National Science Foundation-funded Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, which is developing new radar, aircraft and computer models to study changes in polar ice and help predict its impact on the world.