Students drove Duke to go green

While green building and an overall environmental ethos is now commonplace on university campuses everywhere – long-term owners have an obvious interest in high-performance buildings – it wasn't that long ago when it took student and faculty activism to raise awareness with administrators.

I interviewed the Duke University director of project management for American Builders Quarterly magazine to learn about the remarkable work being done on their Durham, North Carolina campus. They are constructing LEED Platinum structures and devising clever water-retention systems, along with programs that engage students themselves in green living best practices. My interviewee is a builder, but he acknowledges the role that a guest lecturer, renowned sustainability architect William McDonough, had in brining about a greener era at the school. The undergraduates who heard him drove Duke to initiating a comprehensive approach to sustainable practices and programs, way back in 2003.

This photo is of Duke's Research Drive Garage, one of the few standalone parking facilities to achieve a LEED certification.

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