Building Green Classrooms

Business schools are adapting many of the elements of green business to their own buildings and facilities

By Francesca Di Meglio

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Green business is a hot topic in business school classrooms. Now, it seems, the classroom where those classes are being held is likely to be a little bit greener, too.

Initiatives include a $60-million business school building at the University of Illinois that has just opened and that includes such green features as photovoltaic panels on the roof, triple-paned windows, and low-maintenance plantings. Other examples are compost piles for organic waste and dual-flush toilets at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business and plans for an energy-efficient upgrade to an historic structure at Thunderbird School of Global Management, just outside Phoenix.

Business schools say their students are demanding and driving the change on campus. Typical is Jake Berlin, a second-year student at New York University's Stern School of Business and vice-president of the Stern Campus Greening Initiative, which is part of the Social Enterprise Association. "Whatever I do must have some sort of impact beyond the money I bring home or what the company I work for [earns]," Berlin says.

Research Grant

In addition to helping implement enhanced recycling and reducing paper use on campus, Berlin and his group are aiming to build a 6,500-square-foot green roof for the top of the Kaufman Management Center, which will include an area where students can relax and a renewable energy system for the elevator machine room. The Class of 2008 donated $530,000 for the roof, and the university recently gave students a $23,000 grant to research the safety and security of a green roof. Stern also boasts water bottle refilling stations to encourage students to use refillable water bottles.

Recyling trash is one thing, but at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz., students are leading an initiative to recycle an entire building, the Thunderbird Veterans & Alumni Tower, which had housed faculty and administrative offices, a student lounge, and a café over the years. But it was closed in 2006 because of structural problems.

Built in 1939, the building originally served as an air control tower and officer's quarters during the operation of the Thunderbird Army Air Field, a World War II training facility. Last fall, a student-led task force took up the issue of the tower and kicked off a project to restore it—and make it green. "We're trying to keep things the same while updating it to be green," says Rebecca Mitchell, one of the students leading the effort to restore the tower. "It's the merging of two worlds."

Zinc Roofing

Students have raised $150,000 so far to create the plans, and they will need $2.5 million to complete the restoration. The building, whose plans are being designed by Drewett+Brenden Architecture, will include a desert landscape featuring indigenous plants to help conserve water, and solar panels and zinc—which is one of the most sustainable materials—on the roof. Old materials from the building are either getting recycled or will be reused in the new building. Mitchell and second-year-student Will Counts say they are aiming for platinum certification from the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, which is a certification program and nationally accepted benchmark for design, construction, and operation of green buildings.

Many universities are either seeking LEED certification or following its guidelines while constructing or renovating on-campus buildings. Harvard Business School has four LEED-certified projects on campus and three projects pending, says Meghan Duggan, assistant director of mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and sustainability (BusinessWeek.com, 9/28/2007) at HBS.