Green Building

Illinois is committed to sustainable building design.  The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Facility Standards and Design Guidelines were recently updated to require all new construction and major renovations over $5 million be certified at a minimum Gold level building under the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating system.  All projects less than $5 million are asked to design to Gold standards, but are not required to be certified. 


The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign completed construction on the Business Instructional Facility (BIF) in 2008, which received Platinum level LEED certification.  The facility is expected to consume 75% less energy than the average older campus buildings.  The University Student Dining and Residence Hall project is expected to achieve a LEED Silver rating, and several other projects are in the planning stages that will pursue LEED accreditation.

Illinois is home to seven LEED buildings:
BIF is LEED Platinum
Nugent Hall is LEED Silver
Student Dining and Residential Programs Building (IKE) is LEED Silver
Blue Waters Petascale facility is LEED Gold
The Yeh Center (addition to Newmark) is seeking LEED Gold
The new Electrical & computer Engineering building will be seeking LEED Platinum certification and is striving for net-zero energy design that will enable the building to supply all of its own energy (the largest in the nation).
The Lincoln Hall renovation will be seeking LEED Silver