Knight Management Center at Stanford Graduate School of Business Achieves LEED Platinum® Rating

STANFORD, Calif., March 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Green Building Council has certified the Knight Management Center at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) LEED Platinum® – the highest achievable rating.  LEED®, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, certification provides third-party verification that a building or community has been designed and built to meet key areas of environmental and human health, including energy efficiency and water savings.

Scoring a total of 60 points, Stanford's GSB qualifies to be the highest-scoring LEED Platinum® campus of its scale.  The Knight Management Center – a sprawling 360,000 square-foot eight-building complex designed to house the school's innovative MBA curriculum – demonstrates Stanford's commitment to environmental leadership.

"Innovation and integration is at the heart of all of Arup's work.  We started by evaluating the needs and wants of the campus stakeholders, the site constraints and desired building forms. Our team collaborated to create a sustainable building design that reduced energy consumption and achieved a high quality indoor environment," said John Williams, Associate, Arup.  "In particular, maximizing the use of natural lighting, natural ventilation and passive cooling systems along the North and East orientations helped achieve the energy goals of the project."

Sustainable features of the Knight Management Center include natural day lighting to reduce need for electrical lighting and photovoltaic panels to harvest solar power to help supply energy demand.  Recycled grey water replaces potable water for sewage conveyance, while harvested rainwater is used to meet the irrigation demand.

"As we train new generations of managerial leaders, we hope that Stanford's commitment to sustainability will inspire our students to promote sustainable business practices in the future," said Garth Saloner, dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Other partners in this project included:

• Stanford Graduate School of Business
• Stanford Department of Project Management
• Boora Architects
• PWP Landscape Architecture
• Turner Construction Company
• Therma Mechanical

About Arup

Arup is the creative force at the heart of many of the world's most prominent projects in the built environment industry.  From 92 offices in 37 countries, Arup's more than 10,000 designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists deliver innovative projects across the world.

The firm was founded in 1946 with an enduring set of values and has a unique trust ownership that fosters a distinctive culture, intellectual independence and collaborative approach.  Opening its first North American office 27 years ago, Arup in the Americas now employs 1,000.  The people at Arup are driven to find a better way to deliver better solutions for their clients.  For more information, visit http://www.arup.com.

SOURCE Arup