In recent days, MIT University has received tremendous accolades for what is being hailed as, "the greenest MBA building in the world!" Well, staff and students at Presido Graduate World College, in San Francisco would beg to differ.
Although the folks at MIT have done a nice job with their building, Presidio's campus (pictured here) goes one step further with absolutely zero emissions from their campus. Situated just south of the Golden Gate Bridge, the school's campus is actually quite easy to miss.
But, maintaining a net-zero facility is a full-time job for Martin Homyak, the school's facility manager. Students are constantly begging for office space, study rooms and audio/video infrastructure. Martin has to fend of these requests because these amenities would mean that the school would have to build or rent a space that had wiring, water and a covered roof; all of which means havoc for our environment.
The Presidio campus accomplishes zero ghg emissions through some pretty innovative measures:
1. No lighting and no heating means no energy-related operating expenses and zero CO2 emissions from electricity generation.
2. No actual building materials were used in the construction of the virtual building so, emissions through manufacturing never happened.
3. The building has no actual on-the-ground footprint so, no valuable habitat was destroyed to make space for the building.
Stay tuned for more news and information!