While many Canadian college and university campuses are beautiful because of their well-crafted historic buildings, perhaps new construction can start a new tradition of environmentally sustainable, green construction; with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold designation of its Claudette MacKay-Lassonde Pavilion, the University of Western Ontario firmly asserts its place within this trend.

Rendering of the Claudette MacKay-Lassonde Pavilion. (Credit: University of Western Ontario)

The LEED Green Building program is a third-party certification system of rating that promotes environmentally sustainable building and development practices. For the Claudette MacKay-Lassonde Pavilion—which cost $20-million dollars and is 45,000 square-feet in size—to attain this rating, it had to employ several sustainable, green features and construction technologies such as a cistern and greywater system, geothermal heating and cooling, carpooler parking areas, local and recycled materials and a specially-designed plant-based roof.

Example of living material used to cover the roof . . . → Read More: It ain’t easy being green: UWO “Green Building” designated LEED Gold