In January of 2012, the Biosciences Research Collaborative (BRC) was awarded LEED Gold Standard by the U.S. Green Building Council. The BRC is an innovative space where scientists and educators from both Rice University and Texas Medical Center can work together to perform medicinal research and promote overall health. Green features include:

• Innovative air-quality monitoring system that enables significant energy savings in cooling and heating the laboratories.
• A vegetative green roof that reduces stormwater runoff and energy consumption.
• Transport of condensate water produced by the air-handling units and then piped to the South Utility Plant for use in the cooling towers.
• An energy recovery process that exchanges the energy in air that is normally lost in exhaust and uses it to precondition the incoming air from outside.
• Tunable heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems that can be altered to fit best suit the operational needs of the occupants while at the same time wring out the maximum possible amount of energy savings.
• Recycled sources as 38 percent of the materials used to build the BRC.
• Facilities to recycle 86 percent of the waste generated in the facility’s construction.