New AMD campus in Texas earns Gold-level green building credentials

If you're keeping count on the green credentials of your suppliers, chalk up another point for the in-house green team at Advanced Micro Devices.

The company has built itself a compelling case study candidate for green headquarters sites: it has just achieved a Gold-level certification under the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System for its Lone Star campus in Austin, Texas. AMD claims this as the largest such building in Texas.

The 870,000-square-foot campus made use of the following strategies to earn its rating: - Choosing to use Austin Energy's GreenChoice program to power the entire facility - Investing in a 1.2-million-gallon capacity rainwater collection system, which provides water for cooling towers and irrigation - Relying on recycled construction materials for up to 20 percent of the building (20 percent of the materials were also locally source) - Using entirely native landscaping choices