SAS invests big in green tech for Cary campus

If you've ever been for a visit to software developer SAS in North Carolina, you already know that they have one of the most unique corporate campuses of any high-tech company with daycare, multiple fitness centers and a dry-cleaning facility all right on site. (They've also got their own television studio, come to think of it.) Now, the campus is about to be painted with a green brush that will include a new LEED-compliant building and a home-grown solar farm.

SAS broke ground this week on a new building, currently called Building C, that will be built strictly according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. Among some of the more interesting elements of the building include the following:

- A system that will reduce water use in the 690-office, two-auditorium, one-cafeteria structure by at least 30 percent through rainwater collection technology - Technology that will help reduce energy consumption by 20 percent compared with similar structures. Specifically, SAS will use heat-recovery systems, free cooling (where air is pulled in from outside in order to cool during certain months), solar thermal water heating and regenerative drive elevators (check out this link for more information), and building materials selected to aid with insulation. - The selection of recycled and regionally sourced materials wherever possible.

SAS is building a one-megawatt solar farm on the property that will be used to power the new building, and it also planning to bring solar farm and hot water systems for its two existing buildings online by December 2008.