Silicon Valley Tech giants are planning to construct buildings that will be closer to nature. Clearly, all this talk of green campuses started with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s forthcoming “spaceship” campus.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Tim Cook said in an annual shareholder meeting that the company’s new campus site will definitely lead to a good deal of land reclamation. Apple plans to demolish all of the buildings constructed on the ground.
Currently, the land is 80 percent covered with concrete; after the project that number is expected to come down to 20 percent. The planned facility is expected to have a circular frame with fitted solar panels and will be energy self-sufficient. The iPhone maker also plans to plant about 6,000 trees on its 176-acre property, including a 108-tree forested courtyard.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) are also planning their massive new campuses much in line with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s green initiative.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s new campus is being designed by the architects at NBBJ and will restore eight acres of wetlands at a 42-acre Mountain View property. There are rumors that the campus might have a water recycling system. To lower the effect of heating and cooling costs, building will have landscaped green roofs.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s new facility will have full-grown trees on top of many of its buildings. Also, one segment will completely be covered in greenery, giving the look of a wooded hillside rather than a warehouse-like building. At Facebook’s new West Campus, which previously belonged to Tyco Electronics, cars will be parked in the ground floor with 425,000-square-foot edifice.
As per the documents filed with the planning commission, the company is planning to construct a tunnel under the Bayfront Expressway to shuttle employees from one wing to the other. Unlike Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Facebook will have a traditional mix of grasses and small shrubs in favor of full-grown trees.
The outdoor parking lots also called “heat islands” by environmentalists have been completely removed from the new green campuses. None of the projects have yet broken ground and all this information has been collected from the documents filed with city authorities and interviews with people familiar with the plans.
After all this greeny talks, one thing should also be kept in mind that going green isn’t cheap. The relocation costs of full-grown specimens, that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) plans, could be as much as $60,000 to $100,000 per tree. This is just for a tree, so one can vaguely imagine how much the entire campus could cost.
