Media tours of what could be one of North America's greenest buildings on May 29

WHAT: Media preview of what could be certified as one of the greenest buildings in North America. The newly built Living Learning Center at Washington University's Tyson Research Center is designed to be a zero net energy and zero wastewater building — both requirements to earn "living building" recognition.

The Living Learning Center will capture rainwater and purify it for drinking and will be powered so efficiently by solar energy that the building often will pump energy back into the electric grid to be purchased by the local energy company.

An opening ceremony will be held after the media tour featuring WUSTL administrators and faculty associated with Environmental Studies in Arts & Sciences and the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES) initiative.

Among the uses for the building are office and classroom facilities for research and teaching. It also will serve as the base of operations for a summer high-school outreach program beginning June 1 co-sponsored by the Missouri Botanical Garden's Shaw Nature Reserve and funded by the National Science Foundation.

WHO: Jonathan M. Chase, Ph.D., director of the Tyson Research Center and associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, will explain the features of the building that could make the Living Learning Center a "living building."

Participating in the opening ceremony will be Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton; Ralph S. Quatrano, Ph.D., the Spencer T. Olin Professor and interim dean of Arts & Sciences; and Chase.

WHERE: The Tyson Research Center is located off I-44 at the Beaumont-Antire Road exit. If heading west on I-44, take the Beaumont-Antire Road exit; after the stop sign, make the first right onto Tyson Valley Road and enter Tyson at the gate. Attendants at the gate will direct you.

Tyson Research Center, located 20 miles southwest of the Danforth Campus, is 2,000 acres of woods, prairie, ponds and savannas, where dozens of WUSTL faculty and students predominantly do environmental research.

WHEN: Media tours: 2:30-4 p.m. Friday, May 29, 2009; Opening ceremony at 4 p.m.

BACKGROUND: The Living Learning Center is a 2,900-square-foot facility built to meet the Living Building Challenge of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council (CRGBC).

The building is expected to be the first in the Midwest certified as a "living building" by the CRGBC. The certification will not be final until the building has been operational for one year and can prove its net-zero energy and water use, Chase said.

For more information the day of, call Sue Killenberg McGinn at 314-603-6008.