2024 USGBC-CA Green Building Awards
Honor in Health & Wellbeing
Google’s Gradient Canopy office in Mountain View, California is a flagship example of how Google approaches circular building design in a holistic way — with an emphasis on adaptable workspaces, reducing construction waste, and incorporating healthy, reclaimed, and responsibly sourced materials.
Gradient Canopy is LEED Platinum certified, and is one of the largest buildings to attain the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) Living Building Challenge (LBC) Materials Petal Certification. From the outset, Gradient Canopy was designed to reduce the demand for new materials as workforce needs evolve by prioritizing a flexible workspace environment featuring partition walls that can be easily adjusted.
Circularity goals were incorporated into each and every material decision throughout design and construction, and all permanently installed building products were reviewed for ingredient health; the first step in unlocking the circular economy is choosing materials that are safe for human and environmental systems. More than 30 reclaimed materials are incorporated throughout the building and approximately 99% of the new lumber used for the building (both temporary and permanently installed) was procured from responsibly managed forests certified by the FSC. Finally, the team diverted more than 90% of construction waste from disposal through sorting waste materials onsite, which helps recycle materials that might otherwise go to landfills. This amounted to nearly 23,000 metric tons (51,000 pounds) of diverted construction waste.
Gradient Canopy is one of Google's first ground-up developments, providing an opportunity for Google to take human-centered, circular design to a new scale, from concept through operations. Throughout design and construction, the Gradient Canopy project team vetted every material considered for permanent installation in the building and onsite against the LBC’s Red List, which represents worst-in- class chemicals that negatively impact human and environmental health. In total, the team reviewed the ingredients of more than 8,000 products, working closely with manufacturers to drive transparency in the building industry.
Because we can't change the chemistry of materials once they are in our buildings, prioritizing safer materials in the first place enables reuse in a circular future. The team also reduced waste from the start by leveraging prefabricated materials whenever possible to reduce scrap, and worked closely with manufacturers to minimize single use packaging wherever possible.
Additionally, the building features more than 30 products from salvaged sources, including reclaimed wood, bike racks, lockers, carpet, and tiles that would have otherwise gone to landfill.
Ultimately, these strategies work to advance Google's commitment to accelerate the circular economy in order to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.
Gradient Canopy was driven by audacious goals around innovation and sustainability in the built environment. From the start, it was critical that whatever solutions we developed provided benefits not just to us, but to the industry at large and our local community. By encouraging manufacturers to incorporate Declare labels and other third-party certifications in their product lines, the project team worked to expand the impact of their efforts by bringing healthier and more transparent options to the building product market.
Gradient Canopy is also home to the Google Visitor Experience, which is a new destination for everyone — neighbors, visitors, and Googlers.
With a variety of programs and spaces designed to foster connection, the public spaces aim to enrich and enhance a sense of community for everyone who visits. Snaking around the building and through the 18-acre site is a dedicated Green Loop with bicycle and pedestrian paths. Here everyone can benefit from the drought-tolerant native landscaping and public art – built with upcycled and healthy materials – that makes up the building’s exterior public spaces.
Google's Gradient Canopy office in Mountain View, CA expands the boundaries of sustainable design with flexible workspaces, healthy and reclaimed materials, and public spaces the whole community can enjoy. Gradient Canopy is LEED Platinum, and is one of the largest buildings to attain the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) Living Building Challenge (LBC) Materials Petal Certification.
From the outset, Gradient Canopy was designed to reduce the demand for new materials as workforce needs evolve by prioritizing a flexible workspace environment featuring partition walls that can be easily adjusted. Circularity goals were incorporated into each and every material decision throughout design and construction, and all permanently installed building products were reviewed for ingredient health.
The building features a dragonscale solar roof, equipped with solar panels that use the latest building integrated photovoltaic technology. The dragonscale solar is the result of years of product development at Google, collaboration with partners, and examining prototypes from manufacturers all over the world.
Coupled with the canopy’s pavilion like rooflines, the panels let us capture the power of the sun from multiple angles. The dragonscale solar roof is expected to generate approximately 40% of the building’s annual energy, per our predictive models.
Gradient Canopy uses municipal and on-site generated recycled water for toilets, irrigation, and cooling, which is expected to help reduce the average annual potable water usage by approximately 40%.
The building captures all of the rainwater from the roof and most of the stormwater from the site for treatment and reuse in cisterns that can hold up to 721,000 gallons.
On Gradient Canopy's four vegetated acres, we worked to reestablish ecosystem elements once prevalent in Silicon Valley, including oak woodlands, willow groves, chaparral, and grasslands.
The landscape is composed almost entirely of native species, including approximately 400 native trees and pollinator- friendly native plants. The goal is to revive the area’s ecological heritage and bolster the human experience, while creating thriving, functional landscapes for a biodiverse constellation of species.