A step toward carbon neutrality

The Leinweber Building represents an important step toward U-M’s carbon-neutrality goals, which include wholly eliminating direct emissions by 2040.

The Leinweber Building is the first U-M building to be all-electric, and the first large-scale university building to not rely on natural gas for heating. It is entirely heated and partially cooled by the new Hayward Street Geothermal Facility, which was build alongside the Leinweber Building and completed in 2024. Some cooling for the Leinweber Building also comes from the North Campus Chiller Plant, which is an all-electric facility that produces chilled water to cool many of the buildings in the academic core on U-M’s North Campus. The Hayward Street Geothermal Facility and the Leinweber Building represent an important step as the university makes continued progress toward its university-wide carbon neutrality goals.

The new geothermal facility will serve as an initial project as the university continues to evaluate additional geo-exchange heating and cooling opportunities on campus. It is expected that the Hayward Street Geothermal Facility could be interconnected with future geo-exchange systems that might be built on North Campus.