In September 2007 then-Chancellor Loren Crabtree announced a campus green building policy. The policy, the first of its kind at a Tennessee college or university, required that buildings constructed on campus that cost more than $5 million and any major renovations of campus buildings conform to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building has been designed and built using strategies intended to improve performance in areas such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources. The system was developed by the US Green Building Council, a nonprofit organization, and is the standard for evaluating whether certain green building practices have been followed.
The announcement was made as Crabtree signed two major environmental documents that committed UT Knoxville to becoming “climate neutral”—the Talloires Declaration and the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. Ayres Hall was the first on-campus building to receive LEED certification (silver level) following its renovation.