Microsoft focuses on going green with Silicon Valley campus overhaul

Microsoft only just announced a major overhaul to its Redmond headquarters, and now it's revealing similar plans for its Silicon Valley campus as well. Microsoft says a modernization project for its Mountain View location recently broke ground and will represent its "smartest, greenest office yet" once finished.

Microsoft is aiming to make the 32-acre campus, which is home to 2,000 employees in the Bay Area, the first from a tech company to meet the Living Building Challenge by achieving net zero non-potable water certification. Says Microsoft:

Our campus will have an integrated water management system that operates under the guiding principle of putting non-potable water into service more than once. This includes harvesting rainwater and installing an onsite wastewater plant for treatment. This innovative approach helps us reduce potable water consumption by more than 5 percent, which is good for our business and the local community, and couldn't have been considered without the support and input of the City of Mountain View.

The campus overhaul will also include a 4-acre "living roof", harboring plant species intended to "promote species diversification in the area adjacent to the Stevens Creek habitat." A glass exterior on buildings will ensure natural lighting from anywhere on campus, solar panels will provide energy, and Microsoft says it is using sustainably sourced timber for construction. And like its Redmond campus renovation, Microsoft's Silicon Valley effort will include athletic fields and a new onsite fitness facility for employees.

The Silicon Valley campus modernization project is expected to be completed by December 2019.