The Mudd Chemistry Building, opened in 1976, is no more. A generous gift to Stanford from the Seeley Mudd Foundation, funded by the Seeley G. Mudd family, who owned oil fields in Southern California and supported academic projects in many California universities, allowed construction of the building.
As the decades passed, Mudd’s laboratories and infrastructure became unable to support modern science. Further, lack of usable space required instructors to run labs all day and into the evening, with some courses forced to limit instruction. Classroom and lab instruction moved from the fortress-like Mudd Building to the beautiful Sapp Center for Science Teaching and Learning when that building (formerly known as Old Chemistry) was rejuvenated in 2016. Any remaining research has since relocated to modern facilities at the neighboring Clark Center, Shriram Center for Bioengineering and Chemical Engineering, and ChEM-H buildings. The Department of Chemistry administrative offices are being housed in a temporary building as the Mudd site is cleared.
Ninety percent of the roughly 9,000 tons of demolition waste removed from the site has been sent to concrete and steel recyclers. Melting down and re-forming scrap steel requires 46% less energy than mining and processing iron ore.
Stanford has set a new benchmark for sustainability at live events through its first major concert hosted by Stanford Athletics and Stanford Live. Sustainable Stanford hosted a fireside chat with sustainability leadership from Live Nation and Warner Music Group in tandem with this milestone.
From reducing embodied carbon in construction to piloting organic landscape management, the annual Student Sustainability Symposium highlighted how student-led innovation is driving sustainability at Stanford.
Laura Segura Gonzalez, a second-year design student, is leading jean upcycling workshops to combat fast fashion waste, empowering students to transform old jeans into something new.
