With thoughtful planning, design, and construction, the Nevin Welcome Center was built to minimize its environmental impact and was awarded the GOLD level of certification by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. Around the Welcome Center and throughout our grounds, we employ green infrastructure—a practice of integrating natural systems into the built environment.
More about our green building and infrastructure
New signs cropped up around Cornell Botanic Gardens in summer 2018—markers for sites on Cornell University’s Sustainable Landscapes Trail.
This garden demonstrates how a changing climate may affect the plants we grow.
Designed to replace conventional lawn with native low-growing grasses, which only require mowing once or twice per year.
Throughout Cornell Botanic Gardens, we demonstrate sustainable landscape practices “from the ground up”—from amending your soil, to producing mulch, to choosing plants and conserving rainwater.
Much of our efforts are devoted to minimizing the use of chemical pesticides by practicing integrated pest management.
We make every effort to conserve energy, water, and other resources.
As a botanic garden, conserving plant diversity is key to our mission.
We exchange ideas with Cornell faculty, staff, and students to test and develop innovative sustainable practices and share them with our visitors and community.