Among the dark marble countertops and heavy wood-paneled doors of the new Ross School of Business building’s bathrooms, the electric green handles on the toilets seem a little out of place.

Coated to resist germs, the handle can be pushed either up or down, creating a high-intensity or low-intensity flush. The dual-flush toilets, estimated to reduce water consumption by as much as 67 percent, are just one example of the eco-friendly features included throughout the building.

The new Tappan Street landmark has been officially open for nearly a month, but the buzz surrounding it has barely dimmed. Its modern, rust-colored exterior sits in sharp contrast to nearby buildings like the collegial, ivy-coated buildings in the Law Quad. And any LSA student must be a little envious of the three-story atrium and 7,500-square-foot fitness center.

But while the bold design and exceptional facilities have garnered the most attention, the most noteworthy aspect of the building might be in its environmentally-conscious features.

Featuring huge skylights above the main atrium, the 270,000-square-foot building takes advantage of natural light while using high-efficiency electricity and daylight-dimming systems. Some of its roof is covered with soil and plants to insulate the building, filter rainfall and improve air quality by trapping impurities.

Receptacles throughout the building are dedicated to recycling cans and paper, and the building also has non-toxic carpets and waterless urinals. The walls are covered with low-VOC (volatile organic compound) paint, which reduces the emission of air pollutants and greenhouse gases.

And from the start, 94 percent of demolition debris and 50 percent of debris from construction was recycled.

Though the paperwork hasn’t yet been submitted, administrators will apply for LEED (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design) certification and expect to achieve the Silver level. By no means a national stand out — silver is only second out of four levels of certification — the Ross building’s biggest achievement might be to set a new standard for University buildings.

The Dana Building, home of the School of Natural Resources and the Environment, is the only campus building to date that has received a LEED certification, attaining the Gold level.

This latest addition to campus suggests that environmentally conscious construction may now be the norm for University projects. Students and faculty have begun to demand greener standards for campus development — and in the case of the Business School, have succeeded.

“This was a watershed moment in changing how we design buildings at the University of Michigan,” said University alum Brian Swett, who was one of several graduate students in the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise who pushed for the LEED certification of the Business School.

THE MIDDLE OF THE PACK

Prof. Tom Lyon, Director of the Erb Institute, said it’s especially important for business schools to achieve LEED certification because so many of the employers who recruit MBA and BBA students are doing so themselves.

“I think the fact that we got it LEED certified makes a very important statement because it says you’re really on the cutting edge of what businesses should be doing in the future,” said Graham Mercer, assistant dean of the Ross school.

But the national benchmark for green construction has gotten so high that even with the steps it’s taken, the Business School remains far from the environmental cutting edge.

The new Stanford Business School campus, set to open in 2010, is seeking the highest possible Platinum level LEED certification, as will the Glendale, Arizona-based Thunderbird School of Global Management.

MIT’s forthcoming Sloan School of Management will be solar-ready, allowing for the installation of solar panels at a later date, and New York University’s Stern School of Business provides bottle filling stations to encourage students to reuse their water bottles.

“We should not be tooting our own horns, and we’re not taking a leadership role at all,” Swett said, adding that the University of Michigan has a “terrible record of building green.”

Save for the Dana Building, which features solar panels and composting toilets, the University of Michigan has lagged in environmentally-conscious construction.