The Merced campus of the University of California is the first new research campus to be built in the United States in the 21st century, and it is the 10th campus in the UC system. The campus, located in the San Joaquin Valley of central California, opened in Fall 2005 and will be gradually expanded over 25 years. The new campus includes a classroom and office building, a library, a science and engineering building, a central plant, and student housing with a dining hall and commons.

The Central Plant has achieved LEED Gold certification, and LEED applications for other campus buildings will soon be submitted for certification. UC Merced is one of the first multiple-building campus projects to use the LEED rating system. The campus' certification goal is to achieve a minimum LEED Silver rating for all buildings. This goal was set by the campus' first Chancellor, Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, whose leadership and commitment to environmental stewardship was instrumental in the incorporation of green considerations in the early programming phase and the campus' Long Range Development Plan (LRDP). The Chancellor stated from the outset that the University should "set the standards for sustainable use of energy and other scarce resources and be a model of development in the great San Joaquin Valley."

In addition to the Chancellor's Sustainability Advisor Committee, the campus has established an Environmental Sustainability Program, which sets policies that involve many campus departments. The program has developed an Environmentally Preferable Purchasing policy that affects contracts for a variety of materials and services, including carpeting, furniture, washers and dryers, shuttles, and food purchases. The campus' green buildings and infrastructure also provide various teaching and research opportunities for environmental science, engineering, and other disciplines' curriculum. Sustainability is a research focus of the Sierra Nevada Research Institute, based at the new campus.

The campus planners gave special consideration to wetland conservation, endangered species preservation, and natural resource management. Large contiguous land areas have been designated for open space. Adjacent to the 910-acre parcel of land that will gradually be built out for the entire campus, 5,000 acres of land have been designated as a permanent land reserve through a conservation easement to the Nature Conservancy.

The layout of the campus site encourages pedestrian and bicycle traffic and other forms of alternative transportation, and the site lighting design minimizes light pollution and its impact on the neighboring community and species.

Energy efficiency is a major priority for UC Merced. All academic buildings on the campus are designed to achieve 35% to 50% energy savings beyond Title 24-2001 requirements. A chilled water, thermal energy storage tank is installed at the central plant. This shifts and reduces electricity use associated with chilled water production to off-peak periods. Reducing the persistent peak electricity demand reduces the burden on the regional energy infrastructure. NOx emissions are also reduced because of reduced boiler use and because of the selection of efficient boilers that reduce NOx emissions beyond the levels required by local code. In addition, because Merced has a very hot climate in the summer, sun shading devices are part of the buildings' design to reduce heat gain, thereby reducing the air conditioning needs and improving occupant comfort.

In addition to energy efficiency, the buildings incorporate many other types of green building strategies. For example, most buildings use 30-40% less water than typical buildings use. More than 90% of construction waste is being recycled rather than sent to landfills. And the buildings have been designed with indoor environmental quality in mind, through proper ventilation, the use of low-emitting materials, and the provision of daylighting and views.