A symbol of the soap company’s principles, this facility in Chicago’s historic Pullman neighborhood on the far south side stands as just one of two LEED Platinum manufacturing centers in the country. Powered in part by a row of wind turbines and solar installations over the parking lot, the building also contains the world’s largest urban greenhouse on its roof, expected to produce a million pounds of pesticide-free produce such as bok choy and arugula annually. Formerly the site of a steel mill, this brownfield site, reborn as a symbol of 21st century manufacturing, suggests factories don’t always need to be dirty. [Image by AJ LaTrace]

Designed by William McDonough + Partners, a firm known for its focus on sustainability, this motorcycle plant in an arid region of northeast India called Rajasthan shifts green manufacturing into top gear. The nearly 675,000-square-foot plant challenges expectations of what manufacturing should look like. A rooftop hydroponic garden supplies crops for the employee canteen, and the interior—a relatively open space supported with exterior trusses and lined with biowalls—puts workers on the assembly line in close contact with plants and natural light. More green than gearhead, the airy design and a raft of green features, such as a rooftop solar power and LED lighting, make the “Garden Factory” a more healthy place to work on multiple levels. [Image by William McDonough + Partners]

Sure, wastewater filtration won’t draw the same attention as, say, an angular modern home or striking commercial development. But as the first project in the Unites States to ever to achieve both LEED Platinum Status and meet the rigorous Living Building Challenge standards, this plant and classroom may do a lot more than filter dirty water. Developed by BNIM and opened in 2009, the building replicates natural processes, purifying the institute’s water supply via a series of plants, microbes and algae that suck out unwanted minerals and chemicals. While wastewater may not seem like the sexiest case study for sustainability, the plant, which utilizes on-site geothermal and solar power, offers an impressive example of a closed-loop system. And, it’s not alone; the Brightwater Treatment Center near Seattle has such beautiful grounds surrounding the water-treatment facilities, that it often serves as a wedding venues. [Image via BNIM]

There’s a certain poetry in sustainable, solar-powered solar panel production. Sputnik, a Swiss company that creates photovoltaic inverters, a key part of solar installations, opened a facility a few years ago that, for the most part, run on energy provided by a photovoltaic systems installed on the building’s roof. The horizontally-aligned structure, which looks like a old Dieter Rams appliance sketch, was built quickly utilizing prefab wooden, concrete and steel pieces. And other, similarly sustainable structures are in the works (in addition to Tesla): Alevo plans to transform an old cigarette manufacturing plant in Concord, North Carolina, into a battery-making facility for wind turbines. [Image via Hansueli Schärer]

While this demo project and working factory for a passive house manufacturing company can’t claim to be passive itself, it does provide a showroom for the beauty that’s possible when building with British Columbia timber. Constructed in a little more than a week, the facility, with a striking facade of sustainably harvested slats of Douglas Fir, demonstrates what’s possible with cross-laminated timber construction, a technique been utilized around the globe to build taller and taller wooden buildings. If any group should lead the way in green building, it should probably be the construction industry. [Photo via Hemsworth Architecture]

While many of the factories and manufacturing plants on this list require a massive amount of power to run, research labs actually run up surprisingly high electric bills, due to the need for more precisely controlled climates indoors. This award-winning biolab and startup center by local firm Eskew+Dumez+Ripple offers a better home to high-tech companies by looking backwards, architecturally speaking. The covered roof, courtyard and slatted design were all lifted from vernacular architecture, helping cool the building during New Orleans’s sweltering summers and reducing the power usage by 67 percent compared to comparable structures. [Image by Will Crocker]