CLEAN ENERGY NOW!

Spring 2002 Energy Summit Speakers

(Sorry, current contact info for these speakers is not available from the Environmental Center.) 

Sarah Brush Kristen Jule Melissa Payne Steve Smith Kristin Casper Patrick Keegan Karl Rábago Joel Swisher Sarah Creighton Duncan Marsh Kassie Rorhbach Mark Udall Faith Gemmill Peter Morton Claudine Schneider Randy Udall Susan Innis David Orr Walter Simpson Sarah Zisa

 

Walter Simpson

Walter Simpson is the Energy Officer at SUNY Buffalo and the Director of the UB Green Office. Walter has lead a campus energy conservation program responsible for savings of over $60 million (now $9 million annually). He was also the project manager for a demand side management project at SUNY Buffalo that was recognized as "Energy Project of the Year" by the Association of Energy Engineers Career accomplishments recognized in 2000 when admitted into the Association of Energy Engineers "Energy Managers Hall of Fame."

Presentation
View Walter Simpson's presentation for the Spring 2002 Energy Summit.

Interview

Can you describe the campus greening initiatives at the University of Buffalo? At the State University of New York at Buffalo (UB), we have actively been involved in green campus activities and programming for over twenty years. In the early 1980's, when I got involved, the focus was exclusively on energy conservation. Then, in the late 1980s, we reinvigorated recycling with the encouragement and help of student activists. In 1990 our campus Environmental Task Force was formed, beginning a new phase of campus greening. The Task Force developed numerous campus environmental policies which address many issues from recycling to heating and air conditioning temperatures, green purchasing, and even the number of phone books which should be distributed on campus! Over the years we have bolstered our program by organizing our Building Conservation Contacts (BCC) Network with 170 members connecting our environmental program to nearly all offices and departments on campus; shifting half of UB's paper consumption to 100% post-consumer recycled process chlorine free paper; organizing our Think Green Campaign with a variety of Think Green educational resources, green partnerships between campus facilities, computing, libraries, residence life, food service and other units; establishing our UB Green website, http://wings.buffalo.edu/ubgreen; and founding the UB Green Office within University Facilities to champion green programs with full time staff and student assistants. What have you done to conserve energy at UB? Our energy conservation program has a number of components including energy policies, energy awareness within Facilities and throughout the campus community, and energy measures and projects (lighting, heating, cooling, motors, drives, energy management, building shell, etc.). Many of these measures and projects are in-house and operational. But much has also been accomplished through larger, comprehensive projects. We completed a $17 million demand side management project in 1997, which won recognition as the Association of Energy Engineers “Energy Project of the Year.” We are currently developing another large self-financing energy conservation project. We are also starting to apply the principles of green design to new construction. Our estimated saving from energy conservation are in excess of $60 million cumulatively and $9 million annually. How important are individual choices, compared to infrastructure investment by the university?

It is not either/or; you need both. Infrastructure energy improvements are essential but will not occur unless there is top-level campus administrative support for the energy program and strong leadership from the facilities unit. Thus, the individual choices which are most important are those made by campus leadership and the facilities unit. The significance of facilities should not be underestimated. Facilities runs the campus physical plant itself and is in the best position to reduce its environmental impact. Of course, a successful energy conservation program needs everyone's involvement and cooperation; hence the individual choices of all members of the academic community are important.

One caveat on capital improvement or infrastructure projects. New equipment is not enough. To achieve energy savings, it must be operated conscientiously by an organization committed to energy conservation.

Why should university administrators care about energy efficiency? First, its the right thing to do. Energy use and waste contribute mightily to the campus’ environmental impact. Conservation and efficiency mean less strip mines, oil fields and spills, smog, acid rain, and global warming. Also, less foreign energy dependency and the awful liabilities that implies. Secondly, and perhaps of greater importance to campus administration, is the fact that conservation and efficiency generally mean large dollar savings, freeing up funds for other programs on campus. Moreover, conservation projects can be set up so that they pay for themselves with no upfront money required. Campuses would be crazy not to do these projects just from a financial point of view. Why should students care about energy efficiency? Can universities help lead the way towards the use of renewable energy?

Students should care about energy efficiency because it is an essential ingredient for creating a society that is sustainable and can persist without environmental degradation. Today's students are going to have to live in this world twenty, thirty, fifty or more years from now. Unless we, as a society, reduce our addiction to fossil fuels, that future world will be polluted, subject to climate shifts, and vulnerable to energy wars which conceivably could go nuclear. This is not much of a world to look forward to. The U.S. is 4% of the world's population and we use 25-30% of the world's annual energy production. That is not sustainable environmentally or politically. If campus administrators don't get it, maybe it is up to students to see the problem and force the solutions. The good news is that the solutions are out there; they are obvious.

Renewable energy technologies and strategies are an essential part of the solution. Adding solar onto existing campus buildings can be difficult-to-impossible—so that puts a premium on green building design (building right in the first place) which utilizes daylighting, passive solar heating and building integrated photovoltaics. But even in the case of these renewable strategies, the first step is efficiency, then efficiency, and more efficiency. Buildings that derive a substantial portion of their energy from renewables will be buildings which have low energy needs in the first place. Students need to insist on solar designs to push the envelope. Europe is light years ahead of us. Its time we looked beyond the fossil fuel haze.