Blueprint for a Green Campus (2002 Update)

Creating a Climate-Friendly Campus

The Vision

CU commits to meet the emissions reduction targets of the Kyoto Protocol, which would reduce CU’s greenhouse gas emissions by seven percent below 1990 levels by 2010.

Overview

This year has seen many successes on the energy front. The Campus Resource Conservation Committee (CRCC) was created, and is beginning to set campus wide goals and recommendations for reducing energy use on campus. The Generation Green campaign, a partnership between Facilities Management and the Environmental Center is the outreach aspect of CRCC, and has been focusing on 6 pilot buildings on campus to try to reduce energy use through education. In conjunction with this, Vice Chancellor of Administration Paul Tabolt has set a campus wide goal of reducing energy use per square foot (see attached news release). Additionally, UCSU became a founding member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Green Power Partnership, a new EPA voluntary partnership program. Partners in the program pledge to switch to using green power to provide a portion of their electricity needs, which UCSU has done through the student purchase of 2 million kWh of wind per year for the period 2000-2004.

The Environmental Center hosted a national conference on universities and climate change in January 2002. This highlighted a number of campuses which are leading the nation in energy conservation and in climate change commitments, including SUNY-Buffalo, Oberlin, and Tufts. Profiles of these efforts can be found on the Environmental Center Web site, by clicking on the Clean Energy Now sidebar and going to the conference section. This year also saw a new record in campus commitments to wind energy, as a consortium of Pennsylvania universities agreed to purchase a significant percentage of the output of the new Exelon-Community Energy wind farm. The University of Pennsylvania alone agreed to purchase the output of 5 turbines - approximately five times the amount of wind energy that CU Boulder is purchasing. In addition, one new development is the use of emissions trading and the purchase of off site emissions offsets to meet campus greenhouse gas targets. Lewis and Clark University just became the first college to meet the Kyoto goals, after students voted by and 83% to 17% margin to purchase offsets from Climate Trust (www.nwf.org/campusecology/smithrelease.cfm).

Progress Within the Past Year

Generation Green:

Facilities Management granted $15,000 to the Environmental Center to develop an education campaign on the benefits of reducing individual energy use, and tips on how to do so. Six buildings were chosen as pilot buildings: Business, Math, Environmental Design, Benson and two residence halls (Kittredge West and Sewell). The 6 pilot buildings were chosen in order to try different techniques at each, and to identify which methods are most effective in decreasing energy use.

The baseline goal for this project is $15,000 in electrical savings in the six buildings. This would be the equivalent of reducing electrical use in the 6 buildings by approximately 200,000 kWh of electricity over one year (November 1, 2001-October 31, 2002). Some of the techniques used for the six targeted buildings are:

Developing relationships with building proctors, custodial staff and ITS to deliver a consistent message.
Creating Electrical Use posters for each of the six buildings, (eventually for all buildings) that state what the cost for electricity was in the building for the 1999-2000 fiscal year, and the equivalent amount of air pollution. (This idea was developed by Walter Simpson at SUNY-Buffalo).
Creating large displays with fun facts about energy use and ways to reduce use on campus and at home.
Stickers for light switches and computer monitors that say “When Not in Use, Turn Off the Juice!”
General flyers to pass out during tabling, or in between classes, and at events on campus (includes some laminated flyers for bathroom stalls).
Focus groups for students, faculty and staff to see what measures they think will work best to reduce energy use in their specific buildings.

Some techniques to reach the entire campus include the following:

Ads featuring energy saving tips in the Registration Handbook and Recreation Center Guide
Ads in the Hop and Williams Village busses
Message display on the stadium scoreboard during football games
Distribution of the Environmental Center’s "Guide to Saving Energy"
Ads in campus-oriented papers

There will be a report after 6 months of the campaign to assess the impact on energy use.

Facilities Management:

The lighting upgrade that was approved last year for several campus buildings is now underway, with a completion date of August 2002.
Physical Plant is acquiring lighter, more efficient vehicles. Facilities Management purchased nine new “alternative” vehicles in 00/01 including 4 Metro micro vans (gas), 3 Mitsubishi ‘s (gas), and 2 Club Cars® (electric). One Club Car was subsequently sold to the Athletic Department due to F.M.’s move to RL-2. The department now has a total of 20 alternative vehicles.

Housing:

At the College Inn, boiler replacements have resulted in a conservative 50% energy savings estimate. Four large boilers were replaced with two smaller, more efficient ones, and the pumps were upgraded with energy-efficient models. Prior to replacement, the system design required the boilers to run all summer long, just to provide hot water. Now, the boilers are staged to operate only when there is demand. So in the summer, only one unit will be running to provide hot water.
In Family Housing, low-flow showerheads are installed as bathrooms are remodeled.
Approximately 150 Family Housing units have been retrofitted with fluorescent lighting to replace plug-in lamps. Additionally, over 5,000 compact fluorescent lamps have been installed throughout the three Family Housing areas. These measures have resulted in annual energy savings of approximately $55,000. Incandescent lights were also replaced by T-8 fluorescent lamps in the Farrand Hall lobby.
About 150 higher-efficiency refrigerators and stoves replaced older (on average 10-20 years old) appliances.
Housing has a contract with a vendor to remove the CFC’s from all refrigerators that require disposal. The refrigerators and the reclaimed CFC’sare then recycled.
At Marine Court, a domestic hot water loop will be added in July of 2002. This loop will provide hot water, and will allow for the steam line to be shut down four months out of the year. This is estimated to save approximately 20% in steam costs.
Athens Court (48 units) will be retrofitted with individual zone controls to allow for more efficient heating.

Plans for Upcoming Year

Generation Green:

Expand education campaign campus wide. This is contingent upon funding being allocated by Facilities Management and the Vice Chancellor for Administration.

Administration:

Continue to work with the Campus Resource Conservation Committee on creating guidelines for campus energy conservation and implementing energy saving projects.

Facilities Management:

Facilities is planning to hire a new energy conservation officer. However, this is contingent on available funds.
The 5-year plan for energy conservation includes installation of a dedicated high efficiency air-cooled chiller for process cooling in Ekeley Chemistry.
Conservation for computers by the Information Systems staff:
New Windows 2000 systems will have the monitor ‘sleep’ mode enabled before deployment. This means monitors appear to go blank after a certain time without activity. It can be easily ‘awakened’ by moving your mouse or hitting a key on the keyboard.
Old Windows NT systems do not have a ‘sleep’ mode. These systems will be replaced during the continuous renewal/replacement process.
Conservation for computers by hardware/software purchase and replacement:
New systems will include flat-panel monitors, which consume up to 70% less energy when in use than old CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors.
New systems will use Windows 2000 as an operating system.

Housing:

Housing is looking at the financial feasibility and impact to the central co-generation facility of an energy-saving performance contract. Through a performance contract, an outside company invests in efficiency improvements. The contractor is then repaid with a portion of the resulting savings. The project is managed by an energy services company (ESCO), which oversees the installation and commissioning of equipment, and verifies the energy savings.
Initial estimates indicate that Housing could reduce its electricity and steam consumption by 15% in the first year. The department is currently reviewing the cost-effectiveness of this potential $4-6 million dollar investment. Assuming the project is given the green light, Housing will issue an request for proposals to select an ESCO, with project implementation starting sometime in the summer.
Several administrators have raised the idea of having the new development at Williams Village powered by wind.

Obstacles

Although campus support for energy conservation measures seems to be at an all time high, lack of funding may be an issue.

Facilities Management’s progress has been impeded by a disconnect with State Fleet, in terms of the availability and choice of alternative vehicles when replacing older State vehicles as State Fleet is not bidding on any alternative vehicles over 1 ton. However, Physical Plant replaced 2 existing trucks with Low Emissions Vehicles (LEV) in the Fall of 01 and is in the process of replacing 3 existing trucks with LEV’s as well. The issue seems to be that State Fleet is concerned with its ability to re-sell alternative fuel vehicles.

Discussion Topics

How can we expand the amount of wind power and other sources of renewable power that the University uses?
What additional funding options are there for energy saving projects?
How can the four CU-campuses work together in creating energy conservation policies?
How can we ensure that the momentum towards reducing energy on campus will not be lost with turnover of students, staff, etc.? How can we make sure energy conservation is embedded in campus behavior and structure?
Should the entire campus implement guidelines such as those laid out by Facilities Management Information Systems ?
Are there additional opportunities to convert the campus vehicle fleet towards higher efficiency and lower emissions?

What's New?

ENVS 4100: Campus Carbon Neutral Class