Campus Environmental Awards (2007)

Amin Gheysar

Individual Achievement, Waste Reduction and Recycling

Amin has gone above and beyond the call of duty for implementing sustainability projects in Housing and Dining Services operations. Most significantly, in summer of 2006, Amin took initiative to keep old furniture out of the landfills. Instead of placing dozens of trash rolloffs at each hall, he was instrumental in instructing staff to separate wood and metal for recycling and furniture and carpet for reuse. As each hall's furniture was being replaced, this was a major undertaking.

Amin was also the force behind a significant increase in recycling at Williams Village. CU Recycling piloted a switch to Mixed Paper and simultaneously moved recycling and trash to the docks and bus stations in August of 2005. Paper recycling increased by 150% (in terms of weight) and commingled containers increased by 10% by weight and 23% by volume. By changing the recycling collections processes (from indoors to outdoors), Housing collections costs drastically decreased and proved that diversion did indeed increase.

Additionally, Amin has served on the Environmentally Responsible Purchasing (ERP) taskforce. This taskforce is reviewing top product opportunities for the campus to purchase. In working on this project, HDS has consistently been able to cost-effectively convert to ERP products (ie paint, cleaners, paper products) due to Amin's commitment and know-how.

Amin is an active partner in the campus recycling partnership between Housing, Facilities Management and UCSU. Amin has also helped with the implementation of the Housing ESCO project where major energy and water savings are now being realized. Amin has attended numerous sustainability events to increase his knowledge and commitment.

Carrie Gibadlo

Student Achievement, Environmentally-Responsible Products

Carrie recieved her undergraduate degree with honors from CU Boulder in December of 2006. As a student employee with Facilities Management since November of 2003, Carrie has made a tremendous impact on the types of chemical cleaners used campus-wide. She has reviewed dozens, if not hundreds, of product labels and MSDS for health and safety concerns, devised an independent review system for those cleaners that do not have GreenSeal certification, was instrumental in providing technical assistance to UCSU in the drafting of a Green Cleaners Purchasing Policy (which was unanimously adopted by the UCSU Legislative Council in April of 2006), and successfully completed an honors thesis in her final semester that focused on the hazards of many commonly used cleaners, disinfectants, and floor care products.

Facilities Management has been engaged in a process to review chemical cleaners for health and environmental concerns since 1999. Carrie took on the challenge in November of 2003, as a 1st semester sophomore. She worked hard to organize the work of previous students and quickly became very well-versed in the issue. After taking a year off to study abroad (and after sending many e-mails from South American countries about what CU Boulder could do to improve its use of "Green Cleaners"), Carrie returned to CU, begged for her job back and picked up right where she left off.

Her efforts are directly improving the health and safety of the majority of front line workers such as custodians, housekeepers, and food service staff. Her efforts also directly benefit the larger campus community in the form of improved Indoor Air Quality in our buildings. By buying greener products up front, the campus is reducing its impact on the environment in the form of improved water and air quality as well as the reduced use of petroleum based products.

Carrie's efforts to protect our employees from chemical hazards have been accomplished while meeting strict price and efficacy standards, ensuring that budgets and timelines are met. The department was so impressed with her efforts, she was hired upon graduation as a six-month temporary employee and is now working with FM Environmental Services staff to test and rate green floor strippers and waxes. These products tend to be the more toxic chemicals used and are equally tricky to replace.

Mike Hannigan

Green Faculty

Mike, a mechanical engineering professor, teaches a sustainable energy course to raise awareness of the impacts of humans on the environment and what we can do to lessen these impacts. In addition to allowing over 70 students to learn more about environmental problems of current systems and open their minds to solutions, Mike is working to make his home more environmentally-friendly. He is in the process of installing a geothermal heating system into his home, as well as solar power. He shares these plans with his students, which increases their interest in doing the same.

For the past year, Mike has been teaching a sustainable energy course to encourage students to explore alternative energy sources and reduce their energy consumption. His assignments involve students exploring their own impact on the environment to learn about ways in which they can make a difference. These assignments include finding the energy usage of individuals' transportation, food consumption, and electricity. Another assignment involves finding how much trash the students generate. In addition, for both sustainable energy classes he has taught, there is an ongoing project throughout the semester to introduce how energy systems work on a national scale and how establishing renewable energy helps economies. This type of teaching leads to informed and interested students who are more excited about making a difference.

Mike also has a strong history of going above and beyond the call of duty. He collaborates and shares resources with other faculty.

Amy Harris

Honorable Mention, Student Achievement

Amy is the Environmental Director of UCSU. She has gone far beyond her position’s job description, although she would probably not agree with that.

In face to face communications with campus leaders, Amy has asserted her perspective as a student and environmentalist. She advocates for student and campus leadership and environmental issues in print, in public (in front of the Boulder City Council, etc), and in meetings across the campus and community. She reaches out to non-traditional constituencies and wins their respect and cooperation. She doggedly pursues environmental justice issues and has helped push the new campus environmental justice program forward. She is diligent about coordinating and informing all related parties in ongoing environmental issue development. And she helped craft and win the support of UCSU leadership and legislative council members for UCSU’s adoption of the climate neutrality commitment.

Amy is a credit to the campus and the student body. She has set a performance standard for UCSU environmental directors that will be difficult if impossible to exceed.

Housing and Dining Services

Departmental Achievement, Energy and Water Conservation

The Department of Housing and Dining Services division of Facilities Services (HFS) is recognized for the outstanding planning, project management, implementation and measurement efforts that have gone into supporting the Energy Savings Contract (ESCO).

Significant achievements and upgrades to the resident halls as part of the ESCO include:

Lighting retrofits

Motion sensors installed in common areas

Water and irrigation upgrades that include fixture replacements

Significant upgrades to the steam system

Food cooler upgrade to use recycled water with no wastewater generated

To date, the upgrades made to the resident halls have resulted in an annual cost savings of $723,890.00. The staff of Housing Facilities Services has played a key role in supporting the ESCO project over the past three years. The project management and the construction teams have gone out of their way to accommodate contractors performing ESCO work. Maintenance crews assisted with the installation and upkeep of the fixtures which were retrofitted. Supporting staff have spent lengthy hours tracking usage and cost data to ensure the project was yielding the expected benefits. The project was completed on time and within budget because of the efforts of the HFS department. I feel the staff of HFS should be recognized and applauded for their efforts with the ESCO project as well as their ongoing efforts toward resource conservation in the residence halls.

Climate Leadership

Chancellor Peterson is very deserving of the climate leadership award by leading CU toward being among only a handful (so far) of universities committed to climate neutrality.

In doing so, Chancellor Peterson demonstrated that he is a fair-minded, visionary leader capable of evaluating new ideas, weighing competing interests, and changing established systems. Chancellor Peterson demonstrated creativity and the capacity to assimilate and synthesize complex material—and then apply his insights in the best interests of the campus and the broader community.

Chancellor Peterson was also quick to reach out to campus and community partners in an effort to leverage the climate neutrality issue into broader partnerships and cooperation with stakeholders on a variety of mutual concerns. In February, Chancellor Peterson committed $250,000 in funding for renewable energy and signed the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment. He is now a key advocate and spokesperson to his peers across the country for the Climate Commitment.

Chancellor Peterson was challenged by this issue and took a risk to step up to a new level of visionary leadership. He reaffirmed CU as among the vanguard of US colleges and universities and solidified CU as among the nation’s environmental leaders.

Sigma Pi Fraternity

Honorable Mention, Recycling

Sigma Pi approached the Environmental Center for help in implementing a recycling program in the fraternity. Several members pushed for recycling—and they stayed with it until the system was started. This included clearing numerous legal, tactical, and burocratic hurdles. Finally, in March, the challenges had all been addressed and the program was put in place. Sigma Pi’s leadership has helped open the doors now to five other Greek organizations—all of whom are now beginning the recycling program-development process. We hope that by next year, all 30 or so Greek houses will be initiating recycling programs—partially as a result of Sigma Pi’s example.

Moe Tabrizi

Sustainability Leadership

Interim Director, Facilities Planning, Design and Construction, Assistant Director, Facilities Engineering and Campus Energy Conservation Officer

CU-Boulder administration, and the Facilities Management department in particular, is fortunate to have Moe on campus. Since his hire in 2002, he has motivated students, faculty and staff to become involved in resource conservation efforts and blazed a trail in resource and energy conservation.

Vice Chancellor for Administration Paul Tabolt set a goal in May 2001 for the campus to achieve 5% per square foot reduction in energy consumption. While much has been accomplished since that time, statistics calculated from data recently available show that between 2005 and 2006, the campus achieved a remarkable 5.6% savings in electricity consumption, and 15% savings in potable water usage. These figures represent a per square foot calculation spread over 9.2 million square feet of Boulder campus facilities space. The total avoided costs to the Boulder campus over this one year period equates to $414,702. Under Moe’s leadership, consistent program cost avoidance for the last three years totals a remarkable $2.4 million dollars. As Moe has told campus constituents on many occasions, this represents dollars that can be put to better use supporting the mission of the university, rather than unneccesarily wasted.

Moe Tabrizi coordinates efforts with Facilities Management directors and staff along with UCSU Environmental Center staff and student volunteers to promote awareness of resource use throughout the campus. He provided justification for $1.4 million in energy and water conservation projects that were implemented in the last three years. Under his management, these projects have an estimated 5 to 7 year payback and brought about much success for the campus. Projects ranged from addressing utility steam trap leakage to installing classroom occupancy sensors; recommissioning buildings for better building system performance to installing closed loop cooling for scientific instrumentation. Moe has increased the savings and efficiencies of building mechanical systems by more fully using automated building system controls, adjusting thermostats and water temperatures, and so much more.

Moe’s willingness to share time, energy and knowledge for the benefit of the campus is clearly demonstrated. His work required leadership skills and demanded considerable research in resource conservation best practices, an extraordinary ability to challenge traditional thinking, a high degree of technical knowledge and skills in engineering and a very personable and persuasive personality in order to motivate people to turn off lights, computer monitors, autoclaves, fume hoods and other high energy consumption devices, when leaving offices, classrooms, conference rooms and research laboratories.

Moe has demonstrated his willingness to go the extra mile and has spent much time outside the typical workday to bring about successes. In this past year, Moe led the campus' efforts in focusing on sustainable design practices by leading project teams in green building designs and positioning himself, through extensive training to obtain a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. This certification is from the US Green Building Council for new buildings under construction. Moe Tabrizi is largely responsible for campus’ achievement of LEED gold certification for the new ATLAS building announced in December 2006. He is currently working for the same certification of the new Wolf Law Building and new School of Business building.

Moe has also studied to obtain the title of Certified Building Commissioning Professional (CBCP) from the Association of Energy Engineers along with other considerable continuing education in the field.

Moe holds a master's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Oklahoma and has brought a wealth of knowledge and extensive senior management level experience with Avaya, AT&T, and Lucent Technologies to the CU-Boulder campus. He constantly compares University practices against industry best practices in looking for areas of improvements for University business.

Paul Weissmann

Outstanding Alumni

Mr. Paul Weissmann has served the Colorado House of Representatives from District 12 (Boulder) since 2002. He currently is Chairman of the State, Veterans, & Military Affairs Committee and is a member of the House Appropriations Committee. Prior to that, he served in the State Senate from 1993 to 1996.

Representative Weissmann is a graduate of CU-Boulder (Political Science, '86). While at CU, he was an active member of student government having served as President of UCSU's Legislative Council. He was also an ardent supporter of the campus recycling program, having participated in the program's first promotional videotape for CU Recycling. He recently earned his Masters degree in Public Administration ('06) from the University of Colorado at Denver.

During his two terms in the Colorado House and his one term in the Colorado Senate, Representative Weissmann has been a champion of higher education as well as the environment. He has routinely earned the praises of independent analysts. The Colorado League of Conservation Voters scored him in the highest tier since 2003 with 100% ratings in 2003 and 2004.

In 2005 for instance, Representative Weissmann sponsored HB 1070, a water conservation measure making “bluegrass covenants” unenforceable. HB 1070 also required efficient watering on state lands and allowed for low interest loans for water efficiency projects. While HB 1070 passed both chambers, the bill was not signed into law.

In 2006 Bill 1411, Representative Weissmann was one of the sponsors of House Bill 1411, which puts a halt to the use of eminent domain for purposes of economic development.

In this legislative session, Representative Weissmann has co-sponsored

House Bill 1220, an environmentally preferable purchasing measure that, if passed, will greatly improve government agencies ability to procure "green" products while not jeopardizing price, quality or availability.

Representative Paul Weissmann embodies the spirit and tradition of CU students making positive difference with their degrees. The University of Colorado proudly recognizes Paul Weissmann with the Outstanding Alumni award.