Download Energy Sustainability and the Green Campus

Doing Well by Doing Good
Recipe for an Effective Campus
Energy Program
Walter Simpson, CEM, LEED AP
Former University Energy Officer, University at Buffalo
AASHE Senior Fellow
Author, Cool Campus! A How-To Guide for College and University Climate Action Planning
Editor and Co-Author, The Green Campus: Meeting the Challenge of Environmental Sustainability
Take Home Message
 Campus
energy conservation has
the power…
Take Home Message
 Campus
energy conservation has
the power…
To
save money
Take Home Message
 Campus
energy conservation has
the power…
To
save money
To pay for itself
Take Home Message
 Campus
energy conservation has
the power…
To
save money
To pay for itself
To protect the environment
Take Home Message
 Campus
energy conservation has
the power…
To
save money
To pay for itself
To protect the environment
To educate for sustainability
Recipe for Success
 What
are the right ingredients?
 How can we build a successful
program?
Ingredients for a Successful Campus
Energy Conservation Program
Obtain top level support
 Prioritize facilities
 Provide program staffing and leadership
 Create energy awareness
 Develop strong energy policies
 Nurture creative staff

More Ingredients . . .
Find and focus on the best opportunities
 Utilize creative financing strategies
 Involve students
 Focus on climate change
 Avoid new construction or only build the
most energy efficient new buildings
 Document savings

Ingredient
Obtain Top Level Support
Models of Campus Energy and
Environmental Leadership
Top down
 Bottom up
 Mixture

Presidents leading the American
College & University
Presidents Climate Commitment
Why Top Level Support?
 Allows
program to achieve full
potential
 With top level support:
Facilities
staff know they have support
All units and departments cooperate
The campus community is encouraged to
participate
Campus Leadership Can
Demonstrate Support by…
Providing human and financial resources
 Giving visible support for campus energy
policies
 Insisting that other top administrative
officers support the conservation effort
 Backing facilities as it “pushes the
envelope”
 Setting a personal example

Ingredient
Prioritize Facilities
Why Facilities?
Facilities managers and staff:
Run campus energy systems
 Know what needs to be done
 Can do the most
 Must be on board or no one else will be

How Facilities Can Help
Facilities energy committee
 Commitment by facilities director
 Include conservation commitment in:

 Strategic
planning
 Mission & vision statement
 Staff evaluations

Green campus office within facilities
University at Buffalo Facilities
Mission & Vision Statement

“We are committed to environmental
excellence in all facets of our management
and operations and to providing statewide
and national green
campus leadership.”
U Buffalo Staff Evaluations

All staff must “demonstrate a commitment
to energy conservation and environmental
stewardship and, whenever possible,
promote these values to coworkers and to
the wider campus community.”
Ingredient
Provide
program staffing and
leadership
Creating an Energy Officer Position
Full or part-time focus exclusively on
campus energy conservation
 Not a sustainability coordinator
 Skill set:

 Technical
competence
 Communication – public speaking, writing
 Program development
 Community organizing

Reports to chief facilities officer
Ingredient
Create Energy Awareness
Energy Awareness Program Tips
 Change
campus culture
 Be realistic
 Active vs. passive
 Different strokes for different folks
 Seize moral high ground
 Temperature control is critical
 Develop a multi-faceted campaign
Getting Attention
Being cute, being provocative
You have the power…
to save energy
Use Messages that Work
Ingredient
Develop Strong Energy
Policies
Energy Policies
 Energy
policies …
Formalize
goals
Give authority
Help hold the line
 Need
academic buy-in
 Timing is critical
 Don’t forget to implement!
Types of Energy Policies
 Heating
and cooling temps
 Fan run times
 Reheats
 New construction
 Energy purchasing
 Space heaters
 Dorm refrigerators
Governor’s Executive Orders

George Pataki – E.O. 111 (2001)
 Reduce
energy consumption in buildings
 Build more efficient new green buildings
 Buy green power

David Paterson – E.O. 4 (2008)
 Green
purchasing
 Create sustainability programs
 Greenhouse gas emissions reduction
 100% post consumer content recycled
paper
Ingredient
Nurture Creative Staff
Making the Most of Your Staff

Identify staff who:
 Think
outside the box
 Want to act
 Know how

Empower them!
 Give
permission
 Encourage
 Provide resources
 Recognize and thank
Story of Herb Lydell
Sees energy waste everywhere
 Very knowledgeable, creative, and
unorthodox
 “Invents” heat recovery system that uses
building chilled water coils and the campus
chilled water loop to transfer heat from
building to building

The Incredible Results
Free heat for campus buildings
 $80,000/yr savings
 Total savings: over $1 million to date!
 Zero cost to implement

Ingredient
Find and Focus on the Best
Opportunities
Finding Savings Opportunities
Facilities staff know where they are
 Conduct a systematic campus energy
conservation audit
 Target your energy pigs!

U Buffalo’s Energy Pigs
 Buildings
Constant
with:
volume terminal
reheat fan systems
No offense to pigs intended
Electric heating
Laboratory ventilation systems
Cooke-Hochstetter






230 fume hoods
300,000 cfm
Electric heat
Summer humidity control
$2 million/yr in energy costs
Solutions
 Fume
At least we didn’t build 20 of them!
hood decommissioning
 Heat recovery (heat wheels, run-around loops, heat
pumps, Lydell Cycle)
 Gas conversion
 Run cool in summer to minimize reheat
Ingredient
Utilize Creative Financing
Strategies
Creative Funding Possibilities
Utility or state incentives
 Revolving funds
 Energy performance contracts with energy
service companies (ESCOs)
 Alumni donations
 Foundations

Performance Contracting
 UB
performance contracting
experience:
1994-1997
-- $17 million project
2003-2007 -- $11 million project
2007 - 2009 -- $10 million project
Ingredient
Involve Students
Why Involve Students?
To get their help
 To enhance their educational experience
 To catch their fire!

Reaching Students
Classroom lectures
 Campus-wide events
 Student assistants
 Activist campaigns
 Internships and research projects

Student Projects
campus as learning lab






Environmental audits
Campus dumpster dives
Vending machine study
Passive cooling project
Biomass cogeneration
Solar hot water
Ingredient
Focus on Climate Change
Climate Change Basics
Global warming is real and it's happening
 It’s caused by human activity
 The consequences are serious
 It is not too late to do something about it…

Campus climate action steps
Conduct GHG emissions inventory
 Make commitment to reduce emissions
 Develop campus climate action plan
 Implement plan and achieve reductions
 Educate about
climate change

UB’s GHG inventory

142,900 MTe/yr
 53%
purchased
electricity
 25% commuting
and fleet vehicles
 20% purchased natural gas
It’s about energy and transportation!
Interesting Findings
Overall emissions = 25,000 cars, trucks,
SUVs, etc.
 Commuting = 79,000,000 miles

 Equal
to 3,000 times around the
earth at the equator
American College & University
President’s Climate Commitment
Achieve climate neutrality at earliest
possible date
 Incorporate climate change and
sustainability in curriculum and research
 670 signatories
 Co-organized by AASHE, ecoAmerica, and
Second Nature

Defining climate neutrality
Climate neutrality is defined as having no
net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
 To be achieved by:

 Minimizing
GHG emissions as much as
possible
 Using carbon offsets to mitigate the remaining
emissions.
How to do it?

Job #1 is energy conservation
Then renewables
 Followed by
offsets (after offset

market matures)
Shrink it!
Ingredient
Avoid New Construction or
Only Build the Most Energy
Efficient New Buildings
Hidden Cost of New Construction
Even a very energy efficient new building
will add to your energy costs and carbon
footprint
 Avoid or minimize new construction by

 More
efficient space utilization
 Adaptive reuse of existing buildings
Green Design For Maximum
Energy Efficiency
Avoid LEED check-list approach
 Aim for LEED Gold and Platinum only
 Maximize LEED energy points
 Fear “value” engineering
 Anticipate and address inevitable building
budget crisis

Getting Really Green!
Oberlin College Environmental Studies Center
Ingredient
Document Savings
Why Document?
 You
might surprise yourself!
 Boost Facilities morale
 Great public relations
 Can create administrative support
What’s Possible?

University at Buffalo experience
 Program
began in the late 1970s
 Sustained for 30 years
 Annual savings now $10 million
 Cumulative savings $100+ million
Take Home Message
 Campus
energy conservation has
the power…
To
save money
To pay for itself
To protect the environment
To educate for sustainability
Thank You!
Walter Simpson
[email protected]