Doing Well by Doing Good Recipe for an Effective Campus Energy Program

1
Doing Well by Doing GoodRecipe 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
2
Take Home Message

• Campus energy conservation has the power

3
Take Home Message

• Campus energy conservation has the power
• To save money

4
Take Home Message

• Campus energy conservation has the power
• To save money
• To pay for itself

5
Take Home Message

• Campus energy conservation has the power
• To save money
• To pay for itself
• To protect the environment

6
Take Home Message

• Campus energy conservation has the power
• To save money
• To pay for itself
• To protect the environment
• To educate for sustainability

7
Recipe for Success

• What are the right ingredients?
• How can we build a successful program?

8
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

9
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

10
Ingredient

• Obtain Top Level Support

11
Models of Campus Energy and Environmental
Leadership

• Top down
• Bottom up
• Mixture

Presidents leading the American College
University Presidents Climate Commitment
12
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

13
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

14
Ingredient

• Prioritize Facilities

15
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

16
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

17
University at Buffalo FacilitiesMission 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.

18
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.

19
Ingredient

• Provide program staffing and leadership

20
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

21
Ingredient

• Create Energy Awareness

22
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

23
(No Transcript)
24
(No Transcript)
25
Getting AttentionBeing cute, being provocative
You have the power to save energy
26
(No Transcript)
27
(No Transcript)
28
Use Messages that Work
29
Ingredient

• Develop Strong Energy Policies

30
Energy Policies

• Energy policies
• Formalize goals
• Give authority
• Help hold the line
• Need academic buy-in
• Timing is critical
• Dont forget to implement!

31
Types of Energy Policies

• Heating and cooling temps
• Fan run times
• Reheats
• New construction
• Energy purchasing
• Space heaters
• Dorm refrigerators

32
Governors 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

33
Ingredient

• Nurture Creative Staff

34
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

35
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

36
(No Transcript)
37
The Incredible Results

• Free heat for campus buildings
• 80,000/yr savings
• Total savings over 1 million to date!
• Zero cost to implement

38
Ingredient

• Find and Focus on the Best Opportunities

39
Finding Savings Opportunities

• Facilities staff know where they are
• Conduct a systematic campus energy conservation
  audit
• Target your energy pigs!

40
U Buffalos Energy Pigs

• Buildings with
• Constant volume terminal
• reheat fan systems
• Electric heating
• Laboratory ventilation systems

No offense to pigs intended
41
Cooke-Hochstetter

• 230 fume hoods
• 300,000 cfm
• Electric heat
• Summer humidity control
• 2 million/yr in energy costs
• Solutions
• Fume hood decommissioning
• Heat recovery (heat wheels, run-around loops,
  heat pumps, Lydell Cycle)
• Gas conversion
• Run cool in summer to minimize reheat

At least we didnt build 20 of them!
42
Ingredient

• Utilize Creative Financing Strategies

43
Creative Funding Possibilities

• Utility or state incentives
• Revolving funds
• Energy performance contracts with energy service
  companies (ESCOs)
• Alumni donations
• Foundations

44
Performance Contracting

• UB performance contracting experience
• 1994-1997 -- 17 million project
• 2003-2007 -- 11 million project
• 2007 - 2009 -- 10 million project

45
(No Transcript)
46
Ingredient

• Involve Students

47
Why Involve Students?

• To get their help
• To enhance their educational experience
• To catch their fire!

48
Reaching Students

• Classroom lectures
• Campus-wide events
• Student assistants
• Activist campaigns
• Internships and research projects

49
Student Projects campus as learning lab

• Environmental audits
• Campus dumpster dives
• Vending machine study
• Passive cooling project
• Biomass cogeneration
• Solar hot water

50
Ingredient

• Focus on Climate Change

51
Climate Change Basics

• Global warming is real and it's happening
• Its caused by human activity
• The consequences are serious
• It is not too late to do something about it

52
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

53
UBs GHG inventory

• 142,900 MTe/yr
• 53 purchased
• electricity
• 25 commuting
• and fleet vehicles
• 20 purchased natural gas

Its about energy and transportation!
54
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

55
American College University Presidents
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

56
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.

57
How to do it?

• Job 1 is energy conservation
• Then renewables
• Followed by
• offsets (after offset
• market matures)

Shrink it!
58
Ingredient

• Avoid New Construction or Only Build the Most
  Energy Efficient New Buildings

59
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

60
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

61
Getting Really Green!
Oberlin College Environmental Studies Center
62
Ingredient

• Document Savings

63
Why Document?

• You might surprise yourself!
• Boost Facilities morale
• Great public relations
• Can create administrative support

64
(No Transcript)
65
Whats Possible?

• University at Buffalo experience
• Program began in the late 1970s
• Sustained for 30 years
• Annual savings now 10 million
• Cumulative savings 100 million

66
Take Home Message

• Campus energy conservation has the power
• To save money
• To pay for itself
• To protect the environment
• To educate for sustainability

67

Thank You!
Walter Simpson enconser_at_buffalo.edu