New Book (free): Accelerating Campus Climate Initiatives: Breaking Through Barriers

• If you have an interest in this book, you may also have an interest in the SCUP regional one-day event happening April 7, in Houston, TX - "Sustaining Higher Education in an Age of Challenge."

This book, Accelerating Campus Climate Initiatives: Breaking Through Barriers, is the product of more than a year's research on a dozen campuses by the Rocky Mountain Institute. Download it here.

It is organized into five chapters:

• Climate Action Planning,
• Buildings & Utilities,
• Renewable Energy,
• Transportation, and
• Carbon Offsets & Associated Opportunities.

Subchapters each represent a "barrier" within the context of that chapter. So, for example, within Buildings & Utilities, there are subsections like "lack of capital," "Insufficient in-house expertise," and "Whole-system approach seems impossible." The book "explores a wide range of challenges committed campus planners are facing, including the real and perceived barriers. Real-world examples from campuses around the country help readers determine and drive projects based on a different way of thinking about buildings, utilities, perceptions, institutional structures, and all the other components comprising energy systems and campuses."

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA - "Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats"
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA - "Smart Planning in an Era of Uncertainty"
• April 7, Houston, TX - "Sustaining Higher Education in an Age of Challenge"

Cash-Strapped Colleges Turn to Businesses for Energy-Saving Deals

This excellent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education by Scott Carlson, is blurbed: "As funds for facilities dry up, colleges sign energy-efficiency contracts that don't always work out." It'll be available for a few days at this link. (Note: There are several related sessions at SCUP-45; search for "energy".)

With dwindling state resources, tight budgets, and a renewed focus on energy efficiency, more colleges are turning to energy-services companies, commonly known as ESCO's, for facilities projects. At the same time, companies that have not traditionally worked as ESCO's are joining that market, raising risks that colleges will be stuck with deals that overpromise and under-deliver.

The business models of ESCO's have varied over the years, but today most agreements between energy-services companies and colleges follow a fairly straightforward plan: The college and the company do a detailed accounting of the college's current energy use and decide on a set of projects that will yield energy savings. The college gets a loan to cover the cost of the work to be done by the ESCO and pays back the loan through the energy savings. If the savings are not as high as the company estimated, often it will pay the difference . . . Energy-performance contracting is a complicated business, in which technical experience and a familiarity with the clients can help avoid problems later on.

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA

'Green' Concurrent Sessions at SCUP-45

We cut and pasted these, very quickly, from the full listing of concurrent sessions which you can find here. (That list, unlike this one, will be kept current over the next 4 months. There are enough sessions directly on topic with green building, energy conservation, and general sustainability themes to make up a couple of distinct tracks in Minneapolis. Higher education's premier planning conference in 2010 offers a lot for sustainability folks. Register by April 30 to ensure you receive the early registration discount.

A New Vision for the Core Campus at Clemson University
Presenter(s): Joe Atkins, Associate Principal, VMDO Architects; David Oakland, Principal, VMDO Architects; Gerald Vander Mey, Director, University Planning & Design, Clemson University

Clemson has set out to fundamentally redevelop its campus core. The presentation focuses on this ambitious transformation. It explores innovative mixed-use planning approaches; assesses bold, but careful, proposals for increased density; reflects campus design principles for social and intellectual interaction, respect for campus culture and history, and commitment to sustainability; and describes how housing, academic, dining, and student life programs can be combined into a dynamic center of campus life for a public school poised to break into the top-twenty.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Discuss the challenges and opportunities encountered when a campus redevelopment is charged with embodying and expressing the values and identity of the campus as a whole.
2. Discover how planning concepts that place the “landscape first” can establish an effective campus order and provide a range of outdoor spaces to promote interaction on a variety of scales.
3. Assess unique problems in large, multi-phased projects relative to funding and implementation.
4. Identify issues related to mixed-use development—including strategic overlaps of traditionally separate campus operations (e.g. housing, academic, dining, and student life).

TAGS: Public Research, Sustainability, Facility Type_Student Center, Master Planning

A Sustainable Campus? - Yeah, Right! More Hype and No Substance ?
Presenter(s): Bart Becker, Associate Vice President, Facilities & Operations, University of Alberta; Leonard Rodrigues, Senior Principal, Stantec Architecture Ltd

There are many planning studies and campus plans that claim sustainability as their underpinning. However, the meaning of "sustainable" can be quite widely interpreted. This session outlines a plan for a campus of 15,000 FTE seeking to be holistically green--in planning, infrastructure, buildings, and landscape. By setting the metrics of sustainable development in tangible economic, social, and technical terms, this plan shows what a truly sustainable campus might look like.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Analyze the constituent pieces of an integrated sustainable campus infrastructure, facilities, and operations.
2. Identify metrics that are objectively measurable and not "Greenwashing."
3. Address a "closed loop" approach to the site for energy, water, waste, and how they interact.
4. Implement strategies for long-term sustainable development and operations - leveraging development opportunities to ensure concept execution.

TAGS: Large Public Research, Sustainability, International, integrated planning, Master Planning

Access Mis-Management: "We've Met the Enemy and He is Us"
Presenter(s): Barbara Chance, President & Chief Executive Officer, CHANCE Management Advisors, Inc; Robert Furniss, Senior Operations Consultant, CHANCE Management Advisors, Inc; Alexandria Roe, Director, Planning & Program Development, Architectural & Engineering Services, University of Connecticut

After struggling with pedestrian/vehicular conflicts, ruined landscape, and a desire to remove vehicles from the campus core, the University of Connecticut decided that it needed an access management plan. Learn about the university's decision process leading to its request for an access management consulting study, the particulars of data collection and plan preparation, the reaction from campus departments and vendors, the issues involved in plan implementation and buy-in, and the benefits realized.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Recognize how a comprehensive access management plan can increase pedestrian safety, reduce fuel consumption and vehicle emissions, preserve landscape, and beautify a campus.
2. Review strategies for improving the management of campus service and delivery access needs.
3. Assess how access management strategies can be applied to the participants own campus.
4. Identify the institutional obstacles facing the implementation of a campus access management plan as well as the strategies to overcome them.

TAGS: Large Public Research, Transportation

Benchmarking Benefits for Energy/Water Use—54 College Campuses in Minnesota
Presenter(s): Rick Carter, Senior Vice President, LHB, Inc; Sally Grans-Korsh, Systems Director, Facilities Planning & Programming, Minnesota State Colleges & Universities System Office; Tom McDougall, President, The Weidt Group

Energy Benchmarking at 54 campuses was done throughout Minnesota by campus staff. Benchmark data resulted in clear, concise reports for overall energy/water use. Learn how to gather data, determine Energy Use Intensity (EUI) in kBtu/sf/year and water usage in gals/occupant/day. Data is critical to determine best use of capital expenditures to maximize energy efficiency. Examples from both high and low performers will be shared, with suggestions on how to improve campus energy consumption.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Explore the basics about energy use intensity, how energy can be converted to a common unit (kBtu), normalized by area (square foot) and time (year), and how to calculate this information for a building and campus.
2. Determine how to efficiently collect information from accounting and facility staff.
3. Determine how to calculate the best benchmark, compare the data, and develop a case study for use in making recommendations going forward.
4. Apply the data collected, and communicate performance benchmarks to facility managers and users to influence behaviors and reduce consumption.

TAGS: Higher Education System, Sustainability, Performance Measures

Carbon, Energy, and Water: Sustainable Planning Strategies for Indiana University
Presenter(s): William Brown, Director, Sustainability, Indiana University; Mary Jukuri, Principal, JJR, LLC; Russell Perry, Managing Partner, Smith Group Inc.

Indiana University is re-aligning its physical resources for a sustainable future. Explore the integrated master plan for the Bloomington campus through the lens of energy and water resources. Learn how the university can accommodate a projected 25 percent facility growth while reducing its overall environmental footprint. We will discuss achieving this goal using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies for an innovative Stormwater and Hydrology Plan and an unprecedented campus-wide Energy and Water Use Plan.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Explore ways to implement campus sustainable design initiatives from six vantage points: energy, land use, resource use, transportation, built environment, and food.
2. Evaluate the cumulative effect of multiple planning strategies including watershed analysis, riparian restoration, habitat corridors and increased tree cover on managing campus stormwater run-off quality and quantity.
3. Using the IU Energy and Water Use Plan, estimate greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption for campus facilities, predict future energy and water use for new development, and apply techniques to reduce energy use, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions for a campus.
4. Discuss sustainable design leadership and its integration into the university's administrative and academic mission and functions.

TAGS: Sustainability, Large Public Research, Performance Measures, Master Planning, Operational Planning

Connecting Alumni to Campus Through Innovative Planning and Design
Presenter(s): Thomas Hotaling, Principal, Ann Beha Architects; Kathleen Kelleher, Interim Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations, University of Vermont; Linda Seavey, Director, Campus Planning Services, University of Vermont

The University of Vermont has embarked on an exciting initiative to restore, renovate, and expand a local landmark as an important new point of campus connection for visiting alumni. This creative design offers a home base for alumni activities, opportunities for revenue-generation, outreach to the surrounding city, and administrative space for development and alumni relations. This session will address the project's complex planning and design process, financial modeling, strategies for phased construction, neighborhood concerns, endowment opportunities, and sustainable strategies for historic structures.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of adaptive re-use versus new construction.
2. Discover innovative solutions for unique program requirements (including events spaces, public spaces for alumni use, and revenue-generating programs.)
3. Explore sustainable design strategies for historic buildings.
4. Review the business planning steps to be considered when creating revenue-generating spaces in academic settings, including the ever-present issue of campus parking.

TAGS: Large Public Research, Renovation, Town/Gown, Facility Design, Facility Type_Alumni Center

Does Net Zero Design LEED to Zero Cost?
Presenter(s): Chris Buntine, Sustainability Engineer, GreenWorks Studio; Brent Miller, Principal, Harley Ellis Devereaux; David Umstot, Vice Chancellor, Facilities Management, San Diego Community College District

Limited resources are not a new reality for higher education, but how we design for these constraints can be. A focus on first cost, rather than on life-cycle cost, has defined a performance path with ever-increasing operational costs. This session illustrates how San Diego Community College District and other institutions are utilizing net zero approaches to design away operating costs, control capital costs, and push LEED certification to the highest levels.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Identify building candidates at the master plan level to optimize net zero design options.
2. Define performance goals that drive design toward net zero.
3. Educate building occupants, facilities maintenance, and administration to facilitate the shift to a net zero paradigm.
4. Incorporate post-occupancy evaluations, measurement, verification, and recommissioning to ensure a successful outcome.

TAGS: Community College, Sustainability, Operational Planning, Facility Design

Future Ready: How to Integrate Strategic Direction and Campus Planning
Presenter(s): Alexander Carroll, Master Planner & Senior Associate, Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture & Engineering P.C.; Charles Craig, Senior Master Planner & Principal, Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture & Engineering P.C.; Lisa Fears, Vice President, Planning, Plant & Technology, Franklin College of Indiana

Franklin College's campus planning case study will present a process model for linking 21st-century strategic objectives to an institutionally and contextually appropriate and sustainable plan. Franklin, a small, residential, liberal arts institution, has a long history of active engagement and innovation. The college's recent campus plan sustains the campus’ unique character and heritage by means of a disciplined study and interdisciplinary process.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Using discipline and a process model, link the strategic planning process and initiatives to campus planning.
2. Compare communications procedures for ensuring success in the planning process.
3. Incorporate institutional history, mission, and goals in the campus design process.
4. Explore strategies and proposals for establishing interdisciplinary opportunities and linkages for curricular and co-curricular programs.

TAGS: Small Private Liberal Arts, Sustainability, Preservation, Master Planning, Strategic Planning

HEASC Fellows Project Report
Presenter(s): Peter Bardaglio, Senior Fellow, Second Nature, Inc; John Ruffo, Partner, WRNS Studio, LLP; Nancy Tierney, Associate Dean, Facilities & Planning, University of Arizona, College of Medicine

SCUP finds itself at the nexus of organizations that are focused on advancing sustainability in higher education. SCUP's three HEASC Sustainability Fellows are defining the society’s future role in campus sustainability, while focusing on three specific projects that are at the core of our sustainability vision: Nurturing young sustainability planners, developing integrated resources and assessing community engagement models. We will report on lessons learned, so far, from these three projects. We will also provide an overview of related initiatives that involve SCUP members, from the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) to the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS).

Learning Outcomes:

1. Recognize the potential of campus-community sustainability engagement models for your own institution.
2. Analyze the value to SCUPers in using STARS to leverage a better understanding of the power of integrated planning.
3. Review the ways you can identify, engage, and possibly mentor emerging campus sustainability leaders.
4. Demonstrate the variety of campus sustainability roles and positions with regard to their place in the institutional organization and how they can be more effective.

Help! My Building Doesn't Have a Cavity: Re-cladding Solutions for Energy Inefficient Existing Buildings
Presenter(s): Katherine Bozoian, President, Bozoian Group Architects; Julia Oberheu Tritschler, Associate, Bozoian Group Architects; Keith Quick, Larson Engineering, Inc.

Colleges and universities have a large variety of building stock. Some were built at a time when there was little regard for energy consumption or knowledge of best practices for moisture control. Schools must provide desirable and healthy housing and academic facilities to attract students. When resources are tight and conservation is paramount, re-cladding can preserve the value of existing structures while overhauling their performance and aesthetics and extending their lives to the end of the century.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Identify performance problems in masonry buildings that were built without a cavity.
2. Analyze benefits and pitfalls in designing re-cladding.
3. Discuss benefits and pitfalls of materials available for re-cladding.
4. Discover potential construction approaches for re-cladding.

TAGS: Sustainability, Student Retention, Renovation, Facility Design

How Do Smart Meters Make a University More Intelligent
Presenter(s): Henry Jones, Chief Technology Officer, SmartSynch Inc.; James Morrison, Director, Strategic Planning & Campus Sustainability & Senior Vice Chancellor, Planning & Operation, University of Mississippi; Darren Raybourn, Director, Business Development, SmartSynch Inc.; Larry Sparks, Vice Chancellor for Administration & Finance, University of Mississippi

The University of Mississippi's (UM) enhanced energy management plan and recent deployment of smart grid technology has enabled the university to monitor energy consumption real-time, track building power performance over time, and archive data for future analysis and planning. Additionally, UM is utilizing social networking tools to engage students, staff, and faculty in a collective effort to reduce the campus' power consumption levels. Obtain the details on the overall energy management project, including the technology selection and implementation process, early success stories, challenges, and long-term goals and expectations.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Discuss the efforts and resources required to integrate smart meter technology into a campus energy management program.
2. Distinguish what energy usage data and benchmarks are important to analyze to support financial resource allocation decisions.
3. Improve your institution's ability to identify opportunities for increased operational efficiencies using real-time energy usage data.
4. Examine how incentive programs and social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and RSS feed to engage a university community in lower its carbon footprint.

TAGS: Large Public Research, Sustainability, Information technology, Change

Integrating Academic, Facilities and Community Needs at BCTC's New Campus
Presenter(s): Augusta Julian, President/CEO, Bluegrass Community & Technical College; Krisan Osterby, Senior Campus Planner, Perkins+Will; Laurence Page, Senior Academic Planner, Perkins+Will

The Bluegrass Community and Technical College Master Plan consolidated programs from three existing campuses, while redeveloping the oldest continuing psychiatric hospital campus in America. Located in a distressed neighborhood, the project integrated academics, operations, sustainability, historic preservation, and community needs. Focusing on 48 acres adjacent to downtown Lexington, the planning team collaborated with KCTCS, Finance Cabinet, faculty, staff, city, and historical society representatives to create a mixed use campus vision for 10,000 students that links institutional and community priorities.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Discover the correlation between academics, facilities and community plans.
2. Create a process to align academic goals with facilities.
3. Integrate community heritage, community needs, and the campus vision.
4. Develop a protocol for phasing a consolidated campus.

TAGS: Community College, Historic Preservation, Master Planning, Town/Gown, Sustainability

Lifecycle Cost Analysis of Campus Solar and LEED/Sustainable Projects
Presenter(s): Nils Blomquist, Preconstruction Manager, DPR Construction, Inc; Nick Ertmer, Project Manager, DPR Construction, Inc; Mike Miller, Director of Facilities Planning and Management, Butte College

This session will provide real-world techniques and examples of feasibility and lifecycle cost analysis based on Butte College's 2-Megawatt solar power farm (the largest college campus solar project in California) and new 77,000 sq. ft. Instructional Arts project, which is pending LEED Gold certification and won the California Community College Chancellor's Office Energy Efficiency Partnership Program Best Practice Award in HVAC. Attendees will also see firsthand the process implemented for sustainability analysis during preconstruction.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Discuss possible approaches to funding campus solar power projects.
2. Analyze the feasibility of campus solar power projects.
3. Evaluate return on investment (ROI) for LEED/sustainable projects based on a lifecycle cost approach.
4. Quantify the impact of campus power generation projects on the sustainability of campus construction projects.

Location Location Location: An Unlikely Approach to Sustainable Growth

Presenter(s): Léo Lejeune, Senior Associate, Architect, Stantec Architecture Ltd.; Stuart MacLean, Director, Facilities, Grant MacEwan College

Grant MacEwan University believes that it can best meet the needs of future generations by consolidating all of its existing four campuses onto its one downtown site. This new single sustainable campus project seeks to bring all of MacEwan's services back into one location, while growing its student population, improving the student experience, and tripling its existing square footage in the process. We will reveal an innovative strategy for sustainable growth in a very dense urban context.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Explore how sustainability is changing the way students want to learn, and impacting technology, libraries, teaching spaces, and social spaces.
2. Create a thorough business case analysis when approaching governments for funding.
3. Design a campus plan that not only exceeds sustainability goals, but also aids in transforming the surrounding urban environment.
4. Identify the benefits of selling off existing campuses.

TAGS: International, Public Comprehensive, Master Planning

Master Planning for a Sustainable Marine Science Campus at UCSC
Presenter(s): Damon Adlao, Project Manager, Assistant Planner, University of California-Santa Cruz; Craig Curtis, Partner, Miller/Hull Partnership; J. Douglas Macy, Landscape Architect & Principal, Walker Macy

The Marine Science Campus at UC Santa Cruz is engaged in critically important research activity for the understanding and protection of coastal and marine habitat across the globe, especially adjacent to the site in Monterey Bay. Learn about the recent campus area plan that will guide specific development for the 98-acre site, inspired by its natural setting and aiming for a careful integration of the coastal ecosystem with new energy-efficient academic facilities and programs and alternative transportation.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Investigate pragmatic ways to plan new development on sensitive sites, maximizing energy and transportation efficiency, and reducing traditional infrastructure.
2. Explore how to become more self-sufficient through use of a combination of site amenities, including solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, and micro-hydro generation.
3. Observe the plan's consistent alignment of new buildings for optimal solar orientation and progressive standards for alternative modes of transportation.
4. Appraise an innovative response to storm water treatment, based on subsurface flows on a sensitive site.

TAGS: Large Public Research, Sustainability, Master Planning, Open Space

Multidisciplinary Learning, Sustainable Environments and Architectural Design = Positive Educational Experience
Presenter(s): Joseph Coriaty, Partner, Frederick Fisher & Partners Architects; Peter Schröder, Professor, Computer Science and Applied & Computational Mathematics, California Institute of Technology; John Zinner, Principal, Zinner Consultants

Perspectives from education, sustainability, and design will demonstrate ways in which multidisciplinary learning and domestically-formatted learning environments may deinstitutionalize the educational process and promote sharing amongst faculty members and their associated research groups. Incorporating sustainable classroom environments and pursuing an open and interactive design process for new classroom buildings promotes a creative, operationally-efficient, and more positive learning/teaching experience. The merit of these methods as implemented on recent projects will be presented and analyzed.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Demonstrate how multi-disciplinary learning and deinstitutionalized learning environments improve the educational process.
2. Illustrate how specific sustainable features such as abundant daylight, view corridors, creature comforts, and acoustics can improve the classroom experience.
3. Evaluate the promotion of educational transparency through the collaborative educational experience from the perspective of curriculum, environment and facility.
4. Identify the current needs of multi-use learning environments in order to control operational flexibility and efficiency.

TAGS: Private Research, Facility Type_Science, Learning Space Design, Research Space Design

Planning for Athletics and Recreation—Making Every Yard Count
Presenter(s): David Dymecki, Principal, Sasaki Associates; William Massey, Principal, Sasaki Associates, Inc; Carol Moyles, Senior Associate/Landscape Architect, Sasaki Associates

Athletic and recreation buildings are some of the largest, most energy-intensive buildings on a campus. Factor in fields and outdoor venues and the impact becomes even more significant. With increasing demand for intramural and club sports and expectations for ever more sophisticated facilities for athletics, team sports and human performance research, institutions are working harder than ever to plan appropriately for the future. This session will look at planning strategies that maximize space and land area with a sustainable, long-term focus.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Respond to trends in athletics and recreation within a rapidly changing and unpredictable economic landscape.
2. Minimize the environmental impact of traditionally large, energy intensive buildings.
3. Apply rules of thumb for meeting NCAA Regulations and basic planning guidelines for Division 1, 2 and 3 Institutions.
4. Establish priorities by looking at student surveys, aligning growth with an institution's academic mission, evaluating trends in Athletics and Recreation, and more.

TAGS: Facility Type_Athletics, Trends, Sustainability, Open Space, Master Planning, Student life

Poly Canyon Village: Integrated Project Delivery Brings Sustainability Home
Presenter(s): F. Robert Hood, Senior Vice President, Clark Construction Corporation; Lawrence Kelley, Vice President, Administration & Finance, California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo; Edwin Kimsey, President, Niles Bolton Associates; Robert Kitamura, Director, Facilities Planning, California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo

In 2005, California Polytechnic State University requested proposals for the state's largest student housing project. Originally developer-financed, the project was repositioned as design-build. Working together, the University and the Design/Build team, comprised of over 30 professional entities, creatively met the proposed budget while exceeding the proposal commitment of LEED certification, achieving LEED Gold. In 2009, Poly Canyon Village welcomed students to a 2,670 bed, 1.4 million gsf, sustainable, adaptable environment. Learn how the project team met current market expectations, maximized the budget, and brought the best green building practices to campus housing.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Utilize the diverse resources of the project team and the University to creatively solve the challenges of design/construction through design-build delivery.
2. Discuss effective, flexible management tools for mega-projects.
3. Define approaches and analyze the risk to multi-year, phased, construction projects.
4. Utilize sustainability to enhance project environments and overcome severe environmental issues.

TAGS: Large Public Research, Student Residences, Sustainability, Facility Type_Student Residences, Design/Build

Repurposing a Building—Morrill Hall, Sustainable in 1890
Presenter(s): Scott Allen, Partner, RDG Planning & Design; Michael Andresen, Associate, RDG Planning & Design; Kerry Dixon-Fox, Project Manager, Iowa State University

The session is a case study of the rehabilitation and adaptive re-use of a building on the national register of historic places. Examine the campus factors that lead to the abandonment of the facility and also review the design and construction decisions that provided the basis for a successful repurposing and rehabilitation project resulting in Iowa State University's first LEED® silver project. We will cover strategies, building performance and other possible funding criteria on similar buildings.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Summarize the evolution of design and construction over the last 100 years.
2. Identify the issues surrounding restoration and rehabilitation of a historic structure.
3. Develop goals for sustainable concepts and strategies within a restoration project.
4. Review the requirements of the LEED Documentation and Certification Process.

TAGS: Historic Preservation, Sustainability, Large Public Research

Sustainable Campus as Pedagogy: Opportunities For Enhancing the Curriculum
Presenter(s): Stephen Hardy, Planner, BNIM Architects; Stephen McDowell, Principal, BNIM Architects; David Orr, Chair, Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College; Daniel Sniff, Associate Vice President, Facilities Planning, University of Georgia

The University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology and the Oberlin College Sustainable Arts District are two recent projects with high goals for environmental sustainability and energy use reduction. The design of these campuses and their built environments provide teaching and learning tools in both the sciences and arts. These two case studies demonstrate how to extend the efficacy of construction funds by conceiving facilities that go beyond functionality to active engagement of the curriculum.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Identify the roles that physical plant can play in the curriculum.
2. Maintain flexibility while creating specific learning opportunities.
3. Link sustainable design with curriculum in the sciences and the arts.
4. Debate the role that sustainable, teaching buildings might play in the larger campus and community context.

TAGS: integrated planning, Sustainability, Learning Space Design, Small Private Liberal Arts, Large Public Research

Sustainable Residence Life "Flexible Living Unit" Design
Presenter(s): Connie Frazier, Director of Residential Programs, Angelo State University; John Russell, Director, Facilities Planning & Construction, Angelo State University; Randall Scott, President & Chief Executive Officer, Randall Scott Architects, Inc

Residence halls can be designed to provide for freshmen, upper-division and graduate student needs through this unique "Flex-Unit" concept. These sustainable residence life facilities can quickly adapt to all types of students and demographics over a 50-75 year life cycle thereby reducing the number of residence hall types needed on a campus and future landfill requirements. This unique "Flex-Unit" allows residence life staff to provide 18 distinct living unit arrangements within a 1,200 SF module. Multiple "Flex Units" can easily be arranged to develop communities of varying sizes within a residence hall and tracked through BIM software.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Provide a sustainable residence hall with significantly lower life-cycle costs than traditional residence halls.
2. Accommodate all types of students' housing needs within one residence hall.
3. Increase student satisfaction by allowing them to select their own unit type resulting in increased revenues
4. Create various sized units, communities and cohorts within a given residence hall in conjunction with BIM (Building Information Modeling)

TAGS: Public Comprehensive, Student Residences, Learning Space Design, Sustainability

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA

From Living Buildings to Living Campuses

This is a recent article from Planning for Higher Education. If you are a SCUP member, you have the print version of this. At the moment, anyone can read the online version here. However, very soon the journal contents will be a member-only benefit of joining the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). The authors, Tony Alfieri, David Damon, and Z Smith, conclude:

There are four key steps that can help institutions define a clear plan for their future. These steps focus on both efficiency improvements in existing campus assets and future strategic development. Develop a comprehensive sustainable master plan [that] integrate[s] sustainable initiatives with the institutional mission . . . Install energy retrofits in existing buildings . . . Establish high-performance guidelines for future buildings . . . includ[ing] policies for procurement and for approval of future development . . . Commit to the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC).

We would note that this article focuses on energy and climate aspects of sustainability. A fifth item now needs to be added to that list: Ensure that your campus engages with the Sustainability Assessment, Rating & Tracking System (STARS), which is formally launches this month, with more than 115 campuses already signed up.

[more]

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA

Cool Campus! A How-to Guide for College and University Climate Action Planning

Walter Simpson is a major force in campus sustainability. Working from content on a Wiki set up via the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), he has produced a how to planning manual in book format, Cool Campus! A How-to Guide for College and University Climate Action Planning. It's free, a downloadable PDF of about 120 pages in length: "But who will lead the CAP effort? The leader or chair could be your sustainability director or energy officer, if he or she has enough experience and the right credentials, or a prestigious faculty member who is given release time to take on this project, It could be a special assistant to your school's president. . . . An undertaking this large could have co-chairs. Whoever is selected to lead should be enthusiastically committed to climate action, have strong technical background in relevant areas, be engaging, fair, well-liked, and be able to motivate others and build a strong team."

Federal Stimulus Bill: Chasing the Sun

This part of a continuing series of explorations of the economic consequences of parts of the federal stimulus package focuses on solar energy.

"The U.S. Department of Energy is still in the process of choosing the projects that will receive loans and deciding how other newly available subsidies will be spent. But the potential windfall is already jump-starting plans for wind farms in the Midwest, massive solar plants in the deserts of southwest Nevada and southeastern California, and geothermal power plants in the Northwest."

Read more:
http://www.technologyreview.com/business/22833/

Keeping it Green, Even in a Recession

A review of several programs, under the rubric of:

"Higher education institutions have been implementing sustainability initiatives long before it became fashionable last summer. As the economic downturn causes campus leaders to reassess all aspects of their budgets, green programs are being spared because they can lead to both financial and environmental savings."

Read on:
http://www.universitybusiness.com/viewpage.aspx?pagename=staticpage/sustainability2009.html

Energy Utilities and Sustainability

APPA's Facilities Manager magazine does one of the best jobs in higher education at consistent, regular theme issues on important topics. Its current March/April 2009 issue is an exemplar, with the theme of "Energy Utilities and Sustainability." Articles include: "Campus Climate Neutrality - Yes We Can! It's a Big Challenge, But Here's How to Do It" (PDF) by Walter Simpson; "Carbon Emissions Trading and Combined Heat and Power Strategies: Unintended Consequences" (not yet available on line) by John C. Tysseling, Mary Vosevich, Benjamin R. Boersma, and Jeffery A. Zumwalt; "National Trends in Sustainability Performance: Lessons from Facilities Leaders" (PDF) by Kristy M. Jones and L. Julian Keniry; and "LEDs: DOE Programs Add Credibility to a Developing Technology" by Susan Conbrere (not yet available on line).

The Best Idea Yet for Greening Campus IT

The anonymous sustainability blogger (Who is in charge of his campuses' ACUPCC work), G. Rendell, has a new idea:

Now there’s a better idea. It will take a while to work the details out and even longer to get the infrastructure in place, but it’s basically a flash of brilliance. So much of the electricity consumed on campus goes into various electronic appliances (using the term in its broadest sense). Each of them has its own, individual power converter, and the simple act of converting the AC to DC accounts for about 20-30% of the electricity used. But remember, we have to convert the power from high-voltage AC because that’s what we have available in every office.

Meanwhile, campuses are installing solar arrays and wind turbines and other means of generating electricity. Solar panels generate low-voltage DC, which has to be converted to high-voltage AC before it can get fed into the campus electrical network. Wind turbines can generate AC or DC equally well, but the more voltage they’re required to generate, the more wind you need. (See where this is going?)

Why not have a separate electrical network across campus, which delivers appropriate low-voltage DC to offices and (maybe) residence halls. There’d need to be standards worked out, but even if some voltage step-up or step-down were required some of the time, the losses would be far less than in the AC-to-DC scenario we’re now facing. And campuses are locales where a separate network could (relatively) easily be installed. And DC could be generated effectively and efficiently on more campuses than can AC. And the DC network could include significant power storage to smooth out the power available, as well as a (centrally converted, larger scale hence more efficient) feed from the electrical grid to assure power availability even at the end of long stretches of sunless, windless days and nights.

Guest Blogger: Are American Colleges Living Labs for Renewable-Energy Use?

This first item was not a session at the AASHE conference, but is a guest blog post from AASHE staffer Niles Barnes on the "Buildings & Grounds" blog at the Chronicle:

What worries me is that I don’t see much happening with renewable-energy sources such as ocean thermal, ocean current, or tidal power. Is it cost that is holding back development of these and other potential resources?

I’m interested in hearing from others who may be involved in or know of other innovative and creative renewable-energy projects on campuses. What else is being studied, installed, or perhaps flying under the radar? Will the United States, through the leadership of colleges and universities, reach the goal of achieving all renewable electricity production by 2018, as Al Gore has advocated? Is there specific legislation that the next administration will need to support to encourage the development of the necessary infrastructure?

In 'Hot, Flat, and Crowded', Thomas Friedman Calls for a Green Energy Revolution

Many SCUPers enjoy Friedman's insights. Here is a brief review of his latest book, from Wired magazine:

Thomas Friedman is about to dive into the green-tech fray. In his latest book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, the multi-Pulitzer-winning journalist says everyone needs to accept that oil will never be cheap again and that wasteful, polluting technologies cannot be tolerated. The last big innovation in energy production, he observes, was nuclear power half a century ago; since then the field has stagnated. "Do you know any industry in this country whose last major breakthrough was in 1955?" Friedman asks. According to the book, US pet food companies spent more on R&D last year than US utilities did. "The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stone," he says. Likewise, the climate-destroying fossil-fuel age will end only if we invent our way out of it. . . . Coming out months before the presidential election, Crowded is sure to bigfoot its way into the campaign. "McCain and Obama come from the right side of this debate," Friedman says. "They have the right instincts, but neither is quite there yet. They haven't yet thought it through fully." The battle over "green," he believes, will define the early 21st century just as the battle over "red" (Communism) defined the last half of the 20th.

Four Day Work Weeks: This Summer's Lessons-Learned

Quite a few colleges went to some version of s shortened work or class week this summer, generally as an experiment in saving energy costs. Writing in Inside Higher Ed, David Moltz shares what he learned from talking with some of the folks on campuses which tried this out in 2008. One campus actually created more service hours for students:

Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La., adopted a shortened schedule that actually might have given its students more access to services. Typically, under the five-day workweek, university offices would be open from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., said President Randall Webb. Under the four-day workweek, Webb said the offices are open from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. As individual employees must have their shortened workweek approved by their supervisors and all are not eligible for or choose the same day off, the university now has its administrative doors open for a longer period during the business week and can serve it students even more. Even though some are working a shorter week, Webb said others at the university are working more than ever.

Colleges Should Plan—and Teach—for an Oil-Scarce World

A nice piece from Scott Carlson of The Chronicle of Higher Education. (He'll also be at SCUP-43 in Montreal next week!) Yes, it's not just the current high price, it's the likelihood that the price will stay high, or if it does go down, will go high again: And then there's the likelihood of growing scarcity of oil at any price. Maybe not a concern for personal use of an automobile, but something colleges and universities need to address in their planning for as short a time frame as 10-25 years:

College leaders, with help from facilities managers, sustainability directors, faculty members, and even students, should think hard about how systems on their campus would operate in an energy-scarce world. That thinking should range beyond running part of the campus fleet on a cafeteria's fryer oil, a seemingly-popular response at the moment. Look at food supply chains, for example, and how far food travels from field to dining hall (1,500 diesel-powered miles, on average). How do you heat and cool buildings, and is that new building in the campus master plan really necessary? (It's regrettable that this energy crisis comes at the end of a campus building boom.) Is your campus an integrated part of the community around it—friendly to pedestrians and affordable to students and staff members? Or is it a destination at the end of a long freeway drive?

Brett Pasinella, a program coordinator at the University of New Hampshire's sustainability office in Durham, is thinking about some of these very issues with his colleagues. "You quickly run into problems and questions that go far beyond the standard internal university thinking and more into how the university fits into its region and its community," he says. "You run into the same problems that a town planner would run into."

The most important question colleges should ask themselves: If students are getting squeezed by high energy prices, what will compel them to pay your tuition?

Wind a New Opportunity for Community Colleges

We've all read about campuses that have natural gas or oil being pumped from them. Now, some - especially rural - community colleges are finding that they need to pump out graduates trained in wind energy skills:

Community colleges in North Dakota and other states are jumping at the chance to help fill that need and develop a niche for themselves at the same time through wind tech programs.

"The demand (for wind techs) is such that some (colleges) have been trying to keep companies away from the program because they want everybody to graduate first," said Christine Real de Azua, a spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association. "In some cases, students are being picked up after only a couple of months."

Last year, 3,200 new wind turbines were installed across the nation as power companies responded to the push for more green energy. It brought the total number of towers with wind-catching blades to more than 25,000, the association said. 

Use of Campus Space and Soaring Energy Costs

Here in the SCUP office, we've been bombarded by calls from reporters looking for information on new trends in employee work hours, the timing of the use of classroom and other campus buildings, and innovations in ride-boards - all in relation to both soaring energy costs and to the effort on 500+ campuses to meet the carbon footprint challenges of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). This article from The Chronicle of Higher Education is an example of how that reporting is coming out. May require subscription or day pass for access.