The University sees green, launches energy conservation plan

The University of Iowa is on track to save more than $5 million in reduced energy expenditures for the 24-month period ending in June 2007, thanks to efforts launched by the Energy Conservation Advisory Council (ECAC). Those accomplishments, and plans for future conservation measures, are summarized in the University’s new Energy Conservation Strategic Plan, available online at http://energy.uiowa.edu/energyplan.htm.

The plan is the most ambitious in the University’s 160-year history, and one of the most comprehensive in the Big Ten, according to UI officials. Highlights of the plan include a commitment to sharply reduce the University’s reliance on nonrenewable energy sources by 2013, unprecedented campus-wide participation, and a direct tie-in with the University’s research and educational missions.

“This is an exciting and unique opportunity to seriously rethink every aspect of energy, from traditional and alternative sources to consumption and costs,” says Don Guckert, director of Facilities Management and associate vice president for finance and operations. “We owe it to Iowans, the students who help fund the University, and to society to do all we can to conserve and to use alternative energy sources whenever and wherever possible. It’s really about energy security.”

Energy leadership

Jerry Schnoor, professor of civil and environmental engineering in the UI College of Engineering and ECAC chair, says the University is a leader among the country’s universities in the use of renewable energy and in composing the plan through collaboration of students, faculty, and staff.

“It is proof that the University can help protect the environment while saving a significant amount of money for education and research,” Schnoor says.

Guckert says students in particular have played a key role in promoting awareness about energy conservation across campus, by serving on ECAC, distributing posters, conducting energy audits, and developing feasibility plans for wind-generated power and other renewable energy sources.

Objectives and strategies through 2013

The conservation plan has three primary objectives: reliability, in the form of robust and dependable utility production and distribution systems; conservation, specifically a 10 percent reduction in energy use per square foot by 2013; and sustainability in the form of reliance on renewable resources for up to 15 percent of its energy by 2013. At present, the University’s overall energy portfolio is about 11 percent renewable, including purchased electricity and produced electric power and steam.

The plan is an outgrowth of a challenge put to campus by the General Education Fund (GEF) Task Force in 2004 to reduce energy expenditures by $1.5 million over three years. Not only did the campus meet that goal, Facilities Management also identified energy management as one of its five overarching organizational goals and developed strategies to reduce energy costs.

Those strategies have included:

• Joining the Chicago Climate Exchange, North America’s only—and the world’s first—greenhouse gas emission registry, reduction, and trading system for all six greenhouse gases.

• Exploring alternative energy sources, such as oat hulls obtained from Quaker Oats in Cedar Rapids and burned in place of coal at the UI’s power plant.

• Creating an energy conservation web site (http://energy.uiowa.edu/) where the UI community can learn about the latest conservation efforts on campus and find ways to get more involved with the effort.

• Sponsoring the annual Energy Expo, which features conferences, demonstrations, information, and speakers.

• Partnering with MidAmerican Energy, UI Student Government, and the student organization Engineers for a Sustainable World to develop awareness campaigns, which have included the creation of posters for buildings and buses to discourage wasteful energy practices across campus.

• Partnering with the College of Engineering to examine the feasibility of wind- and hydro-powered energy projects, and with the City of Iowa City to capture and burn landfill methane gas instead of fossil fuels.

• Engaging the 26-member Energy Conservation Advisory Council—created in 2004 and composed of administrators, faculty, staff, and students—to encourage conservation across campus and help develop new initiatives.

• Developing higher energy efficiency standards for building construction, improvements, and maintenance. In fiscal year 2005, for example, the University began a maintenance program to correct improperly functioning steam traps, saving 5 to 10 percent of steam usage per building. And chilled water optimization projects in UI Hospitals and Clinics and other campus buildings resulted in a “cost avoidance” of more than $2.5 million thus far.

Viewing conservation: a practical and philosophical matter

Nationally, interest in energy conservation and alternative fuels has grown significantly in recent years, in large part because of overwhelming agreement among scientists that human activity is contributing to global warming. In early February, an international network of climate experts issued its fourth report stating that human activity has sped up global warming but said the problem can be substantially blunted by prompt action.

For the University, conservation is as much a practical matter as a philosophical matter. In the past two years, the University has faced rising costs of natural gas and coal and increased demands by new and renovated facilities that increased energy costs by 26 percent. Which is why Facilities Management—in cooperation with the College of Engineering—has taken seriously the challenge of conducting firsthand research into alterative energy sources.

Guckert considers the University’s oat hull-burning program—formally the UI Biomass Fuel Project—the “crown jewel” of the campus’s energy conservation efforts. Begun in 2002, the program has saved the University more than $1.7 million in coal costs—$750,000 in fiscal year 2006—by burning byproducts of cereal production by Quaker Oats in the Main Power Plant, which serves UI and UI Hospitals and Clinics facilities.

The success of the oat hull project allowed the University in 2004 to join the Chicago Climate Exchange, where it remains one of only three member public universities.

Under its contract with the exchange, the University agreed to cut its carbon emissions by up to 4 percent below an average baseline of 275,769 metric tons over the first four years. Any reductions beyond that would earn the University carbon credits, which the University could retire—thus keeping that much carbon out of the atmosphere—or sell to other exchange members for money that could be reinvested in additional conservation measures.

Because of the oat hull program’s success, the University earned 32,300 metric tons of carbon credit between 2003 and 2005. Based on current trading on the exchange, that puts its value at about $125,125. And that number doesn’t include an estimated 20,000 metric tons saved in 2006.

The University’s conservation efforts have also garnered numerous awards. In 2005 and 2006, Buildings Magazine ranked the UI among the top 10 institutions for its “A List” in part because of the University’s energy initiatives (see previous fyi story, “Facilities Management: Building Success,” at   www.uiowa.edu/~fyi/issues/issues2006_v43/11202006/feature1.html). In 2004, the UI Biomass Fuel Project received two Governor’s Iowa Environmental Excellence Awards. And in 2005, the project received an Effective and Innovative Practices Award from the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers.

Facilities Management has also been recognized by the State of Iowa and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for Environmental Excellence and Leadership for its participation in the Pollution and Prevention Intern Program in 2006.

Next steps

The University is hardly resting on its laurels, or its oat hulls. As part of its Energy Challenge, Facilities Management has outlined additional strategies for meeting its objectives for 2013, including:

• Reinvestment of energy rebates: In most cases, rebates earned by campus for complying with national energy-efficiency standards when building new facilities will be invested in other campus conservation efforts to help offset the energy demand created by the new project.

• Central building control and monitoring: By ensuring that building heating and air conditioning systems have scheduled temperature adjustments for times when buildings aren’t occupied, the University expects to realize additional energy savings.

• Energy Star purchases: Whenever possible, the University will purchase equipment that is rated energy efficient by this joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Additional plans also are in the works to tie energy conservation more closely to the University’s educational and research missions.

Schnoor developed a Sustainable Systems course for undergraduate and graduate students in engineering. Students in the course have tackled a number of real-world issues.

One group developed a proposal for a pilot project to compost about 52 tons of food waste generated each year by Hillcrest Residence Hall’s Food Services division. Another conducted a site study for the construction of a turbine that could produce wind-generated power in or near Iowa City. Yet another developed a plan for promoting energy-smart behavior among students through a combination of radio spots, a residence assistant training program and other methods.

A next logical step, Guckert says, would be to create a learning laboratory in the University’s power plant where students could research biofuels beyond oat hulls that might further reduce the plant’s dependence on coal.

“The exciting part of The University of Iowa’s conservation plan is that we’re just getting started,” Guckert says. “We look forward to exploring other ways to engage faculty, staff, and students in this effort, and to building on our relationships with key partners throughout the state, including Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa, and private industry.”

by Stephen Pradarelli and Gary Galluzzo