James Pawley is unimpressed with University of Wisconsin’s sustainability efforts. A UW zoology professor, he teaches a course called “Responding to Global Warming,” one of his many efforts to keep students active in going green.
“We have not brought glory to ourselves,” Pawley said. “In fact, it is miserable and appalling. Our entire sustainability system must be reevaluated.”
Pawley may be onto something. Based on a recent study by the National Wildlife Federation, UW only received an exemplary rating in green landscaping, one of the survey’s 18 categories. Other categories included conservation, renewable energy sources and recycling — none of which UW ranked highly in.
Inefficient Labs
“We’re a research university, and that by itself causes the buildings to consume more energy than other classrooms,” said Faramarz Vakili, president of We Conserve — an environmental organization working to reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2010. According to a We Conserve report, electricity accounts for 46 percent of UW’s total energy costs, with more than half that amount used in research laboratories. Pawley said this is largely due to fume hoods and fans, which blow out hot air from inside the lab. This requires new air to be pumped back into the room and reheated.
There are a total of 3,600 fans on campus, each at 26,000 horsepower, equaling about 6,500 Prius engines.
“Potential for huge savings exist, but we bring in over nine million cubic feet of air to these buildings, and we are trying to use that as efficiently as possible,” Vakili said.
Pawley said these fume hoods are not designed to turn off. While We Conserve recently began to reduce fan sizes, Pawley offers his own solutions: turn the fans off when not in use and install heat exchangers so the air blown out can reheat the air being sucked in.
“Places like College Library are packed all the time, so it needs to keep up and running,” said Tony Uhl, chair of the Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group. “If there’s a lab not running after 5 p.m., what’s the point of keeping everything on?”
Inefficient Ventilation
To cut heating, ventilation and air conditioning consumption (HVAC), the NWF recommends adjusting thermostat settings, removing unneeded lights or closing unused spaces and buildings. While HVAC accounts for 70 percent of UW’s energy plan, only one laboratory building partially runs on a renewable energy source.
UW’s peer institutions have already begun to address this problem. According to the NWF, Hamilton College uses geothermal heating — a process that uses pumps to tap into the earth’s heat sources. This HVAC method cut one residence hall’s energy consumption by 60 percent.
David Eagan, NWF director of campus programs and outreach specialist for the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, points to the nation’s leading green universities as models for UW. According to Eagan, the University of Iowa replaced half of its coal with waste oat hulls from a nearby Quaker Oats plant and saves $750,000 a year.
“That’s also a Big Ten campus, and it uses agricultural waste,” Eagan said. “It takes a big investment in new technology, but they figured it out and got a contract.”
It’s the Little Things
New technology doesn’t have to be elaborate, either — it can be as small as sustainable coffee cups. Anna Stonehouse, who works the morning shifts at Memorial Union’s Daily Scoop, said about 30 customers a day participate in their refillable mug service — a savings incentive of 26 cents per refill. According to Eagan, the program saved UW about $11,400 in 1997, along with a large number of coffee cups.
Besides recycling coffee cups, cans and bottles are another concern. We Conserve reports UW recycles 27 percent of all discarded material. The University of Washington in Seattle, in comparison, recycles 44 percent of all material.
Vakili said too many students still use trash cans excessively at UW. For example, WISPIRG found more than 50 percent of recyclable material on campus ends up in trash bins.
Vending machines can also be turned off when not in use. According to Eagan, Tufts University cut electricity consumption in half by installing “vending misers,” a device which reactivates the machine when a purchase is made.
We Conserve also installed occupancy sensors, which automatically turn lights off in more than 10,000 rooms on campus, according to Vakili.
Though there are more than 200,000 light fixtures on campus — 95 percent of which have been converted to energy efficient bulbs — Eagan said lighting efficiency could still be improved.
He recommends using fluorescent bulbs for exit signs, which can run on five watts. Some identical exit signs require bulbs up to 20 watts.
“Similarly, if the 27,000 PCs on campus were turned to sleep mode after 20 minutes of no activity, computer consumption would reduce by 85 percent,” Vakili said. “That is huge and would save over $1.5 million.”
Together, the cost of lighting and computer use still exceeds $4 million and continues to rise. According to Vakili, UW’s energy costs actually increased 24 percent — to $41 billion dollars — even with these eco-friendly changes.
More “LEED”ership Needed
UW is expanding without maintaining eco-friendly building standards. New campus infrastructure, including improvements to the Interdisciplinary Research Institution, will exceed $400 million. The new Union South will cost another $82 million and is the only building on campus that could potentially meet LEED — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — requirements.
LEED is a building rating system that offers certification based on eco-friendly design and sustainability. The University of Colorado at Boulder, comparable in student body to UW, requires all new buildings and major renovations to meet LEED Gold standards.
UC-Boulder’s Koelbel Business Building is one example, as it features low-flow toilets, double pane window insulations and maximum use of sunlight. The entire building runs on 100 percent renewable resources.
Raising Awareness
Uhl encourages students to adapt more eco-friendly practices, such as using renewable water containers, turning lights off and taking shorter showers. If students start making small changes, the university will also see improvements in sustainability, he said.
“It is hard to change any institution,” Uhl said. “But the fact is that the people in charge are open to change; they just need to see that students will support it.”
Pawley said faculty must also play a greater role in the process and hopes Chancellor Biddy Martin will consider UW’s approach to going green. Creative leadership can turn the situation around, he said.
Uhl hopes to meet with Martin in the near future and establish open relationships with UW administration. He fears that without university cooperation, students are less likely to make eco-friendly lifestyle changes.
“I hope there will be a day that taking a ‘Why Conserve’ class will be mandatory for every student,” Vakili said. “They’ll be exposed to different perspectives on why it’s necessary to conserve and how they can make it a part of their lives.”
While Uhl agrees a required environment course could benefit students, for now he just aims to spread awareness about making green choices.
“We’re all students, and we live in the same environment,” Uhl said. “Our day-to-day decisions impact the entire globe, and the little things we do really add up to make a big difference. We still have a lot to do.”
