University of Wisconsin sustainability officials reflected on successful conservation initiatives on campus over the past year, along with plans for new collaborations in the future, on Earth Day.

UW started the “We Conserve” energy initiative in 2006 as a comprehensive approach to achieve two goals: to improve energy efficiency on campus and to promote environmental stewardship on campus.

UW has invested $60 million dollars in addition to $29 million before 2006 in the energy conservation initiative, according to Faramarz Vakili, director of campus sustainability operations.

Seven years later, Vakili said the energy side of the initiative has met and exceeded its original goals and continues to pay off.

“We had a goal to reduce our environmental footprint and energy consumption by 20 percent in 2010,” Vakili said. “We met that goal in 2010 and we keep doing better and better.” 

According to a UW statement, total campus energy use has dropped 12.5 percent, although campus building space grew by 16.4 percent since 2006.
One program under We Conserve studies energy consumption of laboratory buildings, which by nature consume a lot of energy, Vakili said.

So far, the program has brought a combination of new technology and user awareness promotion to about 17 buildings on campus and reduced energy consumption by between 29 percent to 70 percent, according to Vakili.

“We study what their true needs are and bring a combination of new technology and user awareness… on average, we have gone through 5 million gross square feet of laboratory building space and reduced on average 40 percent energy consumption,” he said.

Besides working on energy efficiency to make laboratory buildings safer while meeting the needs of the research programs, the Office of Sustainability works on projects to improve distribution systems and lighting. The other goal of establishing environmental stewardship is more difficult to measure and requires joint efforts from faculty, staff and students, Vakili said.

In addition to this initiative, the student government recently established the Associated Students of Madison Sustainability Committee, which runs campaigns pertaining to environmental sustainability.

Chair Colin Higgins said the committee serves as a resource for student groups and individuals within ASM and works closely with the Office of Sustainability.
Higgins said while UW is a leader in some environmental efforts, it lags behind in clean energy.

“We do an awesome job with waste management. Where we can use some improvement is energy and switching from coal power plant to natural gas, which doesn’t come with the negative social and environmental implications,” Higgins said.

Other areas for improvement Higgins identified include putting more effort into providing local food for students.

In addition to meeting the current large demand for local food, Higgins said the campus community should work to address the runoff that affects Lake Mendota.

“Mendota gets lots of pollution from the campus side, and we can do our part to not pollute it,” Higgins said.

According to a UW statement, Princeton Review recognized UW for its commitment to sustainability in its 2013 edition of “Guide to 322 Green Colleges.”

Vakili said he is proud of the environmental accomplishments on campus so far, but he will continue to work on improving community environmental consciousness.

“We need to create sustainability and conservation as a value system for the university, not just a goal for reduction,” he said.