Green Purdue Initiatives Team Brotherton, Burgess, Messmer Heather Brotherton Michael Burgess Brad Messmer
White Paper Project Summer 2009 English 421Y Prepared for: Professor F. Tobienne
Table of Contents Executive Summary
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Outreach
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Building Improvements
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Limiting Paper Usage
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ITaP Computers
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Purdue’s Vehicular Fleet
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a. Hybrid Coke Delivery Truck Residence Halls a. Going Green Projects
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Waste Management
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Research Findings
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Energy and Water Consumption Analysis
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Conclusion
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Interview Transcripts
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a. Melissa Cowart
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b. Terry Cegielski
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c. Rita Hillman
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Annotated Bibliography
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Executive Summery Purdue’s current strategic plan is focused in part on energy and environmental awareness. Purdue’s challenge is that the West Lafayette campus uses all the power it produces and buys additional power from Duke Energy. In order to meet the strategic plan goals Purdue has implemented a number of “Green” initiatives. Team Brotherton, Burgess, Messmer will endeavor to evaluate the steps Purdue University has taken to move toward becoming “Green.” Our research focuses on policies and outreach that Purdue has implemented. We will also investigate what is known about the success of those policies. Research topics that we will focus on are ITaP, Residence Halls, and Outreach efforts.
Outreach Our Definition of outreach… Activities that Purdue University engages in that educate, involve, or affect the surrounding community, students, or global communities. These activities encompass research and environmental awareness campaigns. Purdue’s efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and increase the amount of sustainable energy used are far-reaching, affecting not only those at the University, but around the globe as well. Sustainable development is defined as development that present time society can make use of without affecting future generations’ ability to have at least an equal lifestyle Initiatives Purdue is implementing to reinforce its green status involves university vehicles, waste management, and research in numerous areas of alternative energy. Purdue’s purchase of
low-emission university vehicles and disposal of hazardous and nonhazardous waste in more environmentally friendly manners are things that Purdue does which have an influence on the environment at large and living conditions of people native to Lafayette. Purdue University researchers are working on numerous ways to develop sustainable energy sources. Several of these sources are wind, solar, and bio fuels. Sustainable sources of energy appear to be vital towards the continued, high quality lifestyle we currently enjoy. Research being done at Purdue in these areas has the potential to affect people on a global basis. The following paragraphs will describe why and how the previously mentioned resources are considered sustainable sources of energy.
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Wind energy is a sustainable resource because, no matter what we do, there is always going to be wind blowing around the world. So by using turbines to convert kinetic energy from the wind into electricity, people are simply making use of a resource that is already among them and, unless harnessed, is not going to do anything practical.
convert some hydrogen and oxygen into water, with no net loss or gain of carbon. This water could then be used to nourish other sources of bio-energy such as corn, or any other crop, creating a sustainable system.
ITaP occupies 3 1/2 floors of Young Hall. The HVAC systems serving Young hall are on a setback schedule from 8:00 PM to 5:00 AM, which should result in approximately $22,000 annual energy savings from reductions in electricity, chilled water, and steam (Hillman).
Solar energy is considered a sustainable resource essentially because, if we do not make use of the light rays shining down on earth each day, they will simply be absorbed by the ground and converted into heat. Therefore, what photovoltaics attempt to do is to take sunlight and convert it into electricity. This electricity can then be used to power any modern electrical appliance, whereby it usually ends up in the form of heat either way. Basically, photovoltaics allow solar energy to take the path of: sunlight Æ usable energy (electricity) Æ heat, rather than: sunlight Æ heat. For the case of bio-fuels, we will take the biological creature, bacteria, as an example of sustainability. Bacteria can digest and produce a wide variety of compounds. So in essence, if we have a bacteria that takes CO2 and digests it along with hydrogen (H) to create a flammable hydrocarbon (i.e. gasoline) and water (H2O), we can then take this hydrocarbon and burn it for a sudden release of energy, much like is done currently in cars. Once the preciously formed hydrocarbon is combusted in the presence of oxygen, it will create CO2 and H2O. This means that essentially all that has happened is we managed to
Building Improvements
A project is underway to replace the curtain wall of Young Hall with materials that have higher R rating and low-E glass to reduce load on mechanical systems. Renovation of 9th and 10th floor of Young Hall includes dual mode occupancy sensors in each office to switch off lighting when space is unoccupied to reduce energy waste (Hillman). Completion for the Young Hall renovations is expected in September 2009 according to ITaP Director’s assistant Rita Hillman. The metering was not in place to quantify initial energy usage at the time the interview was conducted. Therefore, the effects of the Young Hall improvement are not quantifiable at this time. Another renovation project at Purdue, affecting primarily the students, faculty, and staff on campus, is the
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planned green roof for Schlemen Hall (n.p. Purdue). A green roof is simply a roof with plants covering the top of it. The idea behind this is that the foliage on top of the building will not only extend roof life by protecting it from the elements but it should also act as an insulator to reduce heating and cooling costs. During the summer time, the plant life will absorb most of the sunlight before it ever hits the actual roof, reducing the amount heating the building requires. The plant life will also
provide insulation that will reduce the amount of heat transferred between the inside of the building and the outdoors. During the winter, the insulating effect should reduce the amount of heat required to keep the building warm. So overall, a green roof is expected to provide energy and fiscal savings.
Paper ITaP has reduced the amount of printer paper used in our labs. Usage has been cut from 158 thousand pages per day to about 55 thousand per day. This is a reduction of more than 60 percent.
Schlemen Hall-Before
ITaP will be rolling out eSidewalk and eFlyer as screen savers to the lab computers with the next image upgrade scheduled for 1st week of August. Currently, the screen saver setting goes straight to power save after ten minutes. This will be changed to point to a folder of image files. The images may be changed nightly. It has not been decided how long the eSidewalk and/or eFlyer ad images should display before going to power save.
Schlemen Hall-After
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ITaP Computers ITaP has installed a Green Supercomputer from SiCortex. It has more than 3,000 processors and is designed for research computing. These processors draw 600 milliwatts of power each (similar to cell phone/small flashlight consumption). A standard supercomputer contains thousands of processors that require about 25,000 mill watts each (Fink). According to Gerry McCartney, this green Supercomputer should create a reduction of 75 to 80 percent of the costs of power and cooling when compared to conventional technology. ITaP’s Rosen Center plans to use SiCortex’s power-monitoring system to examine its energy. Condor is another ITaP initiative. The Condor pool takes what would be wasted computer cycles from idle desktops and puts them to good use. ITaP Director Gerry McCartney’s desktop machine is part of Condor pool (McCartney).
power down the planet initiative. According to the sponsor’s stats, Purdue had 1340 total pledges and participation of 2.68537 percent. The expected total Carbon Offset is 244 TONS per year with an energy savings of 321,935 kWh annually (Hillman). Systems and Operations has implemented VMW, which allows ITaP to reduce cycles by dramatically cutting the number of servers needed to support administrative and general computing functions. 164 servers have been onto five virtual hosts, using about one-tenth the power and cooling, which the previous physical servers required (Snyder). Wake on LAN is now being used for scheduled updates. ITaP computers no longer have to be powered on to receive updates. This will save additional energy.
In addition, ITaP is also participating in the “Power Down for the Planet pledge challenge”. This promotes reduction of computer energy consumption by setting computers to go into “sleep” mode when idle. According to Energy Star, enabling those settings on just 100 Indiana desktop computers would annually save more than $60 per user in energy costs and prevent more than 60 tons of CO2 emissions. A sustainability committee has been formed to explore more ways to save energy, Purdue came in 7th in the
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Purdue’s Fleet There are approximately 1,200 vehicles owned by the university. This number includes planes, trailers, vans, trucks, and cars. According to the Journal and Courier, 900 of the university’s 1,200 vehicles are cars, trucks, and vans (Weddle). The Transportation Services division is an organization that manages the schools car rentals and whose vehicular fleet (179 vehicles) consists entirely of hybrid and flex-fuel automobiles. Since hybrids are even more efficient at conserving gas than flex-fuel vehicles, the Transportation Services department says that they wish to increase their car stock to 60% hybrids and 40% flex-fuel by mid 2012 (Weddle).
Currently, among these automobiles are Smart Cars and one is an electric car. The most common hybrid among these vehicles is the Chevy Malibu, of which 28 are owned by the Transportation Services at Purdue (Weddle).
Purdue has a hybrid Coke delivery truck that makes its deliveries around campus which uses 30% less gasoline than that of a normal truck.
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Cars Flex-Fuel Hybrid Hybrid Hybrid Total Hybrids Total Cars
Number 78 28 1 1 30 2 110
Type Chevy Impala Chevy Malibu Toyota Prius Honda Civic
Smart Cars
% 71%
27% 2% 100%
Vans Flex-Fuel
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Regular Total Vans
29 65
Various sizes, makes Various sizes, makes
55% 45% 100%
Trucks 4 Various makes 100% - Table shows current vehicular fleet content and was provided by Carol G. Cox, Director of Transportation Services at Purdue.
Residence Halls One large part of Purdue University’s Green Initiative is the university’s residence halls and residential dining services. With over 12,000 students living in the resident halls every year, the residence halls know that going green programs are very serious matters (Housing). Because of this, one of the main ways to become a greener campus with a higher sustainability is to “find more effective ways to market [Purdue’s] strategies for going green” to all the students on campus (Cowart). In 2008, the Purdue Residence Hall going green initiative adopted the mascot, Forrest, who is a sock puppet that encourages proper green-etiquette. Although, “recycling has been available
to students for decades…up until now, little has been done to really encourage it,” which is why Purdue adopted this character to run fun announcements on Boiler Television (Housing). To see the Forest’s pilot awareness video, please go to: . Among the residential student awareness programs, although Forrest was one of the funnier campaigns, one of the more technological programs was the pilot for the water and electricity consumption website. Four resident halls, Earhart, Harrison, McCutcheon, and Shreve halls, were fitted with gages that monitored the residents’
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usage of electricity (lights and personal) and water consumption. These stats were available real-time on the Housing and Food Services “University Residences Green” page for students to view their hall’s habits. Installing these fixtures in these four residences cost a total of $50,000, and, due to their educational awareness, it is projected that the other eleven halls will have them installed by July, 2011 (Cegielski). By launching this website, they plan to strongly encourage residents to be aware of their energy usage and in turn reduce this consumption (Housing). From the figures from 2008, the residents learned that if they were to be using their resources in the fashion they were doing Green Week, they would be saving their hall an average of $450 a day (Cegielski). This website was launched during Purdue University’s first Green Week. The first Green Week was celebrated September 15th to the 20th, 2008. During this commemoration week, sustainability and eco-friendly activities were strongly encouraged and advertised. The week starts on Monday with Sustainability Forum. Then on Tuesday, there is a paper recycling competition between the resident halls and a green day at the mini-marts where green, reusable bags are given away and free refills of any drink with the use of the University reusable water bottles. Wednesday was the launch of the water and electricity usage website. Thursday the resident halls had egg timers in all the showers to promote “power showers” of only two minutes long and also who could use the fewest dishes at the dining court challenge. On Friday,
they held “Detrash the Wabash” and the power shower results were shown (Housing). During this week, the theme of sustainability was greatly advertised as the residents received the message of going green. Green Week for 2009 will be held from September 21st to the 25th and will hold similar events to promote green awareness all over campus.
Another item that Housing and Food Services will be implementing before classes start this fall is the new HFS Sustainability Website. This site will show many of the “going green” projects that Purdue is implementing, statistics, and resources for students who want help completing green projects or questions about procedures, support the resident hall energy consumption applet, and many more items. This website will also document the progress of certain goals that Purdue University is trying to achieve so that they can more effectively achieve more green-issued success. For instance, as of two years ago, Indiana lobbyists were able to persuade the government to give a $10,000 grant to be used for all of the Purdue campuses on large-scale green projects. After spending this money, they were not eligible for any more until this was paid
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back. However as of this year and the increasing appreciation for green programming, according to Eric Vanmeter, the government is giving Purdue University $15,000 per campus, which totals $60,000 for projects like retrofitting buildings (Cegielski). Among these retrofitting projects, are replacing older equipment with newer Energy Star appliances, which are much more energy efficient than the older models. Additionally, McCutcheon Hall and the new First Street Towers Resident Hall are both piloting a program where all of their cleaning supplies and maintenance tools are completely green and environmentally safe. By the end of the year, as long as there are not any strong drawbacks, all academic buildings will also be fitted with completely green chemical cleaners (Cowart). Furthermore, “Laundry Pure Green Machines” by Ecoquest have been put into Cary Quadrangle and Hillenbrand Hall to test the new technology. These machines do not use hot water or detergent to clean fabric, but rather it mixes in Silver ions that kill 99.99% of
bacteria while getting towels fluffier and softer and colors brighter. After a pole, 76 percent of the students who have used these machines were pleased with the cleanliness of their clothes. After a little more product testing, these machines are planning to be put into other residential halls (Cegielski). Other residential improvements this summer include many items such as: • Cary Quad and Earhart Hall
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installed shades and drapes in certain areas for reducing solar heat gain. Earhart and Hillenbrand purchased a chemical-free floor machine to reduce the use of hazardous cleaning materials. Harrison Hall installed bike dock hoops to promote non-motorized transportation. Almost all buildings are replacing older equipment with newer, more fuel efficient appliances (Cegielski). McCutcheon Hall is making recycling much easier by putting much more recycling receptacles in more convenient locations.
As more and more residence halls make it easier for recycling to be accomplished, the Housing and Food Services continues to hold the title of the largest recycler on campus. As the HFS recycles “tons of materials each year from construction materials to cardboard to aluminum to plastics and office paper, [these] sustainability practices help us lead the campus and community as an efficient division and as a good steward of our planet’s resources” (Housing). The HFS will continue to hold onto this title for a long while due to two business agreements that have recently been accepted. Both of these opportunities were discovered from the need of disposing the massive amount of waste that the dining courts produce every day. For years, almost all of the food based waste that the university dining courts possessed everyday went to the landfill. Every year, the dining courts disposed of about 20,000 gallons of oil directly to
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the landfills. However, with new technology, a company called “BioFuel” picks up the used oil and converts it into energy. They will pay 30 cents per gallon for the oil, and also make a donation of two cents per gallon to the United Way. That brings in $6,000 annually that HFS would normally throw away as well as $400 to United Way, while helping to save the environment and helping to produce energy. The second business opportunity takes all of the food pulp that the dining court pays to transport and dispose of and gives it to a methane producing factory. This agreement starts this year and is planning to help power a large fraction of West Lafayette.
Resident Hall Going Green Projects Originally started as having a few recycling points in the residence halls, the Going Green project now incorporates numerous different eco-friendly ideas. With such troubles as “the solid food waste generated by the dining courts, which typically is about ten tons per month” and wasting water and electricity, the resident halls have implemented: •
Recycling points in each residence hall, including large trailers are designed to receive a wide selection of recyclables.
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Dining courts offer recycling opportunities with recycled plastic, glass, and metal tracked through volume.
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Purdue Village has added more recycling bins and also installed efficient, economic showerheads.
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University reusable water bottles that can be refilled for a reduced cost at On-thego and mini-mart locations. (available for purchase for $3.89)
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A competition among the residences to see which could recycle the most paper.
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Testing a no-tray system at dining halls to test how well not using trays reduces waste.
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Starting a “green week” with various nature friendly goals and activities everyday.
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Housing and Food Services Capital Projects with Sustainability impact Building Sustainability Impact Cary Quad Install mechanized shades in Ford Dining Reduces solar heat gain Court private dining room Earhart Hall Replace 1 wing / 200 pair of drapes Purchase chemical-free floor machine HVAC controls optimization
Reduces solar heat gain Reduces use of cleaning chemicals Optimizes performance and identifies potential energy savings
First Street Towers Cleaning exclusively with green Products Harrison Hall Install bike hoops
Minimizes impact on quality of water output and indoor air
Purchase chemical-free floor machine
Reduces use of cleaning chemicals
Hawkins Hall Replace water heaters Hillenbrand Hall Purchase chemical-free floor machine HVAC controls optimization Salad bar upgrade Hilltop Apartments Re-glaze and paint windows in buildings 1, 2, 28, 29 McCutcheon Hall Replace water softener Meredith Hall Replace commercial washer
Promotes non-motorized transportation
New heaters are more energy efficient than old Reduces use of cleaning chemicals Optimizes performance and identifies potential energy savings New refrigeration is more energy efficient than old Reduces outside air infiltration
New softener is more energy efficient than old New machine is more energy efficient than old
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Owen Hall Replace building steam controls Purdue Memorial Union Replace west wing toilet exhaust Purchase chemical-free floor machine Purdue Village Replace windows/phases 4-7 Replace water heaters in 5 buildings Replace washers and dryers phases 4-5 Replace van 587 with utility vehicle Relocate gardens Shreve Hall Purchase chemical-free floor machine Re-lamp T-12 fixtures to T-8 Tarkington Hall Roofing project Wiley Hall Roofing project Windsor Hall Replace water softeners Replace main grill hood exhaust fan in dining court
Optimizes performance New equipment is more energy efficient than old Reduces use of cleaning chemicals Reduces heat loss and outside air infiltration New equipment is more energy efficient than old New equipment is more energy efficient than old New vehicle is more fuel efficient than old Maintains a long-term community garden program Reduces use of cleaning chemicals Reduces electrical consumption and heat gain Method of roof maintenance extended life of roof & reduced waste sent to the landfill Method of roof maintenance extended life of roof & reduced waste sent to the landfill New equipment is more energy efficient than old New equipment is more energy efficient than old
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Waste Management Another area of concern for Purdue is that of waste management and disposal. Due to Purdue’s status as a research university, Purdue is required to make use of new materials and technologies at a high pace fashion. Many of these materials are toxic to both humans and the environment. Delicate disposal of these materials is required. Improper disposal of this waste would have direct impact on local residents. Disposal mistakes could potentially have severe disastrous effects on the environment. The University has assigned the Chemical Management Committee to set and enforce standards for proper waste disposal (McDonald).
Purdue has also been working to recycle their less hazardous waste in order to conserve on raw materials and put less waste in landfills. Several of these conservation techniques are detailed in the list below (Flora):
Boiler Green Initiative recycling efforts at three home football games this past season collected and sorted nearly 16,000 pounds of reusable materials.
PMU uses paper products that are made of recycled products.
The PMU Dining Services replaces a paper “wax” cup with a corn-based product. In the last 10 months, 20,000 cups have been used, all of which were derived from 100 percent renewable resources.
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The following list shows what Purdue Pollution Prevention and Waste Minimization Programs have done to reduce waste, safely dispose of it, and recycle already used products (McDonald): • • • • • • • • • • •
120,000 “Red” Shop Rags laundered and reused. 31,335 fluorescent lamps sent for recycling 7,586 gallons of Used Oil recycled 1,708 Computer Monitors sent for recycling 92,849 pounds of obsolete electronic equipment sent for recycling 606 gallons of spent solvent from parts washers reused in another product. 34 pounds of Elemental Mercury sent for recycling 75 Mercury Thermometers have been replaced 369 pounds of Nickel-Cadmium batteries recycled 82 pounds of Lithium Ion batteries recycled 19 pounds of Nickel-metal hydride batteries recycled
Research Findings Young halls HVAC setback schedule is expected to result in approximately $22,000 annual energy savings. Purdue’s green Supercomputer should create a reduction of 75 to 80 percent of the costs of power and cooling when compared to conventional technology. The power down initiative is expected total Carbon Offset is 244 TONS per year with an energy savings of 321,935 kWh annually. ITaP has reduced the amount of printer paper used in our labs. Usage has been cut from 158 thousand pages per day to about 55 thousand per day. This is a reduction of more than 60 percent Boiler Green Initiative recycling efforts at three home football games this season
thus far collected and sorted nearly 16,000 pounds of reusable materials. Students in the 2008 President’s Leadership Class will focus on issues of sustainability. The Purdue Sustainability Council has 150 campus members and counting. Purdue hosted the Big Ten housing directors conference in October, 2008. It included a roundtable discussion about sustainability issues. Terry Cegielski and his housing officer peers will continue to benchmark best practices and network with nationwide counterparts and professional groups, such as the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
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PMU uses paper products that are made of recycled products. The vitrified marble flooring in the Union does not require chemicals since there is no floor finish to strip or apply.
The Lemongrass restaurant in the Union has bamboo flooring versus hardwood, which is very sustainable. The PMU Dining Services replaces a paper “wax” cup with a corn-based product. In the last 10 months, 20,000 cups have been used, all of which were derived from 100 percent renewable resources.
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Green Week 2008-Water & Energy Consumption Analysis
The University Residences Green website was launched Wednesday, September 17th. (www.housing.purdue.edu/universityresgreen) Daily electric meter readings were taken beginning August 18th and water meter readings were taken beginning September 2nd. The day after launching the website, residents were challenged to a Three Minute Power Shower, the results of which would display how individual habits could affect total consumption for each residence hall. It is important to realize differences among the four metered halls including: • Shreve has air conditioning in student rooms • Earhart has air conditioning in student rooms and a dining court • Harrison has Harrison Grillé restaurant, which is not a full dining court. The resident rooms do not have air conditioning • McCutcheon has air conditioning in only fifty percent of the student rooms. Water Results Thursday to Friday of Green Week 08 Earhart 9% reduction Shreve 3% reduction Harrison 5% reduction McCutcheon 8% increase Energy Thursday to Friday of Green Week 08 Two electric meters were installed at each of the four residence halls, one for lighting and one for power which includes air conditioning coil fans. During the same time period as the Power Shower Challenge, the following differences were noted in electric usage. Earhart • 9% reduction on the lighting meter • 8% reduction on the power meter Shreve • 4% reduction on the lighting meter • 6% reduction on the power meter Harrison • 2% reduction on the lighting meter • 9% reduction on the power meter McCutcheon • 8% reduction on the lighting meter • 13% reduction on the power meter
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Conclusions
Purdue has made great strides toward meeting their strategic goal of becoming a green University. Many organizations and groups at Purdue have already taken initiative and have contributed toward the University’s green efforts in numerous ways. Whether it be recycling and reducing the amounts of hazardous and non-hazardous waste or making use of a state of the art supercomputer with increased efficiency or anywhere in between, it is clear that Purdue is becoming a world leader in sustainability efforts. The fact that nearly every organization here at Purdue seems to be well aware of the University’s impact on the environment and future generations only strengthens our conclusion that this school, while not entirely sustainable, is on the right track toward becoming completely green.
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Interview Transcripts McCutcheon Resident Hall Resident Life Manager, Melissa Cowart
What are some new ways that McCutcheon Hall is going green for next year? Switching to all-green chemicals for cleaning and maintenance, also hand soaps, etc. More places for recycling in places such as the NAR, Piper’s Inn, etc Low flow showerheads Reusing office supplies. *in the past, they have reordered things if they were missing Lights off at night Battery recycling Increase Recycling Big time. Oil, light bulbs, parts of equipment, etc. Reusing old furniture (taking office furniture to the mail room, etc)
How much have these items cost? Very little. Will pay for themselves very quickly.
What are a few ideas that McCutcheon has thought about for the future of going green that has not been implemented yet? Old electronic recycling, such as floppy disks, etc. Phasing out use of Styrofoam cups for workers Everything going A/C, so Keeping windows closed while A/C is on. -thinking about becoming strict on this policy New low-flow urinals and toilets (already may have though)
What are a few ideas that McCutcheon has thought about for the future of going green? Styrofoam cups. Tried once before, didn’t take. Cost and was not a university wide concern. Also, the University food services provides them. Tried four different types of shower heads to see which was like the most and which conserved the most water, there were three disliked. Energy saving competitions. (big). Needs much more advertising and student involvement.
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I have heard that McCutcheon Hall, along with Earhart, Harrison, and Shreve Halls installed water and electricity monitoring systems to track our energy usage. I noticed that McCutcheon Hall had the least electrical consumption out of the other three halls. Even if you were to double the figure, you would still be far below that of Shreve’s usage (2 A/C towers opposed to 1). Is this a coincidence, or is there another reason for this? We’ve been shutting lights off at night, Their occupancy could be a little larger
On a separate note, there was one month where McCutcheon’s water usage had a tremendous spike. What caused this? Not sure. We were putting in low flow items at that time. This could have been from the facilities, intramurals or even the heat, but not sure.
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Assistant Grounds Director and Sustainability, Terry Cegielski
What are some ways that the Resident Halls have “gone green?” HFS Sustainability Website being introduced by first day of school. 1st Street Towers and McCutcheon are going to all green chemical cleaning. Energy Star appliances, which are more efficient, are replacing older models. To retrofit a building (turning it into energy efficient), Purdue used to have a $10,000 grant from the government (until it was paid back), but lobbyists have changed that to $15,000 per campus ($60,000) due to the green trends. (check with Erick E Vanmeter) The meters at the four resident halls cost a total of $50,000 to install. Plan to meter the rest of the buildings in the next 24 months. Food Waste -Big advocate in tray-less Dining. Trying for tray-less everywhere. Ford is a problem, because of the dual-floors. Earth Day in April, this was tried at Wiley, with great success. There were a few people who were very vocal about not liking the idea. However, Terry says that they do not pay to use a tray. Look at all this food. “Eat as much as you want, whether you have a tray or not”. That is what you are paying for. The next Earth Day will be held from Sept. 21-25th. Heating Education. He took pictures of each heating element in the different resident halls and made a pamphlet of how to use them effectively. Apparently there were some students that when it got hot, instead of turning off the heater, they would open the windows. All academic buildings will use clean chemicals by this year. Green Washing Machines at Cary and Hillenbrand: electricity vs. water gain. –jury still out. No need for detergent. It uses ions to kill 99.99% of the germs and makes fabrics fluffier. Window audits: goes to each Resident Hall in one day (ideally) and counts the number of windows open. He then goes to each room and asks why. Etc. 12,000 total residents newest technology awareness Conservicaps: decreases length of water flow in bowl, urinals, same pressure.
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-water and sewage pro @tark and smalley for test sites. ***We have a large spreadsheet showing how the usage of conservicaps reduce water usage at these locations Aerators for faucets – lowers gallon/minute ratio, still cleans effectively. Low Flow in all halls Watt Stopper: records how much money would be saved per year if they replaced switches with motion sensors. (tracks when people are in the room and also when the lights are on) Facility Managers order most of these items, so he is not completely sure on costs.
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Rita Hillman, Assistant to Gerry McCartney, responses for ITaP
Is air-conditioning being shutdown this summer at any of the buildings? If so, what is the energy savings? ITaP occupies 3 1/2 floors of Young Hall. The HVAC systems serving Young hall are on a setback schedule from 8:00 PM to 5:00 AM, which should result in approximately $22,000 annual energy savings from reductions in electricity, chilled water, and steam.
Why are printers not set to duplex by default? We set this as a default several years ago and students complained profusely (so I'm told). For the last year we have been educating students about options for their print jobs and how they can set their own personal default to duplex.
Has the power down initiative been effective? Observations show more systems are on energy savings modes. Unable to quantify savings.
What other initiatives have been implemented? Do you know how effective they have been? Renovation of 9th and 10th floor of Young Hall included dual mode occupancy sensors in each office to switch off lighting when space is unoccupied. A project is underway to replace the curtain wall of Young Hall with materials that have higher R rating and low-E glass to reduce load on mechanical systems. Completion is expected in September 2009. The metering was not in place to quantify initial energy usage so improvement is not quantified.
Purdue is pushing the new eSidewalk and eFlyer ideas to limit the amount of paper waste at Purdue, while still allowing students to advertise for their clubs and such. There are new TVs all over campus that stream these advertisements instead of them being on the sidewalk. Would it be feasible to take these exact same ads and have them be the default screensavers for students in all the ITaP labs? Maybe even during when the systems are idle in the daytime have them stream as well (this will have an increase in electricity though). Even further, what is the feasibility for students to be able to download a program that streams these advertisements to make their own personal computer's screensavers into the advertisements? -If
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not a lot of people do this, what could an incentive be to do so? We have a re-image scheduled to go out to all lab machines in early August. We currently have the screen saver setting to go straight to power save after ten minutes. We will change this to point to a folder of image files. Images could be changed nightly. What has not been decided is how long we should display the eSidewalk and/or eFlyer images before we go to power save. Next Update: We will be rolling out eSidewalk and eFlyer as screen savers to the lab computers with our next image upgrade (schedule for 1st week of August).
Does the situation room help to conserve energy? Initially, there is little change and perhaps a little more is used if we have duplicated workstations. If we are able to consolidate monitoring functions into one area such as the situation room, we could reduce the number of stations powered. I do not anticipate a significant change either way.
Has the power down initiative been effective? Purdue came in 7th in the power down the planet initiative. Here are the stats according to the sponsors: Total Pledges: 1340 Percentage of Participants: 2.68537 % Total Carbon Offset: 244 TONS PER YEAR Energy Saved: 321,935 kWh PER YEAR
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Annotated Bibliography Cegielski, Terry. Michael Burgess. Interview. 9 July 2009. Terry Cegielski, Assistant Grounds Director and Sustainability for Purdue University, offers great information on how the resident hall system, the dining courts and Purdue University in general are going green. He gives great and largely in-depth insight into current projects, and newly found ways that Purdue is going green. Cowart, Melissa. Michael Burgess. Interview. 9 July 2009. Melissa Cowart, Resident Life Manager of McCutcheon Hall at Purdue University, offers great first-hand experience about the going green efforts of McCutcheon Hall and the other Residential Halls. She mentions how McCutcheon and First Street Towers are trial programming fully green chemical cleaners, future efforts in going green, things that did not go well in the past and the cost effectiveness of these programs. Fink, Robyn. Supercomputer uses less energy .13 June 2008. These supercomputers are often used for solving big science and engineering problems that don't have the ability to be solved on a conventionally sized machine. This computer also requires significantly less air conditioning because it produces less heat. Flora, Grant. Going Green Takes Root. Connections, Winter 2009 Vol.8, No.1. July 14, 2009. < http://www.housing.purdue.edu/HTML/PDF/hfs_connections/v08_winter_2009.pdf> This article is about additional green initiatives being undertaken by the housing and food services. This article is used in our document to show several things Purdue has been doing to reduce the amount of or better recycle their non-hazardous waste. Hillman, Rita. Personal interview. 13 July 2009. This interview conducted via email answered several questions about ITaP’s “Green” efforts. We covered the results of the power down initiative, building renovations, and electronic ads. She also answered questions about what ITaP was doing to cut down energy use. Housing and food services page. Purdue University. 5 July 2009. .
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This page has many of last year’s going green projects. Also, it has articles dealing specifically with the dining hall and residential hall efforts in this project. McDonald, Brian. Sustainability at Purdue University. Purdue University n.d. Web. July 7, 2009. This article writes about some of Purdue’s waste management programs. It gives a useful list of what some of these programs have accomplished. This writing will be used in our document to exhibit how waste management programs at Purdue have a positive effect on the area around the University. It will also help us display that waste programs can be productive and make a difference. n.p. Discovery Park Energy Center. Purdue University, 2009. Web. July 7, 2009. This website gives numerous useful links to articles about alternative energy sources. It talks about sustainable energy sources such as solar, wind, and bio-energy. This site will help us to show reasons why Purdue is going green and are developing ways for all sources of energy to be green, or sustainable. This site will also allow us to display how Purdue is effecting not only local people, but the entire world. n.p. Purdue University Sustainability. University News Service. Purdue University, February 20, 2009. Web. July 7, 2009. Purdue will be creating a green roof above Schlemen Hall thanks to a $68,000 donation from State Farm. This article is used in our white paper to display another reason why it appears that Purdue is going green. Snyder, Jason. “2007 InfoWorld 100 Awards.” InfoWorld.12 Nov. 2007. < http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/2007-infoworld-100-awards548?page=0,3> Facing a space and resource crisis, Purdue University virtualized 140 servers onto three HP DL-585 physical machines, reducing overall power usage by 84 percent. Taking up a tenth of its previous footprint, the VMware-based environment is expected to reduce facilities costs by $75,000 per year and hardware costs by $250,000 annually. Weddle, Eric. JC Online. Journal and Courier, April 19, 2009. Web. July 7, 2009.
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This article talks about Purdue’s transportation services and what they are doing to make an effort toward using more fuel efficient vehicles. This article also gives useful data in the form of numbers in reference to how many automobiles the University owns and how many belong to certain departments. This article will be used in our white paper to demonstrate how Purdue has an effect on local people. This article shows that the University is trying to stock more hybrid vehicles and less inefficient vehicles, backing up our claim that Purdue is going green.
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