Environmentally Friendly Universities

Every Monday and Thursday I receive the Washington University Record via email. Most of the news is inwardly focused and academic – hardly interesting to anyone not affiliated with the University. But today, an article relevant to what’s discussed on this site caught my eye.

The piece reviews all the strides Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) is making in energy conservation and the reduction of energy costs. Why? Well,

“On the Danforth Campus in 1992, utility systems could not support future building growth; utility infrastructure was obsolete and inefficient; the central steam plant was coal fired, labor intensive and environmentally unfriendly; steam losses exceeded steam loads during summer operation; electrical capacity was near its limit; electrical distribution was unreliable; and many buildings were not air conditioned.”

Yikes. So there’s that.

To solve these issues, the Danforth Campus facilities department outlined a series of objectives to help ease the energy strain, including: increasing the reliability and capacity of the utility systems; updating the systems technology; reducing energy consumption and operating cost; and being environmentally friendly.

That’s more like it. WUSTL claims, “Since 1992, the School of Medicine has saved $26 million as a result of various equipment upgrades and other energy-saving measures.” Can you imagine what tuition would be without those savings?! Probably the same ridiculous amount actually.

“We are a participant in the U.S. Green Lights program, and have replaced all fluorescent tube bulbs with T8 lamps and all ballast with electronic units,” Thaman said. “And we are trying to minimize the use of outside air. Anytime outside air is brought into a building, it has to be either heated or cooled. By reducing the amount of outside air brought into a building, there is a reduction in the use of energy.

All of the actions taken thus far are fabulous, and will measurably impact the amount of environmental damage caused by the University’s operations. One cool thing WUSTL did was the following: 

“Graduate and undergraduate students are involved in educational and research activities. A notable project was the one led by students in the Committee on Environmental Quality — where a set of solar panels were installed on the roof of Olin Library that tie into the grid. And a new department has been created in the School of Engineering and Applied Science — the Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering — to further enhance WUSTL’s involvement in this area of education and research.

To see the power generated by the solar panels on the library’s roof, go online to here.

This should only be the beginning of the green movement within institutions of higher learning. Schools like WUSTL have tremendous amounts of capital and it should be used not only to replace coal-fired boilers and incandescent but to guarantee every new structure that’s erected on its campus has LEED certification or something equivalent. Universities are incubators of new ideas and the future. They should assume their rightful place as green leaders of the built environment.