Flip the Switch
It’s easy to take for granted how much energy a single building consumes. From electricity to heating, air conditioning and water usage. Most of us are comfortable with simple actions, like turning off the lights, but we can achieve even bigger gains from other behaviors and key conservation strategies. UB will strive to reduce building energy use by 30% through behavior-based and technological conservation measures.
Sub-strategies
Two main areas of strategies will be implemented across the university campuses:
Cultural - leverage green office programs, lab and dorm certification initiatives to increase culture change amongst students, enhance the current Eco-Rep program, create new employee-to-employee engagement initiatives and implement numerous other behavior based conservation efforts
Technology - 100% LED ambient lighting on all university premises by 2022, implement lab hood efficiency initiative, plug load and IT controls across all campuses and other technical improvements
Policies
Our university will leverage Governor Andrew Cuomo's goal of obtaining 30% of greenhouse gas reductions through conservation measures. In addition, this working group will propose a suite of new university policies including hours of operation, temperature set point, space utilization, life cycle cost and many others.
Updates
Fall 2020 - Spring 2021
Developed a three pronged Strategy
o Reducing building energy use through behavior change
o Creating policies which reinforce culture change
o Using technology to track impact of behavior changes (i.e. obtaining feedback from the UB community to drive educational efforts and create a dialogue)
Committee
Captain: Mark Coldren, associate vice president for Human Resources
Ann Bisantz, Dean, Undergraduate Studies
Martha Bohm, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Architecture
Brian Haggerty, Senior Associate Director for Residential Life, Residential Life
Nancy Kielar, Assistant Vice President/Chief of Staff, CIO Finance
Erin Moscati, Environmental Educator, UB Sustainability
Maria Wallace, Director, Student Unions