Projects

ESAC Subcommittees Projects

1. Energy Subcommittee

The initial green house gas inventory for the University is complete. Work will continue on the inventory to meet the commitments of the Seattle Climate Partnership. The Energy subcommittee will also support the ACUPCC efforts of the University.



2. Green Purchasing Subcommittee

Publications Services is developing vendor relationships (throughout 2007) that will allow the UW to green its printing services. For example, the copy Centers plan to go green, using 100% recycled paper.



3. Communications/Outreach Subcommittee

Publication Services is assisting the ESAC communications/outreach subcommittee create an environmental stewardship web site in collaboration with students and faculty. The web site will be maintained by Publication Services for one year, with the goal of providing a central location for information on the rapidly progressive environmental efforts at the University.

4. University Wide Projects
• The American College and Universities President's Climate Change (ACUPCC) Initiative Project

The UW is a signatory University of the ACUPCC. Sandra Archibald, Dean of the Evans School and ESAC Chair has been asked by President Emmert to be the liaison with ACUPCC. She has accepted on behalf of ESAC. The committee will support the UW efforts in addressing climate change.

...."The ACUPCC Leadership Summit and public launch on June 11-12 in Washington, D.C was a great success! We were pleased to have 70 college and university presidents and over 30 higher education association leaders along with visits by members of the US Senate and House, national and regional news media and the EPA Administrator. As you may have seen, the launch got major media attention including the New York Times, Washington Post, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and AP...."

For more information on the ACUPCC go to: http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/html/news.php

• Harborview Medical Center Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability Project

Harborview Medical Center has started an environmental stewardship and sustainability committee to build upon current achievements at the University and to practice environmental stewardship as it grows and changes.

• Housing and Food Services (HFS) Housing and Food Services Saves Energy with Compact Florescent Lamp Exchange

HFS in partnership with Seattle City Light (SCL) and SEED (Students Expressing Environmental Determination) has begun a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) exchange program for task lighting and incandescent bulbs within HFS buildings. CFLs use 75% less energy and last 7-10 times as long as incandescent lamps. As of August, 2007 HFS has purchased over 4000 CFLs and will receive a $3 rebate from Seattle City Light for each incandescent bulb that is replaced. The SCL rebate covers the cost of the CFL purchases. To date, the majority of CFLs have been installed in existing buildings. The program is planned to continue with new residential students this fall.

CFLs contain a small amount of mercury, so their future disposal/recycling require special consideration. Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) has extended the UW fluorescent lamp recycling program to include CFLs and will pick up broken or inoperative CFLs at HFS Resident Hall front desks. The front desk also serves as the point of incandescent/CFL exchange for resident hall students. EH&S also assisted in creating on one page “CFL owner’s manual” to educate students and staff regarding CFL use and recycling. SEED has assisted in communicating the CFL exchange program with peer students and hosted two “CFL exchange parties” during spring quarter 2007.

In addition to the operational savings and reduction of greenhouse gases and global warming, involving individual students in the resident halls was seen as an opportunity for students to take a first small step toward sustainability that will hopefully grow. The benefits and results of this pilot program will be documented for potential campus-wide implementation.

5. Student Projects

Professor Steinemann of the Evans School, taught a joint environmental and civil engineering masters' degree course on campus sustainability indicators in the Spring Quarter 2007.

The topics presented included but were not limited to:

• "Environmentally Responsible Purchasing at the UW " by Craig Benjamin and Sarah Reyneveld
Students identified a sustainability opportunity at the University of Washington. This opportunity is an Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) was developed over an intensive process involving over 100 stakeholders from the computer industry (including the City of Seattle and the UW's 3 main computer suppliers, Dell, HP and Apple); EPEAT provides an easy to use purchasing tool to help organizations compare computers based on their environmental attributes. If implemented, the University could become a leader in environmentally responsible computer purchasing practices. Based on current projections, this project would produce quantifiable benefits over $600,000 per year for the UW. The students believe that by using these guidelines, the UW can take greater advantage of its purchasing power to leverage change in the computer industry, and to place the UW as a leader in environmentally responsible purchasing.
• "The Green Campus: Significant Tree Designation at the UW" by Deborah Brown

Students studied reconciling tree preservation with campus construction through a “significant tree designation” program. This program provides a list of criteria with which to designate significant trees and a template for integrating the significant tree program with the current construction planning and design process. A $630,000 per year savings can be realized, extrapolating from a UC Davis study measuring annual environmental and social benefits of trees (Maco, 2004).

• "Greening Campus Data Centers" by Seung-Jin Lee and Brendan O'Donnell

Students explored highly energy-efficient designs for the new Biology building's data center.

• Benefits and Cost Savings to UW

Data centers are notorious for their high electricity consumption. Rising power densities and electricity prices fuel the need to implement energy-efficient designs in UW's data centers. The UW will need an estimated 2.5 to 3.0 megawatts (MW) of computing power in the coming decade. With the recent acquisition of the UW Tower Properties, three quarters of that power need can be met through the implementation of a new primary data center. This project can provide an order of magnitude cost savings based on a 0.4 MW server room facility. Assuming non-stop annual operation, a conservative energy savings of 10% is approximately equal to 350 MWh of electricity. With current energy prices of $0.07/kWh, a yearly savings of about $24,000 is possible. This is roughly equal to a graduate student's salary.

For more details on these cost savings projects go to:
http://courses.washington.edu/cee59907