People Counting [Research]

In order to assign an energy use figure to each individual person that uses the Isenberg building, we'll first need to get a head count of the number people that use the building on an average day. I contacted a few people today in order to start working on getting an estimate for this number.

I began by speaking with Jennifer Grossman, who is in charge of Marketing and Communications at Isenberg. She referred me to Isenberg staff member Lou Wigdor who has been working on compiling enrollment information for the school.

After the jump, you'll find a break-down of some of the figures that Lou has provided me with.

Great meeting with Josh Stoffel

Got to meet with Sustainability Coordinator Josh Stoffel this morning. As was expected he knows many of the key players at the University and has already done a great deal of work around these issues. In fact he has a proposal - which he'll be sending along - that he's already presented at the Vice Chancellor level that we can get involved with piloting. He's excited to have a student group on board and especially at Isenberg because it turns out we seem to be wasting more energy than almost anyone else on campus!

On the energy side we can begin to accumulate ideas for user behavior changes as well as system changes. We can then funnel these ideas through Josh and his team to create a program and then help implement it in the building.

In terms of trash and recycling, there's a different set of stakeholders but still an opportunity to make improvements. Josh also has a proposed program for this that we can base our efforts around. Again much of the systems are already in place, it's just a matter of connecting the users with them in some way.

By the way, the seemingly unrelated picture is of the bike rack being installed right now outside the window of rm 210 - green all over!

Overall very encouraging and we continue to make progress in leaps and bounds!

Energy Star Government Averages / Quantifiables [Research]

This past week I looked a little bit into what standards and measurements are used for "efficiency" according to the federal government. Specifically, I investigated the Energy Star website and found out a few key pieces of information. For one, the average university campus building utilizes 280 source / 120 site kBtu/Sqft, with kBtu being kilo-British thermal units (the amount of energy required to heat 1 pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit = 1 Btu). Also, 63% of the average university campus building's energy use is electric.

As a quick note, the above qualifiers source and site denote the difference between source energy and site energy. Source energy is the total energy utilized to provide a given amount of site energy, and accounts for the inefficiency of certain kinds of energy delivery. Site energy is the amount of energy reflected in utility bills, which is the total amount of energy that actually is used on-site in a given location (this does not account for energy lost due to inefficiency or byproducts from the production of that energy).

I imagine we will be measuring the amount of site energy used in Isenberg, as it will be the easiest measure to observe through utility bills, but it is worth noting also the efficiency or lack thereof inherent in certain kinds of energy production. Most notably, as the Energy Star site notes, electricity purchased from the grid accounts for as much as three times the source energy as other forms of energy production, which makes a decent case in my eyes for focusing strongly on reducing electricity usage or searching for alternative methods of obtaining electricity (e.g. solar panels).

For the documents that I drew this information from, please see the wiki site.

First Meeting [Communications]

Greetings from the second official meeting of Service Corps. On Tuesday, we had a great first meeting, establishing interests and identifying the primary points of research that needs to move on. Basically, we are starting from scratch. Thus, we are taking an exploratory approach to this project and will roll it out in two phases:

I. Research and Discovery
II. Campaigning

Our initial mission is to increase energy efficiency at Isenberg. This may be refined or adjusted as we learn more. We have split into four groups:

1. Research
2. Marketing
3. Energy Use
4. Auditing Investigation

As we move on, we may include materials use as part of our plan. However, we want to make sure that we start with investigating ways we can make the biggest initial impact in relation to energy and sustainability. We also want our efforts to be quantifiable and to manifest in a way that has longevity.

We have some initial contacts at UMass, some general points where we can find more information. Thus, we will allow the plan to form around our investigation. We have a great group of people, spanning from those with experience in engineering, marketing, library science, public policy, and finance. We even have a representative from the undergraduate business program. So, I am excited to seeing what our diverse and enthusiastic crew will come up with! Cheers to a new year of connecting business to sustainability!

Contact at the Physical Plant [Energy Usage]

Had a great conversation with Jason Burbank at the Phys Plant this morning. He is the Campus Energy Engineer and is very open to being helpful on this project. He directed me to the spreadsheets available on the Phys Plant web site linked here.

Turns out a company called Johnson Controls has already done an energy audit and is under contract to make energy usage improvements. I'll need to continue the conversation but Jason looks to be a great contact point for our project.