The University of California has been a leader in its sustainability practices and gained momentum in 2008 by completing energy efficiency projects that are providing more than $12 million annually in operational savings. UC also gained increasing national recognition for its green efforts.
University of California officials delivered their annual report on UC's progress in implementing its Policy on Sustainable Practices to the UC Board of Regents today (Feb. 3). The 5-year-old policy establishes a set of ambitious goals to advance environmental practices at UC campuses, ranging from efficient energy use to innovative sustainable purchasing practices.
"Our efforts to ‘green' the university demonstrate the power of sustainability principles to both improve the quality of the environment and provide significant financial and energy savings in operating our facilities," said Katherine N. Lapp, UC's executive vice president for business operations. "The achievements of the past year also underscore the University of California's pioneering role as a national leader in sustainability practices and environmental research."
UC continues to receive recognition as a national leader in a broad range of sustainability categories, ranking in the top tier of numerous green ratings last year. The Sierra Club singled out UC as being "in a league of its own" in its second annual ranking of the top 10 greenest universities. Also, the UC Irvine campus earned the state's top environmental honor, the Governor's Environment and Economy Leadership Award, for its sustainable transportation program.
The report highlights a number of UC accomplishments in 2008:
• Four buildings achieved Leadership in Energy and Enviromental Design (LEED) certification in 2008: UC Merced's Classroom and Office Building received a LEED Gold rating, while UC Santa Barbara's Student Resources Building and UC Berkeley's Early Childcare Education Center received a LEED Silver rating. UC Santa Barbara's Recreation Center became one of the first such facilities in the country to earn a LEED for Existing Buildings Silver rating, and six campuses have submitted at least one LEED for Existing Buildings project to the U.S. Green Building Council for certification.
• Annual cost savings from energy efficiency projects are projected to reach nearly $12 million, and more than $20 million in energy efficiency grant funding has been received since 2006.
• Preliminary negotiations with utility companies will potentially result in a nearly threefold increase of grant funding for 2009-11 (compared with the previous three years) to assist UC in meeting its energy and greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.
• A strategic energy plan was completed that assessed demand-side energy efficiency and renewable energy generation opportunities at nine campuses and four medical centers. The plan identified energy efficiency retrofit projects for completion by 2011 that will reduce current systemwide energy consumption by nearly 10 percent.
• All campuses significantly improved their waste diversion rates, with seven out of 10 campuses surpassing the goal of diverting at least 50 percent of their waste from being sent to landfills.
For a copy of this year's sustainability report: www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/feb09/gb8.pdf
Savings from energy efficiency partnerships
All UC projects implemented under the sustainability policy are required to register with the Savings by Design Program, an energy efficiency program offered by California's four investor-owned utility companies. The partnership provides design assistance, energy analysis, life-cycle costing and financial incentives for individual building projects. To date, 180 UC projects totaling 14.7 million gross square feet have been registered with the program. By the time these projects are completed, the utility companies will pay UC more than $5.5 million in incentive payments for these projects, helping the university to avoid an additional $5.4 million per year in energy costs.
The Energy Efficiency Partnership with the state's investor owned utilities continues to provide much needed funding for improving energy efficiency on UC campuses. As of October 2008, grant funding received since 2006 has resulted in more than $20.5 million in projected grant funding for energy efficiency projects. The utilities estimate that these projects will reduce UC's electric demand by more than eight megawatts and energy usage by 73 million kilowatt-hours and 4.8 million therms. These results translate to a systemwide purchased utility cost reduction of $12 million annually, based on current energy rates.
UC has installed and tested 15 new energy-efficient technologies on 30 demonstration sites through a $3 million grant from the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program. Some of these technologies have proven so successful that the Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Irvine and San Diego campuses have installed them in multiple buildings. With these successes, the commission is now providing an additional $3.7 million for more projects.
Next steps
In March 2008, the Regents requested an assessment of areas for updating or expanding UC sustainability policies. In addition to highlights of last year's accomplishments in energy efficiency, green building, renewable energy, transportation, purchasing, waste reduction and climate protection practices, the annual report includes several recommendations for future action, such as increasing the green building requirements, requiring third-party green building certification for all new construction projects and adding new UC policy guidelines on sustainable food services.
UC will work with the U.S. Green Building Council to finalize procedures for certifying multiple buildings through the LEED for New Construction and LEED for Existing Buildings rating systems.
UC is also starting to make more progress toward achieving its goal of siting 10 megawatts of onsite renewable energy generation by 2014. For example, UC San Francisco recently completed a 250-kilowatt solar photovoltaic installation on its Mission Bay parking structure, UC Davis is experimenting with generating electricity from landfill methane gas, and UC San Diego and UC Irvine have finalized power purchase agreements with third-party solar photovoltaic developers for one megawatt each.
The university's recently completed Strategic Energy Plan identified the potential for 36.2 megawatts of solar photovoltaic capacity on campus rooftops. Current state regulations restrict each campus to receiving subsidies for only the first megawatt of such an installation. On behalf of other state agencies, UC has taken the lead in attempting to modify the state guideline definitions for government entities to qualify for additional incentives for each campus.
Background
A green building and clean energy policy was adopted by the UC Regents in July 2003 to minimize the university's environmental impacts. In June 2004, guidelines for the Policy on Green Building Design and Clean Energy Standards were issued. This comprehensive policy established the university as a leader in promoting environmental stewardship among institutions of higher education.
In January 2006, the policy was expanded to include sustainable transportation practices and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. In March 2007, the policy was further extended to cover the areas of climate protection practices, green building renovations, sustainable operations and maintenance, waste reduction and environmentally preferable purchasing. With that expansion, the policy's name was revised to "Policy on Sustainable Practices."
For a copy of the UC Policy on Sustainable Practices.: www.universityofcalifornia.edu/sustainability/documents/policy_sustain_prac.pdf.
For more information on UC sustainability efforts: www.universityofcalifornia.edu/sustainability
For more information about UC environmental research and programs: www.universityofcalifornia.edu/environment
View Science Today video on how one UC campus is going green: www.ucop.edu/sciencetoday/index/action/article/op/display/article_id/19376