Related Blog Posts - Climate

By Nicole Villamizar, Environmental Protection Specialist, U.S. EPA Office of Resource Conservation & Recovery

As colleges and universities across the US are making commitments to become more environmentally friendly, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can serve as a partner to help institutions reach their goals.

Walter Simpson, AASHE Senior Fellow and retired 26 year University at Buffalo Energy Officer and director of UB Green, is working with AASHE and the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment to develop climate action planning resources. You may read Walter's previous articles here.

Over the years I gave many lectures to architecture students at the University at Buffalo. Via slide shows, I took them on a tour of our two campuses, readily pointing out design flaws in many campus buildings and explaining how we retrofit them for energy efficiency. At some point during these lectures – after learning about a great many design flaws and energy retrofits -- insightful students would raise their hands and ask, “Well, instead of doing all this retrofitting, wouldn’t it make more sense to design buildings right in the first place?!”

And I would answer, “Exactly!”

I’d add, “UB’s buildings are an object lesson. Please don’t replicate the mistakes of the past. Instead, go out in the world and design buildings right. Prioritize life cycle analysis and construct the most energy efficient sustainable buildings you can.”

Walter Simpson, AASHE Senior Fellow and retired 26 year University at Buffalo Energy Officer and director of UB Green, is working with AASHE and the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment to develop climate action planning resources. You may read Walter's previous articles here.

Hello Campus Climateers!

It’s no secret that I think energy conservation and efficiency must be a – or rather “The” -- priority in college and university carbon emissions reduction efforts. But conservation and efficiency can’t take us all the way to the promised land of very deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions or climate neutrality. Even after we have reduced our energy load to a bare minimum through conservation, we will still need to meet that load with something. As much as possible that “something” should be clean renewable energy – either from purchased green power or on-campus renewables.

By Robert Koester, Professor of Architecture and Director of the Center for Energy Research/Education/Service, Ball State University

Ball State University continues to expand its efforts to meet its commitments under the ACUPCC, which was signed by President Jo Ann Gora, one of the twelve founding members of the leadership circle. Most recently, the Board of Trustees has approved installation of a campus-wide geothermal heating/cooling system, which will allow the university to shut down its coal plant that currently produces 85,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually. The installation of this system when complete will reduce Ball State’s greenhouse gas CO2 equivalent impact by nearly 50 percent in on-campus energy conversion. This project—the largest in the country—will commence installation on May 11, the Monday following spring graduation, and will take five to ten years to complete.