While the University of Michigan's physical footprint may be growing, its environmental toll is shrinking. According to the 2010 Sustainability Annual Report, for the year ended June 30, 2010, total building square footage increased by 8% (mostly due to the acquisition of the North Campus Research Complex property) and campus headcount by 2%, but eco-efforts resulted in a 4% drop in normalized (per-person, per-square foot) energy use, a shrinking of the per-person trash heap by 5%, and 3% less water usage.
"What that [report] is showing us at this point in time is that all of the efforts that are going on in other parts of the university, such as our Planet Blue operations teams... are going through and basically recommissioning buildings and teaching building occupants how to use their facilities the most efficient way possible," explains Terry Alexander, executive director of U-M's Office of Campus Sustainability. "Things that are happening from our IT department in green IT technology, green purchasing from our purchasing department - all of these things are having a positive impact on the university so that we're offsetting that growth."
The Planet Blue teams, considered a best practice by other universities nationwide (including the University of California system) have a 5% energy reduction goal for every building they sweep. But after completion of the first 44 facilities, the teams obtained a 12% reduction. The teams will be passing through 30 more buildings each this year and next. Projection of 2011 results would be premature, given that the North Campus Research Complex occupancy rate, and accordingly energy use, will only grow, Alexander points out.
While stats and technical play-by-plays relay the message, without individuals' buy-in these efforts only go halfway, Alexander says. "That's where a lot of places don't really hit it. They'll do the building itself but they won't necessarily get the people involved in it. From our standpoint, if we have the ability to get the people that work [there] to be a part of it, they come up with a lot of great ideas on their own about how they can improve the building."
As an example he cites the IT department's decision to move their server farms, which require cooling, from individual buildings to a central server system. "But if we hadn't been there to get the people involved we probably would not have known that was one of the issues we would have had to overcome."
Source: Terry Alexander, executive director of U-M's Office of Campus Sustainability
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
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