Spotlight on Green Schools
Schools are focusing more and more heavily on cutting back on the energy they use and trying to reduce their impact on the environment. The articles on these pages spotlight individual campus energy conservation programs, energy initiatives, solar installations, energy-related technology, HVAC, research, grants, policy, and other topics related to green campuses.
The majority of colleges and universities that have energy management strategies in place are experiencing cost savings as a result of their efforts. But, according to new research released this week, IT executives are de-emphasizing energy efficiency as a priority in their departments.
Bentley University in Waltham, MA has chosen software from PeopleCube and Steelcase to manage group study rooms in its library.
This fall students from 20 colleges and universities will haul homes to Washington, DC to participate in the United States Department of Energy's 2009 Solar Decathlon. Institutions from the United States, Canada, Spain, and Germany will show off the structures as part of a competition that tests their students' ability to design energy-efficient, solar-powered homes.
Arizona State University (ASU) has retrofitted six parking structures at its Tempe campus with new light-emitting diode (LED) fixtures. The university said it expects that the change, which uses hardware from Lighting Science, will save up to $127,000 annually in energy and maintenance costs.
Where building owners once settled for whatever was placed in front of them--with little or no regard as to how those materials or systems would affect the environment--a revolution is underway, driven by closer attention to issues like global warming, renewable energy sources, and high fuel costs.
North Carolina State University in Raleigh has garnered a $1.3 million grant from the United States Department of Energy to work on improving the batteries used in hybrid vehicles.
North Carolina State University has released its first greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory--about 14 months after initially signing onto the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment.
Oregon Health Science University recently sought the help of the World Energy Exchange, run by World Energy Solutions, in figuring out the optimal purchase of natural gas.
Arizona State University in Tempe and the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville will lead a consortium of organizations to work with Walmart in developing a "green" index for the products it sells.
Delta State's president details his university's implementation of an institution-wide cost containment strategy in a challenging economy.
The University of Rhode Island (URI) has partnered with Higher One, a financial services and payment company, to provide a new student service that will eliminate tuition refund and similar checks and replace them with electronic deposits made to a student-directed bank account.
Netop has released PrintLimit Pro 9.4, an update to the company's print management software that's geared toward more efficient printing and helping school environments save on three heavily used commodities: paper, ink, and time.
When Appalachian State University in Boone, NC went through a leadership change several years ago, the new chancellor and provost looked around and realized that much of school's physical assets were not being properly managed. They hired an outside consultancy to confirm their assertions, and then set out to do something about it.
Huntington Junior College in Huntington, WV, will be implementing Perceptive Software's ImageNow for document management in its admissions, academics, and financial aid departments. One reason the college chose ImageNow was because it integrates with Campus Management's CampusVue, Huntington's student information system.
Two weeks ago we began a conversation with Notre Dame's Gordon Wishon about sustainability in the data center, opening with a description of Notre Dame's virtualization strategy. Here, Wishon talks about further sustainability initiatives, with particular focus on environmental issues.