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.
Portland Community College in Oregon is taking the first step in a larger effort to retrofit its aging campuses and shift to energy-efficient, environmentally friendly facilities.
When Central New Mexico Community College started looking at ways to eradicate paper and better manage its files last year, the institution set its sights on a document imaging solution that would also integrate with its existing SunGard Higher Education Banner Enrollment Management Solution.
Data center managers have a lot of room for improvement in their operations, including reducing energy costs and making more efficient use of space, according to Gartner. The consulting firm said that energy costs are the fastest-rising cost element in the data center portfolio.
Mid-State Technical College with four locations in central Wisconsin has acquired Power Save from Faronics to perform PC power management. The college system purchased the product in May 2009 after a month of testing and completed its deployment in September.
California State University, Sacramento is knee-deep into a multi-million document conversion project.
Colleges and universities that want to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions face a huge number of challenges and barriers, from a lack of faculty and staff engagement to the difficulty of retrofitting historic buildings, from insufficient in-house expertise to campus leaders distrustful of carbon credit markets. To address those challenges, Rocky Mountain Institute has released a free 121-page PDF guide, titled "Accelerating Campus Climate Initiatives: Breaking Through Barriers."
Syracuse University has finished constructing its new Green Data Center on its New York campus. When the center becomes fully operational in January, it's expected to use about 50 percent less energy than a more traditional data center.
Colleges and universities that want to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions face a huge number of challenges and barriers. To address these, Rocky Mountain Institute has released a free 121-page PDF guide, titled "Accelerating Campus Climate Initiatives: Breaking Through Barriers."
A team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University is examining how an electric vehicle's efficiency can be boosted and its battery life extended by using artificial intelligence to manage power.
The San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) is going solar without having to make a capital investment. The district recently approved a 20-year agreement with Borrego Solar, a national solar power contractor based in San Diego suburb El Cajon, CA, to construct and maintain a photovoltaic system that will annually provide about 2.4 megawatts of green energy at six locations in the district, the equivalent of powering 650 homes per year.
Duke University's board of trusties endorsed a plan this month to make the school carbon neutral by 2024.
The University of Delaware in Newark has signed an agreement with Spain-based Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica to install a utility-scale two-megawatt Gamesa wind turbine at the university's Lewes Campus in 2010.
Server performance may get a green speed boost as a result of research coming out of Carnegie Mellon University and Intel Labs Pittsburgh.
The University of Colorado at Boulder recently filed its Conceptual Plan for Carbon Neutrality with the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, making public how the campus plans to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
Team Germany, made up of students from Technische Universität Darmstadt, took first place in the Solar Decathlon Competition, which took place this month in Washington, DC. Hosted by the United States Department of Energy (DOE), the event allowed 20 university teams to compete in designing, building, and operating the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house.
