Projects That Work: Green Campus Best Practices

Here you'll find descriptions of, and supporting documents for, projects that have worked on Green Campuses. Feel free to use them as they are, but know that while this list is comprehensive, it is not exhaustive. Be creative, find out what works for your campus, and mix in some of these tried-and-trues.

Office Energy Audits
Energy auditing, followed up with the implementation of energy efficiency measures, can generate big energy and cost savings in campus offices. Some GCP teams have recorded up to 30% reduced energy use in campus offices following audits and implementation measures.

Read this first: Office Audit One Pager(.pdf 60.4 KB)

Glossary of Auditing Terms (.pdf 39.5 KB)
This nifty plug load calculator will help you out as you conduct office energy audits.

Office Audit Template(.xls 24.5 KB)
Use this printable version of the plug load spread sheet as you conduct your office energy audits- you can then transcribe information on to the electronic version of this spread sheet (also in this folder) to make calculations.

Printable Office Audit Template (.xls 18.0 KB)
This document will show you how to put MAC and PC computers to sleep. *Adapted from the Green Schools 2005 SEAT training

How to Put a Computer to Sleep (.pdf 27.3 KB)
This document will help you organize your plug load audit and calculate kWh and costs. *Adapted from the Green Schools 2005 SEAT Training

Plug Load Analysis Worksheet (.doc 378 KB)
This document provides you with data on typical lighting technologies on your campus. *Adapted from Green Schools 2005 SEAT Training

Typical Campus Lighting Technologies (.pdf 58.4 KB)
This document shows you how to calculate lifetime kWh and cost of a CFL and an incandescent bulb. *Adapted from Green Schools 2005 SEAT training

Differences between CFLs and Incandescent Lights (.pdf 24.9 KB)
An auditing form designed specifically for lighting to help you determine total kWh and cost for operating lighting in a given area. *Adapted from Green Schools 2005 SEAT training.

Lighting Audit Worksheet (.doc 389 KB)
This document will help you inventory the lighting in a room and help you make recommendations on lighting redesign (e.g., using task lighting instead of overhead lighting), de-lamping or re-lamping. *Adapted from 2005 Green Schools SEAT training materials

Room Lighting Worksheet (.doc 53.5 KB)
How to read a standard dial electric meter, a helpful skill in determining energy consumption at the meter over a period of time. *Adapted from 2005 Green Schools SEAT training materials

How to Read an Electric Meter (.pdf 85.6 KB)
Presentation on campus office energy auditing for the GCP End of Year meeting 2007

UC/CSU/CCC 2007 Sustainability Conference Presentation

Network-Based Power Management
The goal of a network-based power management software project is to reduce energy consumption associated with campus computers by activating and managing the power saving modes on multiple campus computers and monitors at once. Generally speaking, network-based power management software implementation has the potential to be your biggest project in terms of energy savings, but one of you smallest in terms of time.

Read this first: Power Management One Pager (.pdf 52.9 KB)
Print out this case study and show it to your IT administrators when you meet with them about implementing EZ GPO on your campus.

EZ GPO Case Study from the University of Wisconsin (.pdf 127 KB)
Technical information on the EZ GPO program, you should print it and show it to IT administrators when you meet with them to discuss implementing the software.

Documentation for the EZ GPO Power Management Tool for Network Administrators (.pdf 64.7 KB)
This report summarizes the national wastage associated with leaving computers unnecessarily. The report also includes survey data that suggest the most common reasons that people do not enable the power-saving modes on their computers.

ASE Report: PC Energy 2007 (.pdf 2.08 MB)

Dining and Food Services
A campus kitchen typically uses 5-times more energy that the rest of the building in which it resides. Green Campus can play a valuable role in conducting walk-through audits of campus kitchens and food preparation venues, and providing follow-on education with dining staff on ways to adjust procedures to save energy. In addition, Green Campus can direct campus facilities and dining as to how and where to leverage local (utility and other energy programs) rebates to upgrade basic equipment to achieve notable energy (electricity and water heating) savings.

Read this first: Food Services One Pager (.pdf 64.2 KB)
Presentation and related resources from Richard Young of the Food Service Technology

California Food Technology Center Presentation (.pdf 7.29 MB)
How UC Santa Cruz made their dining hall the first green building on campus and the first green restaurant in Santa Cruz

UC Santa Cruz Green Dining Presentation (.ppt 1.72 MB)

Campus Laboratories
Research laboratories are thought to consume somewhere between five to ten times more energy per square foot than typical commercial buildings, and laboratory fume hoods are typically the largest energy consumer. Green Campus can play an effective role in educating & influencing lab staff and users to implement sustainable practices within their daily routine during AND following completion of the campaign.

Read this first: Campus Labs One Pager (.pdf 58.9 KB)
How to find and measure energy-saving potential in a lab

Lab Audit Form (.doc 29.5 KB)
Collect as much data as possible about a lab's practices, and learn about the lab's internal culture

Lab Interview Questions (.pdf 271 KB)
An in-depth investigation of labs to discover the areas in need of improvement.

Lab Walk-Through Sheet (.pdf 32.6 KB)
Questions to ask when being taken through a lab in order to make the most informed advice possible

Lab Tour Data Sheet (.pdf 21.4 KB)
The Energy Manager at UCSF put together an estimate showing the amount of time a fume hood sash is closed and how much energy that would save versus a fume hood sash that's open. This is not a published, peer-review study, but it's a nice back-of-envelope calculation and should prove useful. PLEASE NOTE: These rough findings only apply to Variable Air Volume Fume Hoods, not to hoods with constant volume.

Fume Hood Savings Estimate (.pdf 18.6 KB)
Summarizes the findings of a study evaluating the effectiveness of educational campaigns on shutting fume hood sashes in campus labs. The study was conducted at Duke University and the paper was presented a few years back at a Labs 21 conference.

Study on the Effectiveness of Lab Fume Hood Educational Campaigns (.doc 2.36 MB)
An image of the sticker that UC Irvine interns placed on 180 fume hoods to remind users to close sashes when they finished

UC Irvine's Fume Hood Sticker (.jpg 50.6 KB)
This presentation provides some good background on the importance of closing the sashes of lab fumehoods. It also give an overview of a shut-the-sash campaign at Harvard University.

Harvard University's Succesful Fume Hood Sash Campaign (.pdf 589 KB)
This presentation teaches viewers how to effectively approach laboratory assessments for research sustainability

UC Santa Barbara's LARS Presentation (.ppt 1.06 MB)

Getting Support
Below is an example of an excellent proposal that interns at UC Berkeley used to initiate a relationship with their housing department in order to forge a mutually beneficial partnership through which they could work together throughout the school year.

UC Berkeley's Proposal to the Housing Department (.pdf 193 KB)

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