If you have anything to do with the buildings on your campus, Second Nature's latest offering, Campus Green Builder, is the website for you.

The site promises to act as "a one-stop online resource on campus green building that is free and accessible to all higher education institutions." It will include links to green building resources as well as experts’ directories; case studies (accounts from Spelman College, the College of Menominee Nation, East Los Angeles College, and Richland College are already live); announcements of green building and campus sustainability events, workshops, and webinars; free user accounts; and a blog for commenting and networking.

As the cost for green buildings goes down,and the standards for what counts as "green" go up, this information will be crucial. Amy Seif Hattan, director of strategic initiatives at Second Nature, notes that her experience at Middlebury taught her that with a little ingenuity and the right information, sustainable buildings don't have to break the bank:

"Supporting the local economy through green building was not only the right thing to do, but was not a significant extra expense. At the time the wood was ordered the exact cost was unknown, but what Middlebury College did know is that the timber received might actually be of higher quality than was expected. The estimate was that the wood could cost 2-3% more than non-certified wood, but that it could also save the college money."

She goes on to note that after a streak of new green buildings, the school is now focused on adaptive reuse and retrofitting old buildings for efficiency, which is the kind of thing that under-resourced schools, such as Minority-Serving Institutions, community and technical colleges, and the US Department of Education’s Title III and V institutions, which are the primary intended audience for the site, may find most useful.

We talk a lot about climate and the environment here at Campus Ecology, but the truth is that long-term sustainability requires more than ecological considerations. If a school is carbon-neutral, but not financially viable, it has failed its mission. Therefore, energy efficiency and other “green” initiatives often have to save the institution money, or at least break even, to be considered at all.

The most common way to gain support for these energy projects is to prove a significant return on investment, and are therefore worthy of being included in the college's master plan. So, articles on campus greening initiatives usually include a summary like this one: an initial investment of $X is expected to pay for itself in Y years, and generate an extra $Z. The numbers often speak for themselves, as in the case of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, which saves 2.26 tons of CO2 emissions per vending machine per year using small devices that turn off the machines when idle. The Vending Misers, which cost $175, pay for themselves in one year by saving about $200 on electricity bills.

It seems like a no-brainer. One of our latest articles, Master Planning for Sustainability, quotes Terry Calhoun of the Society of College and University Planners, who says, "If you did good integrated planning, you would end up with sustainability. Why would you build a building that uses six times as much energy as it has to?"

Unfortunately, this picture is incomplete. The reality of a university’s bureaucracy can often mean that even projects with large and easy paybacks may be ignored, because complex budgeting structures are not designed to reward electricity savings in the facilities department. This may be true even if a comprehensive master plan puts environmental sustainability as an organizational priority. Leith Sharp, writing for Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, notes that, “Even if operating managers do manage to fund efficiency improvements to produce operational savings, they are rarely allowed to capture and reinvest these savings for further improvements. Instead, they will often see next year’s operating funds reduced to reflect this operating cost reduction, hardly a reward for a job well done.”

Sharp, former director of Harvard’s Green Campus Initiative, adds:

"Our institutions freely use the mantra of the “business case” to challenge and scrutinize the viability of anything new without addressing the fact that in many cases the business case is being sabotaged by poorly designed finance and accounting structures. Colleges and universities are incurring enormous additional costs by failing to reform these practices to enable good business practice to flourish … It is not clear how this has evolved, but it occurs in almost all large organizations. This division results in capital budget managers resisting the expenditure of any extra money, even when the operation savings are extraordinary. At the same time, the operating budget managers commonly do not have enough access to funds for ongoing efficiency improvements."

For a problem this complex, master planning is only part of the solution. Sharp goes on to describe the "complex, irrational, and unconscious life of the institution," which sabotages the work of campus sustainability officers and their efforts to bring the campus towards climate neutrality. As examples, she points out energy-purchasing contracts based on volume consumptions (where the unit price of energy goes up when consumption goes down) or steam return-metering. Both systems encourage individual waste, which saves money to a particular building or department, but results in overall system inefficiency.

Harvard was able to make significant progress using a revolving loan model, which funded projects with paybacks of less than five years, and reinvested that money in ongoing upgrades, efficiency projects, metering and behavioral change programs.

But Sharp is aware that this wouldn’t be possible everywhere: Harvard is blessed with more resources than most schools, and a sustainability staff of dozens of people. “The deeper lesson,” she says, “is that we should stop creating the ongoing need for revolving loan funds—by structurally connecting capital and operating budgets and institutionalizing life-cycle costing, a well-established methodology for calculating upfront and future operating costs relating to different decision-making options. I also believe that our organizations should capture and reinvest savings that result from successful resource conservation and waste-reduction efforts as routine practice to fund dedicated annual innovation budgets for financing pilot projects and ongoing efficiency upgrades.”

It’s not exactly a small request. Such redesigning of the university’s essential infrastructure might take years, and it’s a lot harder than installing add-ons to a couple vending machines, or even retrofitting an HVAC system. This doesn’t discourage Sharp. She says, “Over many years, I have observed that the common belief that people are innately adverse to change is not generally true. People are not resistant to change, they are opposed to instability, and they simply assume that change equals instability.”

To achieve this stability, Sharp argues that the sustainability staff need to act as the rudder-on-the-rudder, going beyond simple equations of return-on-investment and discussing the real risks and barriers in play. Only then, she says, can universities bring their carbon footprints “down to an equitable share of what the planet’s life-support systems can support.”

Day two of the Butte annual sustainability conference opened with a special keynote featuring Ken Grossman, Owner and President of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company – a very popular company with the Butte crowd! Grossman, an alumni of Butte, gave an impressive overview of all the sustainability practices in place at the Brewery, such as the recycling or reusing of almost all waste (99% of waste is diverted from the landfill), using motion sensor lights throughout the buildings, a 10,000 plus panel (solar) structure, and a cattle partnership with Chico State University where the cows are fed spent grain, spent yeast, and even spent beer from the brewing process. The Brewery also captures CO₂ emissions, compressing and cleaning them and using the carbon dioxide as fuel in the dispensing process. Sierra Nevada also has two sustainability coordinators to monitor practices and look for new opportunities.

A second presentation by Dr. Randal Beeman from Bakersfield College, a professor of history, talked about the role of the government in sustainability in history. Dr. Beeman highlighted a couple of ecological crises from the past – the dust bowl and the flooding of the Mississippi and Tennessee river valley in the 30’s. He says the U.S. has always reacted to crisis, instead of preparing for a crisis. The message? Let’s prepare for the warming climate by building a sustainable society –- sustainable homes, campuses and communities with sustainable practices. He emphasized that sustainability, specifically sustainable agriculture, needs to sustain both people and the land and support their regeneration.

Many of the second day sessions focused on green jobs training and opportunities and the role of community colleges. SunPower, a company that designs, manufactures, and delivers solar systems worldwide, hosted a session titled Enhancing Solar Job Training and Solarizing Colleges. Their goal is to partner with community colleges and collaborate by providing support for curriculum and "train the trainer" development, linking colleges with local PV installers, and jointly pursuing federal funding for green jobs training. SunPower has an outdoor learning laboratory to train people on how to install solar PV panels (both on the ground and on the roof) and how to service them. They are hoping more learning labs can be built throughout the state and that community colleges will integrate their use into the curriculum.

Yvonne Christopher, faculty member for construction inspection at Butte College, shared her plans for a 12-building scenario village that will break ground this fall. This village will be built with green features and used for training purposes for local fireman and police, as well as Butte students interested in green building careers and construction.

Butte currently offers courses in energy efficiency and renewable energy, green building technologies and practices, and a green building and LEED certification course.

Kristy Jones is reporting from the 3rd Annual Butte College Sustainability Conference, in Oroville, California.

Former President Bill Clinton, at the third annual meeting of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) in Chicago today, shared valuable perspectives on investing in large-scale building retrofits for efficiency and clean energy on campuses, including the possibility of significantly contributing to the creation of the new, green jobs needed to revive the U.S. economy.

Efficiency retrofits and clean energy on campus, he noted, will create significantly more new jobs than comparable spending on fossil fuels in coming years. A single campus, such as Cornell University, may invest up to a gross $150 million over the next 30 years to achieve its greenhouse gas reduction goals, according to Joseph Grasso, Cornell’s assistant dean for finance and administration. Using the U.S. government’s job creation estimate of $92,000 per job created, Cornell’s investment will not only achieve a net energy savings over time, especially when new regulations require internalizing the cost of carbon emissions, but could create more than 1,500 new jobs in the region.

If all 650 signatories to the ACUPCC agreement invested only 1/3 as much as Cornell, the ACUPCC signatories would collectively represent a $30 billion jobs creation powerhouse, while reducing net energy costs and pollution on campuses and in surrounding community.

How to finance such investments? A new guide to be released soon by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) will detail a range of financing strategies for energy efficiency retrofits and clean energy projects on campuses.

Julian Keniry is reporting from the Climate Leadership summit, a three-day conference focused on implementing ACUPCC commitments, organized by Second Nature along with the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and eco-America.

This week marks the first edition of AASHE's Global Edition of the Bulletin. Alongside ClimateEdu, the Bulletin is one of the best sources of news on the campus sustainability scene, but until now has only covered stories in the US and Canada. The new international version will be released twice a year, sent by email for free to subscribers of the existing Bulletin.

The first issue, released yesterday, covers such topics as green building awards in Dubai and Ho Chi Minh City, as well as student projects in Sydney and biodiesel parks in India.

See More:

Shanghai Calling: International Collaboration for Sustainability

Youth Activists Vocal at Climate Talks in Poznan, Poland

Almost exactly one year ago, ClimateEdu's premiere issue included a story about several Utah organizations and universities that switched to a four-day workweek schedule on a trial basis, hoping to reduce GHG emissions and provide an extra benefit to employees. One year later, they have released their findings, and so far the program seems to be working.

A Scientific American article examines the results, noting that the state projects a 12,000 metric ton reduction in carbon emissions from commuting and building electricity use annually, and $1.8 million in savings from utility bills as of May, 2009.

In our original story from August 2008, we reported that "Not only is this change likely to keep a few more cars off the road in a state that has weak public transit infrastructure, it is also expected to save a significant amount of building-generated emissions by turning off most of the lights, heat, and air-conditioning in almost 1,000 non-essential government buildings every Friday. Preliminary reports estimate that shutting down six sample buildings for an extra day would lead to an annual CO2 reduction of more than 3,300 tons per year, and this number is likely to go up depending on which additional buildings are selected."

Although the $1.8 million that Utah has saved on utilities so far is shy of their original estimate ($3 billion), which may be partly due to lowering energy costs, the carbon dioxide emissions savings seem to be higher than officials planned. And employee morale is also higher, according to the Scientific American story. "'People just love it,' says Lori Wadsworth, a professor of public management at Brigham Young University in Provo. She helped survey those on the new Working 4 Utah schedule this May and found 82 percent would prefer to stick with it." Other research shows that employees are not fatigued by the new schedule, show less stress, and are taking fewer sick days. Anecdotal evidence even suggests that volunteerism is up, though it's not clear if that shift can be attributed to the change in work schedules or a general trend.

Other universities are experimenting with flexible schedules, such as Georgetown, Cornell, and the University of New Mexico, with mixed results. Not all regions will be able to save energy in their buildings this way, and tracking the amount of emissions saved can also be difficult, particularly when it comes to including commuting emissions in a climate action plan.

However, managers and legislators seem to feel it's worth a try. "As we move further into the 21st century, governments need to look for ways to become more efficient," says Michael N. Gianaris, a Democratic member of the New York State Assembly. "Moving to a four-day workweek should be at the top of the list. It helps the environment. People like it. It's a no-brainer."

The Charleston Regional Business Journal reports that Virginia Tech has teamed up with Trident Technical College to develop curriculum in the green sector. According to the article, "the two schools will develop curricula on green building, green engineering technology and other energy efficiency-related areas. Virginia Tech will also help Trident develop a comprehensive energy efficiency retrofit program."

While many schools have set up such collaborations in order to get access to solar panels or other renewable energy equipment for their students, Trident's focus will be on weatherization and energy audits, as one of six energy efficiency training centers in the state of south Carolina. Money for the training program is coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Unchallenged assumptions took a beating in a session from Wendell Brase of UC-Irvine at today’s Smart and Sustainable Campuses conference.

Focusing on labs and IT facilities, which often have 24/7 loads and are the fastest growing consumer of energy, Brase described data center equipment used at his campus that is designed by its manufacturers to run normally at temperatures in excess of 85 degrees, but until recently was kept in a room air conditioned to 68 degrees, which requires more energy.

“No one thought that we could do it differently than the way we always had, but it says right there in the manuals that you can safely operate the equipment this way,” said Brase. “The way to make these labs less of a burden on our carbon footprint is to make them smarter. They’re hungry, but they can be managed a lot better than we’re doing. Unfortunately, sometimes we’re still making choices based on assumptions from 1965.”

The Department of Energy estimates the growth of energy consumption from labs and IT centers at 15% per year across the country, though Brase notes the number is probably higher at a university, particularly a research institution. To compensate, UC schools have been changing their desktop power settings, closing fume hoods to save energy, consolidating equipment, and experimenting with virtualized desktops.

“We’re interested in what’s called deep energy infrastructure projects. We’re not doing a project right now unless we can save 50% of our carbon emissions,” said Brase. “We’ll get back to the 10% or 15% projects eventually, but right now it’s a matter of speed, scope and scale.”

We’re blogging the Smart and Sustainable Campuses Conference at University of Maryland today and tomorrow. If you were in any of the sessions, share your notes in the comments.

While good green citizens are fond of using email to save trees, the widely-ignored fact is that those same emails take up all kinds of server space. Space which, as Warren Arbogast points out in the latest episode of Tech Therapy, isn't free, and requires a lot of electricity to run, maintain, and cool. And when we're talking about massive research and data projects, computing quickly sails to the front of the energy (and expense) line.

For example, the University of Michigan's computing is responsible for about 65 million pounds of carbon emissions annually, costing about $4.8 million in electricity bills, according to their own estimate in EDUCAUSE's white paper on the role of IT in sustainability.

So what's to be done?

Turning off computers at night is a good first step, but given that some estimates put emissions from computing at the same level as the aviation industry, much bigger steps are needed.

The key, says Arbogast, is to work systems-wide. All too often, the departments in charge of maintaining those computers never see the energy costs, making it a non-priority. When asked, he says, many IT staffers don't actually know how many servers exist at their school. So in order to conserve energy and save money, it's often necessary to get everyone in the same conversation: facilities managers, IT staff, department heads, and most importantly, whoever is in charge of the energy bill.

The University of Michigan, mentioned above, set a 10-percent reduction goal of computing energy consumption. According to the white paper, "the university is one of a handful of institutions that have joined Intel and Google in the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, which hopes to cut computer energy consumption in half by 2010. The nonprofit alliance estimates that reducing consumption this much could slash carbon emissions by 54 million tons a year." Assuming energy rates remain somewhat constant, a 10% cut in electricity usage could correlate to almost $500,000 saved just in electricity charges.

To get to that ambitious number, everything from consolidating servers to Energy Star monitors will be in play.

Making more efficient "supercomputers" is also crucial, if expensive, as we noted last fall. Several universities, including Purdue and UCSD, are testing data centers that conserve as much as 40% of electricity, and the University of Maine has one that can be powered by cyclists, if anyone is so inclined.

Our latest issue is live. Here are today's headlines:

Youth Activists Making Their Voices Heard at Climate Talks
Joann Klimkiewicz
At climate talks in Poznan, young delegates from across the world added their voices to the debate, demanding that the global dialogue be refocused on the survival of civilizations and ecosystems.

Hydrogen: Just a Lot of Hot Gas?
Paul Tolme
Humboldt State’s new hydrogen-powered car and fueling station are part of a university-led effort to wean America off gasoline. But is hydrogen the fuel of tomorrow or yesterday’s hype? ClimateEdu goes for a ride to find out.

Service Learning Takes a Climate Approach
Courtney Cochran
A Warren Wilson College project addresses a climate challenge that lies beyond campus, taking advantage of the school's work program and service learning components to help local residents energy-proof their homes.

PERSPECTIVE: Recession is the Mother of Invention
Rachel Barge
As legislators make hard cuts to their budgets, education administrators hunker down on campus spending, particularly when it comes to so-called “luxury” sustainability programs. To compensate, student organizers and campus sustainability professionals are turning to new funding sources to implement vital campus sustainability initiatives.

ClimateEdu, published by National Wildlife Federation's Campus Ecology program, offers news, best practice analysis, events, resources, and opportunities for climate leadership on campus. To subscribe to our twice-monthly e-newsletter or read our archives, visit the homepage: ClimateEdu: News for the Green Campus.