News Articles
President Proposes Energy Conservation Plan
Conservation is a shared responsibility, says Summerlee
BY LORI BONA HUNT
Anyone who owns an older home can relate to this dilemma: You know your house is more expensive to heat and operate, but the updates and repairs necessary to make it more energy-efficient are expensive. The energy improvements will pay for themselves over time, but the upfront costs are prohibitive.
The result is a continual struggle between being energy-smart and budget-conscious, with most owners of older homes opting to make the repairs one at a time as finances allow.
U of G faces this same dilemma — magnified about 100 times. Many of its buildings are at least 100 years old, and the average age of its 167 structures is 47, nine years older than the provincial average.
“We're in the same position as many homeowners, torn between wanting to conserve energy and the price tag of making the necessary improvements,” says president Alastair Summerlee.
He notes that Guelph is in a more difficult spot than most other Ontario universities because its buildings are among the oldest in the province. That makes everyday maintenance a challenge, let alone tackling energy improvements.
“This is why we have a deferred-maintenance bill that exceeds $200 million,” he says.
To date, U of G has engaged in several initiatives that relate both to energy conservation and to ensuring that steps are being taken to constrain the effects of utility price increases; to improve the efficiency and quality of lighting, heating and cooling systems in campus buildings; and to reduce greenhouse gases.
As a result, the campus' natural gas consumption decreased by 5.4 per cent from 2002 to 2005, despite the fact that the campus population increased by four per cent. In the past two years, it has meant a “cost avoidance” of $1.2 million. This has corresponded to a decrease of almost four per cent in total greenhouse gas emissions.
The most significant initiative was the 2004 energy retrofit of the Crop Science Building at a cost of close to $1 million.
“The retrofit will ultimately result in a major cost-savings, but as with any such large-scale project, it will take several years to recover the capital costs,” says Summerlee.
“We have made great strides in reducing our energy consumption, and we'd like to do even more, including looking at retrofitting other buildings on campus. But frankly, we don't have the money to make such significant upfront investments while also addressing other ongoing maintenance issues.”
Energy conservation, especially building retrofitting, has long been an important issue for student groups, including Guelph Students for Environmental Change, and for many faculty and staff. In fact, the administration has just formed an Energy Conservation Working Group that will involve students, faculty and staff in identifying and addressing energy conservation issues on campus.
“Given the interest from these groups, we will be asking for their help in tackling this important campus-wide issue, including helping us come up with a way to fund initiatives,” says Summerlee.
Brenda Whiteside, associate vice-president (student affairs), has begun the process of asking students to consider a referendum on the issue. It would see students paying a certain amount of money per semester to cover energy conservation measures on campus.
In addition, faculty and staff will have an opportunity to contribute money to the projects. The University would match the funds, earmarking the money for energy conservation.
“Energy conservation is a shared responsibility,” says Summerlee. “We need to think differently about how we use energy to reduce our environmental footprint. This initiative gives our students, staff and faculty the opportunity to play an active role while demonstrating the University's commitment to constantly monitoring and improving its energy use.”
He adds that there are a number of ways to approach energy conservation, and retrofitting is only one of them.
“We'll need to do a comprehensive review of all our older buildings to determine what's the most effective and cost-efficient solution. In some buildings, it may be that we need to reconsider our lighting and heating, review the water efficiency or replace windows. In others, it may call for a complete retrofit.”
Some of the U of G initiatives that have been designed to reduce or constrain energy consumption in recent years include the boiler controls project, which includes a state-of-the-art automated control system that burns gas more efficiently; the water-treatment project, which reduces the consumption of salt, chemicals and water and improves the quality of de-ionized water for research facilities; and replacement of the building automation systems campus-wide.
In addition, the stack heat recovery system was expanded to provide service to the MacKinnon Building extension, which allows it to be heated at no additional cost and without adversely affecting the environment. U of G also completed a campus-wide tunnel steam trap survey to ensure that the steam system distribution is as efficient as possible.
“Ultimately, the goals of any energy conservation plan are to decrease consumption, improve efficiency and reduce negative environmental effects,” says Summerlee. “We are committed to finding the best ways to achieve these goals and to ensure that environmental concerns are adequately addressed.”