Sustainability savings pay for future efforts
By JULIE GARRETT, Published July 6, 2008

As the campus sustainability movement gains traction, community colleges are mulling how to pay for energy retrofits and “green-collar” workforce training programs, especially in light of the tightening economy.

Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC) funds most of its curriculum development with operational dollars, but it looks for other sources, said Daniel DelMarte, vice president for learning.

“We are constantly looking for grant money to supplement it. There’s no magic bullet,” DelMarte said.

NWTC started offering three renewable energy certificates this year—solar energy, sustainable design and biofuels—and it’s adding two more in the fall. Of the college’s 73 programs, 17 have some focus on renewable energy or sustainability.

The renewable energy programs were started with a $10,000 grant from the Consortium for Education in Renewable Energy Technology, which was created with a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant. In addition, NWTC recently received a $437,000 grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to develop an organic farming curriculum.

Amy Kox, the renewable energies technologies manager, is NWTC’s only full-time employee (FTE) specifically working on sustainability. But like many colleges, NWTC is tapping staff to tackle sustainability projects. For instance, an “energy team” conducted a campus-wide energy audit that identified campus hot zones—areas high in energy use—and provided recommendations for mitigation. 

Using the savings from energy improvements to fund sustainability projects is a common strategy among colleges.

At Lane Community College (LCC) in Oregon, savings generated from energy upgrades and recycling paid for all but $11,000 of the college’s $255,483 sustainability budget in fiscal year 2007, said Jennifer Hayward, LCCs sustainability coordinator.

Aside from Hayward’s job, which is a full-time position, the college also has a full-time recycling coordinator and a part-time energy analyst.

LCC uses the 2005 academic year as its financial baseline year for its sustainability efforts, Hayward said.

“Every year after that, any energy that we saved under the amount that we used in 2005 went toward continual reinvestment in energy conservation,” she said. 

Colleges interested in duplicating LCC’s approach should protect these savings by putting the policy in writing, whether in a memorandum or some other official document, Hayward said.

Colleges should also partner with local utilities to make low-cost retrofits and conduct conservation campaigns on campus, Hayward said. Together, these efforts can easily clip 15 percent in energy costs—the start of a sustainability budget, she said.

Sustainability initiatives generate additional savings beyond energy, said Michael Gross, communications director at Cape Cod Community College (CCCC) in Massachusetts, which has nearly 15 years of environmental leadership experience.

Something as easy as using natural landscaping rather than manicuring a lawn means less mowing and upkeep, allowing the college to use facility maintenance dollars elsewhere, Gross said. Drought-tolerant landscaping can also save on irrigation costs. Purchasing electric golf carts and hybrid vehicles for campus use leads to savings on gasoline.

CCCC’s curriculum initiatives are all funded through grants, said Stephanie Brady, the college’s environmental technology coordinator. In addition to its environmental technology degree program, CCCC offers eight certificates, including three in photovoltaic, solar thermal and wind technologies, all funded through a $300,000 NSF grant.

The college also works with several renewable technology funding organizations in Massachusetts.

“We choose our projects very carefully so that we are meeting our commitment to sustainability in a way that is cost effective,” said Dixie Norris, CCCC’s vice president for finance and administration. “We dealt with printer and paper issues and saved $50,000 in one year. That money could be used for other operating needs, for the academic programs and to help us do other sustainability projects.”

Another funding option open to colleges and universities are ESCOs, or Energy Services Companies. ESCOs allow institutions to pay for the installation of energy-efficient technology through future savings in utility costs rather than up-front payments from capital budgets or increases in operating budgets.

“It can be a good way to finance a project if you just can’t do it otherwise,” said Merrilee Harrigan, vice president for education at the Alliance to Save Energy. “Some ESCOs are better and more transparent than others. Bundling projects that have fast paybacks with other projects that have long paybacks makes perfect sense. If you don’t have the money yourself, it can work and is better than not making the improvements at all.”

Linda Petee, sustainability and risk management coordinator at Delta College (Michigan), said her campus started energy conservation projects back in the 1980s.    

“We considered improvements as a way to manage our budget’s bottom line. Initially we did them not because of sustainability, but because they were the right thing to do,” she said.

Delta started paper recycling in 1991. Last summer, the college hit the 2,000-ton collection mark, Petee said. The college has saved $200,000 on tipping fees since then.

“That money went back into the general funds. We have no budget per se for sustainability,” Petee said.

Delta sought partnerships with local organizations and businesses. When they needed totes to collect recyclables, a local business funded them in exchange for logo placement.

Delta recently won a national award for its green cleaning program. When the college switched to environmentally-friendly but more expensive cleaning products, it went from using two cleaners to one, so there was a net savings.

At Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) in Florida, the facilities department recently replaced cooling towers in its chiller plant for $900,000. The newer technology is expected to save the college $55,000 a year.

SFCC also received a $45,000 rebate from its local utility for the project.

“We are looking at a 12- to 14-year payback,” said Bill Reese, SFCC’s associate vice president for facilities.

Now, the college is in the midst of starting two solar thermal projects.

A simple step colleges can take to cut costs is to develop their own construction standards with energy conservation in mind, Reese said.

“Don’t depend on your architect and your engineers to design them in for you,” he said.

Even if designs are too expensive—especially when it comes to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification—there are components that colleges can adapt to save energy and reduce costs, Reese said.

Garrett is a communications specialist at Santa Fe Community College (Florida).