Construction for the J.D. Williams Library is seen earlier this year. (File photo)
The University of Mississippi has saved over $1 million on gas and electricity since implementing a wide range of energy efficient practices — from new window treatments in the library to designing new buildings to be energy efficient.
In April 2008, former Chancellor Robert Khayat signed the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment, a pledge that the university would do its best to become “climate neutral,” but climate neutrality does not necessarily mean efficiency; the pledge meant the university would do its best to not cause more harm than good to the environment. While the commitment calls for climate neutrality, Ole Miss has been working to promote overall campus efficiency instead.
“Our Board of Trustees has asked us to form a group and try to reduce our energy consumption by 30 percent over a 10-year period,” said Larry Sparks, vice chancellor for administration and finance. “We sort of ignored that (30 percent) and have done more than that.”
With the university’s commitment to become a more efficient campus came the creation of the Office of Sustainability.
“(The office) was created to facilitate the diffusion of the principles of sustainability throughout campus,” said Anne McCauley, assistant director of the Office of Sustainability. “We help transform the campus into a more sustainable institution.”
Those who have ideas about how to make campus more sustainable are able to bring proposals to the Green Fund, a board overseen by the Office of Sustainability that chooses the projects taken on during the year.
An example of a project taken on by the Green Fund is the installation of new window treatments in the J.D. Williams Library to increase energy efficiency within the building. A low-emissivity film was applied to all the original windows to protect documents from the sun and make heating and cooling the library more energy efficient.
These minor projects mark significant achievements in the university’s pursuit of a sustainable campus. To ensure efficiency in the future, university architects and officials are designing new facilities on campus to be as energy efficient as possible.
“We want to use the least amount of energy for heating and cooling and that sort of thing,” said Danny Blanton, director of public relations.
Blanton said building new facilities to be efficient is not any more expensive than building them inefficiently.
“(There are) new ways they have to design buildings now to make them more energy efficient,” he said. “In the long run, it’s more cost effective to do that.”
According to Ian Banner, director of Facilities Planning and university architect, these “new ways” of building require that multiple aspects of the project be thought through, everything from where the building will be located on campus to which mechanical systems to use. Even the materials being used to build are important to consider when beginning to design new facilities on campus.
“This (use of local products) is good because it reduces transport costs (fuel use, exhaust gasses),” Banner said. “Granite from the U.S. state of Georgia rather than Italian marble might be good.”
These facilities aren’t only energy efficient, they are cost efficient. When reviewing project proposals, the Office of Administration and Finance looks for ways to increase efficiency in a cost effective way. Office staff looks for sustainable solutions that provide profitable returns.
Even though there has been a slight increase in energy usage this year, the university has saved money by practicing efficiency. According to the quarterly report for 2013, the university has saved over $1 million on gas and electricity by becoming a more energy efficient campus, and overall energy consumption has significantly decreased since 2006, reaching nearly a 21 percent decrease in energy consumption per square foot.
Designing and using buildings in efficient ways ensures that the buildings will have a lifespan worth the cost to build.
The commitment to sustainability and building facilities meant to last assists the university in its efforts to provide the best facilities possible for not only current students and faculty but future students and faculty members as well.
