Newswise — Leaders at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are pairing engineering smarts with old-fashioned common sense to trim energy costs and reduce the carbon footprint of the university’s historic Troy campus.
From the innovative design of new buildings to the retro-commissioning of century-old Institute landmarks, Rensselaer has embraced sustainability as a way of life and is dedicated to ensuring the ol’ red and white campus is forever green.
“The physical transformation of Rensselaer over the past decade is striking and undeniable,” said Claude Rounds, vice president for administration at Rensselaer. “But even with the addition of all of these new facilities, we have reduced our overall energy and water consumption per square-foot. In terms of energy efficiency and sustainability, Rensselaer is leaner and greener than ever before.”
Using the sun to make the ice
The newest addition to the Troy campus is the East Campus Athletic Village (ECAV). The most extensive athletic construction project in Rensselaer history, ECAV is also among the most energy-efficient facilities of its kind. In addition to optimized environmental conditioning systems and a strong focus on water efficiency for both waste water and irrigation-free landscaping, ECAV has a 50-kilowatt photovoltaic array installed on the roof. These solar panels convert sunlight – an abundant, renewable energy source – into electricity that helps to support the refrigeration system that makes the ice for the nearby Houston Field House hockey rink.
The innovative design for the ECAV stadium employs a solar shading screen to control glare and heat from the western sun exposure. ECAV is expected to achieve a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building rating of silver or gold.
Similarly, the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) has also achieved LEED certification. Rounds said the facility outperforms many of the LEED requirements and standards. Some of the sustainable features built into EMPAC include energy-efficient lighting, efficient water usage, and an air handling system that uses heat recovery coils and variable speed drives. At the end of the day, energy use at EMPAC is more than 20 percent below the average baseline energy use of similar-sized buildings.
The Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS), Rounds said, is a triumph of sustainable engineering. The building’s large interior atrium – intentionally designed with long open walkways and bridges to feel like a large seafaring ship and literally break down the walls separating academic disciplines – is naturally conditioned, without the need for cooling or heating. Environmental systems are used on the very hottest and coldest days of the year, Rounds said, but 95 percent of the time, Rensselaer is expending literally no energy to heat or cool the CBIS atrium.
Sustainability as strategy, education
For the many treasured older buildings on campus, Rensselaer employs the strategy of retro-commissioning. This regime of constant improvement entails making sure the individual environmental and operational systems of each building are performing as optimally as possible, given the restraints of the hardware. It is neither efficient nor cost-effective to simply gut a building’s existing system and replace it, Rounds said. Instead, everything is kept in tip-top shape and new updates are phased in over time.
“You really have to take each building on a case-by-case basis, and be as smart as you can based on the building’s needs and function,” Rounds said. Rensselaer purchases five million kilowatt-hours of wind-generated electricity every year to help power the campus, and over the past several years has received $1.6 million in state and federal energy grants.
Rounds said the thread tying together all of the Institute’s green efforts is the Student Sustainability Task Force. The student-led organization has successfully endeavored over the past few years to integrate sustainability into all aspects of campus life, including education, research, operations and culture. Many of these efforts include collaborations with Rounds’ group, and range from monitoring the real-time energy usage of different campus facilities, to efficiency programs, composting, and recycling.
“We now have a large, very active group of students who are doing a number of important sustainability projects,” Rounds said. “The task force has generated a valuable inventory of student-led sustainability pilot programs and other opportunities. These students have led the way to the most remarkable and substantial move forward in sustainability that this campus has ever witnessed.”
Campus facility and physical plant sustainability efforts also link Rounds and his team to another strategic priority of the Institute – graduate and faculty research. Rounds said several researchers are using the Rensselaer campus as a test site to study everything from new efficient lighting solutions to solar energy harvesting and experimental energy usage monitoring.
“In addition to all of the good reasons for weaving sustainability into every nook and cranny of Rensselaer, there is a very real impact on the order of millions of dollars that we realize from these green efforts,” Rounds said. “And the more we save, the more we can reinvest in our students, operations, and educational mission.”
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