[University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Creative Commons photo by jdickert]
Not only has the University of Illinois, Urbana outpaced its goal to reduce energy consumption by 10% by the 2010 fiscal year, they’re expecting to save $5 million dollars in energy costs to boot!
With plenty of time left until the close of fiscal year 2010, they’re already seeing a 9.6% decrease in the campus’ energy consumption. The project included measures like retrofitting outdated light fixtures and ballasts along with an awareness-raising component. They’ve installed 250 sensors to turn off lights in unused rooms, for example, and replaced over 80,000 outdated fixtures. Terry Ruprecht, the university’s director of energy conservation at Facilities and Services said:
We’re heading toward a 10 percent reduction this year, and I don’t think we could have done that without the campus units getting on board. Folks out there are doing whatever small things they can do. It really is one of those nifty things where a whole bunch of people are putting their shoulders to the wheel and making it work.
So far, the project has cost around $4.2 million funded with grants including $50,000 from the Student Sustainability Committee. Thanks to student involvement, the university has focused on upgrades in classrooms.
Not only has the Urbana campus saved millions of dollars, their facilities group is seeing fewer complaints about temperature issues.
Eva Sweeney, F&S engineering specialist, says they’ll need more funding to expand the project:
It’s a pretty modest start, but we’re hoping that if the project is successful we’ll be able to go much more widespread with it.
I’m excited to see where this goes!
Via Ecogeek
About Becky Striepe
