Building Energy Reduction and Integrating Sustainable Building Practices

In response to the increased awareness of energy, water and general environmental impacts of buildings on the UGA campus and society at large, the UGA biological and agricultural engineers have a continuing program to reduce energy and water use through building audits. This program is being transitioned to other campuses within the Georgia university system as well. This energy audit program began as a means to help control energy costs for facility operations at UGA. Since that time, the program has evolved to include other important topics such as recommissioning by identifying problems in operation of the systems, water consumption and the overall environmental benefits to society. During 2008, energy and water audits were completed on the new CCRC building and the Center for Applied Genetics and Technology (CAGT) building. Work began in the fall of 2008 on the main Vet School building. Energy and water conservation measures that were recommended in energy and water audit reports for the UGA Athens campus during 2008 to date would result in a total annual savings of 546,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, 42,900 therms of natural gas, and 3.7 million gallons of site water. In financial terms this represents $96,500 in annual energy and water cost savings, with a total 10-year net present value of about $700,000. The electricity and natural gas savings would result in the avoidance of about 535 tons of CO2e emissions per year. For the Sustainable Energy Management Program within the University System of Georgia, a UGA engineer helped direct the collection and analysis of energy and water use from all 35 member institutions. The result was the completion of the benchmark data for fiscal year 2007, which will be used as the point of reference going forward. A grant proposal was submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in August 2008 to support certain key tasks in implementing the USG energy program, as well as for research on the potential for implementation of new bioenergy production measures that can be readily adopted at UGA. The increased level of activity within Georgia and on the UGA campus is leading to UGA and UGA's Engineering Outreach program in being a leader in the energy and water conservation area, as well in the topic of green buildings and sustainable design practices.