New Haven, CT Thirteen of the 40 higher education institutions with Connecticut campuses have signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, affirming their interest in being sustainability models. In 2007, Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) became a charter signatory of the Climate Leadership Commitment, a voluntary pledge to become net-carbon neutral as soon as possible, or by 2050 at the latest. The pledge also involves developing climate resiliency and adaption strategies, as well as educational opportunities for the campus community to learn about sustainability through curriculum, research, co-curricular engagement, outreach and professional training.
SCSU has benefitted from a longstanding partnership with their local utility, The United Illuminating Company (UI), to plan and implement energy efficiency projects. UI’s Business Sustainability Challenge makes comprehensive sustainability accessible, achievable and profitable with the goal of helping campuses become leaders in energy efficiency and renewable energy planning. Working with the campus facilities management personnel, faculty and students, UI assists with activities addressing energy usage, waste and recycling. Additionally, the utility calculated payback periods and financial savings associated with SCSU’s energy efficiency projects including lighting, building recommissioning and sensor installation and provided electricity consumption summaries for the university’s annual greenhouse gas emissions inventory.
In conjunction with the Business Sustainability Challenge, SCSU, UI, and Celtic Energy Consulting piloted the Energize CT Higher Education Fellowship Initiative during the fall 2015 semester. Program goals include updating SCSU’s climate action plan, conducting a feasibility study for on-site solar installation and providing an opportunity for students to be directly involved in every aspect of planning, data collection, analysis and reporting.
Four students with a variety of interests and majors were selected for the fellowship: Meredith Hidalgo, Biology; Justin Lipe, Chemistry master’s degree program; Skyler Edmondson, Geography; and Amanda Macintyre, Exercise Science. The fellowship provided guided skill development for energy planning and management of carbon reduction.
“Overall, the students gained experience with different types of data entry and analysis with different online tools. The students also collaborated with energy consultants, UI staff and SCSU facilities engineers so they could directly learn about related careers,” said Suzanne Huminski, M.S., SCSU sustainability coordinator.
The students’ primary responsibility was collecting and assessing different types of data across campus buildings with the goal of updating the SCSU climate action plan as part of their Climate Leadership Commitment. Students attended meetings with facilities staff and energy consultants, toured the central plant SCSU Energy Center and the 750 KW Greater New Haven JCC parking canopy solar installation. They learned how to gather and enter data from the SCSU Building Automation System, Energy Reports analytics, utility billing and utilized an online efficiency savings tracking tool.
“Through these programs, we seek to nurture and encourage students toward a green jobs economy while achieving meaningful climate mitigation, adaptation and resiliency,” said Amy McLean-Salls, program manager for the Business Sustainability Challenge, from UI. “This direct involvement helps the student fellows understand the impact and results of changing the behavior of not only the individual student, but also of other members of the student body.”
The data gathered by the student fellows provided some of the information necessary for the SCSU systems office to post a request for proposal to initiate on-site Photovoltaic solar installation. The project includes installing ground-mounted panels and rooftop panels on a campus garage. Depending on cost effectiveness, the project may also incorporate a parking canopy installation in a portion of a different on-campus parking lot.
The Energize CT Higher Education Fellowship also secured the SCSU students with a stipend, which was provided by United Illuminating.
Information on energy efficiency programs can be found at EnergizeCT.com.