Empowered Brings UK Accolades
LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 13, 2012) — The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) recently highlighted the University of Kentucky in its STARS Quarterly Review. The article highlights UK’s new Empowered™ program, a unique interactive and educational resource featuring a web-based, real-time campus energy dashboard.
AASHE, an acknowledged leader in the advancement of sustainability at colleges and universities across the country, commended UK “for demonstrating its commitment to sustainability” and “providing valuable information” in the area of energy management and information technology.
Developed by AASHE, STARS® (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System) is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. STARS was created with broad participation from the higher education community, including the University of Kentucky. UK was recently awarded the STARS Silver rating.
“In being selected, we commend the University of Kentucky for its notable sustainability achievements, including its new Silver rating,” said Monika Urbanski of AASHE’s STARS program.
The mission of Empowered is to elevate the energy IQ of the UK community and to inspire its citizens to participate in a culture of conservation. Empowered is the public interface of the $25.4 million campus-wide, energy-saving project that began in early 2010. The project upgraded the infrastructure of 61 campus buildings, guaranteeing each year a savings of more than $2.4 million, nearly 14 million kilowatt hours and more than 37 million gallons of water.
Since Empowered was unveiled in January 2012, every individual on campus can discern exactly how much energy they use every day — from an energy-efficient desk lamp to an energy-guzzling space heater.
Accessible through touch-screen kiosks located around campus, a public website, and a mobile version for smartphones and tablets, Empowered is an interactive, user-friendly educational resource, featuring a web-based, real-time energy dashboard that measures campus consumption in residence halls, classrooms and labs, as well as offices and public spaces. While the stated mission of the program is to elevate the energy IQ of the campus community, a secondary but no less important role is to inspire individuals to participate in a culture of conservation.
“We were the first university to deploy such a program on such a broad scale, serving such a large community. Empowered has become the model for other campus programs around the country. My office gets inquiries regularly from other institutions seeking to create their own program,” said Shane Tedder, UK sustainability coordinator. View videos of the launch of Empowered and a detailed explanation of its potential.
In terms of its comprehensive layers of interactive programs, including virtual rooms, a video library, and a behavior-based incentive program, Empowered is a one-of-a-kind resource, uniquely developed for UK students, staff, faculty and researchers. There’s quite simply nothing like it anywhere in the country. While the UK Office of Sustainability, Ameresco, and Yonder Interactive Neighborhoods were the primary creators and implementers of Empowered, the initiative was the result of collaborative efforts by many UK programs, departments and agencies, including: The President’s Sustainability Advisory Council, the Office of the Vice President of Facilities Management, the Office of University Capital Projects, Greenthumb (a student organization), the Student Sustainability Council, the Center for Applied Energy Research, UK Energy Club (a student organization), Kentucky Geological Survey, the College of Engineering, and the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment.
“We live in a world primarily powered by finite resources,” said UK President Eli Capilouto. “Our planet has limits, but our faculty researchers are discovering new ways to work within these parameters and utilize our assets to maximize, in a responsible and respectful manner, the impact on these resources.
“The Empowered Program exemplifies the university's continued commitment to being a responsible consumer of our energy resources and a respectful neighbor in the city of Lexington. At the heart of the matter, responsible behavior requires education and awareness. These new tools provide a fun, interactive resource for our students, faculty and staff to see the impact they have on the energy footprint of our campus,” said Capilouto.
“Most people want to save money and to reduce their negative impact on the environment,” said Tedder. “Empowered makes this easy to do by visualizing the impact that our daily decisions have on our wallets and our planet.”
Empowered provides real-time energy usage from across the campus as well as an archive with data on historical energy usage and comparisons that put the numbers into perspective. While it can be used for friendly Who’s the Energy Hog contests between individuals or residence halls or office buildings, Empowered is also loaded with conservation tips, videos and a glossary of sustainability-associated terms.
Almost three years ago, UK embarked on an ambitious — some may have even said risky — plan to dramatically reduce its energy usage. The Board of Trustees on Dec. 1, 2009, approved the initiation of an energy savings performance contract with Ameresco, an energy service company based in Louisville, Ky.
An energy service company (ESCO), such as Ameresco, provides comprehensive energy and water management analysis plans as well as energy and water-related capital improvement services. Enabled by Kentucky Revised Statute 56.774, energy savings performance contracting is a cost-effective process for energy upgrades. Energy service companies guarantee that utility savings generated by facility upgrades are sufficient to pay back the capital investment over a set period (generally 11 to 12 years). If the project does not provide these returns on the investment, the ESCO is responsible for the difference.
The first phase of the project encompassed a yearlong, energy-savings retrofit of 61 campus buildings, which dramatically decreased the university’s carbon footprint, an annual emissions reduction of about 23,291 tons of CO2. That is roughly the equivalent of taking 45,755 cars off the road or planting 62,257 acres of trees or powering 5,251 homes — each and every year. In addition, about 13,987,779 kilowatt hours and 37,673,020 gallons of water are saved annually.
Vice President for Facilities Management Bob Wiseman said, “Empowered provides a very visible public interface to our recent centralized ongoing, energy-saving initiatives and projects. It encourages individuals to make personal choices and assume individual responsibility that will save more energy and money on campus. I believe that as faculty, staff and students are given specific energy information and suggestions on conservation, they will do their part.”
About AASHE
AASHE was founded in 2005 to help coordinate and strengthen campus sustainability efforts at regional and national levels, and to serve as the first North American professional association for those interested in advancing campus sustainability. AASHE is helping to create a brighter future of opportunity for all by advancing sustainability in higher education. By creating a diverse community engaged in sharing ideas and promising practices, AASHE provides administrators, faculty, staff and students, as well as the business that serve them, with: thought leadership and essential knowledge resources; outstanding opportunities for professional development; and a unique framework for demonstrating the value and competitive edge created by sustainability initiatives. For more information about AASHE, visit www.aashe.org.