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Green Purdue Initiatives


Team Brotherton, Burgess, Messmer

Heather Brotherton
Michael Burgess
Brad Messmer

White Paper Project


Summer 2009
English 421Y

Prepared for:
Professor F. Tobienne
Table of Contents
Executive Summary 2

Outreach 2

Building Improvements 3

Limiting Paper Usage 4

ITaP Computers 5

Purdue’s Vehicular Fleet 6

a. Hybrid Coke Delivery Truck 6

Residence Halls 7

a. Going Green Projects 10

Waste Management 13

Research Findings 14

Energy and Water Consumption Analysis 16

Conclusion 17

Interview Transcripts 18

a. Melissa Cowart 18

b. Terry Cegielski 20

c. Rita Hillman 22

Annotated Bibliography 24

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Executive Summery
Purdue’s current strategic plan is focused in part on energy and environmental
awareness. Purdue’s challenge is that the West Lafayette campus uses all the power it
produces and buys additional power from Duke Energy. In order to meet the strategic
plan goals Purdue has implemented a number of “Green” initiatives.

Team Brotherton, Burgess, Messmer will endeavor to evaluate the steps Purdue
University has taken to move toward becoming “Green.” Our research focuses on
policies and outreach that Purdue has implemented. We will also investigate what is
known about the success of those policies. Research topics that we will focus on are
ITaP, Residence Halls, and Outreach efforts.

Outreach

Our Definition of outreach… low-emission university


vehicles and disposal of
Activities that Purdue
hazardous and non-
University engages in that
hazardous waste in more
educate, involve, or affect the
environmentally friendly
surrounding community,
manners are things that
students, or global
Purdue does which have an
communities. These activities
influence on the environment
encompass research and
at large and living conditions
environmental awareness
of people native to Lafayette.
campaigns.
Purdue University
Purdue’s efforts to
researchers are working on numerous
reduce CO2 emissions and increase the
ways to develop sustainable energy
amount of sustainable energy used are
sources. Several of these sources are
far-reaching, affecting not only those at
wind, solar, and bio fuels. Sustainable
the University, but around the globe as
sources of energy appear to be vital
well. Sustainable development is
towards the continued, high quality
defined as development that present
lifestyle we currently enjoy. Research
time society can make use of without
being done at Purdue in these areas
affecting future generations’ ability to
has the potential to affect people on a
have at least an equal lifestyle
global basis. The following paragraphs
will describe why and how the
Initiatives Purdue is implementing
previously mentioned resources are
to reinforce its green status involves
considered sustainable sources of
university vehicles, waste management,
energy.
and research in numerous areas of
alternative energy. Purdue’s purchase of

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Wind energy is a sustainable convert some hydrogen and oxygen into
resource because, no matter what we water, with no net loss or gain of carbon.
do, there is always going to be wind This water could then be used to
blowing around the world. So by using nourish other sources of bio-energy
turbines to convert kinetic energy from such as corn, or any other crop, creating
the wind into electricity, people are a sustainable system.
simply making use of a resource that is
already among them and, unless
harnessed, is not going to do anything Building Improvements
practical. 
   ITaP occupies 3 1/2 floors of
Solar energy is considered a Young Hall. The HVAC systems serving
sustainable resource essentially Young hall are on a setback schedule
because, if we do not make use of the from 8:00 PM to 5:00 AM, which should
light rays shining down on earth each result in approximately $22,000 annual
day, they will simply be absorbed by the energy savings from reductions in
ground and converted into heat. electricity, chilled water, and steam
Therefore, what photovoltaics attempt to (Hillman).
do is to take sunlight and convert it into
electricity. This electricity can then be A project is underway to replace
used to power any modern electrical the curtain wall of Young Hall with
appliance, whereby it usually ends up in materials that have higher R rating and
the form of heat either way. Basically, low-E glass to reduce load on
photovoltaics allow solar energy to take mechanical systems. Renovation of 9th
the path of: sunlight Æ usable energy and 10th floor of Young Hall includes
(electricity) Æ heat, rather than: sunlight dual mode occupancy sensors in each
Æ heat. office to switch off lighting when space
is unoccupied to reduce energy waste
For the case of bio-fuels, we will (Hillman).
take the biological creature, bacteria, as
an example of sustainability. Bacteria Completion for the Young Hall
can digest and produce a wide variety of renovations is expected in September
compounds. So in essence, if we have a 2009 according to ITaP Director’s
bacteria that takes CO2 and digests it assistant Rita Hillman. The metering
along with hydrogen (H) to create a was not in place to quantify initial energy
flammable hydrocarbon (i.e. gasoline) usage at the time the interview was
and water (H2O), we can then take this conducted. Therefore, the effects of the
hydrocarbon and burn it for a sudden Young Hall improvement are not
release of energy, much like is done quantifiable at this time.
currently in cars. Once the preciously
formed hydrocarbon is combusted in the Another renovation project at
presence of oxygen, it will create CO2 Purdue, affecting primarily the students,
and H2O. This means that essentially all faculty, and staff on campus, is the
that has happened is we managed to

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planned green roof for Schlemen Hall
(n.p. Purdue). provide insulation that will reduce the
amount of heat transferred between the
A green roof is simply a roof with inside of the building and the outdoors.
plants covering the top of it. The idea
behind this is that the foliage on top of During the winter, the insulating
the building will not only extend roof life effect should reduce the amount of heat
by protecting it from the elements but it required to keep the building warm. So
should also act as an insulator to reduce overall, a green roof is expected to
heating and cooling costs. provide energy and fiscal savings.

During the summer time, the


plant life will absorb most of the sunlight
before it ever hits the actual roof,
reducing the amount heating the
building requires. The plant life will also Paper

ITaP has reduced the amount of


printer paper used in our labs. Usage
has been cut from 158 thousand pages
per day to about 55 thousand per day.
This is a reduction of more than 60
percent.

ITaP will be rolling out eSidewalk


and eFlyer as screen savers to the lab
computers with the next image upgrade
scheduled for 1st week of August.
Schlemen Hall-Before Currently, the screen saver setting goes
straight to power save after ten minutes.
This will be changed to point to a folder
of image files. The images may be
changed nightly. It has not been decided
how long the eSidewalk and/or eFlyer
ad images should display before going
to power save.

Schlemen Hall-After

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ITaP Computers power down the planet initiative.
According to the sponsor’s stats, Purdue
ITaP has installed a Green had 1340 total pledges and participation
Supercomputer from SiCortex. It has of 2.68537 percent. The expected total
more than 3,000 processors and is Carbon Offset is 244 TONS per
designed for research computing. These year with an energy savings of 321,935
processors draw 600 milliwatts of power kWh annually (Hillman).
each (similar to cell phone/small
flashlight consumption). A standard Systems and Operations has
supercomputer contains thousands of implemented VMW, which allows ITaP
processors that require about 25,000 to reduce cycles by dramatically cutting
mill watts each (Fink). the number of servers needed to
support administrative and general
According to Gerry McCartney, computing functions. 164 servers have
this green Supercomputer should create been onto five virtual hosts, using about
a reduction of 75 to 80 percent of the one-tenth the power and cooling, which
costs of power and cooling when the previous physical servers required
compared to conventional technology. (Snyder).
ITaP’s Rosen Center plans to use
SiCortex’s power-monitoring system to Wake on LAN is now being used
examine its energy. for scheduled updates. ITaP computers
no longer have to be powered on to
Condor is another ITaP initiative. receive updates. This will save
The Condor pool takes what would be additional energy.
wasted computer cycles from idle
desktops and puts them to good use.
ITaP Director Gerry McCartney’s
desktop machine is part of Condor pool
(McCartney).

In addition, ITaP is also


participating in the “Power Down for the
Planet pledge challenge”. This promotes
reduction of computer energy
consumption by setting computers to go
into “sleep” mode when idle. According
to Energy Star, enabling those settings
on just 100 Indiana desktop computers
would annually save more than $60 per
user in energy costs and prevent more
than 60 tons of CO2 emissions. A
sustainability committee has been
formed to explore more ways to save
energy, Purdue came in 7th in the

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Purdue’s Fleet

There are approximately 1,200


vehicles owned by the university. This
number includes planes, trailers, vans,
trucks, and cars. According to the
Journal and Courier, 900 of the
university’s 1,200 vehicles are cars,
trucks, and vans (Weddle).

The Transportation Services


division is an organization that manages Currently, among these
the schools car rentals and whose automobiles are Smart Cars and one is
vehicular fleet (179 vehicles) consists an electric car. The most common
entirely of hybrid and flex-fuel hybrid among these vehicles is the
automobiles. Since hybrids are even Chevy Malibu, of which 28 are owned by
more efficient at conserving gas than the Transportation Services at Purdue
flex-fuel vehicles, the Transportation (Weddle).
Services department says that they wish
to increase their car stock to 60%
hybrids and 40% flex-fuel by mid 2012
(Weddle).

Purdue has a hybrid Coke delivery truck that makes


its deliveries around campus which uses 30% less
gasoline than that of a normal truck.

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Cars Number Type %
Flex-Fuel 78 Chevy Impala 71%
Hybrid 28 Chevy Malibu
Hybrid 1 Toyota Prius
Hybrid 1 Honda Civic
Total
Hybrids 30 27%
2 Smart Cars 2%
Total Cars 110 100%

Vans
Various sizes,
Flex-Fuel 36 makes 55%
Various sizes,
Regular 29 makes 45%
Total Vans 65 100%

Trucks 4 Various makes 100%


- Table shows current vehicular fleet content and was provided by Carol G. Cox,
Director of Transportation Services at Purdue.

Residence Halls

One large part of Purdue to students for decades…up until now,


University’s Green Initiative is the little has been done to really encourage
university’s residence halls and it,” which is why Purdue adopted this
residential dining services. With over character to run fun announcements on
12,000 students living in the resident Boiler Television (Housing). To see the
halls every year, the residence halls Forest’s pilot awareness video, please
know that going green programs are go to:
very serious matters (Housing).
Because of this, one of the main ways to <http://www.housing.purdue.edu/Assets/
become a greener campus with a higher Video/Recycle/PSA01.htm>.
sustainability is to “find more effective
ways to market [Purdue’s] strategies for Among the residential student
going green” to all the students on awareness programs, although Forrest
campus (Cowart). was one of the funnier campaigns, one
of the more technological programs was
In 2008, the Purdue Residence the pilot for the water and electricity
Hall going green initiative adopted the consumption website. Four resident
mascot, Forrest, who is a sock puppet halls, Earhart, Harrison, McCutcheon,
that encourages proper green-etiquette. and Shreve halls, were fitted with gages
Although, “recycling has been available that monitored the residents’

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usage of electricity (lights and personal) they held “Detrash the Wabash” and the
and water consumption. These stats power shower results were shown
were available real-time on the Housing (Housing). During this week, the theme
and Food Services “University of sustainability was greatly advertised
Residences Green” page for students to as the residents received the message
view their hall’s habits. Installing these of going green. Green Week for 2009
fixtures in these four residences cost a will be held from September 21st to the
total of $50,000, and, due to their 25th and will hold similar events to
educational awareness, it is projected promote green awareness all over
that the other eleven halls will have campus.
them installed by July, 2011 (Cegielski).
By launching this website, they plan to
strongly encourage residents to be
aware of their energy usage and in turn
reduce this consumption (Housing).
From the figures from 2008, the
residents learned that if they were to be
using their resources in the fashion they
were doing Green Week, they would be
saving their hall an average of $450 a Another item that Housing and
day (Cegielski). Food Services will be implementing
before classes start this fall is the new
This website was launched HFS Sustainability Website. This site
during Purdue University’s first Green will show many of the “going green”
Week. The first Green Week was projects that Purdue is implementing,
celebrated September 15th to the 20th, statistics, and resources for students
2008. During this commemoration week, who want help completing green
sustainability and eco-friendly activities projects or questions about procedures,
were strongly encouraged and support the resident hall energy
advertised. The week starts on Monday consumption applet, and many more
with Sustainability Forum. Then on items.
Tuesday, there is a paper recycling
competition between the resident halls This website will also document
and a green day at the mini-marts where the progress of certain goals that
green, reusable bags are given away Purdue University is trying to achieve so
and free refills of any drink with the use that they can more effectively achieve
of the University reusable water bottles. more green-issued success. For
Wednesday was the launch of the water instance, as of two years ago, Indiana
and electricity usage website. Thursday lobbyists were able to persuade the
the resident halls had egg timers in all government to give a $10,000 grant to
the showers to promote “power be used for all of the Purdue campuses
showers” of only two minutes long and on large-scale green projects. After
also who could use the fewest dishes at spending this money, they were not
the dining court challenge. On Friday, eligible for any more until this was paid

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back. However as of this year and the bacteria while getting towels fluffier and
increasing appreciation for green softer and colors brighter. After a pole,
programming, according to Eric 76 percent of the students who have
Vanmeter, the government is giving used these machines were pleased with
Purdue University $15,000 per campus, the cleanliness of their clothes. After a
which totals $60,000 for projects like little more product testing, these
retrofitting buildings (Cegielski). machines are planning to be put into
other residential halls (Cegielski). Other
Among these retrofitting residential improvements this summer
projects, are replacing older equipment include many items such as:
with newer Energy Star appliances,
which are much more energy efficient • Cary Quad and Earhart Hall
than the older models. Additionally, installed shades and drapes in
McCutcheon Hall and the new First certain areas for reducing solar
Street Towers Resident Hall are both heat gain.
piloting a program where all of their • Earhart and Hillenbrand
cleaning supplies and maintenance purchased a chemical-free floor
tools are completely green and machine to reduce the use of
environmentally safe. By the end of the hazardous cleaning materials.
year, as long as there are not any strong • Harrison Hall installed bike dock
drawbacks, all academic buildings will hoops to promote non-motorized
also be fitted with completely green transportation.
chemical cleaners (Cowart). • Almost all buildings are replacing
older equipment with newer,
Furthermore, “Laundry Pure Green more fuel efficient appliances
Machines” by Ecoquest have been put (Cegielski).
into Cary Quadrangle and Hillenbrand • McCutcheon Hall is making
Hall to test the new technology. These recycling much easier by putting
machines do not use hot water or much more recycling receptacles
detergent to clean fabric, but rather it in more convenient locations.
mixes in Silver ions that kill 99.99% of

As more and more residence halls make it easier for recycling to be accomplished,
the Housing and Food Services continues to hold the title of the largest recycler on
campus. As the HFS recycles “tons of materials each year from construction materials
to cardboard to aluminum to plastics and office paper, [these] sustainability practices
help us lead the campus and community as an efficient division and as a good steward
of our planet’s resources” (Housing). The HFS will continue to hold onto this title for a
long while due to two business agreements that have recently been accepted.

Both of these opportunities were discovered from the need of disposing the massive
amount of waste that the dining courts produce every day. For years, almost all of the
food based waste that the university dining courts possessed everyday went to the
landfill. Every year, the dining courts disposed of about 20,000 gallons of oil directly to

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the landfills. However, with new technology, a company called “BioFuel” picks up the
used oil and converts it into energy. They will pay 30 cents per gallon for the oil, and
also make a donation of two cents per gallon to the United Way. That brings in $6,000
annually that HFS would normally throw away as well as $400 to United Way, while
helping to save the environment and helping to produce energy.

The second business opportunity takes all of the food pulp that the dining court pays
to transport and dispose of and gives it to a methane producing factory. This agreement
starts this year and is planning to help power a large fraction of West Lafayette.

Resident Hall Going Green Projects

Originally started as having a few recycling points in the residence halls, the
Going Green project now incorporates numerous different eco-friendly ideas. With such
troubles as “the solid food waste generated by the dining courts, which typically is about
ten tons per month” and wasting water and electricity, the resident halls have
implemented:

• Recycling points in each residence hall, including large trailers are designed to
receive a wide selection of recyclables.

• Dining courts offer recycling opportunities with recycled plastic, glass, and metal
tracked through volume.

• Purdue Village has added more recycling bins and also installed efficient,
economic showerheads.

• University reusable water bottles that can be refilled for a reduced cost at On-the-
go and mini-mart locations. (available for purchase for $3.89)

• A competition among the residences to see which could recycle the most paper.

• Testing a no-tray system at dining


halls to test how well not using
trays reduces waste.

• Starting a “green week” with


various nature friendly goals and
activities everyday.

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 Housing and Food Services Capital Projects with Sustainability impact
                                                                                                                    
Building Sustainability Impact
Cary Quad
Install mechanized shades in Ford Dining Reduces solar heat gain
Court private dining room

Earhart Hall
Replace 1 wing / 200 pair of drapes Reduces solar heat gain

Purchase chemical-free floor machine Reduces use of cleaning chemicals


HVAC controls optimization Optimizes performance and identifies
potential energy savings
First Street Towers

Cleaning exclusively with green Minimizes impact on quality of water


Products output and indoor air
Harrison Hall
Install bike hoops Promotes non-motorized transportation

Purchase chemical-free floor Reduces use of cleaning chemicals


machine

Hawkins Hall
Replace water heaters New heaters are more energy efficient
than old
Hillenbrand Hall
Purchase chemical-free floor Reduces use of cleaning chemicals
machine
HVAC controls optimization Optimizes performance and identifies
potential energy savings
Salad bar upgrade New refrigeration is more energy efficient
than old
Hilltop Apartments
Re-glaze and paint windows in buildings 1, Reduces outside air infiltration
2, 28, 29
McCutcheon Hall
Replace water softener New softener is more energy efficient than
old
Meredith Hall
Replace commercial washer New machine is more energy efficient
than old

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Owen Hall
Replace building steam controls Optimizes performance
Purdue Memorial Union
Replace west wing toilet exhaust New equipment is more energy efficient
than old
Purchase chemical-free floor machine Reduces use of cleaning chemicals
Purdue Village
Replace windows/phases 4-7 Reduces heat loss and outside air
infiltration
Replace water heaters in 5 buildings New equipment is more energy efficient
than old
Replace washers and dryers phases 4-5 New equipment is more energy efficient
than old
Replace van 587 with utility vehicle New vehicle is more fuel efficient than old
Relocate gardens Maintains a long-term community garden
program
Shreve Hall
Purchase chemical-free floor machine Reduces use of cleaning chemicals
Re-lamp T-12 fixtures to T-8 Reduces electrical consumption and heat
gain
Tarkington Hall
Roofing project Method of roof maintenance extended life
of roof & reduced waste sent to the landfill
Wiley Hall
Roofing project Method of roof maintenance extended life
of roof & reduced waste sent to the landfill
Windsor Hall
Replace water softeners New equipment is more energy efficient
than old
Replace main grill hood exhaust fan in New equipment is more energy efficient
dining court than old

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Waste Management

Another area of concern for


Purdue is that of waste management
and disposal. Due to Purdue’s status as
a research university, Purdue is required
to make use of new materials and
technologies at a high pace fashion.

Many of these materials are toxic


to both humans and the environment.
Delicate disposal of these materials is
required. Improper disposal of this
waste would have direct impact on local
residents. Disposal mistakes could
potentially have severe disastrous
effects on the environment. The
University has assigned the Chemical
Management Committee to set and
enforce standards for proper waste
disposal (McDonald).

Purdue has also been working to recycle their less hazardous waste in order to
conserve on raw materials and put less waste in landfills. Several of these
conservation techniques are detailed in the list below (Flora):

ƒ Boiler Green Initiative recycling efforts at three home football games this past season
collected and sorted nearly 16,000 pounds of
reusable materials.

ƒ PMU uses paper products that are made of


recycled products.

ƒ The PMU Dining Services replaces a paper


“wax” cup with a corn-based product. In the
last 10 months, 20,000 cups have been used,
all of which were derived from 100 percent
renewable resources.

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The following list shows what Purdue Pollution Prevention and Waste Minimization
Programs have done to reduce waste, safely dispose of it, and recycle already used
products (McDonald):

• 120,000 “Red” Shop Rags laundered and reused.


• 31,335 fluorescent lamps sent for recycling
• 7,586 gallons of Used Oil recycled
• 1,708 Computer Monitors sent for recycling
• 92,849 pounds of obsolete electronic equipment sent for recycling
• 606 gallons of spent solvent from parts washers reused in another product.
• 34 pounds of Elemental Mercury sent for recycling
• 75 Mercury Thermometers have been replaced
• 369 pounds of Nickel-Cadmium batteries recycled
• 82 pounds of Lithium Ion batteries recycled
• 19 pounds of Nickel-metal hydride batteries recycled

Research Findings

Young halls HVAC setback schedule is thus far collected and sorted nearly
expected to result in approximately 16,000 pounds of reusable materials.
$22,000 annual energy savings.
Students in the 2008 President’s
Purdue’s green Supercomputer should Leadership Class will focus on issues of
create a reduction of 75 to 80 percent of sustainability.
the costs of power and cooling when
compared to conventional technology. The Purdue Sustainability Council has
150 campus members and counting.
The power down initiative is expected
total Carbon Offset is 244 TONS per Purdue hosted the Big Ten housing
year with an energy savings of 321,935 directors conference in October, 2008. It
kWh annually. included a roundtable discussion about
sustainability issues. Terry Cegielski
ITaP has reduced the amount of printer and his housing officer peers will
paper used in our labs. Usage has been continue to benchmark best practices
cut from 158 thousand pages per day to and network with nationwide
about 55 thousand per day. This is a counterparts and professional groups,
reduction of more than 60 percent such as the Association for the
Advancement of Sustainability in Higher
Boiler Green Initiative recycling efforts at Education.
three home football games this season

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PMU uses paper products that are The Lemongrass restaurant in the Union
made of recycled products. has bamboo flooring versus hardwood,
which is very sustainable.
The vitrified marble flooring in the Union The PMU Dining Services replaces a
does not require chemicals since there paper “wax” cup with a corn-based
is no floor finish to strip or apply. product. In the last 10 months, 20,000
cups have been used, all of which were
derived from 100 percent renewable
resources.

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Green Week 2008-Water & Energy Consumption Analysis

The University Residences Green website was launched Wednesday, September


17th. (www.housing.purdue.edu/universityresgreen) Daily electric meter readings were
taken beginning August 18th and water meter readings were taken beginning September
2nd. The day after launching the website, residents were challenged to a Three Minute
Power Shower, the results of which would display how individual habits could affect total
consumption for each residence hall.

It is important to realize differences among the four metered halls including:


• Shreve has air conditioning in student rooms
• Earhart has air conditioning in student rooms and a dining court
• Harrison has Harrison Grillé restaurant, which is not a full dining court. The
resident rooms do not have air conditioning
• McCutcheon has air conditioning in only fifty percent of the student rooms.

Water Results Thursday to Friday of


Green Week 08
Earhart 9% reduction
Shreve 3% reduction
Harrison 5% reduction
McCutcheon 8% increase

Energy Thursday to Friday of Green Week 08


Two electric meters were installed at each of the four residence halls, one for
lighting and one for power which includes air conditioning coil fans. During the same
time period as the Power Shower Challenge, the following differences were noted in
electric usage.

Earhart
• 9% reduction on the lighting meter
• 8% reduction on the power meter

Shreve
• 4% reduction on the lighting meter
• 6% reduction on the power meter

Harrison
• 2% reduction on the lighting meter
• 9% reduction on the power meter

McCutcheon
• 8% reduction on the lighting meter
• 13% reduction on the power meter

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Conclusions

Purdue has made great strides toward meeting their strategic goal of becoming a
green University. Many organizations and groups at Purdue have already taken initiative
and have contributed toward the University’s green efforts in numerous ways. Whether
it be recycling and reducing the amounts of hazardous and non-hazardous waste or
making use of a state of the art supercomputer with increased efficiency or anywhere in
between, it is clear that Purdue is becoming a world leader in sustainability efforts. The
fact that nearly every organization here at Purdue seems to be well aware of the
University’s impact on the environment and future generations only strengthens our
conclusion that this school, while not entirely sustainable, is on the right track toward
becoming completely green.

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Interview Transcripts
McCutcheon Resident Hall Resident Life Manager, Melissa Cowart

What are some new ways that McCutcheon Hall is going green for next year?

Switching to all-green chemicals for cleaning and maintenance, also hand soaps, etc.
More places for recycling in places such as the NAR, Piper’s Inn, etc
Low flow showerheads
Reusing office supplies. *in the past, they have reordered things if they were missing
Lights off at night
Battery recycling
Increase Recycling Big time. Oil, light bulbs, parts of equipment, etc.
Reusing old furniture (taking office furniture to the mail room, etc)

How much have these items cost?

Very little. Will pay for themselves very quickly.

What are a few ideas that McCutcheon has thought about for the future of going green that
has not been implemented yet?

Old electronic recycling, such as floppy disks, etc.


Phasing out use of Styrofoam cups for workers
Everything going A/C, so Keeping windows closed while A/C is on.
-thinking about becoming strict on this policy
New low-flow urinals and toilets (already may have though)

What are a few ideas that McCutcheon has thought about for the future of going green?

Styrofoam cups. Tried once before, didn’t take. Cost and was not a university wide
concern. Also, the University food services provides them.

Tried four different types of shower heads to see which was like the most and which
conserved the most water, there were three disliked.

Energy saving competitions. (big). Needs much more advertising and student
involvement.

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I have heard that McCutcheon Hall, along with Earhart, Harrison, and Shreve Halls installed
water and electricity monitoring systems to track our energy usage. I noticed that McCutcheon
Hall had the least electrical consumption out of the other three halls. Even if you were to
double the figure, you would still be far below that of Shreve’s usage (2 A/C towers opposed to
1). Is this a coincidence, or is there another reason for this?

We’ve been shutting lights off at night, Their occupancy could be a little larger

On a separate note, there was one month where McCutcheon’s water usage had a tremendous
spike. What caused this?

Not sure. We were putting in low flow items at that time. This could have been from the
facilities, intramurals or even the heat, but not sure.

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Assistant Grounds Director and Sustainability, Terry Cegielski

What are some ways that the Resident Halls have “gone green?”

HFS Sustainability Website being introduced by first day of school.


1st Street Towers and McCutcheon are going to all green chemical cleaning.
Energy Star appliances, which are more efficient, are replacing older models.

To retrofit a building (turning it into energy efficient), Purdue used to have a $10,000
grant from the government (until it was paid back), but lobbyists have changed that to
$15,000 per campus ($60,000) due to the green trends. (check with Erick E Vanmeter)

The meters at the four resident halls cost a total of $50,000 to install. Plan to meter the
rest of the buildings in the next 24 months.

Food Waste
-Big advocate in tray-less Dining.
Trying for tray-less everywhere. Ford is a problem, because of the dual-floors.
Earth Day in April, this was tried at Wiley, with great success. There were a few people
who were very vocal about not liking the idea. However, Terry says that they do not pay
to use a tray. Look at all this food. “Eat as much as you want, whether you have a tray
or not”. That is what you are paying for.

The next Earth Day will be held from Sept. 21-25th.

Heating Education. He took pictures of each heating element in the different resident
halls and made a pamphlet of how to use them effectively. Apparently there were some
students that when it got hot, instead of turning off the heater, they would open the
windows.

All academic buildings will use clean chemicals by this year.

Green Washing Machines at Cary and Hillenbrand: electricity vs. water gain. –jury still
out. No need for detergent. It uses ions to kill 99.99% of the germs and makes fabrics
fluffier.

Window audits: goes to each Resident Hall in one day (ideally) and counts the number
of windows open. He then goes to each room and asks why. Etc.

12,000 total residents

newest technology awareness


Conservicaps: decreases length of water flow in bowl, urinals, same pressure.

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-water and sewage pro
@tark and smalley for test sites.
***We have a large spreadsheet showing how the usage of conservicaps reduce water
usage at these locations
Aerators for faucets – lowers gallon/minute ratio, still cleans effectively.
Low Flow in all halls
Watt Stopper: records how much money would be saved per year if they replaced
switches with motion sensors. (tracks when people are in the room and also when the
lights are on)

Facility Managers order most of these items, so he is not completely sure on costs.

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Rita Hillman, Assistant to Gerry McCartney, responses for ITaP

Is air-conditioning being shutdown this summer at any of the buildings? If so, what is the
energy savings?

ITaP occupies 3 1/2 floors of Young Hall. The HVAC systems serving Young
hall are on a setback schedule from 8:00 PM to 5:00 AM, which should result in
approximately $22,000 annual energy savings from reductions in electricity,
chilled water, and steam.

Why are printers not set to duplex by default?

We set this as a default several years ago and students complained profusely
(so I'm told). For the last year we have been educating students about options
for their print jobs and how they can set their own personal default to duplex.

Has the power down initiative been effective?

Observations show more systems are on energy savings modes. Unable to quantify
savings.

What other initiatives have been implemented? Do you know how effective
they have been?

Renovation of 9th and 10th floor of Young Hall included dual mode occupancy
sensors in each office to switch off lighting when space is unoccupied.

A project is underway to replace the curtain wall of Young Hall with materials
that have higher R rating and low-E glass to reduce load on mechanical
systems. Completion is expected in September 2009. The metering was not in
place to quantify initial energy usage so improvement is not quantified.

Purdue is pushing the new eSidewalk and eFlyer ideas to limit the amount of paper waste at
Purdue, while still allowing students to advertise for their clubs and such. There are new TVs
all over campus that stream these advertisements instead of them being on the sidewalk. Would
it be feasible to take these exact same ads and have them be the default screensavers for
students in all the ITaP labs? Maybe even during when the systems are idle in the daytime
have them stream as well (this will have an increase in electricity though). Even further, what
is the feasibility for students to be able to download a program that streams these
advertisements to make their own personal computer's screensavers into the advertisements? -If

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not a lot of people do this, what could an incentive be to do so?

We have a re-image scheduled to go out to all lab machines in early August. We


currently have the screen saver setting to go straight to power save after ten
minutes. We will change this to point to a folder of image files. Images could be
changed nightly. What has not been decided is how long we should display the
eSidewalk and/or eFlyer images before we go to power save.

Next Update:

We will be rolling out eSidewalk and eFlyer as screen savers to the lab
computers with our next image upgrade (schedule for 1st week of August).

Does the situation room help to conserve energy?

Initially, there is little change and perhaps a little more is used if we have
duplicated workstations. If we are able to consolidate monitoring functions into
one area such as the situation room, we could reduce the number of stations
powered. I do not anticipate a significant change either way.

Has the power down initiative been effective?

Purdue came in 7th in the power down the planet initiative. Here are the stats
according to the sponsors:
Total Pledges: 1340
Percentage of Participants: 2.68537 %
Total Carbon Offset: 244 TONS PER YEAR
Energy Saved: 321,935 kWh PER YEAR

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Annotated Bibliography

Cegielski, Terry. Michael Burgess. Interview. 9 July 2009.

Terry Cegielski, Assistant Grounds Director and Sustainability for Purdue University,
offers great information on how the resident hall system, the dining courts and Purdue
University in general are going green. He gives great and largely in-depth insight into
current projects, and newly found ways that Purdue is going green.

Cowart, Melissa. Michael Burgess. Interview. 9 July 2009.

Melissa Cowart, Resident Life Manager of McCutcheon Hall at Purdue University, offers
great first-hand experience about the going green efforts of McCutcheon Hall and the
other Residential Halls. She mentions how McCutcheon and First Street Towers are trial
programming fully green chemical cleaners, future efforts in going green, things that did
not go well in the past and the cost effectiveness of these programs.

Fink, Robyn. Supercomputer uses less energy .13 June 2008.


<http://www.purdueexponent.org/?module=article&story_id=11692>

These supercomputers are often used for solving big science and engineering problems
that don't have the ability to be solved on a conventionally sized machine. This
computer also requires significantly less air conditioning because it produces less heat.

Flora, Grant. Going Green Takes Root. Connections, Winter 2009 Vol.8, No.1. July 14,
2009.
< http://www.housing.purdue.edu/HTML/PDF/hfs_connections/v08_winter_2009.pdf>

This article is about additional green initiatives being undertaken by the housing and
food services. This article is used in our document to show several things Purdue has
been doing to reduce the amount of or better recycle their non-hazardous waste.

Hillman, Rita. Personal interview. 13 July 2009.

This interview conducted via email answered several questions about ITaP’s “Green”
efforts. We covered the results of the power down initiative, building renovations, and
electronic ads. She also answered questions about what ITaP was doing to cut down
energy use.

Housing and food services page. Purdue University. 5 July 2009.


<http://www.housing.purdue.edu/>.

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This page has many of last year’s going green projects. Also, it has articles dealing
specifically with the dining hall and residential hall efforts in this project.

McDonald, Brian. Sustainability at Purdue University. Purdue University n.d. Web. July
7, 2009.
<http://www.purdue.edu/sustainability/articles/waste_minimization.htm>

This article writes about some of Purdue’s waste management programs. It gives a
useful list of what some of these programs have accomplished. This writing will be used
in our document to exhibit how waste management programs at Purdue have a positive
effect on the area around the
University. It will also help us display that waste programs can be productive and make
a difference.

n.p. Discovery Park Energy Center. Purdue University, 2009. Web. July 7, 2009.
<http://www.extension.purdue.edu/renewable-energy/>

This website gives numerous useful links to articles about alternative energy sources. It
talks about sustainable energy sources such as solar, wind, and bio-energy. This site
will help us to show reasons why Purdue is going green and are developing ways for all
sources of energy to be green, or sustainable. This site will also allow us to display how
Purdue is effecting not only local people, but the entire world.

n.p. Purdue University Sustainability. University News Service. Purdue University,


February 20, 2009. Web. July 7, 2009.
<http://www.purdue.edu/sustainability/pages/green-roof.htm>

Purdue will be creating a green roof above Schlemen Hall thanks to a $68,000 donation
from State Farm. This article is used in our white paper to display another reason why it
appears that Purdue is going green.

Snyder, Jason. “2007 InfoWorld 100 Awards.” InfoWorld.12 Nov. 2007.


< http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/2007-infoworld-100-awards-
548?page=0,3>

Facing a space and resource crisis, Purdue University virtualized 140 servers onto three
HP DL-585 physical machines, reducing overall power usage by 84 percent. Taking up
a tenth of its previous footprint, the VMware-based environment is expected to reduce
facilities costs by $75,000 per year and hardware costs by $250,000 annually.

Weddle, Eric. JC Online. Journal and Courier, April 19, 2009. Web. July 7, 2009.
<http://www.purdue.edu/physicalfacilities/pdf/news/Purdue_transportation.pdf>

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This article talks about Purdue’s transportation services and what they are doing to
make an effort toward using more fuel efficient vehicles. This article also gives useful
data in the form of numbers in reference to how many automobiles the University owns
and how many belong to certain departments. This article will be used in our white
paper to demonstrate how Purdue has an effect on local people. This article shows that
the University is trying to stock more hybrid vehicles and less inefficient vehicles,
backing up our claim that Purdue is going green.

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