In a first-of-its-kind commitment by a US college, the University of Oregon has pledged not to exceed the energy it currently uses on its 295-acre campus.
By adopting the Oregon Model for Sustainable Development, the University commits to net-zero energy use, despite new construction.
How can the university grow without using more energy? That will require a delicate balancing act – any additional power used in new buildings will be offset by reducing the energy used in older buildings through retrofits.
All new buildings will be LEED-Gold certified and produce 35% more energy savings than the state’s building codes require.
The Oregon Model, adopted by the University this summer, focuses on energy, water, and educating building occupants on energy efficiency, along with public displays showing how those features work.
The new standards will add as much as 6% to the cost of new construction on the campus – $10 million over the next 10 years – during which an estimated 1.3 million square feet of new development is anticipated.
On the other hand, costs will be recouped through lower energy costs. The University calculates, for example, that it could have saved $500,000 a year in energy costs in 10 recent construction projects if the new standards had been in place.
The university is setting up a Central Energy Fund to help pay for retrofits of older buildings. New building projects will have to pay 10% of the cost of offsetting their additional energy use into the fund and UO’s general fund will pay the rest. Money the campus saves on energy costs will be added to the fund.
University planner Christine Thompson says the campus has many older buildings that can be upgraded to realize energy savings to help offset future construction costs.
Many universities now have a revolving loan fund that pays for energy efficiency retrofits. The savings from lower energy bills pays off the loans, generating money for new projects.
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