Building Momentum for Campus Sustainability at MIT:

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Policy Alternatives -- Civil Society
Initiatives      The Greening of Institutions
and the Emergence of Grassroots Carbon Activism

• Building Momentum for Campus Sustainability at
  MIT
• Integrating with the Core Academic Mission and
  Engaging Students

• Steven M. Lanou
• Deputy Director - Sustainability Program
• Environmental Programs Office
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 617-452-2907 slanou_at_mit.edu

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What Does Campus Sustainability Mean at MIT?

• Minimizing our campus energy and environmental
  footprint
• Building and strengthening a local community
• Leading by example
• Creating a learning laboratory mens et manus
• Enabling and facilitating community aspirations

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Key Players in our Campus Sustainability Community
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Setting the Stage at MIT

• 158 academic buildings
• 12 million sq feet academic space
• 153 urban acres in Cambridge
• 20,000 person campus population
• Over 2,000 research labs
• District steam, chilled water electricity
• Utilities purchased for FY07 60M
• 31.7M natural gas (2.9 million mmbtu) FY06
• 9.4M electric (80 GWh of 200 GWh total) FY06
• 3.8M oil (0.4 million mmbtu) FY06
• 4.2M water and sewer FY06
• Building energy intensity
• Campus average 373 kbtu/sf/year
• Typical wet lab 1200 kbtu/sf/yr
• Bldg 39 2600 kbtu/sf/yr
• Typical dorm (unairconditioned) 150 kbtu/sf/yr
• Historical 1M sq ft of new space/decade

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MIT Campus A Microcosm of Our Global Challenge

• MIT targeting energy and climate issues
• Aligning research, education, walking the talk
• A learning laboratory for local global change
• Students play key role in all aspects
• Pushing the envelop on all frontiers

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MITs Sustainability Challenge

• MIT uses 350 million gallons of water annually
• Generates nearly 16,000,000 lbs of trash per year
• and over 270,000 lbs of lab chemical waste per
  year
• Produces thousands of cu/ft of other regulated
  lab waste annually
• 25 of MIT community drives to campus alone
• But 75 take the T, carpool, bike, walk, etc.
  versus 45 nationally
• Of over 100 campus vehicles, only 3 use
  alternative fuel
• Energy, energy, energy

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Our GHG Challenge

• Building consumption 90
• Transportation (including commuting) 9.5
• Solid waste 0.5

You Are Here
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MIT Air Travel
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What Are We Doing About Sustainability?

• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
• MITs trash to waste has gone down
• Solid waste goes to waste-to-energy facility
• Comprehensive recycling program established
• Our recycling rate has gone upto over 40
• We now compost over 20 tons of food waste per
  month
• Green Procurement policy in place
• Pollution prevention program formalized Green
  Chemistry
• Re-use listservs and furniture exchange in place
• Water use on campus reduced 60 from 1990 to 2005
  levels thats over 40 million gallons saved a
  year!
• Stormwater runoff significantly reduced
• Waste vegetable oil to biodiesel in the works

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What Are We Doing About Sustainability?

• Minimizing Transportation Impacts
• Aggressive transportation demand management
  programs including MIT subsidized T-Passes,
  rideshares, van pools, Zip Cars, GoLoco have
  significantly reduced the passenger miles driven
  by the MIT community, and resulted in MIT being
  distinguished as a Best Work Place for
  Commuters by the EPA.
• MIT adopted several alternative-fuel vehicles,
  including campus utility vehicles powered by
  compressed natural gas (CNG) hybrid.
• MIT and the City of Cambridge awarded an EPA
  grant to install advanced diesel pollution
  control devices on their fleets.
• Renewable, plant-based biodiesel fuel has been
  introduced into MITs fleet. Student run waste
  vegetable oil processor coming.
• Student-led efforts have shaped new commuting and
  parking options

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What Are We Doing About Sustainability?

• Adopting Sustainable Design
• Because building energy use contributes heavily
  to our ecological impact, MIT has made a
  commitment to build more sustainably.
• MITs Institute building construction guidelines
  specify that all new construction and major
  renovations strive for LEED Silver certification
  or better. Ready for revisiting.
• The Brain and Cognitive Sciences Building was
  recently awarded Leadership in Energy and
  Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification.
  The Stata Center was designed to meet LEED
  Silver.
• An anticipated LEED Gold Sloan School building
  and a new graduate dormitory expected to surpass
  Silver are in the works.
• Our new Center for Cancer Research lab is hitting
  fume hood HVAC use head-on.

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What Are We Doing About Sustainability?

• Implementing Cleaner, More Efficient Energy
  Systems
• Co-generation technology in the power plant has
  saved money, reduced fuel consumption, and
  drastically reduced air pollutants from the
  conventional systems.
• With co-generation MIT reduced - in the
  short-term - greenhouse gas emissions by 32.
  Over 60,000 tons a year!
• Solar panel and algae bioreactor installations on
  campus have further demonstrated the reality of
  zero emission power generation and advanced
  control technologies.
• Energy conservation programs have been
  effectivebut limited. We are now ramping up
  significant, new pilot programs.

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How to Deepen Sustainable Practices?
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Engage Leadership through Linking Operational
Objectives with Academic Mission

• Energy Initiative President Hockfields
  signature research initiative
• A call to action for MIT to tackle the global
  energy crisis
• The need for workable energy options is perhaps
  the greatest single challenge facing our nation
  and the world in the 21st century
• The gist how to meet growing energy demand
  without destroying our worlds resources
  sustainable energy

web.mit.edu/mitei
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MIT Energy Initiative Walking the Talk on Campus

• Extending research impact by demonstrating
  sustainable energy practices on campus and
  integrating education opportunities
• Leading and educating by example MIT taking
  action to reduce its own campus energy foot print
  through
• Making a commitment
• Investing in energy conservation
• Increasing energy efficiency
• Applying advanced energy technologies
• Embracing sustainable design
• Applying innovative financial strategies
• Opening our campus as a learning laboratory
• Creating campus-focused energy research and
  education opportunities
• Using greenhouse gas emissions student
  engagement as some metrics of our progress

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Pilot Success A Steam Trap Demonstration Project
A dramatic increase in energy efficiency was
demonstrated after steam traps devices to
regulate steam use - were replaced in one of two
identical dorms. Steam use in Building 62
(indicated by the black line) was reduced by
nearly 50 and was responsive to changes in
outside temperatures.
This year all academic buildings renewed for
700,000 savings 1 year payback!
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Show the Data A Chemical Fume Hood Example
Expect annual cost savings upwards of 100,000 in
Dept. of Chemistry alonemore opportunities
abound.
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Document the Obvious (Lights Out 16-56)

• Two webcams in Stata Center Occupant Sensors in
  16 56
• capture photos every 20 minutes between 9pm and
  4am
• Threshold algorithm detects whether lights are on
  and matches them to rooms
• Java software computes lighting usage and sends
  weekly emails to participants

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Engage the Entire Community

• First 2 years a focus on the engineered
  solutions for energy conservation
• Current priority the community solutions
• Individual actions that make a difference for
  energy conservation
• A need to engage the entire MIT community in
  their place
• Build awareness, inform, enable, and empower
  individuals
• greeningMIT logo strengthening community of
  action

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Harness the Local Culture Revolving Door Analysis
As seen in
If everyone used the revolving doors at E25
alone, MIT would save almost 7500 amounting to
nearly 15 tons of CO2. And thats just from two
of the 29 revolving doors on campus!
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Avenues for Student Engagement in Sustainability

• Researching
• Learning
• Doing
• Leading
• Driving

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How We Engage Students On Campus(and Get Engaged
by Them)

• Formal education channels
• Course curricula
• Class projects (5.92, S-Lab)
• Special modules (FPOP DEEP)
• Faculty-sponsored research (CS-UROPS)
• Informal education channels
• Explosion of volunteer activities internships
• Student clubs SAVE, SfGS, Sloan EE, Energy Club
• MIT Generator
• MIT Pledge

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Classwork Undergraduates

• Energy, Environment Society (5.92)
• First Year Students
• Project-Based Learning
• Interdisciplinary

• Projects
• MIT Wind Capacity
• Waste Heat from MIT Nuclear Research Reactor
• Renewables Capacity at Cambridge High School

• Key Lessons
• Freshman exceed expectations
• Meaningful results for partners
• Sufficient guidance is key
• Bring new students into network

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Classwork Lab for Sustainable Business
(S-Lab)
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FPOP DEEP_at_MIT
Pre-freshmen get DEEP into energy and environment

• Freshmen Pre-Orientation Program Discover
  Energy Environmental Programs
• Leading faculty presentations on global climate
  issues, research, classes
• Calculation of own carbon footprint
• Learning about MITs own energy use CO2
  emissions
• Dorm building audit heating loss, water
  electricity use, trash and recycling
• Leads to sets of recommendations for improvements
• New addition to programs on literature,
  engineering and outdoor adventures

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Campus Sustainability UROPs
Education Office

• UROP Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program
• gt80 of MIT undergraduates do at least one

• Project Examples
• Green Roof Feasibility Analysis
• Lab HVAC Assessments for Energy Conservation
• Recycling Systems Communications Analysis

Undergrad Student
Faculty Advisor
Operations Advisor
EPO Sponsorship/MITEI Coordination
Environmental Programs Office
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Graduate Thesis or Independent Research
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Student Campus Energy Project Grants
Campus Climate Awareness Project
Wind Turbine Competition
Energy Mapping Project
Revolving Door Behavioral Change Campaign
MIT Generator
Appliance Use Energy Audits and Case Studies
UA Campus Energy and Environment Pamphlet
http//mit.edu/mitei/campus/project-fund.html
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Students Embrace the Campus as a Learning
Laboratory

• Student interest in on-campus energy and
  environmental performance has skyrocketed
• Driven by desire to
• Walk the Talk on campus and affect change in
  their community
• Create a unique space to apply MIT-honed creative
  problem-solving skills
• Develop and test emerging leadership abilities
• Build collaborative bridges across academy and
  administration
• Lead the way on campus for win-win solutions
• Reduce energy use and costs
• Educate the community (and themselves)
• Minimize MITs climate footprint
• Create smarter, more efficient campus

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The MIT Generator exists to unite and catalyze
student groups working on local energy,
environment, and sustainability projects with a
campus focus
Operations
Education
Research
Our vision is for MIT to be a living laboratory,
where the campus itself is a development site and
proving ground for student leadership and
innovative policies, practices, and technologies
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Generator - Nov 14th Re-Generator - Feb
12th Earth Week - April 23th
Vision 2050
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• 8 week undergraduate competition
• Saved over 230 megawatt/hours (over 30,000)
• Enough to power 21 homes for a year
• Created education and awareness

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Sustainable Transportation Through Policy
1.963 A Sustainable Transportation Plan for MIT
6 credits, 2-0-4 (G), W 230-400 PM, Rm.
1-132 John Attanucci, Research Associate, Center
for Transportation and LogisticsLawrence Brutti,
Operations Manager, MIT Parking Transportation
Office
Goal Evaluate and recommend alternative commuter
and business-related transportation policies for
the MIT campus, with an emphasis on reducing
transportation-related energy usage in a
sustainable manner in response to President
Hockfields Walk the Talk energy initiative.
Source Collegehumor.com
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• This student team really wanted to get their
  hands dirty and make a difference
• Setting the gold standard for student
  leadership, commitment and organization
• Created whole new campus community
• Established new model for bringing change
• Leading faculty member Dont let these
  proposals gather dust!

MIT group strikes oil, wins "eco-grant" A plan to
turn used cooking oil into biodiesel fuel has won
a group led by MIT students a 25,000 "eco-grant"
and a concert to be headlined by Angels
Airwaves.
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Campus Energy Mapping
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Lessons to Share

• Aligning operational goals with core academic and
  educational mission increases its power
• For academics and educators, knowing the rhythms
  of operations is critical
• Student learning is optimized through a mix of
  informal and formal opportunities for learning
  and leadership
• Persistence, vigilance, and constant linking
  are key to keeping the threads together

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Some campus links you should check out

• http//mit.edu/environment
• http//mit.edu/facilities/environmental
• http//mit.edu/mitei/campus
• http//sustainability.mit.edu