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Sustaining by Reducing
Facilities Services looks for ways to avoid or reduce waste of materials, equipment, and other resources in its own operations and across the campus community. Here are a few examples:
Fuel
- We use carts--some of them electric--rather than trucks or personal vehicles when feasible.
- Zone Maintenance uses electric and rider-powered bicycles to reduce the number and use of fossil fuel powered vehicles.
- Automotive Services offers alternative fuels--biodiesel, propane, and ethanol --and provides guidance to other university departments on “rightsizing” vehicles and gaining fuel flexibility.
- To promote clean air, Facilities Services encourages minimizing vehicle idle time.
- Landscape Services is pioneering the use of a propane-powered mower.
Water
- Under the UTakeCharge initiative, more than 6,500 water fixtures on the main and J. J. Pickle Research campuses are being repaired or replaced for anticipated savings of 140 million gallons per year.
- Landscape Services applies compost and mulch to plantings to reduce the need for watering.
Energy
- Under the UTakeCharge initiative, approximately 200,000 lighting fixtures on the main and J. J. Pickle Research campuses are being upgraded for expected savings of more than 26 megawatt hours per year.
- Energy projects within the UTakeCharge initiative also include repairing or replacing 185 steam traps to gain maximum energy use from the steam before it condenses into water.
- Facilities Maintenance Instrumentation and Controls (I&C) converts campus buildings to state-of-the-art Direct Digital Control and fine-tunes building control systems to save energy, control costs, and improve efficiency.
- Zone Maintenance has improved air conditioning maintenance for more efficient pump and fan power transmission and increased transfer efficiency between coils and air supply—all of which lead to energy savings.
Materials
Facilities Services is conservative in its use of space, equipment, and supplies. Here are just a few examples:
- Business Services consolidated its Central Stores warehouse into a single building to reduce wasted space and eliminate unnecessary trips.
- Facilities Services shrank costs and waste by reprogramming copiers to default to black and white and by reducing the number of copiers and printers throughout the department.
- Custodial Services limits chemicals to pre-measured packets to lessen excess packaging, storage, and waste.
- Business Services purchases recycled paper for use throughout Facilities Services, and the Facilities Complex has a team of staff who assist with paper, plastic and aluminum can recycling.
Administration & Personnel
Facilities Services seeks to avoid the costs and inefficiencies of hiring and training new employees by retaining qualified staff. Retention efforts include:
