Target VIII: Energy

2025 update

With our current five-year Sustainability Action Plan concluding in 2024-2025, we are set to begin the next phase of our sustainability efforts. The University will develop a new plan that will guide us towards our 2050 sustainability objectives. This plan will address the needs of our tri-campus community and involve a range of partners in its creation.

Stay informed about progress, learn about the planning process, and discover ways to get involved on the Sustainability Action Plan update page.

Updating the plan

exterior view of paccar hall

15% LOWER ENERGY USAGE INTENSITY BY 2025

Eighty percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from combusting fossil fuels to generate energy, including electricity. We need to do our part toward reducing energy consumption. Achieving this goal will require accelerating the implementation of energy conservation projects, targeting older and less efficient buildings for deep retrofits, and ensuring all new buildings meet the UW Green Building Standard to minimize water and energy consumption. The expanded use of utility metering and monitoring based commissioning will keep buildings operating optimally.

See all the target actions

Status updates

FY 2024 progress

Target actions for FY2024

Continue energy conservation and metering work
Update campus vending machines
Complete updated UW Green Building Standards

Continue energy conservation and metering work

Campus Metering
Over the past year, UW has continued to tackle Phase 1 of the Energy Transformation Strategy, which aims to make the Seattle campus more energy efficient by implementing conservation projects and enabling sophisticated monitoring by installing digital meters, upgrading building controls, and expanding data analytics.

Notable achievements in energy conservation included the installation of variable frequency drives (VFDs) in multiple buildings, such as Aerospace, Mueller Hall, and Hughes Playhouse. These drives help save energy and improve system efficiency. Metering improvements were also a focus, with deduct meters, a device that measures water use, installed on cooling towers in Burke Museum, Paccar Hall, and Mechanical Room K-248, as well as steam condensate efficiency meters in 18 buildings. Additional energy-saving measures included the replacement and adjustment of HVAC air flow controls that conserve energy in Kane Hall and Odegaard, as well as the replacement of leaking steam valves in several buildings. Another major efficiency initiative was the Power Plant Reliability Project, which involved upgrading boilers at the UW Power Plant. By standardizing the boilers to produce a consistent level of steam, the project achieved a reduction of more than 10,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year. That’s nearly a 12% reduction in the Power Plant’s overall carbon footprint.

These initiatives are expected to result in significant annual energy and cost savings, with the Power Plant Reliability Project alone projected to save $1,079,036 per year. Other notable savings include $43,000 from steam valve replacements and varying amounts from VFD installations and air flow repairs in different buildings. While some installations, such as deduct meters and condensate meters, do not directly contribute to energy savings, they provide valuable data for usage monitoring and help reduce sewer costs for the University.

EnergyCAP System Implementation
In early 2024, the University of Washington adopted and began implementing EnergyCAP, an automated energy management and accounting software. This software will enhance the efficiency of tracking, reporting, and analyzing energy bills across the UW Seattle campus. Additionally, EnergyCAP's CarbonHub application will convert the University's energy and utility data into greenhouse gas emissions metrics, providing detailed reports on Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.

Update campus vending machines

In July 2023, UW initiated its partnership with PepsiCo as the official beverage sponsor. As part of this transition, UW Dining implemented a plan to replace older, energy-intensive vending machines with 177 new, more efficient units. Over the course of the past year, UW Dining successfully installed 165 of these new beverage vending machines. These modern units adhere to the latest industry requirements for refrigeration.

Complete updated UW Green Building Standard

In July 2024, the University of Washington released an updated Green Building Standard. This comprehensive new standard goes beyond typical practices and code requirements set out by the Washington State Clean Building Performance Standard, and addresses a wide range of sustainability priorities. The standard aims to provide flexibility for project managers in meeting GBS requirements, and is scaled appropriately using four tiers for a diverse set of project types.

The revised standard takes a holistic approach to sustainability, focusing on key areas such as water and energy efficiency, biodiversity, embodied carbon reduction, health and well-being, and equity. By implementing these guidelines, the University expects to achieve measurable and trackable results in its construction and renovation projects.

The Green Building Standard update process in 2023 was comprehensive and collaborative. It involved a series of focus groups with key stakeholders, addressing a range of sustainability topics, while also examining the University's procedure for initiating, developing and implementing projects.

In spring 2024, UW Sustainability presented a preview of the new Green Building Standard as part of the Creating a Sustainable Campus webinar series. This preview provided an opportunity for the University community to learn about the upcoming changes and improvements to the GBS before its official adoption. The University started with a soft launch of the new GBS on several projects, including Haggett Hall, Anderson Hall, ASUW Shell House, and the T-Wing Renovation. This early roll-out provided project teams with valuable insights and the full standard was adopted on July 1, 2024.

UW Bothell: Bothell has successfully reduced electricity use by over 1 million kWh in the 2023 calendar year through their load shedding program, which allows buildings to turn their electricity on later and turn off earlier while less people are on campus to reduce energy demand during peak times. UW Bothell is in full compliance with the Clean Building Performance Standards, with EUI well under current requirements.

Fiscal year 2023 progress

FY 2023 progress

Target actions for 2023

Create a process to reinvest in energy savings into new efficiency projects.
Expand campus Meter Monitor O&M program

Create a process to reinvest in energy savings into new efficiency projects

In FY23 the UW allocated about $3 million in seed funding for energy conservation projects from prior utility rebates and a small influx from the Treasury. This is a “pilot year” to track the cost savings from these projects, with an eye toward possible creation of a Green Revolving Fund that could utilize savings from conservation projects to fund future projects. Such reinvestment helps to lower energy and utility costs, and allows Facilities to take on more and larger conservation projects.

Expand campus Meter Monitor O&M program

The UW’s meter program has been fully funded, and over the past year work has been happening to install additional meters across campus for more granular energy data information, as well as upgrading building automation systems and digital controls and analyzing the data gained.

UW Bothell & UW Tacoma actions

UW Bothell and UW Tacoma have long worked to increase efficiency in buildings. Both campuses have their own unique locations and buildings.
UW Tacoma reprogrammed electrical water heaters campus-wide to turn for energy savings, and recommissioned and updated a campus Hydronic heating loop. In addition, they upgraded some classroom and common areas to efficient LED lightbulbs.

UW Bothell adjusted its “load shedding” building automation program timing to turn on later and turn off earlier while less people are on campus to reduce energy demand during peak times. UWB also installed stickers on our window sills in every building encouraging keeping windows closed to improve efficiency of HVAC systems.

Fiscal year 2022 progress

FY 2022 progress

Target actions for 2022

Implement cost effective conservation investments
Expand campus Meter Monitor O&M program
Develop a Demand Side Management (DSM) approach

Implement cost effective conservation investments

In 2015, comprehensive energy engineering audits of 112 campus buildings identified energy conservation opportunities requiring $25 million of capital investment that would avoid $5 million in energy waste annually.
The UW Energy Resource Conservation program has worked to address the opportunities that have a large return on investment. In FY22, the program undertook nine conservation projects. The estimated total capital cost for these projects is $1.93M, and half of those are complete. We have captured rebates of $530,000 and about $300,000 in captured utility costs over the past year. When the projects are fully completed, they will capture $425,000 in avoided utility costs annually.

In order to scale-up and accelerate future energy conservation efforts, a new Green Revolving Fund (GRF) was officially proposed and approved in the summer of 2022. The GRF will use realized utility savings to finance future energy conservation projects and accelerate their implementation.