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.
Water conservation
UW will monitor opportunities to reduce water consumption for new building construction, maintenance and irrigation. In collaboration with academic units, UW Facilities will explore paths to research the feasibility of enhancing water reduction through the use of new technologies or integration into campus planning.
Target actions for 2023
View actions for past fiscal yearsSustainability plan guiding principles
- Ensure students achieve sustainability literacy
- Choose our research conscientiously
- Keep equity and inclusion at the center
- Use resources responsibly
- Decarbonize
Target actions for 2023
Steps we will take in FY 2023
- Create a process to reinvest in energy savings into new efficiency projects.
- Implement efficiency projects that align with GRF and State/Local mandates.
The UW has been exploring the creation of a Green Revolving Fund to support energy conservation projects by putting realized utility savings from completed projects toward funding future projects. This year the UW has allocated about $3 million in seed funding for energy conservation projects from prior utility rebates and a small influx from the Treasury. The UW will implement energy conservation projects with this funding, and work to determine the utility savings for possible future reinvestment in energy projects. Such reinvestment helps to lower energy and utility costs, and allows Facilities to take on more and larger conservation projects. The results of this pilot will be evaluated with an eye toward possibly implementing a Green Revolving Fund at the UW.