green mapping - university of wisconsin–whitewater · going green may represent various ideas; as...

Pavel Crha

761 Supply Chain Systems

University of Wisconsin Whitewater

Professor Sameer Prasad

Fall 2008

Green Mapping

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Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2

What Has Been Done .................................................................................................................................... 2

University of Massachusetts Amherst .......................................................................................................... 3

University of Chicago .................................................................................................................................... 5

Harvard Green Campus Initiative .................................................................................................................. 6

University of Minnesota – Morris ................................................................................................................. 7

Importance of Mapping ................................................................................................................................ 7

UW Whitewater Campus .............................................................................................................................. 8

Assumptions .............................................................................................................................................. 8

The UWW Green Map ............................................................................................................................... 9

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 13

Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 14

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Introduction

Green energy and all related issues have been gaining in popularity during the last decade. On one hand,

the goal of making processes and energy greener is quite obvious. On the other, the fact that the only

way to make it work is to get everyone involved makes it more complicated.

With no doubt, no plan can be followed without clear vision and understanding of the issue. Mapping

the current situation on campus in terms of recycling and green matters might be a very helpful tool

when trying to determine what has to be done in order to achieve given goals. This part of the project

examines what has been accomplished on other campuses in the U.S., suggests one possible technique,

and uses that technique when mapping the current status of making the UW-Whitewater “green”.

What Has Been Done

A significant number of US college campuses have been trying to implement environmentally friendly

approaches during the last decade in order to make them greener. One may not be surprised then that

various initiatives and organizations have been created to achieve that goal. An example of such an

initiative is the Green Campus Initiative (GCI - The Institute for Sustainable Energy) at Eastern

Connecticut State University. Not only has the GCI been offering numerous workshops to promote and

teach strategic thinking for greening university campuses, it also provides countless resources and

contacts for those truly interested in this type of change.

Going green may represent various ideas; as for university campuses, Figure 1 shows the basic steps

toward sustainability that have to be, to some extent, employed, regardless of the kinds of green

initiatives adopted by a campus, and should be viewed as essential when developing a master plan. As in

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any other area of research or business,

Thus, “Develop a Master Plan” is emphasized

but also to show that the master plan is

recycling and ending with controlling and analyzing data.

Figure 1

Basic Steps toward Sustainability

University of Massachusetts Amherst

UMass began efforts to track its carbon dioxide emissions in 2002, a

American College and University President’s Climate Commitment. This commitment is an effort among

colleges and universities to address global warming by garnering institutional commitments to

neutralize greenhouse gas emissions

Preserve solar

any other area of research or business, developing a plan is the very first step to achieve given goals.

is emphasized in Figure 1 not only to pinpoint the importance of planning

master plan is connected to and aligns with all the actual steps, beginning with

controlling and analyzing data.

University of Massachusetts Amherst

UMass began efforts to track its carbon dioxide emissions in 2002, and in April 2007 signed the



neutralize greenhouse gas emissions.

Develop a master plan

Preserve green space

Minimize on campus driving

Mantaing indigenous plant life

Preserve solar access

Perform review of all expansion

plans

plan is the very first step to achieve given goals.

the importance of planning

all the actual steps, beginning with

nd in April 2007 signed the



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UMass has a long history of submitting emission data to the state

Green Initiatives). Figure 2 shows individual pollutants UMass tracked to compute its carbon dioxide,

nitrous oxide and methane footprints. Per the Universit

to collect the data; Table 1 also shows individual pollutants with corresponding sources of data.

Figure 2

Annually Submitted Data to the State

Table 1

Sources of Data

Emission Source

Coal

Electricity

Natural Gas

Fuel Oil

Paper Cubes

Propane

Gasoline

Diesel

Air Travel

Vehicle Rental

Commuting

Animal Husbandry

diesel

propane

natural gas

UMass has a long history of submitting emission data to the state (Environmental Performance and

. Figure 2 shows individual pollutants UMass tracked to compute its carbon dioxide,

nitrous oxide and methane footprints. Per the University’s website, various sources were used in order


State

Emission Source Data Source

Plant daily engineer’s log

Electric Invoices

Natural Gas Gas Invoices

Plant daily engineer’s log

Paper Cubes Plant daily engineer’s log

Utility Invoices

Fuel Throughput

Fuel Throughput

Controller’s Office

Vehicle Rental Controller’s Office

Commuting Rideshare Program

Animal Husbandry Various Academic Departments

CO2,CH4, N2O

coal

electricity

gasoline

paper cubes

biodisel

diesel

natural gas

Environmental Performance and

. Figure 2 shows individual pollutants UMass tracked to compute its carbon dioxide,

y’s website, various sources were used in order


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University of Chicago

The University of Chicago has been engaged in discussions, research and action around a broad array of

environmental sustainability topics for a few years now. One interesting thing Chicago has done has

been to initiate a “Program on the Global Environment” at their national laboratories and across the

campus. Much of the institutional work is led by the Sustainability Council and Facilities Services. As

their statements suggests, Chicago seeks to advance efforts and to develop innovative ways to use

resources wisely (University of Chicago).

Per Chicago’s website, environmentally preferable purchasing empowers the local and global economy.

As a result, Chicago is engaged in a number of sustainable purchasing projects and supports sustainable

purchasing in the community. Figure 3 depicts some of the university’s purchasing habits and

approaches. Perhaps the most important to be noted is the use of wind power, which currently provides

10 percent used of the energy used for campus dorms. Another more practical example is the

university’s Buy Site which enables university staff to purchase environmentally friendly office products

and therefore help them make their work places greener.

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Figure 3

Purchasing at the University of Chicago

Harvard Green Campus Initiative

Besides numerous workshops, courses and programs at Harvard University, the Greenhouse Gas

Inventory, which tracks the energy footprint Harvard produces, has been on

The inventory maintains an updated inventory of greenhouse gas e

chilled water production and with purchased electricity

One of the very interesting web site links that

helps to promote green practices on a broader

in the public and private sectors evaluate, compare and select desktop computers, notebooks and

monitors based on their environmental attributes.

University's

Purchasing at the University of Chicago

Harvard Green Campus Initiative


Inventory, which tracks the energy footprint Harvard produces, has been on-going since the nineties.

The inventory maintains an updated inventory of greenhouse gas emissions associated with steam and

chilled water production and with purchased electricity (Green Campus).

One of the very interesting web site links that Harvard recommends that its student access, and which

helps to promote green practices on a broader campus scale is epeat.net. This website


monitors based on their environmental attributes.

Wind Power

University's Buy Site

Local Produce


going since the nineties.

missions associated with steam and

Harvard recommends that its student access, and which

campus scale is epeat.net. This website helps purchasers


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University of Minnesota – Morris

The UM-Morris community had been very proactive in environmentally friendly initiatives since 2000.

These efforts have grown to levels of national leadership and have touched nearly all aspects of campus

life – power, food, water, transportation and waste stream infrastructure. It also needs to be noted that

state and national resources (grants) have advanced their efforts.

Morris has also been able to express the savings of using green resources in terms of dollar values.

Residence halls and other campus buildings conserve more than two million gallons of water annually,

saving $15,000 each year. Recently, Morris recycled 67 tons of waste in one year. At $207 per ton, the

campus realized a savings of $13,969 by recycling aluminum, corrugated cardboard and office paper,

among other refuse, instead of throwing it into the garbage (University of Minnesota Morris).

Importance of Mapping

As it has been noted earlier, mapping can offer various advantages to its users. First, it is a valuable help

in terms of making statistical data better understood by visualizing inputs and outputs. Second, when

properly set up, mapping may be able to depict bottlenecks in the whole system - in our case a greener

campus - and what categories need to be prioritized over others.

While many universities are becoming greener, we were not able to identify any direct mapping that

those universities has been using. One reason may be the simple fact of no university having any staff

responsible for or assigned to the task of depicting campus plans in a graphic format. Another issue with

mapping out a university campus in terms of green energies and pollution is that there is no framework

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available. This may suggest problems, such as the possibility that people are not currently sure what

exactly is to be considered and how to measure different impacts.

UW Whitewater Campus

This part of the project focused mainly on creating a UW Whitewater Green Map that would show

different footprints per individual buildings. Assumptions, calculations and the Green Map follow.

Assumptions

In order to create a UWW map showing pollution footprints of different buildings, students, faculty, staff

and departments, the following assumptions were used. These assumptions are based on the survey

and data provided by the UWW Registrar’s Office.

o Average number of classes per student is 5

o Carlson Hall (students, faculty, staff, and departments) represents a behavior pattern for all

other buildings. This pattern includes, but is not limited to, the ratio of commuters vs. non-

commuters, consumption and other ratios per student, faculty, staff and department.

o Number of faculty, staff, departments and offices remains constant over the years

o Off-campus classes and undetermined classes are disregarded

o Only buildings in which classes are taking places are taken into account

o Green Map is created based on fall semester 2008 data

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The UWW Green Map

As Microsoft Excel was used to calculate all the necessary data and to create the map, please see the

document “UWW Green Map.xlsx” for the actual results and calculations described below.

Figure 4 shows the data provided by the UWW Registrars office. These data provide basic information

about all classes and the number of students for the fall semester of 2008. After sorting and filtering the

data, the total number of students for each building was obtained. This number does not consider the

fact that one student may take two or more classes in one building. An average number of classes per

student therefore needed to be determined. As mentioned above, the assumed number of classes per

students is five, which also corresponds with the statistical data shown on the UWW website (UWW

Enrolment Statistics). Figure 5 also supports this assumption.

Figure 4

Data Provided By the Registrar’s Office

Source: UWW Registrar’s Office

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Figure 5

Calculation of The Average Number of Classes per Student

Knowing the total number of students and percentages of students per individual building, a simple

calculation gives us the approximate number of students attending classes in individual buildings, as

shown in Figure 6. Having these percentages and data on enrollments for multiple years and semesters

(UWW Enrolment Statistics) may also help to calculate different forecasts.

Figure 6

Total Number of Students per Building

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In order to find out how many staff, departments and administrative offices are there in different

buildings, ratios of faculty to staff, departments and administrative offices were used. Figure 7 shows,

for instance, a calculation of the Faculty/Staff ratio and then the actual number of staff for each

building. In this example, for 10 faculty members there are 3 staff members. Having the data on the

number of faculty for each college (Academics) helps us determine the number of staff for each building.

Figure 7

Calculation of the Faculty/Staff Ratio

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Knowing the number of students, faculty, staff, departments and administrative offices for each building

as well as the average consumption per these individual entities, carbon oxide and energy footprints

(please see Forecasting and MRP chapters of this project) could be calculated. Figure 8 shows the final

results for individual buildings.

Figure 8

Footprints

Knowing all the data, the Green Map for the UW-Whitewater campus was created using Microsoft Excel.

As figure 9 shows, basic data are represented in this map. For more details regarding individual

buildings, one may click on a particular building to obtain the details. Please see the UWW Green

Map.xlsx file.

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Figure 9

The Green Map

Conclusion

Mapping can be a very powerful tool in terms of making difficult statistical data easier to be understood

and helping to identify areas which need the most attention: in the case of green energy, those areas

that are the greatest pollutants. However, mapping is only as good as the data provided. Emphasis

therefore needs to be put on collection, accuracy and reliability of the data itself.

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Bibliography Academics. (n.d.). Retrieved October 14, 2008, from University of Wisconsin - Whitewater:

http://www.uww.edu/academics/colleges/index.php

Environmental Performance and Green Initiatives. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2008, from University of

Massachusetts : http://www.umass.edu/epac/carbon.htm

Green Campus. (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2008, from Harvard University:

http://greencampus.harvard.edu

The Institute for Sustainable Energy. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2008, from

http://www.easternct.edu/depts/sustainenergy/

University of Chicago. (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2008, from Sustainability:

http://sustainability.uchicago.edu

University of Minnesota Morris. (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2008, from Green Campus:

http://morris.umn.edu/greencampus/

UWW Campus Map. (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2008, from Univesity of Wisconsin - Whitewater:

http://www.uww.edu/Campus/

UWW Enrollment Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2008, from University of Wisconsin -

Whitewater: http://www.uww.edu/registrar/stats/

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