October 3, 2008
Physical Facilities puts Green Week prize into student project
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The decision to donate the $250 prize is a sign of appreciation for BGI's energy, commitment and leadership, says Robin Mills Ridgway, environmental regulatory consultant and co-chair of the Sustainability Council at Purdue.
Ridgway and several other key members of Physical Facilities' energy generation and use staff joined representatives of BGI on Tuesday (Sept. 30) on the terrace of Schleman Hall to present an oversized check.
The terrace, a sort of second-floor patio on the side of Schleman facing Purdue Mall, is where BGI wants to create a green roof.
"It fits well with the Energy Stewardship poster we made for Green Week," Ridgway says. "A green roof is composed of specialized plants that can retain stormwater and that provide an added layer of insulation which decreases the energy used for heating and especially cooling."
Another benefit will be opportunities for service learning, BGI's leader says, which in turn makes the project more feasible.
"The service learning component allows us to be eligible for a variety of grants," says Ryan P. Cambridge, president of BGI and a senior in landscape architecture. "This roof is small but walkable. That will make it a great place for students to be up close and personal with this type of environmental system."
BGI will handle the design and installation, document it and put the record of it on the Web, says Amélie Davis, vice president of BGI and a graduate student in forestry and natural resources.
"We will monitor runoff quantity and quality, and roof temperature below and above the green roof, and the Purdue Bug Club will monitor insect population," Davis says.
The project timetable depends on gaining the needed $80,000 through grants, fundraisers and donations, the students say. The monitoring aspects could start even by winter, but plants would wait for milder spring weather.
Among BGI's involvements has been leadership in the introduction and operation of recycling at Purdue home football games this year. The three home games in September saw collection of about 15,480 pounds of recyclable materials, BGI figures.
BGI also co-organized Green Week's Alternative Transportation Challenge.
The Energy Stewardship poster won the open division of the Green Week Poster Session on Sept. 18. The poster was one of 11 entered by Physical Facilities. The session sponsors were Discovery Park's Center for the Environment, Energy Center and Purdue Climate Change Research Center.
The poster summarizes ongoing and recent Physical Facilities' steps in:
* Heating and power infrastructure, where owning and operating the combination of an efficient plant, a piping system and campus buildings maximizes results.
* Informed policies on purchase of natural gas, which mitigate risks and save money.
* Past and present use of the state's recently resumed Qualified Energy Savings program. The current projects are in Brown Laboratory of Chemistry and Stewart Center. Planning is under way for projects at Lynn Hall and in campus-wide water conservation.
* "Tune-ups" of mechanical systems in campus buildings, including "retrocommissioning," the adjusting of systems to changed use of a building.
* Carbon dioxide sensors that tell systems when lecture halls are empty and need less air treatment.
* Reductions in power needed for lighting through changing types of bulbs, changing exit lights to a new technology and placing occupancy sensors in restrooms.
* Improved metering of water use by building.
* Collaboration with relevant courses, such as Mechanical Engineering's ME 430: Power Plant Engineering, and student organizations.
Those participating in the Sept. 30 presentation were four Physical Facilities representatives and three Boiler Green Initiative representatives: Dan Schuster, senior engineer for energy commissioning and project engineering group manager in the Office of the University Architect; Robin Mills Ridgway, environmental regulatory consultant in Radiological and Environmental Management and Utilities; Bruce High, power plant manager at Wade Utility Plant; Kurt Stull, director of building systems and energy management in Operations and Maintenance; Amelie Davis, vice president of BGI; Ryan P. Cambridge, president of BGI; and Ronald Steuterman, managing director of the Energy Center.
More about Purdue sustainability including Green Week is at www.purdue.edu/sustainability. More about the poster session, its winners and other presentations is at www.purdue.edu/dp/energy/. More about BGI is at www.boilergreen.com/.