Recordpub.com - KSU eyes ways to go "green'

By Dave O'Brien
Record-Courier staff writer
Ohio legislators have tasked the state's colleges and universities with finding ways to save on the cost of purchasing and generating energy by going "green."
Following a mandate set forth in House Bill 251, Kent State University is developing energy sustainability master plans, aimed at improving energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption by 20 percent on all eight of its campuses by 2014.
KSU already produces its own steam, electricity and chilled water at its plant on Summit Street. This saves almost $2 million a year in energy purchasing costs, and earned the university the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star Combined Heat and Power Award in 2007.
More savings will be achieved or identified through new construction design, the review and retrofitting of existing facilities and by a study being conducted by KSU's Task Force on Sustainability.
Tom Euclide, KSU's executive director of facilities planning and operations, is co-chairing the task force with interim Dean Verna Fitzsimmons of KSU's College of Technology.
Euclide said a steering team made up of faculty, staff, students and Kent community members is concentrating on specific areas with potential for increased sustainability.
University and city maintenance and operations, energy procurement and production, food service and procurement, transportation and recycling are among the topics to be addressed by sub-groups of the task force, he said. In addition, academics " "how we can teach sustainability," Euclide said " also will figure into the group's recommendations.
Speaking late last week, Euclide said he was planning to meet with a small company that is hoping to sell the university on the energy-generating potential of wind turbines.
"Historically, the Kent and Portage County area hasn't been considered a high-wind area. But along the coastline of Lake Erie it is, and Bowling Green has several wind turbines that help their area," he said. "If it's a possibility for us, we'd like to understand the ramifications of doing that."
A cost-benefit analysis of installing wind turbines at one of the regional campuses several years ago found the cost to be prohibitively expensive with little benefit, Euclide said. "The biggest thing is a better understanding for a potential use of wind power: Is it something that is beneficial for us or not?"
KSU is not alone in the drive to become more sustainable. In 2007, both Hiram College President Tom Chema and Mount Union College President Richard Giese signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment. This joined them with more than 480 other institutions committed to climate neutrality by developing ways to reduce their institutions' greenhouse gas emissions.
Portage County school districts already have found ways to cut utility costs. Between June 2004 and December 2007, the Kent School District saved almost $800,000 by partnering with a consulting firm to change energy usage behaviors among faculty and staff. Stanton Middle School in Kent currently uses underground coils to create a base temperature from which the building can be heated or cooled, the same kind of technology being installed at the new Ravenna High School.
Euclide said he is optimistic for the future sustainability efforts of the city and university.
"Our goal is to work together, the city and the university, to become more sustainable as a community," Euclide said.
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