GreenCampusChroniClesuC Berkeley ||| may 2012

1

IN THIS ISSUE

CACS SummitNew team members!Earth Week activitiesMore laundry postersVeinding misers returnDeCal conclusionCal wins “Best Practices”Final cycle of laundryUkranian connectionsOngoing ProjectsContact Us

...1

...2

...3

...2

...3

...4

...4

...5

...5

...6

...6

Students make solar ovens as

part of Earth Week festiviites

For more, see pg.3

9th Annual CACS Sustainability Summit

This month witnessed the 9th An-nual Sustainability Summit organized by the Chancellor’s Advisory Commit-tee on Sustainability (CACS). Green Campus interns were excited to present four different posters from CACS and TGIF funded projects including, “Fight the Flow,” “Green Cup,” “End the Cycle Laundry Campaign,” and our “Opera-tional Excellence Energy Management Initiative Internship.” Later on dur-ing the CACS Sustainability Awards, Green Campus intern Kimberly Lam was recognized for her work with the ReUse Team and their efforts at Camp-bell Hall Team; whichdiverted materi-als from the Campbell Hall demolition away from landfill to be reused by the campus community. Green Campus In-

tern Morwenna Rowe was also recog-nized for her work with Green Campus throughout her undergraduate career. The event wrapped up with a Cal Alumni Career Panel, which featured a discussion on the experience and advice of alumni from Dow Kokam, the EPA, Revolution Foods, and Berkeley’s De-partment of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Green Campus was over-whelmed by the projects highlighted at the conference and all the amaz-ing work that is being done in sup-port of environmental responsibility at Cal. The Green Campus team thanks CACS for all of their support and looks forward to next year’s summit!

LEFT: Intern Kimbelry Lam talks about the Laundry Campaign (poster seen in back) to a summit attendee. RIGHT: Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau presents a Sustainability Award to Green Campus Team Manager Morwenna Rowe.

uC Berkeley ||| may 2012 Berkeley Green Campus welcomes new team members!

After reviewing applications and conducting interviews, the Berkeley Green Cam-pus team is happy to welcome three new members to the team.

Omsri Bharat is a first year Civil and Environmental Engi-neering student. She’s been in-terested in the environment and sustainability since an early age because of her family’s love for the outdoors. In her spare time, she enjoys soccer, Alfred Hitch-cock movies, new and exciting vegetarian food, and spending time with friends and family.

At volorpo rernati seque vellat.Et pe nonsequae pliquas peli-

bea runtore sequatur molupta er-sped eium iumquam, se cusa volesci qui omnihil idellab oreprest quide-mo luptatiunt ommolo mil mo quiducia sum que mos ex enis ant quas plam ese dolore remo conem quiae por sapernatium eaque dolum voloreriam quiam, nis sequam eate dolorendus, od molorestium aut lacerit, sequatecto corion num vere, At volorpo rernati seque vellat.

Et pe nonsequae pliquas peli-bea runtore sequatur molupta er-sped eium iumquam, se cusa volesci qui omnihil idellab oreprest quide-mo luptatiunt ommolo mil mo quiducia sum que mos ex enis ant quas plam ese dolore remo conem

Emily Wong, a Cupertino, California native, is currently a second year student majoring in Chemical Engineering. She has always been environmen-tally conscious growing up, and hopes to influence others to be the same. After graduating from UC Berkeley, she hopes to pursue a career in renewable technology. In her free time, she enjoys swim-ming, completing DIY projects, and cooking.

Omsri Bharat Emily Wong

Jacqueline Hsu is a 1st year from Los Angeles County and is currently pursuing a double major in Environmental Economics and Policy and Conservation and Re-

source Studies. Her interest in envi-ronmental education and outreach has spurred her participation in en-vironmental clubs at UC Berkeley. She is very excited to work with the UC Berkeley Green Campus to not only learn new skills and in-formation about energy efficiency, but also to contribute to the effort of lowering the environmental im-pact that the university makes. She hopes to help increase energy effi-ciency on campus through creative solutions. In her free time, she en-joys watching movies, hunting for bargains and deals, discovering do-it-yourself ideas, and spending time with her friends and family.

Jacqueline Hsu

ENERGY TIPof the monthIt takes enormous amounts of water & energy to produce cloth-ing items -- even a single

pair of jeans can use up to 3000 gallons over its

lifetime! Buy less or buy used to conserve.

--> [BREAKING] <--

Unit 3 wins

Blackout Battles

Spring 2012!

The celebratory ice cream

reward party is planned for

Thursday, May 3, from 5 to

7pm. Congratulations!

Summary of results (% energy

saved):

Unit 1: 7%Unit 2: 9%Unit 3: 13%Unit 4: 12%

Total: 10% = 169,500 kWh =

$16,950 = 88,817 lbs. CO2

2

3

Cumulative Metrics

*actual savings and in-cludes water and therm savings

10/2004—4/2012

MWh Saved: 4,192$ Saved: $419,000

Carbon emissions avoided: 2,192,900 lbs of CO2

CFLs exchanged: 7,777

Like

us on

Facebook!

Be on the lookout for raffles

and contests conducted on

our facebook page (search

“Berkeley Green Campus”)

Gallons of water saved:1,153,500

In celebration of Earth Week, Green Campus interns tabled on Sproul to teach students how to build solar-powered ovens and make s’mores. With some aluminum foil, reused cardboard boxes, plastic wrap, and a little newspaper for insulation, stu-dents built solar ovens in less than 5 min-utes. The ovens cooked up sweet success with a chocolate marshmallow s’mores treat. The event was part of day 1 of Earth Week, which was about making personal lifestyle decisions in order to be more sustainable. Remember to make everyday Earth Day!

Solar-powered Earth Week

Students proudly show off their self-made solar ovens at the Green Campus table dur-ing Earth Week.

The brand new Simpson Center for Student Athlete High Perfor-mance opened this past semester, and though it boasted state-of-the-art training facilities and equipment, it was missing a very important energy-saving device - vending misers! Dur-ing a walk-through of the building, a Green Campus intern noticed that two vending machines located in low-er-traffic hallways would be perfect candidates for vending misers. These devices turn off the machine’s lighting when there is low foot traffic around and regulate the compression cycles of the machine to save up to 50% of the energy used, while still keeping beverages cold at all times. Interns worked with Cal Athletics’ Director of Business and Finance, Josh Hum-mel, to obtain approval for the two vending misers. Interns are first col-lecting baseline energy usage data for the vending machines using kill-a-watt meters, and will be installing the misers at the beginning of May. The team is excited to help the high per-formance athletes become high per-forming energy savers as well!

Vending misers back in action!

Endless laundry settings got you con-fuzzled? Fret no more! The End-the-Cycle posters are now beautifying laundry room in the I-House and Fraternities and So-rorities near you! Look out for our laun-dry tips poster for information on how to save energy while washing and drying your laundry! So far posters have made their way to all the laundry rooms in the resi-dence halls, university village, and now I-House and the Greek Houses!

Laundry posters take over campus

4

Energy in

the News

More domestic

fuel changes

energy dialogue

A recent boom in energy pro-

duction in North America - in re-

sponse to rising oil prices and new

oil and gas exploitation technology

- has begun to reshape the dialogue

about energy in the US in what is

being dubbed the “North Ameri-

can energy revival”. Chepaer and

more plentiful oil, combined with a

decline in demand due to the reces-

sion, has made the future of energy

consumption in the US a little bit

brighter than expected.

Green Cup wins Best Practice Award

UC Berkeley was recently rec-ognized as one of the winners of the eighth annual Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Best Practice Awards Competition. The Green Campus team entered the Green Cup Energy Saving Competition in the Student Energy Efficiency Program category. The prepared application highlighted the significant energy savings achieved through the competition as well as the importance of involving students who no longer live in Residence Halls

in energy efficiency programs. Col-laboration with other student groups was also an important element of the competition and Green Cup was or-ganized through a collaboration be-tween Green Campus and the Greek sustainability organization, Greening the Greeks. Green Campus interns will present the project and accept the award at the California Higher Edu-cation Sustainability Conference this summer in Davis, CA.

DeCal finishes with stellar projects

This semester’s DeCal finished with style on Wednesday the 25th with a pot-luck and presentations on this year’s col-lection of OE Energy Projects. Projects included energy surveys of the residence halls and Hildebrand lab, an energy-saving competition in the Graduate Division, and a “shorter shower” campaign in the units. The projects were quite succesful and em-ployed many aspects of Green Campus’ vi-sion of energy efficiency: education, evalu-ation, and actual savings. The Graduate Division competition, which is still ongo-ing as of this writing, saved over 400 kWh in the last three weeks, or the equivalent CO2 diversion of planting 23 trees! The top two participants in the competition, which

took place in Sproul Hall and used the My-Power database along with participant data, received power strips with occupancy sen-sors to complement their suite of energy-saving supplies and behaviors. The shorter shower campaign used many concepts of behavioral psychology to encourage resi-dents to shorten their showering time by taking a pledge and promising a pizza party to the floor with the most pledges. Overall it was a very successful season for the De-Cal, which managed to thrive with lively discussion and thorough, well-executed projects. Thanks to all the willing partici-pants and the interns look forward to an exciting new semester this fall!

Decal stu-dents Betsy, Eric, Alex, and Jason present their group project - an energy saving com-petition for staff in the Graduate Division office

To celebrate Earth Week, Green Campus made smores with solar ovesns ina mere5 minutes

# BY THE NUMBERS #

Note: view complete story on pg. 2

5

Did you know....?Over 70% of the electric-ity generated in the US is from non-renewable re-sources.

In the final steps of the Laundry Campaign, interns tabled throughout the week at the dining commons to dis-tribute post-surveys to dorm residents. The surveys questioned residents’ laun-dry practices and asked whether they had seen the stickers and posters installed by Green Campus. The data is still being col-lected and analyzed, but will eventually help Green Campus determine the success of the campaign and help conclude the year-long project. To encourage residents

to take the survey - which some residents took on our Kindles - interns provided free samples of sustainable laundry detergent, and the chance to win a giftcard to Yo-gurtland in a raffle. The raffle winners have been chosen: (name and where from?). This post-survey tabling session marked the end of a successful project, and Green Campus hopes that the students will continue to practice energy-efficient and sustainable laundry habits, even after they move out of the residence halls.

Final cycle of Laundry Campaign

Green Campus connects with UkraineBerkeley Green Campus has es-

tablished a partnership with an energy efficiency program from Kiev Polytech-nic Institute (KPI) in order to exchange information about energy saving com-petitions. This is their first year having an energy savings group on campus so Berkeley Green Campus helped pro-vide ideas on how to calculate savings and how to best outreach to students. Currently KPI is holding 4 competi-tions including a best energy savings ideas competition and an energy retro-fit competition. Our collaboration has also resulted in tons of new great ideas

to implement here on campus such as using the campus radio to broadcast en-ergy tips or giving away gloves, scarves, and hats as prizes to encourage lowering the thermostat. Collaborating with Kiev Polytechnic Institute has given Berkeley Green Campus insight into how energy is used in other regions in the world and what challenges need to be overcome in regions that aren’t a major energy hub. Energy needs and global warming re-sulting from the burning natural gases and coal are global issues that need to be addressed on an international scale and Green Campus is excited to take part!

Intern Manon van Kaenel encourages students students at the Crossroads Dining Commons to fill out post-imple-mentation surveys.

Skateholder of the month

Neeraj Sharma is the

Division Manager for Higher

Education at WASH Laundry,

which is the company that pro-

vides laundry appliances and

services to UC Berkeley resi-

dence halls. He has enthusiasti-

cally supported our Sustainable

Laundry Campaign by donat-

ing four $25 Laundry Machine

cards to our survey raffle. In

addition, Neeraj even donated

an iPod nano as a grand prize

for one lucky winner who com-

pleted the post-survey. We’re

excited for continued partner-

ship with WASH Laundry in

the future!

Above: WASH Laundry provides laun-

dry services to UC Berkeley.

Morwenna Rowemorwennarowe@berkeley.eduKimberly Lamklam789@berkeley.eduFelicia Tanftan@berkeley.eduCharles Dhongcdhon@berkeley.eduMaia Kapurmaiakapur@berkeley.eduSara Seacatsseacat@berkeley.eduAnton Walkerantonwalker@berkeley.eduManon von Kaenelmanon_vonkaenel@berkeley.eduEmily Wongemilywong.x@gmail.comJacqueline Hsujacquelinehsu23@gmail.comOmsri Bharatomsribharat@gmail.com

BerkeleyGreenCampus@gmail.com

greencampus.berkeley.edu

CONTACT USOngoing ProjectsBlackout Battles Energy Competition: The Blackout Battles is an energy competition between Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3, and Unit 4 (Foothill, Bowles, and Stern) in the residence halls. These competitions have been held every semester since Spring 2005 and include prizes such as ice cream parties.

Laundry Campaign: Green Campus encourages residents in residence halls to adopt sustainable laundry practices by creating static laundry machine stickers advertising the energy savings realized from washing with cold water instead of hot water, and the corresponding “cycle” to choose.

Fight the Flow: Fight the Flow is a TGIF‐Funded retrofiƫng proj-ect for the showerheads in the Unit 3 Residence Halls. The project aims to con-serve over 570,000 gallons of water over the next year by installing UZLOW™ valves onto the showerheads, which enable students to reduce the flow of water while shaving or shampooing.  

Green Cup: This T.G.I.F funded project is an energy saving competi-tion between Greek houses and provides them with free low‐cost retrofits in return. Some things include light‐bulbs and showerheads. The winning house will receive a $2,500 retrofit.

Energy DeCal: The 2-unit course utilizes innovative curriculum to teach a class of 30-40 students about the lifecycle consequences of our energy consumption as well as alternative energy technologies. Students complete as-signments such as a personal energy audit and group project that involves de-signing materials to teach other students and staff about how we can reduce energy consumption at UC Berkeley. Green Campus has taught ten semesters of this course to over 210 students.

Green Departments: In collaboration with UC Berkeley’s Of-fice of Sustainability, the project establishes guidelines and a checklist, similar to the Bay Area Green Business Certification, for UC Berkeley departments to take the extra step to make their workspace “green.”

Vending Misers Installation: Vending misers are motion sensors that power down vending machines when they are not in use. Green Campus has installed vending misers on 14 machines across campus and has monitored their energy consumption on a weekly basis.

“Shut the Sash” Fume Hood Campaign: This campaign educates lab researchers to close the sashes on fume hoods when they are not in use to reduce energy consumption and improve air quality. This program currently targets Tan Hall and uses stickers, flyers, and emails to dis-seminate information. It involves a competition to see which lab can “Shut the Sash” most consistently.

Descriptions of all of our current projects

The team (clockwise from left to right): Anton, Maia, Kimberly, Charles, Felicia, Morwenna, Manon, Sara

6