News - The University of Montana

Climate Action PLanning Open House is this afternoon at 3 pm in the UC Theater

The next Climate Action Planning Public Open House will be in the afternoon of November 17 in the UC theater. Stay tuned for more details.

Here it is…the BIG laundry list of ideas currently underconsideration for UM’s Climate Action Plan. Let us know your thoughts!

Energy Efficiency and Conservation
•“Practice what we Teach” campaign for being green (i.e. turn down the heat, use less AC, turn off the lights, reduce transportation emissions, purchase energy efficient equipment and use efficiently, recycle, collaborate with others to share equipment when feasible, etc)
•Create a “Green Monte” video (recycling, turning off lights and equipment, etc)
•More Green Griz events to promote recycling and energy conservation on campus
•Initiate energy saving competitions across campus
•Provide students with CFLs for their dorm rooms (perhaps NWE will provide the bulbs)
•Assign Building Managers for each building who will be responsible for championing energy conservation
•Institute a 4 day work week
•Put up a suggestion box for energy saving ideas
•Custodians work from west to east to take advantage of daylight in the evenings
•Custodians start work earlier in the day to maximize daylight
•Utilize work-study students to go around and shut off lights
•Provide education and campaigns to turn off office/dorm lights when not in use (“Please Flip Me Off” campaign)
•Acknowledge, celebrate, and reward individual, departmental and building-wide reductions in energy use
•Install energy-efficient exterior doors or airlocks and install sweeps (needed at the Adams Center)
•Utilize building space more efficiently; possibly extend hours of use
•Longer winter break, shorter summer break and minimize energy consumption in buildings not needed
•Evaluate academic calendar to maximize energy savings
•Every employee/student gets a Kill-a-Watt meter to understand and track energy use
•Capture waste heat off a bank of servers
•Cloud Computing (remote servers)
•Pilot LED street light section in parking garage.
•Conduct a Water Leakage Study on campus (water costs money and takes energy to transport)
•Continue with energy audits for all campus buildings
•Recommission and balance HVAC systems around campus
•Disseminate results of recent energy audit so others can see what kind of ECMs could be done
•Speed up replacement of CRTs with flat screens
•Change out dining services equipment with energy efficient models
•Campus-wide lighting retrofit (not cheap but some of this is already being done)
•Where possible, convert constant air flow systems to variable air flow
•Replace steam traps where needed (already being done in places)
•Minimize air changes for energy savings while still maintaining comfort and meeting requirements
•Continue to upgrade stream tunnels
•Install motion detectors for lights in bathrooms, offices, printer rooms, kitchens, etc.
•Reduce lighting in areas that where possible
•Turn off computers and copiers at night; install power saving modes on computers
•Eliminate or reduce the number of vending machines
•Adjust timers on lights
•Turn some lights on only at events (Adams Center)
•Check to see if emergency lighting is at minimum required
•Promote Library Sustainability Plan – encourage others to do the same
•Have each building pay for own power as an incentive to save
•Train RAs, VAs, and CAs to watch lights and heat temps
•Educate students on energy use and recycling at orientation
•Insulate pool/pool cover (in ECM project)
•Quantify and measure results of energy conservation(condensate reader)
•Meter buildings separately and make sure meters are accurate
•Install window treatments to reduce solar gain
•Fund raise for energy conservation upgrades
•Get multiple donors to create a sustainability fund
•Passively heat, cool, and light buildings
•Provide clothes lines for family housing
•Pilot beverage fill stations as a way to eliminate vending machines
•Teach students to unplug chargers when not in use and other energy saving methods of living: fill clothes and dish washers completely before using; use lids on pots when cooking; completely shut off devices instead of using power standby modes
•Provide staff education and training on saving energy and being green
•Turn off coolers for drinking fountains
•Eliminate hot water for sinks where possible
•Replace/upgrade roof insulation campus-wide
•Increase preventative and operational maintenance
•Limit after hours events to certain buildings and power-down the rest
•Add insulation to steam piping in buildings
•Expand digital controls for night temperature setback
•Replace single pane windows or add storm windows

Reduce/Reuse/Recycle
•Provide students recycling bins for their dorm rooms that they take down to the recycling collection stations
•Try completely compostable plates, cups, silverware at events/have people throw all away including food scraps and compost everything
•Shred cardboard to make cellulose insulation
•Create a recycled glass art program
•Encourage automatic payroll deductions to increase funding for recycling program
•Education students, faculty , and staff on how to recycle efficiently so that we may increase quantities without increasing the budget
•Education RAs on recycling
•Eliminate paper ticketing for events; use web-based system
•Quantity benefits of recycling and share; more recycling means less waste hauled to the landfill which equals dollars saved that would have been spent on extra trash pickups.
•Conduct a paper study. Institute paper reduction methods and use of recycling content paper
•Reduce the quantity of catalogs printed or go to electronic version only
•Install water bottle filling stations at events
•Add trees to shade buildings in the summer
•Reduce and consolidate electric appliances (printers, refrigerators, etc)

Transportation Strategies
•Increase ASUM bus service on East Broadway
•Increase visibility of ride share programs through ASUM
•Develop a Parking Management Plan
•Reduce number of parking spaces on campus 30% by 2020
•Free parking for carpooling
•More onsite childcare
•Free bikes for freshman and international students
•Encourage intercity public transit between MT cities
•Encourage more video/telephone conferencing
•Evaluate busing athletes to games instead of flying (may not be feasible because of distance)
•Supply the President with a hybrid vehicle
•Initiate a “walk with Dennison day” promoting walking to campus
•Increase incentives for riding bikes, buses, or walking. Give students points which can be redeemed for money or a prize; give a time allowance for staff who bike or walk to work
•Provide/increase ASUM bus service for football games
•Build covered bike parking
•Look for grants or funding sources for alternative fuel: bio-diesel bus
•Install air stations around campus for bike tires
•Put a ride-share notice board at the UC and/or on the web
•Continue to improve bike and pedestrian routes on campus and connections to local area
•Increase the number of electric vehicles used around campus for maintenance and recycling. Charge these vehicles with solar powered charging stations.
•Allow people who can to work from home
•Provide fee-based, solar powered electric vehicle charging station for commuters (fund with grants)
•One day a year encourage no cars on campus
•Institute a Zip Car program – car sharing. Could then encourage freshman not to bring cars to school.
•Encourage and reward efficient use of air travel i.e. go to multiple meetings or conferences in one trip; utilize web-based conferencing and meetings
•Give employees higher mileage rate for using more fuel efficient vehicles
•Encourage staff use of bicycles for on-campus travel
•Hold more double header athletic events to reduce number of trips

Renewable Energy
On-Campus
•Solar PV and thermal on roofs with appropriate orientation
•Cover parking garage with a roof of solar panels
•Solar thermal for pool
•Biomass: On-Campus wood fired boiler
•Burn excess paper to create energy
•Create passive heating and cooling buildings with minimal mechanical systems.
•Install a Sterling engine solar collection for educational purposes
•Evaluate wind generation from roof tops
•Go back to creating biodiesel from fryer oil
•Generate electricity from exercise equipmenT

Off-Campus
•Develop wind farm on State school trust lands, i.e University Mountain
•Biomass: Off-site gasification

Green Buildings
•Go for LEED Gold, Platinum for new buildings
•Certify existing buildings as LEED EB (Existing Buildings) This would work well with recommissioning project
•Install green roofs for energy savings and aesthetics

Landscaping
•Install native and water-wise vegetation around residences
•Replace 2-cycle maintenance equipment with electric or 4-cycle
•Minimize watering as much as possible