Bryn Buchanan, a junior communication major, turns off the light before leaving for class. (Photo illustration by Daniel Daw)
Making the adjustment to energy efficiency and sustainability is a goal that NAU is making come to fruition through efforts beginning with an energy audit — administered by Noresco, a company that analyzes energy efficiency. The purpose of the audit is to calculate how much energy the campus consumes. With this, Noresco provides Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) that should be implemented to continue the university’s Climate Action Plan of a carbon neutral campus.
Lindsay Wagner, Director of Energy Services and Sustainability, said the whole project has a two year prospective construction window.
“For the last six months there has been a team of engineers going through campus,” Wagner said. “They covered about four million square feet originally and are going to do the rest of it in phase two.”
The preliminary building audit is complete after gathering data for approximately six months and has to be assessed in order to begin construction plans.
“[Engineers at Noresco] looked at everything, from counting every single light to see what kind of light bulb, to every toilet to every fixture,” Wagner said. “And, they calculate the baseline of how much energy we are using now and then they go back through and figure out how they can make things more efficient in all those areas and a price and a payback period,”
With efforts to become a carbon neutral and sustainable university, NAU will not only be energy efficient, but also save money on overall annual utility costs. With the results from the energy audit, energy conservation measures will be implemented allowing NAU to save a total of 18.2 percent on total costs of utilities — approximately $1.5 million annually according to an executive summary done by Noresco.
The project will accelerate the University’s sustainability goals and coincides with NAU’s Climate Action Plan of carbon neutrality by the year 2020. With the completion of the ECMs, carbon emissions will be lowered by approximately 16,020,000 lbs or 8,000 metric tons annually according to analysis by Noresco.
However, there is another factor NAU is looking at to measure energy usage.
Avi Henn, a graduate student studying climate science and solutions, said that in addition to the investment grade audit that has been completed, there is also a behavioral audit that accounts for habits of energy use by individuals.
“As a part of the behavioral audit, a team of specialists came out here and held a bunch of focus groups to talk to everybody,” Henn said. “Right now they are running a survey to collect data on habits on energy use.”
This project not only requires ECMs, but also the cooperation and fulfillment of education concerning behavioral changes for the benefit of energy conservation. To do so, NAU split 185 university participants between 18 focus groups where they were to brainstorm ways to inspire energy conservation on campus.
“That 18 percent [in savings annually] does not include the potential savings through behavioral changes. So if we can get people to be more energy conscious and green, then maybe those savings will be even higher,” Henn said.
Kevin Ordean, the student president of Campus Climate Challenge, which is an outreach program for students on campus, helps with the project by attempting to reach out to students on campus and spread awareness about the energy saving efforts on campus. As a whole, the project, with all the energy conservation measures, make for a $16 million project. This investment audit guarantees return and reliability upon completion of the survey of campus to its entirety.
“If they [Noresco] say we are going to save 18 percent and we don’t, then they are actually on the hook for the difference. These are guaranteed savings for everything we implement.” Ordean said. To learn more about what it means to be green, visit green.nau.edu and take the survey.
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