To understand Catholic University’s environmental impact, campus utilities should be measured continuously. From there, trends emerge, which provide a clearer picture of how operational changes and campus-wide projects such as the Energy Project, have an overall impact on energy, water, and waste use.
With that in mind, the Facilities Maintenance and Operations (FMO) department has broken down the utility data into water, natural gas, electricity, waste (and recycling) and greenhouse gas emissions and analyzed the data over the past 4 years (2016-2019). To understand and monitor the impact of the Energy Project, the department did a month-by-month study of the 2018 data, when Phase I of the Energy Project was well underway, through 2019,and the Energy Project’s transition period into Phase II. For a refresher on the Energy Project, take a look at the earlier blog.
This blog is part of a series uncovering the big picture of how energy, water, and waste is consumed on campus. Part I will focus on water and waste. Part II will include a discussion on energy and greenhouse gas emissions.
Data Anomalies
After some data analysis, there were some interesting anomalies, notably in 2018. In 2018, the Energy Project led to the installation of many efficient boilers and chillers. For some time, the new heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment ran concurrently with the older equipment. The stress of running these systems simultaneously has a noticeable increase in energy and water use for that year.
Water
On campus, water is used for faucets, toilets, showers and it is also used to heat and cool buildings campus. Before the Energy Project, campus buildings used water from the Power Plant to provide heat via steam. Depending on proximity to the Power Plant, a certain amount of steam would be lost in transition by radiation, convection,and conduction. To account for the loss in transit, the Power Plant would have to pump even more steam from the plant. The Energy Project began in 2016, which will remove steam boilers and convert them to hot-water boilers.To date, the Energy Project is in a transitionary phase when many old steam boilers and new hot water boilers are running concurrently. As a result, there is increased water usage in 2019.
Figure 1: Water Use Trends (2016-2019).
Water use has consistently decreased over the years and it is assumed the dual use of both the old steam boilers and the hot water boilers in 2019 caused the water use to increase.
Figure 2: 2018 vs. 2019 Water Use.
Waste
Waste refers to all rubbish removed from the University, including recycling, compost, and trash.The diversion rate is the amount of waste that was recycled versus landfilled. Waste diversion is the key metric when examining recycling progress.
Figure 3: 2018 vs 2019 Recycling Trends.
Complete recycling data goes back to 2018. Before 2018, the University used another waste hauler. The graphic above shows the increase in recycled material relative to the overall waste produced by the University. With collaboration between Facilities Administrative Services (FAS), FMO, and the greater University community, recycling will improve.
Figure 4: 2018 vs 2019 Recycling.
Waste peaks in May and October. Students move-out of dorms during May, which may yield higher amounts of waste during that time of year. As for October, the trend itself doesn’t seem to be guided by any determining factors; moreover, as more data is collected, further analysis will be done.
Impact
With a renewed, campus-wide focus on sustainability, Catholic University has set the goal to reduce water and waste. FY 2016 is the baseline as this was the last full year of data before the University began construction on the Energy Project. By FY 2025, the University aspires to reduce:
Water use by 20%, which is equal to 14,643 kGals saved...which is enough water to fill 22 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Waste by 50%, which is equal to 700.36 tons removed from the landfill….which could save 143,048 hours of electricity or 25,871 gallons of oil.
To achieve these goals and make long-lasting impactful changes, coordinated action is needed from all students, faculty, and staff. These goals are meant to challenge all Catholic University community members to take any action, whether big or small, to transform the University into an environmentally-conscious campus.
