Energy Use & Conservation Committee recently established

The Committee on Energy Use and Conservation was recently established by the University Senate in order to evaluate energy consumption on campus.

The Committee, chaired by Dr. Doug Oetter, was originally proposed in response to elevated gas prices following Hurricane Katrina.

“It got some of us on the Budget and Finance Committee of the University Senate wondering how much money we were spending on shuttles and driving costs, and what we could do as a university to encourage carpooling and fewer trips, and alternative modes of transportation such as biking and walking and things like that,” Oetter said. “And it also got us interested in how much it costs to heat and cool our buildings because a lot of that expense comes from fossil fuels as well- natural gas and coal- for electricity”

The committee will work closely with the Environmental Science Club, for which Oetter is the faculty advisor. The club has been exploring the concept of an environmental audit for the university, which would include evaluations of energy use and the consumption of materials on campus, Oetter said.

“We try to determine where we can improve on our consumption of natural resources and that’s going to improve our campus, both economically and environmentally,” Oetter said.

Senior outdoor education major Daniel Manget applauds the effort of the committee and hopes that the university will become a better steward of its resources by becoming more efficient in its use of energy.

“It’s both environmentally and economically friendly- a great direction for university to go in,” Manget said. “It also promotes the liberal arts mission by encouraging responsible community involvement.”

Senior marketing major Devin Byrd said he agrees that making the campus more environmentally friendly is a noble endeavor, but worries about costs associated with the project.

“As long as we could save money at the bottom line it would be good for students,” Byrd said. “If you can cut back on energy you can cut back on resource use. You’ll use less fossil fuels and that kind of thing. But of course, it always costs money to save the environment.”

Oetter says that many similar programs draw unwarranted criticism from those who, like Byrd, are concerned about the bottom line.

“One of the things we’re working on in Environmental Science Club is also materials (consumption)- these two sort of go hand in hand. If you’re paying money to throw away cardboard vs. getting paid to recycle cardboard, then there’s an economic incentive,” Oetter said. “Currently, GCSU spends approximately $98,754 per month on electricity, $28,000 per month for gas, $17,000 per month for water and $2,000 per month for oil. Because of recent improvements to the university’s facilities increase efficiency, it now costs considerably less to provide utilities.”

“The purpose of this committee is to revisit what’s already been done and to look at options for saving costs and saving energy. It’s one of those win- win things,” Oetter said. “One of the things that you notice is that everything on this campus, as with any other business, has to be run from an operations standpoint first.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 7 2006. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry