Four Harvard projects, 5 Cowperthwaite Street, Ten Akron Street, Byerly Hall and Hamilton Hall, have installed or are planning to install interactive educational display in their lobbies. Tied to the building automation systems, the screens display real-time and trended data (electricity, water, CO2, etc.) and datapoints in dashboard gauges, such as space cooling, space heating, domestic water usage, building electricity, plug loads, and total energy consumption.

Data is gathered by Siemens, and manipulated for display by Lucid Design Group (for 5 Cowperthwaite and Ten Akron), and Green Touchscreen by Quality Attributes (for Hamilton Hall and Byerly Hall).

Real-time utility displays have been shown to reduce utility consumption by changing occupant behavior. According to Lucid Design Group, Oberlin College documented a 55% electricity reduction during a dormitory competition supported by "high resolution" feedback, compared to a 31% reduction with "low-resolution" support (posters). When the HRES projects (Ten Akron and Five Cowperthwaite) were considering the Lucid system, a conservative 3% reduction in annual electricity consumption was assumed for the buildings, which equaled a 4.9 year payback period for the system. The cost of these systems can be covered by the Green Campus Loan Fund.

 

 

In addition to real time and trended data, the following features can be included:

Space Cooling

• Chiller kW and kWh

• Central Plant systems: chilled water Ton-Days and Delta T

• Condenser water pump kW and kWh

• Circulation pump kW and kWh

• Cooling tower fan kW and kWh

• Chilled water loop BTUs

Space Heating

• Steam or gas meter instantaneous and total values

• Hot water flow instantaneous and total values, in gallons or BTUs

• Hot water temperature

• Pump kW and kWh

Domestic Water Usage

• Flow instantaneous and total value, for both hot and cold

• Hot water BTUs, or therms of gas consumed

• Temperature

Building Electricity

• kW and kWh

• Broken out by:

  • Lighting
  • Plug load
  • Mechanical systems
  • Elevators

Natural Gas Consumption

• Natural gas instantaneous and total values

Irrigation

• Display historical data over time (interactive graph):  space cooling, space heating, domestic water usage, building electricity, plug loads, total energy consumption. Display by day of week, week, month, year.

• Compare usage and cost to other comparable buildings on campus.

• Display an animation showing the internal operation and energy flows of each system:  e.g., solar panels, ground source heat pumps, wind turbines, cooling systems, heat recovery, lighting, etc.

Other Add-On Features

• Green Features Map: Highlight the green building features of a building.

• LEED: Highlight and describe LEED, the building’s LEED components, include an interactive LEED checklist for more information on each point achieved.

• Shuttle Buses: Map with real-time Harvard shuttle location and schedule.

• Event calendar: integrated with campus map to show locations.

• Directories: Searchable building and campus directories, campus map.

• News: Current weather and forecast, news headlines, campus news.

 

 

The Green Skillet competition is a fun way for dining halls at Harvard to actively contribute to environmental solutions. Started in February 2006, the inter-kitchen competition encourages dining staff and Harvard students to use best practices for kitchen energy and resource efficiency.

Program Goals

The primary goal of the Green Skillet competition is to foster participation of Harvard University Dining Service (HUDS) staff in energy and resource conservation strategies to achieve the following:

• Electricity use = 10% reduction
• Natural gas use = 10% reduction
• Special Projects for education and awareness

Each dining hall attempts to beat its own energy consumption baseline by 10%. Progress toward achieving energy reduction goals is measured monthly through utility meter readings.

Dining halls are also encouraged to initiate one or more Special Projects. Special Projects can be anything beyond energy savings that reduces the dining hall’s impact on the environment. Mug trees, plate waste audits, water conservation, and napkin use reduction campaigns are a few examples of recent special projects that involve both staff and students.

2007 Competition Results

In the first year of competition, many dining halls met their energy reduction goals using the best practices listed below. This resulted in significant savings in operating costs and increased staff and student awareness of the benefits of efficient kitchens.

Quincy House Kitchen won the 2007 Green Skillet competition with a 23% electricity reduction and 3.5% natural gas reduction. Quincy staff accomplished these reductions mainly by switching to compact fluorescent bulbs and turning on equipment only when it was needed. In addition, Quincy edged out the competition with not one, but six Special Projects that involved students in waste reduction.

Kitchen Conservation Best Practices

The following best practices were identified by HUDS staff:

Equipment pre-heat time
Staff routinely turn on all of the required kitchen equipment as soon as they check in to work. This tends to result in unnecessarily prolonged equipment pre-heat times. To resolve this issue, the HGCI measured actual start-up time requirements for select kitchen equipment. In general, only 7-10 minutes are needed to bring equipment to health code temperatures. Pre-heat times are now posted above kitchen equipment to remind staff to turn equipment on only when needed.

Turn off equipment when not in use
Meal preparations usually occur immediately after or during previous meals. These tight schedules often require kitchen equipment to be left on throughout the day. However, there are many exceptions to this rule. HUDS staff have identified many opportunities to turn off equipment when not in use.

Cover hot wells, steamers and bain maries
The easiest way to conserve energy is to prevent it from escaping. Hot wells, steamers and bain maries all contain steaming hot water. If this equipment is not covered, the steam escapes. Any escaped steam requires additional energy to replace what was lost. A good practice in all HUDS kitchens is to cover this equipment when feasible.

Close refrigerator doors
Sometimes the most obvious practices can be overlooked. When staff walk in and out of refrigerators and freezers they often have their arms full of produce. This can make it more difficult to ensure that the door is properly closed and latched behind them. Simple reminders to close doors properly will reinforce good habits. Several kitchens have installed automatic door closing mechanisms.

Turn lights off when not in use
Stock rooms, laundry rooms, lockers, and bathrooms are just some of the places where lights can be left on unnecessarily. The HGCI helps HUDS install more efficient lighting and occupancy sensors where appropriate. Durable stickers on light switch plates also help kitchens remind their staff that the best way to conserve is to switch off when not in use.

Identify old / inefficient equipment
Kitchen staff know their equipment best. When something is old, inefficient or just not working right, they’re the first to know. HUDS staff is encouraged to notify management when they see wasteful equipment. This provides as much, if not more information than equipment inventory reports.

Full dishwasher loads Dishwashers can use anywhere from 145 to 325 gallons of water per hour, regardless of the amount of dishes being washed. Therefore it always makes sense to run a full dishwasher. HUDS managers communicate to staff that it’s okay to wait for a full load of dishes before running the dishwasher. This translates to large water, soap and energy savings.

 

Graduate Green Living Program (GGL)

The Graduate Green Living Program is a peer-to-peer training and education program for residents of graduate housing. With the support of the program’s partners, we employ Green Living Representatives to lead a variety of events and activities that will encourage residents to adopt more environmentally sustainable lifestyles. Green Living Representatives focus on recycling, waste reduction, water and electricity conservation, and reducing the use of heating and cooling. Representatives also have the opportunity to suggest infrastructure and policy improvements that will remove barriers to conservation that the residents are experiencing. The program, new in the 2005-06 academic year, is based loosely on the FAS-Resource Efficiency Program.

 

FAS- Resource Efficiency Program (REP)

Harvard houses over 6000 undergraduate students in over 20 dorms and houses. HGCI employs 20 students to engage in peer-to-peer training and education activities. This program was established with the purpose of educating and engaging this student body in a wide range of campus sustainability initiatives. So far they include water conservation, environmental procurement, mindful use of heating and cooling, minimizing food waste, learning about climate change and renewable energy, recycling and reuse of paper, cardboard, clothes, equipment and furniture and more.

Harvard Real Estate Services Graduate Green Living Program
(Peabody Terrace, Soldiers Field Park, One Western Avenue)

Harvard Law School Graduate Green Living Program

Green Living at Harvard Business School

 

FAS- Campus Energy Reduction Program (CERP)

This Program was established to influence over 10,000 computer users to shut down their computers when not in use, to purchase flat screen monitors or laptop computers and to activate the sleep software for monitors. The program continues to expand its focus to encourage energy conservation more broadly across the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Other Schools, such as the Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health are beginning to model after the success of this program.