Purdue Going Green

Boilers Gone Green

Daniel McGee
Benjamin Ramseier
Brian Ginn
Steven Goodell

March 19, 2010

English 421Y – Technical Writing
Frank Tobienne, Jr.
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Table of Contents
1. Title Page………………………………………………………………….…..1
2. Table of Contents……………………………………………………………..2
3. Executive Summary ………………………………………………………….3
4. Energy…………………………………………………………………….…...3-5
5. Water Conservation……………………………………………………...…...6-8
6. Purdue Vehicles……………………………………………………………….8-10
7. Green Roof……………………………………………………………………10
8. Purdue Facilities………………………………………………………………11-14
9. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….14
10. Annotated Bibliography……………………………………………………..15-16
11. Appendix A…………………………………………………………………...17-18
12. Appendix B…………………………...………………………………………19-20
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Executive Summary
Purdue is constantly striving toward creating a greener campus with a focus on
environmental impact and energy conservation. The demand for conserving fiscal assets
through increasing efficiency is one of the driving forces behind their strategic plan. In
order for Purdue to accomplish their overarching strategic plan they have implemented a
few specific capital investment projects and strategies both past and present.

Team Boilers Gone Green has undertook the effort to evaluate the components of
Purdue’s strategic plan to promote a “Green” campus. The focus of our research efforts are
directed toward the conservation of energy and water as well as the building facilities and
transportation fleet. We have drawn from a list of resources including official
documentation, online reference materials and expert interviews to outline the specifics of
these efforts.

Energy
Purdue has recently focused on trying to create a sustainability program that will
allow for both fiscal and environmental savings. One of the main components of the
sustainability focuses on energy consumption in Purdue facilities and buildings. According
to Robin Ridgeway, the director of sustainability and environmental stewardship, the parts
of campus that are most inefficient and need to improved are the “Utility supply to our
older, inefficient buildings”. Campus is comprised of older and newer building technologies
but the fact that 64.8 % of buildings are build prior to 1970 shows a need for implementing
the sustainability program. There are a variety of tools that the university is trying to use in
order to conserve the energy consumption of facilities including utility monitoring, building
retrocomissioning, and evaluation of green building techniques.

The first step in implementing their energy conservation plan is to customize the
building control systems. This requires building maintenance personnel to closely monitor
heating and cooling to specific areas of buildings at specific times. The emphasis of
Purdue’s physical facilities staff is to adjust the HVAC systems to synchronize with class
times, startup and shutdown cutoffs, and necessary research facility requirements.
Customizing the control systems without investing in new technology will instantly cut
down the overhead of the buildings. The next step of their plan is to encourage faculty and
employees to follow a “Lights Out” campaign to conserve electrical energy. This involves
cutting back on comfort equipment such as office refrigerators and powering down non-
critical instruments. This campaign is still in the development phase however combining the
two steps Purdue estimates it will save over two million dollars annually.
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Purdue has also qualified for

Qualified Energy Savings upgrades for
three of their buildings. The Qualified
Energy Savings (QES) program allows
Purdue to borrow up to $10 million to
retrofit their existing facilities. The
three buildings it will retrofit are
Brown Laboratory of Chemistry,
Stewart Center, and Civil Engineering.
At each of the facilities they will
implement new efficient water and
electrical technologies including
bathroom equipment that will reduce Civil Engineering Building was one of three buildings
their derived consumption from the that used the QES program
grid. At Brown Laboratory of
Chemistry they are installing new mechanical and electrical control systems to regulate air
supplied to the chemistry hoods. The retrocomissioning at Civil and Stewart Center
includes installing new air handling units to reduce energy by accurately controlling the air
flow during non peak hours. These improvements are estimated to pay for themselves in 10
years.

Along with retrofitting and improving campus buildings, Purdue is also focusing
on reducing the energy consumption of the residence halls. There have been a variety of
efforts amongst individual residence halls to help with Purdue’s sustainability effort. Cary
Quadrangle installed new mechanized shades in the dining court to reduce solar heat gain.
In Earhart Hall they installed HVAC control mechanisms to drastically reduce the
inefficiency of the system as well as placed new drapes to reduce solar buildup. All
residence halls have installed utility meters in order to track the improvement of the recent
upgrades. The housing department collects the data and is able to make changes to their
strategic plan based on empirical evidence. The second part of the housing department’s
plan is to educate students on what they can do to conserve energy. They currently are
publishing tips for students to follow on their webpage and intend on holding educational
seminars and conferences down the road.

Looking at Purdue’s energy consumption from a relative standpoint shows that

overall the impact on their fiscal outlook is fair. A look at comparable universities in the Big
Ten shows that Purdue has the lowest energy expenses per gross square foot (GSF) at just
under a dollar per GSF. At the same time Purdue ranks third in the Big Ten in total energy
consumption, at just over 200,000 BTU/GSF, behind Michigan State University and
University of Illinois. These numbers reflect the effectiveness of Purdue creating its own
energy through the Wade Utility Plant. Purdue’s campus grid consumes on average a
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maximum of approximately 47.2 megawatts with a combination of bought electricity and

the energy produced from the Wade Utility Plant. The Wade Utility Plant can produce up to
40 megawatts using two steam turbine generators and one diesel driven generator which
greatly helps Purdue save money from purchasing external supply.

Graph of Big Ten’s Energy Expenses per Gross Square Foot

Graph of Big Ten’s Energy Consumption shows the efforts of Purdue to create their own energy
Page 6

Water Conservation
Purdue does not pay for the water that it used, but rather for the treatment of the
returning waste water. This cost is $5.34 per 1000 gallons of waste water, which is quite
low. Some might even say that Purdue doesn’t need to cut costs in this area and they would
be right. The national average daily water consumption is 72.5 gallons per person. And
Purdue’s average, it was a mere 60.4 gallons. This figure reflects the campus average before
the university begins promoting conservation. Although some monetary savings can still be
made, the university is more concerned with its sustainability as a campus rather than the
size of the check that it has to write.

Practice water conservation in your daily activities

There are a number of common sense steps that we all can and should follow to
eliminate water wastage. Most of them do not involve a noticeable change in lifestyle. It is
more just a matter of “turning off the water” when not using it.

Bathroom
Take short showers, not baths. Showers use between 2.5 (water conserving) and 4.5
(conventional) gallons per minute, so even a 10 minute shower uses 25 to 45 gallons of
water compared to as much as 35 gallons with a bath.
Turn off the shower while you soap up and shampoo your hair.
Water wasted while waiting for water to get hot can be reduced by insulating hot water
pipes.
Turn off the water while shaving, brushing your teeth, or washing your hands.

Laundry
Try to launder only full loads, or if the washing machine has a water level control,
adjust it accordingly for the size of the load.

Kitchen
Keep a covered bottle of drinking water in the refrigerator so that you don’t have to let
the faucet run to get cold water.
Wash only full loads in the dishwasher. Select the shortest cycles when possible.
Follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how to save water and energy.
When hand washing dishes, turn off the hot water when rinsing dishes.
Use a pan of water to wash, peel, or clean vegetables rather than letting the water run.
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A number of efforts have been made campus wide to promote water conservation.
The two main methods used are: consumer education and encouragement, and the
retrofitting of campus fixtures. By educating the students and faculty on campus, Purdue is
able to target the users themselves. A number of Purdue sponsored websites provide
information on water conservation techniques and the expected potential savings. Purdue’s
Sustainability Website serves as a hub for all things having to do with going green. It
provides educational resources, sponsors a sustainability council, distributes information
about Green Week events, and sponsors competitions between residence halls as well as on
an intercollegiate level. In addition, Purdue has also partnered with the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to produce an interactive guide to conservation. The application,
which is available for download from the EPA, encourages consumers to reduce their usage
by allowing them to estimate their savings from retrofitting based on a number of variables.
In addition, users are reminded of many “common sense” fixes or behavioral changes that
can result in reduced consumption: periodically checking for leaks in piping, taking showers
instead of baths, taking shorter showers, installing bags or limiting devices in toilets to
reduce their usage, doing full loads of laundry, hand washing dishes, and just turning the
faucet or shower of in general when it is not needed.

Purdue’s administration understands that the individuals making up the student body
are responsible for the majority of the university’s waste water. Because of this, the most
effective way of reducing usage in this demographic is to provide them with the information
they need and some encouragement to get them started. The Housing and Food Services
Department at Purdue sponsors competitions to keep students actively involved and
thinking about conservation. The contest takes place between McCutcheon, Harrison,
Earhart, and Shreve Hall and their consumption is monitored over a twelve day period. Each
building’s utilities are metered and one of the challenges is for students to reduce their
individual water usage relative to their residence hall’s average. A few tips for students are
to limit showers to 3 minutes and to use fewer plates in the dining courts, which in turn cuts
down on the water necessary to wash them. The Resident Assistants even went as far as
putting timers in the showers to encourage student participation. At the end of the twelve
days, the results were promising. The students of Harrison Hall reduced their average daily
water usage by 2.17 gallons per person. With approximately 800 residents in the building,
that amounts to over 1,736 gallons conserved per day. If this could be sustained over an
entire school year, the total savings would be over 388,864 gallons in this one hall alone.
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The second part of Purdue’s approach involves the retrofitting

of campus fixtures. A conventional toilet can use as much as 4
gallons of water per flush, and a urinal uses 1 gallon. All new
construction on campus is slated to have newer, low-flow,
efficient utilities. However, projected replacement costs for
older fixtures are too high and more waste is created in the
process. As an alternative to replacement, low-flow devices
are being installed in many locations on campus.
Conservacaps, as they are called, are made of plastic and
designed to limit the amount of water that a urinal or toilet
uses per flush, and they do this without decreasing
effectiveness. At $12 per piece, the device’s installation takes
approximately fifteen minutes and yields promising results. In
Class of ’50 Lecture Hall and the Recitation Building, the two
test buildings, the university saw a 60% reduction equal to 271,000 gallons per year.

Purdue Vehicles
With gas prices on the rise in the United States, and the fear of foreign nations
completely controlling our oil supply, new ideas and solutions have been implemented on
the Purdue campus to lower vehicle energy costs. The newest of these solutions is the
implementation of the Smart Car to the Purdue vehicle fleet. "The Smart cars provide a low-
cost and fuel-efficient alternative to transportation needs on campus and are an extension
of the University’s sustainability efforts," said James S. Almond, interim executive vice
president for business and finance and treasurer.

The smart cars are a product of

the Mercedes-Benz Company. The idea
began with a Swiss watch manufacturer,
Sw atch a nd w as named t he
Swatchmobile. The original idea for the
Swatchmobile was to manufacture a car
that was both innovative in aesthetics as
well as efficient on fuel economy, but
could be affordable and easily marketable
to younger drivers. After the Swatch
Company pitched the design to General
Motors and was rejected, they looked to One of Purdue’s New Smart Vehicles
VW to produce they car. The VW version
 Page 9

of the Swatchmobile never made it past the drawing board because of financial trouble the
company was facing at the time. With automobile manufacturers in economic trouble
around the world, Swatch CEO Nicolas Hayek set his sights on Mercedes-Benz to produce
his pet project.

The smart car is a two seat coupe which has had exceptional safety and energy
saving reviews. Each Smart For-two has a1.0L, 70HP 3cylinder engine and an electric
motor, making the smart For-two the lightest hybrid vehicle on the road. With a 5 speed
manual transmission, and the Smart’s light weight (1600lbs) and small size it is able to
easily have a 36 mpg on both the highway and in town. This makes the Smart For-two an
ideal choice for the Purdue transportation department to add to their fleet to keep emission
levels and energy costs low.

The car has faced criticism on its overall safety because of the smart’s small size.
Traditionally smaller cars are less
safe and have had very
unfortunate outcomes for their
drivers and passengers when
involved in an accident. The
smart For-two combats this
problem with the Tridion steel
safety shell. The Tridion shell is a
hemispherical steel enclosure that
encompasses the entire cars
interior. “A 70 mph crash test
conducted by British TV show
"Top Gear" revealed that the
Smart For-two's body remained
mostly intact when compared to
that of a conventional subcompact
car,” said Ed Grabianowski.
There is a small energy absorbent area in the front of the car that crumples when impacted.
This slows and reduces the energy from a crash before it reaches the driver and/or
passengers. These make the smart car a four star safety vehicle, which for its size, is a pretty
impressive accomplishment.

The smart vehicles will be an addition to the rental vehicle part of the fleet that is
used to transport people. "For now we expect to use them to get people to meetings or job
sites. We're beginning to get more interest from departments around campus in long-term
rentals," said John Gleason, senior director of administrative support and auxiliary services.
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With the addition of the smart Fortwos, the Purdue University vehicle fleet is comprised
entirely of either flexfuel or hybrid vehicles. By 2012 the university plans on have a fleet
comprised of 60% hybrids and 40% flexfuel vehicles. This will give Purdue the upper hand
on battling the energy crisis and breaking away from foreign oil dependency.

In today’s fuel prices and the higher emphasis on high car emissions, Purdue
University has made great steps towards having a fully environmental friendly
transportation fleet. With the new addition of the smart Fortwo cars and their consistent
push to have hybrid and flexfuel vehicles being used to transport people and materials,
Purdue has the equipment to get all necessary jobs done without presently harming the
environment.

Green Roof
One of the first sustainability projects that Purdue has completed is installing a new
green roof on the Schleman Hall of Student Services. A green roof is a layer of vegetation
that rests above a waterproof membrane that acts as insulation to the building. It reduces the
amount of heat and cold that is absorbed by the building and eliminates the water pollution
caused by runoff of the previous tar roof. The project was planned and carried out by Boiler
Green Initiative, a student organization dedicated to providing green solutions to campus.
One of the primary components that helps conserve energy in the building is the use of
reflective pavers that reflects the heat from sunlight back into the atmosphere instead of
absorbing it. The green roof also features recyclable material integrated into the design
including the tables, chairs and rails. Boiler Green Initiative and the Sustainability Council
are currently looking to implement the same technology and success with the Schleman Hall
roof into creating a green roof on Mann Hall, the Purdue Armory and part of the horticulture
building.

Schelman Hall’s Green Roof

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Purdue Facilities
When thinking about sustainability, there are many things to keep in mind. Before
going deeper into, one must understand what sustainability really means. According to the
book definition, it means to have the capacity to endure. This can have a different definition
depending on what subject one is actually talking about. From a stand point relating to
harvesting crops, it means to use a resource, but not to a point where it depletes or
permanently damages the resource. When someone is talking about sustainability in a
general sense, it is referring to the sustainability of humans and the sustainability of the
planet Earth. In order for and endless amount of generations of humans to thrive, there has
to be a place for these people to live. Over the past 10-15 years, there has been a green
initiative sweeping the nation that is asking people and businesses to be aware. Everyone
needs to be aware of what they are throwing away, what they are flushing down the toilet,
what is burning in their car as they are commuting to work and what other energy is being
wasted needlessly. This initiative in general has been underway for quite some time and will
continue into to the future. More and more large corporations, businesses and finally
educational institutions are catching on since the government is supporting the effort.

The United State Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers tax incentives for
being energy efficient. These tax credits help offset the cost of investing a little bit more in a
certain product, a building, or car. One example of an incentive based off being
environmentally friendly is in Cincinnati, OH. In this city, if a new building or a renovated
property meets a minimum level of green certification, the real property tax is 100% exempt
for that year. Along with these tax incentives, there is another perk to joining the
sustainability effort, good Public Image. The more a business or institution thinks about and
practices sustainability, the better public image the company has. These companies are seen
as a “Good Corporate Citizen.” General environmental dangers are becoming more and
more prominent where people live and work. Many companies who are trying to improve
their carbon footprint are being rewarded. One of the major components in practicing
sustainability is the actual physical structure of a building. According to the Natural
Resources Defense Council, more than 40% of total energy use is accounted for by
buildings, including 70% of total electrical energy. Buildings also account for 40% of global
warming emissions and raw materials consumed along with 30% of solid municipal waste.
With all of these in consideration, a slight increase in efficiency across the board will create
a huge improvement overall in energy savings. As a standard for sustainable buildings, the
United States government created the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). This
council in turn created a standard on which buildings are judged in respect to environmental
issued and energy efficiency. This standard is called the Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system. If a building meets certain
criteria, different levels of LEED certification are given.
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There are four different levels of LEED

certification that can be achieved. These levels
of certification are certified, silver, gold and
platinum. In order to achieve any of these, new
construction or major renovations of buildings
get points based on their score out of 69
possible credits. The 2009 version of LEED
certification credits cover the following
criteria: the location of the site, water
efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials
and resources, indoor environmental quality,
innovation and design and regional priority of
the building site. If a building gets between 26
-32 points, it is considered LEED certified. If
the building gets between 33 and 38 points, it
will receive a Silver LEED certification. If it gets up to 51 points, it is Gold LEED certified
and anything beyond 51 is considered Platinum LEED certified.

Purdue University is currently in the process of moving toward a greener campus.

The first major move toward this overall goal can be seen in the Roger B. Gatewood
Addition of the Mechanical Engineering building. This building, a $33 million, 41,000
square foot building, which has been under construction since 2008, is going to be the first
fully green building on campus. An interview with Keith Hawks, the associate head of
Mechanical Engineering yielded some interesting information about the building. When this
project first got off the ground, the only green goal was to get LEED certified, not
necessarily with a higher distinction.
Now that the project is underway and
some goals are being surpassed, this new
addition is now aiming to get Gold LEED
certification. The project managers are
doing everything they possibly can in
correlation with the LEED credits and
barring set backs are going to get a gold
certification. In order to make room for
this addition, a building was demolished
which was standing where the
construction is underway now. 96% of
this building was recycled. Once the
construction began, the designers of the
building knew they wanted to make it as
energy efficient as possible. One of the Roger B. Gatewood Addition
 Page 13

first things they had to figure out was the heating and air conditioning of this building. They
plugged the design of the building into a computer program that calculated the heat loss
within the building to found the places where the heat loss was occurring. There was extra
insulation added to these areas to keep the energy inside the building that they wanted. They
also added triple pane glass to reduce the heat loss through the windows. In the actual
heating units, there is an economizer. This means the air leaving the building through the
exhaust will help heat the new air coming in. It essentially acts like a heat exchanger and
reduces the cost of heating the building. The air coming into the building will be purified
using UV light to clean the air. This will ensure the cleanliness of the air.

Once the thermal evaluation was complete in the building, the interior design was
adjusted to eliminate unneeded energy. One example of this is the building will have
reduced lighting levels in big office areas. Each desk will have a low energy task light. In
these rooms there will also be motion sensors with light bulbs that are called photocell
lights. This means the lights will only turn on if the light level is low enough. These saving
will be seen every month in the energy bill. Also in the Gatewood addition, the plumbing
fixtures have been added to encourage maximum water savings. The bathrooms all have
automatic controls with low flow toilets and water fountains. The roof of this building will
be considered a green roof even though it will be painted white. The type of paint that this is
will have a high solar reflectance index. This is equivalent to have actual vegetation on the
roof in terms of energy usage.

One last feature that will be in the atrium of the Gatewood addition is an information
kiosk. This has been the pet project of Professor Hawks and will be one of the first of its
kind. This kiosk will have a list of all the credits received by the LEED certification and
will show the average person who walks in there the features of the building. Another thing
in this kiosk will be the current energy levels of the building. Professor Hawks, who has
worked in the Physical Building Department at Purdue for the past 40 years, has set up a
system with the energy companies. This system will show up to date of the amounts of each
type of energy (i.e. pounds of coals) used to power the building. This kiosk will be very
informative and will also serve as a center of education for the building.
Page 14

It can be seen that the Gatewood addition to the Mechanical Engineering building will
have many state of the art features that will reduce energy usage. This is the first step
Purdue must take in ensuring sustainability. This project also yielded many long term
effects. The Purdue staff now has 11 LEED accredited professionals who went through
thorough training on LEED certification. These people will now always be looking to
increase the sustainability of our campus. Also Purdue will now have prime example of the
effects of having a green building. They will see firsthand the energy savings of the green
initiative. Overall, through the Roger B. Gatewood addition, Purdue has made a giant leap
in the right direction for sustainability and the green initiative.

Conclusion
After conducting the research and overlooking all the facts, it can be easily seen that Purdue
is making efforts to be more sustainable as an institution. The campus is retro
commissioning many of its buildings in order to save energy and money for the future. With
a small investment now, these improvements will pay for themselves and then some
more. One example of this is the Green Roof that was placed on Schleman Hall. This thin
layer of vegetation will reduce the effect of radiation on the roof of the building. With good
automobile purchases the Purdue fleet will have better gas mileage than other
institutions. The final step that Purdue has made was seen in the Mechanical Engineering
addition of the Roger B. Gatewood Wing. Purdue has set an example for the future with the
expected LEED Gold certification. As this project has went forth, 11 employees of Purdue
have been LEED certified. This increased knowledge on staff will help on future Purdue
projects. This also shows that Purdue is on board to join the sustainability effort. Overall
Purdue is making big leaps toward a greener tomorrow.
Page 15

Annotated Bibliography
Blank, Mark. "Residential Water Conservation Techniques | Software for Environmental
Awareness | US EPA." U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 1 Apr. 1991. Web. 26 Feb.
2010. <http://www.epa.gov/seahome/watcon.html>.

This is a water conservation website put together by the Environmental Protection

Agency. On the site is a link to software created by Purdue University. Through
downloading a program or viewing it online, visitors are educated on retrofitting in-
home appliances and outdoor applications as well. Also included is a “Water
Conservation Calculator” that allows consumers to estimate their possible savings
depending on which items they retrofit or replace.

"Campus Buildings & Features." Purdue University. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. <http://
www.purdue.edu/sustainability/pages/campus_buildings.html>.

This website gives an overview of Purdue’s projects in creating green buildings. It

briefly describes the features of the new Mechanical Engineering wing as well as
past and present efforts.

"Campus Utilities and Energy Conservation." Purdue Unviersity Board of Trustees, 9 Apr.
2009. Web. 21 Feb. 2010. <http://www2.itap.purdue.edu/bot/viewDocument.cfm?
id=3422>.

This is a presentation created by the Purdue University Board of Trustees that

focuses on the fiscal savings and commitments of Purdue towards sustainability. It
details gas consumption, campus utilities, as well as power production and
compares it over time.

"GROUND WATER PRIMER." Purdue University. 8 May 1998. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.
<http://www.purdue.edu/dp/envirosoft/groundwater/src/ground.htm>.

This is a site developed by the Agricultural & Biological Engineering Department

at Purdue to educate people about various topics. Some of which are an overview of
our water supply, its possible contaminants, personal actions that can be taken to
conserve, and programs that are already in place to help. It is a joint effort with
funding coming from Purdue and the US Environmental protection agency.
Page 16

Hawks, Keith. Personal interview. 4 Mar. 2010.

Keith Hawks is an associate professor in the school of Mechanical Engineering.

Although he does not teach, he implicitly speaks to the project manager of the add-
on to the Mechanical Engineering building. He is involved on a day to day basis of
the construction of the building. This interview overviews what the Mechanical
Engineering building involves and how it will increase the sustainability and green
movement at Purdue University.

"Purdue University Physical Facilities ." Purdue University. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2010.
<http://www.purdue.edu/sustainability/pages/campus_buildings.html>.

This webpage covers the sustainability at Purdue University, specifically in the

Mechanical Engineering building. Overall improvements and additions to the
building are included in this webpage. Some important information acquired from
this webpage include: Roofing supplies with a high Solar Reflectance Index ,
Plumbing fixtures that use less treated water, Construction materials with recycled
content, Carpet that is Green Label Plus rated and Wood products certified by the
Forest Stewardship Council.

Sandel, Ken L. "President's Letter." Letter. 2 Feb. 2010. Purdue University. Web. 25 Feb.
2010. <http://www.purdue.edu/sustaining/documents/100202SandelLetter.html>.

This is a letter from Ken Sandel who is the Project Manager for the Sustaining New
Synergies Task force at purdue. It talks about their initiave for conserving energy
and is directed toward purdue employees. It spotlights their concern over the energy
used in physical facilities as well as the technology involved.

"Smart Cars Now Part of Purdue Fleet." Purdue News Service. 27 Jan. 2009. Web. 24 Feb.
2010. <http://news.uns.purdue.edu/insidepurdue/2009/090127_SmartCars.html>.

This article explains that to reduce energy waste and save money on fuel for Purdue
vehicle, Smart Cars are being implemented. The Smart cars get better gas mileage
and have a five star crash safety rating. The article also talks about the different
ways that the Purdue Transportation Dept. has done to reduce fuel costs and to be
more environmental friendly

"Sustainability: Tips You Can Use." Purdue University. Web. 24 Feb. 2010. <http://
www.purdue.edu/sustainability/pages/tips.htm#water>.

This is a website sponsored by Purdue’s Sustainability Council. It encourages

visitors to conserve water and energy, reduce waste through recycling, and reduce
emissions through more efficient travel. Tips and consumption data are listed for
each category along with possible cost savings.
Page 17

Appendix A: Interview With Keith Hawks

Interview With Keith Hawks, Associate Dean of Mechanical Engineering,
interviewed by Daniel McGee

DM: What is your role in the Roger B. Gatewood Addition of the Mechanical
Engineering building?

KH: I am the project manager and representative for the Mechanical Engineering
Department. All the final decisions must go through me. I also deal with the contruction on
a day to day basis among other things.

DM: How did you get to be involved in this project?

KH: I worked for 40 years with the Physical Building Department at Purdue. I never left
after I graduated and got my PhD. I got a little lucky and my first job was a study with the
wastewater facility that was very successful and I have been at purdue ever since. Over my
time here I have worked in almost every section of the Physical Building Department and
have made many contacts. I was also deeply involved in the construction of the new
Armstrong building and served as the project manager for that as well.

DM: What does it mean to be LEED certified?

KH: Well LEED is a acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Pretty
standard set of guidelines on how to construct a building with the green initiatives. In this
there are credits, the more credits you get, the better the certification.

DM: What level of certification do you expect the Gatewood addition to get?

KH: Originally our plan was just to get the standard LEED certification. We always knew
we wanted to shoot for as best as we could, but only planned on getting the minimum. We
hired a LEED consultant to help us out and as things moved forward, we found out that we
were getting more credits than we expected. With the credits we have now and what we
expect to get once we get closer to finish, we should be able to get the gold certification.

DM: Does the LEED certification benefit purdue in anyway?

KH: It gives a good public image and gives a good basis for how the buildings are made.
Also while in the process of getting this building certified, we have had 11 Purdue
employees get LEED certified. These people will now know exactly what to look for in the
LEED certification and will be more aware. Also in the future, all new Purdue buildings
will now be LEED certified.
Page 18

DM: What are they doing with this building to make it more energy efficient?

KH: We used a computer program to plot out the floor plans. Once we inserted it into this
program, it told us where the heat would escape and how we could make it better. We added
insulation in these areas and then added triple pane windows. This way we will keep all the
heat and air inside the building. Also we are reducing the lighting levels in the office areas
and giving each desk a low voltage task light. This will save a lot money in the energy bill
each month. Also everyone will have motion control lighting with photocell lights. These
photocell lights will judge the amount of light in a room and will only turn on if the lighting
level is low enough. Another thing we are adding is a Green Roof. This is not the standard
green roof in that it will not have vegetation, but it will have a white paint that will reflect
the suns rays and will not absorb it. In our heating systems, we are using an economizer
unit. In this unit it will use the exhaust from the building to heat the incoming air. Since it
naturally heats the air, the heating costs for the building will be substantially reduced.

DM: How about water efficiency, are you guys using plumbing fixtures that will
reduce water usage?

KH: Absolutely, all the bathrooms will have automatic controls on them so you won’t have
to manually flush them. The toilets themselves and water fountains are low flow devices
also.

DM: What else is being done?

KH: Well we are using an air purifier that will use UV light to clean the air. The labs in here
will have fresh air directly from outside. This way the air will be very clean and the
instructors will be free to do almost whatever they want to in these rooms. We are also
adding Fume hoods for chemicals. Another thing that I have been working on myself as a
pet project is an information Kiosk. This kiosk will be in the atrium of the building and will
have all the LEED certification information on there. Also in this kiosk will be current
energy usages and other up to date pieces of information about the building. One thing that I
added myself is through a contact that I had back when I worked for the electric company as
a part of the Purdue Staff. I remember when I worked there they had data that showed
where each specific type of energy went to and had calculated values and percentages about
various power sources. I’m going to add this info to the kiosk so everyone can see where the
power that the building is using is coming from. I think this will be a very informative
building many people will appreciate the amount of knowledge they can get from this little
kiosk.
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Appendix B: Interview With Robin Ridgway

Interview With Robin Ridgway, Director of Sustainability and
Environmental Stewardship, through email by Steven Goodell

SG: What is the role of the sustainability council in terms of creating university
policy on environmental issues?

RR: The eventual hope for the Council is to serve as a connector across the University on
issues related to sustainability, perhaps an informing/advising body to the senior
administration, and a group that really connects the teaching opportunity of our physical
campus to the faculty. We'll be formalizing the Council's role this spring in our Strategic
Plan.

SG: What are the primary initiatives that the council and university are
implementing to conserve energy and push towards a greener campus?

RR: We are a big partner with the Sustaining New Synergies Energy Conservation
piece. We will be assisting in raising campus awareness of energy issues as well as a portal
for energy related information.

SG: What are the primary sectors of campus that are most inefficient and need to
be improved to conserve energy?

RR: Utility supply to our older, inefficient buildings.

SG: What specific technologies are available or have been implemented to aid in
reaching your goals?

RR: Ongoing initiatives are: utility metering, building retrocomissioning, energy savings
projects, utility information data sharing, evaluation of green building techniques (LEED).
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SG: How does, if at all, discovery park and their research contribute to the
university's initiatives?

RR: With the formation of the Sustainability Initiative out of PCCRC, C4E and the Eenergy
Center, we hope to have even better information exchange between the academic side and
the operational side on partnering opportunities.

SG: What steps can Purdue students follow to be more involved in this cause and
contribute to your efforts?

RR: Find the groups on campus that are active in sustainability related initiatives: Boiler
Green, Purdue Student Government, the Energy Club, NetImpact are just a few and get
involved. Find out what projects you can help with. The student groups are our best
partners in this.