Resource Management
Emory's sustainability vision is to help restore the global ecosystem, foster healthy living, and reduce the University's impact on the local environment. Engineering Services as well as all of Campus Services is critical in helping to achieve the University’s goals. From tracking our greenhouse gas emissions to diverting a high percentage of construction waste from Georgia’s landfills, our dedicated team of professionals is committed to helping preserve our environment through sound engineering principles with solid economic benefits. More on all of Emory’s sustainability initiatives can be found on the Office of Sustainability’s website.
CLIMATE ACTION PLANNING
Emory is seeking ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy savings, and Engineering Services is leading the operational effort to achieve that goal. As described in Energy Conservation, our facilities are continually monitored for energy usage and evaluated to identify potential conservation opportunities. This information is then used to develop our greenhouse gas inventories to better understand our carbon footprint and annual consumption trends. So far, we have calculated our 2005-06 and 2006-07 greenhouse gas emissions (see the Executive Summary here) and will soon have fiscal year 2005, 2008 – 2010 inventories completed. At that time a Climate Action Plan will be developed and implemented.
Emory understands how a building is designed, constructed and operated can have profound impacts on the environment and human health. Since the turn of the century, we have followed the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) green building program called “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” (LEED). The LEED program was established to promote environmentally friendly, whole building design practices, and Engineering Services works with outside engineers and architects to think in new and innovative ways that help to create buildings that conserve energy, water, and the project site's natural environment.
Emory has one of the largest inventories of LEED-certified building space among any campus in the country. Some buildings are the first of their kind, including the first certified “Gold” LEED – EB (existing building) in the country (Goizueta Business School in 2004) and the first LEED-certified building constructed in the Southeast (Whitehead Biomedical Research Building in 2000). A map of LEED-certified buildings is continually updated as new projects receive USGBC Certification.
STORMWATER PLANNING
Water is the world’s most precious resource and given Georgia’s recent drought, conservation is more important than ever. In 2007, Engineering Services developed a comprehensive Stormwater Master Plan of Emory’s main campus that addresses stormwater management both regionally (by sub-basin) and on a campus-wide basis. The plan is a roadmap that will help us reduce the impacts of continued campus development that increase stormwater quantity and decrease water quality. It also identifies high-value, high-visibility projects that will provide multiple benefits across several drainage basins at once.
Another role of Engineering Services is to reduce the long-term impacts of stormwater runoff from new building sites. To accomplish this, we have designed many of our newer buildings with stormwater harvesting capabilities: underground cisterns or rain tanks that capture runoff for reuse as irrigation water or, as at our Few and Evans Residence Halls, for water to flush the toilets (shown in the picture above).
CONSTRUCTION RECYCLING
With Emory’s overall recycling goals in place including diverting road and building construction materials from local landfills, Engineering Services works with Campus Planning and Design and Construction to implement comprehensive waste management plans for all construction and renovation projects. This is a requirement of the LEED certification process on the new building projects, however it is our intent to reduce/reuse/recycle as many old or scrap construction materials as possible. Not only can concrete from a building demolition be crushed and reused on-site, but also the red tiles off of an old residence hall can be reused on a new building, for example. Similarly, both old carpet and drywall scraps can be recycled into similar new products that will reduce the need for raw materials from the environment to manufacture them. Emory Recycles coordinates the majority of the University's recycling and assists in logistical planning during the construction projects.
