University is winner of energy project of the year by national organization

Nov. 4, 2009

By Public Affairs Staff

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - Cal State San Bernardino's ongoing efforts to make the campus greener and more energy efficient has resulted in the university's Energy Efficiency and Infrastructure Upgrade Project being awarded the 2009 Energy Project of the Year: National.

The prestigious award from the Association of Energy Engineers is given each year to individuals and organizations that have achieved national and international prominence in promoting the practices and principles of energy engineering and energy management.

The national honor will be awarded on Nov. 4, during the association's awards, which will be held in conjunction with the 2009 World Energy Engineering Congress held in Washington, D.C.

"We owe a great deal of thanks to the team that put this project together. AECOM for managing the design and construction, the Chancellors office for developing the Master Enabling Agreement and our own Facilities Services staff (especially HAC) who developed this project and lead the way as the first CSU campus to do a project of this size under the new MEA," said Tony Simpson, the university's senior director of Facilities Services.

The Association of Energy Engineers is a nonprofit professional society of more than 11,000 members in 78 countries. The mission of AEE is "to promote the scientific and educational interests of those engaged in the energy industry and to foster action for sustainable development.

This is also the third year in a row that the university's Facilities Services has received best practice awards from the UC/CSU/CCCC Sustainability Conference for the energy efficiency programs that have been implemented on campus. The previous awards were:

2009 - Monitoring Based Commissioning - Chemical Science
2008 - HVAC Retrofit: Central Chiller Plant Retrofit
2007 - Lighting Design Retrofits: campus wide
2007 - Direct Digital control upgrades: campus wide
2007 - HVAC Design: Thermal Energy Tank
2007 - Student Energy Efficiency: Green Campus Program
2006 - Monitoring Based Commissioning: University Hall

Cal State San Bernardino has also installed solar panels at various buildings in the San Bernardino campus such as the Physical Education building and the Health and Physical Education complex along with installations underway on the main campus and its satellite campus in Palm Desert. These current projects will bring on campus solar energy production to 1.3 Megawatt on the main campus and 0.5 Megawatt on the Palm Desert campus.

Along with an annual $1 million in cost savings, CSUSB has overall reduced its carbon footprint - a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide - by 15 percent. That translates to a reduction of nearly 2,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions on campus. That's equivalent to taking 14,000 cars off the road or planting 2.9 million trees.

For more information, contact the university's Office of Public Affairs at (909) 537-5007 and visit news.csusb.edu.

CSUSB's ongoing efforts to make the campus greener and more energy efficient has resulted in the university's Energy Efficiency and Infrastructure Upgrade Project being awarded the 2009 Energy Project of the Year: National.