VP Duringer heads energy initiative

Big changes are on the way for the University of Montana campus if Gov. Brian Schweitzer has his way. He issued a decree in November saying all state agencies must reduce energy consumption by 20 percent in the next two years.

Bob Duringer, UM vice president for administration and finance, is spearheading the effort here on campus. Though UM is constitutionally autonomous from the state and does not function like most state agencies, the UM administration is committed to compliance anyway.

The UM energy bill is around $4.7 million per year, said Duringer, so a 20 percent reduction would reduce costs by about $940,000 per year. But Duringer said the initiative is not all about finances.

“In the past all of these kinds of projects had an economic payback model,” Duringer said. “Things have changed now, and we may be in a philosophical payback model.”

Jordan Hess, the chair of the sustainable campus committee, said if this is really about the argument against global warming, then UM should focus on carbon emissions as a whole, not just energy use.

“About a little less than a third of our greenhouse gas emissions come from energy,” Hess said. “If it is a philosophical argument it should be expanded to include all carbon emissions.”

The governor’s intention is to tackle climate change while saving little cash, said Sarah Elliott, Gov. Schweitzer’s communications director.

“(It’s) a little of both — we can save the taxpayer money while reducing climate change,” Elliot said.

Elliot also said the governor expects that all state agencies would be able to comply with the initiative by 2010, but the university is not bound, only encouraged to make it happen.
Schweitzer has encouraged not only Montana universities, but also all schools and businesses to make the reductions.

It has yet to be decided what actual measures will be taken to reduce the energy consumption here at UM, but many proposals are in the works.  Proposals range from the simple, like turning down the thermostats in all buildings and installing motion sensor lights, to huge projects like upgrading the heating and cooling systems on campus.

Some of these could have a huge impact at little cost, but some may cost a fortune. Turning down the heat in winter and the air conditioning during summer, along with a “turn off the light campaign,” would not cost anything, but could reduce campus-wide energy consumption by an estimated 1.87 percent, according to documents provided by Duringer’s office.

Upgrading the heating and cooling systems would also reduce consumption by an estimated 1.87 percent. But it would cost an estimated $25 million.

Other actions are more common sense and won’t bring about much change. In the summer, “instead of having one class in 20 buildings, we have 20 classes in one building,” Duringer said. This could drastically reduce air conditioner use.

Duringer has been working with several campus committees, including the sustainable campus committee, to iron out which actions are more feasible than others. Older draft proposals show some drastic measures, which have already been taken off the table. These include ideas such as switching summer and winter breaks to reduce the heat bill, or switching to a four-day-a-week class schedule.

Both Hess and ASUM President Dustin Leftridge feel Duringer is doing what he can to involve the campus community in these decisions. But as Hess pointed out, all these decisions are ultimately his and do not require the approval of any campus committees.

“Before I could really advocate for this, Duringer had come out with a preliminary report,” Leftridge said. Leftridge is also a member of the sustainable campus committee.

Leftridge wants to see the newly created permanent position of ASUM sustainability coordinator to be deeply involved in the effort to reduce energy consumption, as the issues of energy and carbon emissions are intertwined.

“A lot of things we are doing for sustainability on campus overlap,” Leftridge said.

Hess said at this point it is just good to see the administration taking such a keen interest in sustainability issues.

“From my time on the sustainable committee I have really seen a shift in the mindset of the administration,” he said.