A Green Grants Update
In May 2008, the NYU Sustainability Task Force announced its 2008-09 Green Grants, awarding $160,000 in grant monies to 23 projects, an increase of over 40 percent from 2007. The projects chosen address a range of issues in the areas of energy, food, landscape, outreach, procurement, transportation, and waste. Each proposal was also evaluated on its likely impact on the campus environmental footprint, its ability to be self-sustaining or institutionalized after initial funding, and its feasibility and potential for successful implementation.
As a component of the Green Grants mandate, projects are required to present mid-year progress reports, and the progress is encouraging. Below is a selection of updates from the reports:
Swap Shop, led by Evrim Sahin, student, Interactive Telecommunications Program, Tisch School of the Arts
The Swap Shop is an online Web site for the NYU community modeled after Craigslist, which enables people to give away unwanted yet usable items instead of throwing them away. Swap Shop is in the final stages of its development and deployment, and it is scheduled to go live later in the spring semester, just in time for the year-end “Green Apple Move-Out.”
Lighten Up & Go Green at Kimmel, led by Pamela Bolen, director of Kimmel Operations
The Rosenthal Pavilion, the Kimmel Center’s premier function space, is getting some “green” lights. The 5,000-square-foot facility currently houses 569 incandescent lighting fixtures, which consume some 72,000 watts of energy, giving off a lot of unwanted heat and requiring a great number of control instruments and labor to maintain. The existing lighting system uses 14.4 watts per square foot, while the proposed LED lighting system will use a mere 6.6 watts per square foot.
“Most importantly, we hope to realize an annual combined energy and labor savings of over $25,000,” said Bolen.
Stern Restroom Efficiency Upgrade, led by Robin Reinmiller, student, Stern School of Business
During the fall 2008 semester, the Stern Campus Greening Initiative (SCGI) committee, in accordance with the NYU Stern Restroom Efficiency Upgrade work plan, reviewed and selected two energy efficient hand-dryer models for installation, determined restroom installation locations within the Kaufman Management Center (KMC), and made plans to initiate the installation process during the spring semester. “SCGI will monitor environmental and cost savings and report on the feasibility of implementing the dryers across the campus,” said Reinmiller.
SCGI plans to measure the success of the hand dryer installation by collecting various data: the electricity (kWh) consumed by the dryers, towels purchased/saved versus other comparable (in size and traffic) bathrooms, and through student and janitorial staff satisfaction/reaction surveys.
