Celebrating Green Leaders
Norm Mentor, the energy conservation manager for Facilities Services, talks with a fellow colleague at the Sustainability Leadership Celebration.
To recognize the efforts of the University of Washington campus community, UW Sustainability put together the Sustainability Leadership Celebration on Tuesday, Oct. 20. Campus sustainability leaders, including many from Facilities Services, met in Odegaard Undergraduate Library to commemorate working toward the University’s sustainability goals.
Norm Mentor, the energy conservation manager for Facilities Services, talks with a fellow colleague at the Sustainability Leadership Celebration.
Provost Gerald Baldasty joined the celebration to congratulate campus leadership on their sustainable efforts.
In the past year Fleet Services was named the third greenest university fleet in North America, and thanks to Casey Gifford, Transportation Services now has its own climate action plan to guide sustainability projects over the coming years.
Under the leadership of Norm Menter and his team of energy conservation engineers, in partnership with teams from Campus Engineering & Operations, most campus buildings have been audited for energy improvement projects and many projects are already underway. In July, Puget Sound Energy recognized Facilities Services for its improvements in the Physics/Astronomy Building with a utility rebate check, on top of the energy and cost savings associated with the energy improvements.
Facilities Maintenance & Construction’s light and filter shop continues to change campus lights over to LED lights when possible, and other shops have looked for inventive new ways to use new, more sustainable materials, or reuse materials when possible.
In the past few months alone, UW was ranked one of the top 10 greenest schools by the Sierra Club magazine, and won the Green Honor Roll award within the Princeton Review’s Green Rating system.
These honors are often based on data provided by Facilities Services, including building energy usage, water consumption, transportation mode share, fleet administration, sustainable grounds management practices, waste reduction and diversion, cleaning practices, and more. You can take a peek at the University’s sustainability metrics online using the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, STARS.
Facilities’ own Building Services brought in a Grand Green Cleaning Award in late 2014, and Transportation Services received a Commute Trip Reduction award from the City of Seattle earlier this year.
