University of California System Commits to Going Green

OAKLAND, Calif. — The University of California (UC) public university system, based in Oakland, is on track to meet its commitment to emitting zero-net greenhouse gases from its buildings by 2025, according to a sustainability report released this month.

UC President Janet Napolitano’s carbon neutrality initiative is the most ambitious in the nation, according to the report, which is released to the school’s board of regents each January and discloses the school’s progress toward meeting sustainability goals.

There were many sustainability highlights in the school’s latest report. In 2014, for example, UC became a registered electric service provider (ESP). This status enables the school to self-supply electricity to its campuses that have the regulatory authority to receive electricity from third parties. Starting in January 2015, UC will begin to provide electric power directly to five of its campuses and three of its medical centers.

“The University of California is committed to being a leader in sustainability and this brings us another step closer to achieving carbon neutrality,” said Nathan Brostrom, UC’s chief financial officer, in a statement. “Making this switch will give UC more control over the type of energy it buys, and provide our campuses and medical centers with more price transparency.”

UC also made the largest solar purchase by any university in the country in 2014. Two solar photovoltaic (PV) installations will be completed in 2016, providing 80 megawatts of electricity from solar panels that will supply 60 percent of the university’s electricity demand per year. The university also has more than 34 MW of on-campus solar PV installed or planned.

The public university system is also making sustainability an investment priority. Brostrom plans to integrate environmental factors into the school system’s financial portfolio management and has committed to allocate $1 billion over five years to climate solutions-oriented investments.

The university system is also aggressively pursuing LEED design in its buildings. With 191 LEED-certified projects, including new construction, renovation, homes and existing building certifications, UC has the most LEED certifications of any higher education institution in the country. Fifty-one of the 191 LEED projects were certified in 2014 alone, with seven achieving LEED Platinum status.

The school system has several policy goals when it comes to LEED certification. These include designing and constructing all new buildings to LEED Silver status. Additionally, the design and construction of all renovation projects with a cost of $5 million or more must meet LEED standards. The school system also demands that its buildings outperform the energy provisions of the California Building Code by at least 20 percent on all new construction and renovation projects.

Last year also marked a period of severe drought for the state of California. UC responded to this crisis through extensive sustainable water management practices, such as irrigation cutbacks, increased leak detection and correction efforts and restroom fixture retrofits. All told, the measures are enough to save 500 million gallons annually, which is enough to supply one of UC’s campuses with its annual water needs, according to the report.

“The University of California is renowned as a place where new ideas emerge, discoveries are made and world-changing advances take hold,” UC President Janet Napolitano stated in the report. “Nowhere is that forward-leaning spirit more evident than in our commitment to environmental sustainability.”