Sustainability @ UTHealth
“Sustainable development seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the future.”
– The 1987 United Nations Brundtland Commission Report
UTHealth Sustainability Presentation
The United Nations defines Sustainable Development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It is a concerted effort to building toward building an inclusive, sustainable, and resilient future for people and the planet. At its core, there are 3 elements to sustainable development: economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection.
在Uthealth,我们有许多利益相关者团体目前正在校园内从事可持续性工作,以帮助节省成本并最大程度地减少我们对环境的影响。这些利益相关者包括但不限于:
Facilities, Planning, and Engineering (FPE)
辅助企业(AE)
Capital Assets Management (CAM)
Information Technology (IT)
Safety, Health, Environment & Risk Management (SHERM)
Below are some highlights of the sustainability efforts already in place across our campus. There are many more examples, and we encourage you to review theattached PowerPoint presentationfor more information.
For anyone interested in the topic of sustainability here at UTHealth, please contact EHS at 713 500 8100 with any questions, suggestions, or to obtain further information.
UTHealth Sustainability Working Group
Next meeting TBD
实际上是通过Webex
Contact EHS at 713 500 8100 for more information
School of Public Health's Holistic Garden
In 2014 the School of Public Health's Nourish Program built it's Holistic Garden in the green space that surrounds the facilities. The garden is part of the Nourish Program designed to bridge the gap for students to understand where food comes from and how to prepare it. Created by Laura S. Moore, the 4,000 sq. ft. garden produces vegetables, fruit and herbs. Student's in the Nourish program get a better understanding for food by getting their hands dirty and learning how produce grows from seed to harvestable food. To compliment the garden the Nourish program also has a kitchen classroom that takes the harvest from the garden to the kitchen. "You start in the garden, you move to the kitchen and make food taste good, then you talk to the patients about it," Moore said to Greg Morago of the Houston Chronicle.
"it's really important that you understand food, its nutritional properties and how to put it all together." -Laura S. Moore
将花园和厨房的教室汇总在一起,导致创作了一本新出版的食谱《从种子到盘子的好食物如何工作》,由劳拉·S·摩尔,约翰·韦斯利·麦克沃特和约瑟夫·R·诺瓦克创作。该食谱有100多种健康食谱,并由著名的食品摄影师Debora Smail完成了令人垂涎的摄影。
How Good Food Works From Seed to Plate can be found on Amazon for $50.00 with proceeds supporting Nourish Program's community outreach for nutrition and culinary education.
Facilities, Planning, and Engineering
这组throu节能管理gh defined temperature/humidity policies, conversion of fluorescent fixtures and bulbs to LED, and the chiller condensate recovery program. Savings from these endeavors include 10% total energy cost reduction- $3.4M savings, projected 79% reduction in lighting costs, and 20% reduction in water cost for SRB. Other efforts done by Facilities, Planning, and Engineering to conserve energy and reduce output to the environment are:
Occupancy sensors for lighting to reduce energy use as well as prolonging the life of LED bulbs. FY 2020 resulted in a reduction of 7,098,831 kilowatt-hours of operation with a savings of $404,598.00 to UTHealth.
Program Resets and Economizers automate HVAC adjustments when weather permits for efficient system use and cost reduction. FY2020 resulted in a reduction of 247780 ton/hours of operation with a savings of $493,134.00 to UTHealth.
可持续的饮用水通过在整个校园内使用瓶装站。迄今为止,该程序已将环境节省了50k单使用塑料瓶,从而进入了废物流。
有关UTHealth的节能的更多信息,请查看https://www.appa.org/facilities-manager/uthealth-facilities-energy-conservation-plan-saves-millions/
辅助企业
Mobility is at the heart of Auxiliary Enterprises sustainability efforts. From Shuttle services for Student and Staff, to participation in METRO Star Vanpool for commuters and Houston Bicycle.
Did you know?UTHealth was awarded the2021 METRO STAR Vanpool Earth Month Environmental Impact Awardby METRO STAR Vanpool and the Houston-Galveston Area Council. City wide, in 2020 METRO STAR Vanpool trips resulted in the reduction of 15,540,800 vehicle miles traveled.
节能和最小化是辅助企业为校园住房的可持续发展努力的重要组成部分。照明和HVAC已升级为包括LED灯,占用传感器以及对HVAC控制器的更新以及低流动淋浴喷头。在娱乐中心,改进包括瓶装站,LED固定装置和灯泡,乘员传感器以及更高效的HVAC设备/控制器。
Information Technology
How do you reduce the amount of cooling needed in the largest data center on campus? The Data Center, storage is measured in petabytes (1 petabyte =million gigabytes), is designed to capture the hot air from servers and direct it to a/c units rather than recycling and air conditioning all of the air in the room. This process is known as Hot Aisle Containment.
Traditional data center cooling can represent 50% of overall energy consumption by an organization. Hot Aisle Containment can greatly increase the efficiency of cooling by 30%. Other energy conservation efforts incorporated into daily work life are the monitor and hard drive sleep mode due to inactivity. While it might seem small, considering how many computers are used on campus this greatly reduces power consumption.
Safety, Health, Environment & Risk Management (SHERM)
Safety, Health, Environmental & Risk Management contribution to sustainability efforts at UTHealth are done through hazardous waste management, various recycling programs, and University Fleet maintenance to reduce emissions. Hazardous waste minimization efforts are done through a variety of programs. It starts with research protocol reviews and "Green Chemistry" recommendations in the lab environment. Pollution prevention planning around campus. Recycling materials like lamps, batteries, silver and mercury.
Finally, optimized waste processing streams to minimize quantity prior to disposal. FY 2021 waste minimization efforts resulted in a disposal cost reduction of $132,558.
Green Roof at School of Public Health
On the East Tower at SPH lives a green roof filled with native plants of the area to help reduce storm water runoff and reduce energy cost. The West Tower at SPH has the traditional roof so data can be gathered on comparing the roofs of the 2 towers. While data is still being gathered by UTHealth, research from Penn State's Center of Green Roof Research in the Department of Plant Science shows that a 3.5 to 4" deep green roof in Central Pennsylvania can retain approximately 50 to 60% of the annual rainfall. Additionally, a green roof can reduce peak run off rates and delay run off from storms acting as a roof top retention basin for effective storm water management.
Further data from Penn State also illustrates that evapotranspiration from green roof plants and media cools the roof surface. To illustrate, on a 90°F day the materials from a traditional roof reached 145°F verses 82°F from the plants of a green roof. Penn State saw a 10% reduction in energy use from traditional flat black roofs during the month of August in the study.
More information from the Center for Green Roof Research at Penn State can be found athttps://plantscience.psu.edu/research/centers/green-roof/research/stormwater/stormwater-quantity和https://plantscience.psu.edu/research/centers/green-roof/research/other-research/air-conditioning