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Sustainability and Energy Management in DePauw Facilities

The Office of Facilities Management strives for sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions to facility needs.

Some sustainable accomplishments to date include:

  • Changing of 1500 incandescent bulbs to CFL
  • Re-lamping of buildings from t-12 to T-8 as opportunities arise
  • Use of Green Seal products for custodial services
  • Use of micro-fiber rags rather than paper
  • Over 800 recycling containers on campus
  • 4+ LEED Certified buildings on campus
    • Hoover Hall – Gold
    • Prindle Center for Ethics – Gold
    • Bartlett Reflection Center – Gold
    • Lilly Rec Center Expansion – Certified
  • Recycling of used carpet
  • Began installing waterless urinals where applicable
  • Compost kitchen and yard waste
  • Annual recycling totals  100,000 lb paper and 50,000 lb co-mingle

Energy Management 

The Office of Facilities Management is responsible for the purchasing, distribution, and monitoring of energy consumed on the University campus.

Systems under the guidance of Facilities Management include:

  • Central Heating Plant
  • Air Conditioning Systems / Thermal Ice Storage Plant
  • Primary High Voltage Electrical distribution system
  • Natural Gas / Electrical systems for all buildings and living units
  • University Energy Management System
  • Reverse Osmosis Water Systems
  • All potable and waste water systems

It is our goal to operate these systems in an efficient, cost effective manner, while maintaining a comfortable and safe environment for our campus community. 

We strive to be good stewards of our natural resources and work to conserve energy whenever possible. DePauw University is the proud recipient of two Gold LEED certifications for new buildings and is committed to LEED certification of future construction projects. Questions regarding energy consumption and conservation should be directed to Facilities Management at 765-658-4233.

Annually, DePauw consumes:

  • 172 million pounds of steam
  • 65 million gallons of water
  • 170 million cubic feet of natural gas
  • 30 million kilowatts of electricity

SOLAR ARRAY Dashboard

Check out the performance of our photovoltaic (PV / solar) array, located on the Indoor Tennis and Track Center (ITTC). The displayed gauges show the electricity production from our PV system and the overall electricity consumption of the ITTC facility. If we're producing more than we are using, there is a gauge on the dashboard that shows how much power we are selling back to our utility (Duke Energy). The chart on the upper right shows the production of our system for various time periods compared to the design capability (indicated by the green bars) of the array. The dashboard displays current weather conditions in the lower right that provides info to correlate with our system production (more sun = more electricity production from the array). And, finally, the app provides an estimate for the CO2 emission offset that our PV system is generating over varying time periods.  This helps indicate our positive environmental impact from our investment in solar.

Office of Sustainability

Office of Sustainability

To learn more about DePauw's commitment to sustainability and its efforts to encourage sustainable practices across the University, please visit the Office of Sustainability's website.

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