The Oregon State University Sustainability Office recently released its FY2024 greenhouse gas report, showing that the university reduced its total gross emissions statewide by 0.98% from the previous year. The university has reduced its per-square-foot emissions by nearly half since 2008, including a drop of 6.5% per 1,000 square feet of building space from FY23 to FY24.
“We’ve added a lot of space in the last 15-16 years, and our per-square-foot emissions are down 49.2% since 2008,” said Brandon Trelstad, OSU sustainability officer. “As we bring on more buildings, we have more square footage, but our energy use does not proportionately scale up, meaning our buildings that are less than 20 years old are often more efficient.”
The demolition of older, less efficient buildings also helps improve OSU’s overall energy efficiency.
Though the Sustainability Office has been producing annual reports since 2008, this is the first year they’ve broken emissions out by each of the 11 colleges. Eventually, Trelstad said, they hope to report disaggregated data for each major division within the university.
The main energy users at OSU are air heating and cooling systems for buildings, especially in lab buildings where spaces must be ventilated and kept at specific temperatures.
Outdated HVAC systems in older campus buildings are a main driver of energy inefficiency. One way the university could see significant improvement is through recommissioning, or tuning up these older systems so that buildings are not being overheated, overcooled or overventilated beyond what is necessary for safe working conditions, Trelstad said.
Recommissioning efforts at the Linus Pauling Science Center and Nash Hall in Corvallis have led to total savings of more than $200,000 per year, Trelstad said. These and other recent recommissioning projects have cut OSU emissions by more than 1,500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
OSU’s energy engineer Ross Ruecker, hired in 2022, is tasked with pinpointing these and other ways to boost university energy efficiency. So far, Trelstad said, total savings since he was hired are approaching $500,000 per year, and more savings are within reach as problems in older buildings continue to be addressed.
The report provides updates on several new or ongoing initiatives to reduce emissions, including adding more solar panels to OSU buildings. In June 2024, the rooftop system at the Beth Ray Center for Academic Support came online, while community investors were recruited earlier in the year for similar systems on Richardson Hall and Peavy Forest Sciences Center.
Total, about 4% of OSU’s electricity comes from solar power, generated by large solar arrays in Corvallis, Aurora and Hermiston. OSU plans to install solar electrical equipment on two to four campus buildings per year through 2032.
“We’ve put a lot of money into solar, but our investments into efficiency are really paying off quickly,” Trelstad said. “Overall, though we are going into a tighter budget scenario, many of the steps we take to reduce emissions also help our budget.”
On an individual level, employees and students at OSU can contribute to energy efficiency primarily by ensuring that windows are closed when they should be so a building’s system is not working overtime to heat or cool a space; and by ensuring that steam radiators are properly turned off when they’re not needed for heat, Trelstad said. If employees and students notice anything amiss with heating and cooling systems, they should alert Facilities Services to address the problem.
More of OSU’s efforts to reduce emissions can be found in the Path to Carbon Neutrality, adopted in 2022.
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