Thanks to a collaborative effort at Dominican University of California, faculty, staff and students were able to shift the campus to clean energy. The group was committed to identifying a solution that was a win-win. Everyone brought a different background and perspective, which allowed us to get creative while staying within the University’s budget.
A student project team in a Barowsky School of Business leadership course noticed that there was an energy meter and account per building, so the committee created an individualized strategy for improving the campus carbon footprint. After a staff member verified the data with the senior facilities administrator as part of her graduate thesis, some buildings were switched to 100% clean energy and the rest to 65% clean energy with MCE. As a result, Dominican will experience a 200,000-pound reduction in CO2 annually, which amounts to turning off all university power for four months a year!
This collaboration was successful because all the stakeholders – students, staff, senior administrators and faculty representatives -were part of the solution and together supported the shift to a more sustainable campus. Professor Alice Cochran, San Rafael
