Agnes Scott College
IN-27: Innovation D

In 2010 Agnes Scott was one of the charter signatories to the Billion Dollar Green Challenge, committing to initiate a Green Revolving Fund (GRF) in order to self-finance energy and water efficiency projects by taking these steps: 1) raising donations to seed the fund; 2) select and implement critical efficiency projects; and 3) establish a procedure to revolve the projected savings from these projects back to the GRF in order to fund more projects. Agnes Scott's GRF has become well known both locally and nationally, and the college now helps other educational institutions and NGOs start their own funds, working with the Sustainable Endowments Institute and others. During FY 2015-2016, Agnes Scott implemented the largest investment in energy and water efficiency projects through the GRF since we began the fund. We met the $1 million goal for income to the fund in December 2015, with a major boost of almost $500,000 from Grants to Green, a partnership among the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, the Kendeda Fund and Southface Energy Institute. An assessment report completed by Southface that documented the most important efficiency projects was our guide for investment of these funds.

Beginning in April 2016 and ending in February 2017, with these GRF funds the college:
• replaced all plumbing fixtures on campus with low-flow alternatives;
• changed the majority of campus lighting to LED bulbs;
• installed high efficiency lights and motion sensors in the parking deck;
• provided daylight sensors for lights in Evans Dining Hall; and
• added equipment controls for the chapel, Presser and Evans that help adjust the efficiency of heat, air conditioning, and air flow equipment.

In addition, the college was able to undertake the major effort of retro-commissioning the Bullock Science Center. This building is the largest energy-user on campus, so addressing its efficiency is critical to our overall sustainability efforts. The retro-commissioning included an analysis of all building equipment and controls with an eye toward ensuring higher performance. Working with faculty who use the laboratories in Bullock, the fume hoods were upgraded to significantly increase their efficiency while maintaining the safety standards given the activities in each lab.

All of these projects combined are projected to save approximately $220,000-250,000 annually, allowing the college to begin new efficiency projects. Once the total projected savings for each project is paid back to the GRF, the college will shift the savings back to the operations budget, and then any continued reductions in utility bills will benefit the college’s bottom line. In addition to these monetary savings, the GRF projects will result in reductions to the college’s carbon emissions, thus helping us achieve our climate neutrality goal of 2037.