Bowdoin College
OP-5: Building Energy Efficiency

This is the baseline year we have used throughout all of our STARS reporting in our 2011, 2013 and 2016 submissions. We have made an effort to continue to use it for this most recent submission to track long term improvement and observe change between submissions.

Bowdoin runs annual energy conservation competitions among the residence halls. These are designed to be a fun and engaging way to get students talking about their daily energy habits. The competitions are typically a four week duration in the fall, and longer time periods in the spring (six to eight weeks). Bowdoin also uses the Green Living Commitment and the Green Office Certification programs to promote energy conservation habits among students, faculty, and staff.

Bowdoin's winter heating set-point is 68 degrees, and the summer cooling set-point is 76 degrees. All centrally controlled or programmable spaces are set to these temperatures during the respective season. A campus-wide e-mail is sent out at the beginning of each heating and cooling season asking those who are not working in centrally controlled buildings to maintain these temperatures as a means of helping the campus achieve financial savings and reduce our carbon emissions. Bowdoin has two energy management systems. Johnson Controls Metasys is responsible for one system monitoring 90 percent of the buildings and Invensys/Vykon System monitors the remaining 10 percent. Timers are set for 85 percent of campus buildings. These buildings are monitored by facilities management during business hours and by the Office of Safety and Security's Communications Center during non-business hours. Bowdoin uses several types of vacancy controls to reduce unnecessary energy consumption. The College uses occupancy sensors in spaces like restrooms, classrooms, and the library's stacks as part of a lighting control system that turns off lights in offices and classrooms when unoccupied. Additionally, Bowdoin uses day-lighting controls in many building spaces that have ample daylight (i.e. hallways and stairwells) by shutting lights off via a photo sensor when it is sunny outside, and turning them on at night or on cloudy/rainy days.

Bowdoin began installing LED lighting on campus in November 2010. Since that time, the majority of Bowdoin's buildings have converted to LED lighting. Additionally, starting in the fall of 2015, the sustainability office began offering free LED bulbs to students during Orientation, replacing the CFL distribution program that began in 2005. Bowdoin also recognizes occupancy controls and photo sensors as additional means to reduce the electricity demand of lighting - see above for more details.

Bowdoin uses a geothermal heating and cooling system for two of the first-year residential dorms. By drilling a series of wells, pumping the water to the surface and running it through compressors and heat exchangers, it is possible to heat and cool entire buildings with groundwater while reducing the College's reliance on fossil fuels. Bowdoin also uses a geothermal heating and cooling system for Studzinski Recital Hall. Two of Bowdoin's recently constructed buildings, the Roux Center for the Environment and 216 Maine Street (office building) are utilizing air-to-air heat pumps as the primary source for both heating and cooling, helping to electrify Bowdoin's heating needs. Additionally, the two most recently constructed buildings, Mills Hall and the Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies, utilize electric boilers, further helping to electrify the heating systems. Finally, the Harpswell Apartments (Passive House certified), are fitted with an electric resistance heating system.

In 2012 the College installed a new back pressure steam turbine that was part of a combined heat and power project to use excess steam energy to generate electricity for campus consumption, offsetting electricity previously purchased from the grid. The cogeneration system supplies approximately 8 percent of the total campus electricity consumption, thus helping Bowdoin cut its energy costs and carbon emissions. This initiative earned EPA's 2015 ENERGY STAR® Combined Heat and Power Award.

It has been standard protocol for the past twenty years for Bowdoin to replace any older equipment such as refrigerators and air conditioning units with ENERGY STAR rated appliances.