Cornell University
IN-1: Innovation 1

This past year, a team of 11 staff from the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station (CUAES) worked with staff from Organizational Effectiveness and the Cornell Team and Leadership Center. The integrated team used the “lean” process improvement approach to significantly lessen greenhouse gas emissions and utility consumption across Cornell greenhouses. The greenhouse lean team assessed current greenhouse occupancy levels and the complex process by which space was assigned to researchers and educators. The outcome of the process was the education, development and implementation of revised space assignment practices, such that 17% (25,000 square feet) of the poorest quality and least efficient greenhouse spaces could be demolished. The team focused on creating documents to breach the disconnect between greenhouse growers, faculty, technicians, students and managers. These documents include procedural checklists, and educational materials about each greenhouses’ energy consumption and carbon emissions. The team is also developing a new space-request mapping software to identify and sort a myriad of compatibility factors that would highlight when greenhouse projects could effectively share space.