Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 70.05
Liaison Lisa Kilgore
Submission Date March 22, 2016
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Cornell University
OP-8: Building Energy Consumption

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.11 / 6.00 Mark Howe
Program Manager
Energy Managment
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total building energy consumption, all sources (transportation fuels excluded):
Performance Year Baseline Year
Total building energy consumption 3,252,197 MMBtu 2,644,908 MMBtu

Purchased electricity and steam:
Performance Year Baseline Year
Grid-purchased electricity 226,206 MMBtu 718,869 MMBtu
District steam/hot water 0 MMBtu 0 MMBtu

Gross floor area of building space::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Gross floor area 15,745,567 Gross square feet 14,346,948 Gross square feet

Floor area of energy intensive space, performance year::
Floor Area
Laboratory space 1,789,047 Square feet
Healthcare space 152,089 Square feet
Other energy intensive space

Degree days, performance year (base 65 °F)::
Degree days (see help icon above)
Heating degree days 7,771
Cooling degree days 497

Source-site ratios::
Source-Site Ratio (see help icon above)
Grid-purchased electricity 3.14
District steam/hot water 1.20

Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or 3-year periods)::
Start Date End Date
Performance Year July 1, 2013 June 30, 2014
Baseline Year July 1, 2013 June 30, 2014

A brief description of when and why the building energy consumption baseline was adopted:
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A brief description of any building temperature standards employed by the institution:

All digitally controlled buildings are scheduled to relax temperatures during unoccupied periods to reduce energy use.


A brief description of any light emitting diode (LED) lighting employed by the institution:

Various energy conservation LED lighting upgrade projects have occured across campus in the last year. To name a few, the high bay lighting in many of Cornell's Athletics facilites have been upgrades to save $161k and 806 tons/per year carbon equivalent. To-date Cornell's LED Lamp Replacement Project has replaced over 43,000 lamps to date, reducing energy costs by $160,000/yr. and energy usage by ~2,000,000 Kwh/yr. For more information about specific projects and locations: https://energyandsustainability.fs.cornell.edu/em/projsum/default.cfm


A brief description of any occupancy and/or vacancy sensors employed by the institution:

ultrasonic and infrared occupancy sensors are used to control lighting and space temperature/ airflows in multiple buildings throughout campus.


A brief description of any passive solar heating employed by the institution:
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A brief description of any ground-source heat pumps employed by the institution:
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A brief description of any cogeneration technologies employed by the institution:

Cornell placed into service two Solar Titan 130 Combustion Turbines (2@15 MWe)with Rentech dual pressure Heat Recovery Steam Generators in December of 2009. In addition, there are two back pressure steam turbines (8 MWe total) that produce electricity with steam prior to the steam being used for heating purposes on campus. These co-generation systems result in a thermal efficiency of approximately 78% and have allowed the university to discontinue the use of coal. Energy generated with co-generation technology includes electric and steam.


A brief description of any building recommissioning or retrofit program employed by the institution:

All buildings central mechanical systems are re-commissioned on a 24-36 month cycle.


A brief description of any energy metering and management systems employed by the institution:

90% of buildings are connected to a central energy management system that allows trending of building energy use.


A brief description of the institution's program to replace energy-consuming appliances, equipment and systems with high efficiency alternatives:
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A brief description of any energy-efficient landscape design initiatives employed by the institution:

We employ energy efficient landscape design strategies on campus, explicitly for any project pursuing LEED certification (Credits 7.1 and 7.2 both address heat island effect, including shading with vegetation, use of paving materials with a high solar reflectance index, and green roofs) and through implementation of landscape design guidelines within our 2008 Cornell Master Plan for greenways, quads and greens, and streets and walks. They are integral elements of sustainable landscape design that contribute multiple benefits to the campus.


A brief description of any vending machine sensors, lightless machines, or LED-lit machines employed by the institution:

99% of all vending machines on campus are energy star rated.

In place of installing motion sensors we have chosen to turn out the display lights in some of the vending machines.


A brief description of other energy conservation and efficiency initiatives employed by the institution:

Cornell has had an Energy Conservation Initiative for well over 15 years. Millions of dollars have been spent to re-commission building systems ($1.5 million/yr continuous Cx), install new controls and variable frequency drives, energy efficient lighting and occupancy sensors to modulate room temperatures/ airflows/lighting automatically based upon space usage. In addition, all building energy use is measured, recorded and monitored on a regular basis. Cornell is using the metered heating, cooling, and electricity usage of the buildings as the data for this category. Since 2005 (Base Year) Cornell has kept their energy use/gross square foot nearly flat with only a very slight decline. This is commendable in light of the fact that Cornell has added over 1,000,000 square feet (~8% of campus) of research buildings that are high intensity energy users. To achieve the slight decrease in the energy usage per square foot of built space is significant.


The website URL where information about the institution’s energy conservation and efficiency initiatives is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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