Stanford University
OP-3: Building Operations and Maintenance

In 2016, a LEED equivalency analysis of Stanford’s building operations concluded that all buildings are operating at a LEED-certified level of gold or better. The equivalency analysis can be found here: http://sustainable.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/Stanford%202016%20LEED%20Equivalency%20Analysis%20102716.pdf
Stanford evaluates the sustainability performance of its buildings through a home-grown rating system, allowing for a more streamlined approach than LEED-EBOM, while at the same time providing a higher level of granularity and more rigorous and meaningful targets. The program evaluates a building’s sustainability performance in six categories: energy, water, waste, transportation, purchasing, and occupant engagement. Each category has a target performance and the building’s rating is based on how close the building is to achieving that target on a percentage scale. The six categories are rolled up into a weighted average to derive an overall sustainability performance rating, which is updated annually. Buildings are also assigned one of the following colors, based on their overall rating:
• Green: Buildings that are very close to meeting their target or have already achieved it (90% and greater)
• Yellow: Buildings that are at least half way to meeting their target (50-90%)
• Red: Buildings that are less than half way to meeting their target (less than 50%)

More than 130 of Stanford’s buildings are rated through this program, comprising nearly 8.6 million square feet of building space. In 2018, the program documentation was enhanced to show a comparison of current building performance to the prior year and also now includes a summary of why the building performance may have changed. The ratings can be seen by clicking on any building on the building map at the following link: http://sustainable.stanford.edu/buildings. Only buildings that have achieved a rating of “Yellow” or higher are included in this credit.

All Stanford divisions employ green cleaning practices.

Stanford's primary custodial provider is UG2, a selection made based on a variety of criteria, including having a comprehensive sustainability program. Through UG2, all products are ordered through an online tool that is monitored by UG2's corporate Purchasing Department. Each product supplier page is provided a shopping cart list that only allows UG2 to order items designated for each account. Any item outside this shopping cart is routed to the on-site manager for approval. Any chemical that does not comply with criteria is reviewed by management. Approval for this product is granted only if an alternative solution is unavailable or has an impact on the facilities' cleanliness.

Additionally, Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE), which operates in-house custodial services for approximately 1/3 of the campus, has moved to a Tersano-based green cleaning system. Tersano is water-based and installed on-site, so it only requires the purchase of filters. R&DE has implemented this 99% chemical free cleaning system in 41 residences (or 1,096,213 square feet). In FY20, R&DE will add another 25 residences (2,002,238 square feet) to the green cleaning program and will systematically transition all other residences to the green cleaning program thereafter. In FY18, R&DE's green cleaning program prevented over 380 gallons of chemicals from being purchased, stored, and disposed of in addition to avoiding student and employee chemical exposure. In recognition of these benefits, the California Higher Education Sustainability Conference awarded R&DE with a Best Practice for Innovation in Cleaning in 2018. More information on this program is available here: https://rde.stanford.edu/studenthousing/sustainable-living

Finally, Stanford's Department of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation contracted with Total Quality Management (TQM) in August of 2015 and an excerpt of the green cleaning language included in that contract is below:

Green Sustainable Cleaning
Stanford University will require all Bidders to submit a Green Cleaning Program and Policy, referencing as a guide the APPA Cleaning Standards and USGBC LEED EBOM.

Intent: Protect student and staff health, and the environment using Green cleaning products and equipment. The use of green cleaning products and practices supports the goal of maintaining a healthy, safe, and clean environment for students, faculty, and staff.

Green Janitorial Program Design

4.1. Please submit a Green Cleaning Program and Policy referencing as a guide the APPA Cleaning Standards and USGBC LEED EBOM. The green cleaning policy must include:

4.1.1. A statement of purpose.

4.1.2. A requirement to use only non-toxic cleaning products that are certified by Green Seal or other accepted agencies.

4.1.3. All vacuums used on carpets or hard surfaces should be triple filtration or HEPA.

4.1.4. Best practices for cleaning and management

4.1.5. A requirement for staff training

4.2. Describe your company's plan to design, implement, and monitor a Green Cleaning Program for Stanford.

4.2.1. Provide a proposed implementation time-line.

4.2.2. Describe the Green methods that are proposed for use to maintain the cleanliness of the campus

4.2.3. Describe the process to be used to assure that the Green Cleaning Program will be maintained and how the program will always be up to date.

4.3. Stanford’s Environmental Health & Safety office will need to pre-approve and will require MSDS sheets for any chemicals used in fulfilling janitorial services. Explain your process to meet this requirement and ensure that no chemicals will be used on campus without prior authorization.

4.3.1. Bidders will provide as part of their proposal a list of sustainable products and equipment that will be used to clean and maintain the Stanford Campus.

4.4. Submit a Hard Surface floor care system that minimizes the need to strip and refinish surfaces. A written schedule should be developed on an annual basis. All strippers, cleaners and finishes should be certified green.

A pioneering initiative focused on maximizing the efficiency of building operations through central controls systems, Stanford’s Integrated Controls and Analytics (iCAP) program launched in 2017. As part of iCAP, the university implemented over 35 building control integration and upgrade projects, moving from the older Energy Management and Controls system (EMCS) to a new, more integrated and sophisticated controls technology.

Wallenberg Hall, one of the larger iCAP projects completed in 2018, was jointly funded by Stanford’s Energy Retrofit Program and Buildings and Grounds Management (BGM), and is reducing energy usage by nearly 40% in its first year. Over 100 additional campus buildings are on the list for iCAP projects over the next ten years.

The Facilities Automation Center is the primary location for system development, maintenance, and normal workday monitoring of building operations and performance, but is only one of ten locations with operator workstations. Off-hour monitoring is covered by the University's 24-hour dispatch and information center. Stanford’s Facilities Energy Management team works closely with partners to distill additional benefits from control systems data, using new software analytics tools like fault detection and diagnostics, predictive maintenance, and performance optimization.

Stanford has expanded its water management and benchmarking capabilities to make key water information available to stakeholders on an ongoing basis. For example, Stanford's Business Systems group within the Department of Sustainability and Energy Management integrates several water (and energy) metering systems to provide a unified data repository and access point for real-time and historic water meter data. Software systems that comprise Business Systems offer analytical tools to optimize efficiency in the campus infrastructure and operations, and allow for automatic notifications of metering issues to operations staff. See the Water Use dashboard here: http://sustainable.stanford.edu/campus-action/campus-performance
Stanford's Water Planning and Stewardship team began implementing several new water efficiency measures at the inception of the California drought in 2015. For example, Water Efficiency (WE) staff send out monthly reports to campus zones and each major campus customer group to track water usage and promote savings. The reports help inform campus managers and residents and encourage water conservation. To date, the greatest savings have been in areas taking an integrated approach, including open communication between area managers and WE staff, the use of smart or weather-based irrigation controllers (for landscape sites), and equipment and fixture retrofits. Additional water management measures include updates on drought conditions on the WE website; a call for action to the campus community, which yielded hundreds of pledges to conserve water; and expanded WE rebates for campus residents and groups.

Stanford's Water Resources and Civil Infrastructure group helped to facilitate the capture of construction “dewatering” water for use in the non-potable irrigation water system. In 2018, these construction sites contributed 112,195,941 gallons of water that was used for irrigation on campus, and otherwise would have been discharged to the storm drainage system.

The attachment under Indoor Air Quality is the full Sustainable Building Guidelines. Stanford's indoor air quality policy is included on pages 23-24.

According to Stanford policy, the university's Environmental Health & Safety department regularly monitors indoor air quality in campus buildings. When needed, occupants can also voice concerns through a reporting function on the EH&S website, which can be anonymous. EH&S then follows up with the reporting party to assess local indoor air quality through an appropriate combination of:

1) occupant interviews,
2) site inspections for point source air contamination, such as mold from moisture intrusion or odor entrainment, and
3) consultation with HVAC maintenance personnel

EH&S subsequently provides recommendations that address the concerns.

For occupant discomforts that do not officially qualify as an indoor air quality violation, EH&S will explore solutions with the individual, such as placing a small room HEPA air circulation unit to filter out dusts in the air that cause them to experience allergy symptoms.