Currently working against the university's sustainability mission, however, is the flurry of construction activity on campus.
Funding from the bonds approved in 2000 came without the sustainability stipulations required today. Since 2005, the campus has added and renovated 2.4 million square feet of space. But planning and construction began just prior to the university's public commitment to sustainability.
"If there's one thing I wish we could do over, and I've heard [UNC system President] Erskine Bowles say the same thing, I'd like to go back not eight years but 10 years and build sustainability into the bond program," said former UNC Chancellor James Moeser. "That's a shame. A lot of buildings have been built around the state that I think we would do differently because what we know and our commitment of sustainability."
The demands of a growing campus -- especially with Carolina North on the way -- emphasize the need for drastic changes as opposed to minor tweaks. In renovations and some aspects of new buildings, UNC has implemented some measures to improve energy efficiency, but consumption remains steady as square footage has increased.
From 2003-2007, the physical size of the campus grew by 20 percent (2.75 million square feet). During the same time, energy consumption per square foot in campus buildings fell by 8 percent. It's an improvement, but to remain at the same overall carbon footprint while accounting for 20-percent growth, energy consumption per square foot would have to fall by 16.7 percent.
"Our biggest challenge right now is bringing CO2 down in the face of increasing floor area particularly for research laboratories on the campus, but that's a problem every one of the universities is facing," said Doug Crawford-Brown, director emeritus of UNC's Institute for the Environment. "So really the next step is to implement some of these policies on a scale large enough to offset the increase in the floor area."
While it is one of the most efficient power plants in the country, demand increase has forced UNC to expand the capacity of the Cameron Avenue cogeneration plant from 28 to 32 megawatts, according to the 2007 update of the university's semi-annual 2007 Sustainability Report. Furthermore, the university has had to add two chilled water plants for new floor space. And while they are being operated more efficiently, there are more of them operating.
One of the most vexing aspects of sustainability is controlling so many different areas. "The most difficult thing is UNC is such a big, complex organization, and there's no one single control point with the carbon footprint of a big university," Moeser said. To address that, the university is implementing systems and changes to help manage major components of its energy-consuming infrastructure, from buildings to people.
