UNM Partners with Albuquerque's Emerging 2030 District

  • 02/19/15

Albuquerque Emerging 2030 DistrictALBUQUERQUE, NM — The University of New Mexico (UNM) has partnered with Albuquerque’s Emerging 2030 District, a nationwide initiative — with established, grassroots districts in Seattle, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco — formed to meet the urban sustainability standards set by the 2030 Challenge for Planning.

Albuquerque’s Emerging 2030 District is a private sector-led effort utilizing collaboration, incentives, shared resources and public-private partnerships to promote the development of high-performance buildings and a healthier, livable city of the future.

Participating 2030 District property owners, including UNM, voluntarily commit to reducing their existing properties' environmental impact by 50 percent, by the year 2030, with regard to energy use, water use and transportation-related emissions. 

UNM has been committed to reducing energy consumption since the 1970s and has many years of experience in developing innovative strategies and procedures to support sustainability and energy conservation. 

President Robert Frank approved UNM’s involvement in Albuquerque's Emerging 2030 District recently by committing the main and north campuses to the high-performance building initiative. 

Part of this initiative includes sharing utility data and best practices in order to support this collaborative effort. This type of community involvement is an example of UNM’s commitment to education and serving the New Mexico community. 

Information sharing is a key element to this program’s success. UNM will benefit from this collaboration because even though it has been thinking about these issues for many decades, these partners will bring their ideas and successes to the table for discussion, opening up a world of possibilities.

“We have many years of practice when it comes to reducing the university’s environmental impact, and we have implemented many design standards that can easily be translated to business owners in Albuquerque with regard to conserving energy,” says Jeff Zumwalt, director of UNM’s Physical Plant Department. 

Downtown property owner Laurie Tarbell and chair of the ABQ Emerging 2030 District exploratory committee, says that “Albuquerque is building great momentum to officially launch its 2030 District, and UNM's commitment of approximately 9.7 million square feet of existing buildings to the initiative is tremendously inspiring. President Frank's visionary action — UNM's leadership by example — will catalyze sustainable redevelopment and innovation throughout our urban core.”

Featured

  • Massachusetts High School to Build New Athletics Facility

    Middlesex School, which serves boarding and day students in grades 9–12, recently moved forward with plans to build a new athletics facility for its campus in Concord, Mass., according to a news release. MassDevelopment recently issued a $43.7-million tax-exempt bond to fund the project.

  • American University Launches Sustainability Research Project

    American University in Washington, D.C., recently began a research project exploring the relationship between purchase decisions for university campuses and sustainability, according to a news release. The study seeks to explore how “greening” the purchases involved in student housing renovations, breaking ground on new facilities, buying new equipment and supplies, and more, can foster larger sustainability goals.

  • 5 Tips for New Teachers and Their Administrators on Classroom Design

    Recently, several school visits early in the academic year highlighted how many first-year teachers struggle to set up their classrooms effectively. It's evident that more can be done to better support them from the start, particularly in the area of classroom design.

  • All Surfaces Hires New Commercial Business Development Specification Manager

    Flooring solutions provider All Surfaces recently announced that it has hired industry veteran Mechelle Bliss as its new Commercial Business Development Specification Manager, according to a news release. In her new role, she’ll be responsible for expanding the organization’s hold in various commercial markets, as well as strengthening relationships with existing clients.