Stevens Institute of Tech to Fill All Electricity Needs from Renewable Sources

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 04/14/21

A New Jersey university has announced that it intends to fill all of its electricity needs from local renewable energy sources by October 2021. Stevens Institute of Technology said its annual electricity consumption was enough to power the equivalent of 6,984 homes for three years. Now the institution has signed a three-year agreement with energy "greentailer" ENGIE North America, in a deal facilitated by energy consultant Gotham 360.

A typical route for schools to offset their use of fossil fuels is by buying renewable energy certificates, or RECs, as a path toward generating cleaner energy. Stevens has used this method for "years," as a way to support long-term clean energy adoption. While RECs may show a commitment to adopt clean energy in the future, they primarily serve as a proxy for true fossil fuel reduction.

Under the new arrangement, according to Robert Maffia, vice president for facilities and campus operations at Stevens, the school will be using "physical power, local to our grid, and 100 percent renewable."

As he explained in a campus article, "By sourcing 100 percent of our electricity from wind, hydropower or solar energy sources in our region, we will not be relying on fossil fuels to power our campus." Those energy sources will be identified by ENGIE.

"This is significant," he added, "because we are not adding carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to our atmosphere. This is a huge step forward in not only reducing our carbon footprint and creating a greener, healthier campus, but also supporting renewable energy facilities in our region."

Stevens has long taken measures to reduce its environmental impact, including installing solar panels wherever possible across campus. As Maffia noted, however, given the size of the campus, the energy produced from those solar panels amount to just a fraction of what's needed. "This investment will allow us to make an impact far greater than limiting our renewable energy to the constraints of what we could produce on campus," he said.

Other energy-reduction initiatives have included the installation of LED lighting at nine campus academic buildings; a commitment to LEED Silver or higher construction standards; and the addition of two new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to the six existing EV chargers on campus that provide free charging to the Stevens community. Stevens also pursues a "robust" campus recycling program and uses bioswale, bioretention planters and several rain gardens on campus to collect storm water runoff and prevent flooding.

The university offers a master's program in sustainability management and a graduate certificate in sustainable energy systems and has integrated sustainability in its curriculum for many other graduate and undergraduate programs.

"Our commitment to sustainability aligns perfectly with our commitment to students and the campus community," Maffia said. "A greener campus isn't just better for the environment — it is healthier, more productive and more enjoyable for those who live, study and work here."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • How One School Reimagined Learning Spaces—and What Others Can Learn

    When Collegedale Academy, a PreK–8 school outside Chattanooga, Tenn., needed a new elementary building, we faced the choice that many school leaders eventually confront: repair an aging facility or reimagine what learning spaces could be. Our historic elementary school held decades of memories for families, including some who had once walked its halls as children themselves. But years of wear and the need for costly repairs made it clear that investing in the old building would only patch the problems rather than solve them.

  • KI Launches K–12 Classroom Furniture Giveaway

    Contract furniture company KI recently announced the launch of its fourth-annual Classroom Furniture Giveaway, which awards $50,000 each to four K–12 educators across the U.S., according to a news release. The goal is to address decreasing student engagement and increasing teacher burnout numbers by updating learning spaces to accommodate modern needs.

  • Tennessee State University Gains Approval for New Engineering Facility

    Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tenn., recently announced that it has received approval from the Tennessee State Building Commission to build a new engineering building on campus, according to a university news release. The 70,000-square-foot, $50-million facility will play home to the university’s engineering programs and the Applied & Industrial Technology program.

  • Colorado State University Global, SCTE Launch Online Certificate Program

    Colorado State University Global (CSU Global), based in Denver, Colo., recently announced a partnership with CableLabs subsidiary the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) to launch an online certificate training program for broadband professionals, according to a news release.