Through the Office of Sustainability, University of Oregon has created an Energy Flowchart Info Graphic that summarizes the schools emission data, energy sources and consumption rates. The flowchart has become a key component to translating the schools emissions data.
By using the Clean Air-Cool Planet’s (CA-CP) Campus Carbon Calculator, the Office of Sustainability was able to create this info graphic.
The office began gathering the university’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2009. This has allowed them to take into record the schools GHG emissions and has allowed them to make decisions related to emissions reduction.
Within the energy flowchart info graphic it measures activities such as building heat, air travel, lighting and plug loads around campus. It displays the schools energy inputs through these activities. Looking at the 2011 info graphic, the flowchart showed that air travel had the most greenhouse gas emissions.
“In 2011 60 percent of the University’s greenhouse gas emissions came from air travel. Very few members of the UO community understand this,” said Andrew Louw, the sustainability affairs graduate fellow at UO.
Air travel includes athletic groups traveling to various tournaments around the country, study abroad and faculty and staff traveling to conferences. Air travel and building heat still remain the highest producer of greenhouse gas emissions in the most recent flowchart.
“The EnergyFlow project is just one effort to communicate the UO’s progress towards meeting the sustainability goals set forth in the Climate Action Plan, Louw said. “As you can see in the EnergyFlow diagram, our greatest challenge remains emissions from air travel and heating our buildings. We must take action on this and that action should come from the top and the bottom.”
In 2013, Louw, attended the Oregon Sustainability and Higher Education conference in Portland. At the conference Louw and his fellow co-workers presented the flowchart to other institutions. Many schools took interest in the info graphic and were more than willing to pay them a small fee so that UO could create a flowchart for their university.
At the moment, the Office of Sustainability is in contract with three other schools. These schools include Willamette University, Oregon State University and Linfield College.
By having contracts with these schools, the office has been able to create revenue for themselves.
Oregon State University’s Sustainability Coordinator, Brandon Trelstad was pleased to have a graphically friendly way to display OSU’s greenhouse gas emissions. UO has produced a great way to display this by sharing the info graphic.
“We are pleased to be able to display OSU’s greenhouse gas emissions in a graphically friendly way,” Trelstad said. “The visual that UO’s Office of Sustainability has produced is helpful in communicating complex flows to a diverse audience.”
“GHG emission reports can run 20 pages and be filled with complex jargon. Our infographic reduces it to a single page and makes it intuitive, interesting, and accessible,” said Steve Mital, the UO sustainability coordinator. “I think every university in the nation will soon follow our lead. Already a few are paying us to produce energy flow diagrams for them.”
The Office of Sustainability has different programs around campus that helps move towards the progress of a more sustainable campus. These programs include the Green Office Certification Program, the Surplus Exchange Program, WeCar and many more.