In the Spring of 2019, Vanderbilt University (VU) unveiled FutureVU, a comprehensive, long-term sustainability strategy. FutureVU plans to significantly reduce the university’s environmental footprint in part by powering the campus entirely through renewable energy, putting VU on track to be carbon neutral by 2050. VU has identified six key areas to help achieve this goal:

• • Invest in on-site clean energy
  • Invest in off-site, large-scale renewable energy
  • Decrease carbon footprint from vehicles
  • Increase green spaces across campus
  • Reduce consumption and waste
  • Invest in sustainable infrastructure

SSR, building on our long history of work with VU, is excited about the opportunity to help them attain these goals. SSR has already started providing some sustainability and energy consulting work that helped lay the foundation for FutureVU.

SSR provided a comprehensive life cycle cost analysis for Residential Colleges A dormitory building. The analysis looked at four different HVAC system and three different energy sources to run the building’s systems. At Memorial Gymnasium, we’ve provided a conceptual study to add energy efficient cooling to the facility, among other sustainability initiatives to the gym. We’ve also provided a study to evaluate a hypothetical scenario where the three Residential Colleges Dormitory projects were served with a campus central energy plant that provided heating and cooling without the on-campus burning of fossil fuels.  To accomplish this, our team of performance engineers performed dozens of energy simulations to find a solution that minimized energy consumption through the optimization of economizer control, hot water temperatures, and heat recovery chiller sizing.  The results of this study will help inform Vanderbilt University’s path towards a more sustainable future.