Vanderbilt University BlueSky Energy Vision Study
Vanderbilt University BlueSky Energy Vision Study
Re-Envisioning Campus Energy Infrastructure
Vanderbilt University commissioned HDR as the prime contractor to facilitate a BlueSky campus decarbonization study, carried out over the course of 10 months with university executive and advisory committees and a mix of diverse stakeholders across campus. The study looked at the implementation of building commissioning and modernization; utility infrastructure retrofits; new building design standards; on-site clean (without combustion) and renewable energy; procurement of off-site renewable energy to mitigate campus greenhouse gas emissions; and development of sufficient storage of clean energy to provide the campus with built-in resilience.
The final plan included a comprehensive GHG reduction wedge with over 20 energy conservation measures to be strategically implemented over a period of 25 years that will enable Vanderbilt to hit their decarbonization goal.
Key activities included:
- Existing building energy audits
- Creation and evaluation of 20-plus energy conservation measures
- Energy modeling extrapolated to 200-plus buildings
- Simple payback and detailed life cycle cost analysis for building energy conservation measures
- Energy conservation measure bundles for each building type
- Strategies to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions
- Sustainable return on investment calculations
