Energy
Reminder to University staff: Take the Energy Bowl Challenge to conserve energy (and win pizza!)
Dec. 20, 2013—[Originally posted by MyVU] Note: The Medical Center is going green for the holidays a little differently. VUMC employees, please refer to this story for more details. Last week, Plant Operations implemented several intensive energy-conservation measures throughout University Central for the three weeks of winter break and invited faculty, staff and students remaining on campus...
VUMC Staff: Labs encouraged to power down over holidays
Dec. 12, 2013—Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Plant Services and Sustainability and Environmental Management Office (SEMO) are hosting “Go Green for the Holidays,” an energy conservation contest open to research labs during the final two weeks of December. This year, because the University’s official Christmas and New Year’s holidays fall mid-week, the number of people present on the...
Use water at ‘comfortable’ temperature to wash hands and fight global warming
Dec. 11, 2013—[Originally posted by Research News at Vanderbilt] Signs in many bathrooms across the country recommend washing hands in hot or warm water. In fact, if Americans could be persuaded en masse to use a comfortable water temperature when washing their hands, it could prevent the annual greenhouse gas emissions totaling the equivalent of the United...
New device stores electricity on silicon chips
Nov. 20, 2013—[Originally posted by Research News at Vanderbilt] Solar cells that produce electricity 24/7, not just when the sun is shining. Mobile phones with built-in power cells that recharge in seconds and work for weeks between charges. These are just two of the possibilities raised by a novel supercapacitor design invented by material scientists at Vanderbilt...
Campus Dining Wins Annual Greenest Group on Campus Contest
Nov. 18, 2013—[Click here for MyVU story] Vanderbilt Campus Dining was the grand-prize winner Oct. 19 in the Game Day Recycling Challenge before the Vanderbilt vs. Georgia football game. Campus Dining won 25 tickets to the upcoming Kentucky football game, a catered tailgate by Whole Foods and will participate in an award presentation on the field at...
Vanderbilt Green Fund Applications Now Being Accepted
Oct. 30, 2013—The Vanderbilt Green Fund was established in the spring of 2011 as a way of connecting student sustainability ideas with the means to implement them. The final deadline for applications is December 3 at midnight. Apply here. For more information about the Green Fund please contact Sommers Kline (sommers.s.kline@Vanderbilt.Edu).
Vanderbilt greenhouse gas emissions down 19% since 2008
Oct. 23, 2013—[Read MyVU story here and full 2012 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory here] Since 2005, Vanderbilt’s Greenhouse Gas emissions have decreased by: Vanderbilt’s Sustainability and Environmental Management Office has released an updated inventory of the campus’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the calendar years 2005-2012 to mark Campus Sustainability Day, Oct. 23. This inventory illustrates Vanderbilt’s current...
Green Lights Program Will Monitor Commons’ Energy Use
Sep. 4, 2013—[Originally posted by MyVU] [Click here for story on InsideVandy] When first-year students arrived at The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons for Move In Aug. 17, they were met by brand-new Green Lights screens in the lobby of each house. The screens display real-time energy use for each residence hall and tell the viewer whether or not the...
Nashville Energy Works Program Launches
Aug. 16, 2013—Nashville Energy Works (NEW), a program created by Mayor Karl Dean’s Office of Environment and Sustainability and administered by Hands On Nashville, connects Davidson County homeowners with easy-to-understand information and the right resources to help lower utility bills by making home energy improvements. These improvements can help homeowners save energy and money; make homes more comfortable and help the environment....
Grad student wins first place in DOE fuel cycle research competition
Jul. 18, 2013—[Originally posted by VUSE News] Lyndsey Morgan Fyffe, a doctoral student in environmental engineering, has been awarded a first place prize in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Innovations in Fuel Cycle Research Awards competition. Fyffe’s award is in the category of energy policy, and her award-winning research paper, “Developing Operational Safety Performance Measures for Nuclear...