Office of Sustainability | Annual Report | 2019

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Annual Sustainability Report 2018/19

Year in Review Here in UWM’s Office of Sustainability, we strive to create strategies on sound science, the University’s Mission and Guiding Values, and fiscal responsibility. Fiscal year 2019 brought financial decision making into strong focus.

New data and contract negotiations in waste & recycling exposed potential cost savings and contract roadblocks.

Feedback from campus stakeholders and assessment led to hiring UWM’s first Solid Waste & Recycling Coordinator, justified through savings. This project honors UWM’s Guiding Value of Accountability. In the same spirit, the Surplus program sought-out a new online sales platform in “GovDeals” for cost savings.

Innovation led the Office of Sustainability, the School of Freshwater Science, and the Alliance for Water Stewardship to launch UWM’s Water Stewardship course, the first university to develop a formal course built around the principles and application of the AWS Standard.

Conservation Corp, Milwaukee Area Technical College, and many other Milwaukee organizations.

The Office and a “claw” of Panthers showed their Pride volunteering for the Office-led “Move-Out Festival”.

Volunteers helped residence hall students collect 12,000 lbs. of unwanted goods and repurpose them, including thousands of pounds of food donated to the UWM Food Center and Pantry.

The UWM Guiding Value that our Office of Sustainability serves the best perhaps, is of course, Stewardship of resources that promote sustainability, prosperity, and equity for all. In FY19, efforts in energy conservation, waste reductions, and surplus re-purposing saved approximately $3.5 million, while also reducing pollution and contributing to cleaner air for all.

The year brought cohesion to the team, significant A complete review of all UWM food purchased revealed savings, and a new pride in our institution and all it has where our food comes from, how much we spend, and to offer. what sustainability features UWM supports, such as local or organic food as a means to support Transparency.

In FY19, the Office’s Learn.Earn.Grow. program continued with twenty high school students. This youth urban agriculture job programs builds life skills, workforce development, and access to higher education. L.E.G. is a Collaboration with the Boy’s and Girl’s Club, Cream City

Kate M. Nelson Chief Sustainability Officer

Annual Summary Revenue

$57,348 Surplus Revenue

$56,286

Carbon Offsets Revenue

$1,062

Avoided Cost

$3,491,230 Surplus Avoided Cost

$486,958

Waste & Recycling Avoided Cost

$99,059

Energy Avoided Cost

$2,905,213

Avoided Emissions

23,882 MTCO2e* Surplus Avoided Emissions

358 MTCO2e

Waste & Recycling Avoided Emissions

2,885 MTCO2e

Energy Avoided Emissions

20,579 MTCO2e

* MTCO2e = Metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. The unit “CO2e” represents an amount of a greenhouse gas (GHG) whose atmospheric impact has been standardized to that of one unit mass of carbon dioxide (CO2), based on the global warming potential (GWP) of the gas. UWM avoided the emissions equivalent of 2,756 homes’ energy use for one year or 5,070 passenger vehicles driven for one year.

Energy In FY19, the Office of Sustainability led and partnered on initiatives to reduce energy consumed on campus, explore avenues for innovative funding of energy projects, and vet several large-scale renewable energy projects for further savings. Of particular note, Facilities Services paired with Edison Energy through the state-wide Focus on Energy program to assess and implement retrocommissioning measures at Lapham Hall that are still underway. Additional investment in future energy efficiency has been made possible in recent years by selling UWM carbon credits through Second Nature. Carbon credits are generated from energy savings that came about through extensive conservation (Performance Contracting) efforts completed in 2010-2014.

Yearly Summary notes: Energy Avoided Cost and Avoided Emissions are calculated using only buildings that participated in Performance Contracting. Through energy conservation measures UWM has avoided an emissions equivalent of burning 236,338,554 lbs of coal, or an average passenger vehicle driving 532,233,251 miles.

% Change in Energy per Gross Square Foot (FY05 Baseline)

%Change in BTU/GSF since FY05 % Change from FY05 Base

5.0% 0.0% -5.0% -10.0% -15.0%

% Change Weather Adjusted % Change

-20.0%

from FY05

-25.0%

% Change (Weather-Adjusted)

-30.0% -35.0% FY05 FY06 FY07 FY08 FY09 FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15 FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19

Fiscal Year

% Change from FY05

Energy Annual Summary Carbon Credit Revenue FY19

$1,062 $33,625

Carbon Credit Revenue (FY17-FY19)

Energy Total Avoided Cost

$2,905,213

FY19 Electricity Avoided Cost FY19 Thermal Avoided Cost FY19

$1,964,585 $940,628

Energy Total Avoided Cost (FY10-FY19)

$25,759,081

Electricity Avoided Cost (FY10-FY19) Thermal Avoided Cost (FY10-FY19)

$15,765,227 $9,993,854

Energy Total Avoided Cost (FY10-FY19 net-debt service)

Energy Avoided Emissions FY19 Energy Avoided Emissions (FY10-19)

$10,895,005

20,579 MTCO2e 214,490 MTCO2e

Electricity Avoided Emissions (FY10-19) Thermal Avoided Emissions (FY10-FY19)

% Renewable Electricity Purchased & Generated at UWM FY19

103,901 MTCO2e 110,589 MTCO2e

7.3%

Surplus Surplus strives to reduce waste, offset costs, capture value, and ensure regulatory compliance in the processing and management of old and unwanted items. Utilizing a single stream model, we transfer this responsibility from Colleges and departments to trained and capable staff equipped to ethically and efficiently manage item disposition.

In FY19 Surplus processed 32 tons of electronic waste and 62 tons of metal scrap, rehomed 13 tons of usable material, and sold 408 items on public auction.

Our greatest challenge of the year was the transition away from UWMadison SWAP’s online auction platform, which resulted in a 3-month hiatus from all sales operations. On November 14th, 2018 the first auctions on our new platform, govdeals.com, went live. Over the subsequent 7 months we saw an increase in the rate of successful auctions from 58%, which we had with SWAP, to 75%. At the same time, we saw a drop in average price per item from $126 to $97. This demonstrates the benefits and challenges unique to each auction platform and reinforces our continued efforts to cultivate a robust sales ecosystem.

In a landscape that is increasingly characterized by fluctuating markets and evolving regulation, our handling, homing, and selling operations are a critical part of UWM’s materials management model.

Upstream Generators

UWM Surplus REUSE -Back to Campus -Donation

-Public Sale -Kept in Public Sector

RECYCLING -E-Waste

-Recyclable Materials

(metals, lights ballasts, etc.)

DISPOSAL -Universal Waste -Condensed for efficient hauling

Surplus Items Returned to Campus & Sold Items Revenue

“Truly a hidden gem...

Contacting UWM Surplus will be step #1 for us in all of our future program projects and upgrades.” Nathan Chicks, Director, Diagnostic Medical Sonography Program

3000

$45,000.00 $40,000.00

2500

$35,000.00

2000

$30,000.00 $25,000.00

1500

$20,000.00

1000

$15,000.00 $10,000.00

500 0

$5,000.00 FY2010 FY2011 FY2012 FY2013 FY2014 FY2015 FY2016 FY2017 FY2018 FY2019

Fiscal Year Items Returned to Campus

Sold Items Revenue

$-

Sold Items Revenue

“We love you guys, Keep up the good work.” Shotaro Williams, Customer

Surplus Items Returned to Campus or Sold

# of Items Returned to Campus

“The items I reclaimed from UWM Surplus have been invaluable to my art practice.”

Angela Swan, Master of Fine Arts Candidate, Peck School of Fine Arts

Surplus Annual Summary $43,322

Surplus Sales Revenue Surplus Total Avoided Cost

$486,958 Value of items returned to campus Avoided waste fees

Surplus Items Returned to Campus

$442,119 $44,839

2,287

E-Waste Total Avoided Cost

$2,597 Cost to scrap

-$899

Avoided waste fees

$3,487

Metal Salvage Revenue

$12,964 $7,613

Metal Salvage Total Avoided Cost Avoided waste fees

Avoided Emissions

$7,613

358 MTCO2e Metal Recycling Avoided Emissions E-Waste Avoided Emissions

281 MTCO2e 77 MTCO2e

Waste & Recycling The Office of Sustainability hired its first Solid Waste and Recycling Coordinator, Laura Stevens, in 2018 to assist UWM with the overall planning and management of solid waste and recycling activities on campus. In FY19, UWM diverted 34% of solid waste from landfills through recycling, composting, paper shredding, and book recycling.

In addition, two main event-based initiatives occurred in FY19 during the Move-Out period, University Housing Move-Out and the Move-Out Festival. University Housing Move-Out engaged 50 volunteers, brought together 10 campus departments and local organizations, and diverted over 12,000 lbs. of usable goods from the landfill. The Move-Out Festival was a collaboration between 10 campus partners, attracted over 1,000 Within FY19, the Coordinator established baseline metrics festival goers, re-homed over 10,000 lbs of usable goods, for measuring campus-wide waste generation, created a and was featured in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. centralized customer service hub for waste and recycling The Coordinator also focused on working with students issues, and developed waste reduction programming through Service Learning and classroom collaborations. and initiatives. The centralized customer service hub now In FY19, 45 students completed 5 waste audits to examine includes service request and issues support as well as the campus’ waste composition, educated over 2,000 transparent invoicing. residents on composting and recycling, and completed 2 research-based program proposals.

“This (event) is a benefit to everybody. This has been incredible. This blew our expectations out of the water.” -UWM Neighborhood Housing Manager Alyssa Conrardy

Recycling Annual Summary Waste & Recycling Total Avoided Cost Correcting Invoices Contamination Fees Avoided Right-sizing container pickups Reporting Fees Saved

Avoided Landfill Waste

$99,059 $9,807 $14,585 $54,734 $19,933

2,797,870 lbs Recycling Compost Paper Shredding Waste Oil Cardboard Mixed Paper Books

Diversion Rate

2,416,370 lbs 192,482 lbs 53,389 lbs 32,108 lbs 56,695 lbs 14,534 lbs 32,291 lbs

34%

Avoided Emissions

2,885 MTCO2e Recycling Compost Paper Shredding Waste Oil Cardboard Mixed Paper Books

2,621 MTCO2e 51 MTCO2e 75 MTCO2e No data possible 66 MTCO2e 23 MTCO2e 49 MTCO2e

Transportation In FY19, UWM implemented a Bike Hub Study and is working with city partners to attract funding for recommended actions. The Bike Hub Study was undertaken to strategically address student, faculty, staff, and general public requests for improvements of bike parking and connectivity to campus.

The below data is based on the 2017 Transportation Survey (conducted every 3 years) updated with 2019 demographic data. In FY19, faculty, staff, and students that used more sustainable transportation modes avoided the carbon emissions equivalent of 5.7 million miles driven by an average passenger vehicle.

% of University Fleet using alternative fuels

0%

% of Students using sustainable commuting options as primary mode of transport

55.5%

% of Staff using sustainable commuting options as primary mode of transport

33.5%

% of Faculty using sustainable commuting options as primary mode of transport

FY19 Avoided Emissions through Sustainable Commuting Use

39.3%

2,319 MTCO2e

Water & Stormwater During Spring semester of 2019, the Office of School of Freshwater Sciences building, with the goal Sustainability partnered with the School of Freshwater of becoming the first university building in the world Sciences and the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) to certified to the AWS standard. offer a first-of-its-kind course in water stewarship policy and assessment. Using the AWS Standard as a framework, students developed a water stewardship plan for the

Stormwater Avoided Cost (CY19) Stormwater Avoided Cost (CY13-CY19) Gallons Diverted by Green Infrastructure

$4,284 $25,127 16.5M gal.

Food In the Fall of 2018, a doctoral student in Urban Studies, Hamideh Moayyed, assessed a year’s worth of food purchases at UWM through the lens of the Real Food Challenge. Real food is categorized as Local & CommunityBased, Fair, Humane, or Ecologically Sound. Hamideh found that 1.5% of UWM’s food purchases qualified as “Real Food,” most due to Fairtrade certification or USDA Organic certification. In addition, the assessment yielded information about the amount of conventional animal products purchased. This data may help inform purchasing choices which support humane practices conducive to the health and well-being of animals, humans, and the environment they share.

3rd Party Verified & Community-Based Products Food expenditures on conventional animal products

1.5% 42.2%

Service & Learning The Office of Sustainability amassed more than 2,400 participant hours in FY19 from service learners, volunteers, internships, events, and classes. Laura Stevens (Solid Waste & Recycling Coordinator), Angela Beling and Nina Pinette (Compost Interns) oversaw 62 service learners who focused on campus compost and recycling initiatives. The Office of Sustainability also partnered with alumnus Danielle Bell of Native Roots LLC to direct interns Jacob Mikic and Emma Oldehoeft to document and clean out green infrastructure on campus.

Lastly, roughly 870 campus staff, students, and faculty participated in events with campus partners throughout the year, including Harvest Fest, the annual Garden Prep day, Bike to Work 2019, and the Walk and Roll Challenge.

Annual Summary Service Learners

# of service learners # of service learner hours

62 620

# of volunteers # of volunteer hours

94 211

# of students # of student hours presented

114 537

Co-Teaching

# of students # of student hours

31 640

Tours Given

# of tour participants # of tour participant hours

160 211

Internships

# of internships # of internship hours

3 274

# of Event Participants # of Event Participant hours

870 278

Volunteers

Class Lectures

Events

Total Participant Hours

2,771