Office of Sustainability | Annual Report | 2022

Year in Review

This year stood as a test of our own resilience. Could we begin thriving again instead of just surviving the “newnormal?” Economics swung in our favor and against it. Staff gained new capacity while seeing areas stretch. The focus was on understanding what UW-Milwaukee’s needs were, as students, faculty, and staff emerged from studying and working from home. The team tracked evolving trends and dialed programs and procedures in such a way to ensure that the campus, and ourselves, were cared for. And meanwhile, a major planning milestone was reached.

Energy savings climbed, as well as metal sales, surplus reuse for campus, and even the recycling diversion rate scaled up a little. UWM reached a 32% reduction in energy savings since 2008. Supply chain issues drove metal recycling sales to new highs. An increased volume of surplus materials also impacted metal recycling, but primarily gave campus more options for reuse. Over two thousand items went back to campus, saving faculty and staff over $300,000 in unspent purchases.

A reorganization of downstream material operations resulted in hiring Lindsay Frost as UWM’s first Resource Management Coordinator. Lindsay’s management and oversight brought together the Office’s Surplus and Recycling areas into a more seamless operation.

Continuous improvements were made, including a new on-campus Surplus Pop-Up Shop, major space cleanouts, and bringing back the Move-Out program in full force.

The UWM Climate Action: Carbon & Resilience Plan came together. Upon review by stakeholders and leadership, the crafted plan went before all UWM governance groups. All faculty, staff, and student committees fully endorsed the plan and sent it into implementation. By the end of the fiscal year, the plan was flushed out for print and the wheels were put into motion for execution.

The new-normal conditions made it possible to bring the full sustainability team together. Perhaps this year marked, better than any, the importance of working and playing together. Beyond the team’s workplace collaboration, we also shared many field trips and possibilities to break bread together. There was time to pause, reflect, and set new directions. We adapt as the world around us changes, serving the UWM campus however best we can.

Kate M. Nelson Chief Sustainability Officer

Annual Summary

Surplus

Surplus Avoided Cost

Surplus Avoided Emissions

* 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 3,764 homes’ energy use for one year or 2.9 million gallons of gasoline consumed.

The Office of Sustainability continued to lead and partner on initiatives to explore large-scale renewable energy sourcing, reduce energy consumption, and harness innovative funding streams for energy efficiency projects in FY22.

The Office of Sustainability built support across the UW System to explore the viability of a Virtual Power Purchase Agreement and is working locally with Milwaukee Area Technical College to explore local renewable generation to support student aid.

Energy consumption increased compared to FY21 as classes were increasingly held in-person. However, large energy savings due to vigilant work by Facilities Services has meant that UWM maintained energy efficiency levels achieved at the completion of performance contracting (over 32% decrease since FY08).

Gas prices rose significantly (2x) in the spring months of FY22 and that trend is expected to continue throughout FY23 (especially in the winter).

Key Energy Stat

32.3% between FY08-22

Benchmark Historic Consumption Plan Target Reduce Consumption

25% from 2008 levels

Yearly Summary notes: Energy Avoided Cost and Avoided Emissions are calculated using only buildings that participated in Performance Contracting. Through energy conservation measures since 2010, UWM has avoided an emissions equivalent of 38,650 homes’ energy use for one year.

% Change from FY05

% Change (Weather-Adjusted) from FY05

Change from

since

% Change in Energy per Gross Square Foot Since FY2005

Energy Annual Summary

Carbon Credit Revenue FY22

Carbon Credit Revenue (FY17-FY22)

Energy Total Avoided Cost FY22

Electricity Avoided Cost FY22

$23,983 $2,331,722

Electricity Avoided Cost (FY10-FY22)

Thermal Avoided Cost (FY10-FY22)

$76,688 $37,610,203 $17,763,311 $4,546,704

28,334

$14,472,048 $2,143,622 $71,360

MTCO2e

Energy Avoided Emissions (FY10-21)

Electricity Avoided Emissions (FY10-21)

Thermal Avoided Emissions (FY10-FY21)

% Renewable Electricity Purchased or Generated at UWM FY22 7.3% 306,833

Surplus

With many staff, faculty, and students returning to campus, the Surplus program facilitated the reuse of over 5,300 items in FY22, recirculating items back to UWM at near pre-COVID levels. While Surplus revenue from in-person and GovDeals sales were down, partially due to operating without a full-time staff member part of the year, $75,176 in revenue was sent back to other departments. FY22 was also a banner year for scrap metal! Surplus more than doubled its record weight and more than tripled its record revenue with $30,984 in scrap revenue. This was due to two key factors: 1) record volumes of surplus due to various remodeling projects across campus paired with 2) high prices for metal commodities across the year. Donations to nonprofits and other government agencies were another notable success in FY22.

The year presented challenges for staff to work through: the continued impacts of COVID, staffing shortages (shout out to student employees who managed Surplus from Apr21–Nov21), and huge influxes of surplus coming from the Union, Engineering, Mellencamp, and Northwest Quad remodeling projects. Additionally, UWM’s IT department changed how they process used computers on campus, affecting Surplus’s ability to resell them to the public. The IT program now reuses old computers internally and sends older, outdated, or broken ones to Surplus. While Surplus occasionally offers computer sales, they will no longer constitute a substantial portion of Surplus revenue. The Surplus team must develop creative ways to compensate.

E-WASTE METAL E-WASTE SURPLUS

Metal Salvage Revenue & Weight

E-WASTE METAL METAL

Surplus Pop-Up Shop: (Above) The UWM Human Resources team made a field trip to visit the new Pop-Up Shop at AUP 333!

Surplus Annual Summary

Waste & Recycling

Similar to FY21, in FY22 the recycling team focused on maintaining current recycling operations with limited staff while pivoting to meet the needs of a changing campus. Office cleanouts remained steady as multiple large construction projects started and departments were moved to new offices. Over 22 tons of paper and 14 tons of cardboard were collected through the bulk paper program in the 4 summer months.

The Spring 2022 semester brought back more students and activity to campus which increased the volume of single stream recycling by 20% compared to Spring 2021. With a bustling campus comes more waste, which results in higher hauling costs. Hauling costs will continue to rise in FY23. However, the successful contract awarding process locked in low price increases for the next 3 years. The recycling program saw significant avoided costs and created revenue despite rising contract costs and material volume. Over $212,000 were saved/avoided in recycling contract avoided fees (including contamination fees). An additional $45,000 was saved in correcting invoices. The avoided contamination fees, contract savings, and revenue from paper and cardboard are proving the transition to internal hauling was the best option for UWM long-term.

More students on campus sparked full-scale move-out events in Housing and with the Neighborhood Housing Office. Donation stations were set up in all Housing units 3 weeks ahead of the official move-out dates to give residents options to get rid of unwanted clothing, housewares, and food. Over 15,000 lbs. of clothing and housewares and over 4,800 lbs of food were collected. Donations were given back to the campus community through the PantherCycle Free Store event in partnership with the Neighborhood Housing Office. The free store event was a redesign of 2019’s Move-Out Festival with the purpose of redistributing more donations on campus, further connecting students to the PantherCycle Facebook group, and addressing a lack of staffing between the host departments. Remaining donations were taken by the UWM Food Pantry & Center or Goodwill. The final move-

out event, Dumpster Day, was also coordinated with the Neighborhood Housing Office to provide bulk waste disposal options for students living in private Housing near campus. Dumpster Day kept 4,320 lbs. of bulk waste off city curbs around campus. Both events attracted a total of 46 volunteers.

FY23 goals include further exploring opportunities to create a more efficient and cost-effective internal hauling operation, work with Marketing and Communications on a recycling rebranding campaign and develop strategies with Restaurant Operations to reduce waste upstream through purchasing.

Spencer collecting recycling (Top) Nina near bins filled with Move-Out items at Sandburg

Recycling Annual Summary

Climate Planning

Shared governance across UWM endorsed the Climate Action-Carbon & Resilience Plan in the Spring of 2022. The plan features an assessment of UWM’s strengths and vulnerabilities in the face of current and future climate challenges, provides proactive solutions to reduce emissions and minimize future environmental impacts (mitigation) and lays out responses to climate impacts we cannot avoid (adaptation).

Upon endorsement, the Office of Sustainability began to form implementation teams around Catalyic Projects identified for each Scope of Emissions (sources of emissions) and Asset of Resilience (what is most affected by changing climatic patterns). Implementation work will continue in FY23. The full plan can be found on UWM’s ISSUU site

Food

The Student Supporting Agriculture Program, launched in May 2022, works to provide students with hands-on garden experience and teach them about resilient food systems, cooking, soil health, indigenous agricultural practices, and sustainability. Over the summer students helped plant, maintain, and harvest campus garden beds. Over 400 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables grown by these students was donated to the UWM Food Pantry.

Over the summer one of the valuable skills the students learned was food preservation. In order to teach them about resilient food practices, they were given a handson canning tutorial by Kate Nelson, the Director of Sustainability at UWM, and Jacob Moss, the Executive Chef at UWM. The students canned strawberry jam and learned the canning process step-by-step.

Students canning strawberry jam at Sandburg

FOOD & GARDEN

FOOD WASTE

CLIMATE ACTION-CARBON & RESILIENCE PLAN

ENGAGEMENT

Water & Stormwater

During the 2022 Spring semester, the Office of Sustainability and Prof. Jenny Kehl led a group of nine graduate students through Freshwater 783: Water Stewardship. The class was designed to offer advanced understanding and practical application of water policy, as well as professional job training in strategic planning for water conservation with local businesses and community partners. In 2022, the students used the framework of the AWS (Alliance for Water Stewardship) International Water Stewardship Standard to help a major local brewery progress in water stewardship and compliment existing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The students assisted with a comprehensive review of site and catchment-related water data as well as shared water challenges as voiced by local stakeholders. Ultimately, the students offered a series of water stewardship-related recommendations for the beverage company to consider.

Water & Storm Water Annual Summary

Student Profiles

ENGAGEMENT

Alex Thiel

Alex joined the UWM Office of Sustainability in the summer of 2019 and graduated in 2022 with a major in Conservation and Environmental Science. Alex lives by the mantra of reduce, reuse, and recycle and strives to promote these concepts as best as he can. Alex hopes to use his passion and education to spread awareness for a sustainable and clean environment. Alex dedicated three years to help run a successful Surplus program at UWM!

Morgan Shapiro

Through a paid internship in conjuction with the Department of Urban Planning, graduate student Morgan Shapiro undertook the herculean task of assessing research and curriculum at UW-Milwaukee for sustainability content. The assessment will be used in UWM’s upcoming STARS submission as well as provide a baseline of information to aid future programs centered around research and curriculum.

Allyn

Allyn completed an internship in the Office of Sustainability to close out his time at UWM. Allyn researched and built an earth tub, in-vessel composting system for the UWM hoop house. The earth tub employs an augur to speed up the composting process all within a contained vessel which provides control of odors and leachate. Allyn also spoke to the UW System Board of Regents about the importance of institutional climate action to students.

Lottouzee

Engagement Annual Summary