Students Win Award for Cutting
Campus Use of Water, Energy and Paper
June 18, 2009
By Christine Clark
Green campus interns (from left) Michelle Kizner, Erika Kociolek, Jessica Wall and June Reyes.
University of California, San Diego students will accept a Best Practice Award on June 22 at a conference devoted to sustainable practices in recognition of the students’ successes in developing energy-efficiency projects that helped UC San Diego reduce its consumption of paper, water and electrical power.
The annual Best Practice Awards highlight successful and cost-effective projects on University of California, Cal State Universities and community college campuses that implement green building technologies, sustainable design strategies, and energy-efficient operations. Student interns for UC San Diego’s Green Campus Program will accept the award at the UC/CSU/CCC conference held June 21-24 in Santa Barbara.
At the conference, June 2009 graduates Jessica Wall and Erika Kociolek, senior Kate Ziemba and junior Susan Kram will showcase their award-winning projects, which are considered models for any campus in achieving its sustainability goals.
“I’m thrilled that the Green Campus Program is being recognized for all of the programs we’ve developed and implemented over the past year,” said Kociolek. “We are so pleased that this award recognizes our campus faculty and staff who have partnered with Green Campus to further sustainability efforts at UC San Diego.”
The Green Campus projects identified various ways in which students, staff and faculty can save energy, water, and resources. For example, the “Coversheet Opt-Out” program was a campaign to give students the choice to eliminate cover sheets from print jobs. As a result, more than 2,000 students eliminated 149,849 cover sheets since March 2009.
Sarah Termondt (left) and Erika Kociolek at the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo which took place in Boston, Nov. 19-21.
Green Campus also involved 45 participants in 11 of UC San Diego’s labs in a challenge to reduce their energy consumption for the “Shut the Sash” fume hood energy saving competition. The campaign educated researchers to close the sashes on fume hoods when not in use to reduce their energy consumption and improve air quality. On average there was a 27 percent reduction in sash heights over a five-week period.
Green Campus also performed energy assessments at three UC San Diego dining facilities. Through the assessment, Green Campus identified 149,112 kilowatt-hours in annual energy savings and saved 91,980 gallons of water annually. In addition, the energy assessments helped two of the dining facilities participate in the County of the San Diego’s Green Business Program, which encourages "green" practices among businesses in the region.
Kociolek is one of a handful of staff and students at UC San Diego who is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accredited professional, and she also has led several of the campus’s sustainability efforts. The international studies major gave a student presentation at the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo last year in Boston, one of the biggest green building conferences in the world.
At the UC/CSU/CCC conference Kociolek will participate in a panel discussion with Dave Weil, director of building commissioning and sustainability at UC San Diego, to discus how students played an integral role in the LEED certification of the Campus Services Complex.
Kociolek minored in environmental studies and will begin the Master of Environmental Management program at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University in the fall. She plans to work in the green job sector after she graduates. “I think it is a really exciting field and it’s changing rapidly every day,” she said. “I’m excited to do work that I feel will have an impact for generations to come.”
Media Contact: Christine Clark, 858-534-7618 or ceclark@ucsd.edu
