Strategic Energy Plan

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Executive Summary

Act 1494 of the 87th General Assembly Regular Session – 2009, promotes the conservation of energy and natural resources in buildings owned by public agencies and institutions of higher education with primary goals to reduce total energy consumption by 20% by 2014 and 30% by 2017 when compared to Fiscal Year 2010 (July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010). Under its own governance, each institution of higher education shall develop and administer policies, procedures, and methods for compliance with the criteria, performance standards, and goals as detailed in Act 1494. The specific strategies and efforts by each higher education institution to achieve these goals should be documented in a Strategic Energy Plan (StEP). This StEP is hereby submitted on behalf of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UA Little Rock), an institution of higher education, to document its compliance with the requirements of Act 1494.

The UA Little Rock campus, located in Little Rock, Arkansas, is an institution of higher education consisting of approximately 49 individual buildings totaling approximately 2,675,033 square feet of gross floor area. UA Little Rock has a new Department of Art & Design Building planned to be completed in spring 2018.

With energy efficiency and sustainability as a focus for campus operations, utility and energy data is collected each month for the entire campus for performance monitoring. Based on this monitored information, energy use on square foot basis (i.e., Energy Use Index or EUI) for Fiscal Year 2008 was determined to be 118.4 kBtu/SF for the entire UA Little Rock campus. The current EUI for Fiscal year 2016 is 75.25 kBtu/SF for the entire UA Little Rock campus.

UA Little Rock’s commitment to sustainability and energy efficiency has resulted in energy and cost reductions over the past several years. When compared to Fiscal Year 2008 baseline energy use, UA Little Rock has reduced its EUI campus-wide by 36.4% based on utility data through Fiscal Year 2016.

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Goals & Strategies

UA Little Rock is committed to energy conservation for both its new and existing facilities, and this commitment is demonstrated by the historical reduction of key performance indicators as detailed in the previous section (36.4% reduction from the Baseline to date). While the energy conservation efforts completed thus far have been successful, UA Little Rock is committed to continuing with its conservation efforts as the campus expands and to sustain energy reductions into the future.

Act 1494 Performance Goals

  • Reduce total energy use per gross square foot by twenty percent (20%) by the end of Fiscal Year 2014 (June 30, 2014).
  • Reduce total energy use per gross square foot by thirty percent (30%) by the end of Fiscal Year 2017 (June 30, 2017).

Sustainability Statement

UA Little Rock promotes healthy environments, economies, and societies. The university is committed to being a model of responsible stewardship of the physical resources of the campus. Sustainable practices play a key part in working towards this goal.

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Conclusion

UA Little Rock has already initiated the steps towards sustainable and energy efficient operations on its campus through the use of energy efficient design and sustainable practices. Act 1494 reinforces the awareness and importance of these principles and establishes aggressive but achievable goals.

The projects identified thus far for the UA Little Rock campus have achieved the 30% energy reduction. By June 2016, UA Little Rock’s campus EUI is to be 75.25 kBtu/SF. However, UA Little Rock continues to investigate and evaluate future projects that will reduce energy consumption on campus and surpass the energy reduction goals as detailed in Act 1494.

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