Before you start packing to leave campus, take a minute to power down for the winter! You'll see your energy bill drop, or maybe just UMBC's energy bill (hello tuition and tax payer dollars going down the drain). Oh and you'll help make sure air stays breathable, help UMBC's efforts to combat climate change, and protect communities from the health hazards of extraction and combustion of oil and gas.

Unplug appliances

• Computers, printers, scanners, TVs, gaming systems, space heaters, lamps, toasters, and coffeemakers are great places to start. 
• Appliances such as these consume a phantom energy load, meaning they pull energy even when not turned on or in direct use. 
• Annually 75% of electricity used to power homes is consumed when products are off1. .

Unplug and clean refrigerators and freezers

• The electricity used by larger appliances is major, and so is saving that energy for a month. If you can completely unplug, be sure no food is left inside. 
• If it’s not possible to unplug, cleaning refrigerators and freezers is still beneficial. Dust and dirt that build up on coils located under and behind the unit cause it to work harder for longer cycles. Energy consumption can be reduced 6% by removing dust from the outside of the appliance 2-3 times a year5. In addition, frost build up increases the amount of energy needed to run.

Turn off lights

• In a typical campus building 31% of energy use comes from lighting,2 making turning off lights an easy way to save both money and energy. Before walking out of the office or residence hall for break, do a quick walk through and flip the switches off! 

Lower blinds and close curtains

• Heat transfer occurs from warm to cool areas, meaning a warm house in the winter is subject to lose heat as it flows to the cooler outside temperatures. Even when all windows appear to be completely closed, heat is still lost through a building’s walls, roof, and floor. 
• About 35% of the heat produced by a building will be lost through gaps in and around windows and doors3. By closing curtains and blinds before leaving, you can decrease the amount of heat wasted from your residence hall or office building.

Turn thermostats down

• In an apartment you have direct control of your unit’s heating and cooling system and can adjust accordingly for the time you will be gone by turning your heating system down. 
• In an office setting, even if you only control your individual room or you have a limited range of control, remember every degree counts and even small efforts can cause big changes. 
• In fact, lowering the thermostat by 1 degree results in monetary savings of 3% off your bill4. Not only will this save you money, it’s environmentally-friendly because fewer resources will be used for heating an unoccupied building.

These small actions are habits you can choose every time you leave a building, but are especially important before leaving for an extended amount of time. Make this holiday break more sustainable and give a gift to the entire global community by powering down your residence hall, apartment, or office building before leaving campus!

Sustainability Matters at UMBC inducted 14 campus offices into the Green Offices program at the semiannual Green Office Training Luncheon and Certificate Reception, held on November 3. The Offices of the President and Provost, and a dozen others, joined 13 UMBC offices that qualified for the special designation in 2015 by committing to implement at least 20 items on a Sustainability Matters checklist. Green Offices upgrades include using task lighting, setting printers to automatically print double-sided, and lowering blinds during hot weather—small changes that, when combined, significantly decrease energy and other resource consumption.

President Freeman Hrabowski signed the American Colleges and Universities Presidents’ Climate Commitment in 2007, which committed UMBC to devising a climate action plan to achieve carbon neutrality. Since then, UMBC has been working to reduce the campus’ carbon footprint. For example, facilities management has updated heating and cooling systems and campus lighting. Other sustainable initiatives to date include a major renovation of the central Library Pond. Long regarded as a beautiful space for students to gather and relax, it is now also a state-of-the-art stormwater management system. Facilities staff have installed rain gardens and no-mow zones around campus, and green roofs now adorn four campus buildings.

Since President Hrabowski signed the climate commitment, UMBC has achieved a 15.5 percent reduction in carbon emissions, despite an 18 percent growth in campus population and seven percent increase in square footage of campus buildings. But even with such a positive trajectory, by 2013 it became clear to UMBC’s Climate Action Steering Committee that something important was missing. By then, says Tanvi Gadhia, UMBC sustainability coordinator, “We were looking for a way to more actively engage the UMBC community in green initiatives, to work together toward these shared goals.”

The Green Offices Program is one way that Gadhia helps faculty and staff cultivate “a visible culture of sustainability on campus.” She explains, “A lot of people wanted to be more sustainable, but didn’t feel empowered to take action,” so the program provides a scaffold upon which an office can build its own green efforts. Once an office joins the Green Offices program, it can receive signage, stickers, and recycling bins to support the implementation of its commitment.

The Green Office Program is one outcome of the Climate Action Steering Committee, created in 2007 concurrent with President Hrabowski signing the climate commitment. The steering committee oversees numerous sustainability efforts through work groups focused on energy, transportation, research and education, and waste reduction and recycling.

Student advocacy also plays a major role in campus conversation and action around climate change and sustainability. Each semester around a dozen undergraduates work as eco ambassadors to spread the message of sustainability across campus through peer education and outreach, and several student groups have a sustainability focus. One group collects markets’ surplus food that would otherwise be wasted and converts it into healthy, delicious meals for homeless people in Baltimore City. Another organizes a weekly campus clean-up.

“Sustainability has become a larger part of our identity and our culture at UMBC,” says Gadhia. “Sustainability is not a side project. It’s something we need to integrate into everything we do.”

A list of departments participating in the Green Office Program is available on UMBC’s Sustainability Matters website. To learn more about how to certify your office as a Green Office, or if you are interested in conducting research to quantify the effects of the program, contactsustainability@umbc.edu.

Image: UMBC’s recently-renovated Library Pond serves as a beautiful campus centerpiece, wildlife habitat, place for reflection, and state-of-the-art stormwater management system. Photo by Tanvi Gadhia.

• $5000 stipend

• Global Studies
• Archaeology
• Marine Biotechnology
• Physics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Biological Sciences/ Biochemistry & Molecular Biology/ Bioinformatics
• Geography and Environmental Science
• Robotics and modeling
• Film and Photography
• Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
• History
• Terrestrial and Marine mapping
• Wildlife and Environmental Conservation and more....

• Tomorrow, 12/16/2016 Student Workforce will be coming by to move furniture out of the Collaboration Room space.  We will be temporarily storing the furniture in different locations throughout the Sherman Hall East, 4th floor.
• Monday, 12/19/2016 work will commence to erect 3 offices from the Collaboration space.