Operations

Alternative Fuels Vehicles for On-Campus Use

• Biodiesel: In October 2006, the University switched all diesel powered vehicles, including snowplows, to biodiesel. These vehicles are fueled with B20 biodiesel blend, 20% by volume biodiesel and 80% by volume petrodiesel.
• Electric Vehicles: Colorado State uses electric vehicles where possible. Currently, Facilities Management, as well as Central Receiving, Athletics Department, and Parking Services use these vehicles.
• Hybrid Electric Vehicles: The University has two hybrid electric vehicles from Toyota and Honda. One of these vehicles is used as the departmental vehicle for Facilities and the other will offered for campus use through motor pool.

Alternative Transportation Options

• Bus service: The University’s student government, ASCSU, partners with the City of Fort Collins to provide bus service to the campus community. All CSU students receive a pass to ride the Transfort bus system at no cost per ride.
• Pedestrian Friendly Campus: The University Master Plan continues to move toward a more pedestrian friendly campus by moving parking closer to the edges of campus and encouraging walking and bicycling.

Aspen Grill

This award winning, student-operated campus eatery and academic program supports the sustainable agriculture movement by purchasing locally produced meats, cheeses, and produce.

Biomass Boiler at Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology Laboratory

The future groundbreaking of the Foothills Campus biomass boiler is another step toward utilizing a readily available local, renewable resource. The fuel cost will be approximately one-half the cost of natural gas. The project also means a partnership with the Colorado State Forest Service, as part of the Healthy Forest Initiative. Woodchips will come from fire mitigation projects and benefit the forest all along the Front Range, especially at a time of pine beetle infestation.

City of Fort Collins ClimateWise Partner

Colorado State joined other area businesses in 2003 in the City of Fort Collins ClimateWise program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the quality of life of Fort Collins. As a ClimateWise Partner, Colorado State uses a greenhouse gas calculator, with multipliers specific to Larimer County, to report yearly greenhouse gas emissions. Efficient energy use reduces Colorado State's total energy demand, decreases harmful emissions, and minimizes the cost of providing energy to the campus.

Energy Savings

The energy conservation measures CSU has taken in the last five years are saving the University more than $600k per year in utility costs, mostly electric and water costs. As a result of energy conservation initiatives that have been implemented over the past 20 years, the average demand per square foot on campus has actually flattened out in terms of gas usage, and water use has declined.

Landscaping and Grounds:

• Native Plants: Plants whose natural requirements are appropriate to the local environment are emphasized in CSU landscaping. The Colorado Canyon, located in between the Engineering Buildings and the north end of the Lory Student Center, is an example of landscaping with water conservation in mind.
• Recycled Mulch: CSU tree prunings are chipped and then recycled into mulch. In an average year, this produces approximately 2,000 cubic yards of mulch.
• Outdoor Pest Control: Wherever possible, the preferred method for use on the CSU campus is biological controls or natural substances for controlling pests, plant diseases, and weeds on campus.

Ram Recycling

The Ram Recycle program recycles nearly 2 million pounds of recyclable material every year. In FY07, Colorado State landfilled 44.9% of all waste, meaning more than 55% was recycled. One notable impact on the recycling rate was the placement of recycling bins in Summit Hall that promoted an 8% increase in recycling for that residence hall. There is a three-stream recycle collection process for cardboard, commingled containers, and mixed paper on campus. An alkaline battery recycling program is also available. In 2008, there is a new recycling truck to minimize collection time and hold more material, meaning fewer trips to the recycling center. Like the rest of Facilities diesel vehicles, it will run on biodiesel.

Renewable Energy

In 2004, Colorado State became one of the first universities in the nation to offer on-campus residents the option to purchase "green" power. More than 700 students have signed up for this option in the past three years. Based on national average emissions rates, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that Colorado State’s purchases of 547,00 kWh is equivalent to keeping more than 760,000 pounds of CO2 from entering the Earth’s atmosphere over the next year. That amount is equivalent to eliminating CO2 emissions associated with the use of nearly 40,000 gallons of gasoline annually. In 2007, Housing and Dining Services purchased additional wind power to cover the common areas in the Residence Halls adding more than 3 million kWh of green power.

Surplus Property

Surplus Property at CSU handles, disposes, and redistributes all property that the University no longer needs. The main objective is to provide an opportunity for the reallocation of still-usable items from one area of the University to other areas that have a need for them. In addition, items no longer needed by the University are offered to the public through weekly walk-in sales, quarterly public auctions, or recycling of items that no longer have a market value. This both maximizes the value of taxpayer investment in university property and helps prevent these items winding up in the landfill.

Tree Nursery

CSU’s Forest Service tree nursery produces 2 million seedling trees each year, most grown outdoors, and more than 50 species of native and non-native plants—helping to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and increase the supply of renewable forest resources.

Trial Gardens

Colorado State University's trial grounds, just west of the University Center for the Arts, were established to evaluate the performance of annual flower cultivars under Colorado’s unique environmental conditions. The trial garden consists of 1,117 varieties of annual bedding plants. While the gardens enhance the beauty of the campus and community, University and industry associates use them to evaluate the performance of these cultivars on the basis of plant vigor, uniformity, floriferousness, and tolerance to environmental and biotic stresses.

Vending Machines

The University retrofitted refrigerated vending machines containing non-perishable food items with energy-saving controllers in 2006. These vending machines previously ran constantly to keep refrigerated drinks cold, costing Colorado State at least $24,000/yr. The controllers, called VendingMisers, use an infrared occupancy sensor to turn off the fluorescent lights and compressor when the surrounding area is unoccupied for fifteen minutes or longer, saving the University over $4,300/yr and decreasing CO2 emissions by more than 115 tons/yr. More than half of the cost of this project was covered by rebates provided by the City of Fort Collins.

Water Conservation

The University is committed to conserving water and has been actively researching state-of-the-art ways to accomplish this goal. Since 1990, potable water use has decreased over 22% (108 million gallons), despite a student population increase of 25% and building square footage increase of 19%.

Examples of water-reduction measures:

• Autoclaves: Autoclaves are devices that use steam to sterilize equipment in campus laboratories. To reduce the amount of water used by its autoclaves, Colorado State installed 42 water-saver kits, which monitor the temperature of the drain line and only inject cold water when needed. These devices are anticipated to save the University more than $59,000 and conserve more than 15 million gallons of water per year.
• Irrigation: Approximately 95% of Colorado State University's irrigation water is raw water, rather than water treated to human drinking standards. The annual cost avoidance by not using treated tap water is about $250,000. A computerized irrigation control system allows sprinkler schedules to be set from a centralized location , which helps prevent over-watering and thus, conserves water.
• Refrigeration Equipment: In many of the housing units on campus, the refrigeration equipment used for walk-in coolers in the kitchen was cooled with tap water that was then sent down the drain. Many of these systems were converted to air-cooled compressors and have saved the University over 17.5 million gallons of water and $62,000 each year.

Wetlands for Bioremediation

The Colorado State University Wetlands Project serves a number of purposes related to water bioremediation and conservation. The first wetlands serves the University Greenhouses on the main campus, which discharge between 0 and 1,000 gallons of wastewater each day. The Greenhouses include 27,000 square feet of new growing area for research, and excess irrigation water runs into a series of floor drains and is discharged east of the facility. The wastewater is runoff from greenhouse operations and contains chemical fertilizers and synthetic compounds, such as fungicides. The Wetlands Project serves to keep the wastewater from leaving the site; cleans up the wastewater; and provides a learning tool and demonstration site for students and faculty on both the remediation of wastewater from a commercial use and the use of the reclaimed water in a water-conserving landscape. The remediation of the irrigation wastewater is being accomplished by a series of biological treatments constructed on an 11,000 square foot site immediately east of the Greenhouse. The three stages of the remediation include an 800 square foot bog, 1,000 square foot pond with a re-circulating water feature and a bioretention trench. Water that has been "cleaned" through the bog and pond treatments is applied via a drip irrigation system to a water conservation demonstration garden. A one-quarter acre bioremediation wetlands is also located at the Equine Center on the Foothills Campus — the second of three planned wetlands that function as filters for the pollutants from storm and waste water at CSU campus facilities.

Wind Energy/Wind Farm

The Colorado State University Research Foundation signed an agreement with Wind Holdings, LLC to develop a minimum of 25 wind turbines with the potential of 200 megawatts on the University's 11,000-acre Maxwell Ranch near the Wyoming border. Currently, at peak demand, Colorado State uses about 16 megawatts of power. The power generated could produce an additional $30 million in revenue for the University over the twenty-five year life of the project.