56 Business View - January 2016
fort; we migrated to more efficient water using facili-
ties on all new construction and any replacements.
This helped us reduce the amount of energy used to
deliver the water to the point of consumption.”
Indeed, as Grand Valley grows, its energy use actually
shrinks. And so do the bills. By the end of 2015, the
University will have avoided energy costs of a conser-
vative $2.2 million annually through the use of ener-
gy-efficient practices and procedures. It continues to
save $2 million a year with ongoing projects, such as
switching light bulbs to LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes),
and another $1.5 million that it saves annually through
other projects that Jakobcic calls, “one-time saving
programs,” like its semi-annual energy competition.
These savings are substantial considering the utility
bills average $6.5 million per year over the past fifteen
years. Credit should be given to Facilities Services for
implementing these successful programs.
A large chunk of Grand Valley’s energy savings comes
from the school’s building practices which have helped
it achieve an impressive portfolio of LEED (Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design) certifications
from the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED buildings
use 30 percent less energy, 40 percent less water, and
generate 75 percent less waste material than regular
buildings. “We probably rank as one of the highest in
the nation in the number of campus LEED buildings,”
Christopher says. “We have 20 LEED certified buildings
of various types. We have one Platinum – the library
(in 2014, the Mary Idema Pew Library was awarded
LEED Platinum status); we have two Gold, and most
are Silver, but the key is, we build to nothing lower than
a LEED Silver for all of our buildings on campus. That
means the buildings are commissioned and certified
and we can track their performance. Not every col-
lege and university spends monies to do that.” LEED
buildings comprise 1,391,128 million square feet of
GVSU’s 5,565,571 million total square feet of built fa-
CLEAN & GREEN
