Drawdown UGA
Clean Energy and Climate Solutions at the University of Georgia
UGA's Climate Solutions Story
The University of Georgia has made steady progress in reducing carbon emissions since measurements began in 2010, with total emissions reductions from a 2010 baseline of 48%. This webpage is dedicated to introducing the history of UGA's efforts to track greenhouse gases, and deploy solutions that reduce emissions and help meet institutional, local, state, and national goals.
Carbon emissions measurements are best understood when categorized based on their source and an institution's level of control over them. The chart above is divided into THREE SCOPES. Below is a brief summary of each scope and how they have changed over the last decade plus. (source: UGA Emissions Tracking for Dashboard - MASTER)
Scope 1 emissions are those owned or controlled directly by UGA and consists primarily of our fuel use for heating and cooling (BTUs of natural gas used in our steam plant) and fuel used by our vehicle fleet and our transit vehicles (buses). Two additional Scope 1 categories include refrigerants and agricultural areas. Scope 1 emissions have declined 10% since 2010. Scope 1 are the emissions that UGA has the most control in addressing.
GA Powers energy portfolio for 2022 (Scope 2) The biggest change over the last decade is a transition from Coal to Natural Gas. In 2015 Coal was 34%, Gas was 39% and the only renewable source was hydro which was at 2%. Georgia Power continues to advance low carbon energy sources. For examples, as of 2024, the state of Georgia was ranked #7 out of the 50 states in total amount of solar deployment. Other utlitiy providers such as Georgia's Electric Membership Cooperatives, and Cherry Street Energy are also contributors to Utility Solar installation.
Scope 2 emissions come from the electricity that UGA purchases from Georgia Power, our sole electricity provider at the Athens campus. This is the largest portion of UGA's emissions. Scope 2 emissions have declined more than any other category, roughly 35%, primarily due to changes in GA Power's energy portfolio (see chart and caption at right).
Scope 3 emissions come from UGA's value chain and represent the embedded emissions in purchasing goods and services, commuting, waste disposal and other efforts required to operate the University. These emissions are not produced by UGA directly but are caused indirectly by our activities.
For a more detailed summary of UGA's carbon emissions, the Office of Sustainability maintains a comprehensive inventory and Beta Dashboard at the Link below. The office offers a course module on emissions tracking that is available to be taught to UGA classes.
UGA Clean Energy and Climate Solutions Program
From L to R: Sarah Evans completed the first assessment of UGA's Green Zone, an area of campus that transitioned all landscaping equipment from gas to electric, Margaret Xiao analyzed savings to our EV bus fleet under a non-peak managed charging scenario, Katie Gilk performs our emissions tracking with strategies for improvement in GIS and QLIK dashboards, Mackenzie Kennelly is developing a Green Building education program.
In May 2023, the Office of Sustainability launched the UGA Clean Energy and Climate Solutions Program, introducing new internship positions to advance three key initiatives: (1) Electrifying UGA's vehicle fleet (E-mobility), (2) Climate and Emissions Tracking (using GIS & Metrics), and (3) Green Buildgings and Solar Technology. Highlights of these activities are outlined in the Climate Solutions sections and achievements below. A dedicated webpage showcasing UGA's progress in each focus area is set to launch in 2025.
GA's 20 Drawdown Solutions
Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, published in 2017 has had a significant impact on the discourse surrounding climate solutions, in particular it's comprehensive solutions framework, and its proactive positive vision of what can be achieved through collective action.
Emissions reductions can be achieved by understanding Georgia's top 20 high impact climate solutions, originally outlined in Paul Hawken's breakthrough book Drawdown and adapted and prioritized to Georgia's needs in the Drawdown Georgia Project.
The Georgia Drawdown project aspires to accelerate progress towards Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions across the state with interim targets set for 2030. The strategy is summarized into 5 Solution Categories: (1) Transportation, (2) Electricity, (3) Food and Agriculture, (4) Buildings and Materials, and (5) Land Sinks. Each category has identified a handful of the 20 highest impact individual solutions that have the highest potential of reaching a 2030 goal of drawing down statewide emissions by 89 megatons.
The following are examples of the University of Georgia's initiatives to contribute to Georgia's Climate Solution success stories.
#1 Transportation
Innovations in Transportation are a showcase of UGA's achievements in Drawdown Solutions and are highly visible to everyone on campus. In the years ahead, UGA plans to build on those transportation successes, serving as a leader and model to other higher education institutions across the state.
ELECTRIC BUSES
In April of 2019 UGA was awarded a grant from the Georgia State Road and Tollway Authority (GSRT) in the amount $10 million dollars (7.5 million match) for the purchase of 20 electric buses. A $1 million dollar charging facility was also built, with 12 chargers and a capacity of 48 buses with potential to expand.
In 2021 the Federal Transit Administration’s Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Program awarded an additional $7.46 million (with matching funds from UGA) to purchase 13 more electric buses bringing the fleet size up to 33 of about 90 buses (36% of the entire bus fleet).
Among the reasons these grants were awarded is because 40,000 students ride UGA buses everyday. Student's experience with quiet, smooth and clean buses builds lifelong public transit users. UGA also offers unique research and teaching opportunities across the transit industry, combining field assets with data to guide future innovations, such as exploring solar canopies to offset the buses energy use, and inductive charging (wireless charging).
The only drawback in electric buses is the upfront cost of $822,000 which is 2x as much as a diesel bus. However, life expectancy of electric buses is about 30 years, 2x as long as a diesel bus.
UGA currently has the largest Electric Bus fleet, 33 total, of any higher education institution in the U.S. (as of April 2023). UGA has become a leader in the industry in electric buses.
BENEFITS
Each electric bus cuts operational costs from $100 for a diesel bus (primarily in fuel costs) to just $5 a day for an electric bus. This reduces net greenhouse gas emissions for each diesel bus replaced by an electric bus by 70% or roughly 5 metric tons per day. "5 and 5" $5 a day to save 5 metric tons of CO2!
From April 2022 through April 2023, UGA’s electric buses have:
- Saved/offset approximately 300,000 gallons of diesel fuel
- Avoided 2,700 tons of C02 emissions
- Travelled nearly 1,000,000 miles
The e-buses have also been a great project for engaging students, with at least 4 capstone projects and 2 national science foundation grant collaborations so far.
Bus batteries can also serve as mobile generators if power is lost to dining halls or other essential functions on campus.
NEXT STEPS
Campus transit has committed to e-mobility 100% as it looks to the future. “We don’t intend to ever buy another diesel bus,” said Don Walter, the former director of transportation and parking, April 20, 2020. 1
ELECTRIC FLEET VEHICLES
The Facilities Management Division recently purchased two fully electric Kia Niros — the first all-electric cars in the University’s fleet—as a way to accelerate efforts to reduce carbon emissions. The electric vehicles replace two conventional gas powered vehicles and will be used as departmental pool vehicles to conduct business on campus and within the community. These vehicles are part of an on-going effort to add electric vehicles to FMD fleet and serve as inspiration for other departments to consider adding electric vehicles to their fleets. To spark university wide excitement for the EVs, all electric vehicles are wrapped in a distinctive design. The Automotive Center partnered with the Division of Marketing and Communications to develop a design that clearly and effectively communicates FMD’s commitment to sustainability.
ELECTRIC LOW SPEED VEHICLES (LSVs) and Electric Grounds Equipment
Additionally, FMD has purchased eleven fully electric, low speed vehicles to be used by O&M zone shops and the Grounds Department “Green Zone" pilot program. With their smaller footprint, these vehicles will be ideal for quietly navigating campus.
A "Green Zone" vehicle was recently fitted with a solar canopy, turning it into a Mobile Solar Charging Station thanks to the contributions of an Engineering Capstone class taught by Dr. Peter Kner . The Green Zone is the first area on UGA's campus which uses only electric grounds equipment (mowers, blowers, and trimmers). Student's design of a solar canopy, with support from UGA Facilities metal fabrication shop, now allows for field charging of batteries, reducing the overall cost of additional batteries, and time required to pick up charged batteries from the Grounds main office.
ELECTRIC BIKE SHARE
In November of 2022 UGA's Transportation and Parking Services relaunched it's Bulldog Bike Share Program (on brief hiatus during COVID), with 120 electric bikes offering an easy way to travel around campus while avoiding traffic and reducing emissions from single-occupancy cars.
While on the UGA Athens campus you can access Bulldog Bikes by downloading the SPIN app , then use the map to identify a bike nearest to your location.
To get you started scan the QR code to enjoy $5 towards your first ride! For more information visit UGA's Bulldog Bike Share Program website.
#2 Electricity
The University of Georgia is Georgia Power's largest customer in northeast Georgia purchasing 308,207,301 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in FY22. A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is a measure of electrical energy equal to one kilowatt, or 1,000 watts, of power over a one hour period. Large #'s of kWh can be converted to megawatt-hour (UGA purchased 308,207 MWh) and gigawatt hour (308 GWh).
With 476 buildings occupying 22,809,181 square feet over 800 acres on the Athens main campus (including Health Science Campus), UGA's use of electricity for HVAC systems, lighting, computing, and refrigeration is a principle focus area for climate solutions.
UGA / GA Power 1MW Solar Array
In 2015 UGA and Georgia Power partnered in the installation of a 1MW Solar System on an 8-acre underutilized agricultural field next to the UGA Club Sports Complex on South Milledge Avenue. Construction was completed in 2016, making this one of Georgia Power's earliest solar array systems.
Today the UGA Solar System is #14 of 15 total Georgia Power systems in it's scale of energy production. Two of Georgia's Air Force Bases and the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany are the three largest solar systems operated by Georgia Power.
What the UGA system lacks in size, it makes up for in the uniqueness of it's configuration. The system consists of 5 unique arrays, each designed to test a different approach to solar energy collection.
The 5 Unique Arrays and their purposes are:
- A - Dual Axis Tracker - collects energy from N-S (axis 1) as well as E-W angles (axis 2).
- B - Southwest Facing Fixed - while South angle catches the most sun (peak production) a Southwest angle may best coincide with peak usage (ie. peak rates/price per kWh)
- C&D - South Facing Fixed - generally captures about 8% more energy than SW.
- E - Single Axis Tracker - moves East to West. Less expensive and typically more reliable than dual axis.
- F - An EPRI battery backup array - use of battery storage to avoid solar inverter clipping (when solar power is greater than the DC/AC inverter can handle)
DEMAND RESPONSE
The Problem
During periods of peak energy demand (typically 4-8pm on a summer weekday), GA Power must maximize electricity production (above baseload) by using less efficient, more carbon-intensive methods such as gas and coal fire plants. When peak demand goes up, the “real time price” (RTP) of electricity also goes up. In June of 2022, the RTP increased by 40x the annual average background price. This is an effective signal for those customers who have the ability to cut back electricity consumption to do so.
The Solution
UGA’s Facilities Management has implemented its own Demand Response strategy, meaning we adjust and shift our energy use during peak hours to reduce the strain on the electric grid. When energy demand (and prices) peak, we are able to remotely set-back thermostats around campus (see blue "automation" actions in diagram), lowering our overall energy consumption and energy grid demands.
Benefits and Next Steps
Energy savings from demand response in June of 2022 was approximately 35,833 kWh, with similar values the remaining months of the summer. However, due to the limited amount of total space currently able to be adjusted via automation, potential savings are very large, with the expansion of ALC to other UGA buildings.
#3 Food and Agriculture
The University is Georgia is quite fortunate that our Dining Services has always been provided by an "in-house" unit under our Auxiliary Services. This fact coupled with UGA's designation as the largest "land grant" college focused on agriculture research, and home to Georgia's extension service and UGA has a long history of combining sustainable dining with sustainable agriculture.
COMPOSTING
UGA has a long history of composting. All 5 of UGA's Dining Halls compost (Bolton, East Campus Village, Oglethorpe House, Snelling, The Niche).
295 tons of food scraps were composted from UGA dining halls in 2022, diverting 454 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.
Intern Led Compost Program
UGA interns with the Office of Sustainability also run a Campus Compost Program that picks up compost from academic and residential buildings. To further inspire others to consider adopting more sustainable lifestyles, these interns pick up the compost from these 120 bins and 70 locations using an Electric E-Trike.
Interns pick up almost 5 tons of compost from around campus annually.
UGArden
UGArden, established in 2010 is a student-run farm focused on teaching student's organic practices through experiential learning.
UGArden has produced 120,000 lbs of fresh produce, almost all of which is shared with members of the Athens community who are facing food insecurity.
Conservation Agriculture at UGArden
Drawdown identifies the essential components of conservation agriculture as biosequestration of carbon via diversified crop rotations, semi-permanent soil cover (using cover crops) and minimal soil disturbance (no-till or reduced tillage).
Conservation agriculture practices across UGArden's 9 acres can sequester 1.38 metric tons of CO2 (based on a meta-analysis of 14 data points from 7 sources. 3
#4 Buildings and Materials
RETROFITTING
UGA buildings use electricity and natural gas for heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC), water heating, lighting, and to power appliances and electronic devices. Up to 40% of all carbon emissions comes from the built environment.
The retrofitting of existing buildings to make them more efficient has tremendous potential to accelerate progress in carbon emissions reductions.
UGA has completed three retrofitted LEED Certified buildings:
- Tate Expansion (Gold)
- Georgia Museum of Art Addition (Gold)
- Jackson Street Building (Gold)
UGA also has 3 new buildings that meet LEED certification standards.
- College of Pharmacy South Addition (Silver)
- Special Collections Library (Gold)
- Residence Hall Building 1516 (Gold)
#5 Land Sinks
As one of Georgia's largest land grant colleges, UGA owns and manages hundreds of acres of forest and pasture. The amount of carbon sequestered through these land sinks will be examined and quantified in future revisions of this document.
