Deans, Directors, Department Chairs, and Administrative Officers
Dear Colleagues,
In November 2013, University of California President Janet Napolitano launched the initiative to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025 for all campuses in the UC System, building on UC’s commitment to leadership in sustainability. The initiative includes four main efforts that will enable UCLA and all UC campuses to achieve carbon neutrality: wholesale electricity, campus energy efficiency, renewable energy, natural gas and biogas procurement, and management of environmental attributes.
UCLA has a long history of energy efficiency programs led by Facilities Management. To take these programs to the next level and address unique laboratory requirements, UCLA assembled a team of specialists with backgrounds in laboratory safety, industrial hygiene, engineering and project management to run the Deep Energy Efficiency Program. The team is made up of experts from our Research, Facilities Management and Environment, Health & Safety (EH&S) departments.
The Deep Energy Efficiency Program will assess the energy usage in almost all the buildings on campus. As it currently stands, many building energy systems are running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week regardless of whether the building is occupied or not. The goal of our Deep Energy Efficiency Program is to reduce energy usage in buildings through the use of modernized “smart” building management systems.
To assist in this process EH&S will gather data using an industrial hygiene-based building assessment process. The Deep Energy Efficiency Program will evaluate almost everyone’s workspace on campus. The focus of the program is to identify how and where energy usage could be reduced without compromising your safety and research programs. You will be contacted by the dedicated Deep Energy team to schedule a time when we can visit your laboratories or classroom spaces to conduct a thorough assessment of each area.
Our goal is to provide you with ongoing communication as we proceed with this project. To access more information on the project, please visit the Deep Energy Efficiency Program webpage at https://ehs.ucla.edu/deep-energy-efficiency-program.
For more information about the UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative and UCLA’s efforts visit http://sustain.ucla.edu/our-initiatives/climate-and-energy. If you are interested in taking a leadership role in sustainability in your department or laboratory please contact sustainability@ucla.edu.
Sincerely,
