Making buildings greener — more energy- and water-efficient and less wasteful — saves lots of money along with making them better places to work, say experts.

Toward this goal, the UC Davis Sustainability Summit on April 22 highlighted where and how the UC system and campus are achieving energy savings. About 60 faculty and staff attended the workshop at the Activities and Recreation Center, where speakers from the private sector, UC Office of the President and campus provided updates on various initiatives.

Keynote speaker Craig Sheehy, director of property management for Thomas Properties Group, described his company's successes in "greening" the 950,000-square-foot California EPA headquarters in Sacramento. Completed in 2000, this building is an example of how environmental measures can actually save money, he said.

"From downtown Sacramento averages, we're saving $1 per square foot on our operating expenses," said Sheehy. "That's a million dollars a year."

In real estate terms, he said, such a savings adds $10 million to the building's value. "It's about changing the way we operate," he noted. "There's also the happiness factor — people like working in these types of buildings."

He explained those savings come in both expected ways — more efficient lighting, recycling, trash compactors, for example — and innovative ones, such as having the janitorial staff clean during the day using silent vacuums. That change saves about $100,000 in electrical costs by reducing lighting requirements at night.

"Ninety-nine percent of businesses won't take these measures unless it is good business, too," Sheehy said. "Green buildings are a freight train moving quickly. Jump on it now, or you'll miss an opportunity. The payback is so quick that it's nutty not to do it."

Matt St. Clair, the sustainability specialist for the UC Office of the President, highlighted the numerous energy-saving projects at the UC system and campus levels. Sustainability committees and projects are underway on nearly all the UC campuses — especially at UC Davis.

"This campus has one of the top — maybe the best — waste reduction and recycling programs in the UC system," he said.

For example, students from the R4 Recycling Program were headed to San Francisco this week to accept the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2005 Environmental Achievement Award for their Zero Waste program.

On top of this, St. Clair said, UC Davis voluntarily established its own green building policy one year before the UC system enacted a similar policy in 2003. Known as the "Green Building Policy and Clean Energy Standard," this systemwide policy calls for the use of everything from recycled building materials to water conservation principles to reliance on renewable energy sources, such as solar panels.

The policy also requires that all new building and building-renovation plans submitted after the start of the 2004-05 fiscal year meet defined energy efficiency and green-building standards.

To this end, the UC is beginning to leverage its buying power. For example, it recently lobbied manufacturers of laboratory-grade refrigerators and freezers to build more efficient units — the UC buys a lot of these refrigerators. UC also obtained funding to test more energy-efficient fume hood technology for possible use in UC laboratories.

"The UC system spends about $2 billion a year on products and services," said St. Clair. "We should use this purchasing power to bring more energy efficient products to the marketplace."

Elsewhere in the system, he added, graduate students completed a solar site assessment for the Berkeley campus, identifying priority buildings for solar projects and analyzing possible financing approaches.

St. Clair pointed out that the fourth annual UC Sustainability Conference will be held June 20-21 at UC Santa Cruz. More information is available at http://www.ucscsec.org/blueprint_and_summit/summit05invite.html.

On campus, Jill Blackwelder, associate vice chancellor of safety services, spoke about the new Sustainability Advisory Committee, which recently held its first meeting and agreed to develop five subcommittees to tackle a variety of issues.

"We are ratcheting up our campus sustainability efforts to the next level," Blackwelder said.

Stan Nosek, vice chancellor of administration, talked about leaving behind a cleaner planet for the generations to come. "We are thinking about the future," Nosek said. "The decisions we make today creates a legacy for tomorrow."

Sponsoring the summit were the UC-wide California Student Sustainability Coalition and Environmental Policy and Planning Commission, or CSSC. The coalition is hosting a lecture series for spring quarter on sustainability. Scheduled for Tuesdays in 216 Wellman from 5:10 p.m. to 7 p.m., the talks will expose students to alternative ways of living for a more sustainable society.

"There are alternative ways of life that are really simple," said Bridgit VanBelleghem, president of CSSC and an assistant in the Institute of Transportation Studies, "but won't compromise your quality of life and will improve it for everybody."