The Demand-Side Energy Management and Conservation program at UT completed lighting, water and steam trap audits in 12.6 million square feet of education and general buildings across the main and J.J. Pickle Research campuses. The program will begin construction starting next Monday, May 12.

The campus-wide energy and water conservation project consists of three phases - next week through July 1, July 4 through September, and September through December. The estimated cost of the project is $16 million.

"Right now we have mock-ups installed in a dozen buildings," said Al Lewandowski, the conservation program's department manager. "We wanted a different flavor of feedback from the people who actually occupy those areas. We left some of the new fixtures in there for weeks, some of them for months."

Two main goals of the project, spurred by the results of the audits and mock-up feedback, are modernizing and reducing energy use and reducing a carbon footprint, Lewandowski said.

Of the 193,000 light fixtures getting replaced, all of those with fluorescent tube lighting will stay intact, leaving the tubes to be replaced. This is expected to reduce costs and construction trash.

"We're replacing virtually every tube and leaving the shell," said William Lucas, associative director of Facilities Services. "Inside, everything will now be optimized. Unlike the old lights, we will not be losing any more surface area. From there, all tubes will be sent to a recycling area. From the fluorescent tubes, mercury, white luminescent powder and broken up gas will be able to be extracted and used again through recycling."

In conjunction with the project, the Utakecharge program - a group of students, faculty and staff working to implement some of the project's conservation ideas - is necessary to see the fruits of the project, Lucas said.

"People need to reduce their own demand for energy as well," Lucas said. "Remember to turn out your lights and computer at the end of the day. This project can't be successful unless you take charge - that's where the name comes from."

Lewandowski has worked on this project at the University of Connecticut and commented on its success and rewards.

"A lot of it comes down to doing the right thing," he said. "After payroll, energy is the second biggest bill a university has to pay, and yeah, this affects the cost of education in some way. We can't stop the prices of education from going up, but we can help keep the costs under control. It was successful at the University of Connecticut, and it will be here too."

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