Sustainability and Energy Management

• On this page
  • Program Summary
  • Water Efficiency on Campus
  • Facilities, Academic, and Research Buildings
  • Central Energy Cooling Tower Blow-down Wastewater Reuse
  • Student Housing and Dining
  • Athletics
  • Other Water Conservation Accomplishments and Looking to the Future

In order to stay compliant with Stanford’s General Use Permit (GUP) under Santa Clara County, the university has developed ways to keep water demand below the current San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) allocation of 3.033 million gallons per day. A program summary, campus groups and specific water efficiency projects, and current initiatives are summarized below.

Program Summary

Stanford’s Water Sustainability, Efficiency, and Conservation Program involves all groups on campus, including participation from Academic, Facilities, Project Management, Student Housing, Dining, Faculty/staff Housing, and Athletics departments. The goal of the Program is to integrate appropriate water-efficient technologies and practices across the various campus groups and to ensure Stanford’s water supplies are available to support the university’s mission for education and research. To accomplish this goal, The Master Plan Water Conservation, Reuse and Recycling Master Plan (pdf) and water-efficiency measures are being implemented, annually the Program awards funding for retrofit projects across campus, established Water Efficiency Goals for new buildings and retrofits tests new water-efficient technologies, and Program staff developed a network of technical experts in the water efficiency who are extremely valuable resources. The Master Plan initially identified 14 conservation measures for existing and new facilities and landscaping. As new technologies and water-efficiency opportunities evolved, so did the conservation measures. In 2009, Stanford is implementing 23 diverse measures, ranging from fixture retrofits to rebates for turf removal in the Faculty/staff residential area.

Stanford has received the 2009 Silicon Valley Water Conservation Award. This award honors outstanding achievements in water conservation among businesses, local governments, organizations, and individuals in the Silicon Valley region. “Recognizing the primacy of water issues to the health and economic vitality of our region and to the environment, the Silicon Valley Water Conservation Awards are presented to organizations, agencies, businesses and individuals whose programs and leadership have advanced water conservation in Silicon Valley (San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, and Alameda County from Hayward south)”. Source: http://www.waterawards.org/

For more information, see the Stanford Utilities Water Conservation Fact Sheet.

Water Efficiency on Campus

Stanford completed a campus-wide fixture survey to identify opportunities for retrofits. Most of the Academic, Research, Student Housing, and Athletics campus fixtures, such as toilets, faucets, showers, and urinals have been retrofitted to water-efficient ones. Non-potable water is used for irrigating Academic, Student Housing, and Athletics areas. Climate-based, evapo-transpiration (ET) irrigation controllers started being used at Stanford a decade ago and are currently the standard for Academic grounds, making it possible to increase efficiency by as much as 25% for large turf areas like the Oval. Water misers have been installed on all routinely used autoclaves, reducing water use in some Medical School and research buildings by more than 50%. All of the once-through cooling systems used in laboratories (which cool by a constant flow of cold water) have been replaced by re-circulating systems that reuse the cold water to maximize cooling capacity. SU maintains more than 1500 water meters. The meters are read monthly, the data is analyzed, and water use data trends are evaluated. Since 2000, Stanford University has reduced DW consumption from 2.74 mgd to 2.15 mgd in 2009, in spite of adding more than 1 million new square feet of campus buildings. The reduction in campus high quality domestic water use has stretched its availability for future academic and research needs. To learn more about water conservation across campus, see Water Efficiency at Stanford.

 In addition to conservation measures listed in the plan, such as re-using cooling tower blowdown water, more opportunities for water efficiency have evolved. The program is flexible, so when new opportunities for water savings arise, we have a process in place to review proposals and fund projects that are innovative and save water. Several projects materialized due to advancements in technology and ideas initiated by Stanford staff. The Stanford University program’s leadership is demonstrated by the volume of requests for information and interviews and speaking engagements to various groups; for example, the San Mateo Chamber of Commerce, BMUG, SF Bay Area Conservation Coordinators, Northern California AWWA, ACWA, and California universities.

Continuous improvements to Stanford University’s Water Conservation Program over the past year include designing a new water billing statement that allows customers to review water use and easily compare the change in use, as well as trends in use over the last 13 months. As we test new water efficient technologies, the results are made available to our project managers so that new projects and major renovations can benefit from test results.

Facilities, Academic, and Research Buildings

Most of the toilets, faucets, showers and even urinals in academic buildings across campus have been retrofitted to more efficient, low-flow models. Most of the landscaping in academic areas make use of evapo-transpiration (ET) irrigation controllers. This state-of-the-art irrigation system incorporates live weather data to water only when and how much is needed, making it possible to irrigate large turf areas like the Oval around 25% more efficiently. See the following fact sheet for an example of an ET controller installed on the Stanford Campus.
Many of the once-through cooling systems used in laboratories (which cool by a constant flow of cold water) have been replaced by re-circulating systems that reuse the cold water to maximize cooling capacity.

The Medical School has seen some of the most dramatic decreases in water use thanks to recent water conservation efforts. The Beckman and Fairchild Buildings in particular are now using 30 to 40 percent less water than before, saving almost 15 million gallons of water annually! In 2004, an analysis of the Beckman and Fairchild Building’s water usage prompted several water saving initiatives, including the installation of 1.6 gallon per flush toilets, water-efficient urinals, and low-flow faucet regulators on all regular and deionized water faucets.

Restricting the flow of deionized faucets makes a significant difference because a substantial amount of water is already wasted in the deionization process. Also, the installation of water mizer on the building’s autoclaves reduced water consumption considerably. Instead of running water 24 hours a day, the Water-Mizers sense when water is needed and shut off the flow when it is not. The chart below shows how water use at Fairchild dropped after retrofits were completed in the spring of 2004.

Central Energy Cooling Tower Blow-down Wastewater Reuse

One of the water conservation measures included in the Water Conservation, Reuse, and Recycling Master Plan (pdf, large file) is the reuse of wastewater from cooling towers at the Central Energy Facility. Even though the cooling towers are managed efficiently and typically run 15 cycles, eventually on an average day about 50,000 gallons of wastewater is blown down (discharged) to the sanitary sewer. This wastewater does not contain solid waste and with treatment can be recycled and reused for non-potable uses, such as toilet and urinal flushing, and irrigation. The first Stanford building that is dual plumbed to use this water is the Environment and Energy Building.

Student Housing and Dining (Residential & Dining Enterprises)

Student Housing and Dining Services have undertaken many initiatives to encourage water conservation. To date:

• Over 90% of toilets have been upgraded to 1.6 gallon per flush units, all of the undergraduate residence showerheads are now 2.5 gallon per minute fixtures, and sinks are now flowing at 1.5 gallon per minute.
• All meal plan students (3600) are given a reusable thermos for hot and cold beverages to reduce the use of disposables and bottled waters. Bottled waters were also eliminated in the central dining facilities and at catered events. Learn more about tap vs. bottled water and the impact on the environment.
• Provided discount incentives for customers who bring in their own container for hot and cold beverages in all retail locations.
• Switched to low water use dish washing machines which have cut water usage by 50% at those locations.
• Installed low-flow valves for all spray heads in dishwashing areas.

For more information about water conservation efforts in student housing and ways in which you can help save water in your residence, visit the Student Housing Services Conservation Web page.

Athletics

In 2008, improvements to athletic facilities included high-efficiency toilet and urinal retrofits. Some of the latest developments in low-flow fixture technology are currently being tested within the athletic facilities which consist of urinals that only use 0.125 gallon of water per flush (gpf), and toilets that only use 1.28 gpf. Three soil moisture probes were installed at the Siebel Golf Training Complex in 2009 to help save water by using soil moisture and root zone data to target the right amount of irrigation for healthy grass. Click on the Fact Sheet to learn more about this project.

Other Water Conservation Accomplishments and Looking to the Future

• Water mizers have been installed on almost all campus autoclaves and sterilizers.
• Replaced more than 10,000 academic and student housing bathroom fixtures with water-efficient ones, including low-flow shower heads, sink aerators, high efficiency toilets and urinals. Almost 95% of the academic and student housing inefficient toilets have been retrofitted.
• All once-through cooling for equipment has been replaced with re-circulating systems.
• Majority of Campus Grounds are on evapo transpiration (ET) controllers for irrigation and installed a WaterWise Demonstration Garden.
• We developed a Water-Efficient (WE) technology demonstration program, WE Goals & Benchmarks for new buildings in 2008, ongoing outreach for single-family on-campus homes included checking for irrigation runoff and providing door hangers notifying homeowners what they can do to avoid it, and promoting local utility district high-efficiency toilets and clothes washing machines. Outreach has also included providing monthly flyers that discuss water saving ideas and tips.