-
Energy Consumption: In 2017, The New School’s energy sources included: oil and steam for heat, natural gas for heat and cogeneration, and electricity. Electricity makes up the largest portion of total energy use.
Portfolio Energy Impact: This chart describes energy consumption by building across The New School’s campus. The size of each building (square footage) is represented by the size of each bubble. The y-axis (Site Energy Use Intensity) represents building energy consumption per square foot. The x-axis (Source Energy Use Intensity) represents the total energy used to produce and transport energy to the building, per square foot.
Portfolio Total Energy Consumption: This chart describes total energy consumption in each building by type of energy.
Annual Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s):
-
- Units of Measurement: Kilowatt-hour (kWh)
- Why it's Important: Electricity is the dominant form of energy use on campus at The New School, and it’s the cause of 2/3rds of our carbon emissions.
- How we'll Achieve our Goals: More efficient heating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, LED lighting upgrades, IT equipment improvements, and behavior change.
-
- Units of Measurement: Therm
- Why it's Important: Natural gas is important because it’s a cleaner-burning alternative to oil. Gas will gradually replace oil on campus, growing from 28% of our energy consumption, to 42%.
- How we'll Achieve our Goals: Building heating system improvements, University Center cogeneration plant optimization.
-
- Units of Measurement: Gallon
- Why it's Important: Oil is burned to heats many of our buildings. Converting to natural gas boilers will reduce carbon emissions of these systems by 28%.
- How we'll Achieve our Goals: More efficient heating systems, improved building operations, and oil to natural gas heating system conversions.
-
- Units of Measurement: Million pounds (Mlb)
- Why it's Important: Purchased steam is the primary source of heat and hot water at the Stuyvesant Park/318E 15th St residence hall.
- How we'll Achieve our Goals: Steam system optimization and insulation.
-
- Units of Measurement: British Thermal Units per Square Foot per Year (kBtu/sf-yr)
- Why it's Important: Site energy is important because it’s indicative of how much total energy we use on the premises of our campus. The formula evenly weights all forms of energy in units of British thermal units, or BTU’s.
- How we'll Achieve our Goals: Improvements in this category are evenly effected by all forms of energy above.
-
- Units of Measurement: British Thermal Units per Square Foot per Year (kBtu/sf-yr)
- Why it's Important: Source energy is perhaps more important than site energy, because it takes into account the amount of energy required to create particular forms of energy, such as electricity. More than 3 units of energy are used in a power plant to produce one unit of usable electricity on our campus.
- How we'll Achieve our Goals: All forms of energy are important, but source energy is most significantly influenced by electricity use, due to the inefficiency of producing and transporting it.
Progress Analysis:
-
Electricity: the 4.1% reduction over the past year is the result of various energy projects and improvements. Additional progress is required to stay on-track.
-
Natural gas: consumption has been reduced ahead of schedule due to several operational changes. This trend is likely to reverse in sum as additional buildings convert to gas heat in lieu of oil.
-
Oil: reductions have been significant and are likely to continue as a result of ongoing projects.
-
Steam: is assumed constant due to utility steam-meter inconsistencies. Additional information will be provided as it becomes available.
-
On-site energy: reduced by 10.1% due to reductions in natural gas, oil, and electricity consumption.
-
Total Indirect (Source) energy: reduced by 7.0% due to reductions in natural gas, oil, and electricity consumption.
For more information on The New School’s Energy-related initiatives, visit here.* Data is weather-adjusted.
-