A Green Campus

BIOMASS PLANT
Facts & Figures
The biomass heating plant will allow GMC to heat its 155 acres of campus buildings by using green woodchips, a sustainable and renewable local fuel source, and meet about 20 percent of GMC's electricity needs.

What:
400 horsepower combined heat and power biomass facility.
Where:
Behind Withey Hall near the tennis courts.
Energy Use:
Will burn an estimated 4,397 tons of locally sourced woodchips annually, shifting 85 percent of current fuel oil usage to biomass.
Energy Savings:
Reduce use of fuel oil from 230,000 gallons to 40,700 gallons per year, necessary only on the coldest days of the year. It will also produce 400,000 kWh of electricity per year, reducing emissions from 2007 levels of 106 MT CO2e to 87 MT CO2e.
Cost:
Approximately $5.4 million with a payback period of 18 years.
Construction & Design: HP Cummings, a construction management firm out of Woodsville, NH, manages construction including the bid process. The architect is Smith-Alvarez-Sienkiewycz of Burlington.

Background
A Student Campus Greening Fund proposal fostered consensus for the new biomass plant, the most significant step in reducing GMC's carbon footprint. The proposal originated in a 2005 freshman honors seminar addressing peak oil. Students were concerned that the GMC heating plant burned number six fuel oil. Their class wrote a proposal to investigate converting to a biomass-fueled heating system: the study showed that the system would dramatically reduce carbon emissions while achieving significant energy cost savings. According to GMC's recent emissions inventory, 71 percent of campus greenhouse gases are generated from burning 230,000 gallons of number six fuel oil each year.

How the Technology Works
Chips are fed onto a conveyor belt and into the boiler. The chips are heated at a very high temperature with low oxygen until the chips smolder and emit gas. On the backside of the boiler, oxygen is added and the gas ignites. Hot water from the boiler circulates through iron pipes, creating steam which is used to heat the campus. The steam also activates the power-producing turbines.

The plant will also serve as an open educational laboratory for GMC students and for the general public, and a destination for people interested in learning how local, renewable resources can provide solutions to energy and environmental challenges.

SAGE HALL
Facts & Figures
SAGE Hall (Students for Academic and Green Engagement) was renovated to meet exacting LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) environmental standards. Student moved in for the start of the 2009-10 academic year. Among the upgrades:

• Energy star windows

• High efficiency lighting fixtures

• Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood products

• Low VOC (volatile organic compounds) flooring and furniture

• Local materials-like the slate flooring in the back sun room-were used whenever possible

While renovations were significant, 95% of existing interior and exterior walls were retained.

Background
The building was constructed in 1960 and named Bozen Hall after Francis Bozen, former teacher and dean of students at the College. SAGE is also Green Mountain College's new honors residence hall, with space for 26 students who display a passion for learning and academic achievement as well as exemplary service to the campus community.

New GMC president Paul Fonteyn identified SAGE one of his chief priorities in a campus community address on October 22, 2008. He noted that renovating an existing building to accommodate the growing student population was a more environmentally sound practice than building a new residence hall. "We took seriously the point of view that a College which takes environmental leadership as a central tenet of its mission should explore other options before engaging in new construction," said Fonteyn. "In the spirit of regeneration, the College has done an intensive study aimed at converting existing space to accommodate our growing student body."