Zero Energy

BGSU Carbon Neutrality

Bowling Green State UniversityBowling Green, Ohio

Bowling Green State University hired CMTA’s energy and sustainability experts to meet their campus goal: achieve a carbon neutral campus by the year 2040. To do this successfully, CMTA implemented our Building Science Leadership approach to surpass campus energy goals, budgets, and deadlines.

This Campus Energy and Sustainability Master Plan was the result of collaboration between all stakeholders, including the university, architect and CMTA. The team worked with university planners, staff, faculty, students, architects, energy analysts, utility providers and engineers to determine how the university operated in terms of energy and sustainable practices. Construction standards, university policies, existing conditions and energy operating data from the physical plant were all investigated and analyzed. 

Throughout the project, energy conservation measures were created in two categories of recommendations, ones that affect energy consumption and measures that affect demand. The top measures recommended included: LED lighting, building automation system upgrades, geothermal heating and cooling, and decentralized boilers. Through extensive data-driven design and research, CMTA produced a solar photovoltaics renewable energy approach best suited to Bowling Green State University’s carbon neutrality goals.

CMTA’s master plan concluded that energy conservation strategies would be relatively easy to prioritize, due to the ease of upfront cost budgeting, energy savings, and the associated carbon reduction. By implementing CMTA's master plan recommendations, Bowling Green State University is well on its way to achieving Carbon Neutrality by the year 2040.