Switch Your Thinking is an opportunity for every member of the UT Knoxville community to do their part to meet an ambitious goal: a 10 percent reduction in energy consumption on campus this fiscal year.
It's a goal that will have an impact on the campus budget in excess of $1.5 million, and it will make a difference for the environment in ways that benefit generations to come.
Gathered below are examples of how UT is switching its thinking.
May 21, 2009
For Joseph DiPietro, UT vice president for agriculture, being a good steward of the environment comes naturally.
April 22, 2009
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, proposed today a set of projects that would use federal stimulus funding to fight rising energy costs and keep the university a national leader in campus sustainability.
Posted March 24, 2009
The Switch Your Thinking energy-saving effort at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is halfway to its goal of a 10 percent reduction in energy use compared to last year.
Posted February 2, 2009
Many people have wondered why they see the Jumbrotron on in Neyland Stadium when there is no game. Read on for the surprising answer!
Posted January 29, 2009
UT Knoxville is going green and going lean by going online to send VolXpress billing statements to its students instead of sending them by mail each semester. By e-mailing billing statements to students, the campus will reduce printing costs along with the very large expense of return postage and remailing of statements that could not be delivered. All told, the campus stands to save more than $85,000 each year.
A new video feature in Tennessee Today offers a few “dos” and “don’ts” for staying warm with the recent heating changes on campus.
Posted December 11, 2008
Sometimes, just turning a device off isn't enough. Paul Wilkinson of UT's Office of Information Technology Lab Services helps answer some commonly-asked questions about saving energy, especially "cutting the cord" and turning off power strips.
Posted: December 9, 2008
About a year and a half ago, UT's VolCard office, which oversees campus vending machines, turned off the lights in all 295 vending machines on the Knoxville campus. This small change resulted in big savings: $13,000 per year.
Posted December 1, 2008
Working in Human Resources' employment office, Carolyn Hicks began to notice a lot of excess printing going on. And a lot of excess paper being used. Realizing there had to be a better way to get things done, Hicks made some changes.
Posted December 1, 2008
While your office may be cooler this winter, that doesn't mean that you have to be colder.
Posted: December 1, 2008
Interim Chancellor Simek announces a new energy conservation policy. A central part of this new policy is adjusting the target indoor temperatures in campus buildings.
Posted: November 24, 2008
Mark Windham has a few good ideas on how UT employees can curb some of the university's energy usage. He recently led a charge to rid his area within the agriculture campus' Biotechnology Building of personal refrigerators in colleagues' offices. He also recruited volunteers to clean out the little-used refrigerator in his area's break room to help encourage others to use it.
Posted: November 17, 2008
For the UT Police Department, patrolling campus and the surrounding neighborhoods means covering a lot of miles. The department modernized the way it tracks mileage and assigns vehicles each day for patrol, and in the process trimmed nearly a third from the department's vehicle budget, without any cuts to services provided.
Posted: October 21, 2008
Here are seven easy things that you can do to help save money and make UT more energy efficient.
Posted: October 14, 2008
Ken Wise, an associate professor in the libraries, saw an area with room for improvement and made a suggestion for change. His action was prompted by a friend in the energy efficiency field pointing out that some of the light fixtures in Hodges were not the most efficient possible. He informed Facilities Services about his concerns, which led UT Knoxville to commit more than $200,000 to update the lighting system throughout Hodges Library.
Posted: September 12, 2008
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is calling on faculty and staff to change the way they look at energy in a campaign designed to reduce campus energy consumption by 10 percent this year—a move that would save the university more than $1 million from its campus energy budget.
Have an idea on how to save the campus some money, we'd like to hear about it.
