Managing such an extensive portfolio of buildings requires balancing budgets and lean staffing year round, with intensified demands during the rainy season on our roofing team.
Nearly a decade ago, campus leaders at UC Davis decided to invest in a small team of employees to reduce energy by optimizing building controls and systems. The concept was that UC Davis could fund such a team, if it could curb high utility bills — essentially having the team pay for itself with energy savings.
Tucked away on the west side of campus, UC Davis’ READ facility receives 20 tons of food waste per day from customers including local grocery stores and our own campus dining commons. With the improvements a recent $4.77M CalRecycle grant provides, the READ facility becomes an important part of UC Davis’ strategy to eliminate the use of fossil fuels from its operations and fight climate change.
Since taking ownership in 2017, UC Davis Facilities Management has dedicated itself to revitalizing the READ facility, working with academic and industry experts to find creative solutions including the development of an ammonia extraction system that processes the ammonia-rich digestate, separating it into nearly ammonia-free digestate and concentrated ammonia. The ammonia-free digestate can be processed at the campus’s wastewater treatment plant, or by other means, locally without adding excess nutrients to inland waters. The concentrated ammonia product has now become a valuable commodity purchased by California Safe Soil as an ingredient in the formulation of a certified organic fertilizer.
Earlier this month, the Chancellor and the Chancellor’s Committee on Campus Planning and Design, or CCCPD, endorsed moving forward with a $55.5 million investment of campus funds for the next phase of the Big Shift – a heating infrastructure overhaul that represents a crucial step in reducing the university’s fossil fuel usage.
From weather to limited staffing, there are a number of factors that can cause delays in work order fulfillment. The Facilities Management team is working to smooth out these bumps where they can, by analyzing data to develop and implement innovative strategies to streamline maintenance requests and ensure campus spaces are not only functional, but pleasant for students, employees, and campus community members.
UC Davis is currently in the process of addressing a campus-wide need for increased access to gender-inclusive restrooms. Gender inclusive bathrooms are typically single-stall, lockable bathrooms available to people of all genders and sexes. Gender inclusive bathrooms provide a safe, private facility for transgender, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming people, families with children, and people with disabilities who may need assistance.
Congratulations to UC Davis Custodial Services, the first and only UC to achieve the Cleaning Industry Management Standard Green Building with Honors, or CIMS-GB certification, from the world’s leading trade association for the cleaning industry, ISSA.
From researching how to more efficiently cool buildings to adding compost bins to classroom buildings, many units across campus perform invaluable work that allows UC Davis to continuously reach the highest levels of sustainability. Design and Construction Management, or DCM, plays its part in sustainability by facilitating large infrastructure changes in collaboration with other units in Finance, Operations and Administration, or FOA.
Both UC Davis custodial services teams – Facilities Management and Student Housing and Dining Services – announce that they are the esteemed recipients of the university’s Staff Assembly 2021-22 Citation of Excellence team award. The honor recognizes their exemplary work navigating the global pandemic and its impact to our campus and community.
David Trombly, senior engineer supervisor with UC Davis Facilities Management and Ahmet Palazoglu, chemical engineering professor, discuss the chilled water optimization project and its cost- and energy-saving impact. Camille Kirk, sustainability planner and director of UC Davis Sustainability and Kiernan Salmon, product manager with UC Davis Facilities Management, highlight additional sustainability-related goals and projects.
Acknowledging stormwater as a valuable resource, The UC Davis Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) has guided new campus construction to incorporate stormwater strategies to mitigate construction impacts by reducing runoff and improving water quality. Campus Planning and Landscape Architecture works closely with EH&S to guide and shape the designs for these features.
With the closure of the bike parking areas near Rock Hall and Walker Hall, Campus Planning and Landscape Architecture worked to identify solutions to the short-term loss of bike parking that would not require costly temporary improvements. Two areas were identified as appropriate for permanent long-term bike parking that would serve future and current needs — the west side of Rock Hall and the north side of Everson Hall. In both areas lawn panels that required considerable maintenance and water were converted to bike parking and low-water landscapes.
