Energy

Buildings

Buildings are an important piece of any sustainability story. Why? In 2017, buildings were responsible for almost 40% of total U.S. energy consumption. Of course, buildings provide us a great service – giving us shelter, places to live, work, and play. But, they use a lot of energy. What do we do and, what can you do to help building use less energy in buildings here at CSU?

Colorado State University has more than 12 million gross square feet of buildings – and, as you might expect, this includes your residence halls, classrooms, student center, recreation center, stadium, research facilities, and more!

In recent years CSU has added a number of large new buildings. Yet, even as we have added total square footage to our campuses, we have managed to keep the total energy consumption related to our buildings relatively flat. How is that possible? This fact indicates that our new buildings are more efficient. But, we have many many older buildings than we do new buildings. So, while we try to build our new buildings with energy efficiency in mind, we also do a lot of work behind the scenes to improve the energy efficiency in our existing buildings. (And of course, there is a lot of work yet to do.)

Don’t just take our word for it, there are several third-party rating systems for buildings, and CSU has earned recognition for several of its buildings through LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), Green Globes, and ENERGY STAR.

To learn more about green buildings and high performance buildings at Colorado State University, visit our Green Buildings webpage.

If you are interested in helping to save energy in buildings at CSU, here is a laundry list with over 30 possible Ideas to Save Electricity. You may not be able to do many but hopefully you can find at least one thing. Every little action you take makes a difference – together, we can save a watt!

And, check out CSU Campus Maps

When you visit CSU Campus Maps, turn on the “Sustainability” layers – you will find all sorts of information about buildings and sustainability here at CSU. Take a look!