Attaining Sustainability Milestone Will Make UMM the Nation's 1st Carbon Neutral University MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The University of Minnesota Morris (UMM) has partnered with McKinstry, a leading design/build construction, engineering, energy services and facilities management firm, in order to realize its long-held ambition of becoming the first Carbon Neutral University in the Midwest. In 2004, UMM began acting on its sustainability target by constructing a 1.65 megawatt wind turbine. The 230-foot turbine provides UMM with 5.6 million kilowatt hours of power each year and is the first large-scale wind research turbine at a U.S. public university. In 2008, the University used funding received from the State of Minnesota to construct a biomass gasifier and steam boiler. To further assist these efforts, UMM hired McKinstry's Minnesota team, located at 8451 Xerxes Ave N, Brooklyn Park. McKinstry performed a thorough analysis of the campus' energy supply and demand which included an evaluation of campus energy supply side options; identifying demand side reductions; creating a plan for an energy education and awareness system; and formulating a plan for actively managing energy production, storage, and consumption. McKinstry's completed energy analysis of UMM resulted in the development of the Carbon Management Tool - an interactive predictive tool that visually demonstrates impacts and interactions between a multitude of conservation, energy storage, and supply side options. "McKinstry used the tool to help us identify a self-funding project with a 14-year payback," says Lowell Rasmussen, UMM's Vice Chancellor for Finance and Facilities. "Not only has this resolved the campus' chilled water shortage, but it will reduce our carbon emissions by more than 80% by 2010. This will allow us to purchase carbon offsets for the remaining carbon footprint, and achieve our goal of becoming carbon neutral." Since the original Earth Day nearly 40 years ago, the University of Minnesota, Morris has been advancing sustainable, environmentally friendly initiatives that touch nearly every aspect of campus life – from power, food, water, and transportation to waste stream infrastructure, academic study, and quality of life. UMM's commitment to environmental stewardship has grown to levels of national leadership, and it holds active membership in the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and the Upper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability (UMACS).
