W&J to showcase energy efficiencies in campus tours
Washington & Jefferson College will offer energy tours of campus this fall for local school students and municipal leaders.
The program, called the Living Energy Laboratory, will be funded through a $13,400 grant from the West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund and will provide tours of the school’s energy efficiencies around campus.
“We want to open this up to local schools and municipalities and give them a hands-on experience to learn about energy efficiency and conservation,” said Corey Young, director of W&J’s Center for Energy Policy and Management.
Some of the features on the tour will include exploring the architecture and design of the Swanson Science Center, which is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) silver certified. The college also has a solar array on the roof of the facilities building.
“We’re working with local providers to have additional hands-on materials for people to look at and understand the mechanics of how that works,” Young said.
He said the college also has a thermal-imaging camera that will be part of the tour.
“You can use it and see the big hotspots to identify where cold air is seeping in or out and to determine where some of your problem spots are in a particular building,” Young said.
Young said the college hopes to launch the tours, which will be free and open to the public, this fall and gear them toward local schools and municipal leaders to provide education and “technical expertise.”
According to a news release, the tours are part of the college’s effort to spread awareness of energy solutions and reduce its carbon footprint, which is 16,945 metric tons per year.
“We are thrilled to receive this grant, and are looking forward to this partnership between W&J College and West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund,” W&J President John Knapp said in a news release. “This will be an excellent opportunity for the college to connect with the community in a way that is meaningful for the community and the environment.”
The WPPSEF fund administrator, Joel Morrison, said in the release that he also looks forward to working with the college to “raise the level of awareness of sustainable energy in Western Pennsylvania.”