This document summarizes a panel discussion hosted by the MIT Office of Sustainability on constructing the MIT campus as a sustainability test bed. The panelists discussed several projects aimed at decreasing MIT's materials footprint and increasing water and energy efficiency. These included a material flow analysis study characterizing MIT's materials purchases and waste, collaboration with Facilities on waste reduction projects, and a solar test bed project. The discussion also covered a green labs certification program that has engaged labs in sustainability best practices.

1. MIT OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY
May 8, 2017
Cultivating the Test Bed:
Constructing the Campus Lab
Joe Higgins
Director, Infrastructure Business Ops, Office of EVPT

2. MIT OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY
May 8, 2017
Panel Discussion
Joe Higgins (moderator)
Director, Infrastructure Business Ops, Office of EVPT
Rachel Perlman – Material Flow Analysis
PhD student in Engineering Systems Division & MIT Office of Sustainability Fellow
Kripa Varanasi – Water Savings in Cooling Towers & the Central Utilities Plant
Associate Professor, MIT MECHE
Marius Peters - Solar Test Bed Project
Research Scientist, MIT Photovoltaics Lab
Pam Greenley – Green Labs Certification
Assoc Dir., MIT Office of Environment Health & Safety

3. Decreasing the Materials Footprint of a
University Campus: Case Study of MIT
Committee: John Fernandez, Julie Newman, Tim Gutowksy
PhD Candidate and Student Fellow at MIT Office of Sustainability
MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Presented by
Rachel Perlman
MIT system as a test bed

4. •Characterize the materials flow profile of the
campus, revealing consumption patterns for material
groups with different lifetimes
•Characterize the organizational structure (including
the degree of centralization) of materials purchasing
and disposal decisions on campus
•Identify which processes and activities have the
largest environmental impact from materials
consumption
•Recommend institutional opportunities to increase
materials sustainability via policy, logistical, or
organizational changes OR materials substitutions
Research project objectives

5. (among others)
•Collaboration with the Office of Procurement on material
goods purchases
•Material Flow Analysis
•Waste audits (academic buildings, dorms, dining halls)
•Collaboration with Facilities on trash, recycling, and organic
waste
Test Bed Components of Our Work

6. MIT OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY
Collaboration with
Procurement
• Data driven approach to reduce the
materials footprint of MIT à Using
MIT’s historical e-catalog purchases
• Working to characterize the material-
purchase profile of the university
• What products does MIT consume the
most of in terms of tons and dollars?
• How does purchasing vary over time?
• ID opportunities for increasing
sustainability of purchasing

7. MIT OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY
Materials
Flow Analysis
Material
Type
(Purchase)
Form of
Disposal
MIT Activity Sector
(Use)

8. MIT OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY
WASTE AUDITS as multipurpose events
1. Get students actively engaged in waste as an issue on
campus
2. Increase awareness of students and staff about how to
source segregate properly
3. Collect data on the composition of the contents from
trash and recycling bins on campus
à Data useful to MITOS and operations
à Data used in my dissertation and
materials flow analysis
Join us for our
next audit:
Simmons Dining
Hall on May 18!

9. MIT OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY
Waste audits: example of results
from Koch building

10. MIT OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY
• Data driven approach to reduce the
materials footprint of MIT à Using
Facilities’ waste data (DataHub)
• Working to determine composition of waste
generated on campus
• What streams are we generating most of?
• What processes/streams are most costly to
handle?
• ID opportunities for waste reduction and
increasing sustainability of waste
management
Collaboration with
Facilities’ Recycling Office
on Waste

11. MIT OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY
Thank you for your attention
Rperlman@mit.edu

12. Kripa Varanasi
Associate Professor, MIT MECHE
Water Savings in Cooling Towers
and the Central Utilities Plant

13. Marius Peters
Research Scientist, MIT Photovoltaics
Lab

14. 1990 2000 2010 2020
102
10
3
10
4
10
5
106
cumm.installation[MW]
year
1
10
2014 est 0.45 $/W
2015 est. 0.39 $/W
moduleprice[$/Wp
]
2016 est. 302 GW
2017 proj 368 GW
23% reduction
per doubled
capacity over 35
years
29% growth per
year over 25 years

15. margin
processing
silicon

25. Green Lab Contest
Making Connections
Pam Greenley, Associate Director, EHS Office, greenley@mit.edu
• EHS – Damon Baptista, Ryan Samz, Niamh Kelly, Pam Greenley,
Alice Ursella
• Facilities – Mark Mullins, Randa Ghattas
• Facilities - Recycling – Ruth Davis
• EHS Coordinators – Brian Smith, Jennifer Lynn, Whitney Hess
• Post Doc – Lisa Anderson
• My Green Lab – Allison Paradise
• Office of Sustainability – Emma Corbalan
• Student interns
Green Labs Team

26. Mechanical Engineering – Wang Lab Chemical Engineering – Brushett Lab
Biology – Imperiali Lab Chemical Engineering – Prather Lab Chemical Eng. – Hamel Teaching Lab
Dept. of Material Sciences & Eng. – Schuh Lab Earth & Planetary Sciences – Summons Lab Koch Institute – Langer Lab

27. Engagement
Lab Group Meetings
Lab Walkthroughs
Educational Seminars
Educational Seminars: Plug Load Energy Management
Lab Walkthroughs – Review form | Recycling

28. Changes in Action
Reducing Consumables:
• Provide reusable
dishes in the kitchen
Energy conservation measures by
power metering:
• Chill up ultra low
temperature freezers
to -70◦C
• Switch off unused
equipment
Reduce Water Consumption:
Total annual savings from contest labs:
• 36,000 kwh electricity
• 80,000 gallons water
• 18,000 pounds GHG reduction

29. Lab Energy Assessment Center –
Coming to the Lab Nearest You!
Power
WiFi Video
Data Logging/
Processing
Wireless Network
Fume
Hoods
Overhead LightingSwitchesLab Equipment
(Wall Sockets)
Wemo
Outlets
Wemo
Cameras
Video

30. MIT OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY
Questions & discussion