Sustainability Master Plan & Geothermal Design

The Challenge

Tompkins County — which owns and operates the Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport — wanted to take a serious, data-driven approach to sustainability. The airport campus includes a terminal building, a combined fire/rescue and administration building, a control tower, two T-hangars, and significant exterior lighting — all with aging systems and no cohesive energy strategy.

What made this engagement unusual is that it didn't stop at a study. The county wanted to understand their options thoroughly enough to actually make a major infrastructure decision — and they did.

What I Did

This was a two-phase relationship that spanned several years.

Phase 1 (2011): Sustainability Master Plan

I was responsible for the energy inventory and energy assessment portion of the airport's sustainability management plan. I analyzed every building on the campus — evaluating HVAC, lighting, and building systems — and developed a comprehensive set of energy conservation measures. The analysis included evaluation of daylighting, demand control ventilation, variable frequency drives on hot water loop pumps, and renewable energy options including small wind turbines, solar PV, and geothermal systems.

Phase 2 (2018): Geothermal Energy Study & Design

Several years later, the county came back. They were planning a renovation and expansion of the terminal building and wanted to explore heating and cooling the facility with geothermal heat pumps. I created a detailed energy model using eQuest to evaluate three options side by side:

1. Conventional replacement — new air handling units similar to the existing equipment

2. Heat pumps with a cooling tower and condensing boilers — a hybrid approach

3. Heat pumps with a ground-coupled vertical bore wellfield — full geothermal

For each option, I developed engineer's estimates of probable cost, calculated energy savings, and determined payback periods — including evaluating potential incentives available for each path. The analysis gave the county a clear, apples-to-apples comparison of their options.

A 50% cost share through the NYSERDA FlexTech program was secured to support this effort.

The Result

The county chose to move forward with the full geothermal design — and I was involved in the design phase of the construction project. Providing guidance to the design team for the geothermal heat pumps and wellfield.

This is a project I'm particularly proud of, because it shows what happens when a study is done right: the client had the information and confidence they needed to make a major infrastructure decision — and the study led directly to implementation.

Projects completed in a previous engineering role

Sustainable Master Plan & Emissions Reduction Strategy

The Challenge

Philadelphia International Airport is one of the largest and most complex facilities I've worked with. The airport's leadership wanted to develop a sustainable master plan — a comprehensive strategy for reducing energy use and emissions across the entire operation over the next five to ten years. This wasn't just about buildings. It included everything: terminal facilities, support buildings, ground vehicles, natural gas systems, and more.

Adding to the complexity, the airport had previously been through a proposal process for an energy performance contract that it ultimately did not pursue. The energy audit developed during that process contained useful analysis, but it had gone stale. The airport needed that work refreshed and reframed within a broader sustainability strategy — one that could support an application for FAA Section 512 funding.

What I Did

I was responsible for developing the baseline energy and emissions data for the entire airport campus and assisting with identifying improvement opportunities over a five-to-ten-year planning horizon.

The work started with a comprehensive on-site inventory. I identified and cataloged all sources of energy consumption and emissions across the operation — buildings, vehicles, natural gas systems, and other energy-using infrastructure. This baseline became the foundation for evaluating where reductions were most feasible and most impactful.

I then refreshed the analysis from the airport's previous energy audit, updating it with current data and reframing the findings within the context of the sustainability master plan. The goal was to position the airport to make sound financial investments in their mechanical and electrical infrastructure — and to create a credible basis for pursuing FAA Section 512 funding.

In addition to efficiency measures, the effort included an evaluation of renewable and alternative energy strategies — including on-site solar, geothermal heat pumps, and co-generation — assessing each for technical feasibility and financial viability within the airport's operational constraints.

The Result

The plan gave airport leadership a comprehensive energy and emissions baseline and a structured roadmap for infrastructure investment over the next decade — covering both efficiency improvements and renewable energy opportunities.

The analysis was positioned to support an application for FAA Section 512 funding, connecting the airport's energy strategy to available federal resources.

Project completed in a previous engineering role.

Sustainability Management Plan & Energy Assessment

The Challenge

Fresno Yosemite International Airport operates a campus of 18 buildings — including a nearly 200,000 square foot terminal — in California's Central Valley, where cooling loads are significant and energy costs are a major operational concern. The airport was developing a comprehensive sustainability management plan and needed a detailed understanding of how energy was being used across the entire operation.

What made this project especially interesting was a feature that most airports don't have: a 2.4 MW single-axis tracking solar PV array on airport property, providing approximately 60% of the airport's annual electricity. That's an extraordinary renewable energy asset — but it also changes the way you think about efficiency improvements, because the baseline is already dramatically different from a typical airport.

What I Did

I was responsible for the energy inventory and energy assessment portion of the sustainability management plan. The work covered all 18 airport-owned and operated buildings, including the terminal, support facilities, and hangars, as well as exterior lighting across the campus.

For each building and system, I evaluated HVAC, lighting, and water efficiency measures — identifying opportunities for reducing consumption and cost. The analysis had to account for the airport's unique energy profile: with 60% of electricity already coming from the on-site solar array, the economics of efficiency measures looked different than they would at a conventional facility. Demand reduction and peak load management took on particular importance, since the interaction between the solar generation and the airport's load profile directly affected both savings and grid economics.

The Result

The energy assessment provided the airport with a detailed understanding of energy use across all 18 buildings and a prioritized set of efficiency improvements calibrated to the airport's unique generation profile.

The work became a core component of the airport's sustainability management plan — connecting building-level analysis to campus-wide strategy in a facility that was already far ahead of most airports on renewable energy.

Project completed in a previous engineering role.