Campus-Wide Energy Study & Meter Verification

The Challenge

Rochester Institute of Technology is one of the largest and most complex campuses in the Northeast — over 4.7 million square feet of academic, dormitory, athletic, and student housing space spread across more than 50 buildings. The campus is served by three large thermal plants feeding two heating loops and two cooling loops — a central infrastructure system that makes building-level energy analysis extremely difficult without reliable metering.

RIT had ambitious clean energy goals, but a fundamental problem stood in the way: the campus didn't have a trustworthy picture of where its energy was actually going. Hundreds of meters existed across the campus, but many hadn't been verified in years. Without reliable data, it was impossible to benchmark buildings, identify the worst performers, or prioritize investments with any confidence.

What I Did

I led a multi-year energy study that started where it had to start — with the data itself.

The first phase was a comprehensive verification of over 300 energy meters across the campus, covering electric, natural gas, medium temperature hot water, and chilled water systems. This wasn't a spot-check — it was a systematic effort to confirm that every meter feeding into the campus energy picture was reading accurately and recording properly. Without this step, any analysis built on top of it would have been unreliable.

Once the metering infrastructure was verified, I collected 12 continuous months of energy usage and demand data from every metered building on campus. That data became the foundation for a complete benchmarking effort — comparing each building's energy performance against its peers, identifying outliers, and establishing baselines that the university could use for years to come.

At the end of the study, I performed an energy audit on one building to demonstrate how the benchmarking data could translate into specific, actionable improvement measures — creating a template for how the campus could systematically work through its portfolio.

The entire effort was designed with a single strategic purpose: to give RIT a reliable, data-driven roadmap for managing and reducing campus energy use over time.

The Result

The study delivered what the campus had never had before — a verified, building-by-building energy baseline across 4.7 million square feet and 50+ buildings, backed by 12 months of clean metered data.

RIT now had the foundation to prioritize investments, track progress, and make informed decisions about where to focus clean energy efforts across one of the most complex campus energy systems in the state.

A 74% cost share from the NYSERDA REV Campus Challenge program was secured to support the $200,000 effort — a significant return on a study that set the direction for the campus's entire energy strategy.

Project completed in a previous engineering role.

Campus Energy Master Plan & Climate Action Roadmap

The Challenge

SUNY Oswego — an 8,200-student public college on the shore of Lake Ontario — had made a public commitment. As a signatory to the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), the college had pledged to develop a plan to reach carbon neutrality. That's a bold promise for any institution, but especially for a campus in one of the coldest, windiest parts of New York State, where heating loads are enormous and the building stock spans decades of construction.

The college needed more than a sustainability statement. They needed an engineering-based roadmap that connected real energy conservation and renewable energy measures to a credible path toward carbon neutrality by 2050.

What I Did

I was responsible for developing the energy conservation and renewable energy components of the campus-wide climate action plan.

The work started with a detailed understanding of how the campus used energy — building by building, system by system. I created energy models using eQuest for four campus buildings, establishing baselines and testing the impact of proposed efficiency measures. These models provided the quantitative foundation for the plan's energy reduction targets.

From there, I developed a comprehensive set of measures covering both the demand side (efficiency improvements to reduce how much energy the campus needed) and the supply side (renewable energy strategies to clean up how that energy was generated). The analysis addressed HVAC systems, lighting, building envelope, controls, and renewable technologies — evaluating each for technical feasibility, energy impact, and cost-effectiveness in Oswego's specific climate context.

The final deliverable wasn't just a list of measures — it was a structured roadmap showing how the college could systematically reduce its carbon footprint over time, with realistic milestones and clear connections between individual projects and the institution's long-term climate commitment.

The Result

The energy and carbon reduction plan became a major component of SUNY Oswego's official climate action plan — the document required by the ACUPCC to demonstrate how the institution would achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

The plan gave campus leadership a credible, engineering-based pathway connecting today's buildings to tomorrow's climate goals — not just aspirational targets, but specific measures, realistic timelines, and quantified impacts.

This was decarbonization planning before most institutions were using the word — and the approach I developed here is the same one I bring to every campus engagement today.

Project completed in a previous engineering role.

Energy Audit Designed to Launch a Retro-Commissioning Program

The Challenge

Finger Lakes Community College is a 312,000 square foot campus in Canandaigua, New York. Like many community colleges, the facility had been maintained and operated by a dedicated but lean staff, and over the years, building systems had drifted from their original design intent. Equipment schedules didn't match occupancy patterns. Air handling sequences hadn't been revisited in years. The campus knew it was spending more on energy than it should be, but didn't have a clear picture of where the problems were — or a structured plan to address them.

The college didn't just need an audit. They needed a study that would serve as the technical foundation for a comprehensive retro-commissioning effort — one that would systematically bring every system back to optimal performance.

What I Did

I performed an energy audit of the full campus under NYSERDA's PON 4 program, but with a specific strategic intent: every element of the study was designed to lay the groundwork for a complete retro-commissioning process.

That meant going beyond the typical audit approach of identifying equipment replacements and calculating paybacks. Instead, I focused on understanding how systems were actually operating — where sequences had drifted, where schedules were misaligned, and where relatively simple corrections could recover significant energy and comfort performance.

The measures I developed reflected this operational focus:

• Warm-up mode implementation — programming the building automation system to pre-condition spaces before occupancy, reducing simultaneous heating and cooling

• Mixed air temperature setpoint correction — identifying and correcting improper economizer operation that was wasting energy during swing seasons

• Bathroom exhaust fan occupancy sensors — eliminating continuous exhaust in intermittently occupied spaces

• Demand control ventilation — matching outdoor air delivery to actual occupancy rather than running at maximum capacity all day

• Wind turbine assessment — evaluating the feasibility of on-site renewable generation given the campus's location and wind profile

Each finding was documented with the level of specificity needed to move directly into a retro-commissioning implementation scope — not just "this system is inefficient" but "here is exactly what's wrong and here is exactly how to fix it."

The Result

The study gave Finger Lakes Community College exactly what they needed: a detailed, prioritized technical foundation for launching a comprehensive retro-commissioning program across the campus.

Rather than producing a report full of capital-intensive equipment replacements, the study identified practical, operations-focused improvements that could recover performance and reduce energy costs — many with minimal capital investment.

The entire effort was 100% funded through NYSERDA — meaning the college received a complete technical roadmap at no cost.

Project completed in a previous engineering role.

Campus-Wide Energy Benchmarking & Building Performance Analysis

The Challenge

The College of Saint Rose is a 4,000-student institution in Albany, New York, with a campus that had grown organically over decades. The result was a portfolio of more than 90 buildings — residence halls, academic buildings, administrative offices, athletic facilities, and support structures — each with different construction vintages, different mechanical systems, and different energy profiles.

Campus leadership knew that energy costs were a significant and growing part of the operating budget, but with 90+ buildings to manage, the question wasn't whether improvements were possible — it was where to start. Without a way to compare buildings against each other on an objective, engineering basis, investment decisions were driven by squeaky wheels and emergency repairs rather than data.

What I Did

I performed a comprehensive energy benchmarking study across the entire campus — every building, every utility account, every available data point.

The core of the work was establishing Energy Use Intensity (EUI) baselines for each building and then organizing those baselines into meaningful comparisons. Rather than simply ranking all 90+ buildings against each other — which would have been misleading given the diversity of building types — I structured the analysis to compare buildings within their own category. Residence halls were benchmarked against other residence halls. Academic buildings against academic buildings. This approach revealed which buildings were genuinely underperforming relative to their peers, not just which buildings were large.

In addition to the portfolio-level benchmarking, I performed an ASHRAE Level 1+ energy audit on the 60,000 square foot Thelma P. Lally School of Education Building — one of the campus's key academic facilities. This deeper dive served as both a standalone analysis and a demonstration of how the benchmarking data could translate into specific, building-level improvement measures.

The final report provided campus leadership with something they had never had before: an objective, data-driven picture of energy performance across the entire portfolio, with clear indicators of where investment would have the greatest impact.

The Result

The benchmarking study gave the College of Saint Rose a complete energy performance map of their 90+ building campus — organized by building type, with clear identification of underperformers and priority targets for investment.

For the first time, facilities leadership could make energy investment decisions based on data rather than anecdote — directing limited capital toward the buildings where it would matter most.

A 60% cost share through the NYSERDA FlexTech program was secured to support the effort.

Project completed in a previous engineering role

Maria College — Campus-wide ASHRAE Level II energy audits across four academic buildings on the 800-student Albany campus. Measures included HVAC upgrades, controls improvements, and envelope recommendations. 60% cost share secured through NYSERDA FlexTech on the $39,000 effort.

University of Rochester, Lattimore Hall — ASHRAE Level III energy audit of a 70,000 sf administrative building with an induction HVAC system. Energy model created in eQuest to evaluate controls upgrades, equipment replacements, and lighting measures. 50% cost share secured through NYSERDA FlexTech.