UTHealth Houston champions sustainability

From recycling condensation into a water feature to green chemistry practices, UTHealth Houston focuses on campuswide initiatives to reduce the university’s environmental impact through UTHealth Houston’s Sustainability Program.

Launched by Facilities, Planning, Engineering, and Auxiliary Enterprises in 2023, the sustainability working group aims to significantly reduce energy consumption and costs. UTHealth Houston has earned the CenterPoint SCORE program award twice, resulting in more than $400,000 in rebates to the university.

The group recently drafted the UTHealth Houston Sustainability Policy, aligning with UT System Policy UTS169 Sustainability Practices, to guide comprehensive sustainability measures within the institution.

UTHealth Houston is also advancing sustainable infrastructure with the construction of the Public Health Education and Research Building, slated for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification upon completion. This initiative reinforces the university’s commitment to environmentally conscious design, complementing the existing LEED Gold-certified School of Nursing building.

Additionally, UTHealth Houston has implemented various campuswide sustainability features and practices, including LED light retrofits, occupancy sensors for lights and HVAC systems, and recycling programs.

More innovative among these sustainability projects is the reclamation of water from air conditioning systems at the Fayez S. and Susan K. Sarofim Research Building.

In the last fiscal year alone, 1.3 million gallons of water were saved by five condensation collection tanks used to supply the outdoor water feature at the Sarofim Research Building. Regulating the temperature at the research building creates condensation that would normally run off into the sanitary sewer system. The UTHealth Houston Energy Conservation Opportunities Team, established in 2018 to reduce energy consumption, coordinates the accumulation of this condensation, reducing the water bill by 20%.

Facilities plays a pivotal role in the university’s efforts for a greener footprint. Approximately 85% of the campus’s total sustainability efforts fall under the department’s watch, including energy and utility savings, managing recycling programs, and optimizing infrastructure efficiency.

Another sustainability initiative involves the Office of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS). A recent surge in chemical hazardous waste generation at the institution required Environmental Protection Manager Alan Lucas and his team to collect larger volumes of alcohol, xylene, and other materials more frequently.

Through a process called “bulking,” the materials are safely consolidated into larger containers by trained EHS staff before they’re sent to a licensed hazardous waste vendor. The waste, which includes flammable chemicals, often undergoes fuel blending, which repurposes it as fuel, significantly reduces its disposal costs, and effectively salvages its British thermal unit (BTU) value. Lucas reports that about 23,000 pounds of these flammable wastes are shipped annually to be used as fuel.

“It’s a lot cheaper for us to send the material off for fuel blending than it is if we just send it off and ask for it to be destroyed,” said Scott Patlovich, DrPH, assistant vice president of EHS. “When they destroy it, they would be burning it, but they would not be recovering any of that BTU value. It’s a win-win. The university saves money using this method, and the materials are used to their fullest.”

The university also promotes green chemistry practices (such as replacing hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives, when possible) and strictly prohibits drain disposal of chemicals, emphasizing institutional support for sustainable operations. 

The university’s sustainability core group meets quarterly and consists of Patlovich; William “Wes” Stewart, MBA, MS, vice president of Facilities, Planning, Engineering, and Auxiliary Enterprises; Robert “Safety Bob” Emery, DrPH, vice president of Safety, Health, Environment, and Risk Management (SHERM); William Perkison, MD, MPH, assistant professor of occupational medicine in the Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Sciences at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health; Bobby Watson, director of utilities, controls, and energy management; and Mark Morvant, manager of energy and sustainability.

To learn more about UTHealth Houston’s other ongoing sustainability initiatives, visit the SHERM sustainability website.