PHOTO COURTESY OF 4240 ARCHITECTURE INC. As one of the biggest utility consumers on campuses, housing and dining programs have a dramatic financial stake and moral obligation to be part of the carbon neutrality solution . . . credits from production facilities off site is one way to significantly reduce impact and will be a trend in nextgen sustainability. Kristen Parineh, sustainability and utilities manager for residential & dining enterprises at Stanford University in California, explains that they invested $450 million in a central energy facility that opened in 2015. By transforming what was previously 100 percent fossil-fuel energy production to a more efficient heat recovery system paired with a solar power purchase off of the grid, Stanford has achieved a 68 percent reduction of emissions from peak levels. CSU is also taking steps to make the transition from the dated and inefficient steam plant on their campus and has made several public/private agreements to generate 10.4 million kWh per year of solar energy on campus by utilizing the space of rooftops and an open field on their Foothills campus. CSU students were successful in their bid to encourage the university's president to sign the Climate Reality Pledge committing to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030. To make that happen, CSU has put out a request for proposals to leverage their purchasing power as a large electric customer for a large-scale wind or solar power purchase agreement. The concept of net zero also applies to buildings with several new certifications like the Living Building Challenge and Zero Net Energy emerging on the market. In 2016, the New Buildings Institute reported that 53 buildings in the U.S. (compared to 33 in 2014) were certified as Zero Net Energy, which means they operated for at least one year with zero net energy use. JULY + AUGUST 2018 51