Ecologue

The OSU Sustainability Office is currently surveying campus to replace electric storage water heaters with heat pump water heaters (HPWHs) to cut down our energy usage. A few of the existing electric storage models use nearly 5000 kWh per year. The most efficient electric storage water heaters have an Energy Factor (EF) of 0.95 due […]

The 3.2 volt 180 amp-hour (Ah) Lithium Ion battery has an outstanding life cycle of 2000 (number of times the battery can withstand being completely charged and then discharged).  There are 16 high capacity battery packs,  each containing 3 individual batteries connected in parallel to reach 540Ah.  Each pack can deliver 540 amps for an hour or […]

As a part of the OSU Sustainability Office, we are working hard to ensure that steam pipes are properly insulated throughout campus.  A few of the mechanical rooms we have installed insulation include Wiegand, Kerr, Dearborn, Hovland, and the Women’s Building.  The most recent mechanical room that needed insulation was East Greenhouse. East Greenhouse had […]

Cherry City Electric will begin installing the long awaited electric vehicle (EV) charging stations on campus today. The chargers will be connected to Ecotality’s Blink Network, where the charging station status can be checked from a computer or smartphone. Anybody will be able to charge their cars at Blink charging stations and membership is not […]

The Corvallis Sustainability Coalition is sponsoring the third in a series of meetings, titled “Energy: A Community Conversation”, to review and revise each of the 12 topic areas included in the 2008 Community Sustainability Action Plan. The meeting will take place on Monday, June 25 from 7:00 – 9:00 pm in the Corvallis Benton County […]

Summer is upon us!  The wildflowers are blooming and the (native) grasses are getting taller.  As seasons change so does the way we use energy and water.  Even though OSU strives to become a more efficient user of energy and water we still have a large footprint overall.  In the winter, OSU uses lots of […]

The long-standing Earth Week celebration at OSU is a week of fun and educational activities geared toward raising environmental awareness and engagement, taking place April 21-28 this year. Whether you are interested in bringing out your wild side at Earth Ball 2012, getting your hands into the dirt at the annual Hoo Haa at the […]

Over 40 years ago, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson helped drive communities across the U.S.  to organize teach-ins for the environment on April 22, 1970 – the first Earth Day. Right here on our campus, OSU students put together a series of events, participating in this landmark date. While Earth Day-related festivities have not occurred every […]

The two-month-long energy conservation effort Campuses take Charge has officially kicked off at OSU as of April 2nd. The campaign encourages students to try new energy-saving actions for a month, and to log their conservation data after they are finished. The campaign is sponsored by Energize Corvallis, the OSU Sustainability Office, and the Student Sustainability Initiative. To join, […]

The Harvesting Clean Energy (HCE) conference is the Northwest’s premiere event bringing together the agriculture and energy industries to advance opportunities for rural communities to produce clean energy, boost struggling rural economies, and help the region and nation meet the energy challenges of the coming decade. Now in its 12th year, Harvesting Clean Energy consistently […]