University of North Carolina, Greensboro
PAE-24: Sustainability Policy Advocacy

The UNC Office of Federal Government Relations supports legislation that "authorizes energy research opportunities." UNC also supports "preserving current funding levels for the Department of Energy (DOE) research grants and contracts with Universities" (please see http://www.northcarolina.edu/frc_funding/index.php?pg=dl&id=5248&inline=1&return_url=%2Ffrc_fun ding%2Findex.php%3Fpg%3Dvb%26tag%3Dtoc The UNC Board of Governors also proposed energy efficiency strategies and incentives in its 2009-10 legislative agenda. Measures allowing campuses to retain energy savings achieved through performance contracting and other means, and to increase the state cap for energy performance contracts to $500 million were both passed by the legislature (please see http://www.northcarolina.edu/src/agenda/2009-10_BOG_Agenda_-_DRAFT_-_2.pdf ) Finally, in February 2013 UNC schools will present a policy to the legislature regarding energy service contracts. Currently, only one school in the system is permitted to implement energy conservation measures without an ESCO under the provisions of G.S. 143-64.17L. UNCG has asked the UNC System to support legislative efforts to expand this provision to include other universities (UNCG and others) so that all universities have the option to either use an ESCO or implement energy conservation projects on their own. It is generally accepted that ESCO contracts have profit margins in the 30% range. Allowing the universities to implement these projects without the involvement of an ESCO will result in investing the ESCO profit (say 30%) into actual energy conservation measures (primarily equipment) that will result in increasing the energy savings of the state. Please see http://www.northcarolina.edu/frc_funding/index.php?pg=dl&id=5248&inline=1&return_url=%2Ffrc_fun ding%2Findex.php%3Fpg%3Dvb%26tag%3Dtoc

Information for this credit was received from Mike Tarrant, Director of Strategic Initiatives at UNCG.