UTSA Energy and Sustainability to launch summer energy savings initiative

JUNE 17, 2025 — UTSA Energy and Sustainability is launching an initiative to reduce the university’s energy and water usage this summer, supporting UTSA’s commitment to sustainability and responsible energy use.

This summer’s initiative relies on coordinated, strategic efforts that leverage practical and educational opportunities to support utility conservation. The team estimates the university can save $100,000 or more this summer through a variety of thoughtful methods.

“Water and energy conservation are an important part of maintaining responsible environmental stewardship and operational efficiency,” said Veronica Salazar, UTSA executive vice president for business affairs and chief enterprise development officer. “Decreasing energy consumption is fiscally responsible, extends the life of essential campus systems and equipment, and strengthens UTSA’s role as a model for effective sustainability practices.”

Energy and Sustainability’s plans include direct intervention, such as adjusting building cooling levels based on occupancy and identifying maintenance opportunities to improve efficiency, as well as communication and community engagement, including student-led outreach and reminders about simple ways we can reduce our everyday energy usage.

Watt Watchers Student Team

To support the university’s ongoing sustainability efforts, Energy and Sustainability has launched a new, student-led team known as Watt Watchers. These trained students will provide invaluable support for this summer’s energy and water conservation initiatives by auditing lighting and thermostats in key campus buildings, performing everyday outreach to the campus community and building occupants, and more.

The Watt Watchers cohort will also provide additional support for UTSA Facilities, offering the students a well-rounded career-engaged learning opportunity. The group will complete field work on campus that includes setting pneumatic thermostats and identifying maintenance issues. Additionally, the team will engage in technical work such as programming cooling set points and schedules into the campus building automation system, tracking campus energy and water meters to calculate savings, and identifying opportunities for additional savings through data analysis.

Mark Wood (right) from UTSA Facilities trains student Watt Watchers Gabriela Sanchez-San Miguel, Bryttan New and Cristian Gonzalez on how to set pneumatic thermostats.

Optimized Cooling Setpoints

Over the summer, campus sees lighter foot traffic than during the fall and spring semesters. As a result, campus buildings are less populated during June, July and much of August. In past years, UTSA has turned down cooling in many buildings over the summer to successfully save energy. This year, Energy and Sustainability has developed a strategic, tactical plan to maximize energy savings by directing energy where it is needed most and reducing it where practical.

In classrooms, offices and event spaces that are steadily occupied during the summer months, occupants may notice slightly warmer indoor temperatures. These spaces require significantly more energy to cool in the summer than in fall and spring, so Energy and Sustainability has calculated an optimized cooling setpoint for them. This setpoint was established using thermal comfort science to maintain indoor temperatures that are comfortable for most occupants while minimizing energy use.

Additionally, an important piece of Energy and Sustainability’s strategy is ensuring that cooling reductions do not impact regular campus operations. Laboratories, data centers, storage spaces for instruments, rare books and artifacts, and similar locations that rely on climate control to function properly are not subject to the optimized cooling setpoint.

As summer progresses, the Watt Watchers student team will continuously monitor energy savings and assist Energy and Sustainability in refining strategies where needed to improve results. This learning process will provide data that will inform future energy savings strategies on campus.

“Shut the Sash” Awareness Campaign

Chemical fume hoods, found in laboratories throughout the Main Campus, are essential for lab safety, as they ventilate hazardous fumes away from lab workers. This means they must move a large volume of air, which requires a large amount of energy.

The fume hood’s vertically sliding clear window, or sash, protects the lab worker while allowing them to see into the hood and also directly affects the amount of air flowing through the unit. Keeping the sash as low as possible significantly reduces energy consumption. An open sash can use as much energy in one day as three to four homes.

Over the spring, Energy and Sustainability partnered with UTSA’s Laboratory Safety Division on a “Shut the Sash” campaign to encourage lab students and researchers to keep fume hood sashes low while working and close them when not in use. The team continues to work with college deans to educate students about why shutting the sash plays an important role in campus energy savings. The students are encouraged to carry the message forward by reminding each other to shut their sashes.

CPS Energy Demand Response Program

Energy conservation during San Antonio’s hot summers has been an ongoing priority for UTSA. Each year, the university participates in CPS Energy’s Demand Response Program, which offers incentives for voluntarily reducing energy use during conservation events — periods of high electricity demand. This effort supports both the local and regional community by helping meet energy needs, lowering costs and reducing the risk of extreme measures like rolling blackouts.

This summer marks UTSA’s tenth consecutive year participating in the program. During Summer 2024, UTSA’s conservation efforts reduced the university’s energy demand by an average of 664 kW during peak periods — enough to power approximately 130 homes. Summer 2025’s initiative aims to far exceed past years’ success.

Looking to the future, Energy and Sustainability plans to use what they learn through the summer energy savings campaign to develop a winter savings initiative for the Fall 2025 semester. In the long term, the team plans to establish a year-round energy savings program that educates and engages the campus community for support.

— Elyse Brown