Office of Sustainability works to fulfill grant

The office will focus on improving energy efficiency in city buildings.

By Angela Case

Published March 19, 2010

Columbia has a new Office of Sustainability thanks to a $1 million federal block grant from the Department of Energy. Former MU employee Barbara Buffaloe is the sustainability manager and sole employee of the office.

Buffaloe said she was chosen for the job because she has experience in many sustainability-related areas, including sustainable housing.

The office will focus primarily on fulfilling the requirements of the $1 million block grant the city received from the department.

Assistant City Manager Paula Hertwig Hopkins said the city must obligate the grant money by the end of 2012. The grant provides funds for creating and maintaining the sustainability office, performing energy assessments on city buildings and retrofitting buildings to make them more energy efficient.

Hertwig Hopkins said the assessment and retrofitting process would focus on city-owned buildings. The first step of the process is finding contractors to do the assessments. Then the assessments will be performed and interpreted, and necessary retrofits will be implemented.

The assessments will dictate what specific retrofitting is necessary, Buffaloe said. She anticipates the city will replace some buildings' heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and update indoor lighting to be more energy-efficient.

In addition to fulfilling the requirements of the block grant, Buffaloe hopes to improve citywide sustainability efforts by working in collaboration with Columbia's three universities.

"The universities provide a connection with a broader audience than just mid-Missouri," Buffaloe said. "They play a role in our activities and our behaviors."

Buffaloe and MU Sustainability Coordinator Steve Burdic have discussed a collaborative recycling campaign between the city and the university. The potential campaign would educate students on what they can recycle and where and encourage students to recycle both on campus and at home.

Burdic said MU already collaborates with the city on recycling efforts.

"The university and the city are partners working to reduce the amount of trash that ends up in the landfill," he said in an e-mail. "The city picks up our recyclables and shares the profit of the sale with the university. The university educates students, faculty and staff to recycle at home."

MU environmental studies department Director Jan Weaver said the department might collaborate with the sustainability office in the future to offer internships for environmental studies students. Weaver said the department might also be able to help the sustainability office do research on specific sustainability issues.

Buffaloe is the only employee of the new office. She said her actions would help determine whether the office grows to include an administrative assistant and other employees.

"If I can create enough savings, I hope to grow the department," she said.

She plans to introduce a committee to hear Columbia residents' thoughts about sustainability.

"Columbia is a very progressive community," she said. "Many residents are aware of their impact on the environment."

The office will improve communication between various city departments and residents, Burdic said.

"The city of Columbia already does a good job on many sustainability issues," he said. "They need a point of contact to tell residents about the good things that are already going on and to encourage them to do even better."

Weaver said in the future the sustainability office could help the city find more sustainable sources of energy and help contractors and homebuilders make homes more energy-efficient.

"There are a bunch of ways you can reduce the carbon footprint of a community," she said. "It's valuable to have somebody who's paying attention to that, so the other department managers can focus on their jobs."

— Staff Writer Megan Swieca contributed to this report.