State Grants Evergreen More than $1 Million Toward Sustainability

The Evergreen State College has been awarded a State Project Improvement Grant of $1,159,232 by the Washington State Department of Commerce.

These funds will be used to increase energy efficiency of the HVAC system of Lab I, which houses labs used to study quantum mechanics, marine biology and integrated natural science. These measures will reduce energy usage enough to save $67,000 per year and help the college in its efforts to reach carbon neutrality.

“This is a big win for Evergreen,” said William Ward, Evergreen’s associate vice president for facilities services. “Not only does this grant get us closer to reaching our sustainability goals, it also provides a nice return on investment to taxpayers. We could not have reached this outcome without the help of Department of Enterprise Services, Willdan Energy Solutions and a variety of college staff.”

The grant dollars, intended to cover the cost of increasing efficiency and environmental performance, were made available to projects at state-owned facilities funded under the 2019 – 21 Capital Budget. In 2019, the state approved a $4 million investment in HVAC upgrades to Evergreen’s Lab I building constructed in 1972. The project includes necessary improvements to the existing system to correct heating, cooling, ventilation and safety issues including seismic upgrades.

Upgrades will begin this summer and Evergreen anticipates seeing results as soon as the end of the 2020 calendar year.  The project will be monitored for three years to ensure energy performance goals are achieved.                

More information on State Project Improvement Grants can be found here.