My capstone project for the sustainability certificate program combined all of my prior education. My project gave me the opportunity to work with a team to benefit the Athens community. Our team worked with a few stakeholders including the Athens Clarke County Office of Sustainability to develop a model for water usage in the South Milledge area. This project specifically analyzed how implementing more water efficient infrastructure such as plumbing improvements effected the overall cost of consumers water bills and the money spent on water treatment. Our project addressed each sphere of sustainability and used skills I have acquired in my other coursework. This project also laid the foundation for other students to expand upon our model to further benefit our community.
The people we worked with include the Athens Clarke County Office of Sustainability, Dr. Rick Watson and Dr. Dan Everett, and our sustainability teachers Dr. Ron Balthazor and Kristen Lear. The ACC Office of Sustainability provided us with the necessary data and were our main stakeholders for whom we would submit the deliverables. Dr. Watson and Dr. Everett were our mentors for statistical analysis methods specifically relating to using the statistical analysis software “R.” Dr. Balthazor and Kristen Lear provided guidance on the progression of our project and implementation of our work into our sustainability portfolios.
The goals for our project can be summarized in a few key deliverables. Firstly, we consolidated the water usage data acquired from the ACC Office of Sustainability, and clearly defined the variables and parameters such as gallons per day, total cost of water and sewage treatment, and the consumption of energy in units of KWH. Next, we determined if the water infrastructure improvements significantly reduced water usage within the various households. We accomplished this feat by performing a difference of means test within “R” and we found that there is an average reduction of water usage by about 534 gallons per month in these “retrofitted” homes.
After determining that there is a significant reduction in water usage for retrofitted homes, we analyzed the cost savings to the consumer and the county. Using tools in Microsoft Excel we performed a Net Present Value analysis for the consumer. Given a thirty-year lifespan for these retrofits, we found that the NPV is approximately $1,570. This number was found using a municipal bond rate, as the cost of the retrofits were to be fronted by the county. After determining the savings to the consumer, we addressed the costs associated with the county treatment facilities. The total cost to treat water and the reclamation of sewage depends on a multitude of factors. These factors include energy costs, taxes, supply/generation charges, delivery cost, distribution/transmission components, demand charges, and combined benefit charges. Applying the reduction in water use to the total cost we found that the county would save an average of $12 per retrofitted household per year.
The final step in our water usage analysis was addressing the carbon offset of the reduction in water usage. The county consumes energy for treatment and reclamation, and these KWH units have a carbon emission factor. According to the ACC Office of Sustainability, every KWH is equivalent to 1.01 lbs of carbon emissions. Using these numbers, we determined that the county reduce carbon emissions by 14 lbs for water treatment and approximately 28 lbs for water reclamation facilities.
There were many challenges to this project, the first being the actual data acquisition. The necessary data was only available at the ACC Office of Sustainability, so our team was dependent on the office for delivery of data. There were also unreliable variables included in our analysis such as homeowner logistics (# of occupants, # of appliances). We also encountered programming troubleshooting working with statistical analysis software. Through these constraints we were able to successfully deliver a model for water usage in the South Milledge area.
Our project addressed the three spheres of sustainability. Socially, these households are considered low income and could not front the cost for retrofits without assistance to the county. Economically, our model transformed water usage into real dollars and cents. By completing the cost analysis, we were able to provide the county with an incentive to purchase and install these retrofits. Environmentally, this project models the carbon emissions reduced by the retrofitted homes. If the retrofits were applied to more households, our community could drastically reduce the carbon emissions produced by energy consumption.
Completing this capstone project not only extended my knowledge of sustainability, but also provided me with an opportunity to work with some sustainable minded people. It was a very rewarding experience to work together as a team. Seeing what could be accomplished when a group of people work towards a common goal was inspiring, and I will not soon forget this experience. This project can be extended upon by future students, and I hope others improve our model to include more households. The culmination of my sustainability coursework resulted in a very beneficial capstone project not just for me, but hopefully for the Athens community.