부산대학교 도서관

As a land-grant institution, New Mexico State University (NMSU) has leveraged services offered through their engineering extension program under the Engineering New Mexico Resource Network (ENMRN) in the College of Engineering to foster environmentally sustainable Best Practices among businesses statewide. With services spanning northern New Mexico to west Texas, ENMRN has become a recognized leader in providing on-site technical services to businesses in the desert southwest that are seeking effective ways to implement Pollution Prevention (P2) and Economy, Energy and Environment (E3) Best Practices. Over the past year, business sectors such as healthcare, hospitality and manufacturing, have benefited from ENMRN's on-site P2 and E3 assessments that guide businesses on strategies for reducing energy consumption and minimizing water use and waste. Conducted by a team of faculty and staff alongside graduate and undergraduate students from NMSU, these engineering extension outreach services not only increase the operational and financial efficiency of local industry, but also educates businesses on the impact they have on the environment. Through the assessment process, the NMSU team collects data, calculates energy savings, provides recommendations for energy efficient equipment, and prepares a final report for the business management team. The final report details recommendations for adopted Best Practices to decrease costs and environmental impact (waste), with detailed analyses on cost savings over the course of five to ten years. This paper will present a Case Study on a recent assessment that was completed at a medical center's admissions department and food and nutrition services department where the following suggestions were offered: centralizing recycling bins for easier and daily pick-up, implementation of a food waste composting program, and installing energy efficient appliances and a solar energy source. Calculations showed that installing a solar system to power the food and nutrition department would save enough money to pay itself back within five years and would additionally save the medical center over $250,000 within ten years, assuming only the nutrition department ran on solar energy and their energy consumption constituted about 6% of the center's total energy consumption. Analyses also considered having the entire hospital run on solar energy, finding that this system would pay itself back within five years and save the hospital an additional $5,000,000 within ten years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]