Environmental savings lauded

Photo, from left, WSU Vice President of Business Affairs Greg Royer, President V. Lane Rawlins, Facilities Operations Energy Manager Terry Ryan, Regents President Rafael Stone and Rob Fukai, director of the state Department of General Administration during Friday’s award presentation. (Photo by Shelly Hanks, WSU Photo Services)

Washington State University on Friday was awarded a 2004 Governor’s Award for Excellence in Energy Management from the office of outgoing Washington Gov. Gary Locke. The award, presented during the WSU Regents meeting in Pullman, is a recognition of a number of energy-efficiency improvements and environmental achievements made universitywide.

Among the improvements cited by the award are a 29,538-ton annual reduction in carbon dioxide emissions (the equivalent of taking 3,938 cars off the road) and an annual savings in electric energy equivalent to the amount of electricity needed to serve 900 homes.

In particular, the work of Terry Ryan, energy manager for Facilities Operations was singled out for praise in the governor’s citation.

You can read more about the award and WSU’s work to earn it in the Feb. 4 issue of WSU Today, the faculty/staff newspaper, which will be delivered universitywide next Thursday, Feb. 3.