Cost Savings

UT Knoxville Facilities Services has been under budget by $1.8M (6.7%) each of the last two years.

UT Knoxville has more than $30M in avoided utilities costs since 2002 and has been under budget in utilities by over $5M each of the last five years. The UT Facilities Services Energy Task Force identifies and reviews projects. In addition, this group analyzes system problems on campus and develops solutions.

Facilities Services accomplishes many utilities savings projects each year by replacing less efficient components with more efficient components during normal maintenance activities.

The Revolving Fund has allowed UT Knoxville to implement several small scale projects with quick savings. There is currently about $240,000 in identified projects with anticipated savings of $140,000 per year.

Campus building management systems use the programming capabilities to schedule systems off when not needed, and to reset temperatures to maximize energy savings.

 

Facilities Services has switched from using its contract for custodial supplies such as paper towels, toilet paper, soap, and garbage can liners to using a contract bid-out by the Tennessee Board of Regents. This coupled with increased training and watchfulness of the department’s custodians has resulted in saving approximately $300,000 annually on custodial supplies.

 

Facilities Services looks for opportunities to create contracts and/or change sources where possible to take advantage of pricing opportunities. Both State and UT Knoxville contracts are used.

The department’s Central Supply office often performs strategic sourcing by combining multiple purchasing documents of like items to obtain best pricing through quantity discounts.

 

Facilities Services plays several key roles in support of capital projects from inception to programming, project management, utilities and campus coordination, and other support throughout the project, through inspection, and assuming operation of the project at completion.

Input from the Facilities Services Design Unit has resulted in saving more than $40M on campus construction projects.

The department’s Construction Unit provides estimates and trade workers for in-house projects and smaller Capital Projects. Projects are completed in-house or using outside contractors based on cost and capabilities analytics.

 

The Zone Maintenance Unit continues to review and reduce staffing levels by re-purposing positions to improve efficiency. Positions were re-purposed to develop the One Call team and ZM inspectors.

The Building Services UT Recycling office helped to avoid $147,467 in costs through recycling and composting. The office recycled and composted 2,993.64 tons during the 2015 fiscal year. There was also $134,557 in revenue from the sale of recyclable materials, (average of $44.95 per ton in revenue).

 

Building Services & UT Recycling

During Fiscal Year 2015 a total of 6,551.51 tons went to MSW landfill and 2,379.5 was C&D for a total of 8,931.04 tons. The total cost was $439,927. The average cost to dispose of waste is $49.26 per ton.

During the same Fiscal Year 2,993.64 tons were recycled or composted. This resulted in approximately $147,467 of avoided costs by recycling and composting. There was also $134,557 in revenue from the sale of recyclable materials, averaging $44.95 per ton in revenue.

UT Recycling has eight regular student employees who are paid up to $87,040 per year. There are also 15 Work Study students who are paid up to $110,925 per year by the Federal Government.

Recycling averages six unpaid interns who receive college credit to work for the program each year.

Office of Sustainability Fiscal Year 2015