Numerous events hosted by dozens of organizations make up Earth Day at the University of Iowa, but how eco-friendly is the university?

In terms of energy use, waste diversion, and transportation, officials say the UI is doing well. However, in terms of sustainability-related education, the school still has room for improvement.

In 2010, the UI began an initiative to meet seven sustainability goals by 2020. The Office of Sustainability compiled a midterm report on these goals, which shows the university is well on its way to achieving them.

Some of these goals include achieving a net-negative energy growth, decreasing the production of waste at the university, and reducing carbon impact from transportations.

Despite adding 10 new buildings in the past five years, the UI’s overall energy demand is down 4 percent.

“That’s absolute energy use. It’s not normalized based on square footage or campus population,” Sustainability Director Liz Christiansen said. “It’s the bill at the end of the month, and it’s lower despite everything that has happened.”

One feature that has had the largest impact on this progress is the Energy Control Center, which gathers energy data from buildings across campus, Christiansen said. The Energy Management Team analyzes this information to find and fix energy inefficiencies.

Rick Ney, the associate director of Facilities Management Utilities Distribution, said the system has saved the UI $7 million and brought $3 million in rebates from MidAmerican Energy since it was built in 2010.

“Our center has been something of a model to other universities, so similar centers have been built in Illinois and Nebraska,” Ney said. “It has been widely praised and received awards.”

In addition to reducing energy use, the UI aims to decrease its use of coal and generate 40 percent of its energy from renewable, locally grown biomass fuel.

The midyear report showed that the UI is only generating 14.4 percent energy from renewable fuel, but Christiansen said this number could be as high as 30 percent by the end of the year.

Waste diversion is another area that has made significant improvements. The 2020 goal is to divert 60 percent of waste at the UI from the landfill, and that rate is at 42 percent.

Waste is diverted in the form of recycling, composting, and repurposing materials.

“One thing that has given us a good bump in our diversion rate is through increased composting of food waste from Burge and Hillcrest to the pulper,” UI Sustainability communications specialist George McCrory said.

Christiansen said the two dining halls eliminated trays, which she said has decreased the amount of food students leave behind and saved thousands of dollars in food orders.

In order to reach the 60 percent diversion goal, Christiansen said, officials will continue to dive deeper into the waste stream to find new sources of diversion.

“When it’s made convenient, when we build in recycling and composting into our systems, it can have a pretty dramatic impact,” she said.

The UI has already exceeded its goal to reduce fossil-fuel use by 10 percent. The current rate is over 14 percent.

“Cambus has done a great job in driving up mileage and efficiency, plus the campus remains walkable, and we’re encouraging people to bike and bolster bike services,” Christiansen said.

The final three goals involve increasing sustainability education, research, and partnerships.

Christiansen said officials hope to do more to increase the number of sustainability-related courses available to students, and she said UI President Bruce Harreld has also made this is a priority.

Christiansen said UI’s current undergraduate sustainability certificate is strong and popular.