Strengthen University Management and Resources

In the wake of the University’s two-year, $170 million budget reduction launched in spring 2009, the Committee to Strengthen University Management and Resources (SUMAR) was established to keep finding and supporting efficiencies in central and academic administration that enable the release of resources toward teaching, research, and the student experience. 

We encourage you to offer Suggestions & Feedback. This site will be updated periodically to highlight new initiatives and success stories as they unfold across the institution.

• Identified $30,000 of annual energy cost savings at the component level within one academic building's HVAC system using control system optimization software that performs fault detection and diagnostics using data collected from the building's automation system.  Over the next two years, this effort will be replicated in 46 academic and administrative buildings. 
• Installing a 5.3 megawatt solar collector field on University land in West Windsor comprising 16,500 photovoltaic panels to reduce the University's carbon footprint by decreasing its dependency on fossil fuels and trimming approximately 8 percent per year from its electric costs. The collector field should generate 8 million kilowatt-hours per year, which is enough to power the equivalent of 700 homes or, at Princeton, enough to meet 5.5 percent of the total annual campus electrical needs. This project is expected to be completed in mid-summer 2012.
• Engaged a contractor to perform a special multi-step grinding process twice a year that converts all the University's fallen and cut tree limbs into mulch for use around campus. This effort not only results in annual recurring savings of approximately $35,000, but also reduces landscape vendor vehicles coming to campus, which is more environmentally friendly.  
• Installed a heat recovery system on the stack of the University's cogeneration plant that lowers the exhaust discharge temperature and transfers the heat into the boiler feed water. The system saves $900,000 per year in fuel costs and lowers campus carbon dioxide emissions by 5,400 metric tons per year.
• Reconfigured the existing fire alarm testing staff to create a new group called Site Protection 24/7. This group works rotating 12 hour shifts and is available to respond immediately to facility related emergent calls, in addition to testing the fire alarm systems. This effort produced numerous benefits, including more efficient and less disruptive testing at night and on weekends, shorter response times for requests for assistance, and mitigation of building damage due to quicker triage of a situation and shut down of necessary systems. This program produced a 67% reduction in the amount of overtime hours associated with facilities staff being called back to campus to address an emergent situation, and resulted in an annual cost savings of approximately $270,000.