Energy use is the largest source of Duke’s greenhouse gas emissions, and thus represents an important opportunity for sizable emission reductions. The university continues to make progress in reducing the GHG footprint at both whole-campus and individual-building scales. Of note, during the 2022-23 academic year, Duke Facilities Management commissioned a Chilled Water Thermal Energy Storage tank, completed the 3rd major phase of the LED lighting retrofit project (over 7.2M square feet of buildings now all-LED), and continued to convert buildings from steam to hot water heating (beyond the 28 buildings already converted). These efforts build on over a decade of progress, resulting in the lowest energy emissions of record despite significant campus growth.
Annual Report 2023 > Sustainable Operations