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Situated on 250 wooded acres, the

Warren Golf Course is a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. The course is one of only eight in the state of Indiana to have achieved the certification from Audubon International. The Cooperative Sanctuary Program helps golf courses to protect the environment, support wild bird populations, and also to preserve the natural components of the golfing tradition. To reach Audubon certification, course personnel demonstrate that they are maintaining a high degree of environmental quality in numerous areas, including water quality & conservation, education & outreach, habitat & wildlife management, and environmental planning.

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To support the long-term goal of having the entire campus connected to geothermal heating and cooling, the Southeast Geothermal Plant was established in fall 2025 to distribute heating to buildings in the southeast region of campus and cooling throughout all of campus. For double the impact, a green roof was installed during construction

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Morris Inn, North Notre Dame Avenue, South Bend, IN

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During a renovation to become LEED-certified in 2013, the Morris Inn received a green roof, which totals 8,300 square feet.

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Built in 1931, this men's residence hall on South Quad features a green roof that totals 8,300 square feet.

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Notre Dame Stadium, Moose Krause Circle, Notre Dame, IN

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The Campus Crossroads Project consisted of three connected LEED Gold buildings lining the perimeter of the stadium: Duncan Student Center, O'Neill Hall of Music, and Corbett Family Hall. A total of 52,900 square feet of green roofs also sit atop all three buildings, helping to improve air quality, mitigate stormwater runoff, and reduce heating and cooling energy loads by providing additional insulation.

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The U.S. Green Building Council has awarded the University of Notre Dame with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification for the design, construction and operation of the three buildings surrounding Notre Dame Stadium Duncan Student Center, Corbett Family Hall and O'Neill Hall.

With a total of 10 stories in each building and 830,000 square feet, the facilities bring together academics - the departments of Anthropology, Music and Psychology - as well as Athletics and Student Life with custom classroom, performance, research, media, recreation, event and hospitality space.

The University earned 60 credits in nine categories including the use of sustainable materials and resources, water efficiency, energy, innovation in design and indoor environmental quality, among several other areas. Throughout the construction of the project, more than 20 percent of the building materials consisted of post-consumer and pre-consumer recycled content and more than 20 percent of materials were manufactured or harvested regionally.

Because of water efficient plumbing fixtures in bathrooms, showers and kitchens, the amount of water used is 35 percent less than in standard new construction. In total, the three buildings are 18 percent more energy efficient than standards. High-efficiency, thermal envelope insulation in the walls and roofs, a high-efficiency central fan system and high-performance window glass glazing reduces the energy consumption. In addition, by using electricity from the University's central power plant, the facilities take advantage of the efficiencies of the co-generation plant and avoid transmission losses of a public utility grid that can be as high as 85 percent.

Boasting one of the largest green roofs in Indiana, the living roofs cover nearly all of the flat roof surfaces of the three buildings and serve to mitigate stormwater runoff, improve air quality, reduce noise, provide additional insulation and reduce heating and cooling energy loads.

The interiors were carefully and sustainably designed as well. LED lighting reduces energy consumption by up to 50 percent compared to conventional lighting, and room lighting controls combined with occupancy sensors enable occupants to control the amount of lighting used and conserve energy when possible. All paints and coatings comply with the Green Seal standard, and all carpets meet Green Label Plus standards.

In addition, much of the waste has been diverted from landfills. During the construction of the building, more than 75 percent of the waste was recycled including concrete, metals, wood, cardboard, drywall and other materials, and since the building has been in use, occupants have been encouraged to recycle.

Since 2011, the University of Notre Dame has been committed to following LEED standards for all new construction. The University has earned 10 LEED Gold certifications including this one and five LEED Silver certifications. In addition to saving energy and resources, LEED buildings contribute to a greener, more sustainable environment for generations to come.

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Notre Dame earns LEED Gold for Duncan Student Center, Corbett Family Hall and O'Neill Hall

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The University earned 60 credits in nine categories including the use of sustainable materials and resources, water efficiency, energy, innovation in de...

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McCourtney Hall, Leahy Drive, Notre Dame, IN

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McCourtney Hall, Leahy Drive, Notre Dame, IN

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McCourtney Hall, Leahy Drive, Notre Dame, IN

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McCourtney Hall is home to our friends in the Environmental Change Initiative and the Just Transformations to Sustainability! Learn more about their programs by following these links:

Environmental Change Initiative (ECI)

Just Transformations to Sustainability

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To support the long-term goal of having the entire campus connected to geothermal heating and cooling, the Southeast Geothermal Plant was established in fall 2025 to distribute heating to buildings in the southeast region of campus and cooling throughout all of campus.

Geothermal systems support sustainable energy usage for heating and cooling buildings on campus. By utilizing a network of water-filled pipes buried underground, they take advantage of the year-round 50°F average temperatures below the Earth's surface, circulating water in a closed-loop piping system to a depth of roughly 300 feet before returning it to the surface and distributing it through an energy center. By starting the heating and cooling process at the 50°F baseline, significantly less energy is used to create comfortable building temperatures.

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In 2023, Notre Dame began construction on the West Campus Solar Project, a 46,000-square-foot solar array. Thanks to a partnership with local solar panel manufacturer, Crossroads Solar, this array is a multi-purpose space that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing as many as 137 passenger vehicles from the road annually. Alongside generating clean energy, this array is being reestablished as a pollinator prairie to support local pollinator populations in the region.

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Jordan Hall of Science, 54605 Leahy Dr, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA

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Jordan Hall of Science Native Pollinator Station

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Jordan Hall of Science Native Pollinator Station

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Created from a graduate student's project in a restoration ecology course led by Prof. Ryan Sensenig, Jordan Hall is now home to a pocket prairie on the east side of Jordan Hall. This pollinator space supports a variety of pollinator species.

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During Reunion 2016, The Alumni Class of 1976 installed a butterfly garden on the corner of St. Mary’s Road and Holy Cross Drive as their class gift. Situated near the Grotto, the garden invites pollinators on campus and provides a welcome pop of color for visitors and campus community members alike.

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Landscape Services consists of less than forty individuals who care for the 1,250 acres of Notre Dame's campus! The landscaping crew is a dedicated team that keeps our campus beautiful, and has been steadily transforming many campus spaces into native garden and pollinator spaces. Thanks to this team, Notre Dame is officially recognized as a Tree Campus by the Arbor Day Foundation.

Next to the Landscape Services Building is a developing monarch waystation, established in memory of landscape crew member John Zimmerman's late wife, Sharron.

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Native Pollinator Garden Prairie (across from Notre Dame FCU)

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Native Pollinator Garden Prairie (across from Notre Dame FCU)

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A native pollinator space that supports critical members of our ecosystem by providing food and shelter for bees, birds, butterflies, moths, and other beneficial creatures.

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South Dining Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA

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South Dining Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA

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South Dining Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA

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South Dining Hall is home to a 20,400 square-foot green roof. Green roofs host numerous benefits that add longevity to a building’s roof over a traditional membrane roof, including protection from ultraviolet radiation, thermal shock, and standard weathering. The layer of soil and vegetation aids in insulating buildings, which saves money and energy from heating and cooling efforts. Living roofs are also helpful in diverting stormwater runoff by collecting rainwater in the soil to help prevent flooding events. Local fauna also reap rewards from the vegetation by securing additional food sources through the varied mix of blooms that crop up throughout the growing season. Green roofs can be heavy loads for buildings to bear, so the soil only measures a few inches deep. To accommodate this, the plant mix is primarily sedum, a drought-tolerant succulent that has shallow root systems and requires less soil depth to thrive. Within the urban environment, heat island effects can cause a marked increase in ambient temperatures—up to seven degrees Fahrenheit—due to buildings and other infrastructure absorbing and re-emitting heat from sunlight. Green roofs are able to absorb some of the sun’s hot rays and reduce heat island effects.

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Mendoza College of Business, Notre Dame, IN

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Mendoza College of Business houses an 18,150 square-foot green roof. Green roofs host numerous benefits that add longevity to a building’s roof over a traditional membrane roof, including protection from ultraviolet radiation, thermal shock, and standard weathering. The layer of soil and vegetation aids in insulating buildings, which saves money and energy from heating and cooling efforts. Living roofs are also helpful in diverting stormwater runoff by collecting rainwater in the soil to help prevent flooding events. Local fauna also reap rewards from the vegetation by securing additional food sources through the varied mix of blooms that crop up throughout the growing season. Green roofs can be heavy loads for buildings to bear, so the soil only measures a few inches deep. To accommodate this, the plant mix is primarily sedum, a drought-tolerant succulent that has shallow root systems and requires less soil depth to thrive. Within the urban environment, heat island effects can cause a marked increase in ambient temperatures—up to seven degrees Fahrenheit—due to buildings and other infrastructure absorbing and re-emitting heat from sunlight. Green roofs are able to absorb some of the sun’s hot rays and reduce heat island effects.

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Completed in summer 2025, Graham Family Hall became a LEED Gold-certified residence hall.

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Below the trees throughout Notre Dame’s parking lots, the University utilized silva cells during lot construction. These cells are grid-like systems that allow tree roots to grow freely underground without disrupting the pavement. Having healthy trees among paved areas and walking paths helps to reduce heat island effects and absorb water to reduce severity of flooding events.

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Center for Culinary Excellence, St Michaels Dr, Notre Dame, IN

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Center for Culinary Excellence, St Michaels Dr, Notre Dame, IN

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Center for Culinary Excellence, St Michaels Dr, Notre Dame, IN

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In both Dining Halls and at the Center for Culinary Excellence, the University collects prep scraps and uneaten food that cannot be donated into its Grind2Energy (G2E) system. G2E uses anaerobic digestion to turn food waste into fuel, fertilizer, and bedding for a local dairy farm.

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University of Notre Dame Food Waste/Food Rescue Solution

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South Dining Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA

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In both Dining Halls and at the Center for Culinary Excellence, the University collects prep scraps and uneaten food that cannot be donated into its Grind2Energy (G2E) system. G2E uses anaerobic digestion to turn food waste into fuel, fertilizer, and bedding for a local dairy farm.

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University of Notre Dame Food Waste/Food Rescue Solution

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Rockne Memorial, Holy Cross Drive, Notre Dame, IN

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Rockne Memorial, Holy Cross Drive, Notre Dame, IN

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Rockne Memorial, Holy Cross Drive, Notre Dame, IN

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The Rockne Memorial, a historic gem on Notre Dame’s campus, has embraced modern sustainability with the addition of a 21,380-square-foot green roof, completed this summer.

The roof’s vegetative system, composed of a mix of Sedum plants, offers a vibrant display that changes with the seasons—blooming uniquely in spring, summer, and fall.

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Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, St. André Way, Notre Dame, IN

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Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, St. André Way, Notre Dame, IN

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Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, St. André Way, Notre Dame, IN

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The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art proudly achieved LEED Gold certification on November 18, 2024. Located at N. Eddy St & E. Angela Blvd in Notre Dame, Indiana, the museum seamlessly integrates with the Charles B. Hayes Family Sculpture Park and the University’s arts district and embodies a harmonious blend of architectural innovation, sustainable design, and community engagement.

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3150 Jenkins Nanovic Halls, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA

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3150 Jenkins Nanovic Halls, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA

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3150 Jenkins Nanovic Halls, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA

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Jenkins-Nanovic Halls is home to one of Notre Dame's sustainability-minded programs, The Pulte Institute! Their institute recognizes that society and natural resources are integrally linked, and that the Earth’s environment and scarce resources must be stewarded with ever-increasing care. Notre Dame faculty already conduct important research on climate, energy, water, poverty, and sustainable cities; and the Pulte Institute collaborates with faculty on these important research areas as they relate to poverty and inequality.

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Flanner Hall is home to our friends of the Sustainability Minor! Students in this program gain a holistic understanding and skillset of sustainability principles to compliment any major or minor.

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Located in what is known as the University's French Quarter, the new Remick Family Hall provides additional space for Notre Dame's Institute for Educational Initiatives and its Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE). Remick Hall has recently earned a LEED Silver certification!

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BJ 11.8.21 Aerial Remick Family Hall 01.JPG

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The University was a founding participant in the St. Joseph Solar Farm and helped make the project possible by agreeing to purchase 40% of the annual renewable energy certificates for 30 years. This solar farm provides power to the Michiana area. Consisting of nearly 60,000 photovoltaic solar panels, the St. Joseph Solar Farm is I&M's largest solar installation and is capable of generating 20 megawatts of clean, renewable energy annually, or enough to power an average of 2,700 homes.

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The Kenmore Warehouse solar array is connected to the main electric power feed for the building, which is used primarily for University storage. The solar array is expected to offset a portion of the purchased electric power consumption of the warehouse by generating approximately 194,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, representing nearly one third of the total electricity used by the 5.77-acre facility. In a net-metering agreement with Indiana Michigan Power, any power generated in excess of the building’s immediate demand will be fed into the local electric grid for use by the power company.

The Kenmore Warehouse solar array is connected to the main electric power feed for the building, which is used primarily for University storage. The solar array is expected to offset a portion of the purchased electric power consumption of the warehouse by generating approximately 194,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, representing nearly one third of the total electricity used by the 5.77-acre facility. In a net-metering agreement with Indiana Michigan Power, any power generated in excess of the building’s immediate demand will be fed into the local electric grid for use by the power company.

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In 2015, University of Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., announced a commitment to reduce its carbon footprint by more than half by 2030. A new 144.72 kilowatt ground-mounted solar photovoltaic system, located at its Kenmore Warehouse on North Kenmore Street in South Bend, is the latest addition to Notre Dame's sustainability efforts to meet its goals.

With 432 solar modules installed on a ground-based rack, the system is a first of this size for Notre Dame. Smaller solar installations exist on campus on the roofs of Stinson-Remick Hall and Fitzpatrick Hall.

The Kenmore Warehouse solar array is connected to the main electric power feed for the building, which is used primarily for University storage. The solar array is expected to offset a portion of the purchased electric power consumption of the warehouse by generating approximately 194,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, representing nearly one third of the total electricity used by the 5.77-acre facility. In a net-metering agreement with Indiana Michigan Power, any power generated in excess of the building's immediate demand will be fed into the local electric grid for use by the power company.

"The Kenmore Warehouse solar installation is another important component of the University's sustainability commitment," said John Affleck-Graves, Notre Dame executive vice president. "Along with solar power applications, we are implementing a number of strategies to reduce our carbon footprint to be good stewards of our environment."

The system, which was installed by Inovateus Solar of South Bend, is estimated to reduce the University's carbon dioxide emissions by some 296,000 pounds the first year, and nearly 2,000 tons over its lifespan of some 20 years. Those avoided emissions are equivalent to removing 25 automobiles from the roads or planting more than 31 acres of trees.

The Kenmore solar project is one element in the University's overall sustainability efforts. Additional projects include:

Gas turbine technology - The University will install combined cycle combustion gas turbines to produce both electricity and steam. These units will displace older power plant boilers with newer, higher efficiency and lower emissions sources of energy.

Geothermal applications - Geothermal systems have been installed at numerous sites across campus including sites near McCourtney Hall, Ricci Family Fields, and Notre Dame Stadium.

Hydro power - The University is currently working with the city of South Bend and state and federal agencies to permit and construct a hydroelectric facility on the St. Joseph River dam in downtown South Bend.

Heat recovery - Numerous projects are both underway and in the planning phases to recover and regenerate energy from existing energy sources, such as the power plant's condenser water.

Notre Dame has been working to reduce its carbon footprint for more than a decade. The University has lowered emissions from its power plant by nearly 40 percent from 2005 levels, and in an effort to reduce carbon emissions from its campus combined heat and power plant, the University has reversed its use of coal from 85 percent to 15 percent in recent years. The majority of energy input to the power plant (about 85 percent) now comes from natural gas. The campus combined heat and power plant provides not just electricity, but also steam to heat campus buildings and hot water and to serve various other processes. Steam is also used in part to produce chilled water for air conditioning.

Notre Dame currently generates about 50 percent of the University's electrical energy needs, with the other half coming through the purchase of power.
Originally published by Sue Lister at news.nd.edu on July 19, 2017.

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Marketing Communications: Web | University of Notre Dame

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Solar array latest addition to Notre Dame's sustainability commitment | Sustainability | University of Notre Dame

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The Office of Sustainability at the University of Notre Dame focuses on conserving resources, reducing emissions, & increasing awareness across the university

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In 2023, Notre Dame began construction on the West Campus Solar Project, a 46,000-square-foot solar array. Thanks to a partnership with local solar panel manufacturer, Crossroads Solar, this array is a multi-purpose space that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing as many as 137 passenger vehicles from the road annually. Alongside generating clean energy, this array is being reestablished as a pollinator prairie to support local pollinator populations in the region.

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The 30,000-square-foot East Plant houses the mechanical equipment for the new geothermal well fields located beneath the adjacent Ricci Fields. The plant includes two 2,000-ton electric-driven chillers and a thermal energy storage tank with the capacity to store 2 million gallons of chilled water.

With a capacity of 1,350 tons, the East Plant’s five geothermal heat recovery chillers will provide both heating and cooling. The chilled water they produce will be a source for the campus distribution system while the hot water will be piped to nearby buildings to provide an efficient and greener approach to heating.

The new thermal energy storage system will provide an efficient and cost-effective way for the University to meet campus peak energy needs by supplementing operating chillers during peak energy use hours. The thermal energy storage tank will store chilled water generated by the East Plant during off-peak hours. This stored chilled water can then be used to mitigate the need to run additional chillers during on peak periods.  The thermal energy storage system can provide up to 16,000 ton hours of chilled water.

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Fagus sylvatica L. 'Pendula'

This is the weeping form of European beech. The leaves are the same as those on the upright forms of beech, but the branches droop as they grow because there is insufficient mechanical support of the branch. During growth, cells in the branch elongate but the cell walls do not thicken adequately to support the weight of the branch, causing it to "weep."

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Liriodendron tulipifera L.

Although often called tulip poplar, the tuliptree is not a poplar. It is a member of the magnolia family. The wood is relatively soft and the trunk is tall and straight. In the spring, it produces tulip-like flowers in the upper branches. It is Indiana's state tree. [native to Midwestern and eastern U.S.]

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Fagus sylvatica L. 'Tricolor'

This tree is another cultivar of the European beech. It has beautiful pink, white, and green variegated leaves. The white markings lack pigment and can become sunburned. [developed from a European species]

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Liquidambar styraciflua L.

Excellent lawn and street tree with upright growth form, beautiful red, purple and yellow fall color and distinctive spiny ball fruits. The common name refers to its sweet-smelling sap. It is in its own small plant family (Altingiaceae) [native to eastern U.S. through Central America]

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Pinus sylvestris L.

Scots pine has distinctive red-orange bark on the upper branches of the crown. It has short, twisted needles in groups of two. This species is commonly grown and used for Christmas trees. The young trees have not developed the orange bark. (native to Europe, Asia)

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Quercus coccinea Münchh

Because of its great height, this tree is the St. Joseph County Big Tree Champion for this species. The sharp-tipped leaves of scarlet oak are similar to the more familiar red oak. [native to eastern and Midwestern U.S.]

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Paulownia tomentosa (Thunb.) Siebold & Zucc. ex Steud.

The princesstree has large heart-shaped leaves and purple flowers in panicles up to 1 foot long in the spring that produce papery-husked fruits that persist through the summer. [native to China]

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Quercus palustris Münchh.

The pin oak has 5-7 small, sharp-pointed lobes on the leaves. All species of red oak have pointed leaf lobes. The white and bur oaks have rounded lobes. Pin oak is easy to grow, making it a common landscape tree. [native to eastern U.S.]

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Hamamelis vernalis Sarg.

This shrub is the first to flower each year on campus, from January through March. The flowers' thin, strap-like petals are yellow (in front of Walsh) or red in the hybrids (in front of LaFortune). [native to central U.S.]

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Picea abies (L.) Karst.

The Norway spruce branches are drooping or "weeping". Spruce needles are arranged singly along the branches (pine and larch needles are clustered). Spruce needles are square in cross section. You can feel this by rolling a needle between your fingers. [native to north and central Europe]

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Kalopanax pictus (Thunb.) Nakai

This tree is the only panax specimen on our campus. Its leaves are similar to those of the native sweetgum growing beside it. It blooms in the fall. It is in the ginseng family (Araliaceae), along with English ivy. [native to China, Korea, Japan]

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Cladrastis kentukea (Dum. Cours.) Rudd

The Kentucky yellowwood is in the pea and bean family and has showy, white, pea-like flowers in the spring. It has very smooth, gray bark and compound leaves with seven leaflets. The common name comes from the yellow dye that can be produced from the wood. [native to southeastern and central U.S.]

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Gymnocladus dioicus (L.) K. Koch

The Kentucky coffeetree has long, compound leaves with many leaflets. It is in the bean family and has large pods, each bearing 3-4 bean-like seeds. Early settlers tried to make coffee from them but it was inferior to regular coffee. [native to southeastern and central U.S.]

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Syringa reticulata (Blume) H. Hara

This small, ornamental tree has white flowers in late spring. It is in the olive family (Oleaceae) and is related to the common lilac. [native to Japan]

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Aesculus hippocastanum L.

This tree has showy upright stalks of white or pink flowers in early summer, spiny fruits, and large, 5- to 7-lobed leaves. It is related to the Ohio buckeye and the bottlebrush buckeye, a shrub that also grows on the Main Quad. The horse chestnut and relatives are in their own plant family, the Hippocastanaceae. [native to the Balkan Peninsula]

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Gleditsia triacanthos L.

Due to its great height (105 feet) and broad spread, this tree is the Indiana Big Tree state record honeylocust. This is the wild type of the species with large, branched thorns growing up and down the trunk. The thornless variety is a popular landscape tree. [native to eastern and central U.S.]

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Fagus sylvatica L. 'Laciniata'

This is another ornamental form of the European Beech species with unique fern-like leaves. [developed from a European species]

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Larix decidua Mill.

This tree is another that loses its needles in the fall after they have turned golden yellow. It has small cones and needles in clusters of 12-40. [native to central Europe through Siberia]

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Fagus sylvatica L.

This is the natural form of the same species as the copper, tricolor, and fern-leaved beeches. Notice its smooth gray bark and glossy leaves. The beech family (Fagaceae) contains many familiar large trees including the oaks and chestnuts. [native to Europe]

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Phellodendron amurense Rupr.

This tree has juicy, dark fruits that ripen in mid-summer and cork-like bark that fully develops with age. It is in the same plant family as citrus (Rutaceae). [native to Japan, China]

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Pinus strobus L.

At 80 feet tall, this white pine is St. Joseph County Big Tree Champion. The white pine's soft needles are grouped in fascicles of 5. [native to the Midwest and eastern U.S.]

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Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu & W.C. Cheng

This species was first discovered in 1941 in Japan as a fossil in 5 million-year-old sediments. Living specimens were discovered later that same year in China. This specimen at Notre Dame was grown from the first brought to the U.S. in 1947-1948 by a botanical expedition sponsored by Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum. Dawn redwood is in the cypress family and is one of 3 species of needle-leaved trees on campus that lose their needles in the winter. [native to China]

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Magnolia acuminata (L.) L. (L.) L.

This large-leaved tree is in the magnolia family (Magnoliaceae). Its greenish-yellow flowers are not as showy as the more tropical southern magnolias. It forms a red "cucumber-shaped" fruit and the leaves turn yellow in the fall before all dropping to the ground at once. [native to eastern U.S.]

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Aesculus parviflora Walter

This shrub is related to horse chestnut and the Ohio buckeye, all bearing the same palmate leaves. It produces distinctive white and pink/red flowers in upright panicles that resemble a bottlebrush in the spring. [native to South Carolina, Florida and Alabama]

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Carpinus caroliniana Walter

This small, slow growing species is also called ironwood because of its hard, dense wood. This tree is the St. Joseph County Big Tree Champion for this species. The bark is smooth, gray-blue with almost the appearance of "muscles" forming along the trunk. This species is in the birch family with papery catkin fruits. [native from New England to Arkansas]

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Acer nigrum Michx. f.

The leaves of this maple are distinguished from those of the very similar sugar maple by the drooping tips of the leaf lobes. This tree is the oldest maple on the Main Quad and possibly one of the oldest trees on campus. All maples produce the sugary sap that is boiled to make maple syrup. [native to Quebec through Iowa and North Carolina]

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Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich.

The bald cypress is native to swamps in the southeastern US. This tree has needle-like leaflets that drop in the fall. The needles are arranged alternately on the stems, which distinguishes this tree from dawn redwood, which has needles arranged in opposing pairs along the stem. In its native, swamp habitat, bald cypress produces "knees" outgrowths from its roots that reach up and out of the water. Their function is not well known. Early belief that these were for oxygen transport in flooded conditions have not been proved. Current thought is that the knees offer structure to stabilize the trees growing in water. Knees are not seen around trees growing on dry land. [native to southern U.S.]

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Pinus nigra Arnold

The Austrian pine is notable for its rugged bark and long, straight needles. The needles are produce in clusters of two.

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Ilex opaca Aiton

This is the red-berried holly with evergreen leaves associated with Christmas. Male trees are needed as pollinators, but the fruits form only on female trees. There is a male (left) and female (right) pair of trees flanking the west entrance to Hayes-Healy Hall. [native to southeastern U.S. through Texas]

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Cupressus nootkatensis D. Don 'Pendula'

This is the weeping form of the Alaska cedar. It is evergreen with small, scale-like leaves. [developed from a species native to western U.S. from Alaska to Oregon]

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Prunus maackii Rupr.

This ornamental tree has unique peeling bronze colored bark and spring-blooming white flowers. [native to China, Korea, and Russia]

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In May of 2022, the hydroelectric facility along the St. Joseph River in Downtown South Bend began generating power for the University of Notre Dame. This facility will generate approximately 7% of campus' electricity and offset 9,700 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

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The city of South Bend's growth from a remote fur trading outpost to a thriving city, home to innovative industry and world-class colleges and universities, can be traced to its strategic location along the St. Joseph River.

Formed during the waning days of the last ice age, the 206-mile waterway, flowing in a westerly direction through southern Michigan and northern Indiana, was an important canoe route during pre-industrial times, linking Lake Michigan to the Mississippi watershed.

It also served as an important source of food and raw materials for Native and non-Native peoples, its floodwaters helping to enrich the surrounding soil and contribute to bountiful crops of maize, beans and squash.

Later, with the construction of a concrete and timber crib dam and two raceways, it helped to power early industry, including glass and textile manufacturing, facilitating the transition to an industrial economy and laying the groundwork for future growth.

This continued into the 20th century, when the river was used to produce hydroelectricity for manufacturing and, later, cooling water for a coal-powered energy plant housed in the present-day Commerce Center, a Beaux Arts-style building constructed for the Indiana and Michigan Electric Company, precursor to Indiana Michigan Power, and completed in 1911.

In partnership with the city of South Bend, the University of Notre Dame recently dedicated a new hydroelectric facility along the river at Seitz Park - near the mouth of the east raceway and in the shadow of former industry.

But as industry moved away from the river in search of cheaper and more abundant land, concern for the waterway as an economic asset - not to mention an environmental resource - faded, with devastating consequences.

At the lowest point, the area's single most defining feature, the source of its name and fame, functioned as little more than an open sewer, channeling human and industrial waste downstream toward Lake Michigan.

This persisted into the 1970s, when, motivated by the environmental movement and a flood of federal money for economic and community development - so-called "urban renewal" - people returned to the idea of the river as a vital economic asset, worthy of a place of prominence in a rejuvenated downtown.

Over time, the east and west raceways were redeveloped, the former as a whitewater rafting course and the latter as a water feature for the city's new convention center. The dam became the focal point of a rejuvenated riverfront, with parks, pathways and public art including River Lights, an interactive light sculpture.

Still, the use of the river as a source of power - at least downtown and with the existing infrastructure there - remained a thing of the past.

Until now.

Harnessing the River

In partnership with the city of South Bend, the University of Notre Dame recently dedicated a new hydroelectric facility along the river at Seitz Park - near the mouth of the east raceway and in the shadow of former industry, including one of the few surviving mill structures in the area, the former Stephenson Underwear Mills. Indiana Michigan Power also played a key role in working collaboratively with Notre Dame on a joint transmission line route that consolidated two infrastructure projects for efficiency sake and followed a path around downtown that had been envisioned initially by Notre Dame to bring the power of the hydroelectric facility back to its campus.

"Today we move another step closer to our sustainability goals with construction of this facility. We are grateful to the city of South Bend and all of our partners who are helping us harness the power of the St. Joseph River to bring clean, renewable energy to Notre Dame." -Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.

At a groundbreaking ceremony for the facility back in 2019, Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., speaking above the rush of water over the sloping, L-shaped dam, framed the project as yet another step in the University's ongoing march toward sustainability.

"In 2015, inspired and guided by Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si', Notre Dame renewed our commitment to reduce the University's carbon emissions and join others in becoming better stewards of the Earth, our common home," Father Jenkins said. "Today we move another step closer to our sustainability goals with construction of this facility. We are grateful to the city of South Bend and all of our partners who are helping us harness the power of the St. Joseph River to bring clean, renewable energy to Notre Dame."

For his part, current U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, then mayor of South Bend, said, "This project speaks to a number of city priorities, including our commitment to sustainability, our ongoing improvements to the South Bend parks and trails systems and our strong partnership with the University of Notre Dame. It is another boost to the East Bank's renaissance and helps mark the St. Joseph River as a key downtown asset."

University of Notre Dame Executive Vice President Shannon Cullinan (center) next to South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and others ceremonially break ground on a partnership between the University of Notre Dame and South Bend's Venues Parks & Arts on a 2.5-megawatt hydroelectric generation facility on the St. Joseph River dam, August 19, 2019.

Situated on the east side of the river beneath Seitz Park, the 2.5-megawatt facility harnesses the power of the river and is expected to produce about 7 percent of the electricity for campus and offset about 9,700 tons of CO2 emissions annually.

For Notre Dame, it is the latest in a series of investments designed to reduce carbon emissions campus-wide, consistent with the University's Catholic mission and values and the Pope's encyclical, which calls for "swift and unified global action" to slow or stop global temperature rise for the good of "our common home."

The construction of the Ricci Family Fields and geothermal well field project, November 15, 2016.

In the past several years alone, Notre Dame has added solar and geothermal heating and cooling to its energy mix, transitioned from coal to cleaner-burning natural gas as the primary source of fuel for campus, launched a food-to-energy program and collaborated with local partners to reduce food waste and support food programs for children and adults in the South Bend area.

Speaking at the opening of the 2021-22 Notre Dame Forum - the theme, "Care for Our Common Home: Just Transition to a Sustainable Future," centered on climate change - Father Jenkins outlined even more ambitious climate goals for the University moving forward.

"The use of more geothermal, large-scale solar arrays, hydroelectricity, recovered energy, conservation and other emerging technologies and fuel sources will hopefully get us to a 65 percent reduction in CO2 by 2030, and to zero net neutral carbon emissions 20 years later," Father Jenkins said while introducing NBC News correspondent and Notre Dame alumna Anne Thompson and U.S. Sen. Chris Coons at the event.

Construction underway for the hydroelectric project at the St. Joseph River dam in downtown South Bend, April 22, 2021.

This corresponds with a global push for climate action amid rising energy prices and increasing awareness of the effects of climate change on human health and the environment, from rising sea levels and more intense heat waves to more flooding and poorer and less reliable air and water quality.

"Developed in close collaboration with the city of South Bend and other community partners, this facility, powered by the St. Joseph River, is yet another example of Notre Dame's ongoing commitment to sustainability - specifically, the cultivation of new and innovative sources of clean, renewable energy," Father Jenkins said more recently. "As the latest in a growing portfolio of green energy projects for Notre Dame, it will offset nearly 9,700 tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide annually, helping us to achieve the ultimate goal of a carbon neutral campus by 2050."

A Complex Project

Still, the journey to this point has been a long one, beset by unexpected hurdles and unforeseen planning and logistical delays.

The idea of restoring the dam to its original use as a source of hydroelectric power dates back to at least 1980, when South Bend applied for and received a license exemption from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to develop and operate a hydro facility at Seitz Park. The plan was for a small-scale facility to power nearby Howard Park or supplement the grid. But the combination of low global energy prices and an unfavorable regulatory environment for green energy projects in Indiana ultimately doomed the project.

"We were very interested in seeing hydroelectricity in the city because it's a clean source of energy that reduces the community's carbon footprint," said Eric Horvath, director of public works for the city and a Notre Dame graduate, but "it just wasn't financially feasible."

The St. Joseph River dam in downtown South Bend, August 23, 2019.

At risk of losing the license exemption for lack of use, the city, in 2016, transferred it to Notre Dame.

Not coincidentally, the University had recently adopted a new sustainability strategy outlining "continued actions and aspirations" in six separate areas: energy and emissions, water, building and construction, waste, procurement, licensing and food sourcing, and education, research and community outreach.

The city granted the University a 50-year lease to develop and operate a hydro project at Seitz Park. In exchange, the University agreed to contribute $1 million toward the restoration of the park, which was already due for upgrades as part of a comprehensive citywide parks plan. The University also helped to rebuild a seawall for the park. And it designed the facility to accommodate an overlook at the park.

As part of the original license exemption a requirement was to preserve first water rights for the existing assets there, the agreement preserved the flow of water to the east and west raceways and over the cascade (dam). It also preserved the flow of water to the fish ladder at Seitz Park, which is critical for the movement of salmon and trout both downstream and upstream from Lake Michigan to the Bodine State Fish Hatchery in Mishawaka.

Next came the complex task of planning and designing the facility, involving a number of stakeholders and regulators at the local, state and federal levels. A team of design professionals, contractors, suppliers worked collaboratively as well as with nearby property owners, whose cooperation was necessary to not only access the site but run the transmission line north to campus.

"We had to deal with FERC, we had to deal with the (Indiana) Department of Environmental Management, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the Army Corps of Engineers, the city, the neighbors. I mean, the list goes on," said Paul Kempf, assistant vice president for utilities and maintenance at Notre Dame, who helped shepherd the project from idea to completion.

Video courtesy of Voith Hydro Inc.

Early on, Kempf and a group of colleagues traveled to Austria to meet with Voith Hydro, the turbine supplier whose innovative StreamDiver design was determined to be best suited for this project. Based on the characteristics of the site, including the flow of the river and the height of the dam, our consultant team of KFI Engineers and Lawson-Fisher Associates designed a 10-turbine system capable of generating as much as 2.5 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power between 1,750 and 2,500 homes.

Work on the project commenced in August 2019 and continued for nearly three years, through multiple delays.

'A Great Collaboration'

To start with, crews drove sheeting around the entire work area including in the river at the intake and outlet of the planned facility. Dewatering followed to allow for excavations that ranged from 20 to over 40 feet below grade level to accommodate the massive tunnels needed to divert water from the river to the powerhouse as well as the construction of a dam to support the new turbines, unearthing bricks and other debris in the process - detritus from decades of development along the river bank.

Paul Kempf, assistant vice president for utilities and maintenance, looks over the hydroelectric project under construction in downtown South Bend, September 3, 2021.

Notre Dame hydroelectric project on the St. Joseph River in downtown South Bend, September 3, 2021.

"If you look at any of the old plat maps, this whole area, both sides of the river, was just littered with all these little industries," Kempf said while walking around the site last September, workers hoisting materials and placing rebar in the cavernous pit below. "And then 20 or 30 years go by and you look at another map and it's a whole bunch of different people. So it was torn down, built up, torn down, built up. And back in those days when they were finished with a building they just shoved it in a hole and buried it. So we exposed a lot of debris."

Construction involved 6,700 cubic yards of poured and pre-cast concrete, including a series of 25,000-pound box culverts measuring 16 feet wide by 14 feet tall. The foundation alone required six feet of concrete, including a two-foot mud slab, to prevent water and moisture from undermining the foundation. The facility contains 1.1 million pounds of steel.

Construction crews drove sheeting around the entire work area including in the river at the intake and outlet of the planned facility. Dewatering followed to allow for excavations that ranged from 20 to over 40 feet below grade level to accommodate the massive tunnels needed to divert water from the river to the powerhouse as well as the construction of a dam to support the new turbines, unearthing bricks and other debris in the process, September 3, 2021.

Work concluded and the facility was commissioned in May. It has been generating clean, renewable and reliable power for campus ever since.

"It's been running seven turbines out of 10 based on the river level for about a week now," Kempf said in early June. "And it's consistent," he said, unlike wind or solar, which depend on weather and time of day. "It runs day and night, night and day."

"It's been a great collaboration," Horvath, the director of public works for the city, said. "Both sides will see benefits."

As a Catholic institution, the University is morally obligated to care for the planet regardless of the cost, both out of respect for God's creation and concern for human health and the environment.

From a purely financial perspective, the University expects a 30-year return on the project, Kempf said. He admits that's long for a project of this scale. But it's still shorter than the average lifespan for a hydro project. The Hoover Dam in Nevada has been producing power since 1936. The Twin Branch Dam in Mishawaka, about 9 miles from campus, has been turning water into watts for more than 100 years.

"Notre Dame is probably the only entity in town that could have pulled this off," Horvath said, "because there's a lot of upfront investment, plus a substantial investment to route the main power line from the facility to the University."

But it's about more than dollars and cents, Kempf said. As a Catholic institution, the University is morally obligated to care for the planet regardless of the cost, both out of respect for God's creation and concern for human health and the environment.

"We're in it for the long haul," Kempf said.

The facility is unique among hydro plants in Indiana in that it is the only small-scale plant (less than about 30 megawatts) in the state, according to the National Hydropower Association. It is also the only hydro facility in the state that is not owned by a public utility.

In that sense, "It shows a lot of commitment (on the part of the University) to physically reduce carbon emissions to the best of our ability," Kempf said.

Benefits 'For Generations'

Tucked neatly beneath Seitz Park, the facility consists of 10 turbines, each with a 250-kilowatt generator and a propeller type runner, stacked two-high across five shafts. Water from the intake tunnels turns the runner, activating the generator and pushing clean, renewable energy up the east bank of the river to campus. The water then flows back to the river at a point just below the dam.

StreamDiver at Notre Dame Hydro Facility. Animation courtesy of Voith Hydro Inc.

From an operational standpoint, the facility is very much hands off. As water flows into the intake tunnels, it is filtered through a screen, or trash rack, to remove branches and other large debris. Farther along, a second rack removes fine debris, such as leaves. A large arm sweeps the screen every so often to keep it clean. From there, an automated system controls the flow of water to the powerhouse and activates or deactivates the turbines based on water level, which ebbs and flows throughout the year. The turbines use water for cooling and lubrication, avoiding the use of oil. A bypass tunnel allows wayward fish to travel safely up- or downstream through the facility while avoiding the turbines.

Should maintenance become an issue, the turbines can be removed and repaired or replaced via a rail system, with no need to dewater the plant.

Turbines installed at the Notre Dame hydroelectric project on the St. Joseph River in downtown South Bend, December 20, 2021.

"It's really meant to operate automatically, all by itself," Kempf said. "It's something we really don't have to touch."

The facility was also designed with an opening in the wall of the intake tunnel, downstream from the trash racks, to supplement the flow of clean (see: debris-free) water to the fish ladder, which tends to clog upstream.

This was done to assist the DNR who in the past has spent considerable time and resources keeping the flow of water to the fish ladder moving smoothly.

"The way it was set up before, the flow that went into the fish ladder came from upstream farther, and all the debris that came out of the river would plug it," Kempf said. "So we said, 'Well, we'll put your attraction flow behind our screen, so it won't plug it and you won't have to come down here and clean it all the time.'"

Time will tell, but the facility may help to reduce turbulence and improve water quality downstream, as well, Kempf said, assuming the outflow acts as a stabilizing influence on the dam, whose churning waters disturb the riverbed and due to the angled west end has pushed water against the east shore and portage. So far the hydro operation seems to counterbalance this flow and has essentially straightened back out the river flow.

Beyond that, the University hopes to use the facility for education and research, Kempf said. Engineering students, along with a number of Montessori and homeschool students, already toured the site during construction, he said. Looking ahead, he sees an opportunity for biology students to partner with the DNR on a fish study there. He also sees an opportunity for educational signage tracing the history of the site from the 1840s, when the dam was completed and industry moved in, until today, and providing information about the current facility and its role as source of clean, renewable energy for Notre Dame.

"Anytime we get to partner with the University of Notre Dame on a project, we know it's going to be done right; Notre Dame doesn't cut corners. So in that respect, it's been a wonderful partnership, one that will benefit both the city and Notre Dame for generations to come." -Aaron Perri

In the meantime, the city is already busy preparing for the new Seitz Park. Plans call for an additional entrance, a new performance area, improvements to the East Race bridge and promenade and a new public building with bathrooms and space for sales - critical updates for what Aaron Perri, executive director of Venues Parks and Arts, describes as the most popular park "pound for pound, acre for acre" in the entire city.

"We think it's about a year-long construction project," Perri said. "So by next summer, the summer of '23, we should be cutting the ribbon on Seitz Park."

Perri, who has two degrees from Notre Dame, said it was a challenge designing the park around the hydro facility. But it gave the city an opportunity to "think a little bit bigger" about the project.

For one, he said, it provided a blank slate for the project and a $1 million starting budget. It also expanded the footprint of the park at no cost to the city. And at just 4.2 acres, every square foot counts.

"It's been a challenging project. It's a complex site with a complex set of considerations," Perri said. "But anytime we get to partner with the University of Notre Dame on a project, we know it's going to be done right; Notre Dame doesn't cut corners. So in that respect, it's been a wonderful partnership, one that will benefit both the city and Notre Dame for generations to come."

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Strategic Communications | University of Notre Dame

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In partnership with the city of South Bend, the University of Notre Dame recently dedicated a new hydroelectric facility along the river at Seitz Park in South Bend, Indiana.

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Charles Hayes Sculpture Park, Moose Krause Circle, Notre Dame, IN

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The Charles B. Hayes Sculpture Park is one of the most biodiverse spots on campus. Located in the Arts District on the southern edge of campus, this natural landscape mimics a natural prarie grass landscape that hundreds of species of flora and fauna, and also serves as a water retention area to collect stormwater runoff. The park also boasts a natural stone amphitheater and recreational paths for walking and biking. In addition to its biodiversity, the park displays sculptures by artists that include Jaume Plensa, Fr. Austin Collins, and Jenny Holzer.

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Notre Dame Surplus Property, North Ironwood Drive, South Bend, IN

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Notre Dame’s Surplus Property embodies the University’s commitment to environmentally-friendly practices by reducing waste and reusing assets that are no longer needed by a department. Surplus reallocate assets throughout the University, or sells them to individuals and nonprofit organizations.

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Utilities Central Power Plant, Holy Cross Drive, Roseland, IN

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Did you know the University of Notre Dame produces energy on-campus? It is home to a vertical wind turbine, the university's first foray into wind energy. Natural-gas-fired combustion turbines with heat-recovery steam generators replaced the need for the University to burn coal, with the University completely giving up coal in 2019. These units operate in a combined cycle with other existing systems to produce both electricity and steam. This energy production is twice as efficient as a traditional electrical plant.

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Notre Dame ceases to burn coal, a year ahead of schedule

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The University of Notre Dame ceased burning coal at its power plant today, more than a year ahead of schedule.

Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., announced in the fall of 2015 the ambitious goal of discontinuing the use of coal by the end of 2020, and cutting the University's carbon footprint in half by 2030. Both goals have been achieved ahead of their target dates.

"Guided by the wisdom of Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si', we have used a multi-faceted strategy to make our campus more sustainably responsible," Father Jenkins said. "I am proud of our progress, while realizing that we have still more work to do."

Because of combined efforts laid out in the University's Comprehensive Sustainability Strategy, Notre Dame has achieved a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions per gross square foot based on 2005 levels, accomplishing the goal well before 2030. The University accomplished these goals by reducing energy consumption, diversifying its energy sources and expanding and evolving its energy infrastructure to increase efficiency and capacity.

Notre Dame achieved 50% reduction in carbon emissions

Per gross square foot based on 2005 levels

Since 2008, the University has implemented numerous energy conservation measures including installing energy-efficient lighting, establishing temperature set points, tightening building operating schedules, optimizing lighting and HVAC controls, using low-flow water devices, installing a computer-based irrigation system, applying energy analytics, applying variable-frequency drives on pumps and fans, installing the state's largest green roof system and pursuing a minimum of LEED silver certification standards for all new construction. When aggregated, the energy conservation measures not only contribute to a reduction of carbon emissions, but also generate an annual savings of more than $2 million.

Key milestones in Notre Dame energy sustainability

East campus geothermal well fields installed.

University reduces coal consumption by 90%.

I&M announces solar facility partnership with Notre Dame, directing 40 percent of output to University when it opens in late 2020.

East Plant opens, utilizing geothermal well fields underneath Ricci Fields, to power Dunne, Flaherty and McCourtney Halls.

Notre Dame's implementation of technology has further increased its energy efficiency. The University began using two new natural-gas-fired combustion gas turbines with heat-recovery steam generators earlier this year. These units operate in a combined cycle with other existing systems to produce both electricity and steam. This energy production is twice as efficient as a traditional electrical plant. The steam produced through the heat-recovery steam generators, powered in part by the gas turbine exhaust, is further used to heat campus, produce hot water or drive equipment to provide air conditioning for campus.

The University is also diversifying its energy sources to include renewable and recoverable energy from geothermal, solar and hydroelectric technology.

Energy sources

Three geothermal well fields located under the East Quad, Ricci Fields and the parking lot south of Notre Dame Stadium provide water heating for the Walsh Family Hall of Architecture, Ricci Band Rehearsal Hall, Pasquerilla Center and Dunne, Flaherty and McCourtney halls. The new geothermal systems at the East Plant and south of Notre Dame Stadium also provide chilled water that is piped to the campus-wide chilled water distribution system to be used where it is needed on campus.

Solar energy arrays at Fitzpatrick Hall, Stinson-Remick Hall and the Kenmore Warehouse in South Bend reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 680,000 pounds annually, the equivalent of removing more than 240 automobiles from the road, reducing over 2.5 million vehicle miles driven or planting more than 1,331 acres of trees.

By the summer of 2021, a 2.5-megawatt hydroelectric generation facility located in Seitz Park on the St. Joseph River in downtown South Bend will supply about 7 percent of the University's electrical needs and offset nearly 9,700 tons of carbon dioxide annually. Through a partnership with the city of South Bend, the University will capture the energy of falling water and transmit the generated electricity through underground transmission lines to campus.

Left: With a capacity of 1,350 tons, the East Plant's five geothermal heat recovery chillers will provide both heating and cooling. Top: Solar energy arrays at the Kenmore Warehouse in South Bend reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 680,000 pounds annually. Bottom: Through a partnership with the city of South Bend, the University will capture the energy of falling water on the St. Joseph River through a hydroelectric generation facility.

Looking ahead, the University's Utilities Long-Range Plan is to continue to diversify its energy portfolio by exploring renewable and recoverable energy sources in an effort to subsequently become carbon neutral. Future facilities such as Johnson Family Hall and Raclin Murphy Museum of Art will also use geothermal energy, and some existing facilities may be converted to using geothermal energy.

Through a proposed partnership with Indiana Michigan Power that is pending approval by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, Notre Dame will use 40 percent of the output of the South Bend Solar Project that is expected to be in operation by the end of 2020. The University will also evaluate large-scale regeneration to recover and produce useful energy from other low-grade energy sources.

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Marketing Communications: Web | University of Notre Dame

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Notre Dame ceases to burn coal, a year ahead of schedule

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The University of Notre Dame ceased burning coal at its power plant, more than a year ahead of schedule.

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Fitzpatrick Hall of Engineering, Notre Dame, IN

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Opened in 1979, Fitzpatrick Hall is the primary location for engineering, teaching, research and computing. The roof of this educational space is home to a 10 kW flexible thin-film solar array and monitoring system. The panels lie flat and are attached directly to the surface of the roof, and are connected directly to the University's power grid, helping meet Fitzpatrick's electricity demand.

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A 10kW flexible thin-film solar array and monitoring system was recently installed on the roof of the University of Notre Dame's Fitzpatrick Hall of Engineering. The light-weight flexible panels lie flat and are attached directly to the surface of the roof with an adhesive.

Connected directly to the University's power grid, the array will help meet Fitzpatrick's electricity demand, supplying an estimated 12,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.

The array is comprised of panels from two different manufacturers, Uni Solar and Solopower. Both panels employ a thin-film solar technology that is the first of its kind on campus. Inovateus Solar, a national solar distributor based in South Bend, donated this installation to the University and will use array as an energy production demonstration model of the two solar panel models.

"This project gives us the opportunity to demonstrate how flexible thin-film solar technology is installed and compare the performance of two different types of thin-film panels side-by-side," explained Peter Rienks, project manager for Inovateus Solar.

This solar installation is the third "rooftop renewable" on campus, following last year's installation of a rigid solar array on the roof of Stinson-Remick Hall and last month's installation of a vertical-axis wind turbine on the roof of the power plant.

Inovateus Solar first proposed the project to the Office of Sustainability in 2009, and this month's installation marks the culmination of two years of cooperation between Inovateus Solar, the Office of Sustainability, and the Utilities Department.

Innovateus Solar was able to complete this installation at no cost to the University with the help of generous donations and discounts of parts and labor from Uni Solar, Solopower, SMA, Shoals, Midland Engineering and Koontz Wagner.

"This renewable energy project helps the University move toward its goal of reducing the carbon-intensity of its electricity production and will also serve as an important academic resource on campus," said Heather Christopherson, Notre Dame's director of sustainability.

The new solar array will offer substantial research opportunities for faculty and students. A real-time monitoring system will allow for easy analysis of the array's productivity under different conditions. Additionally, the array's flexible thin-film technology will afford controlled comparisons with the more traditional solar array already installed on Stinson-Remick Hall.

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Solar rooftop array installed on Fitzpatrick Hall

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p(image-right). !/assets/44781/fitz_web.jpg(Solar panels on Fitzpatrick Hall of Engineering)! A 10kW flexible thin-film solar array and monitoring sy...

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Notre Dame Linked Experimental Ecosystem Facility (ND-LEEF), Laurel Road, South Bend, IN

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Notre Dame Linked Experimental Ecosystem Facility (ND-LEEF), Laurel Road, South Bend, IN

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Notre Dame Linked Experimental Ecosystem Facility (ND-LEEF), Laurel Road, South Bend, IN

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The Notre Dame Linked Experimental Ecosystem Facility (ND-LEEF) is a research facility that allows scientists, researchers, and students to study the interrelationships of land, water, and wetland ecologies. This facility is made possible via partnership between the University and St. Joseph County Parks. ND-LEEF also sponsors a live bald eagle cam. In real time, you can see the birds nest, feed, and raise their offspring!

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Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, Notre Dame, IN

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Modeled after the Grotto of Lourdes, France, the Grotto is a peaceful place for quiet prayer, meditation, and reflection. Students, faculty, staff, and community members visit the Grotto to light a candle, pray, or enjoy a time of peace. Each year, approximately 250,000 candles are burned. When it was realized that the candle jars couldn't be reused because of the wax residue, the Office of Sustainability partnered with Quality Compound Manufacturing, which buys scrap wax for industrial use. This company now saves the residue from the Grotto's candle glasses, which can now be reused by our candle supplier. This effort diverts nearly a quarter of a million candles from the landfill annually.

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Late last fall my friend Thomas Karam '17, then working for campus ministry, asked me to guess how many candles burn in the Grotto in a year. Whatever I said, I was way off. More than 600 a day, he replied, savoring his chance to share news from a hot topic in his office. He let me complete the math: some 20,000 candles in a typical month - a lot more in some months than others - and nearly a quarter million candles each year.

The reason Karam knew this rather astounding campus factoid kind of shocked me: Every one of those candle holders - the cooling glass jar, minus the wax and the wick but including the tiny, metal, wick-holding disc still glued to the bottom - was destined for a landfill.

Later I thought about what 250,000 candles represents - all the exams and papers, the difficult decisions about majors, jobs and relationships, the anxieties over things unchangeable or unmanageable, the earnest appeals for strength, for burdens lightened, for simple consolation, a miracle. Day in, day out, campus believers keep a pace of about 25 intercessory pleas per hour, one every two or three minutes, even in the quiet hours of an icy or broiling night. That sounds about right to me - faith measured out in something more comforting than coffee spoons.

But as impressive as those numbers are, the statistics for the Grotto's primary environmental impact - glass waste - were depressing. Football weekends were the worst, as boxes of discarded glass overwhelmed the giant trash bin in the driveway behind the old Corby Hall. Each empty jar weighs about three-quarters of a pound, meaning that all that single-use prayer was generating more than 90 tons of solid waste every year - an ecological dilemma with an especially heavy spiritual and moral dimension.

Karam worked for Kate Barrett '85, whose job as campus ministry's associate director of liturgy includes oversight of the Grotto - which, as a spiritual and physical asset of the Congregation of Holy Cross is technically not on University land, despite being the heart and soul of University life, and is widely regarded by students as their most special, most sacred, favorite place on campus. We could all pray without candles, Barrett admits, but the tradition at Notre Dame has become part of what we do and who we are.

I never thought about what happened to all those waxy glass containers once the candles burned out. But for years, solving the simple problem of what to do with them proved elusive, nearly as unfathomable a mystery as Mary's appearances to Saint Bernadette near Lourdes, France, in 1858. It baffled anyone who attempted it, and that bothered people, not the least of whom were the Grotto's volunteer caretakers and the priests living in Corby.

But in July 2018, a group of those bothered people determined to find a solution. And now they've done it.

Here's how.
The weight of a prayer
Glass recycling, the obvious answer, wasn't an option.

On her first day at work for Notre Dame's Office of Sustainability that July, Caitlin Hodges Jacobs '17 received an email from Brother Patrick Lynch, CSC, assistant superior of the Corby community. "Our Grotto candle glass containers are not being recycled because we are told they contain wax," he wrote. "I was wondering if you can offer any advice on the matter."

Lynch is a Grotto regular. Trained as an accountant, he collects the money from the donation box - the modest proceeds support Holy Cross' overseas missions - and he was more distressed than anyone by the tonnage of glass headed for a landfill. His personal crusade to redirect the glass into recycling bins had been rejected by the handling company because of contamination - the residual wax and all. An effort four years earlier to work with the Office of Sustainability, the University's environmental troubleshooters, had stalled out. But, you know: Try, try again.

So Lynch found his way to Jacobs, who called Mary Froning at the basilica, who pointed her to Matt Letzelter, the University's sales rep at Root Candle in Medina, Ohio, who suggested she talk to Jim Kavanagh, who works at the Presbytery . . . with Brother Lynch.

It wasn't a runaround. Within three days, Jacobs had made contact with the people best suited to help her figure things out.

Kavanagh shared his institutional memory. As the lay administrator of Corby Hall, he takes care of details for the 60 priests who call it home, handling their finances, food service, the vehicle fleet and property. Since it opened in 1896, the Grotto has been Corby's back yard.

So each candle, after its turn in the hot spotlight of campus spirituality, became just another piece of campus trash. And it was adding up fast. Jacobs calculated that Grotto glass accounted for 1 percent or more of the University's annual waste production by weight.

Having given the shrine's environmental impact considerable thought since he started at Corby in 2008, Kavanagh had collected cases of old candles. He showed Jacobs glass and plastic samples of various shapes and sizes, all with telltale wax residues revealing how they'd performed under different conditions - in, say, the temperate air of a Senior Last Visit or the polar vortex snows of 2014.

Kavanagh knew the issues. Safety is a big one. Plastic, lighter and less energy-intensive to produce, cracks too easily - a fire hazard, as Notre Dame has learned from experience. Further, between staff turnover and bigger-picture concerns, the fate of the Grotto's hefty, smooth, safe and satisfying glass candle containers hadn't gained traction at the University. "We just got lost for four years," he says. And so each candle, after its turn in the hot spotlight of campus spirituality, became just another piece of campus trash. And it was adding up fast. Jacobs calculated that Grotto glass accounted for 1 percent or more of the University's annual waste production by weight.
What's in a candle
Could the candle glass be reused?

Imagine cleaning wax out of 4,000-plus candle jars each week. Caitlin Jacobs sure has. The Grotto's holders are borosilicate Libbey glass, she says, made in Mexico and more resistant to "thermal shock" than regular glass. Soft-edged, they feel great in your hand. You could pour your morning juice in them, like the bar glasses in my kitchen cabinet.

Sometime amid those first conversations with Kate Barrett, Jim Kavanagh, Mary Froning and Matt Letzelter, Jacobs carted some home. She washed them by hand, testing different temperatures and timing herself to gauge how long it might take a team of volunteers to accomplish the whole task. She ran the glasses through dishwashers, researching industrial and medical-grade machines to determine energy use and cost-effectiveness. The hazards were prohibitive: the risk of creating a sewer-system fatberg without the right kind of filtration and the grim certainty of draining carbon-based polymers into wastewater.

Freezing the glass was the best way to unglue the metal wick holder but didn't remove enough wax to make the jars reliably refillable. "And that process is labor-intensive," notes Jacobs' appreciative boss, sustainability director Carol Mullaney, awed by her employee's commitment. The solution had to be, well, sustainable. Hand-washing, it seemed, was not.

Candles are complex without even getting into fragrance or color. Root Candle, says Letzelter, the company's sales rep, traces its history to the 1860s, when Amos Ives Root, a small-town jeweler, took up beekeeping and made his unheralded contribution to world culture: the invention of equipment for harvesting beeswax without destroying the hive. Then he got into the candle business. Notre Dame, a longtime customer, stocks the Grotto with Root candles that are a unique, proprietary blend of natural and artificial compounds that consistently burn for 24 hours in any weather.

In wintertime, Root changes the wick. Cotton-based, the wicks "are manufactured with specific wind and tension characteristics," plant manager Frank Graziano explains. "A winter wick needs to burn hotter to assure a full wax-melt pool during colder ambient conditions. Otherwise, the wax on the outer edges will not melt, and the candle will not burn effectively."
It's not about the glass
"Notre Dame - the Grotto - is a pretty big customer," says Letzelter, whose territory includes five Midwestern Catholic dioceses. His Notre Dame account covers the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and the 50 campus and Holy Cross chapels dotting the neighborhood.

But good business sense does not alone explain his personal investment in solving Brother Lynch's problem. He tells a story about a client - a parish school that wanted a statue of Mary to honor a student who was killed by a drunken driver while playing in his front yard - to explain how his faith informs the problem-solving nature of his work.

The school couldn't afford anything suitable in Root's catalog. One day at work, Letzelter leaned into an office he didn't usually visit and there, next to a colleague's desk, was a free, unclaimed Mary statue that someone had just dropped off. "I know where that statue belongs," he said, remembering the school's need for a memorial. Still, it was a hair too tall for the intended niche. He picked a quarry out of the Yellow Pages and asked about their cutting a taller cap for the niche. When he explained further, he was told, "Matt, if any other day you'd be here, you'd be talking to that boy's grandfather." The quarry completed the work for free.

So you can't tell Letzelter what cannot be done. While Jacobs was experimenting with cleaning methods, he made the rounds with specialty recyclers to cull their ideas. Nothing. He consulted with Graziano, Root's plant manager, who suggested he talk to a company 40 minutes down the road that buys Root's scrap wax to bundle for other industrial purposes. Letzelter's conversation with Quality Compound Manufacturing returned to the idea of cleaning wax out of the glass - not to salvage the glass, but to salvage the wax.

Rather than washing the wax down a drain, you keep it. Jacobs had the right idea, just the wrong commodity. By handing the candle glass over to someone who valued the wax, the cleaning problem was solved, and Root could manage the rest.

Once reusing the glass seemed feasible, the remaining questions were about process. How many times can you burn, clean and refill a borosilicate jar with candle wax before the material stresses would make another refill unsafe? What are the implications of transporting tens of thousands of glass jars back and forth between three points - Notre Dame for the use, Quality Compound for the cleanout and Root for the refill? How to tell new jars apart from those on their first, second or third reuse?

If only they had detailed records of candle use at the Grotto, something to help them think through the logistics. That would be a start.
The church lady
"I'm not real sure what my title is," Mary Froning says, having tossed a load of altar cloths into a washing machine in the basilica's basement.

For the record, the wry, unassuming Froning is the senior coordinator of basilica operations. That means she runs the sacristy supply, making sure linens are clean, mended and wrinkle-free, that metal is polished, that all those chapels are stocked with "consumables" - hosts, wine, candles. And that makes Froning head caretaker of the Grotto, too.

Until the world took ill in March, she mostly supervised volunteers - lately a law student from Cameroon and a graduate biology student from Missouri. On a normal day, meaning one without a football game or commencement exercise, a caretaker might spend a few hours in the Grotto. They restock the bins with fresh candles, remove the empties and tidy the cave - sweeping out leaves, sifting the taper-cooling sand pits, collecting trash from the plaza.

Froning has little use for titles, but she does care about numbers. For the past seven years, she's kept a spreadsheet. With the exception of that period when Grotto access was constrained during its 2019 renovation and the reconstruction of Corby Hall, she's recorded the number of candles loaded into the bins every day along with basic weather information and notable events that help explain salient highs and lows in demand.

The result tells the life story of the University. Capacity jumps from the standard 1,945 rack spaces to 3,121 on football weekends. During peak visitation, caretakers might unload as many as 55 boxes at a time - 48 candles per box.

Froning's bar graphs reveal other pulses in Notre Dame's biorhythms. Winter whiteout, downbeat. Junior Parents' Weekend, up. Holy Week, up slightly; Blue-Gold Game, spike! Occasions sad and happy shape the candlelight chronicle: Father Hesburgh's death in 2015; the Paris terrorist attacks later that year; the 2018 women's basketball championship. When a student dies, friends keep vigil, arranging candles to spell out the person's name in block letters gently aglow.

"Initially it was just hard to try to figure out when to order candles" without good data, Froning says. But it sure came in handy when sorting out an efficient, low-cost system for refilling Grotto candle glasses - and keeping them out of the landfill.

In January 2020, Root's deliveryman parked his truck on Holy Cross Drive to fulfill an order, thenaccepted a shipment with enough filmy glass jars for the scrap-wax cleanout and reuse experiment to begin.

Six months later, logistics mapped out and all quality-control checks passed, the first pallets of reusable candles arrived. Two years almost to the day after Jacobs opened Brother Lynch's first query, she received another email, a message of relief and gratitude.

For now, the plan is simple. Root will check the reused glass containers as they come and go, searching for that magic number of safe reuses, seeking consistencies to make the three-stop delivery rotation workable. What then?

Options under exploration include grinding such glass for sandblasting or road materials, leading to a dramatic reduction if not elimination of landfill-bound glass. Meanwhile, every round of reused candles divides the Grotto's waste production by another factor, a step toward the University's 2030 sustainability goals inspired by Pope Francis' encyclical, Laudato Si'.

Faith and science, working together - and other users of liturgical candles are watching. Says Jacobs: "There are so many things about this where there's no explanation - other than we're supposed to figure it out."
John Nagy is managing editor of this magazine.

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Marketing Communications: Web | University of Notre Dame

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A Practical Petition | Notre Dame Magazine | University of Notre Dame

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And the hunt for a sustainable solution to the Grotto's vexing burden of burned-out wax and glass

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Light-emitting diodes, popularly known as LED lights, have replaced many of the traditional incandescent light bulbs on campus. Notable structures on campus, such as the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Purcell Pavilion, Stepan Center, and Compton Family Ice Arena have all made the switch. In the Basilica, LED changes saved 78% in energy--equaling a carbon load of 17 vehicles on the road. The most visually striking change came from swapping the Dome's exterior lighting. As LED provide brighter light, the Dome glistens brighter at night.

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To reach its goal to become a more sustainability-conscious university, Notre Dame continues to tick items off its energy conservation to-do list: An outdoor lighting update project is complete. The Eck Tennis Pavilion courts recently received a lighting update. And the Compton Family Ice Arena's Olympic ice rink will receive an upgrade this spring.

The three projects will help reduce the University's carbon emissions while improving the quality of lighting.

"It's a pleasure to see the benefits of higher-quality lighting accompanied by energy savings from the LEDs," says Bob Werner, a mechanical engineer in the Facilities Department who oversees the project. He also converts the amount of energy saved into language people can understand, like trees and cars.

For example, in one year, replacing 1,000 outdoor lights with LEDs has just as positive of an effect on the environment as planting more than 182 acres of trees or removing more than 116 cars from the roadways by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Inside the tennis facility, high-output LED lamps significantly increase the amount of light on the court for players and provide higher-quality light while reducing electric usage. The result is as positive as planting more than 31 acres of trees or removing 22 cars from the road a year.

Meanwhile, the 60 high-output fluorescent fixtures in Compton's Olympic rink will be replaced with energy-efficient LEDs. That result is the environmental equivalent of planting more than 11 acres of trees or removing about eight cars from the road a year.

Switching to LEDs also saves labor and maintenance costs. LED bulbs have a typical lifespan of 10 years compared to fluorescent bulbs, which require replacement every three to four years.

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Donnetta McClellan, Office of Sustainability

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News, information and events for University of Notre Dame faculty, staff and their families. This is your Notre Dame.

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Hidden beneath the stadium parking lots is a huge source of geothermal energy for campus. This system circulates water 300 ft. below campus, using the Earth's temperature to provide heating and cooling for University buildings. Another geothermal well exists under the Ricci Athletic Fields on the north end of campus and there is one in progress on the southeast edge of campus near the Jordan Hall of Science.

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This story was originally published in February 2017. It was updated in May 2023 with more accurate information.

In an effort to heed Pope Francis' call to be better stewards of our shared Earth and to start implementing the University's new comprehensive sustainability strategy, Notre Dame has begun planning and installing several geothermal systems across campus.

Geothermal systems utilize a network of water-filled pipes buried underground that take advantage of the constant 50°F average temperatures year-round. Notre Dame's systems work by circulating water in a closed-loop piping system to a depth of roughly 300 feet, before returning it to the surface and bringing it to an energy center. There, separate streams of hot water and cold water are produced and fed into the campus' steam and chilled water pipes, respectively, to supplement the energy requirements of existing heating and cooling systems.

The first phase of this project was completed on East Quad this spring. In order to provide more efficient heating and cooling to the Ricci Band Building and Pasquerilla Center, a 300-ton geothermal energy field was installed in the grassy quad south of McCourtney Hall and east of Hesburgh Library. Consisting of 153 wells, the system provides Ricci and Pasquerilla Halls with 150 tons of capacity, leaving 150 additional tons available for future development.

The second phase was implemented over the summer with the installation of a geothermal well field beneath the parking lots south of Notre Dame Stadium. Consisting of approximately 500 wells and 1,000 tons of capacity, this field is considerably larger than the Ricci/Pasquerella field. Unlike the East Quad system which provides heating and cooling exclusively for specific buildings, the south campus system will be tied both to future buildings in the area and to the central campus chilled water system.

"Connecting our geothermal fields to both localized and centralized systems allows the University to maximize its energy efficiency," said Paul Kempf, senior director of utilities and maintenance. "If more chilled water is produced than the local building needs, the excess can be put into the central system for use elsewhere on campus."

The third phase, currently under construction, is the installation of approximately 650 wells and 1,350 tons of capacity under what will become the new Ricci Athletic Fields on the north end of campus. This system will connect to a new remote chiller plant to be located just east of Wilson Drive. Connecting this geothermal field to the plant will increase flexibility by allowing the field to serve both the central chilled water cooling system and a new regional east campus hot water heating system.

When completed, these three systems together will have the capacity to reduce Notre Dame's carbon dioxide emissions by 11,803 tons, an 8 percent reduction compared to fiscal year 2016 and the equivalent of taking almost 1,000 cars off the road each year.

In addition to these planned phases, several areas of campus remain under review for potential geothermal fields. White Field is being considered for a scalable 2,300-ton well field to support future north campus growth, and the Burke Golf Course is being considered for a scalable 2,000-ton geothermal field to support West and South Quads.

The total capacity of all of the proposed systems is 7,000 tons, or approximately one-half of the University's current peak demand during the cooling season.

"Because geothermal systems transfer heat from one place to another instead of burning fossil fuels like conventional boilers, they emit no greenhouse gasses. This reduces pollution and improves air quality," said Linda Kurtos, director of sustainability.

"Additionally, closed-loop systems like those being installed at Notre Dame don't consume any water. The system is filled and the water is pumped through the well field where energy is transferred; these systems improve the sustainability of the system and the campus as a whole."

Compared to other renewable energy sources, geothermal applications have a positive return on investment as installation costs are quickly recouped through energy cost savings. The estimated capital cost of the systems currently being installed on Notre Dame's campus is approximately $40 million. The University expects to see a return on investment in about 15 years.

Additionally, harnessing geothermal energy does not directly involve the combustion of any fuel; rather it uses electricity and a higher efficiency energy cycle, thus limiting the impact of energy cost fluctuations, and allows for more sustainable sources of energy production to be utilized to provide the electricity, thereby increasing Notre Dame's energy and financial security.

Notre Dame joins more than 100 colleges across the country that currently use geothermal as a campus energy source. In fact, the nation's largest closed loop geothermal system to date is in Notre Dame's backyard at Ball State University, 140 miles to the south in Muncie, Indiana.

In addition to geothermal, the University is looking to expand its renewable energy portfolio to include a 2.25 megawatt hydroelectric project on the St. Joseph River in partnership with the City of South Bend, large-scale regeneration through the installation of a heat recovery system at the power plant to support east campus, as well as several potential solar projects.

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Strategic Content | University of Notre Dame

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Going Geothermal: University installing renewable energy system across campus | University of Notre Dame

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In an effort to heed Pope Francis' call to be better stewards of our shared Earth and to start implementing the University's new comprehensive sustainability strategy, Notre Dame has begun planning and installing several geothermal systems across campus.

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In both Dining Halls and at the Center for Culinary Excellence, the University collects prep scraps and uneaten food that cannot be donated into its Grind2Energy (G2E) system. G2E uses anaerobic digestion to turn food waste into fuel, fertilizer, and bedding for a local dairy farm.

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University of Notre Dame Food Waste/Food Rescue Solution

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Walsh Hall of Architecture, North Eddy Street, Notre Dame, IN

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Matthew & Joyce Walsh Family Hall of Architecture 

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Matthew & Joyce Walsh Family Hall of Architecture 

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Walsh Family Hall of Architecture boasts notable features of sustainable design that includes (but is not limited to) low flow water fixtures (annual saving of 141,300 gallons), sunlight sensing windows, geothermal chillers, occupancy light sensors, and VRF cooling. (LEED Certification: Silver).

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McKenna Hall, North Notre Dame Avenue, Notre Dame, IN

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McKenna Hall re-opened in the fall of 2021, after an extensive remodel to enhance this meeting space. The building received LEED Certification: Silver in July 2022.

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Stinson-Remick Hall of Engineering, South Bend, IN

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Stinson-Remick Hall received LEED Gold Certification in 2010. Some of the building's notable features include: plumbing fixtures that will save over 130,000 gallons of water per year, energy recovery system installed in lab exhaust system to save $65,724 per year, white roof membrane to reduce heating load, native landscape and drip irrigation system to save 51% of normal water usage, lighting design reduction of 14%, and automated light and air controls. Additionally, 95.76% of the materials by weight (7,100 tons) that left the job site as waste was recycled. The roof of Stinson-Remick Hall is outfitted with solar panels to provide clean energy to our grid!

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Stayer Center, Stayer Center, Notre Dame, IN

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The Stayer Center for Executive Education opened its doors in 2013 to increase Notre Dame's capacity to create and deliver both degree and non-degree executive programs. The Stayer Center is certified LEED Silver by the United States Green Building Council.

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BJ 10.30.18 Stayer Center for Executive Education 1744.JPG

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Located on the West Quad near the Eck Center, Ryan Hall opened in 2009 to house 248 female students, and received a LEED Gold certification from the United States Green Building Council. 31% of the total project included combined post- and pre-consumer recycled materials, and 39% of all building materials were extracted and manufactured within 500 miles of campus. A total of 970 tons of construction waste were diverted from landfills to become recycled content for other building products, representing 76% of the total construction waste generated on the project. Because 91% of the spaces in the building have natural daylight, the building is expected to use approximately 25% less energy than required by building codes. The project also included automatic lighting control and special lenses on the outdoor fixtures to considerably reduce light pollution.

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The Purcell Pavilion is a LEED Gold certified facility at the Joyce Center. It serves as an event center for basketball games, graduation ceremonies, concerts, and other major events. During construction, more than 20% of the construction materials in the building were manufactured and harvested regionally (within 500 miles) of the project. Rapidly renewable materials, such as cork, were used for the floors, and 16% of the building materials used consisted of post-consumer and pre-consumer recycled content. The highly efficient building was designed to be 21% more energy efficient than a baseline model depicted by a conventional design approach. The building also achieves a high standard of water efficiency by utilizing low flow urinals, faucets and shower heads, and dual flush low-flow toilets. During the construction process, 83.2% of construction waste was diverted from the landfill; these materials were either recycled or reused. Most notably, it is topped by Indiana's largest green roof!

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O'Neill Hall of Music and Sacred Music, of Music and Sacred Music, Notre Dame, IN

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O'Neill Hall of Music and Sacred Music is a LEED Gold certified building, and one of three buildings constructed in the Campus Crossroads Project. It features one of our campus' green roofs, spanning 22,500 square feet!

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Morris Inn, North Notre Dame Avenue, South Bend, IN

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The Morris Inn, the University's full-service, on-campus hotel, was completely renovated and expanded in 2013. The Gothic-style exterior of the new Morris Inn aligns with the architecture of other campus buildings, while the hotel’s interior showcases a classic design, highlighted by rich, navy furnishings, light-colored custom millwork and golden paint tones.

As part of the renovation, the Morris Inn received a LEED Gold certification in 2014 and now features a green roof spanning 8,300 square feet!

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McCourtney Hall, Leahy Drive, Notre Dame, IN

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McCourtney Hall is the first dedicated research building constructed in a planned larger East Campus Research Complex. During construction, 33% of the building materials were regionally sourced and used more than 32% of materials with recycled content. The University repurposed 5,954 tons of asphalt millings, and diverted 108 tons of paper and cardboard from landfills. Throughout the interior and exterior of the building, LED lighting decreases the amount of electricity used, while occupancy sensors in the interior spaces reduce lighting power density, conserve the amount of airflow and reduce reheat energy. Notably, a heat recovery system moves heat from the exhaust air to the supply air during the winter months, and from the supply air to the exhaust air in the summer months, which reduces the consumption of chilled water and steam. Similarly, a heat recovery chiller moves heat from the chilled water return to the heating water supply, which also reduces the consumption of chilled water and steam. With high-efficiency fixtures and sensor metered lavatory faucets, the facility uses 37% less water than the standard new facility. Collectively, the attention to sustainable details qualified McCourtney to receive LEED Gold certification in 2018.

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Innovation Park at Notre Dame, East Angela Boulevard, South Bend, IN

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Leighton Hall represents Phase I in the construction of Innovation Park, a research park that seeks to cultivate marketable innovations in an environment with access to Notre Dame's research, students and faculty, and the University's global network of alumni and friends. Receiving a LEED Silver certification in December 2010, this building is well-insulated in combination with highly efficient mechanical and electrical systems, which achieve an energy savings of 17% over comparable buildings. A white roof was also installed to reflect heat in the summer, reducing the amount of energy necessary to cool the building. Occupancy sensors turn lights and additional ventilation off when users are not in a room. Condensation from air conditioning units is captured and reused within the mechanical systems, while energy is recovered from exhausted air and reused to heat or cool the building.
Water saving plumbing fixtures were installed to reduce water consumption by 49% while efficient irrigation systems reduce potable water consumption for irrigation by 52%. Furthermore, 100% of the storm water from the site is directed to a centralized settlement basin where water is allowed to percolate back into the ground. During construction, approximately 80% of waste was diverted from landfill and 100% of wood used in the building is FSC certified, ensuring that it originated from responsibly managed forests.

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Johnson Family Hall is the newest residence hall, built in 2019-2020. The building achieved LEED Gold Status in 2021.

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Jenkins Nanovic Halls houses a number of academic spaces and offices. Throughout the construction process, project managers eliminated and minimized construction waste, diverting 83% of waste from the landfill. More than 39% of the building material contained recycled content, and about 40% of construction materials were harvested or manufactured within 500 miles of the University.
With low-flow faucets in bathrooms and kitchens and high-efficiency shower heads and toilets, occupants in the building consume about 40% less water compared to the average amount of water consumed in standard new construction. Energy-efficient LED lighting is used throughout the building as well as occupancy sensors in nearly all of the offices and open office workspaces to conserve energy. In addition, spaces such as classrooms, conference rooms, lounges and lobbies have lighting controls with dimming capabilities, allowing for adjustability and conservation.
Because of the installation of high-efficiency heating and cooling systems, the building consumes 16% less energy and doesn't use CFC-based refrigerants, which contributes to a healthier, more sustainable atmosphere.

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BJ 7.24.20 Jenkins and Nanovic Halls 1970.JPG

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LaBar Practice Complex, Courtney Lane, Notre Dame, IN

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Indoor space for three varsity athletics programs which provides greater access to the Loftus Sports Center for other varsity programs, recreational and club sports, campus events and community activities. This LEED Silver rated facility achieved an innovation credit called Design for Active Occupant, which puts access on transparent glazing throughout the facility, clear and easy access to all floors, and an actively used stair that draws usage to it in lieu of the elevator upon entry. Almost 88% of the construction material was recycled, and is projected to save more than 32% of water.

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Harris Track & Field Stadium, Notre Dame, IN

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Certified LEED Silver, the Harris Family Track and Field facility is located on the west side of the nine-lane outdoor track in the southeast corner of the Notre Dame campus. During construction, 39% of the building materials were extracted and manufactured within 500 miles of campus, with 28 percent of those materials containing recycled content. 150 tons of construction waste were diverted from area landfills and will become recycled content for other building projects. Overall, more than 51% of the total construction waste generated during construction was diverted. This facility also has automatic lighting controls and LED lighting fixtures, which utilizes 34% less energy for interior lighting and 65% less energy for exterior lighting than current building code requires. A low-albedo roof was also installed, which absorbs heat, helping to heat interiors in winter months and reduces the heat island effect from the building.

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In Summer of 2009, Geddes Hall opened its doors to the Center for Social Concerns, the Institute for Church Life, and other units dedicated to educating the mind and the heart at Notre Dame. Geddes Hall is the first building in Notre Dame to receive a LEED accreditation (Gold rating) in 2010. During the construction of this building, 31% of the building materials were manufactured within a 500-mile radius, ultimately reducing transportation impacts. Low-flow plumbing fixtures also reduce water consumption by 45%, and the landscape design utilizes an irrigation system with control technology and drip irrigation, reducing water consumption by 58%. Showers have also been included in this building to promote bicycling commuters.

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Flaherty Hall, Flaherty Hall, Notre Dame, IN

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Located in the new East Quad of campus, Flaherty Hall became the home of 226 undergraduate women in the Fall of 2016. In recognition of achieving a high level of sustainability, the U.S. Green Building Council awarded LEED Gold certification to Flaherty Hall in 2017. This hall consumes 28% less energy for heating and cooling, and uses 45% less water than similar new buildings.

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Located in the new East Quad of campus, Dunne Hall became the home of 221 undergraduate men in the Fall of 2016. In recognition for achieving a high level of sustainability, the U.S. Green Building Council awarded LEED Gold certification to Dunne Hall in 2017. This hall consumes 28% less energy for heating and cooling, and uses 51% less water than similar new buildings.

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The Duncan Student Center is a LEED Gold certified building, and is one of three buildings constructed during the Campus Crossroads Project. Duncan houses the Smith Center for Recreational Sports, Career Center, Student Media, and studying and dining spaces. It also has a green roof spanning 22,100 square feet!

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Corbett Family Hall is a LEED Gold certified building, and one of three buildings constructed during the Campus Crossroads Project. This academic space houses Anthropology, Psychology, campus multimedia services, and teaching spaces for the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre. It also has one of our campus' green roofs, which spans 10,300 square feet!

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Notre Dame Stadium, Moose Krause Circle, Notre Dame, IN

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The Campus Crossroads Project consisted of three connected LEED Gold buildings lining the perimeter of the stadium: Duncan Student Center, O'Neill Hall of Music, and Corbett Family Hall. During construction, more than 20% of the building materials were post- and pre-consumer recycled content, and 20% of materials were either manufactured or obtained locally. Thanks to water efficient plumbing fixtures, these buildings use 35% less water than standard new construction. Green roofs also sit atop all three buildings, helping to improve air quality, mitigate stormwater runoff, and reduce heating and cooling energy loads by providing additional insulation.

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The U.S. Green Building Council has awarded the University of Notre Dame with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification for the design, construction and operation of the three buildings surrounding Notre Dame Stadium Duncan Student Center, Corbett Family Hall and O'Neill Hall.

With a total of 10 stories in each building and 830,000 square feet, the facilities bring together academics - the departments of Anthropology, Music and Psychology - as well as Athletics and Student Life with custom classroom, performance, research, media, recreation, event and hospitality space.

The University earned 60 credits in nine categories including the use of sustainable materials and resources, water efficiency, energy, innovation in design and indoor environmental quality, among several other areas. Throughout the construction of the project, more than 20 percent of the building materials consisted of post-consumer and pre-consumer recycled content and more than 20 percent of materials were manufactured or harvested regionally.

Because of water efficient plumbing fixtures in bathrooms, showers and kitchens, the amount of water used is 35 percent less than in standard new construction. In total, the three buildings are 18 percent more energy efficient than standards. High-efficiency, thermal envelope insulation in the walls and roofs, a high-efficiency central fan system and high-performance window glass glazing reduces the energy consumption. In addition, by using electricity from the University's central power plant, the facilities take advantage of the efficiencies of the co-generation plant and avoid transmission losses of a public utility grid that can be as high as 85 percent.

Boasting one of the largest green roofs in Indiana, the living roofs cover nearly all of the flat roof surfaces of the three buildings and serve to mitigate stormwater runoff, improve air quality, reduce noise, provide additional insulation and reduce heating and cooling energy loads.

The interiors were carefully and sustainably designed as well. LED lighting reduces energy consumption by up to 50 percent compared to conventional lighting, and room lighting controls combined with occupancy sensors enable occupants to control the amount of lighting used and conserve energy when possible. All paints and coatings comply with the Green Seal standard, and all carpets meet Green Label Plus standards.

In addition, much of the waste has been diverted from landfills. During the construction of the building, more than 75 percent of the waste was recycled including concrete, metals, wood, cardboard, drywall and other materials, and since the building has been in use, occupants have been encouraged to recycle.

Since 2011, the University of Notre Dame has been committed to following LEED standards for all new construction. The University has earned 10 LEED Gold certifications including this one and five LEED Silver certifications. In addition to saving energy and resources, LEED buildings contribute to a greener, more sustainable environment for generations to come.

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Notre Dame earns LEED Gold for Duncan Student Center, Corbett Family Hall and O'Neill Hall

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The University earned 60 credits in nine categories including the use of sustainable materials and resources, water efficiency, energy, innovation in de...

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Compton Family Ice Arena, Compton Family Ice Arena, Notre Dame, IN

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Home for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team, the Compton Family Ice Arena received a LEED Silver certification in June 2012. The landscaping around the Compton Family Ice Arena is also a beautiful example of native plant landscaping. Native plantings adapt to the local climate, soil types, and animals better than non-native plantings. Native plants have also developed a natural defense against diseases and pests, which helps reduce maintenance costs and requires less pesticide use.

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Carole Sandner Hall received a LEED Gold certification on Spring 2012. Some of the key sustainable features that contribute to this building's excellent rating include: annual energy savings of 172,032kWh (equivalent to 120 tons of CO2), 121,180 gallons of water saved annually, automated lighting features that adapt to sunlight and room activity, and automated temperature sensors. Additionally, 97% of the construction waste was diverted from a landfill and recycled into new materials.

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Baumer Hall, Baumer Hall, Notre Dame, IN

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Energy-efficient initiatives along with LED lighting installed throughout the building provide a projected annual energy savings of 294,194KwH. The University earned 60 LEED credits in seven categories with sustainable sites, energy & atmosphere, and indoor environmental quality providing the majority of those points. The large, open area surrounding the building allows for a diverse green space providing year-round visual interest as well as recreational and social areas for students. (LEED Certification: Gold).

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Joyce Center, Joyce Center, Notre Dame, IN

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The Joyce Center green roof, spanning an impressive 68,900 square feet, was designed and grown by LiveRoof from Spring Lake, Michigan and installed by Midland Engineering Company of South Bend. Green roofs host numerous benefits that add longevity to a building’s roof over a traditional membrane roof, including protection from ultraviolet radiation, thermal shock, and standard weathering. The layer of soil and vegetation aids in insulating buildings, which saves money and energy from heating and cooling efforts. Living roofs are also helpful in diverting stormwater runoff by collecting rainwater in the soil to help prevent flooding events. Local fauna also reap rewards from the vegetation by securing additional food sources through the varied mix of blooms that crop up throughout the growing season. Green roofs can be heavy loads for buildings to bear, so the soil only measures a few inches deep. To accommodate this, the plant mix is primarily sedum, a drought-tolerant succulent that has shallow root systems and requires less soil depth to thrive. Within the urban environment, heat island effects can cause a marked increase in ambient temperatures—up to seven degrees Fahrenheit—due to buildings and other infrastructure absorbing and re-emitting heat from sunlight. Green roofs are able to absorb some of the sun’s hot rays and reduce heat island effects.

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Largest roof greenscape in Indiana lives atop Notre Dame's Joyce Center

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Spanning nearly 2 acres of space along and between the double domes of the Joyce Center, the roof surface is the fifth living rooftop installed at Notre...