Kelsey Haydon at the UC Davis Energy Conservation Office

This summer I am working as a Green Buildings Intern with UC Davis' Energy Conservation Office. ECO's mission is to determine ways to save energy at the building level in order to meet carbon neutrality goals and practice sustainable stewardship across UC Davis. We work on a variety of projects on campus, including LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) certifications. My day-to-day work includes campus policy research, data collection and providing documentation on how campus buildings meet the sustainability requirements laid out by BREEAM and LEED. This involves analyzing energy and water usage, performing building walkthroughs to evaluate features, reviewing floorpans and utilizing campus databases to determine asset performance. Our current project is a BREEAM certification of the Barn, home to the John Muir Institute of the Environment. This will be an exciting project for me to work on as I am already familiar with this building. I look forward to deepening my understanding of its operations and finding areas where improvements can be made. The Green Buildings Team is currently in the early stages of the certification process and we hope to complete the Barn's BREEAM certification towards the end of summer.