FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEP Associates To Be Platinum Sponsor of Greening of the Campus IX
Worldʼs Largest Closed-loop Geothermal Heat System Designed By MEP Associates
To Be Dedicated On March 20 As Part of Event at Ball State University
Muncie, IN – February 23, 2012 — MEP Associates, a multi-disciplinary engineering consulting firm specializing in the design of complex facilities, will be the Platinum Sponsor for the Greening of the Campus Conference IX on March 18 to March 21. Hosted by Ball State University (BSU) in Muncie, Indiana, the Greening of the Campus Conference brings together more than 300 representatives from colleges and universities across the country.
MEP Associates is proud to have Jeff Urlaub, President and CEO and Mike Luster, senior
mechanical engineer, and the project manager of the geothermal project at BSU, present at Greening of the Campus on Tuesday, March 20, at 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time. The presentation is titled Campus Conversion to Geothermal – A Case Study: Ball State Universityʼs Conversion to a Campus Geothermal System.
Headquartered in Eau Claire, WI, MEP Associates led the design and construction of the nationʼs largest closed-loop geothermal heat pump system, which will be dedicated at Ball State on March 20, 2012. Geothermal heating and cooling uses the near-constant temperature of the earth starting approximately ten feet below the surface of the ground to assist with heating in winter months and cooling in summer months.
“Ball State University is a leading innovator of environmentally-centered initiatives in higher
education,” said Urlaub. “We are pleased to have led the design and construction of the geothermal system for Ball State and to support the University and its Greening of the Campus Conference.”
According to Mike Luster, PE, LEED AP, senior mechanical engineer at MEP Associates who led the project at Ball State, geothermal systems offer college and university campuses a number of benefits. Those include operational energy cost savings, reduced system maintenance and associated costs, avoided costs the for handling the ash that would otherwise result from burning coal as a fuel; and reductions of the carbon footprint that otherwise would result from the use of fossil fuels to heat and cool campus buildings.
At Ball State, the geothermal system will heat and cool all 45 buildings on the 660-acre campus.
The geothermal system is expected to save BSU approximately two million dollars per year in operating costs at todayʼs pricing and will insure future avoided costs for Carbon Taxing. The system will replace four coal-fired boilers and reduce the universityʼs net carbon footprint.
“Beyond the substantial economic and environmental benefits of this campus-wide installation, the geothermal project also is serving as a platform for field-based research and education,” said Professor Robert Koester, Director of the Center for Energy Research/Education/Service and Chair of the Council on the Environment at Ball State University. “Faculty and students are working across disciplinary boundaries; the university is connecting with its counterparts to share its findings; and our industry partners continue to help as we advance our collective understandings of the best practices in the use of this technology.”
BSU hosts Greening of the Campus March 18 to March 21 on the university campus in Muncie, Indiana. The four-day conference will draw two-year and four-year colleges and universities from the U.S. and abroad to examine trends in sustainability, advances in environmentally-centered practices for college campuses and trends in education for sustainability.
About Ball State University:
Founded in 1918, Ball State is a state-assisted residential university in Muncie, Indiana, and offers a wealth of academic opportunities, including about 180 undergraduate majors and pre-professional programs and more than 100 masterʼs and doctoral degrees. Programs in architecture, telecommunications, landscape architecture, education, entrepreneurship, and an online masterʼs degree in nursing are consistently ranked among the best in the nation. About 22,000 undergraduate and graduate students enroll each year in diverse academic programs on and off campus.
About MEP Associates:
MEP Associates, LLC, is a multi-disciplinary engineering consulting firm specializing in the design of complex facilities. Design services include geothermal, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection as well as commissioning services.
Media Contact for Ball State University:
Robert J. Koester AIA, LEED AP
Professor of Architecture
Director of Center for Energy Research/Education/Service
Ball State University
765.285.1135 office
Media Contact for MEP Associates:
Mike Luster, P.E. LEED AP
Senior Mechanical Engineer
Project Manager for the closed-loop geothermal system at Ball State University
507.281.6328 direct