Kakaako Green Days Initiative

Beginning next Tuesday, September 1st, the Medical Education Building will have new hours of operation. The purpose for closing the building during low use time is to save energy costs.

The new building hours will be:

M-F: 5 AM - Midnight
Sat: 7 AM - 8 PM
Sun: Noon - 8 PM

Around a year ago the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) Green Days Initiative was introduced to UHM’s community. JABSOM, as member of UHM’s ohana, began its participation in UHM’s Green Days efforts in the Spring 2009, naming our initiative, Kakaako Green Days.

At least 60% of our buildings’ electricity and chilled water consumption costs are related to providing air conditioning for the Medical Education (MEB) and Basic Science (BSB) buildings. To start our initiative, the Facilities team raised the cooling temperatures in the MEB a few degrees (75° to 78°) in the evenings around 5 PM until 6 AM the next day. Further review, resulted in the discovery that the need for the MEB building to remain open dropped significantly around 10 PM Monday through Friday and around 5 to 8 PM on the weekends and holidays.

By aligning the MEB open hours with our faculty, staff and student occupancy needs, JABSOM has an opportunity to save approximately $400,000 on an annual basis. The impact of these savings equates to covering close to two months of JABSOM’s electric bills. Reducing the MEB hours from 24/7 to the new schedule will directly reduce JABSOM’s facilities expenses. Given JABSOM’s most recent State General Fund reductions, these savings will be used to continue to fund faculty who train and teach our JABSOM students and residents.