Bloomberg School Building Gets "Greener"

Environmental stewardship and sustainability are integrated throughout our work here at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Recognizing that global threats like climate change affect all species, including our own, our faculty, students and staff have been working to ensure that the Bloomberg School is doing what it can to conserve resources and protect the planet.

Most recently, we've installed special energy-saving films on many of our windows. These films, which are barely noticeable to the naked eye, add a slight tint to the existing glass, minimizing the warming effect of the sun and reducing the amount of air conditioning needed to keep rooms cool.

We are "decreasing our thermal load," said Andy Cary (right), the environmental systems specialist who was instrumental in the planning and installation of the films. "We're trying to do things that save energy and reduce our carbon footprint," he said.

Andy further explained that the films will go on the inside of all the windows on the eastern side of the building (i.e., the Washington Street side). That particular side was chosen because that's where the effects of the sun were found to be the strongest and, therefore, that is where we experience the most thermal load.

The bottom line? The window films will save the Bloomberg School $20,000 a year in cooling costs, a significant reduction in our energy consumption.

Installation teams worked during the evening hours to apply the films. They started from the top floor of the building and worked their way down. The project was completed on May 7.

For more information on other environmentally conscious practices at the Bloomberg School—from our single-stream recycling program to our MPH degree concentration in sustainability—please visit the sustainability section of our website.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health media contact: Tim Parsons at 410-955-7619 or tmparson@jhsph.edu.