The Edward Kidder Graham Award honors a graduating senior who has made an outstanding contribution to the University as a member of an officially recognized student organization. During Erin’s tenure as co-chair of RESPC, the committee researched and approved approximately $500,000 of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Erin was closely involved in every project and decision while effectively delegating work to her peers, supervising their progress, and interacting with university project managers.
Edward Kidder Graham nomination for Erin Hiatt
1. I have known Erin Hiatt since fall 2008, when she joined the Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee. RESPC allocates the self-assessed “green energy fee” that collects $4 per semester from every student on campus. The fee totals approximately $200,000 annually.
Erin has served on RESPC each of her four years at Carolina. The past three years as co-chair. I am the official advisor to the committee. I am also an ex-officio member, along with Carolyn Elfland, associate vice chancellor for Campus Services, Ray DuBose, director of Energy Services and interim Executive Director of Facilities Services, and Chris Martin, director of Energy Management.
The ex-officio members of the RESPC meet with the student-government appointed members monthly throughout the school year. A larger number of student members meet weekly throughout the school year. All of the ex-officio members of the committee endorse Erin for the Edward Kidder Graham Award.
2. As a member and co-chair of RESPC, Erin has scheduled meetings – many months in advance, composed agendas, and chaired meetings.
Erin has met with multiple university project managers to discuss capital project designs and the opportunities for integrating renewable energy and energy efficiency. Erin has helped plan the Genome Sciences Building, the Dental Sciences Building, the Imaging Research Building, the Bell Tower Parking Deck, the renovation of Lenoir Hall, and the renovation of the Student Union. She has consulted on many more renovation projects in campus laboratories, residence halls, office buildings, classroom buildings, theaters, and data centers.
Erin has met with external consultants to learn more about new energy technologies that may be applicable at Carolina. These include new lighting technologies, occupancy sensors, fume hoods, electric vehicle charging stations, and renewable energy technologies including solar electric, solar thermal, wind, and geothermal.
Erin has planned many awareness raising and educational events. These events instructed lab researchers to “shut the sash” and residence hall occupants to turn out the lights and use cold water for washing clothes. They educated the campus community about offshore wind development and how to advance innovative energy strategies using social media.
Erin has also worked on grant applications and the establishment of two campus revolving loan funds. She is one of three student representatives guiding the implementation of the Chancellor’s new Green Energy Fund.
In addition, Erin helped to launch a new student organization that will educate other students about campus sustainability initiatives.
3. Erin exemplifies the Carolina Way. She gives endlessly and graciously of herself while helping others to accomplish goals that will improve the university.
During Erin’s tenure as co-chair of RESPC, the committee researched and approved approximately $500,000 of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. They passed the milestone of more than $1 million allocated since the fund was launched in 2004. Erin was closely involved in every project and decision while effectively delegating work to her peers, supervising their progress, and interacting with university project managers who were purchasing equipment, installing new technologies, managing RESPC accounts, and planning new strategies and facilities.
As anybody who has worked with student groups knows, it is possible for the group to be strong one year and weak the next depending on who chairs the committee in any given year. Erin has worked hard to ensure the long-term capacity and success of RESPC. She served as a committee co-chair in her sophomore year, and then recruited a first year student to serve as co-chair with her the following year. Both served as co-chairs the next/this year as well. By doing so, Erin has ensured that her institutional and personal knowledge, passion, skills, and networks will be passed on to next year’s co-chairs and the committee as a whole.
Erin has personally sought out partners and collaborators on and off campus. She brainstormed about how to make RESPC money go further and helped create a revolving fund for projects in receipt-supported buildings such as residence halls. She researches and vets proposals before bringing them to the committee and ex-officio members. She advocates effectively for initiatives she supports while respectively soliciting different viewpoints. I have personally tabled at Shut the Sash and Campus Sustainability Day events with Erin and been wowed by her knowledge, initiative, and poise. I have been surprised and impressed to see her show up for capital project meetings at all times of the day and during the summer.
Last year, when Morrison Residence Hall won EPA’s National Building competition to reduce energy use, Erin was actively involved. She worked to allocate RESPC funds to advance and publicize the project, she participated in planning marketing strategies to reach building occupants, and she guided other students who arranged to have occupancy sensors installed in residence hall laundry rooms throughout campus.
Erin also served on a committee, led by Energy Services, to develop and implement real time energy dashboards in 157 campus buildings. She was asked to represent the student body because of her knowledge of campus energy systems.
To prepare her fellow students for careers in energy management and renewables, Erin/RESPC provided matching funds for DELTA internships sponsored by the Institute for the Environment and the State Energy Office with stimulus money. Erin later recused herself from the DELTA internship advisory committee so she could successfully pursue a Progress Energy internship. Erin has also worked with UNC Career Services and outside NGOs to provide training and career advice for students interested in climate and energy.
4. When you look around campus, you see Erin’s mark everywhere. She helped put PV panels on the Bell Tower Parking Deck and LED lights on campus walkways, in the Lenoir renovation, in the Business School, and in dozens of elevators and chandeliers across campus. She also worked on many projects you don’t see such as whole building makeovers and reduced air flows in lab buildings.
Her legacy includes far more than infrastructure. Erin has ensured that more energy projects will be financed in the future through the establishment of two revolving loan funds – one funded by RESPC and one funded by the Chancellor. She has also trained the next generation of students to follow in her footsteps and insure the ongoing success of RESPC and the wise use of student energy funds.
