Campuswide email: Oct. 14, 2015
Dear Faculty, Staff and Students,
Ohio State will be moving forward with the next step in our exploration of comprehensive energy management this week, so we are writing to provide an update on the project.
We are considering a private partnership because of the opportunity to advance our sustainability goals while providing additional support for Ohio State’s academic mission. At each step of the process, our three advisory groups — made up of students, faculty and staff — have evaluated and commented on the progress.
In June, we closed out the first phase by qualifying 40 potential partners that had expressed interest in serving the university through conservation, supply, operations and affinity measures.
The phase beginning this week is called a Request for Information (RFI), and it is designed to gather specific proposals from the qualified groups. In other words, the university is asking potential partners to detail how they would help us meet our sustainability goals and operating standards and what the financial benefit to the campus would be.
Next steps
Responses to the RFI will be due in December.
Our three advisory groups — which include faculty members with expertise in areas related to this project — will continue to help the project team evaluate the opportunity. If the RFI responses demonstrate that a partnership could help Ohio State meet our goals, and it is determined that it is in the best interest of the university, the university will craft a final proposal and choose the most qualified groups to bid on the project in a Request for Proposals phase.
For more information about the Comprehensive Energy Management project, including answers to frequently asked questions, please see the project website. If you have questions, please email energymanagementplan@osu.edu.
Thanks,
Joseph E. Steinmetz, PhD
Executive Vice President and Provost
Geoffrey S. Chatas
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Jay Kasey
Senior Vice President, Administration and Planning