Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities Management Scott Bernotas has been named an Environment + Energy Leader for 2020 (E+E 100), which highlights leaders and innovators taking action to improve their organizations’ bottom lines while advancing progress toward a more sustainable world for future generations.
Bernotas oversees Pitt’s Office of Facilities Management, which operates, maintains, constructs and oversees design of more than 130 buildings and all infrastructure on the Pitt’s 145-acre main campus.
Under his leadership in fiscal year 2020, the Oakland campus attained its lowest energy use per square foot since data tracking began in 2008. Overall, the campus has realized a 22 percent reduction in campus energy use since 2015, which moves the University closer to its Pitt Sustainability Plan goal of reducing energy use per square foot 50 percent by 2030. This also keeps Pitt on track to meet its commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2037
The Facilities Management team also has implemented solutions to cut water consumption toward Pitt’s goal to reduce water use per square foot 50 percent by 2030. Water use on campus has decreased 13.9 percent since 2015.
Bernotas and his team also have partnered on expanding the University’s renewable energy portfolio, increasing Pitt’s renewables percentage to over 23 percent in 2019 — more than five times its 2014 level.