The Department of Campus Recreation and Wellness is committed to promoting sustainable facilities and operations through facility upgrades, innovation, and industry best practices. As a recipient of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold certification upon the Gallogly Recreation and Wellness renovation and expansion in 2016, to continue to promote a “greener” facility, the Department proposed the purchase of weighted, insulated pool covers to cover all spaces of the aquatics center pool. The benefits of this consist of reduced energy consumption, reduced water consumption and emissions. Vinyl pool liners and automatic pool covers, or solid safety covers are made from reinforced vinyl which will ultimately assist with controlling of water temperatures. The pool covers they used were 14 years old and deteriorating, and only cover the lap lane area of the pool, leaving the hot tub/spa, vortex, and therapy seating areas uncovered, which disables them from maximizing the purpose of temperature control and reducing energy consumption. The vinyl material of our current pool covers are a highly sought-after product that can be recycled and repurposed. Campus Recreation planed on recycling approximately 42,275 square feet of our current pool covers that we are unable to use.

The Department of Campus Recreation believed this proposal will continue to serve the core values; weave sustainability into every aspect of daily operations, program development and student education/training. This will assist in the preservation of energy, heat, and chemicals by the implementation of water and conservation advantages through pool energy blankets, which is a responsible necessity economically and ecologically. It would also provide a cleaner air for the UCCS community that utilize this space within the facility, by reducing the emissions of chloramines and other chemicals that enter the air through evaporation creating additional savings within our robust HVAC units.