Green Loan Fund Purpose The purpose of the Green Loan Fund (GLF) is to reduce the operational costs of the University, in particular the electricity usage. By doing this it will directly reduce the University's environmental footprint. The GLF will also give students an opportunity to collaborate with other departments, such as the College of Engineering, the Student Investment group, Facilities Management, Student Government and the University of Maine Foundation.  Our Involvement As Mechanical Engineers our involvement will be to do basic research on green, sustainable, or energy efficient practices. This information will be found  through the research that is already underway for our current design project. Our project is to design an energy efficient housing complex, in doing so we have and will come across technologies that are applicable to the GLF. As the end of the spring semester approaches we will take inventory of all of the energy efficient technologies that we have come across. We will list out all of the ideas that could save the University energy on a per time basis, because we will have already done preliminary research on these concepts we will be able to list out all of the attributes and drawbacks of each concept. We will then choose from this list at least three projects that are the best fitting projects for a mechanical engineer's senior capstone and the criteria of the GLF. Each project will be enough work for teams of two to four students. After these projects have been chosen as the best options for a senior project with high potential for funding from the GLF a project web page will be designed outlining the project and possible milestones. The milestones will be comprised of tasks such as: research of existing products, data collection (of energy used on campus by current systems), design or select existing products, perform economic analysis, apply for green loan fund, assuming that funding is approved then build or purchase products, and finally implement. Application Process Application process is still under development by Student Government Implementation Process Implementation will occur as soon as the system has been designed and approved. Once this occurs the Mechanical Engineers will, most likely, work with Facilities Management (FM) to install the new systems or products. In some cases the projects may have to be implemented solely by FM for insurance reasons, certification requirements or time restrictions (students finish the final design to close to the end of the academic year). EEH Deliverables Overview Possible Projects To Coincide With the Green Loan Fund  Weighted Comparison of Attributes and Drawbacks Select At Least 3 Projects from Possibilities Define the Project Objectives Assign Recommended Number of Students per Project Create  Website for Each Project Define Project and Objectives Produce Any Helpful Diagrams List Possible Milestones Put Milestones In Chronological Order of Needed Completion Include Important Dates (GLF application deadlines)  More Information For more information about the Green Loan Fund see one of the original proposals put forth by Student Body Vice President Brigham McNaughton: Green Loan Fund Proposal