Environmental sustainability has been a big priority at the University for a long time. The University’s School of Law was the first public law school in the nation to establish an environmental law program, and now it is in the early stages of making upgrades to the award-winning law center.
Dean Margaret Paris asked Jill Forcier, the administrative assistant of the Ocean and Coastal Law Center and Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program, to serve as chair of the newly formed Sustainability Committee so they could find the best green practices for the law center, and then come up with a list of ways for the law community to improve sustainability there.
“Clearly the law school wants to advance that interest in sustainability that we, at the University, have always had,” Director of Communications Credence Sol said.
A number of suggestions have been thrown around by the School of Law community such as: a dishwasher in the faculty and staff lounge to reduce paper waste, the elimination of plastic water bottles at functions and meetings to reduce plastic consumption, and a system where employees will have their own silverware and coffee cups at meetings to help reduce waste.
“They are thinking of how not to be the pigs on campus, and we want to play nice with others,” Building Manager Jim Horstrup said.
Horstrup has had a number of sustainability ideas for the law center, and began working there from its inception in 1999. A pile of cardboard boxes sits idle in a corner of his office, and all of them are filled with electronic sensors for the classrooms. These sensors activate the lights when motion is registered in a room, and turn the lights off after two minutes of no movement. Installation of the sensors will begin within a month, Horstrup said.
Many offices are bright enough from sunlight entering windows that people using the rooms don’t need additional, artificial light. Horstrup wants the motion detectors altered and set so lights turn off in those rooms after two minutes of inactivity, and the lights will have to be manually turned on if they are needed.
“There are some times when I come up with these wild-ass ideas, and think I can save the world,” Horstrup said jokingly. “Fortunately there are people who stop me before it gets out of hand.”
One of those ideas is turning down the thermostat two degrees in the building, and setting it to 70 degrees. He acknowledges that you can’t make everyone happy, and there’s always someone who is going to be uncomfortable no matter what the temperature is set to.
Two degrees could make a substantial difference however, as more than 60 percent of all electricity and more than 30 percent of all energy consumed in the U.S. is used in buildings, according to a report by the University Planning Department. When the building was constructed in 1999 it won the Energy Smart Award from Eugene Water and Electric Board, but technology has evolved by leaps and bounds in the last eight years. The Sustainability Committee wants to capitalize on these advancements, although it has not yet drafted any sort of formal plan.
The committee comprises four members: Forcier, Horstrup, Jessica Merkner, and Christy Callaghan. The committee has postponed any large steps forward with a draft because Forcier had a baby less than two weeks ago and is on maternity leave.
Horstrup chuckled when asked if there was a rivalry between building managers on campus to have the most energy efficient and “green” building. Perhaps there is some competition between Lillis and the law school, but Horstrup kept his lips shut, although he was smiling.
Before he came to the University in 1997, Horstrup spent years working with an insulation company that was constantly involved with EWEB and the Springfield Utility Board. He said, “The background I have makes me think about the energy efficiency of a building, and fortunately I came to a building that was built in 1999, but there is always something more that can be done.”
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