A sustainability report expected to be released next week shows the University is a leader in sustainability efforts nationwide.
Programs across campus, from student-driven initiatives to University commitments, demonstrate a strong desire to make the University as environmentally friendly as possible. The report, created over six months by seven graduate students in the environmental studies program, details practices already in place, provides some guidelines for future efforts and criticizes some of the shortcomings of the University.
“The sustainability indicator report is a monumental effort,” said Steve Mital, the Environmental Leadership Program adviser and program manager for the report. “There are numerous things that we have to say about ourselves to show we are at the forefront as a national leader” in sustainability, he said.
The report contains 11 indicators, or areas of assessment, that can be used as a baseline for comparison in the future. Following on the heels of University President Dave Frohnmayer’s signing the American University and College Presidents Climate Commitment, which promises to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, Mital feels the report’s major finding is a need to create a comprehensive plan to achieve this goal.
Emissions
The report says the University emits 35,336 metric tons of greenhouse gases measured through energy use and travel. The University derives 22 percent of its energy from carbon-neutral sources, mostly by purchasing energy from EWEB. Of EWEB’s energy sources, only 7 percent comes from natural gas, which emits GHGs.
The rest of the University’s energy comes from natural gas that is processed by the Central Power Station and a small amount from three solar array panels on Lillis Business Complex, the Student Recreation Center and the Erb Memorial Union. The burning of natural gas on campus for heating and cooling buildings makes up a significant portion of the University’s overall emissions.
Mital said while the University’s “carbon footprint” is large, when compared with other universities of similar size, it is small. Gov. Kulongoski has said he will commit state agencies to switching to 100 percent renewable energy by 2010, which may affect how the University heats and cools the campus.
Food
The University has many food outlets, from campus dining halls to the EMU, which contribute significantly to the amount of garbage the University produces. Although no formal policy exists for the procurement and disposal of sustainable food products, many independent programs exist, initiated in part by students.
The EMU now uses cage-free eggs in almost all cases, and serves fair trade, organic coffee 75 percent of the time. The other 25 percent of coffee is provided by a member of the Rainforest Alliance.
University Housing also contributes to sustainable practices by donating cooked but unused food to FOOD for Lane County, and has begun tracking organic food sales to determine demand.
University Food Services Director Tom Driscoll said making sustainable choices provides its own set of challenges.
“What I’d like to see is for us to make choices that produce some sort of measurable outcome,” he said. Although some products claim to be produced in a sustainable way, they may actually not be what they claim.
These products are “sustainable in concept but not in practice,” he said.
Driscoll said housing has implemented several sustainable practices, including purchasing local foods. Used cooking oil – housing uses a transfat-free rice oil – is recycled to make biodiesel. The EMU also recycles its spent cooking oil.
Both the EMU and University Housing donate pre-consumer food scraps to on-campus composting.
Composting
The EMU collects coffee grounds and filters, as well as kitchen scraps, for the Earth Tub, an industrial-sized composting unit that is part of the University’s Urban Farm. The report estimates 10,000 pounds of pre-consumer food scraps are composted on-site each year.
The University’s Urban Farm teaches about 80 students spring, summer and fall about organic farming practices. Food produced by the farm is used by students, FOOD for Lane County and sold on the market.
Mital thinks it is feasible for the University to begin composting 100 percent of its food wastes.
“It’s going to cost some money. It will require new collection systems, one or two more bins,” Mital said.
He said the University of Colorado at Boulder composts 100 percent of post-consumer food waste. He said students could be relied upon to separate their meat and dairy from other food scraps.
“People are pretty good about sorting their recyclables. That’s the kind of world we’re moving into,” he said. “It’s going to require efforts big and small on everybody’s part.”
Driscoll said a local company is experimenting with large-scale composting to deal with post-consumer food waste, however the service is not currently available.
In the United States in 1995, consumers and food service providers lost 91 billion pounds of food, which accounted for more than one-fourth of the nation’s food supply, the report states.
Transportation
Of the 18,182 students enrolled in the University, 3,200 live on campus in campus housing. The other 14,982 students commute to campus through various means. Approximately 31 percent of off-campus students drive alone to campus, the rest use the bus, walk, ride a bike or carpool.
The University has between 3,200 and 3,300 parking spaces, a ratio of one parking space for every eight estimated campus user. “This is one of the lowest ratios of vehicle parking spaces to people in the nation,” the report states.
The campus has 4,000 secured bicycle parking spaces. The report estimates this is enough to accommodate one-sixth of the entire University population.
The low number of parking spaces acts as a disincentive to driving to campus and encourages use of alternative transportation. All staff, faculty and students have free Lane Transit District bus passes. Student passes are provided by the student government and the Department of Public Safety provides the rest.
The majority of faculty drive alone to campus. Faculty said they would be willing to participate in carpooling but were not aware of any incentives. An incentive exists that provides more convenient parking and reduced parking pass fees. A 2006 student transportation survey found 80 percent were not aware they could get a 40 percent reduction in parking pass costs by carpooling with three or more people.
Landscaping and water
The report found the University uses almost twice as much water in the summer, when thousands fewer people are on campus, than in the winter. It is assumed this jump in water usage is because of irrigation.
Part of the report deals with the University’s practices when it comes to landscaping. It states 14 percent of the trees present on campus are native varieties, and by increasing the number of native plants, care and maintenance, such as watering, will decrease.
One green roof exists on the Many Nations Longhouse, and Lillis was planned to have at least one. Fred Tepher, who was the planner for the project, said the roof on Lillis was a pilot project that was planned just outside office windows. A variety of succulent plants provides the ground layer, Tepher said.
“The first thing that happened, which probably wasn’t brilliant, occurred during the planning stage,” Tepher said. The plan was to place the green roof over a computer lab.
During installation, landscapers damaged the new roof and it began leaking. The soil and plants were removed, the roof patched and the soil replaced. Tepher said he was aware of ongoing leak problems.
Tepher said he learned a few things about installing green roofs. They need maintenance, such as twice-yearly weeding and occasional watering, which means careful planning when choosing a spot for a green
roof, and also knowing who will be responsible for maintaining it. Tepher is optimistic the roof will be reinstalled.
Building
Mital said information about compliance in green building and criteria guidelines was difficult to obtain. State Energy Efficiency Design is a state law requiring new buildings to comply with energy efficiency standards and older buildings be upgraded. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is a University commitment that requires self-assessment to meet a standard of energy efficiency and sustainability, and includes remodels of older buildings.
“Both of them have to do with making buildings more energy efficient and environmentally friendly,” Mital explained.
About 5 percent of the total square footage of buildings on campus meet LEED standards. These buildings include Lillis, the Living Learning Center, the Moss Street Children’s Center, the University Health and Counseling Center, the two remodels in the Lillis Business Complex and the Integrative Science Complex.
Mital explained that certification is “a time-consuming and very expensive process.”
The report states “the University is not implementing green building and design goals beyond what is required by law, and, in fact, the University is not even meeting the standards required by law.”
What the report means
Overall, the University is a leader nationwide in sustainability efforts, from the student government’s contribution of 10 percent of student fees to sustainability efforts, to a nationally recognized recycling program.
Rebecca Silver, one of the students who worked on the report, said she felt greater results could be achieved with more organization.
“I think there’s a lot of momentum,” she said. “It seems like the U of O is in a good place to take that to the next level.”
Mital thinks the report will be of use today and in the future.
“It gives us an incredible snapshot of sustainability activities today and gives us the ability to examine progress on down the line,” Mital said.
View the sustainability report at http://sustainability.uoregon.edu.
Contact the news editor at [email protected]
UO an environmental leader
Daily Emerald
June 7, 2007
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