The University received national recognition for its efforts to develop and maintain a sustainable campus when the National Wildlife Federation ranked the University as one of the top schools in four of 17 categories in its recent “State of the Campus Environment: National
Report Card on Environmental Performance and Sustainability in Higher Education.”
The University was recognized for employing environmental
administrators and coordinators, for recycling efforts and for maintaining an environmentally friendly campus.
Jo Voss, campus organizer for the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group, moved to Eugene from Massachusetts. Voss said she is impressed with the University’s recycling program, and it is worthy of this national recognition.
“I’m impressed with the recycling program,” Voss said. “It is definitely better here. I applaud the recycling program.”
The report focuses on environmental performance and sustainability in higher education. The NWF asked colleges and universities in the United States to describe their environmental practices, including recycling, landscaping, transportation, campus environmental policies, curriculum and energy use. Approximately 891 schools participated in the survey — 22 percent of all the higher education institutions in the country.
“It was the first comprehensive study of campus environmental sustainability,” said Kathy Cacciola, coordinator in the NWF campus ecology program. “The study wanted to get a baseline reading on the environmental performances of colleges and universities. It’s really important to know where we are now.“
The project was designed to gather information on what colleges and universities were doing to create and model solutions to environmental problems. While there is extensive information available regarding enrollment and costs, there is little information on environmental practices at colleges and universities. Cacciola said environmental aspects should be another element of higher education, and the study was designed to gauge how U.S. colleges and universities develop and maintain a sustainable campus.
Karyn Kaplan, recycling program manager, said the University has an incredibly strong recycling and grounds management program but there are other environmental programs that were not recognized in the report.
“It’s exciting to be recognized,” Kaplan said. “But there are other areas that they didn’t rank us on. The University is one of the first schools to implement campus environmental policies that many schools modeled themselves after. We are on the cutting edge of campus sustainability.”
Staying on that edge is the focus of the University’s sustainable development plan, which went into effect Feb. 15. The plan focuses on existing and future landscaping and building development.
The report also recognized the efforts of Central Oregon Community College, Lane Community College, Lewis and Clark College, Portland Community College, Portland State University, Willamette University and University of Portland.