The University projects its image to be as green as its logo. But what makes a college campus sustainable? Who are the campus leaders that make these sustainable initiatives a reality? How do you measure sustainability?  
Sustainability
The University recently received a B+ ranking on the College Sustainability Report Card for 2011 from the Sustainable Endowments Institute. The grade breaks down as follows: A in administration, B in climate change and energy, A in food and recycling, A in green building, B in student involvement, A in transportation, A in investment priorities and D in endowment transparency. In past years, the University earned rankings of B- in 2008, B in 2009 and B in 2010.
Under sustainability, resources are harvested and used minimally in order to not deplete or permanently damage them. A resource includes water, food, fossil fuels and anything else used for human consumption.
The goal of sustainability is to preserve the environment for future generations and conserve wildlife and natural systems. Efficient systems support sustainability by combating waste and pollution in order to minimize the effects on the environment.
“We consistently rank high among the nation’s sustainability leaders,” University Sustainability Director Steve Mital said. “We’re a model green institution, and students, faculty, and staff and other institutions from around the country look to us as an example of what it means to engage sustainability and engage 21st-century challenges.”
Since the Office of Sustainability’s creation in 2007, Mital said he has seen improvements within the University. He recently helped write the Climate Action Plan, which was released in February 2010.
“It’s a greener campus than it was three years ago,” Mital said.
As Mital noted, other schools in the Pac-10 are also undertaking sustainable initiatives. Oregon State University and University of California, Berkeley received a B+ on the Green Report Card 2011, while Arizona State University and Stanford University got an A-.
Energy
Seventy-five percent of the University’s purchased electricity comes from renewable sources. Seven percent of electricity comes from nuclear, three percent comes from natural gas and two percent comes from coal, according to the 2011 Green Report Card.
The power plant uses biofuels and other efficient heating and cooling systems to reduce carbon emissions by at least 25 percent.
Buildings
HEDCO Education, MarAbel B. Frohnmayer Music, Lillis Business Complex, Student Recreation Center, Living Learning Center, Knight Law, Moss Street Children’s Center, University Health Center, Lorry I. Lokey Laboratories, Klamath Hall, Onyx, Miller Theatre Complex, Moshofsky Center, Autzen Stadium and the John E. Jaqua Academic Center for Student Athletes all have sustainable components.
Sustainable buildings have efficient energy use, natural cooling and ventilation, daylighting to light rooms without electricity, motion sensors on lights and outlets to reduce energy consumption, solar hot water heating and construction using reusable and organic materials.
Lillis was the first building in the Eugene-Springfield area to be awarded LEED certification, an internationally recognized system for verifying green building types. Next to the building are 18,796 photovoltaic cells in seven solar arrays that generate 44,000 watts of electricity, which is fed into the University’s power grid to be used by all facilities on campus. However, the energy from Lillis’ solar arrays only makes up about one percent of the total energy consumption on campus, according to the 2011 Green Report Card.
The Lewis Integrative Science building is currently under construction and is slated to open in fall 2012, and the project managers of the building hope it will receive the highest LEED ranking, the platinum certification.
All new construction and large renovations are required to be LEED silver-equivalent and exceed the state of Oregon’s energy code by 20 percent.
Transportation
Eighty-nine percent of the student population and 51 percent of University employees commute to campus by means other than cars, and an estimated 47 percent of students walk to campus. Lane Transit District has several routes, such as the EmX, that link the University campus to the rest of Eugene. Student can ride LTD buses for free because of a contract with the ASUO.
Architecture professor Nico Larco, co-director of the Sustainable Cities Initiative and one of the advisers of LiveMove, the University of Oregon Transportation and Livability Student Group, said there are many environmental and health benefits to using “active” modes of transportation.
“You don’t burn fossil fuels, and you’re not putting more greenhouse gases into the air,” Larco said.  
Waste Management
Campus Recycling services more than 2,000 collection sites and recycles about 1,300 tons of aluminum, cardboard, glass, paper, plastics, batteries, ink cartridges, bubble wrap and other materials every year.
The EMU has compostable trash facilities for products like napkins, paper plates and paper cups.
Landscape and
Maintenance
Campus Operations maintains the structure and infrastructure of the campus buildings and grounds. Exterior Management’s goal is to maintain healthy lawns with minimal or no use of pesticides.
Nearly all of the Facilities Services diesel equipment and vehicles used for campus maintenance run on B20 fuel, a mix consisting of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent low sulfur diesel. These types of diesel fuels emit less carbon dioxide than standard gasoline. The two John Deere tractors used by Facilities Services run on 100 percent biodiesel. The University plans to purchase only B100 equipment in the future.
There are more than 3,300 trees from more than 500 species on campus, which filter and store carbon and polluting gases and filter large amounts of particulate matter from the air. One hundred percent of the campus’ landscaping waste is either composted or mulched. Leaves are collected and composted by Campus Recycling.
Academics
The science of sustainability and the research involved in creating and supporting more efficient energy practices, products and ways of living begins with the faculty and students at a public institution of higher education.
“Universities are the generators of new ideas,” Mital said.
Multiple classes and student groups focus on sustainability, such as the Sustainable Business Group, Center for the Advancement of Sustainable Living, the Institute for a Sustainable Environment, the Coalition Against Environmental Racism, the Ecological Design Center, Land Air Water, the School Garden Project and the Environmental Studies Service Learning Program.
The Sustainable City Year program, created by the Sustainable Cities Initiative, is an opportunity for students from multidisciplinary fields to gain real-world experience working with city officials on projects to make Oregon cities greener. Students worked with Gresham officials during the 2009-2010 school year and are working with Salem this school year.
The Green Product Design Network, led by professors in chemistry, product design, business and journalism, creates sustainable products that can be readily adopted and marketed to society at large. The GPDN worked with students this past summer to design sustainable automobile interiors.
The Student Sustainability Fund annually provides $35,000 from the University’s operating budget for supporting student initiatives to green the campus. The Meyer Fund for Sustainable Environment has provided $200,000 a year for the past three years for faculty to support green research, sustainability-related curriculum development, and community en
gagement activities.
Areas for improvement
In 2008, the most recent year of record, the University emitted a total of 70,788 metric tons of g
reenhouse gases, factoring out to 0.0067 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per square foot. The University aims to reduce GHG emissions to 66,600 MTCO2e by 2020. This rate would be 10 percent below the 1990 baseline level of 74,000 MTCO2e.
The Climate Action Plan outlines the University’s goal of becoming completely carbon-neutral by 2050. Carbon dioxide is just one of the many greenhouse gases that cause environmental problems, Karyn Kaplan, Campus Recycling director, said.
“This idea to focus on carbon is really important, but carbon makes up 58 percent of the greenhouse gas inventory of the planet, so there’s another 32 percent that’s coming from other places. Methane, which is generated from throwing something in the landfill, is a greenhouse gas as well, but it’s not carbon,” Kaplan said. “I hope that the University is able to take a broader perspective on this, and look at the whole greenhouse gas perspective instead of just focusing on carbon,” she said.
Another area for improvement is waste management. Kaplan said she would like to see a zero-waste campus policy implemented. Recyclable and compostable materials and products are consistently thrown in the garbage by students, faculty and staff alike, Kaplan has noticed. The Recycling Program does not sort out recyclable and compostable materials from the garbage, so these recyclable materials that are thrown in the trash end up in landfills, which generate methane and pollute the atmosphere.
In Mital’s three years as the sustainability director, he has noticed progress in all areas on campus, but there is always room for improvement. Achieving ideal sustainability is an on-going process, Mital said. “Our challenge is to continue to innovate,” he said. But now that the Climate Action Plan has been formulated, the goals are becoming clearer.
“Greening a campus is a long-term project,” Mital said. “It’s a marathon and not a sprint, and you’ve got to approach it with a distance runner’s frame of mind as opposed to that of a sprinter. These things take time.”
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