From the energy-saving solar panels at Lillis Business Complex to pollution prevention by cycling to campus, all “green” aspects of the University will be highlighted today during events celebrating National Campus Sustainability Day.
As students, faculty and community members take part in the first national sustainability event held on campus, University Planning associate Christine Thompson and other coordinators are hoping to see a big turnout at all of the scheduled activities.
“Ours is a combination goal of exposing students and faculty to all the great things already happening on campus and hopefully of inspiring them to participate in the next sustainability event,” she said.
The celebration begins at 8:30 a.m. with opening comments from University Vice President for Administration Dan Williams. Among today’s events is a live national telecast on the importance of sustainability to higher education. The telecast, titled “Got Sustainability: Plan for it – Making Sustainability a Foundation of Higher Education Learning and Practice,” will be shown in at 9 a.m. in room 182 of the Lillis Business Complex. Organized by the Society for College and University Planning, the telecast is designed to assist and educate academic facilities administrators, planners, faculty and students with an interactive session among established leaders in sustainability and higher education. Nationwide, about 100 architects and universities are registered to participate in the telecast.
Other events include a sustainability design tour of the new Lillis Business Complex and an informal meeting with the University Environmental Issues Committee. People can take the sustainability design tour of the Lillis Business Complex from 11:20 a.m. to noon, while the introduction to the University Environmental Issues Committee and brown bag lunch will be held from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. A meeting of the committee will follow from 1 to 2 p.m. in the EMU Board Room.
“There is a phenomenal number of activities, and we hope this exposure shows people the current level of interest in sustainability,” Thompson said.
As chair of the University Environmental Issues Committee, event coordinator Dorene Steggell said she hopes students and faculty will drop by the EIC informal meeting today to find out more about green efforts on campus.
“As a committee, we tend to be invisible,” she said. “This meeting will be a good opportunity to let people know about what the committee has been doing.”
One of the more well-known efforts supported by the EIC was last year’s student-conducted study to determine the average amount of waste generated by the EMU Food Court. After the study, the environmental studies students proposed several solutions for dealing with waste, which later appeared on the EIC annual report. The committee is also working on establishing a sustainability coordinator position, which Steggell said will help to put campus issues into perspective.
“With that position, one person will be able to look at the bigger picture when it comes to issues like campus waste and tie in larger factors,” she said.
Environmental Health and Safety Director Kay Coots also helped coordinate the event. Coots said her department addresses issues of clean air and water acts and environmental compliance on campus. And considering the University has had a long history of “going above and beyond compliance,” Coots said students and faculty can rest assured that the office is doing the right thing environmentally.
Through the Office of Environmental Health and Safety, the University also participates in a nationwide series of efforts known as “computer harvests,” during which discarded computers are collected and their environmentally dangerous components are extracted.
“It’s been a very hot issue in sustainability circles,” Coots said.
Of the components that are extracted from each computer, the monitors, which contain a significant amount of lead, are taken out and shipped to proper disposal sites while other parts are recycled.
Coordinators say space is still available for the live teleconference. From 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., community members can also participate in self-guided campus sustainability tours. Tour brochures will be available in the Lillis Atrium throughout the day or can be downloaded at http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~uplan/UO%20SustTour8x11.pdf.
Students and faculty do not have to sign up to take tours. All events are free and open to the public. Apart from today’s event, Thompson said students and faculty should look into other sustainability classes and events that go on throughout the year.
Coots said today’s participants should have a valuable experience overall.
“They will find that there are sustainable things they can do not only in the University Community, but in their personal lives as well,” she said. “And in terms of environmental issues, they can just find out more about sustainability worldwide.”