University Business - June 2010 - (Page 50)

Green 2010 sustainability t rends on campus Centralizing Sustainability For a university as large as the University of California, San Diego, administrators and students felt a central location was needed for sustainability efforts. after two years of planning, the sustainability resource Center opened in the student center in fall 2009. “the whole concept is that it’s a place where students, faculty and staff, and the surrounding community can come and brainstorm ideas about sustainability,” says Maggie souder, campus sustainability coordinator. With 20,000 people passing through the student center, it is doing just that. the space allows staff members to empower students to set goals and give them the tools and resources to achieve them. the center itself is a collaborative effort funded by the university and donations. it includes floors salvaged from demolished buildings, walls made of recycled plastic, and cabinets constructed from bamboo plywood. the space is powered via solar energy from donated panels and includes a computerized system of light sensors that detect the amount of natural light and adjusts the florescent lights according to need. since the opening, response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive. “the participation by students is immense,” says souder. “they’re very proud of the space, they like being here, and we have more opportunity to work with them because they’re here working all the time. the Center allows them to partner with others they might not have otherwise.” UCSD’s Sustainability Resource Center teaches students how to care for their campus and world. mark tardif, unity Solar panels that formerly sat atop the White House in Washington make an appropriate backdrop for 2009 graduates at Unity College, which has made commencement greener. Graduation Going Green For an environmental school such as Unity college (maine), commencement is an opportunity to “showcase a commitment to sustainability,” says Jesse Pyles, unity’s sustainability coordinator. Boasting the greenest commencement in the school’s history, and possibly the united states, unity marked this year by sending out e-invites, providing 75 percent of food from local farmers, giving only one program to each family, printing diplomas on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper, and using graduation gowns made from recycled bottles. “We’ve tried to make commencement just one snapshot of our efforts towards sustainability,” says Kate Grenier, alumni relations and events planner. students graduating were also asked to sign a pledge committing themselves to live environmentally friendly lifestyles. Because unity has only 560 undergraduate students, they are able to test run sustainable practices larger universities might later adopt. “We’re small and flexible and able to try new ideas to see how they work on our scale,” says mark tardif, associate director of college communications. “and then you put them out eventually on the larger scale. You have to be committed to what you want to achieve in being green, not just going through the motions.” other colleges and universities, such as Quinnipiac University (conn.), are jumping on the green commencement bandwagon with some help from academic apparel manufacturer oak hall cap & Gown. oak hall is now providing dozens of schools with completely biodegradable graduation gowns (with the exception of the zipper and button on the cap). though gowns cost six percent more than previous ones, Quinnipiac is willing to pick up the extra cost, explains maria Bimonk, director of shared services for the university. “it’s near and dear to the students. the most obvious thing [is that] it’s an all-around better product. they feel better, look better, and there are 23 less bottles per gown in the landfill. how could you not choose it? that’s 45,000 less bottles [for a Quinnipiac graduation].” the university also provided bins to give students the choice to donate their gowns back to the university to be reused. 50 | June 2010 universitybusiness.com rhett miller, ucsD http://universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - June 2010

University Business - June 2010
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Behind the News
Sense of Place
Financial Aid
Internet Technology
2010 Higher Education Guide to Audio/Visual Services
Green 2010
Viewpoint
The Quest for Internationals
What's New
End Note

University Business - June 2010