How sustainable is our campus???

For my fourth blog assignment I was told to determine how “green” my school campus is. The first part was to think about all aspects of the campus (classrooms, grounds, cafeteria, waste removal, bathrooms, transportation to/from, etc.) when determining this.

Factors that I think would determine “greenness”:

• Water use throughout the campus
• Waste production
• Energy use in the classrooms, bathrooms, outside lights (air condition use also factors into the overall energy use).
• Pollution/emissions from transportation/ littering
• How much waste is recyclable?
• Paper use
• Access to information about sustainability/ encouraging “greenness”
• Student involvement
• Local foods/ organic available? 

The second part was to see what other campuses have done in regard to these issues, and more. Doing research I found out that Brown University received an “A”. You can even read their entire report (http://brown.edu/Facilities/Facilities_Management/docs/sustainability_report_2011_final.pdf) and see how they do in each category. For example, on page 33 they assess bottled water purchase and even supply a chart that demonstrates the decline in plastic bottle usage, which overall reduces trash usage.  Overall that usage was reduced by 83% in four years.  

You could also read the grade report, http://www.greenreportcard.org/report-card-2011/schools/brown-university, which shows the grade for each factor. They received an A in all but one, the A’s include that following factors: administration, climate change & energy, food & recycling, green building, student involvement, transportation, investment priorities, shareholder engagement. Their one factor that didn't receive an A was endowment transparency, and that factor received a “B”. A big thing Brown has done is they reduced greenhouse gas emission by 17% since 2007 and aim to reduce them by 42%by 2020. They also spend 20% of their food budget on locally purchased food. They have standards so that their buildings are “green”, and they are big on student involvement.  They encourage students to reduce their ecological footprint by offering incentives for carpooling and recycling, and students aren't the only ones involved, so are shareholders and administration. Overall they received their A because they do a lot to be a “green campus”.

http://www.brown.edu/about/brown-is-green/sites/brown.edu.about.brown-is-green/files/images/Brown%20Survey%20Postcard.JPG

Lastly, we were told to do a detailed assessment of one aspect from our own campus. For this part  I decided  I would assess our cafeteria to see how "green" it was. For this assessment I would start by examining trash production, and exactly how much of that trash was recyclable. I would go through each trash can in the the cafeteria, and possible even right outside. I would keep track of the different types of trash and report my findings. Next, I would assess how much (if any) of our food supplied by the cafeteria is locally purchased ( doesn't come from more than say 250 miles away). I would also find out if there are any options for organic foods, or anything that is a healthy alternative to pizza. After that I would examine the packaging, distribution, cooking, etc of that food. Lastly,  I could examine energy use. 

The people I could find out detailed information from would be the Riverside City College Green Committee team. RCCD started a Green Initiatives back in 2009 and they have a website with the people in charge of the program, so these are the people I would question. http://websites.rcc.edu/greeninitiatives/ I would do this assessment over a time period of a week, so that I could see the total numbers for just one week, and  I would get permission first from the administration. I would let them know what I wanted to do and why  I wanted to do it. If they weren't for it at first  I would persuade them as to why finding out the information would be good, and hope that they'd give me the go ahead. 

This task wouldn't be an easy one, and a lot of research would be necessary before even starting it. I think it would be beneficial to sketch out a plan, and find out the route that I would have to go to get permission/involvement,  so that I get useful and dependable information.