10 Paths to Green
Dec 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Mike Kennedy (mkennedy@asumag.com)
Schools and universities seeking to make their campuses more environmentally friendly have many avenues available to them.
As 2008 draws to a close, nearly every education institution in the United States is struggling with budget woes stemming from the nation's economic downturn. Some schools and universities may use the dire financial situation as a reason to back away from pursuing efforts to make their campuses more environmentally friendly. But fear of busting the budget shouldn't prevent administrators from exploring green design, equipment and operations.
Countless ways exist for schools and universities to incorporate sustainable strategies into their decisions and operations. Some can add to costs in the short run, but others can be carried out affordably — and provide substantial economic and ecological benefits in the long run.
Some institutions may feel comfortable with a few baby steps into the green world, while others may be ready to commit totally to environmental consciousness. Here are 10 areas in which educators and administrators can beef up their green portfolio:
Alternative fuels
Every day, thousands of school buses rumble down the nation's roads, transporting millions of students to school — and at the same time consuming tons of fuel and spewing tons of pollution into the air. In addition, school districts and universities have numerous other service vehicles to haul materials and equipment or conduct maintenance work.
Many institutions striving to curtail the amount of pollution they generate and hoping to cut their energy costs have converted some of their fleet to vehicles that use alternative forms of energy, or that are outfitted with pollution-reducing devices.
Some school buses and other heavy-duty vehicles are being powered with compressed natural gas, which is cheaper and less polluting than diesel fuel or gasoline. In Portland, Ore., the school system began 25 years ago using propane to fuel its bus fleet. As of 2007, the Clark County (Nev.) district had 1,450 buses that were powered with biodiesel made from soybean oil. The Poudre (Colo.) district reduces its school bus emissions by using ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel and installing equipment on the buses that reduces the pollution generated from the engine.
Bikes/Walking
Students and staff at schools and universities can cut down on energy consumption and pollution by forgoing fuel-powered transportation to, from and on campus. Many higher-education institutions have created programs that enable students to share or rent bikes.
At Ripon (Wis.) College, the administration goes a step further. Its "Velorution Project" sees the bicycle as "part of the solution to problems of obesity, traffic congestion, fuel consumption, pollution and the erosion of communities to urban sprawl."
To encourage bicycle use instead of cars, Ripon has given a new bicycle to all first-year students that sign a pledge that they will not bring a vehicle to campus during the 2008-09 school year.
"Ripon hopes to break these students of their dependency on cars for transportation and thereby reduce the college's ecological footprint," the school says.
At the K-12 level, many schools are encouraging students to walk or ride bikes instead of riding on a bus or in a parent's car. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has established a program, KidsWalk-to-School, which "aims to increase opportunities for daily physical activity by encouraging children to walk to and from school in groups accompanied by adults."
Water
In addition to energy, school facilities need water to run smoothly. Every day, millions of toilets are flushed, hands and faces are washed, showers are taken, and meals are prepared in education institutions. That takes a huge amount of water, but green advocates argue that schools don't need nearly as much water as they now use.
In "Healthier, Wealthier, Wiser: A Report on National Green Schools," Global Green USA states that schools using green practices can reduce water consumption by 30 percent, compared with a conventional school facility.
Educators and administrators have an abundance of water-conservation techniques to choose from: water-free urinals; low-flow showers and faucets; lower-volume toilets; higher-efficiency irrigation systems; cooling towers maintained or upgraded to use water more efficiently; use of reclaimed water instead of potable water for certain functions, such as landscaping or toilets; and collecting rainwater in retention ponds for irrigating school grounds.
Washington University in St. Louis is pursuing another way to conserve water — or at least the energy used to provide drinking water. The school is working to eliminate the use of bottled water on its campus. Campus officials say the expense and energy expended to bottle water is excessive, compared with the cost of having students use water from a drinking fountain or faucet.
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