Black Gold and Green Whitepaper

8/9/2019 Black Gold and Green Whitepaper

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary.......................................................................................................................................... 3

University of Minnesota .................................................................................................................................... 4

Penn State University ....................................................................................................................................... 8

University of Illinois ......................................................................................................................................... 10

University of Michigan .................................................................................................................................. 123

Indiana University ........................................................................................................................................... 15

1st Interview by Rebecca Johnson................................................................................................................. 19

2nd Interview by Rebecca Johnson .............................................................................................................. 200

Interview by Bill McIlhargey............................................................................................................................ 21

Interview by Bill McIlhargey............................................................................................................................ 23

Annotated Bibliography .................................................................................................................................. 26



Black Gold and Green Purdue | White Paper Project 3

Executive Summary

Public interest in environmental issues has grown dramatically in the last decade. The

ascendance of environmentalism as a political issue in the past two presidential elections, the

ongoing discussion over global warming, and the increasing popularity of renewable energysources are just a few of the topics that have captured the attention of policy makers across

the nation. Increasingly, strategic planning and annual stewardship reports are considered

incomplete without a section that addresses the organization’s involvement in environmental

issues. Institutions of higher learning have not been immune to this pressure.

Black, Gold and Green Purdue’s White Paper is an assessment of the sustainability efforts at

five universities in the Big Ten Conference. This paper examines the ongoing sustainability

activities at the University of Minnesota, Penn State University, University of Illinois, University

of Michigan, and Indiana University. Each of these universities has developed a unique

approach to integrating sustainable practices into their campus culture.

This paper takes a broad view of each campus, assessing the current level of activity and the

level of institutional support for environmentally responsible programs. Much of this

assessment has been based on the amount of sustainability information published by each

school. It is clear from this report that the public level of administrative support varies between

campuses. Some of the campuses studied in this report have obviously invested a large

amount of time and money into their sustainability plans. They have very active websites that

document and promote environmental programs and initiatives. Other campuses have lagged

behind in their publicized efforts. Although there are widely varying levels of publicized activity

at these institutions, each university’s administration has implemented some mechanism forengaging the campus community.

There is not currently a single source for information about sustainability efforts in the Big Ten

Conference. This paper has gathered information from the targeted institutions in an effort to

assess the overall level of activity in the Big Ten. The results show that each campus has

approached the issue in a unique manner. The amount of information available to the public

about each campus’ environmental programs is a fair basis for assessing their overall

commitment to educating their communities about these programs. Based on the amount and

type of publicly available information, it is clear that the Big Ten is actively involved in

promoting environmentally responsible programs.




By Andrew Stomps

As the home of 40,000 students and 4,000employees located across 5 statewide

campuses, The University of Minnesota is

one of the largest colleges in the United

States. With the large amount of students

and faculties also comes a large amount of

environmental responsibility. Through my

research I have found that Minnesota takes

these responsibilities seriously does a good

job of both promoting environmental

friendliness and also practicing it.

A view of the Minnesota Campus from the Mississippi River

Residence Halls

Residence Halls are one of the easiest ways

to promote and practice sustainability is

through campus Residence Halls and the

University of Minnesota does a good job of

this. According to the University Housing and

Residential website, they use several

sustainable products such as Energy Star

washers in the laundry room, water-savingshowerheads, 100% recycled toilet paper,

water saving toilets and recycled office

paper10. On top of this they also sell

sustainable products such as Energy Star

rated appliances, reusable water bottles,

biodegradable laundry detergent and non-

synthetic trash and laundry bags.

All of these practices along with the

publically available information make UMN’s

Residence Halls look very green.

Dining Halls

Another on-campus location that UMN does

a very good job of practicing sustainability is

at their Campus Dining Halls. According to

the University Dining Services website they

are doing a lot of things to protect the

environment14. Some of the very basic

things they do include getting fresh foods

from local farms, using partially

biodegradable packaging for their dishes

and composting their wasted. There are also

a couple of things they also do that stick out.

In August 2008, UDS implemented tray less

dining in their Dining Halls to prevent over

consumption and to also reduce the amount

of waste they have to deal with. UDS is also




a charter member of the Heartland Food

Network which is basically a distribution

network for them to get locally grown

products from other parts of the country.

This network allows them to serve non-

regional tastes and still not feel

environmentally guilty about it.

Recycling

The University of Minnesota also operates a

vast recycling program. The Recycling

program was founded in 1984 and is

headquartered at the Como Recycling

Center. Recycling trucks travel all over

campus collecting recyclables which are

then brought to the Como center and

processed on-site. The only thing the Como

center doesn’t process on site is cardboard

The Como Recycling Center

and in 2008 alone, they recycled 1,179 tons

of office paper, 124.94 tons of bottles and

cans and 717.51 tons of cardboard and

3090.45 tons combined from all recyclables6.

The Office of Information Technology also

provides opportunity for recycling of

computer hardware3. They offer to pick up

hardware from on campus sites for safe

recycling. In some cases, they even re-sell

the computers on their EBay page.

Green IT

On top of recycling computers, the

Information Technology department has

additional green practices. Academic printing

is a very easy area to have a lot of waste in

but the University Printing Services uses

soybean based inks and recycled paper

among other things to combat this. They

even claim to recycle 161 tons of office

paper a year11. Another interesting thing that

the IT department at Minnesota does is

control the power of their computers.

Through Microsoft’s Active Directory, they

have setup a digital policy for all computers

on their network that forces them into

screensaver after a period of time and

eventually the monitors and hard drives lose

power after an extended time4. This policy

can be setup on one server and then handed

down to every campus computer which is

both efficient and smart. This is not a

revolutionary technique as system

administrators have been doing this for year

but it is just another effort that Minnesota is

making to go greener.




Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

The Landscape Arboretum

One of the major off-campus efforts that the

University of Minnesota heads is the

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. For those

unfamiliar, the Arboretum is a 1,000 acre

plot of land that is both a nature preserve

and a garden. On top of maintaining the

Arboretum, they also run many projects

involving native plant restoration, irrigation,

weed and pest control and composting. The

Arboretum takes the environment very

serious. One example of this is the story

behind them not selling bottled water at their

facilities. After doing some research, they

found out that only 20% of used water

bottles are recycled so they abandoned

selling that entirely and started relying ondrinking fountains instead1.

Institute on the Environment

Perhaps Minnesota’s most impressive

environmental accomplishment is their

Institute on the Environment or IonE for

short. The IonE is dedicated to research,

leadership and partnerships related to the

environment. Unlike most of the other

programs and services I have wrote about,

the IonE is more than just an on-campus

effort. The IonE leads several local regional,

national and global programs. Among these

include, Dialogue Earth, a program devoted

to holding intelligent discussions and

encouraging informed decisions on the

environment9. A few other programs include

The Global Landscape Initiative works on

ways to better use land in extremely

populated areas, the Initiative for Renewable

Energy and the Environment, which

researches climate change and alternative

fuels and the River Life program, which

works with regional partners to research

environment life around the Mississippi

River. These programs are all very specific

and unique to the University of Minnesota.

Comparison: Purdue

In the residence halls and dining halls,

Purdue has a similar program setup to

Minnesota’s. According to the Housing and

Food Services Department at Purdue, they

installed one pilot green washing machine.

In terms of food, Coke, who has a beverage

contract, delivers product through the use of




hybrid trucks. Purdue also claims to be

increasing their purchasing from local food

stores12. On the recycling front, Purdue

also has a campus recycling program in

place2. I wasn’t able to find any raw stats

about how much they recycle per year and

they don’t recycle as many materials as

Minnesota so while a comparison may be

hard to make, I would give the edge to

Minnesota based on the data I have.

Purdue doesn’t have any pages devoted to

Green IT, but green practices can be

inferred just from some of the things

Information at Technology at Purdue (ITaP)

has in place. ITaP has a lot of software in

place that reduces paper use including a

print quota7 to limit wasteful printing.

Although I couldn’t find any Group Policies

outlined, based on personal use I can say for

sure that they have something comparable.

Like Minnesota, Purdue does a lot of

research into sustainability. At the Purdue

Discovery Park there is a Center for the

Environment that conducts a lot of research

similar to that of Minnesota’s. Purdue also

has several other research centers such as

the Climate Change Research Center and

Energy Center5.

Final Thoughts

The University of Minnesota is very

impressive both from a campus and

nationwide perspective. The thing that most

impresses me is no matter how small the

program, they have a website with lots of

facts and contact information. It seems that

Purdue has only recently started a big push

towards sustainability. They have a lot of

emerging programs that are admirable but

don’t quite measure up to Minnesota’s.

Based on my research I can say in full

confidence that Minnesota does a better job

than Purdue just based on the information

they have available. If I had more

information from Purdue it might be closer

than I think but the bottom line is it’s really

hard to figure out exactly what Purdue does

because they broadcast so little information.




By Becky Johnson

Penn State has had a formal recycling policy

since 1989 but their recycling programs can

date back into the early 1970s. They have

portal website that links to their success

stories, ongoing efforts, and community and

campus resources at www.green.psu.edu.

The university’s portal for sustainability is

under construction but will ultimately link all

of PSU’s efforts in one site. PSU has seven

main sustainability topics. They are Energy

Generation, Energy Efficiency, Climate

Change, Ecosystems Preservation and

Redevelopment, Waste Stream

Management, Food Systems, and

Infrastructure and the Built Environment.

Blue, White, and Green

Penn State’s green initiative is a joint project

of their Center for Sustainability at Penn

State, Finance & Business, Outreach, and

PSIEE. They have engaged their academicand administrative departments to reduce

emissions and conservation of resources.

Penn State has received awards regarding

their use of biofuels in its service fleet,

adoption of a new LEED policy for all new

buildings, reductions in the University’s

greenhouse gas emissions, encouraging

bicycle use, and an increased recycling

effort that already has resulted in 50 percent

recycling of all Penn State waste. They have

divided their plans into 11 areas. They are

Take Charge!, a program to promote

responsible energy use on campus;

Buildings – constructing the most energy

efficient buildings; Climate – reducing the

university’s emissions; Dining Services –

recycling and reducing food waste;

Environmental Health & Safety; Energy -

using renewable energy; Grounds/Master

Plan – leaving undeveloped areas;

Purchasing – maximizing purchasing value;

Recycling & Waste Management –

purchased compactors and increased

recycling; Transportation – creating

alternatives as bicycling or taking the bus to

reduce gas usage; Water – minimizing theharm to the environment by storm water

from the campus.




Center for Sustainability at Penn State

Penn State also has The Center for

Sustainability (Cfs) at Penn State. It was

founded in 1995 to ask “How can the Center

contribute to the effort to make Penn State,

Pennsylvania, and the Planet more

sustainable?” The Center is by the stadium

and has a Hybrid Homestead, an off-the-grid

residence, and a minifarm. The off-the-grid

residence is called the MorningStar Home.

MorningStar home

It has a research team dedicated to building

more energy efficient homes in America.

The Center also has faculty that teach

classes relating to sustainability and works

with student organizations for projects and

programs in sustainability. The Cfs focuses

on the critical interactions between

sustainable technologies and the practices

that will put these technologies in action.

Green Report Card

Penn State was given a “B” grade overall on

the 2010 Green Report Card from the

College Sustainability program. This group

evaluated 332 schools this year. There are

different categories that the group grades

and then gives an overall score. The

following table shows Penn State’s scores

compared to Purdue’s.

Category Penn State Purdue

Administration A C

Climate Change & Energy A C

Food & Recycling A B

Green building B D

Student Involvement B B

Transportation C B

Endowment Transparency C A

Investment Priorities A A

Shareholder Engagement D D

According to the Green Report card, Penn

State was the first major American university

to sign the EPA’s Sustainability Partnership

Program. The program encourages broad

multimedia assessment and action to help

an organization become more sustainable.

SP members can receive technical

assistance from EPA to help develop

sustainability plans, implement various

programs, and quantify environmental

results.




By Angie Adams

The University of Illinois, specifically the

campus at Urbana-Champaign enrolls about

41,000 students each year. With this

number growing, the number of recyclable

materials as well as energy used is also

increasing. To try and preserve our

environment and the campus in Champaign,

Illinois, the Student Sustainability Committee

has set out to find ways to have their

campus more Eco- Friendly.

Recycling

The University of Illinois implemented their

recycling program in February 1989 for bothenvironmental and economic reasons. Tim

Hoss, Coordinator of Campus Waste

Management, was

able to get a

recycling program

that serviced over

200 buildings on

campus[3].

The program has

Tim Hoss, Coordinator of campus waste

been expanded into a recycling and

materials reduction program (RMRP) to

reflect another way they can help with waste.

The University has proper drop off points

located around campus for paper materials

as well as for cans, glass, and plastic. In

addition to having appropriate drop off

points, the University educates their students

and faculty about recycling so that they can

support the campus’ goals to preserve the

environment. To ensure that the campus is

doing everything they can, there is data

collected and reviewed to make sure they

have the most efficient recycling program [2].

With the waste reduction plan, the Universityof Illinois plans to reduce the original

consumption of material. Using less material

will reduce material expenses, waste

disposal costs and will diminish the solid

waste problem. On top of recycling the

basic materials such as paper and cans, the

University also implements a recycling

program to recycle fluorescent bulbs and

batteries [5].




Chemical Safety

To minimize waste the University of Illinois

uses source reduction which reduces the

impact of chemical waste on the

environment. The laboratories on campus

do this by efficient chemical inventory. Good

material management means that only the

chemicals needed, will be ordered that way

no chemicals go to waste and harm the

environment. The second procedure the

university uses is labeling all containers. If

the containers are not labeled and it comes

time to get rid of them, they have to spend

large amounts of money testing the chemical

to decide how it should properly be

disposed. According to the Division of

Safety Research, during 2004, $12,680 was

spent by the University of Illinois to screen

for hazards of over 500 containers of

unknown chemicals in order to dispose of

them properly [1]. Therefore, by labeling the

chemicals, the university is saving time,

money and the environment. The third and

last procedure the university uses is

recycling their materials. This is when a

waste material is used for another purpose,

or treated and reused for another purpose.

To recycle materials the university uses a

chemical redistribution program called

ChemCycle[1].

Projects

In the fall of 2008 the Student Sustainable

Committee awarded $50,000 to Facilities

and Services to install occupancy sensors in

ten buildings around campus. The funds

were used to install a total of 332 occupancy

sensors in 272 rooms in these ten buildings.

By installing these sensors, it socially

impacted the university by sending out a

message that they were serious about

conserving energy. During the first year, the

project should save $11,900 of the university

budget and a reduction of 80,000 lbs on CO2

emissions [4].

Another project that took a stand in 2008

was the implementation of campus bike

parking. Since riding a bicycle is a

sustainable way of transportation, the

Student Committee funded $10,600 to install

more bike racks for the students to use. By

providing adequate bike parking, fewer

students will be using their automobile to get

to class. A more recent project that took

place in the summer of 2009 was the

reducing energy in the Racquetball

recreation courts. By installing sensor

fluorescent and Mercury vapor light fixtures

in all the racquetball courts, this project

saved the University $9,020.00 a year [4].




2010 Efforts

Currently there is one truck that collects

waste paper and another to collect

cardboard twice a day around campus.

Once the materials get back to the waste

station, it all gets sorted. After being sorted,

the materials are compressed into large

bales. According to the Office of

Sustainability, in 2008, the WTS generated

about $500,000 in revenue, and saved the

University over $200,000 in landfill costs [4].

Purdue’s Efforts

Currently Purdue is using a dual recycling

program to make recycling more accessible

to students and faculty. Although this is a

great system, Purdue is lacking in making

students aware of this program. The Boiler

Green

Initiative, is

the group

that is in

charge of

the

recycling

on

campus. This group should be doing more

to make students and faculty aware of their

efforts. A great way to do this would be to

have more advertising, whether it is “potty

posters”, sidewalk signs, or ads in The

Exponent . Purdue also lacks in the number

of drop off points, for example, at the

Stadiums and recreational fields on campus.

By increasing drop off points, individuals will

be more willing to properly dispose of their

trash, rather than throwing it on the ground.

Final Thoughts

By researching the Sustainability efforts at

the University of Illinois, I have come to the

conclusion that they are doing an efficient

job trying to diminish the energy used on

campus as well as the materials being

recycled. The University makes their

students and faculty aware of the programs

offered at the University and makes sure

everyone is doing their part to preserve the

environment.

The Boiler Green Initiative truck collecting

rom the tailgating fields.




By Bill McIlhargey

Just like the other universities, the University

of Michigan has quite a few Green Initiatives

that they are currently taking in order to save

money and help the environment. The

Utilities & Plant Engineering Department at

the University of Michigan has a variety of

green initiatives posted on their website.

There website discusses various ways to

save energy through different means such

as lighting, computing power, and recycling.

Computing Power

Computing was the first way mentioned on

their site. Their website mentions that “there

are over 30,000 computers and there are anestimated of 40,000 devices on campus.”

(Energy Management). All these devices

consume energy in one way or the other and

“if they were all left on year round we

[University of Michigan] would pay over $1.8

million annually.” (Energy Management).

This part of the program educates students,

faculty, and staff on the important of having

good power saving features. Some of the

features recommend are to ensure sleep

mode is set

to S3 or Suspend-to-Ram which is by far the

most power efficient mode. They also

mention to consider using a power strip that

is sensitive to occupancy. If there is no

power flow the power strip would shut itself

off. Their site also has a fact or fiction

section informing users of common myths

and facts. One example is that

screensavers do not save energy they were

just meant to save (old CRT) monitors from

dying. But with the new LCD monitors they

recommend just to have the screens go off

and it is far more energy efficient.

Paper Conservation

The second part of the energy saving phaseis to conserve paper. The site mentions that

computers were supposed to become the

paperless society. Well, we all know that

computers doubled and even tripled the

output of paper. Michigan states “In 2005,

the University of Michigan recycled 3,600

tons of paper, and more than 29,000 tons

since 1990. Each ton of paper requires

anywhere from 12 to 24 trees to produce,

depending on the type of paper.” (Energy

Management). This by far shows how we

need to carefully determine what really




needs to be printed and what does not need

to be printed. They mention on their site that

students, faculty, and staff should carefully

consider what they need and do not need in

hard copy form before they click the print

option. Also, if you do need to print they

recommend recycling the paper if possible.

Energy Management

The third part of their Energy Management

program is to help their students, faculty,

and staff the importance of recycling. By

recycling your old computers, ink and toner,

and paper one can make a huge difference

not only in the environment but also in their

wallet. Their site mentions many sources

that will recycle old computers for a fee or

even places that will take them for free.

They also mention sites and recommend

them for their own employees to use ink and

toner refill services. These refill services

charge considerable less on ink and toner

than buying them new would cost.

Lightning Conservation

The University of Michigan mentions that

lightning is a major expense to the

University. “Each year over $4 million is

spent on electricity to operate the lights in

the buildings on U-M’s Central and North

campuses in Ann Arbor.” (Energy Lighting).

How the University of Michigan has solved

this problem is by changing the lighting type

in all its buildings. They mention fluorescent

is the most “efficient and cost-effective

lighting” (Energy Lighting) around. Not only

by switching the lighting type they also

switched the color. They made their rooms

feel 21% better by changing from a T-12s to

a T-8 lamp. The site mentions how it takes

the CRI, Color Rendering Index, from a 62 to

a 75. Basically, the room feels more like the

outside and makes the students, faculty, and

staff not as tired. The final idea that the

University notes about lighting is that by

using “natural daylight when possible” and

“turning off the lights in classrooms, offices,

or restrooms when the rooms are not

occupied” (Energy Lighting) you could save

a bundle in energy costs and help save the

environment by not having to consume as

many fossil fuels as well.




By Ted Daniels

Indiana University’s Office of Sustainability

hosts a website which chronicles the

ongoing sustainability efforts on the IU

Bloomington (IUB) campus. The office’s

mission is “to advance sustainable human-

environment interactions within the

Bloomington campus and community.” This

mission was defined and publicized as a

result of a report generated by the Task

Force on Campus Sustainability which was

established in 2007 to assess the current

state of affairs on the IUB campus and to

establish a framework for the university’s

long-term sustainability plan. As a result ofthe task force’s work, the IU Campus

Sustainability Advisory Board was created.

The function of the board is to advise and

oversee the work of the new Office of

Sustainability. This board’s 2008 publication

of the Campus Sustainability Report , marked

the beginning of the current era of

sustainability efforts at IUB.

Introduction

IUB’s sustainability efforts are summarized

under a number of quick links accessible

from the Office of Sustainability’s main

webpage. Some of the links include a

campus green report, information about E-

waste Days, and information about the

campus’ Student sustainability council. In

order to spread the word about its activities,

the office has created podcasts, blogs, RSS

feeds, and also maintains accounts on

popular social networking sites including

Facebook and Twitter. IU’s sustainability

activities are divided into 8 major categories:

Academic Initiatives, Energy & Built

Environment, Transportation, Sustainable

Computing, Resource Use and Recycling,

Food, Internship Programs, andEnvironmental Quality.

Program Areas

Academic Initiatives

In the academic arena, IU has been working

on integrating sustainability studies into their

research, curriculum, and service learning

programs. Coordinating the efforts in this

area, IU has created an Academic Initiatives

Working Group. The twelve member group

consists of a mixture of students, faculty and

staff from IU’s campus. The group has been




tasked with planning to integrate

sustainability education into the IU

Bloomington campus and the surrounding

community. The campus academic plan

includes components focused on

environmental literacy, student learning,

research, scholarship, and creative activity.

Transportation

As with the academic initiative, IOUB has

created a Transportation Working Group to

steer efforts in this part of their overall plan.

The goal of this subgroup is to provide

transportation alternatives for students,

faculty, staff, and visitors. The five member

workgroup consists of 2 graduate student

interns, 1 faculty member, and 2 staff

members. Each year, the student interns in

this area publish reports about ways to

improve sustainable transportation practices.

The annual reports are available on the IU

Sustainability website.

Energy & Built Environment

According to IU’s 2003 Campus

Sustainability Report, “Energy consumption

on the Indiana University – Bloomington

(IUB) campus is both unsustainable and

climate altering.” Efforts in this area are

mainly focused on reducing the overall level

of energy consumption and greenhouse

emissions on the IUB campus. A secondary

component of the plan is increase energy

efficiency across campus. The strategies in

place to achieve this effort are based mostly

on raising awareness of IUB’s energy usage

by faculty, staff, and students.

Courtesy of

http://energychallenge.indiana.edu/Dorm_Standings.html

IU Energy Challenge – This is a graph showing the results of an

annual conservation competition between the residential dorms

at IU. The red line shows the average consumption levels for

electricity and water prior to the beginning of the competition.

Sustainable Computing

The sustainable computing workgroup is a

recent addition to the IU Sustainability Plan.

Created in September 2009, this group has

been charged with researching and

promoting computing practices that are in

line with IU’s sustainability plan. In

conjunction with Apple Inc., the 6 member

committee will be co-hosting an e-waste

recycling event at IUB and IUPUI. Last year,

the program collected and recycled 832,000




pounds of e-waste. This is an example of IU

forming a collaborative partnership with

private industry to have an oversized impact

on the community.

Courtesy of

http://www.indiana.edu/~sustain/E-Waste/index.html

This is the logo for IU’s waste recycling drive. The program is

sponsored by Apple, Inc. and runs on both the IU Bloomington

and the IUPUI campuses.

Resource Use and Recycling

This is IU’s second largest working group.

The 11 member committee is responsible for

raising awareness of the recycling options

on the IU campus. The group is sponsoring

a ten week contest titled Recycle Mania.

The contest is being used as a way to

encourage the IU campus to evaluate their

waste activities. Purdue University is also

involved in this completion and is grouped

against IU. The recycling group has also

used internships to generate studies andreports about recycling and resource use.

Food

The food workgroup is focused on creating a

campus food model that considers issues

across the entire spectrum of activities

related to food production and consumption.

The model is intended to balance nutrition

with environmental costs in a way that takes

into account the financial pressures inherent

in providing food services for such a large

institution. The group is careful to clarify that

the dining options must be desirable as well

as sustainable. The group chose to further

divide its work into three primary areas;

sustainable production and delivery,

reduction/recycling of packaging, and

reduction/recycling of food waste. The web

page for this group also promotes local

organic food producers.

Internship Programs

IU has relied heavily on the use of student

interns. The internship program is a core

component of their overall plan. 82 interns

have been employed over five years to

complete projects and research in pursuit of

IU’s sustainability goals. Projects are

selected by the IU Office of Sustainability

(IUOS) and the Campus Sustainability

Advisory Board. The internship program has

academic year and summer components

with each option involving registration for

actual university credit as part of the

process. The application process is open to

http://www.indiana.edu/~sustain/E-Waste/index.html




the public and students are encouraged to

apply via the internship group’s website.

Environmental Quality

This is the final area covered by IU’s

strategic sustainability plan. This group

covers the infrastructure and facilities on the

IUB campus. The group seeks to mitigate

the negative impact of IUB’s land practices.

This group’s work is mainly to report and

monitor the overall energy usage on the IUB

campus. Many of the metrics used to judge

the success of the overall plan are being

monitored and reported by this group. This is

the largest group under the task force’s

umbrella with 16 members from areas

across the IU campus.

Conclusion

The Office of Sustainability on the Indiana

University Bloomington campus is

responsible for organizing and publicizing

information about the sustainability efforts

currently underway. As part of the marketing

effort, the IU sustainability webpage contains

a scrolling banner that highlights seven of

the university’s current projects. Other

sections of the IU site offer links to recent

news and upcoming events. There is a

section of the website that is specifically

designed to help “experts, faculty, students,

staff, and the local community to find

information, instruction, collaboration,

community links and networks, and direction

in regards to issues relating to

sustainability.” Overall, the site is a useful

tool for engaging the campus community.

The Office of Sustainability in conjunction

with the Campus Sustainability Advisory

Board is coordinating the implementation of

the plan laid out in 2008 as part of the

Campus Sustainability Report. The plan has

been integrated into every aspect of the daily

operations of the campus. The level of

integration and number of ongoing activities

exemplify a strong level of institutional

support for the overall aim of increasing the

effectiveness of sustainability programs

across the IU campus.




Interviews

1st Interview by Rebecca Johnson

Robin Ridgway – Director of Sustainability and Environmental Stewardship at Purdue

1. I receive many emails from you promoting the green initiatives here on campus. How much

of your current job deals specifically with Purdue’s sustainability? Are these duties new to

Purdue and are just now being promoted or have these efforts been done all along and just

recently news worthy?

About 50% of my job is Sustainability, the title is new but many of the efforts have been

going on a long time.

2. Do you believe Purdue could/should do more campus wide to promote the sustainabilityprojects?

As part of the Sustainability Strategic Planning process we are developing a proposed

process to help shepherd sustainability related projects/policies/programs through the

system to get them the visibility and support they need from the University community

and senior administration. So, yes, I think we can do a lot more to support

projects….sometimes even “spiritual” support is fine…someone in the Senior

administration that says, “Hey, that’s a GREAT idea!” might be all something

needs…..or a picture of the President with her own deskside recycling bin. Those

things would be helpful and we hope through this proposed process we can get there.

3. It seems a lot of the recent pushes for energy conservation are geared more towards budget

concerns than environmental factors. Do you believe that if the reasoning was to save energy

instead of money, the support from the campus community would be different?

It is clear that trying to get folks to save energy as a way to “save the planet” will only

work on a small subset of the population….and they would probably be doing it

anyway. It’s like the people that don’t see a recycling bin at a place they visit so they

stuff that plastic water bottle/newspaper/etc in their purse and carry it home. I think that

beating people over the head and making them feel bad about using energy will becounterproductive…they’ll get defensive and be convinced that energy conservation,

like global warming, is surely a communist plot. HOWEVER, nothing like a good

economic downturn to really put some excitement behind saving money…..and saving

energy is saving money…and saving energy is also saving the environment. So, I don’t

really care about the reason it all of a sudden has a “nuclear push”, we are getting the




interest we need and moving forward instead of having energy conservation be

marginalized as a “nice to have”.

4. What are your favorite sustainability projects on campus now that you believe will have the

greatest effect?

From a community impact standpoint, I think the dual stream recycling program has

really ratcheted up our recycling program. I think the biggest value in this…even

bigger than the actual saved materials, is the engagement of the campus community in

the sustainability effort. Everyone who has had their trash can taken away and replaced

with a recycling container is now part of the program, not just the people I talked about

earlier that carry stuff home in their purse. From an environmental impact standpoint, I

think it’s a tie between the food waste going to WL’s anaerobic digester to make energy

for the plant or the energy conservation effort on campus. I have a few other projects

that are idling in the wings that I am even more excited about but since you limited me

to “on campus now” and are not allowing “dreams”, I have to rein myself in.

5. Have you researched any other universities to see their efforts and compare the programs

and take some of their ideas and use them here on campus?

Absolutely. We are stealing stuff from our friends and colleagues all the time….and

hopefully they are stealing from us. We collaborate through rankings programs,

through groups like Big Ten Sustainability, through Sightlines benchmarking. It’s a

free-for-all and well it should be to make best use of everyone’s ideas.

2nd Interview by Rebecca JohnsonInterviewee: Tom Moore – Development Office System Programmer at Pennsylvania State

University

1. Do you believe your college/department is doing all it can to promote green initiatives?

I believe that they have done a lot but are just now starting to get word out to the

campus. After you asked me if I’d respond, I went and check out their website. We’ve

received a few things through the mail and email but no big campus announcements

about what they are doing.

2. What kind of programs has your college/department created for sustainability?

Here in ITS, we allow different departments to bring us batteries, etc to recycle but no

big push.

3. Does your college/department coordinate the green initiatives as one complete project or do

individual departments decide their own actions?




There are a few committees on campus but mainly each department decides how

“green” they want to be with recycling etc.

4. Understanding that you are not an expert on green initiatives, is it easy for you to find out

information to help you in your current college/department?

There are not a lot of resources for me immediately. I am sure if I wanted to take this

farther and make an effort of it I could find a group to help but I haven’t heard of ITS

doing any major organization of recycling.

5. Has your college/department noticed a big cost-savings by going Green and implementing

Green programs?

I haven’t heard of a major break-through that saved the university a lot of money but I

am sure every little bit helps with the overall budget. I know the electricity bill has got

to be huge and turning off a light wouldn’t seem to make a dent but I am sure if

everyone did it, it would help.

6. Do you offer any incentives to help push users (employees, students, etc) to go Green?

I haven’t heard of any incentives. Most incentives would probably be cut anyway due to

budget constraints. The only thing I could figure is making the recycling easier to find

would make it easier to recycle.

http://www.purdue.edu/buildings_grounds/recycling/dual_stream_recycling.htm

Interview by Bill McIlhargeyJoel Zarate- Supervisor Buildings and Grounds

Job Description:

“My title is Recycling and Refuse Coordinator. In this capacity I am responsible for the disposal

of all non-hazard discarded material generated on main campus. The objective is to try to

reduce the amount as much as possible, otherwise find some other uses for the material or

recycle.”

Questions & Answers:

1. Do you believe your college/department is doing all it can to promote green initiatives?

Yes

2. What kind of programs has your college/department created for sustainability?




Recycling Awareness Programs, partnering with other entities to promote Green e.g.

West Lafayette.

3. Does your college/department coordinate the green initiatives as one complete project or do

individual departments decide their own actions?

Depends during football season we have partner with BGI to promote the stadium

Recycling program.

4. Understanding that you are not an expert on green initiatives, is it easy for you to find out

information to help you in your current college/department?

Depends on what we are working on. For example the food waste to energy project that

we are working on with W.L. The closest organization that is doing something similar is

in California.

5. Has your college/department noticed a big cost-savings by going Green and implementingGreen programs?

We are working on the numbers, but the rates are increasing.

6. Do you offer any incentives to help push users (employees, students, etc) to go Green.

Yes, part of the revenue is used to offset the cost of trash collection.




References

University of Minnesota Sources:

1. "Bottled Water." Minnesota Landscape Arboretum . 29 Apr. 2009. Web.<http://www.arboretum.umn.edu/bottledwater.aspx>.

2. "Buildings & Grounds." Purdue University . 2008. Web.<http://www.purdue.edu/buildings_grounds/recycling/>.

3. "Computer Recycling - Office of Information Technology, University ofMinnesota." Office of Information Technology (OIT), University of Minnesota . 10 Oct.2008. Web. <http://oit.umn.edu/computer-recycling/>.

4. "ConserveIT for Active Directory : U of M." University of Minnesota . 2008. Web.

<http://www1.umn.edu/umnad/green/index.html>.

5. "Discovery Park - Center for the Environment." Purdue University . 2008. Web.<http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/environment/>.

6. "Facilities Management Recycling Program, Twin Cities Campus." University of Minnesota . 23 Feb. 2010. Web. <http://www1.umn.edu/recycle/>.

7. "Printing Home." ITaP - Information Technology at Purdue . 2010. Web.<http://www.itap.purdue.edu/tlt/printing/>.

8. Regents of the University of Minnesota. (2009, February 18). Institute on the Environment . Retrieved March 1, 2010, from University of Minnesota:http://environment.umn.edu/.

9. "Research Programs |." Institute on the Environment | University of Minnesota . 23Nov. 2009. Web. <http://environment.umn.edu/research/index.html>.

10.Sustainability . (2010). Retrieved March 1, 2010, from University of MinnesotaHousing and Residential Life: http://www.housing.umn.edu/sustainability/index.html.

11. "Sustainability Effort."Printing Services - University of Minnesota

. 10 Oct. 2008.Web. <http://www.printing.umn.edu/Sustainable.htm>.

12. "Sustainability Efforts." Housing & Food Services :: Purdue University . 2010. Web.<http://www.housing.purdue.edu/HTML/Sustainability/Efforts.htm>.

13. "Sustainability Practices." Minnesota Landscape Arboretum . 2010. Web.<http://www.arboretum.umn.edu/sustainability.aspx>.




14. "University Dining Services, Twin Cities Campus." University of Minnesota . 2008.Web. <http://www1.umn.edu/dining/awareness.html>.

Penn State University Sources:

1. Sustainable Endowments Institute. "Compare college sustainability - Green ReportCard." The College Sustainability Report Card. N.p., 2009. Web. 8 Mar. 2010.<http://www.greenreportcard.org/compare>.

2. Pennsylvania State University. “Penn State’s portal to energy & environmentalsustainability”, 2009. Web. 8 Mar 2010.

3. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Basic Information About the SustainabilityPartnership in Region 3.” N.p. 2010. Web 8 Mar 2010. http://www.epa.gov/reg3wcmd/spp/aboutus.html

4. Pennsylvania State University. “Center for Sustainability at Penn State”, 2010, Web.8 Mar 2010.

University of Illinois Sources:

1. Division of Research Safety, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "Universityof Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chemical Waste Management Guide." Web. 16Mar. 2010.<http://www.drs.illinois.edu/css/guidesplans/wasteguide/chapter2.aspx?tbID=gp>.

2. 2. Facilities & Services, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “RecycledProducts Procurement & Waste Reduction.” Web. 16 Mar. 2010.<http://www.fs.uiuc.edu/cam/CAM/vii/vii-b-9.html>.

3. 3. Office of Sustainability | Illinois . Web. 16 Mar. 2010.<http://sustainability.illinois.edu/greenheroes.html>.

4. 4. Office of Sustainability | Illinois. "Student Sustainability Committee • University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign." Web. 16 Mar. 2010.<http://sustainability.illinois.edu/ssc/projects.html>.

5. 5. Parent Programs Office. "Recycling at Illinois." Web. 16 Mar. 2010.<http://www.uofiparentprograms.illinois.edu/feature%20stories/recycling.html>.

University Of Michigan Sources:




1. Sustainable Endowments Institute. "Compare college sustainability - Green ReportCard." The College Sustainability Report Card. N.p., 2009. Web. 15 Mar. 2010.<http://www.greenreportcard.org/compare>.

2. http://www.plantops.umich.edu/utilities/energy_management/lighting/

3. http://www.plantops.umich.edu/utilities/energy_management/computing4. http://www.plantops.umich.edu/utilities/energy_management/programs/

Indiana University Sources

1. http://www.indiana.edu/~sustain/

2. http://www.indiana.edu/~sustain/docs/Campus_Sustainability_Report.pdf




Annotated Bibliography

"Facilities Management Recycling Program, Twin Cities Campus." University of Minnesota . 23 Feb. 2010. Web. <http://www1.umn.edu/recycle/>.

This website is very badly put together but the information they have was very valuable.On the site was several statistics and facts related to Minnesota’s recycling program. Itwas also very valuable because it allowed me to gauge how Purdue compares toMinnesota.

"Sustainability Practices." Minnesota Landscape Arboretum . 2010. Web.<http://www.arboretum.umn.edu/sustainability.aspx>.

The Landscape Arboretum site provided with a lot of information into some of the thingsthat they do at the Arboretum. I was not familiar with the concept of an Arboretumprevious to visiting this site so it was informative and eye opening at the same time.

Seeing this site also made me wonder why Purdue does not have anything comparable.

“Sustainability Efforts." Housing & Food Services :: Purdue University . 2010.Web. <http://www.housing.purdue.edu/HTML/Sustainability/Efforts.htm>.

Minnesota’s Food Services site was very public about what they do and this site allowedme to see how Minnesota’s program is better than Purdue’s. Combined with theResidence Hall’s website, I was able to get a lot of valuable information aboutMinnesota’s campus sustainability practices.

Sustainable Endowments Institute. "Compare college sustainability - Green

Report Card." The College Sustainability Report Card. N.p., 2009. Web. 8Mar. 2010. <http://www.greenreportcard.org/compare>.

This site displays and compares Green information from many colleges all over the

world. It gives each college a ranking in about eight different categories and allows you

to compare these values with other colleges.

Pennsylvania State University. “Penn State’s portal to energy & environmentalsustainability”, 2009. Web. 8 Mar 2010.

http://green.psu.edu/news_events/2010_news/greenReportCard.asp

http://green.psu.edu/resources/sustainabilityTopics.asphttp://green.psu.edu/greening_psu/default.asp

These sites detail Penn State’s current efforts and ways for the staff, students, andcommunity to become involved with the campus’ initiatives. It is a work in progresswebsite as there are still some broken links




U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Basic Information About theSustainability Partnership in Region 3.” N.p. 2010. Web 8 Mar 2010. http://www.epa.gov/reg3wcmd/spp/aboutus.html

This site explains what the Sustainability partnership is and what benefits Penn State is

receiving by becoming a member. The site also lists contact information for anyoneinterested in joining.

Pennsylvania State University. “Center for Sustainability at Penn State”, 2010,Web. 8 Mar 2010.http://www.cfs.psu.edu/index.aspx?p=1http://www.cfs.psu.edu/about_us.aspx?p=2

These are the main sites explaining the sustainability center’s goals and currentprojects. The sites display the initiatives in the planning process plus what has alreadybeen accomplished.

Division of Research Safety, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign."University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chemical Waste Management Guide."Web. 16 Mar. 2010.<http://www.drs.illinois.edu/css/guidesplans/wasteguide/chapter2.aspx?tbID=gp>.

This website discusses in detail the disposal of chemical waste and how important it isto properly dispose of chemical materials. If chemical products are not disposedproperly, this causes the school to waste money and harm the environment.

Facilities & Services, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “RecycledProducts Procurement & Waste Reduction.” Web. 16 Mar. 2010.<http://www.fs.uiuc.edu/cam/CAM/vii/vii-b-9.html>.

This website discusses steps the University will take so insure that there is a recyclingprogram at the campus and that all students and faculty are aware of it. The websitealso states that their first priority is waste reduction. Next it is explained how they planon reducing waste around the campus.

Office of Sustainability | Illinois . Web. 16 Mar. 2010.<http://sustainability.illinois.edu/greenheroes.html>.

This website displays information about the people that helped start the schoolsrecycling program. One very important person was Tim Hoss. With the help ofstudents on campus, they were able to start the schools recycling programs whichhelped save the campus money and preserve the environment.

Office of Sustainability | Illinois. "Student Sustainability Committee • University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign." Web. 16 Mar. 2010.<http://sustainability.illinois.edu/ssc/projects.html>.



This website discusses the many projects the University of Illinois has taken on frombefore 2008 until the summer of 2009. These projects go into deal on when the projectwas proposed as to who is involved and how much the project is going to cost. Thewebsite then finishes with stating the end result of the project and how much it benefitedthe school.

Parent Programs Office. "Recycling at Illinois." Web. 16 Mar. 2010.<http://www.uofiparentprograms.illinois.edu/feature%20stories/recycling.html>.

This website discusses the schools waste management program. This website

discusses when the program was started and where the recycling program has

expanded since the beginning. There is a list of items the school supports for recycling

as well as the percentages that were recycled within the last year.

Sustainable Endowments Institute. "Compare college sustainability - GreenReport Card." The College Sustainability Report Card. N.p., 2009. Web. 15Mar. 2010. <http://www.greenreportcard.org/compare>.

This site displays and compares green information from many colleges all over the

world. It gives each college a ranking in about eight different categories and allows you

to compare these values with other colleges.

http://www.indiana.edu/~sustain/

This website is the main resource for publicizing information about the environmentalresources and programs at Indiana University. The page highlights IU’s efforts in 8strategic areas defined by their sustainability plan. It is clear from the high level ofdevelopment that this site is important to the university. The information on the websiteis both current and detailed. This signifies that a high level of attention is being paid tospreading the information to as wide an audience as possible. To that end, the pageeven contains links to Facebook and Twitter for updates on events and programs.There are numerous links to pages that address individual sections of IU’s sustainabilityplan.

http://www.indiana.edu/~sustain/docs/Campus_Sustainability_Report.pdf

This is the report which summarizes the campus sustainability plan for the IndianaUniversity Bloomington Campus. Included in the report is a brief history of theSustainability Task Force which completed the study used as the basis for the report.The report, which was published in 2008, provides the framework around which IU hassubsequently built its sustainability programs. The report is divided into ten majorsections covering different aspects of the overall plan. Included in the report is a Tablethat assesses each of the institutions in the Big Ten Conference. The information in thereport is useful in gauging the level of administrative support for the proposed programs.

Documents

Black Gold and Green Whitepaper