Green Gossip with Ashley Pryor

According to the Toledo Blade in its June 15 story about the transformation of our Scott Park Campus, UT retained the services of BottomLine Resource Techonologies to serve as consultants for the creation of a “Campus of Energy and Innovation”.  BottomLine will conduct an energy audit of the entire University to assess ways we might maximize conservation and savings and will help us meet our goal of becoming the first university in the country to dedicate an entire campus to the advancement of renewable, alternative and sustainable energies.

As we commit more and more of our institutional energy to new directions in sustainability, we should remember that while weaning us from our addiction to fossil fuel is a good idea, it alone is not enough to reach broader social goals.  Let’s imagine for a moment that we cannot simply “green power” or “alternatively fuel” our way out of an economic and environmental quagmire. That is, let’s assume that that alternative energy is one, albeit large, part of a complex puzzle. To really change our direction—as a university and as a society–we’ll have to try some new and different approaches, such as a commitment to reducing the amount of energy we consume every day, and to learning new ways to get our jobs done in the absence of cheap, abundant resources. While it is unlikely that North Americans will face the kinds of daily brownouts characteristic of so many capital cities in the global South any time soon, there can be little doubt that the twin forces of increasing demand for energy fueled by rapid globalization processes and dwindling energy reserves means that our days of access to cheap oil are over, and clean alternatives will take years to catch up. This means that our university will have to rethink how we use energy in our daily routine. In short we will all need to do personal energy audit  to gauge how much fossil fuels we use in our cars, in the food we consume, and the electricity we use.

The move to scrutinize the way we use energy on this campus is one of the single most important things we can do to create a more sustainable UT. In fact, it is the first step toward fulfilling our commitment to a transformative approach to how we consume resources. It is worth noting that the energy audit is consistent with President Jacobs’ recent action this spring, when he joined 641 other signatories of the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment. By signing the ACUPCC, UT has promised to undertake the following steps (full list available on their web site):

• Initiate the development of a comprehensive plan to achieve climate neutrality as soon as possible.
• Within one year of signing this document, complete a comprehensive inventory of all greenhouse gas emissions (including emissions from electricity, heating, commuting, and air travel) and update the inventory every other year thereafter.
• Within two years of signing this document, develop an institutional action plan for becoming climate neutral, which will include…Actions to make climate neutrality and sustainability a part of the curriculum and other educational experience for all students [and] actions to expand research or other efforts necessary to achieve climate neutrality.
• Establish a policy that all new campus construction will be built to at least the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Silver standard or equivalent.
• Adopt an energy-efficient appliance purchasing policy requiring purchase of ENERGY STAR certified products in all areas for which such ratings exist.
• Establish a policy of offsetting all greenhouse gas emissions generated by air travel paid for by our institution.
• Encourage use of and provide access to public transportation for all faculty, staff, students and visitors at our institution
• Within one year of signing this document, begin purchasing or producing at least 15% of our institution’s electricity consumption from renewable sources.
• Establish a policy or a committee that supports climate and sustainability shareholder proposals at companies where our institution’s endowment is invested.
• Participate in the Waste Minimization component of the national RecycleMania competition, and adopt 3 or more associated measures to reduce waste.

How are people at UT addressing each of these challenges?  This week I interviewed Thomas Trimble, the Associate Director of the Student Unions, who generously spent over an hour with me talking about the ways he was thinking about sustainability in the context of the daily operations of the Student Union. I will share clips and a summary of that interview with everyone soon. Meanwhile, please share your ideas, comments, clips, links, and questions with me.