Talking Stick - January/February 2009 - 11

green pages New book takes a total campus approach to sustainability. They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but with the latest tome from APPA, you know exactly what you are in for. The Green Campus: Meeting the Challenge of Environmental Sustainability is more than 350 jam-packed pages of valuable information on almost every aspect of sustainability on a college or university campus. Unless you’ve been tabbed as the sustainability coordinator for your entire campus, the odds are you won’t need to know everything in this book. However, the editor, Walter Simpson, has cast a wide and deep enough net with the topics covered that most readers will find information that addresses their own niches on campus while also serving as a useful desk reference for most other elements of campus life. The book kicks off with five commentaries, written by some of the leading voices in the field such as Anthony Cortese and David Orr, detailing the importance of environmental sustainability. The book then settles into more of a “how-to” mode with units on energy and climate change, green buildings, green purchasing and materials, recycling and waste reduction, campus landscaping and grounds, transportation, and green cleaning. Towards the end of the book, five campuses serve as case studies. We learn how the environmental mission of Arizona State University in Tempe began with a commitment by its president, Michael Crow. We see how the culture of conservation at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in Canada is designed to fully integrate into students’ lives. Meanwhile, programs from Ithaca College in New York, Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, also glow in their own spotlights. The book closes with commentary on assessing sustainability, and the steps detailed here – whether taken by a campus or a third-party entity – are useful ways to guard against greenwashing. Simpson has been an environmental advocate for a quarter of a century, working as the university energy officer and director of the Green Office at the University at Buffalo in New York. He is on the national advisory board for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). His enthusiasm comes through in the chapters he authors as well as in the overall book. His voice is a delicate balance of passion and urgency. Additional Meals Are Now the Norm Students no longer go hungry if they miss dinner in the dining hall. And if they will be up all night studying and want a snack? That’s not a problem either. Most member institutions now offer additional meals on students’ meal plans that allow them to grab a sandwich or snack at the closest convenience store or dining hall. Leslie Bowman, director of university dining services at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, says students pre-order their extra meal online and choose which of the six dining halls they would like to pick it up at. Their largest dining hall stays open until midnight, giving students plenty of time to stop in. She explains that they decided to do this based on students’ feedback, and they seek students’ input every year in order to keep the program fresh. Ohio University in Athens has two grab and go locations in two of their dining halls, one of which stays open until 11:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday. “Students on our super meal plans can purchase food in any of our three convenience stores across campus,” says Rich Neumann, director of dining services. “Two of our stores are open until midnight Sunday-Thursday, and the other is open until 10 p.m.” Additional meals have “caught on big time,” according to Charlie Krause, catering chef and manager at Unity College in Maine. Their dining hall extends both lunch and dinner by an hour so that students can grab a late bite to eat. The menu is limited during this time, but students like the fact that Unity has an added touch of home: The food is cooked to order. “They are not coming here just because they missed their meal; they are coming here because they like the choice and it’s cooked to order,” Krause says. January + February 2009 11

Talking Stick - January/February 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Talking Stick - January/February 2009