Talking Stick - July/August 2018 - 50

T

here was a time when
sustainability measures on college and
university campuses
were considered a
bonus. An add-on.
A luxury. Quickly,
though, they had
become almost standard operating
procedure. With LEED certification,
climate action plans, electric vehicles,
and composting becoming more the
norm across the country, we seem to
be nearing a post-sustainability era.
Incoming college students, however,
say that the battle is just heating up.
According to The Princeton Review 2017 Hopes & Worries survey, 64
percent of prospective students (up 3
percent from 2016) said that having
information about a college's commitment to environmental issues would
influence their attendance decision,
and 58 percent of parents said it
would influence their decision when
considering where their child would
enroll. Why the increased concern?
To boil down very complex science to
two sentences, according to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies the
"planet's average surface temperature
has risen about 2.0 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) since the late
19th century, a change driven largely
by increased carbon dioxide and other
human-made emissions into the atmosphere. Most of the warming occurred
in the past 35 years, with 16 of the 17
warmest years on record occurring
since 2001." The Paris Agreement
aims to keep global warming below
2 degrees Celsius, which may be the
tipping point beyond which there is
significant risk to human and animal
survival on the planet.
Examples of climate change are
becoming increasingly evident, with
more frequent droughts and heatwaves,
more intense hurricanes, rising sea
levels, and more red flag air quality
days. In addition, the world has seen

50

TALKING STICK

larger, more damaging wildfires and
subsequent mudslides. According to
the World Meteorological Organization,
2017 marked the most expensive year
for damage caused by severe weather
and climate events, with more than
$320 billion in losses recorded. The
situation can sound extremely dire.
According to experts, however, colleges
and universities may provide unique
opportunities to respond to these

In order to achieve
carbon neutrality,
higher education
institutions must
first calculate
their carbon
emissions and
other greenhouse
activities to create
a carbon footprint
or greenhouse gas
inventory.

challenges. Trend-setting campuses
are showing how next-gen sustainability efforts can lead the resiliency in
responses to climate change, influence
the transition of sustainability to a
public health issue, and affect the role
of technology in creating smarter buildings and more adaptable humans.

NET ZERO
"We're at an incredible crossroads with
multiple things going on with sustainable design," says Javier Esteban,
principal with KWK Architects in St.

Louis, Missouri. Some progressive
schools now require all new buildings to be LEED-certified, but looking
ahead to next-gen sustainability, LEED
certification may be just a starting
point. "Net Zero is the new trend for
water, energy, waste, and buildings,"
says Carol Dollard, energy engineer
at Colorado State University in Fort
Collins. "How close to zero can we get,
and how quickly can we get there?"
According to Second Nature, there
are now more than 600 signatories
to the Presidents' Climate Leadership
Commitments (formerly known as the
American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment), and a
handful of schools have achieved climate neutrality while many more are
actively working toward achievement
dates that range from 2020 to 2050.
In order to achieve carbon neutrality, higher education institutions must
first calculate their carbon emissions
and other greenhouse activities to
create a carbon footprint or greenhouse gas inventory. They must then
take tangible steps, often outlined in
a climate action plan, to reduce those
emissions as much as possible. Whatever cannot be reduced needs to be
offset, which usually means purchasing renewable energy credits, carbon
offsets, or both in order to reach zero.
As one of the biggest utility consumers
on campuses, housing and dining programs have a dramatic financial stake
and moral obligation to be part of the
carbon neutrality solution, Dollard
says. She predicts that the housing and
dining services department at CSU is
responsible for 30 percent of the total
campus water usage, while electricity
use is slightly behind that of campus
research labs.
Energy - in the form of electricity,
steam, and natural gas - is often the
largest component of greenhouse gas
inventories on campuses. Generating large-scale renewable energy on
site or purchasing renewable energy
Talking Stick - July/August 2018

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