Clap Your Hands and Say Green

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:46:00 GMT

“Green” for college students doesn’t mean what it used to. The phrase that once only conjured images of leafy substances now signifies recycling bins and fuel-efficient cars.

The “Go Green” campaign geared up into craze mode following Al Gore’s widely successful documentary of 2006, An Inconvenient Truth. And the trend has spread across the country, from individuals changing their daily living patterns at home, to entire communities, like those on college campuses, making massive strides toward large-scale lifestyle and operation alterations.

Home to over 17 million college students throughout the United States, campuses are ideal locations for change, and some schools believe it’s their “moral responsibility to be at the forefront of the green movement,” according to an article that appeared on eSchool News Online (“Colleges Make Commitment to Go ‘Green,’ ” June 14, 2007).

College Campuses Strive for Carbon Neutrality

On June 12, leaders of more than 280 colleges and universities signed an agreement to reduce their campuses’ carbon consumption. Although each school’s rate of reduction will vary based on the campus’s size, location and population, the overall goal of the American College University Presidents Climate Commitment is to cut down greenhouse gas emissions and conserve resources.

The committed schools represent only 15 percent of U.S. college students, but their pledges are substantial, including a commitment to implement green building codes, use alternative forms of transportation and purchase energy from renewable sources.

As part of their pledge, colleges are encouraged to commit to a carbon neutral target date. Some campuses don’t foresee carbon neutrality for 20 or 30 years, with limited public transportation one of the major obstacles facing schools in rural and some suburban areas, which experience a stubborn and pervasive use of student cars. On the other hand, Middlebury College in Vermont, one of the schools furthest along in its climate-conserving efforts, has committed to carbon neutrality by 2016.

Paint the Town Green

But in order for colleges to become eco-friendly, it will take more than just reducing carbon emissions. Practicing sustainability on a college campus requires broad-spectrum changes, backed by a shift in the students’ mindset and the institution’s mission.

Taking this sweeping climate-change mission to heart, the eco-conscious administrators at Arizona State University are making noteworthy changes. ASU’s Biodesign Institute was recently named as of the state’s most environmentally friendly structures, according to an article by Ryan Radazzo that appeared in The Arizona Republic (“ASU Biodesign Named as One of Country’s Top ‘Green’ Buildings,” Aug. 3, 2007).

Inside and out, the entire building boasts green accents, and we’re not talking painted walls, decorated light fixtures or designer carpeting. But structural elements—like rubber flooring and aluminum ceilings—made of recycled materials, low-flow faucets, waterless urinals, sunlight-reflecting parking lots and natural light atriums are enough to make all the other campus buildings green with envy.

Other innovations at the award-winning Biodesign Institute include a 5,000-gallon cistern that collects air conditioning condensation to use for watering the landscaping, and solar panels to reduce the energy needed to power the facility.

The Biodesign Institute consists of two adjoining buildings, with building B, completed in 2006, as only one of 40 structures nationwide to receive platinum-level certification for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Building A, which opened in 2004, received gold-level certification.

Radazzo reports that USGBC, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., consisting of more than 10,000 organizations committed to sustainability in the building marketplace, has certified 19 other buildings in Arizona. The state has 174 other projects waiting certification.

“That's a number that has jumped 44 percent in the last year,” Radazzo writes. “It's a faster growth rate than enviro-conscious California.”

ASU serves as just one example of a university committed to enacting environmentally conscious changes. Colleges and students across the country have been and will continue to wrestle with balancing an appealing campus that accommodates students’ needs against stricter sustainability practices.

For more information on how to join in the fight to “go green” visit the Inconvenient Truth Web site.

Talk to the education finance advisors at NextStudent. They have all the information and advice you need on student loans. Check out www.nextstudent.com.

Student Loan Girl

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Clap Your Hands and Say Green