By Ame Phitwong
The University of Portland has progressively evolved into a "greener" campus thanks to the wave of interest and activism from its students, staff and faculty. Since UP president the Rev. William Beauchamp, C.S.C., signed the President's Climate Commitment over the summer, noticeable changes have followed, showing that UP is becoming a sustainable-minded campus.
Biology professor Steve Kolmes believes that UP is doing exceptional in becoming more green.
"Sustainability is not a list of things to do; it's a way of thinking and how we make decisions," Kolmes said. "It needs to become a really important part of how we contextualize ourselves as part of the university."
Part of the President's Climate Commitment calls for development of a comprehensive plan to achieve climate neutrality. Also, within two months of signing the commitment, an institutional structure must be developed to guide and implement the plan. Within one year of signing, UP must complete a comprehensive inventory of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Kolmes explained that UP has met some of those guidelines and is currently working on completing the rest within the designated time frame. One completed task was creating the Presidential Advisory Committee on Sustainability. This committee makes recommendations to Beauchamp and oversees the development of the comprehensive plan to achieve climate neutrality.
According to Kolmes, UP students and staff have been collecting greenhouse gas emissions data since last spring in preparation for the commitment signing.
"We intentionally got a head start because it would be a lot of work," Kolmes said. "It's largely finished."
Kolmes said UP got another head start two years ago when it evaluated appliances for efficiency and energy. Now a majority of appliances are Energy Star qualified products. According to the Energy Star Web site, Energy Star products consume less energy, save money and help protect the environment compared to other appliances without the certification.
The second portion of the commitment calls for two or more actions from a list of seven tasks to be initiated during the development of the comprehensive plan. The University is actively working on more than two of these guidelines. One requirement is that all new campus construction meet at least the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Silver standard.
UP plans to build the new engineering hall and additional dormitories to these standards.
The University is also giving faculty and staff the option to use travel funds to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon offsetting involves calculating the carbon produced by certain actions and then reducing that carbon through sustainable practices. For example, one can plant trees or donate money to help certain green causes for the amount of carbon emitted from air travel.
UP meets another guideline by encouraging the use of public transportation by having regular shuttles to the MAX line.
"I think (sustainability on campus) is improving, but I don't think it's fantastic," senior Katie Yatteau said. She would like to see composting be implemented on campus to reduce the amount of food that gets wasted from The Commons and The Cove.
"There's a lot more that can be done with (the waste)," she said.
Kolmes acknowledges there is still room to improve the campus, but believes there's been a lot of progress. He would like to see remodeling in the older buildings on campus to make them more sustainable. He also would like all the lighting fixtures changed to compact fluorescent. Currently only new buildings like Swindells have these lights.
The light fixtures in other buildings are being changed one at a time. He said the fans and heating systems need to be set on a variable speed drive, have VOC paints used to decrease vapors in the air after painting a room, an increase in bike racks and maybe the addition of bike lockers and the increased use of recycled paper.
Senior Prem Vuppuluri wants building development on campus to be the primary focus for sustainability. He believes that one sustainable practice is to build vertically, not horizontally.
"I like the university and the campus is well designed. Basically, I feel that we would be more capable of contributing to caring for the environment by building vertically," he said. "Understandably, we may not have the infrastructure and it's easier to build horizontally, but I think building vertically goes in line with sustainability," Vuppuluri said.
He also hopes the university begins to incorporate the use of solar panels for energy. Vuppuluri said the university's move to becoming more sustainable is average and believes renovating the engineering building is a good start. He hopes that public transportation on campus becomes more efficient and even hopes that a MAX line is able to come to UP.
"The TriMet schedule is not exactly user friendly...and I think MAX would be ideal, but it's tough. That'd be a long term goal," he said.
Among other changes, UP recently purchased a biodiesel generator for Physical Plant. Kolmes said the generator arrived in pieces and is currently being assembled.
Students recently approved the purchase of two more pieces of the generator. The biodiesel generator will take grease from The Commons and turn it into biodiesel fuel, which will fuel Physical Plant vehicles and the burner.
"The most important thing is to make sure student enthusiasm continues," Kolmes said. "We can't have any of this happen without enthusiasm from the student body."
