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Taking the next step toward sustainability
More than 200 faculty, staff and students turned out at yesterday’s Sustainability Forum to offer input on how UB can go “climate neutral.” Photo: DOUGLAS LEVERE
In signing the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment in March 2007, President John B. Simpson committed UB to creating by September 2009 a plan describing how the university will go “climate neutral,” reducing or offsetting all of its greenhouse gas emissions.
Contributing their voices to this goal, more than 200 faculty, staff and students took part in the UB Sustainability Forum, “Planning for a Climate Neutral Campus,” held yesterday in the Student Union Theater.
“This event is meant to take our current way of working in the world of stewardship in the environment to the next level,to expand the circle of participants, to aggressively engage the broadest possible base across our university so that we might meet the contemporary challenges of climate change and climate neutrality.”” said Robert G. Shibley, chair of UB’s Environmental Stewardship Committee (ESC).
The new engineering building under construction on the North Campus is an example of UB’s institutional commitment to environmental stewardship, he added, noting that the project is being built to higher environmental standards than those mandated by SUNY. Construction related to UB’s growing presence on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and additional student housing adjacent to the Ellicott Complex on the North Campus also are expected meet these higher standards, he said.
Shibley, professor of architecture and planning and point person for UB’s comprehensive physical plan, addressed attendees during the forum’s opening and closing sessions. The rest of the three-hour event was devoted to six breakout sessions hosted by the chairs of the ESC subcommittees: energy; transportation; materials; information technology; research, teaching and public service; and outreach and communications.
During the session on energy, Michael Dupre, associate vice president for university facilities and chair of the energy subcommittee, explained that UB spends more than $20 million each year on electricity, plus an additional $5 million on natural gas. In a typical year, UB generates approximately 214 million kilowatt hours, he added.
“Annually, UB uses enough electricity to light a 100-watt bulb for 243,788 years,” he said. “That same bulb has to be lit for 24 years for every student who graduates. We leave a legacy of energy use for everything we do.”
In addition to constructing new buildings to higher environmental standards, Dupre said great cost savings also can be achieved by retrofitting existing buildings to conserve energy. A greater percentage of UB’s annual capital funding budget goes toward infrastructure replacement than new construction, he noted.
Several forum participants suggested that UB focus more on renewable energy, including using more alternative sources, including solar, wind and hydropower. Dennis Andrejko, associate professor of architecture, urged UB go beyond these higher construction standards by building a “demonstration project” that actually generates its own power, like one that has been built at Oberlin College.
ESC subcommittee chairs presented the results of their sessions during the final part of the forum. Using classroom clicker technology, participants cast votes to pinpoint their top three priorities: expanding the use of alternative energy sources; coordinating with regional transit authorities to encourage the use of mass transit, carpooling, cycling and other forms on non-single commuter transportation to campus; and implementing a university-wide educational campaign focusing on sustainability practices, including recycling.
Another sustainability forum during which participants will respond to a preliminary report based on the results of the yesterday’s forum, is scheduled for February; a final review of UB’s climate action plan is set for later in the spring 2009 semester.
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