The book describes how colleges and universities, including the University at Buffalo, are demonstrating that environmental responsibility can help cap, and even cut back, campus costs at a time when higher education is increasingly feeling the financial squeeze.

Author Julian Keniry, national coordinator for the federation's campus ecology program, writes that today's fiscal concerns are putting a new spin on environmental efforts at colleges and universities.

"Now, accountants can actually track the savings," she adds.

Keniry notes that some schools have begun to solicit business with environmentally friendly vendors and to make waste reduction an important criterion for doing business.

"Colleges and universities are uniquely situated to make a real difference," according to Keniry, "partly because they deal with so many vendors."

She points out that where successful, environmental initiatives in the workplace are also great morale-boosters.

"They foster teamwork among scientists, administrators, interns and others who might otherwise have little contact," she writes. "They provide a forum for employees and students eager to participate in the decision-making process. Ecodemia is about both the tangible and the intangible benefits of 'greening' our institutions."

The book contains numerous examples of environmentally savvy college and university administrators who have implemented substantial cost savings through "green" programs.

UB, for example, is mentioned prominently as a campus where a progressive, energy-conservation policy has been successfully implemented.

"While Congress, for example, seems incapable of formulating a farsighted and economically smart policy to promote energy efficiency, administrators at SUNY Buffalo have developed their own," writes David W. Orr, professor and chair of environmental studies at Oberlin College, in the book's foreword.

"As a result," Orr continues, "the university will save $3.2 million per year, equal to 15 percent of the present energy budget. They will also substantially reduce institutional contributions to global warming, acid rain and national cynicism. By decisive action they have demonstrated to students, faculty and the public at large that the future does not have to be bleak and that with sufficient leadership, large institutions can act responsibly."

The self-financing project is the result of a unique partnership between UB, Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., CES/Way International, Inc., a Houston-based energy-conservation company, and the State University of New York (SUNY) Construction Fund.

Funded at no cost to New York State taxpayers, the project would not have been possible without a $4.3 million incentive from Niagara Mohawk under the utility's "Power Partners Program" with CES/Way.

Among the project's environmental benefits is an annual 15 percent reduction in UB's energy-related air emissions, including about 70 tons less of sulfur dioxide and 107 tons less of nitrogen oxide, prime components of acid rain.

UB's program is described in detail in a chapter on energy and utilities that quotes Walter Simpson, the university's energy officer, at length, describing how UB's comprehensive program succeeded because it incorporated both short-term and long-term payback measures.

The chapter also notes that universities-and other businesses, for that matter-can ensure success of conservation programs by utilizing employees to build energy awareness.

Simpson cites the example of UB's comprehensive employee network of building conservation contacts, or BCCs. These employees, representing academic departments and administrative offices throughout the university, disseminate information about environmental policies, monitor participation and act as liaisons to UB's conservation programs.

He notes that one program that has been successfully launched through the BCCs is UB's Green Computing campaign, an effort to encourage more prudent use of computers. The program encourages faculty, staff and students to: