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Erin Cala is an environmental educator in the UB Green Office and a member of the Environmental Task Force.
What is the Environmental Task Force? What are its goals?
The Environmental Task Force (ETF) is a group of faculty, staff and students committed to reducing UB's environmental impact through interdisciplinary collaboration. Currently there are about 40 faculty, students and staff members on the ETF—and more members are always welcome. Walter Simpson, university energy officer and the director of the UB Green Office, is the chair. The task force, formed in 1990 by former President Steven Sample, has developed over the years numerous campus environmental policies and environmental awareness programs. Right now, the task force is asking President John B. Simpson to approve a policy requiring that all white copy and printer pages be 100 percent, post-consumer-content recycled paper. If UB adopted that policy, the university would join Princeton University in leading the way nationally on recycled paper purchasing. The ETF also will be working to maximize the benefit of Al Gore's Distinguished Speakers Series visit on April 27.
The ETF is intimately involved with the UB green campus effort. Is this kind of faculty/staff/student involvement in environmental issues unusual at a college or university?
When the ETF was first established, UB was at the cutting edge in regards to collaboratively addressing environmental stewardship issues. However, in the past decade, quite a few institutions of higher education have developed their own environmental committees to address sustainability issues on campus. Many of these committees are based on the ETF and its early successes. The ETF is a volunteer committee, supported by the staff of the UB Green Office; the work of UB Green and the ETF often are intertwined.
Tell me about some of the projects the ETF is working on.
Current ETF projects include working with Campus Dining & Shops and Facilities grounds staff to compost kitchen and yard waste on campus; improving bicycling opportunities on campus; promoting recycled copy paper and letterhead; examining opportunities to improve existing green space and natural regeneration areas; creating an atmosphere to address climate change on campus; and EcoNews, an electronic newsletter that highlights the major achievements of the ETF.
What would you consider to be the ETF's greatest achievement?
I believe the environmental policies created by the ETF and approved by senior administration are its greatest achievement. The policies address a broad range of environmental issues, including regulating heating and air conditioning, and soliciting public comment for new construction, major renovations and campus master planning. As a result of these policies, we have a campus-wide recycling program and defined protected natural regeneration areas on the North Campus. These policies affect our everyday lives on campus and have changed the way faculty and staff work and the way students learn.
How did you become interested in environmental issues and pursuing a career in this field?
Growing up in Chautauqua County, I always have appreciated and sought refuge in nature. As an undergraduate at UB, it was my participation in an independent study that sparked my interest in environmental policy and stewardship. That internship helped me realize that I wanted to spend my life working to protect the environment and raising public awareness regarding environmental concerns.
What's the one environmentally unfriendly thing that people do that bothers you the most?
I would have to say that I am bothered most by people not connecting the environmental dots. As a society, we need to rethink how we live our lives, reduce our consumption patterns, reuse whatever is possible and recycle when we have exhausted the aforementioned options. Start by asking yourself simple questions, and then work to address them in an environmentally benign way. Did you turn off the lights and turn down the thermostat on your way out this morning? Where did the food you ate for lunch come from? How did you get to work today? What are you doing to make sure your grandchildren's grandchildren have clean air to breathe, fresh water to drink and beautiful natural places to play? Every action we take in our daily lives has an impact on the natural environment, yet most people never stop to think how they are impacting the planet.
What question do you wish I had asked, and how would you have answered it?
I wish you would have asked me, "What is UB doing to address climate change, the most pressing social and environmental issue of our time?" As Al Gore has said, "the debate is over." We know that global warming is real, it's happening and the long-term consequences are likely to be devastating. We need to act now and act decisively. James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, says we have just one more degree of warming and 10 years to shift to a more sustainable energy path—one defined by energy conservation and efficiency, and dependence on renewable energy sources like wind and solar instead of fossil fuels. If we fail in this transition, expert scientists like Hansen are afraid we might experience "tipping points," where the climate shifts abruptly and the worst consequences of global warming and climate change become unavoidable. What does this mean for UB? We need to recognize and publicize the science. We need to examine our own sizeable climate impacts. We consume a lot of energy and are very fossil fuel-dependent. We need to turn that around by setting an example and committing to achieving a climate neutral campus. The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education is calling on 100 college and university presidents to commit to this goal. We strongly hope President Simpson will do so. This is a huge undertaking, but nothing is more important. I would like to think that responding to global warming and climate change will become one of our strategic strengths.