Sustainability Initiative

Statement about commitment to sustainability

by Dr. Julie Newell, Social & International Studies

(1) Why I'm committed to sustainability:

I can't remember a time when I didn't have a keen awareness of, and a sense of connection to, the natural world. I grew up hiking and camping in south-central Idaho, and have always been a science "geek". When other pre-teen girls around me were going through their "horse phase," I went through a whale phase and desperately wanted to grow up to be Sylvia Earle. (See http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers-program/eir/searle.html if you don't know who she is!) I didn't become a marine biologist, but I did earn a bachelor's degree in biology (mostly botany and ecology). I went on to graduate work in history of science precisely because I was (and am) committed to finding ways to increase scientific literacy and to help others understand the critical role science and technology play in our world. Informed citizenship in the 21st century must include scientific and technological literacy. I want to help make Southern Polytechnic a place that not only develops real world solutions for real world problems, but applies them in our own "house."

(2) What I can do:

A. My primary focus, as I said when I volunteered for the steering committee, will be recycling, and I'm going to advocate (even more) tirelessly for serious recycling on this campus.

B. I can choose environmental topics for campus courses and lectures, and have already committed to the following: STS 2400: Innovation and Environment, Summer 20007; STS 4400: Global Warming, Fall 2007 and STS 4800: Capstone Seminar: Sustainability, Spring 2007. In addition, the Interface and International Forum lecture series for 2007-2008 will focus on environment.

C. I want to start a recycling program for bottles in J building and have a way to do it . . . . see low-hanging fruit below.

D. My department will be ordering office paper that is 35% post-consumer (rather than 10%) from now on.

E. Create and maintain the Green Courses page.

(3) Low Hanging Fruit--stuff we should be doing NOW:

A. I need permission to start a Terracycle program in building J to recycle bottles. There's info at: http://www.terracycle.net/bb/faq.htm and http://www.terracycle.net/bb/ This program would (1) get a LOT of plastic bottles out of our trash stream, (2) let me get students involved and aware, and (3) let us save 10 square feet of rainforest (though the Nature Conservancy) for every bottle collected. Carbon footprint offset!

B. Encourage departments to order the higher-recycled-content paper. It costs a little extra per case, but think of it as early adopter tax . . . and somebody has to lead the way.

C. Let's find a way to get our office paper recycled. The pick-up system has to to fixable, and we need to educate the campus about what to put in--and what NOT to put in--the bins.

D. STOP--absolutely and immediately--using recycling bins for anything else on campus. Recycling-blue bins should be for recycling ONLY. Recycling bins are used for everything and anything--no wonder nobody takes them seriously as recycling bins! If they have to be used for other purposes then MUST be painted some other color!

E. Train the cleaning crews not to empty paper recycling into the trash. They are going to be critical to the success of recycling efforts we undertake, and at the very least, they shouldn't be undermining our efforts. But everything is going to depend on training and supervisory attitude. If this isn't considered important, it isn't going to work.

F. Make security patrols responsible for turning off the lights, especially in unused public spaces (like the hallways in J building) as part of their rounds.

G. Reduce the amount of security lighting in building J classrooms. These are lights that are hardwired to be ON 24/7--you CAN'T turn them off. I'm not advocating eliminating them, although that would be alright with me, too. But the level of light is so high now that it actually interferes with instruction--when we try to turn off the lights to use instructional technology it's still so bright in the room that visibility is a problem. We need ONE light--max-- in the back of each room (away from the primary instructional area).
H. Clean up the banks and preserve Rottenwood Creek--the previous facilities master planning process included discussion of a nature / fitness trail.
I. When we re-negotiate the food contract . . . we need to STOP having all the catering prepared off campus and transported to campus (really energy inefficient and CO2 producing) AND we need to require more eco-friendly disposable AND stop being charged extra to use the re-useable dishes and flatware!