campus sustainability

How sustainable can a campus such as RCC be? There are many factors one could measure to figure this out. For example, how about measuring the amount of trash thrown away. Or even better, measuring the amount of trash that's being thrown away compared to what amount of that trash might be something which could be recyclable, such as cans or other recyclable material such as paper? That's where I would start. Then, I would measure the amount of electricity being wasted through things such as keeping the lights on and A/C running in classrooms/bathrooms which aren't being used(which, by the way, I don't understand why it always has to be freezing in there). We could also measure the cost of how much electricity the campus uses in general and try to cut that down, or how efficient everything is, such as the air conditioning and heating, which could be lost due to poor insulation in the buildings. Another way to measure the sustainability which we may not think of so much is the use of harmful chemicals in products used to sanitate and clean the bathrooms, classrooms, and overall campus. Another factor which can easily go unnoticed is the amount of trash build-up from things such as the styrofoam plates used at the cafeteria or disposable cups used for coffee.

A perfect example of a university trying to transform their campus into a more sustainable one is UC Davis with their new West Village "zero-net energy" living towers. The Towers plan on making up as much energy as they use through the use of solar panels. Not only that, but the way the towers were built allow for them to get in much sunlight without too much heat, and the courtyard below will soak up all the excess rainwater into the grass so it won't over-flood any of the storm drains. The building is made with extra thick amounts of insulation to keep them warm on cool days and cold on warm days so much energy won't have to be used on the A/C and heating. Not only that, but any energy not used which the solar panels make during the day will be sent back to the grid so it can be used whenever no sunlight is available. To learn more about the project, a simple google search of UC Davis' West Village will provide many articles.

A factor which I would personally want to fix is the use of harmful products used around campus. Now I don't actually know if RCC uses harmful chemicals to clean bathrooms or around the school, but I'm pretty sure it's safe to say they probably don't. First thing to do would be to look at what products are used around the school, from things such as bleach and toilet bowl cleaner, to things such as pesticides if those are used around the campus, or cleaning products in the kitchen. We would need to know how if any of the products are harmful and just harmful they might be. We would need to take a look at what toll they have on the environment and where these chemicals might end up. I would measure just how much of these chemicals are ending up around the campus by simply doing an inventory check on how much was bought and used for the year of these different chemicals. A few people I can talk to about this would be the local janitors and cafeteria cooks and cleaners to see what they use, as well as talking to whoever keeps inventory on the products used to see what is being used throughout the year. To get permission to do all this surveying, I would probably try and contact president of the school since I'm sure he would be the one I would need permission from, and if not, then I'm sure he could point me in the right direction. I would get fellow classmates from my environmental science class to help out so they may gain both a learning experience as well as perhaps have it count for extra credit/volunteer work (after asking the teacher if that would be fine, of course!). After all is said and done, I would have to do some research to see what products there are out there which aren't quite as harmful (or preferably harmless) and also won't cost the school more. I would also try to see what other schools might be using on their campus and do research on that. With a little research online, we can all see that there are obviously ways to create a more sustainable campus, it just takes a little research as well as seeing what others are doing to make their campus more green.