The green campus movement: Bringing pollution prevention programs to a college near you
Two year community/technical colleges find themselves both the educators and communicators assessing and teaching the environmental mandates of business, government (local, state and federal), and industry. It is evident that many educational institutions are not always environmentally conscious (green) and may not always be in compliance with state and federal environmental laws and regulations. It is very difficult to educate students (both full time and continuing education) in programs designed to protect the environment when few campuses implement pollution prevention activities on site. With this in mind, it is imperative that the college campuses practice what is preached. One way to accomplish this is to make college campuses green campuses, which may be defined as: An educational institution that has implemented environmentally beneficial programs and practices. This includes both pollution prevention activities to minimize the environmental impact of campus programs and administrative operations and the inclusion of environmental instructional materials in relevant courses. The PETE (Partnership for Environmental Technology Education) organization is currently working on grants from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy to promote green campus activities at colleges around the country. This paper will detail the green campus activities being undertaken at colleges across the nation, especially PETE's Green Campus Initiative program. It will discuss the problems faced in the development, marketing, implementation, and evaluation of green campus pollution prevention and energy efficiency programs. Making a campus green can entail changes to many aspects of campus life, including looking at how an institution deals with such issues as: Waste Curriculum; Water Quality/Use; Building Design; Pest Control/Use of Agricultural Chemicals; Consciousness/Environmental Concern; Air Quality: Outdoor/Indoor; Energy Consumption; Investments; Transportation; Maintenance/Operations; Food Services; Landscaping; Procurement Policies/Contractors; and Endowment Investments/Donors. As microcosms of society, the nation's college campuses have incredible potential for making positive impacts on the environment and the economy. By instituting even simple, common-sense conservation practices--like recycling, using native plants when landscaping, running atmospherically safe transportation systems, creating fertilizer from kitchen food waste, selling surplus property and maintaining university vehicles with re-refined motor oil--colleges and universities are making major strides toward improving both the environment and their financial conditions.
- Research Organization:
- North Central Partnership for Environmental Technology Education (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 20006536
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-990608-; TRN: IM200008%%143
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Air and Waste 92nd Annual Meeting and Exhibition, St. Louis, MO (US), 06/20/1999--06/24/1999; Other Information: 1 CD-ROM. Operating Systems: Windows 3.1, '95, '98 and NT; Macintosh; and UNIX; PBD: 1999; Related Information: In: Air and Waste 92nd annual meeting and exhibition proceedings, [9500] pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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