California State University, Northridge
The Oviatt Library Campus Category
Four year and graduate institutions over 15,000 student FTE
Contact Information
Erica Wohldmann
Assistant Professor
Psychology
Education and Research
California State University, Northridge (CSUN) is taking a holistic approach to campus sustainability. In the areas of education and research, the University seeks to promote interdisciplinary integration and synthesis.
Education
There are three initiatives in place:
Strengthening the sustainability content of existing courses that contain some element of sustainability. A survey of faculty indicated at least 50 such courses are offered at CSUN. Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) are being developed by an interdisciplinary committee and any course that adopts these SLOs will be denoted as sustainability-oriented in the University Catalog.
On-going workshops will be offered once a year, during which faculty members will discuss ways to integrate sustainability content into specific courses. After the workshop, faculty will then finalize a revised syllabus for their course, which will be submitted for approval, and implemented the following semester.
Creating an interdisciplinary perspectives course in sustainability to be taught for the first time in 2009, and will be offered as a regular course at the level of the University through the recently formed Institute for Sustainability. The university provided support to help develop this course, which is being taught by an interdisciplinary team of seven faculty who will each teach two-week segments over 15 weeks in fall 2009.
Development of a University-wide sustainability curriculum comprised of a set of three core courses offered at the University level by the Institute for Sustainability, along with a set of three elective courses offered by each participating department. The curriculum is designed to promote high levels of interdisciplinarity, and to deliver an education in sustainability that is both broad and deep. One course will be the team-taught interdisciplinary perspectives course described above; the second will be a course on sustainability practices, including ideas such as permaculture and deep ecology; and the third will be a capstone course in which students will apply what they have learned about sustainability to a research project that will augment the CSUN Greening Project.
Research
With regard to research, CSUN is working to implement a scheme that will link all the courses currently being offered with a community-based research-oriented dimension. The concept is to create a network of courses that work in a coordinated fashion to conduct on-going research in the San Fernando Valley (SFV).
Besides making the community research-based courses themselves more effective, by allowing them to capture system-level synergies and the benefits of collaboration, the idea is to use these courses in a way that gives rise to an annual State of the Valley Sustainability Report. This report will develop indicators of sustainability in diverse sectors and track these indicators over time so as to provide the SFV with a useful feedback mechanism with which to plan its future.
Campus Operations
Electricity Generation
CSUN built one of the largest Hydrogen Fuel Cell plants on any university campus worldwide, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 6,400 tons per year and nitrogen and sulfur oxides by about 100 tons. Waste heat is captured for heating buildings, and carbon dioxide released is piped into a rainforest environment, which makes use of biochar to enrich the soil’s capacity to capture carbon. CSUN also has one of the largest solar panel installations among any public university, generating about 490 kilowatts of energy. CSUN provides about 23% of its own electricity.
Green Buildings & Energy Efficiency
After the 1994 earthquake most of the buildings have been reconstructed to meet or exceed California’s energy efficiency mandates. The Valley Performing Arts Center, under construction, will be LEED certified, while the Student Recreation building is being considered for certification.
Recycling & Waste Diversion
Since 1991, a student-driven recycling effort collects and processes bottles, cans, paper, cell phones, ink cartridges, and cardboard. The campus is working to expand the program and has conducted what is intended to be bi-annual waste stream analyses. The campus also works with city and county agencies and corporations to support special waste recovery events for hazardous, toxic, and electronic waste.
Dining Services
CSUN has implemented a number of reforms to reduce emissions and waste. Vendors have been consolidated in a way that reduces their trips to campus by 50%; all fryer oil is sent to a biodiesel conversion plant; all coffee grounds and eggshells are composted. The campus residential dining halls will go trayless this semester to reduce waste and water consumption.
Efforts are being made to localize and serve organic produce, including fair trade organic coffee. A weekly, on-campus Farmers Market will begin this fall, serving as a venue for promoting sustainable food systems and raising nutritional awareness. Campus food gardens are being planned to connect our community with food and to teach permaculture. Some food grown will be donated to local food banks.
Landscaping & Water Management
The University makes use of native, drought-tolerant plants for landscaping, and is computerizing its irrigation system to make use of sensor technologies and to centralize control over the irrigation system.
Plans have been completed to install waterless urinals across campus, and a landscape feature analysis is being implemented to evaluate the extent to which it is possible to convert impervious surfaces to porous materials to allow effective ground-water recharge.
An aerial photography project will capture information on the thermal properties of the campus landscape to allow for an analysis of the heat island effect and the design of suitable mitigation measures.
A working group is considering the implementation of roof gardens, both to capture unused space and to improve the thermal performance of the campus.
Administration and Finance
A team is currently engaged in better connecting the University’s on-going community-based research with the planning needs of the community. Administration is currently working with elected and regional planning officials to streamline the interface between the University and the neighboring community of Northridge and the San Fernando Valley.
The Division of Academic Affairs and the Office of the Provost have charged the Core Greening Team with the task of identifying best practices for sustainable office operations. Current practices, such as that of leaving computers running over-night so as to allow more “convenient” data back up are being reviewed, and an education and outreach program is being crafted to better acculturate staff and faculty in sustainable office practices.
The practice of offering courses on a MWF/TTh schedule has been recrafted to a two day schedule that follows a MW/TTh/FSat schedule, so as to more effectively use campus and class room space, and so as to minimize the number of days students and faculty hare required to come to campus.
The Administration is working with public service providers—such as transit operators and utility services—to begin to transition campus operations toward a more sustainable future.
Currently, faculty are organizing an energy audit of all office operations within Academic Affairs, with the expectation that best practices identified by the audit team will be implemented across the board.
