Elon University

Elon is situated on a beautiful and historic 575-acre campus, which was declared a Botanical Garden in 2005 by President Lambert

Campus Category

Four year and graduate institutions 5,000 – 15,000 student FTE

Contact Information

Elaine Durr
Sustainability Coordinator
Office of Sustainability

Education and Research

Student engagement is a key component to Elon’s sustainability initiatives. The following co-curricular education opportunities reach a diverse group of students.

  • The Sustainable Living Learning Community is a faculty-advised residential community for students with an interest in environmental issues and learning how to live in a sustainable manner.
  • Elon has a number of student groups that address sustainability and environmental interests either directly or indirectly. Two are described here:  1) The Elon Community Garden is a place for the Elon and greater community to come together to learn about organic gardening and re-connect to our environment. The garden is managed by Elon students and utilized as a community project in the summer by the Elon Academy, a college access program for local high school students. 2) The EV! Green Team is a subsidiary of Elon Volunteers, which is housed in the Kernodle Center for Service Learning, and focuses on service learning projects related to environmental stewardship in the local area.
  • In fall 2009, Elon’s Sustainability Office will start an Eco-Reps Program, a peer education program dedicated to promoting environmentally responsible behaviors. Student peer educators will help raise awareness of environmental issues and encourage environmentally responsible behavior of fellow students by providing Sustainable Living lessons to freshman seminars and assisting Residence Life staff with sustainability-related programs and activities.
  • Visions Magazine, The World We Live In and The World We Want To Live In, is a faculty-student organized and operated publication. It features research and other works of Elon University students and student-faculty collaborations from all disciplines with a focus on the environment and sustainable development.
  • Spring 2009 was the second year for Elon’s POWERless competition, a residential energy competition among Elon’s 40 residential buildings to increase energy conservation awareness. During the 7-week competition, students compete to reduce the electricity use in their building, based on baseline consumption.

Elon’s growing Environmental Studies major is the central component of Elon’s curriculum initiatives. In addition, Elon offers over 50 courses from many different departments that cover sustainability-related topics ranging from ecology to environmental ethics.

The Elon Center for Environmental Studies provides opportunities for students and faculty to work with outside partners on projects focused on environmental education and stewardship in the Piedmont of North Carolina. Recent projects have focused on restoration and protection of the Haw River.

The Sustainability Faculty Scholars program provides training on the principles and practices of sustainability to faculty who then incorporate them into their courses. The program is in its second year and is led by Environment Studies Faculty with support from the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning and the Sustainability Office.

Elon launched a Sustainability Pledge in April of 2009 to encourage campus community members to take individual actions to reduce their environmental impact. The pledge asks individuals to commit to make at least three positive changes in their daily life and identify the great things they are already doing to reduce their impact on the environment. 

Campus Operations

Elon has a number of sustainability initiatives in the area of campus operations demonstrating its commitment to sustainability. (See www.elon.edu/sustainability) Some of the more recent and notable initiatives are as follows:

Buildings

  • Elon has adopted a Green Building Policy. New construction projects and major renovations consisting of 8,000 or more square feet of conditioned, occupied space will achieve LEED certification. Smaller projects and minor renovations must follow the University’s Sustainability Design Standards at a minimum.
  • Lindner Hall, to open in fall 2009, is the first building on campus to pursue LEED certification with Silver as the target. Lindner’s sustainable features include photovoltaic panels and a solar water heating system, 27% more energy efficient than a code compliant building, construction waste diversion over 90% and 49% reduction in water consumption.

Climate

  • The goal of Elon’s Sustainability Master Plan (2007) is to establish a carbon neutral university. To that end, Elon conducted its first GHG inventory for FY 08 and is currently working on FY 09. In addition, Elon’s Climate Action Plan is under development.

Dining Services

  • Two of Elon’s largest dining halls participate in a composting program.
  • The dining halls are trayless, which reduces water and energy usage as well as food waste.

Energy Use

  • A recently completed electrical sub-metering project includes 50 of Elon’s 63 buildings or 78% of its building square footage. This project will allow the Physical Plant to more closely monitor electricity consumption and optimize performance. To increase energy conservation awareness of the campus community, this project was accompanied by an online real-time electricity monitoring system. It is accessible to anyone and allows users to view current and historical electricity consumption for any building on the system.

Landscaping & Grounds

  • The automatic irrigation system is completely supplied with reclaimed stormwater and controlled with weather-based technology.
  • Elon began composting its own yard waste in the fall of 2008. The final compost product will be utilized on campus to improve soil quality and reduce water and fertilizer requirements.

Technology

  • Elon has implemented a print management system in areas with the greatest paper use (computer labs and the library). It, along with duplex printing, has reduced paper usage by 80% in these areas.

Transportation

  • Elon owns and operates over 30 alternative fueled vehicles including biodiesel buses, electric utility vehicles and hybrid vehicles. This has become the standard for new purchases.
  • The Zipcar program has over 330 members and is expanding with an additional vehicle for fall 2009.

Waste

  • Elon participates in RecycleMania and holds its own residential area recycling competition.
  • A Move Out reuse/donation program benefits local charities.
  • Elon recycled or composted 33% of its waste stream in FY 09.

Water Use

  • Numerous plumbing fixtures have been replaced or retrofitted with low-flow models including toilets, showerheads and faucets. As an example, a residential facility with 530 students used 806,000 fewer gallons of water in FY 09 after low-flow showerheads and faucet aerators were installed.

Administration and Finance

Creating an environmentally sustainable campus became an institution-wide effort in 2006 when President Lambert created the Environmental Advisory Council with faculty, staff and student representation. The Council spent most of FY 07 researching environmental sustainability, assessing Elon’s current practices and identifying additional opportunities to expand the University’s sustainability efforts. The Council identified several initiatives already in-place that were reducing Elon’s impact and made several recommendations on ways to make Elon a more sustainable campus, all of which can be found in Elon’s Sustainability Master Plan. In 2007, Sustainable Environment was added as an institutional priority and this emphasis has continued. Elon’s first Sustainability Coordinator was hired in May of 2008 to guide Elon in its effort to become a more sustainable campus.

The overarching goal of Elon’s Sustainability Master Plan is to minimize our impact on the global environment by establishing a carbon neutral university. It includes recommendations in the following categories: University Organizational Structures, University as a Teaching Tool, Partnership with Others, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources Conservation, Indoor Environmental Quality, Site Protection, Water Conservation, Green Purchasing, Green Building, Student Activities, Communication and Curriculum.

A Sustainability Policy was adopted in 2008 to formalize and strengthen Elon’s commitment to sustainability. As stated in its introduction, it is imperative that we teach our students about environmental change, human interactions with the earth and how they can be good stewards of this earth so that our mission of producing “global citizens and informed leaders motivated by the common good” is accomplished. Elon’s policy statement on sustainability is as follows:  Elon University is committed to sustainability and to serving as a positive example through sustainable operations and education. The University is pursuing its mission to become more sustainable by focusing on three areas: reducing greenhouse gas emissions, conserving resources and educating the community.

The university is currently developing a new strategic plan and campus master plan both of which include environmental sustainability as a key component thereby continuing the emphasis on sustainability into the future.

Elon is a nationally recognized leader in service learning and civic engagement. It has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts for the last 3 years. In 2008, 60% of Elon’s students took part in service and civic engagements, contributing more than 90,000 hours to their causes. Elon was recently named 1 of 5 recipients of the Washington Center’s inaugural Higher Education Civic Engagement Award, a new honor given in recognition of a commitment to service-learning and civic engagement. Two of Elon’s programs were previously mentioned: The Elon Academy and the Kernodle Center for Service Learning, which houses the EV! Green Team. Two additional programs are described below:

  • In the Social Entrepreneurship Scholars Program students work intensively with the local community providing service, researching issues and developing new initiatives to address community needs.
  • Students in the Periclean Scholars program take a series of courses culminating in a class project on local or global social change.
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