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Point Loma Nazarene University

Point Loma Nazarene University
Campus Category: 
Four year and graduate institutions under 5,000 student FTE

Contact Information

Alexandria
Bennett
Sustainability Coordinator
Physical Plant
Education and Research:
  • Sustain PLNU in collaboration with the President’s Resource Stewardship Taskforce organizes Creation Care Week, which focuses on sustainability awareness, education and networking within the community. It includes a resource fair to plug community participants into local environmental organizations and a community-wide electronic waste drive that, last year, collected more than four tons of unneeded computers, monitors, batteries and cell phones.
  • President Bob Brower not only makes a personal commitment to sustainability by driving a hybrid, he has also recently signed the American Colleges and Universities President’s Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), publicly committing to becoming a leader for change in environmental practices. PLNU is currently in the 1000 staff-hour process of completing its Green House Gas Inventory back five years in order to compose a Climate Action Plan.
  • Both Director of Physical Plant Richard Schult and Sustainability Coordinator Alexandria Bennett report directly to the cabinet regularly, with progress reports and updates about everything from waste management to energy-saving proposals. This direct reporting allows for the university to promptly approve and implement sustainable conservation measures such as an on-site 310 kW photovoltaic system which will provide 15% of the university’s electricity and a student-proposed policy to remove cafeteria trays. In addition, the cabinet plays a large role in campus-wide purchasing and encourages contracted vendors, to participate in PLNU’s sustainability efforts. For instance, Sodexo is purchasing more locally grown food items at the cabinet’s request.
  • PLNU students recently passed, by more than a 2/3 margin, a fund that collects $5 from each student per semester. Starting this fall, a taskforce of faculty, staff, administrative officials and students will spend this money on projects to directly benefit both the Earth and the student body. Potential projects include converting campus safety vehicles to electric, installing natural lighting and piloting a local, fair trade, organic market/café.
  • Leaders at PLNU, the Director of Physical Plant, the Sustainability Coordinator and two project managers are in the process of becoming LEED accredited, allowing new construction projects to be LEED certified.
Campus Operations:
  • PLNU Landscaping and Maintenance ensures that no green waste is sent to the landfill. On site, the horticulture and grounds manager established a compost system that breaks down eight tons of yard waste each year as well as a vermiculture compost bin that utilizes worms to break down food scraps, coffee grounds and paper towels collected from employee break rooms. The worms break down the compost quickly, and produce juice that is useful as a natural fertilizer and pesticide, protecting both plant leaves and roots. Because groundskeepers use grass-cycling on the lawns, approximately 56 tons of lawn clippings are left on the lawn as fine mulch and not thrown away. Similarly, when bushes and trees are trimmed, the trimmings are chipped into mulch to be used around campus. Grounds crewmembers divert 32.5 tons of green waste each year in this way. Approximately 222 tons of all other green waste is shipped to an off-site processing plant through our waste management services.
  • In November 2008, a 310 kW PV Solar system installed on the roofs of four buildings passed final inspection, just nine months after the idea was proposed. The system is part of a 20-year power purchasing agreement with Solar Power Partners. Twenty percent of PLNU’s total energy load is produced by this system. Because most is produced at peak hours of consumption, this not only reduces PLNU’s carbon footprint, but saves money in the process.
  • The most recent addition to the campus, Smee Hall, incorporates Solatube lighting on the upper level, a cool roof, and was built with recycled materials, such as post-consumer recycled content carpet. It surpasses Title 24 building standards, the equivalent of LEED-Silver.
  • The recycling program at PLNU allows students to actively manage, monitor and reduce their campus’ waste, by providing campus-wide assistance in waste disposal and recycling. This program implements the collection of recyclable materials campus-wide, including paper, plastic, glass, cans, excess construction materials and scrap metal, cell phones, batteries and printer cartridges. There is not a garbage can on campus without a recycle bin right next to it. In 2008, SustainPLNU oversaw the recycling of 135 tons of bottles, cans and paper through single-stream recycling. Also, it collected and recycled 17.6 tons of mixed metals and 6.3 tons of electronic waste—mostly through a community-wide e-waste drive.
  • PLNU purchases green-certified cleaning products to reduce pollution and create a safer environment. These chemicals are bio-based, stored in recyclable containers and transported in 100% post-consumer recycled material packages. In addition to green cleaning purchases, PLNU orders 30% post-consumer recycled content paper towels and toilet paper in nearly every residence hall, office and conference building on campus.
Administration and Finance:
  • In fall 2007, the Academic Dean’s Center added the Environmental Science major within the biology and chemistry departments. The major trains students to be leaders in various environmental fields. The foundation of the curriculum is courses in biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics as well as a combination of elective political science, sociology, economics, and philosophy. An additional requirement of 8 units from off-campus environmental program internships is built into the major. By requiring an off-campus field experience, students can take advantage of specialized academic and practical resources not offered at PLNU. In addition to the major, the business department now offers its students a project-based marketing class in sustainability. Last semester, one project researched the environmental impact of paper towels compared to electric hand-dryers. As a result, we are now in the process of removing paper towels in high traffic bathrooms with hand dryers and researching ways to reduce the impact of paper-towel waste, through vermiculture composting or bamboo fiber hand-towel alternatives.
  • Regular film forums, organized by Students for Environmental Action, an activist group on campus, are shown to the student about twice per month. Films like “Who Killed the Electric Car?,” “King Korn,” “Flow,” “Is God Green?,” and “The Eleventh Hour” are marketed toward students who want to learn more about sustainability while enjoying dessert and good company in the process.
  • As a part of New Student Orientation, students will attend an hour-long breakfast that focuses on creating a sustainable environment. In this session, the Sustainability Coordinator will be giving a multi-media presentation outlining the importance of sustainability as a value in economics, society and the environment. Here, students will learn the proper way to properly recycle and dispose of every kind of different materials as well as learn the proper ways to minimize consumption of energy and water.
  • Each staff member is taught how to recycle on campus when he or she is hired. All of the basic recycling information includes a 15-minute video, but the education continues as staff-members are taught sustainability policies of each department such as double sided printing and composting. Staff members are also encouraged to use refillable mugs and water bottles for their beverages. The university has many options for water filling stations. Also, the custodial staff is taught how to use microfiber mops, dust cloths and towels for the purpose of reducing the use of water and cleaning chemicals. This saves storage space and leads to a cleaner environment, as clunky mop-wringing buckets are no longer needed.
  • SustainPLNU organizes a monthly campaign to encourage all community members to use alternative transportation on a regular basis. Started in 2009, Bike the Jam is a program that targets commuting staff, faculty and students to encourage them to ride their bikes or walk to campus. Bike the Jam rewards all participants with healthy snacks in the morning as they arrive and gives each a chance to win new bicycle accessories and other prizes.

 

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