Western Michigan University
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Education and Research:
After signing the Talloires Declaration and creating a President’s Universitywide Sustainability in 2008, WMU has worked actively to expand its sustainability activities in the realm of education and research. These areas will come into the foreground increasingly as WMU prepares to sign the ACUPCC. Key recent accomplishments include:
- Funding of a collaborative, cross-campus, interdisciplinary NSF CCLI (Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement) Grant—“How Science is Working to Save the Planet”—which will serve as model for introducing climate change education into our First-Year Experience.
- Receiving a LEED EB Gold Award for the College of Health and Human Services (first LEED EB Gold in Higher Education) for a funded, largely in-house produced proposal.
- Completion of a student run, full Scope I, II, III GHG inventory (Draft in April, 2009).
- Completion of a Review and Assessment of Campus Food Waste Composting Alternatives Report”, which was recently highlighted by NWF’s Campus Ecology Program (June 2009). This Report has led to several recent proposals to fund a Vermicomposting Pilot on campus.
- Acceleration of campus climate change and alternative and renewable energy research projects—active programs currently exist in the following areas: carbon sequestration, biodiesel production from algae, fuel cell evaluation, solid oxide fuel cell development, plug-in hybrid electric vehicle assessment, in situ and LCA assessment of wind, and solar PV systems.
- Expansion of ENVS 410: Appropriate Technologies and Sustainability—The Campus as a Living, Learning Laboratory course to facilitate involving students from all colleges. This course requires collaborative, campus sustainability research projects that have provided the foundation for many campus sustainability projects and policies.
Several other initiatives that are being considered (most of which are drawn from the February 2009 Strategic Sustainability Initiatives Report), include:
- Creating a focused, coordinated effort between Office of the Vice President for Research and the Development Office to expand external funding for sustainability research and teaching.
- Creating a new Cross-College “Center for Interdisciplinary Sustainability Research, Teaching, Operations, and Outreach.
- Exploring strategies for developing a “Green Technology” focus for future BTR park occupants.
- Performing a baseline and follow-up study of a campus building after a green renovation to assess worker/student productivity effects with green buildings.
- Developing competitive research grants for student sustainability research projects.
- Developing a “Green Jobs Service Program” to hire undergraduates and recent graduates to participate in campus sustainability research.
- Integrating sustainability into all curricula & throughout every College.
- Creating Summer Faculty Development Workshops for facilitating integration and infusion of sustainability throughout the curriculum (one possibility would be to start with the First Year Seminar).
- Creating new environment- & sustainability-oriented degree combinations, minors, & concentrations (examples include: Green Business & ENVS; Ecological Engineering/Green Design & ENVS; Education for Sustainable Development/Environmental Education & ENVS; etc.). Special opportunities exist for new/restructured undergraduate & graduate programs in “Green Materials, Design, Energy, & Manufacturing” & “Education for Sustainability Teacher Training”.
Campus Operations:
WMU’s greatest successes are in the areas of improving the efficiency and sustainability of operations and, most recently, in increasing awareness of sustainability and building an institutional culture of sustainability. Spurred on by President Dunn’s and Vice President for Business and Finance Lowell Rinker’s visionary leadership, campus officials are increasingly making environmental and sustainability programs among their highest priorities. These campus leaders have also begun to put more structures in place to broaden and nurture campus-wide engagement on sustainability, such as involving students and graduates in researching potential campus greening initiatives. Some key accomplishments in the operations area include:
- Total campus water consumption has been reduced by 50% since 1999.
- Over the last 12 years, state-of-the art energy conservation measures (daylight harvesting, advanced controls, a CFL policy) have enabled a 19% increase in building square footage while generating a 17% reduction in total energy use.
- Facility Life Cycle Design Guidelines now exist for all new buildings & retrofits over 1 million dollars (requires building to a minimum of LEED Silver).
- A 100% incandescent to CFL change out policy was recently completed.
- A subsidized cross-campus CRT to LCD computer monitor change out policy will be implemented this fall.
- Building Custodial and Support Services has implemented an innovative & ambitious “Green Cleaning Policy” throughout campus.
- A Recycling Coordinator, first hired in 1990, now also manages Trash-to-Treasures, Recycle Mania, & Waste Reduction Services.
- A 2001 30% recycled paper purchasing policy was reinforced, Fall 2008. A 100% PCW, acid free, chlorine free, FSC certified paper purchasing policy is currently under consideration.
- A variety of significant landscape initiatives have been created to implement USGBC Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) protocols for existing buildings. New irrigation technology limits the amount of irrigation based on the amount of rainfall, temperature and the needs of the plants, trees and grasses. And native plantings are chosen to minimize water needs, maintenance, and provide resistance to insect damage.
- Dining Services eliminated trays in three dining halls (Fall 08), biodegradable packaging is being piloted, and a carbon neutral food waste vermicomposting pilot is being considered.
- Use of GeoMelt (Sugar Beet Juice) and Natural Brine as a Pre-Wet on Rock Salt and as an Anti-Icing Agent on Sidewalks.
- Expansion of flex-fuel and electric vehicle purchasing as an aging campus fleet is being replaced.
- Green Garage Policies—The transportation department recycles all its' used oil, oil filters, tires, and antifreeze. It also uses re-refined motor oil and antifreeze.
- PV & wind RE demonstration/research projects have been introduced and an facility to perform in situ assessment of three sun tube manufacturers will created this summer.
- Environmentally conscious management of campus owned nature areas and open space, including Arcadia Creek; Klienstuck Preserve; Asylum Lake Preserve; and the Business, Technology, and Research Park.
Administration and Finance:
In January of 2008, WMU President John M. Dunn set out to build a campus culture of sustainability. Leveraging tremendous, but under publicized campus greening efforts, the requirement of our university mission “To advance responsible environmental stewardship”, and a 2003 “Environmental Mission Statement” approved by the Faculty Senate and Western Student Association, President Dunn signed the Talloires Declaration. He also created a Universitywide Sustainability Committee (PUSC), composed of undergraduate and graduate students, staff, administration, and faculty, to help assess our progress on sustainability and to begin to chart a course for our future. As a first-step toward developing a full-scale sustainability strategic plan, he charged the PUSC with the task of identifying a catalog of strategic sustainability initiatives.
The first goal of the PUSC was to develop a baseline for our campus greening efforts and to systematically identify opportunities for new initiatives. The PUSC reviewed each of the Talloires Declaration’s ten action plan items and assessed the status of WMU’s activities in relation to them. Within 10 months of it’s first meeting, the PUSC had produced a “Strategic Sustainability Initiatives Report” that included a prioritized list of 22 initiatives (with 3-6 initiatives in each of the following five categories: Governance and Administration; Operations and In-reach; Community Service and Outreach; Curriculum; and Research). Several highlights in the Administration and Finance area include:
1. Creating a “one-stop” campus sustainability information portal: (http://www.wmich.edu/sustainability/).
2. Connecting WMU to local and national sustainability/campus greening efforts by joining the Southwest Michigan Sustainable Business Forum (SWMSBF) and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). Teams of staff, students, and faculty represented WMU at the AASHE biennial meeting, the Statewide Michigan Sustainable Business Forum Conference, and the NACUBO 4th Annual Smart and Sustainable Campuses Conference.
3. Developing a comprehensive food waste reduction research effort. This project included a review and evaluation of national food composting options and opportunities (produced by a recent graduate), a collaborative scoping study to reduce WMU’s wastewater commodity charges, a tray elimination program that has been implemented in three of Dining Services’ dining halls, and several research proposals to fund a composting facility.
4. Running a pilot study to evaluate a regionally produced, cost-effective, 100% post consumer waste, chlorine free, Forest Stewardship Council certified paper as a prequel to considering a new paper purchasing policy.
5. Developing a “Green Guide” with clear, practical solutions for helping students, graduates, staff, and faculty connect their commitment to sustainability to meaningful lifestyle and behavioral changes.
6. Creating a quarterly “Sustainable Communities Initiative Luncheon” to bring together local higher education leaders, local governments, public school districts, foundations, and business leaders to expand stakeholder involvement through the sharing of sustainability best practices.
7. Coordinating the process of creating a WMU Sustainability Logo to better advertise and promote WMU’s efforts to foster and model sustainability.
8. Reviewing the WMU Master Plan with an emphasis on addressing and improving campus sustainability.
9. Joining the Climate Savers Computing Initiative and developing and Energy Star Purchasing Policy.
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