Category

Community Colleges & Other Two Year Institutions

Contact

Danielle M Tomerlin
Sustainability Coordinator
Administration
Rio Salado College
Tempe, AZ
(480) 517-8534
Danielle.Tomerlin@RioSalado.edu

Governance & Administration

I am proud to submit Rio Salado College for the AASHE Sustainability Award. I believe that Rio Salado College has done a tremendous amount of work to make the college sustainable in every aspect of these categories from administration to students and culture to community, Rio Salado College is a leader among Community Colleges. This award will recognize the many people who have made innovative moves, bold decisions, and have achieved remarkable accomplishments.

Thinking green is the first step, but Rio Salado is going beyond that and taking action! Rio Salado strives everyday in every action to become the most sustainable college possible, and with a completely online curriculum that goal is within reach. Sustainability is at the Core of Rio Salado's Values, Mission, Vision, and Goals for both faculty and staff. It is integrated into every aspect of the college from Budgets to Facilities, Policies to Curriculum and beyond. Rio Salado takes a broad view of sustainability, including socio-cultural, environmental and economic dynamics to make sustainability attainable, equitable, and viable. To put it simply, they aren't blindly "going green." They carefully weigh the benefits and costs in the big picture and take an approach that makes sense.  

Rio Salado college was one of the Charter Signatories for the Presidential Climate Commitment (PCC), which mandates having a strategic plan towards carbon neutrality, and taking every action possible to reach that goal. The college is constantly updating standards to best practices of sustainability and has hired a full time Sustainability Coordinator in addition to having sustainability committees and consistent campus sustainability reports. Also part of Rio Salado's commitment to the environment includes active memberships to AASHE, PCC, and many others.  Rio Salado also has long standing partnerships with local corporations and organizations, and is influencing industries to adjust standard practices to become more sustainable.

Rio Salado has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 3 years because of their focus on the environment and the changing economy. The public relations department attributes this student growth to more environmentally selective citizens, and the value of time and money. Rio Salado has the best avenue for students, staff and faculty to be carbon neutral. Rio Salado has recognition programs for sustainability and additional benefits programs for those who participate in carbon reducing activities.

Rio Salado's administration, faculty and staff are working together to implement small changes that make a big difference to the environment and are at the heart of sustainability efforts. Weekly communications, e-newsletters, and meetings always include aspects of sustainability, including tips and recognition. Employees are encouraged to telecommute, attend virtual meetings, and use flextime to reduce traffic congestion and fuel consumption. Rio's online students do their part, saving significant amounts of paper from traditional classroom learning and reducing pollution caused by commuting.

Operations

Rio Salado takes great pride in their accomplishments toward more sustainable operations. Students are rarely commuting to the physical campus location because all services are offered online.  This means few actual buildings are needed to manage over 40,000 active local, national and international students.  The buildings that do house operations excel in applications of sustainability. 

When investing in the current buildings, Rio Salado has Green Purchasing Standards, and prefers using sustainability minded vendors. Rio has always purchased energy star equipment and appliances and, when given a choice, Rio Salado always picks the more sustainable product, even if it is a greater capital investment up front, to save the environment and money long term. Additionally, all of Rio Salado's buildings are designed for multipurpose space and can house external conferences and community events on a regular basis.

Energy use at Rio Salado is down while student population is up. This condition is attributed to the many improvements that have been made to existing facilities. These include replacing the roof with more energy efficient materials to reduce heat absorption and increase insulation, changing out the lighting ballasts to more efficient lights, and LED's, purchasing insta-hot sinks, and energy efficient cooling and heating systems. Additionally, in Arizona, the sunny environment allows them to use natural lighting, less heating in the winter, and climate acclimated employees committed to keeping warmer building temperatures in the summer to reduce the load on the cooling systems, especially during peak times.

Conservative water use in our arid region is also a priority; Rio has installed low flow automatic faucets in restrooms and kitchens, waterless urinals, and has converted to a closed loop cooling tower. Additionally, Rio has an onsite water reclamation station, water storage and reuses gray water. The landscape has been returned to natural desert habitat and native trees shade many parts of the buildings.

Green certified cleaning products are required to be used by janitorial staff, in addition to using non-VOC paint and having internal and external recycling/reuse programs. Currently every employee has a recycle bin at their desk, which takes aluminum, batteries, cardboard, bulbs, paper, and plastic. And to reduce plastic water container waste, water fountains were retrofitted to have reusable water bottle faucets and special filters installed for employees to use. 

Although most of Rio Salado's functions are performed online, occasionally vehicles are needed to perform college tasks, provide transportation for attending conferences and to maintain the facilities. Suitably, Rio Salado has just purchased a new fleet of Toyota Prius's and has all of the larger fleet vehicles using flex fuels and alternative sources to gasoline. Additionally, to keep these vehicles in top working order and reduce emissions further, they are maintained routinely on a weekly basis to keep up with tire and oil pressure, leaks, and the like. Additionally, once the light rail system is running in Arizona, all employees will be encouraged to ride and use the new electric public transit system.

Curriculum & Research

Online education is one of the most effective ways a college can reduce its carbon footprint. By logging on instead of commuting to a classroom, students are doing their part to conserve resources and make the world a better, greener place. Rio Salado's Online degree programs also increase awareness of environmental issues and give students the skills to build a better future. Online colleges bring education to a broader global student population - making a bigger impact!

"The production and provision of online learning courses consumes nearly 90% less energy & produces 85% fewer CO2 emissions than traditional campus-based college courses."- The Design Innovation Group

Rio Salado college has 99 % of their classes online, the exceptions are the GED and Adult Basic Skills classes offered to the community. Sustainability programs and certificate programs are budgeted and on schedule to be offered this Fall, and Rio Salado is working with the US Green Building Council to offer online LEED accredited classes and testing. Sustainability has been integrated into many aspects of the curriculum, but a complete reassessment of coursework will include more specific aspects and the importance of sustainability and creating an environmentally conscious leadership and workforce.

All of Rio Salado's course information, textbooks, class catalogs, schedules, and correspondence are completely online. Students and Faculty are encouraged to use email and not print documents, forms or receipts. One of Rio's goals is to have a paperless student body and to reduce the impact traditional education has on the environment. Another is to be an industry leader of sustainable innovations. 

Rio Salado has a large impact on local corporations and organizations because of the extended partnerships and mutual benefit programs it offers. Rio is collaborating with larger industry leaders to offer sustainability fellowships and internships to give students real world experience. This can help to motivate industry to streamline processes and implement sustainable practices. Independent projects by staff and students around sustainability are also encouraged, with rewards given to innovative ideas.

Rio Salado is also offering green products to students and staff. Selling reusable bags and beverage containers provide quality products to all students and anyone online. Proceeds from these products and sales are used in sustainability scholarships and programs. Also in the works to be sold to students are Carbon Offsets for the time they spend online using laptop/computer power to take classes, and the availability of gifts for family and friends of renewable sources like trees and energy credits.

Campus Culture

For Rio Salado College, caring about the environment represents a lifestyle change that blends into daily routines. The college has adopted several measures to "think green" and beyond.  It is in this forward-thinking nature that we have become committed to the principles of sustainability. That is, we try to meet the needs of the present generation while taking care of the future. 

Rio Salado believes that they have some of the most forward thinking and sustainability aware students, faculty and staff available. Their students have taken the first step to reducing their environmental impact by not leaving their own home or office to receive their education. New students are integrated with sustainable practices, standards and policies for the college as well and making the pledge of sustainable choices as much as possible. Faculty has the ability to teach from home and not impact traffic patterns or use additional natural resources.

A large part of "thinking green" and beyond means joining with other organizations striving to make a difference. Rio Salado faculty and administration partnered with Focus the Nation and the National Wildlife Federation and hosted "The 2% Solution" Web cast. The Web cast featured audience-based discussion of solutions for decreasing global warming pollution in developed countries by 2% every year for the next decade and beyond. Rio Salado was proud to participate in this initiative, which will help prepare millions of students to become leaders in finding viable solutions to the challenge of global warming.

Other voluntary programs Rio Salado has been a part of include Earth Day education and projects, consumer initiatives like reusable bottles and bags, carpooling, and trip reduction programs. Employees are strongly encouraged to attend sustainability workshops and seminars, which are also open to the public and further education about individual carbon footprints and reduction tactics.

The student body, initiated by the honor society, participates in many environmentally minded programs. The first is Operation Green, sponsored by the National Arbor Foundation, planting trees from seeds and seedlings. The second includes the Bucket Brigade which educates and encourages students and the community to have urban gardens, even if they are in small spaces and located in buckets. And finally, the student body engages in reusable product drives and clothing donations to reduce new consumption needs.

Community Service and Outreach

In addition to constantly increasing sustainability awareness among students and staff, Rio Salado also has a big heart for large service projects. This year and in many past years, Rio Salado has participated in the United Way employee contribution programs, the American Heart Association's Heart walk, diabetes fundraisers, and the American Cancer Society Breast Cancer Race for the Cure.                                                

Local Service projects are at the core of the college, student and staff believe strongly in social sustainability. This includes programs on internet safety in both English and in Spanish, School Supply drives for K-12, Food Drives, Adopt a Family, Turkey Donations, Water Safety Classes, Decoding the Ballot classes, and so much more. Faculty and Staff also contribute many hours to local organizations as volunteers and educators.

Also included in Social sustainability and achievement, Rio Salado participates greatly in distributing Junior achievement awards, teacher and student of the week awards, and is dedicated to outreach to minority populations and students in developing countries to provide a larger, more diversified, education to those who would not normally be in the situation to attend college classes.

Rio Salado college understands that they are responsible for educating students and the public about sustainable practices and opportunities. The people Rio Salado educates are the future, they are the future CEO's, knowledge workers, and implementers to a more sustainable existence on Earth for all of us. Ro Salado College is a leader in the Education Industry.