Luther College 2008 Campus Sustainability Leadership Award Application

Category

Four-year and Graduate Institutions 1,000 - 7,500 Student FTE

Campus Green and Larsen Hall Photographer: Caleb Mattison

Contact

Caleb C Mattison
Campus Sustainability Coordinator
Luther College Sustainability Initiative
Luther College
Decorah, IA
(563) 387-1253
mattca01@luther.edu

Governance & Administration

Luther College President Richard Torgerson became a charter member of ACUPCC in January 2007. He immediately sought to institutionalize this commitment by integrating it into the college’s next five-year strategic plan. A task force comprised of students, faculty, staff, regents, and friends of the college worked for twelve months beginning in May 2007 to develop a plan for how Luther College can meet its ACUPCC commitment and other environmental obligations. The strategic plan approved by the Luther Board of Regents in May 2008 includes the following goals:

• Create a Center for Sustainable Communities to be a catalyst for change locally and regionally.
• Make sustainability a part of every student’s learning experience.
• Model stewardship and sustainability in all college operations to reduce Luther’s environmental impact and mitigate operational costs.
• Reduce Luther’s carbon footprint by 50 percent and develop a plan to achieve carbon neutrality.
• Design and implement a campus land-use plan that affirms land stewardship, sustainability, and landscape designer Jens Jensen’s original vision for the Luther campus in 1911.
• Continue sustainable and strategic enhancements of the plant and facilities with a focus on student learning, energy payback, campus needs, and economic return.

The strategic plan articulates a variety of strategies that will be used to achieve each of these goals.

While these strategic planning efforts were underway Luther also developed a new organizational structure to implement these goals and strategies. The Campus Sustainability Council comprised of students, faculty, and staff will begin its duties in fall 2008. Each member of the council will serve on at least one of four sub-groups that will include other members of the Luther community. Each sub-group will address specific goals in the strategic plan related to the following topics:
• Student Learning
• Food, Purchasing, and Waste
• Energy and Water
• Land Use

One of the members of the new Campus Sustainability Council will be Luther’s Campus Sustainability Coordinator. Luther established this new position in the fall of 2007 with one year of funding assistance from a grant provided by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Luther has now fully integrated this position into the college’s budget. Specific duties of the Campus Sustainability Coordinator include the following:
• Coordinate carbon reduction efforts
• Monitor energy consumption and promote conservation through behavior changes
• Oversee and improve waste reduction efforts
• Work with dining services to increase use of sustainable foods
• Design and implement educational initiatives, including in residence halls

During the past year Luther’s administration has also decided to take the following tangible actions related to implementing the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment:
• All new campus construction will be built to at least the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Silver standard or equivalent.
• All new appliances will be ENERGY STAR certified.
• Luther has signed a contract to offset emissions from at least 15 percent of its electricity consumption by purchasing RENEWABLE ENERGY CERTIFICATES from a local community wind project.

Operations

Luther College President Richard Torgerson has stated, “You don’t wake up one morning and say Luther is going to be known for sustainability. A lot of things happen over a long period of time, until it comes to a tipping point.” Luther College has incorporated this idea of the long-term accumulation of sustainability into the everyday operations of the campus. Listed below are some recent accomplishments:

Building:
• New science building completed in July 2008 was designed and built to LEED Certification standards with enough points to seek gold certification.
• Renovation project of the college’s student Union completed in August 2006 included the reuse and recycling of over 80 percent of the demolition materials. Recovered items were made available to the community and the rest were recycled.

Energy:
• Luther commissioned four professional feasibility studies in early 2008. The studies covered wind and solar power, a biomass boiler, and energy efficiency upgrades.

Food and Dining:
• Campus food services have expanded local food purchases, coffee served is organic and fair trade and food produced from student operated campus gardens is served on campus.
• Convert 100 percent of the waste vegetable oil from the cafeteria into biodiesel to provide 50 percent of the fuel usage of the college’s lawn equipment. This results in a saving of $8,000 per year and 50,000-pound reduction in our carbon footprint.

Parking and Transportation:
• Purchased five hybrid vehicles for college related transportation. Assuming a 100,000-mile vehicle usage this results in an estimated 200,000-pound reduction in carbon.
• Converted three maintenance, one food service, one security, and two grounds vehicles into all electric NEV vehicles with an annual vehicle savings of $ 14,000 and 53,000 pound carbon reduction.
• Purchased a compressed natural gas pickup truck, which will reduce carbon emissions by 35%.

Land Use:
• Converted a 27-acre agricultural row crop field into prairie grasses with more than 20 varieties of prairie plants. This makes a total of 57 acres of prairie grasses established.

Purchasing:
• All purchases are made with the goal of using only green certified products, such as building floor mats reclaimed from used tires and plastic milk bottles and two large floor machines that save both water and electricity.

Waste:
• Recycling efforts each year are on a constant increase. Last school year an estimated 3,000 pounds of paper, 3,600 pounds of cardboard and 550 pounds of tin and plastic were collected weekly.
• Composting is collected in all college kitchens and composted on campus.

Janitorial:
• Janitorial services purchases only green certified paper supplies with 100 percent recycled fiber with up to 49 percent post-consumer waste. Over 95 percent of the cleaning products are green certified.

Footprint Analysis:
• Last summer, the college’s five-year carbon footprint was established by tracking utilities, transportation, and other carbon sources, which shows a 14 percent reduction as a result of energy efficiency and geothermal projects. Plans are to update this yearly.

Curriculum & Research

Luther College is deeply committed to incorporating stewardship and sustainability into our curriculum both within our Environmental Studies program and throughout the entire four year learning experience of our students. From new student orientation where students harvest produce from local organic farms to capstone senior seminars with semester long projects, students encounter environmental themes and work on sustainability related issues in many different venues.

Luther’s Environmental Studies program is one of the fastest growing majors on campus and places sustainability at its core. With over 20 faculty members from a dozen different disciplines it is a truly interdisciplinary program. Each student must take a core of classes that integrate the sciences, humanities, and social sciences including courses that focus on the philosophy, policy, and practices of environmental sustainability. Environmental Studies majors then choose a concentration that allows them to specialize in one area gaining depth to complement the breadth achieved by core courses.

Student projects are central to several courses at Luther College and have played a catalytic role in advancing campus sustainability. Luther’s Environmental Philosophy courses have utilized sustainability projects for over 20 years. From recycling and composting to local foods and a bike share program, student projects within these courses have led the way forward for campus sustainability. In addition, all Environmental Studies majors and minors must take a senior capstone seminar that is designed around a class project. In recent years these projects have included creating, designing and distributing the first local foods guide for our region and research on ecological design options that led to the construction of the first LEED certified building on our campus. In 2007, the seminar students conducted a preliminary carbon footprint analysis and made recommendations for reductions. Our president claims that listening to the students present their information was the key factor in causing him to start walking to work and to buy a hybrid car for his long distance travel.

In addition to class projects, Luther students are very active in research projects with faculty and internships related to sustainability. For example, the college’s first comprehensive green house gas inventory was conducted by a student as a summer research project supervised jointly by an Environmental Studies faculty member and our head of Facilities Management. An internship for a student in computer science – again a partnership between a student, faculty, and facilities staff – created a new website with real time data on energy usage in all college dormitories.

The concept of sustainability is being embraced all across campus. In spring 2008, all 650 first year students read Useless Arithmetic, a critique of mathematical models in environmental decision making, in Paideia, the common first year course. This book not only introduced students to crucial issues of sustainability but also raised more fundamental questions about the limits of human knowledge and the necessity of living within our means. Luther has also committed to a series of faculty development workshops with the goal of incorporating sustainability into every major on campus.

Campus Culture

Coming out of an age when environmentalism has often been a stigma, broadcasting the common-sense concepts of sustainability and shifting common perception may be the foundation for all other actions within this emerging movement. The culture of sustainability at Luther is changing – among students, faculty and staff.

Environmental Concerns Organization (ECO), a student group, works to educate the Luther community on ideas of environmental sustainability.
• ECO collected and displayed the equivalent of all the disposable cups used on campus everyday (850) and a tub full of one day’s worth of post-consumer food waste (650 lbs).
• February 2008 was Energy Evolution – a month-long energy awareness and conservation campaign. It consisted of a campus-wide competition among residence halls, providing prizes to floors that used energy most responsibly. Also during this month, 500 compact fluorescent bulbs were sold for $1 each to students, faculty and staff.
• A group of students helped collect and measure food waste for two weeks to evaluate the effects of removing trays from the student cafeteria, during one of the weeks.
• ECO sends a group to the annual Upper Iowa River Clean-up – a river that runs adjacent to campus.

During the week of residence hall move out in the spring of 2008, the sustainability program made a push to reduce solid waste output. Large cardboard boxes served as recycling containers and were located at all the residence hall dumpsters as an easy alternative. Those boxes diverted around 8 tons of waste from the landfill.
Also during move out, a program called Trash into Treasures sets up a collection room in each residence hall where students can bring their unwanted, reusable items. These items are sold on campus, flea market-style. This year, items that filled the better part of a gymnasium and were sold to community members generated $2,200.
When new students get to campus this year, they will be treated to a workshop on “living greener”. A student- run initiative, this orientation workshop will promote environmentally responsible actions, campus sustainability initiatives and events for the coming year.

Other educational events that have been held over the last few years include:
• Displays educating about carbon footprints and ideas for reducing them
• Step it Up 2007 and an Earth Day celebration in 2008, bringing students out to listen to the college president speak about sustainability.
• The Luther Focus the Nation panel discussion on climate change solutions.

There is increasing focus on alternative transportation for students: the Student Life office has established a shuttle that brings students up to the Minneapolis airport at the beginning and end of breaks and semesters.
Five yellow commuter bikes were purchased this spring by the college and are available to check out by any Luther student, faculty or staff, free of charge.
A computer in the student union, designated as an “Energy Kiosk”, displays a real-time energy monitoring website developed by a Luther student. This website monitors most campus buildings over time.

Community Service and Outreach

Luther College strives to be a leader in moving our community toward a sustainable future. The College is the largest employer in this rural area and thus sees itself as having a responsibility to be a catalyst in working toward community improvement. While nearly every sustainability project in the region is connected to the college, below we highlight some of the ways that Luther serves and works with the community.

For over 20 years, Luther College has been providing environmental education to area youth through its Environmental Outreach program. Environmental Discovery Camps run for seven weeks during the summer providing intensive outdoor educational experiences for students from 1st-9th grades. In 2008 we added special camps focusing on renewable energy and food systems to enhance our sustainability education. Environmental Outreach also includes year-round KinderNature classes for 3-5 year olds, after school environmental programs for 3rd-6th graders, and sustainability education programs in several school districts in our region. Beyond our regular programs we have arranged for speakers on environmental issues to visit local schools and held annual science education events on campus.

Luther College is one of the founding partners in the Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Initiative that is enhancing local foods and physical activity throughout our region. Northeast Iowa was one of only two rural areas chosen by the Kellogg Foundation for their national pilot program. Luther has been a leader in the local foods movement through creation of the first local foods guide for the area and working with local growers to supply food to campus eateries. Recently the college approved a five year goal to have 35% of all food purchases come from our local area.

Luther’s strategic plan that was adopted in the May 2008 includes the development of a Center for Sustainable Communities. This Center will work with regional businesses, governments, and other institutions to help communities become more sustainable. Building on existing work in the community the Center will develop programs in renewable energy, sustainable business, food systems, and environmental education. Notably, the college has already begun planning with a small group of community leaders to establish a community energy initiative that would work with local businesses and organizations on energy conservation, efficiency, and local renewable generation.

In addition to these formal initiatives, numerous community projects forge ties between the college and our community’s efforts to become more sustainable. For example, a Luther student recently completed carbon footprint analyses for the city of Decorah and a local bank and a group of students organized a renewable energy homes tour attended by over 200 people. In 2007 Luther conducted a “Greening the Churches” workshop for 100 church members and has established an internship program for Luther students to work with the churches to help implement changes. Luther recently received an award from the Lutheran church for its leadership on sustainability issues within the church.