NC State University 2008 Campus Sustainability Leadership Award Application
Category
Four-year and Graduate Institutions over 7,500 FTE
 |
Photographer: Unknown |
Contact
Tracy Dixon
Sustainability Coordinator
Sustainability Office
NC State University
Raleigh, NC
(919) 513-0211
tracy_dixon@ncsu.edu
Governance & Administration
NC State University is made up of students, faculty and staff that are implementers of change, focusing heavily on new innovations, ideas and programs. When you enter our campus you might not know you've hit the sustainability jackpot with the hub of activity going on beneath the surface, embedded within our governance and administration, operations, curriculum and research, campus culture and community service and outreach.
In the past two years NC State has made many large commitments, ensuring sustainability is included in our governance and campus growth. Our university's strategic plan includes five focus areas, with the most direct link to environmental sustainability being our focus on driving innovation in energy and the environment. Sustainability is also a guiding principle in our campus Physical Master Plan: A Campus of Neighborhoods and Paths that leads our development and assures we are integrating the many parts of our large, urban campus into a coherent whole. The Student Life Master Plan also includes sustainability as a guiding principle.
In 2006 we released our campus wide sustainability assessment, benchmarking where our campus is in terms of academics, buildings, culture, energy, land use, materials, transportation, waste reduction and recycling and water. This was a large undertaking and has resulted in a more organized approach to growing sustainability on campus. Since this report we are growing our Campus Environmental Sustainability Team of students, faculty and staff, have created a Sustainability Office staffed by a sustainability coordinator, graduate intern and soon to include a sustainability outreach coordinator. We already have a well established staff in the areas of energy and water management, waste reduction and recycling, alternative transportation and renewables. We are taking action with regards to how our university operates both in terms of our day-to-day activities and our academic offerings. Recently, we received a score of 90 out of 99 in the Princeton Review's annual "Green College" rankings.
Governance successes on our campus have lead to increased activity to make our campus greener. We kicked off 2008 as the "Year of Energy," focusing campus efforts on a unified agenda of building partnerships and momentum around energy and environment to further our academic resources and to create scholarships and academic programs. At the kickoff we dedicated what was at the time of installation, the largest grid-tied photovoltaic solar panel array in North Carolina. As a university we have also signed on as an Energy Star Partner. Although we have been measuring, tracking and benchmarking our energy performance for years through the Office of Energy Management, this partnership will provide us with the expertise needed to further conservation efforts through our operations. In partnership with Cree, we became the first of several "LED Universities" providing an application for high efficiency lighting research and deployment.
Also occurring in 2008, we are assessing our carbon footprint and working towards climate neutrality since signing the American University and College Presidents Climate Commitment. Simultaneously, we are building all new construction to LEED-Silver standards.
Operations
As our campus is projected to grow by 25 percent over the next years, we are committed to meeting this growth in sustainable manner and educating our community through demonstrating sustainability in our daily operations. Annual sustainability reporting allows us to track the impact of our initiatives. Below is a snapshot of the types of activities happening on our campus.
Buildings. Sustainability has been integrated throughout our university's construction guideless for many years and this year we committed all our new construction to be LEED-Silver. Our world-renowned Solar House serves as demonstration and research site.
Dining. Dining Services hosted the first Earth Feast, featuring organic and locally grown products and continued local foods through the 5th annual All Carolinas' Meal. Staff are introducing environmentally responsible operations. This January they began a program to collect waste cooking oil for use around campus.
Energy. Our Office of Energy Management began the "Just Switch It OFF" campaign encouraging switching off unnecessary lighting. As part of this campaign we developed our first energy competition among our honors residence halls, with the winning hall decreasing energy use by 7.3% over three months.
Land. Continued restoration of Rocky Branch Creek and preservation of Lake Raleigh Woods will serve as outdoor classrooms and greenways through campus. During construction review, Grounds Management selects plant materials that are native, drought tolerant and low maintenance. Land use is governed by our campus Master Plan, which includes sustainability.
Materials. Housekeeping Services started using green cleaning products and methods. We have adopted an energy-efficient appliance purchasing policy, requiring the purchase of certified Energy Star products. As we renovate campus spaces, we elect for more sustainable floor coverings, paint and other materials.
Transportation. The Wolftrails program provides transportation alternatives for commuters (carpooling, vanpooling, biking and walking). Our Wolfline transit system saw increased ridership and allows campus students, faculty and staff to ride area buses for free. We are becoming a clean fleet campus with nearly 70% of all permanently issued vehicles assigned to our university run on alternative fuel (currently B20 and E10, adding capacity for E85).
Waste. Through WE Recycle, a volunteer-driven recycling effort at our football stadium we increased beverage containers reclaimed by 27%. We ranked 17th among 400 schools in our first year competing in Recyclemania. We have developed a service for hauling and disposal of construction and demolition waste on campus, expanded our desk side recycling program, held an electronics recycling drive, that collected 7.1 tons of electronic waste in four hours and composted over 1.5 million pounds of yard waste last year.
Water. We installed low-flow shower heads, faucet aerators, low flow toilets and valves and started capturing rainwater and condensate for use in grounds and operations. In 10 months these projects saved 10 million gallons of water. We are constantly evaluating water use and creating guidelines more stringent than the surrounding city. We won a water conservation competition by reducing 29% water use over 3 months compared to University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's (UNC-CH), 24% reduction.
Curriculum & Research
Environmental issues are addressed in all ten colleges and in many of NC State's relationships with private, government and nonprofit entities on Centennial Campus. We believe that best way for NC State to foster environmental stewardship among our graduates is to expose them to a campus environment that models exemplary principles of environmental sustainability. NC State is one of the few universities in the nation to maintain academic programs across the full array of disciplines contributing to modern environmental practices. In addition to specialty programs involving every area of natural resources, NC State supports programs devoted to studying the environmental aspects of agriculture, forestry, marine, earth and atmospheric sciences, engineering, landscaping and architectural design, business management, education, and social sciences. Simply put...sustainability is inherently a part of our university's curriculum.
Our Environmental Sciences and Natural Resources Academic Programs group is dedicated to tracking and coordinating the array of environmental-related courses, degree programs and special projects sponsored by NC State's colleges and departments. We are working to coordinate our environmental and natural resource programs across our university to include more interdisciplinary and applied approaches to education. We are adding new courses each year, such as a new environmental sustainability class being offered this Fall. We are preserving Lake Raleigh Woods and restoring Rocky Branch Creek within our campus and intend to use these locations as outdoor classrooms.
Beyond our campus, we participate in the inter-institutional program that provides opportunities for students to enroll at other institutions for courses not offered at their home campus.
Going beyond curricula, we realized the answers to our world's most challenging issues (education, energy and sustainability, the environment and health) wouldn't come from a business-as-usual approach but from technology, innovation and a partnership of great minds and leaders. Our Centennial Campus brings together over 130 companies, government agencies and research and academic units for hands-on research for real-world application. This co-location of entities provides multi-disciplinary research and development opportunities for learning and growth.
We offer applied learning experiences by connecting our students with various research centers such as the Center for Environmental Farming Systems which develops and promotes food and farming systems that protect the environment, strengthen local communities, and provide economic opportunities or the Natural Resources Leadership Institute that educates and supports a diverse group of North Carolinians who are committed to seeking consensus on issues affecting the sustainable development of our natural resources and the quality of our environment. The Institute of Textile Technology specializes in providing environmental research, services and information for the textile industry, realizing the uniqueness of the environmental problems they face. Our Technology Transfer Center consistently ranks among the top 20 technology transfer program nationally and helps to get new innovations into the market.
We also offer continuing education and distance education for life long education of all individuals. Staff of our university are able to take courses at no cost.
Campus Culture
Our students' involvement in the campus community outside the classroom has a great influence on their future. As part of the educational experience we expose students, faculty, staff and community to our campus as a model for sustainability.
We have several positions dedicated to educating campus and community about campus operations, sustainability and how to get involved. The offices of Transportation, Waste Reduction and Recycling, Energy Management, Solar Center and soon the Sustainability Office, each have people designated to work together on campus projects and to teach the community about how sustainability applies to their own lives.
Theses outreach channels are one way of getting campus involvement. We are always advocating the power of one person and encouraging everyone to take part in campus sustainability, whether it is taking a course, joining an organization, signing the Contract for the Environment, turning out a light or holding an internship.
The newly created and several hundred strong, Wolfpack Environmental Student Association (WESA) promotes campus environmental awareness and protection, networking and engaging other universities to manage natural resources. In partnership with the Campus Environmental Sustainability Team, a group of students, staff and faculty dedicated to growing campus sustainability, WESA created the Contract for the Environment in August 2007. This contract encourages people to sign saying that they will LEARN how their daily actions affect environmental resources, LIVE by reducing environmental impacts, ENGAGE others about human relationships and the environment and SUSTAIN actions to improve the environment and conserve natural resources.
In 2007 our student government took a leadership role and passed a sustainability fee to fund campus sustainability projects. The fee was put on hold due to a moratorium on the establishment of new student fees for the 2008-09 academic year but we are again pursuing the fee for the upcoming years. The student body also started and won a water competition with a rival school, UNC-CH. This competition generated a lot of excitement and translated into nearly 11,000,000 gallons of tangible water savings.
In honor of our Year of Energy, all of the Earth Week events had an energy-related theme. A dedicated group of staff, faculty and students spent many months preparing the events, which included speakers, movies, art, dinners, music, events and business tours. The week culminated in our sixth annual Earth Day event, which showcased various campus groups and departments as well as state agencies and local businesses. High attendance at these events showcased our campus' increasing interest in the environment. During this event we also recognized three individuals who have shown exemplary commitment to sustainability at NC State through our 5th annual Earthwise Awards.
Planning for next year's Earth Week is already in the works. The NC State student chapter of Engineers Without Borders is working to bring a green festival to our campus that would pull many of the previously competing events of our community into one grand celebration. The culture of this and other groups is collaboration towards a more sustainable future - on campus and beyond.
Community Service and Outreach
Established in 2007, NC State's Center for Excellence in Curricular Engagement (CECE) integrates our historic land-grant mission with our commitment to innovation in education, scholarship and partnerships for the 21st century. CECE is an official academic center in the Office of the Provost, that focuses on expanding and deepening community-engaged teaching, learning and scholarship. Through CECE we are piloting an "Engaged College" initiative with the College of Natural Resources and the College of Design. This initiative supports substantial curricular transformation, partnership development, faculty development and scholarship towards institutionalizing curricular engagement, linking the traditional curriculum with real-world community projects. For example, the Wake Native Preserves Partnership brings together government, nonprofit and industry leaders to organize and provide resources to identify ecologically valuable protected open spaces within Wake County and to build long-term stewardship. Many of our professors form class projects around working with community groups. Through these classes students conduct real-world projects such as assessing and inventorying Raleigh's urban forest, designing a building for a client, evaluating protocols for prioritizing stream restoration projects, evaluating new technologies for our Solar House or supporting students in their choices of independent studies. The role of the CECE is to institutionalize this engagement as a teaching tool.
Our Centennial Campus was designated as the 2007 Science Park of the Year by Association of University Research Parks and is a place where research and technology flourish in an environmentally sensitive, mixed-use, academic community. Here, university, industry and government partners interact in multidisciplinary programs to solve global problems. The clusters of activity among these groups of staff, faculty and students result in technology transfer, real-world, applied teaching and learning, business investment and overall greater quality of life for our community.
Many of our premier scholarship programs including Park Scholarships and Caldwell Fellowships involve students driven by service and intertwine leadership skills and civic awareness and involvement into the learning experience.
Our campus is its own community but we actively seek to partner and collaborate beyond our campus borders. Our Cooperative Extension group gives residents easy access to the resources and expertise of NC State and NC A&T State University through community workshops and trainings. Each year we host Earth Day activities which are open to and designed for educating the public. We host internally recognized speakers, have fun, interactive events and bring in outside vendors to display their sustainability wares.
We educate the community on our sustainability efforts and how each person can play a role through our interactive sustainability web site and our annual sustainability report. The web site is specifically designed as a communication tool to engage campus and community in furthering sustainability.
We continually partner with outside organizations to promote collaboration. Whether we are serving as a host institution for the 2008 AASHE conference, partnering with NC Green Power to bring our new solar array online or helping craft the UNC system wide sustainability policy, we go the extra mile to connect our campus to the community.
