ACUHO-I News Blog

Editor’s Note: In an effort to see and hear firsthand what some campuses are doing to implement sustainable strategies on campus and specifically in their residence halls, members of the ACUHO-I Sustainability Committee are issuing reports from the field. The first comes from ACUHO-I Sustainability Director Lynne Deninger, principal with Cannon Design.

Amherst College is a small, private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, and is the third oldest college in the state. It is member of the historic Little Three colleges, which includes Wesleyan University and Williams College. With nearly 99 percent of the current student population living on campus, Amherst is committed to the development of living learning communities and as such has committed to developing more energy efficient and financially responsible renovations and new construction on campus without a lot of pomp and circumstance.

Now, Amherst has not signed the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment, nor do they have a full time sustainability director, a taskforce, or even a sustainable living/learning community. They do however know they want to provide appropriate role modeling while improving their energy efficiency and their bottom-line. I think they are moving in the right direction, one small project at a time.

Tom Davies, AIA, the director of design and construction and assistant director of facilities showed off some of the campus’ recent sustainability accomplishments that reflect the “pragmatic New England Puritan tradition” that built the Amherst campus. Following eight years of residential hall renovation projects, many of these successes were combined during the renovation of Hitchcock Hall. The following eight approaches are not necessarily glamorous or full of hype, but have met with great success.

Efficient Planning: Distinctly low tech with a high sustainability factor is the expansion of a building, even if it’s from 35 to 73 beds. Keeping existing structures and maximizing the number of students that use the existing amenities, social spaces and bathrooms, improves efficiencies.

Building Envelope: Amherst used the latest and best technology for insulating their historic masonry structures, open cell foam just to the right thickness to allow it to breathe in both directions. This took some research as if it’s too thick, the brick will disintegrate from the inside out over time. But with help from a strong design team, Amherst was able to significantly reduce heating consumption. Looking at every detail including all the insulation joints in the system at windows, doors, etc. created a new type of quality control system maximize outcomes. The prototype arrangement will be the norm on future projects.

Solar Hot Water: Hot water accounts for about a quarter of all energy consumed in a residence hall, and the solar system will cut that by more than half. The solar system is complex and expensive, but the key to making it effective is something extremely simple and cheap:  high-quality low-flow shower heads that cut the demand for hot water. Amherst tested a number of the best and settled on a model that was developed for high-end hotels in Las Vegas. They are now in every shower on campus. They’re terrific and even at $60 per they pay for themselves in about a year.

Boilers: Another high-tech hidden item is the use of high-efficiency boilers for building heating and hot water. As Davies said, “it’s not bleeding edge stuff, but is now a practical proven technology”.

Sensors: The use of occupancy sensors for lights to shut off when no one is around. This is a no-brainer. However, the use of humidity sensors to throttle back the bathroom exhaust when no one is taking a shower is a novel approach dreamt up by the design and construction office. They are monitoring the installation now to determine success.

Window Points: As many have experienced, students often leave windows open even when it’s five degrees outside. At Amherst, it is the norm for facilities staff to actually go around to every dorm room the day after winter break starts to close the windows. To address this problem, they began testing a system that senses when a window is opened and automatically lowers the thermostat setting to 60. The idea is that when the student gets cold, they’ll close the window again. Tom notes that with clever students, comes many opportunities to circumvent the system, but he believes it’s “worth a try” and perhaps the best outcome will be a general student awareness of the waste resulting from leaving a window open through the winter months.

LED Lighting: Davies notes, “an interesting story on this one is that our engineers wouldn’t believe the manufacturer’s claims about how much light LED lights generate per watt. When we started to light them up it was clear that they were more efficient than the design assumed, so we actually had to remove some to lower lighting levels.”

Vestibules: Designed appropriately, Davies notes, they actually work as air-locks. So often, vestibules are minuscule spaces between two doors, and even with one person entering or exiting both doors end up open at the same time, throwing away energy. At Amherst, all main entries have been redesigned to actually function as an air lock. It’s not going to get a LEED point. It’s not flashy “green” technology. But it’s high-value. Pragmatic New England design indeed.

Last week the National Wildlife Federation released Generation E: Students Leading for a Sustainable, Clean Energy Future, The report, sponsored by The Kendeda Fund and the Association of College Unions International and supported by a number of partners including ACUHO-I,  highlights sustainability programs and practices college students are implementing to lower their campus’ carbon footprint.

In the press release, Julian Keniry, the senior director of Campus and Community Leadership for the NWF, said: “We scouted projects at more than 160 colleges and universities all across the country. In more than 20 years of supporting student environmental leaders, we’ve never seen this extraordinary degree of student engagement and creativity around sustainability at every level. Our findings demolish the myth that students are apathetic or sitting on the sidelines. Their voices are rising up in ways we haven’t heard since the civil rights or the peace movements of the ‘60s and ‘70s, but the irony is, we are finding that most campus educators and leaders at the state and federal levels aren’t really listening.”

The projects included in the report include cover the spectrum of recycling programs, inter-residence hall sustainability competitions, sustainability-themed housing, and much more. The programs vary in their scope, but the encouraging news is how the students lead these initiatives. A Princeton Review study back in May reported that 68 percent of the students surveyed valued information about a college’s commitment to the enviornment. These students have oftentimes taken matters into their own hands to make a difference, and that will shape behaviors moving forward.

What are the programs on your campus that will get students leading for a more sustainable future?

Green Builder, launched by Second Nature, is a free resource for colleges and universities interested in building and renovating sustainably on their campuses. The site features case studies on greening operations, financial assistance programs and promising technologies and products.

The Sustainable Endowments Institute is a non-profit organization that produces the College Sustainability Report Card. They are a project of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisers.

The results of the Sustainable Endowments Institute’s survey, which constitutes the report card, are now fully available online. You can search for campus, dining, endowment and student surveys from responding schools. It’s a handy way to see how your institution is measuring up against its contemporaries in sustainability.

Who would’ve thought that Standard Oil would lead to this?

Higher education institutions have shown interest in greening their own practices; constructing efficient buildings; using environmentally-friendly groundskeeping methods and cleaning chemicals and going trayless in the cafeteria. But what wbout the students themselves? Some institutions are now offering classes, certificates or degrees in environmental topics. While some of these are stand-alone degrees or courses, others combine with majors the institution already offered, to provide a sustainable lens through which to view one’s career and life’s work. These programs can be combined with many other majors, meaning architecture, interior design and hospitality students can graduate with knowledge about how to utilize sustainable elements in their work.

Four hundred colleges and universities signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. So now, 400 colleges and universities must submit their plans for meeting that promise. It’s a challenging time to set ambitious goals, since the economy is still in a slump and the higher education world is suffering from this as much as any other sector. For now, most institutions are hoping to start meeting their commitments through reduced energy use and increased efficiency, and may apply carbon offsets later to make up the difference.

Reminicent of a recent post about green rankings, here’s another one, with pretty pictures. What do you think of the many rankings? Are they meaningful?

Everyone wants to get their two cents in, via rankings. The Sierra Club has its rankings of “Cool Schools,” which orders institutions by their sustainability efforts. This is the third year for the Cool Schools list. On the Sierra Club website, one can read the list, see the cool factors that determined the rankings, read students’ accounts of the coolness of their institutions, see a list of cool community colleges  and schools that specialize in particular areas of sustainability.

This Discovery Channel site has tips for green residence hall living, including technology issues and fabulous statistics that might be useful for all sorts of purposes. This could serve as a resource for information packets on move-in day or a hall program.

Inside HigherEd is highlighting green efforts institutions are making in a feature called “Green Ideas.” Perhaps there’s something worth copying here…or perhaps you can contribute?

An article from The New York Times today takes a look at the not-new-but-growing trend of putting white roofs on buildings to combat global warming. Whether it is for a home, a Wal-Mart, or (just possibly) a residence hall, the article says studies show that the white-topped buildings can reduce air-conditioning costs by a fifth or more in hot, sunny weather. And it does so by costing as little as 15 percent more, depending on materials.

The concept got an additional endorsement from United States’ Energy Secretary Steven Chu when he appeared on the television program, The Daily Show.

So, do you know what’s happening on your rooftops? Share suggestions and plans in the comment section.

No, we’re not talking about golf; a post in Green, Inc., a New York Times blog about environmental issues, discusses some institutions’ addition of a “green fee” that will pay for environmentally friendly development or energy offsets. In a strange twist, there are student groups campaigning for this fee at colleges and universities. Most of the fees are well south of $10 per semester or quarter, though a few triple or quadruple that.

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (put more sustainably, AASHE) has a page devoted to news about green fees. Students at institutions featured on the page voted largely in favor of mandatory green fees.

Depending on the state in which an institution is located, a fee can be easier or harder to institute. In Florida, for example, legislators must vote on any state university fee increases. (Legislators, likely not wanting to be known for rising student costs, voted down green fees.)

As you can imagine, green fees don’t have fans in every corner.

Do you think Green Fees are a good idea or not? How much leverage does your institution have regarding its fees?

The Snuggie as a sustainable practice. ‘Nuff said.

The fact that students are also using the Snuggie as a pub crawl theme; perhaps not as beneficial.

Read more about the phenomenon here.

EARLY ADMISSION FROM THE WAITING LIST: In a break from tradition, some private colleges offered some additional spots before a final count was in on how many accepted applicants were coming:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/05/04/waitlist

CLASSROOM FAILURE, POSTSEASON BAN: For first time, NCAA bars sports teams from championship play because of poor academic performance. Association’s leaders admit that poorer institutions are more likely to face such penalties:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/05/07/ncaa

FLESHING OUT THE FEDERAL BUDGET: Obama administration details 2010 spending plan unveiled in February, which would increase and lock in Pell Grant funding and double spending on basic science over a decade:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/05/08/budget

The New York Times today picked up on the trend of campus dining halls ditching the previously-common place cafeteria trays. With their disappearance, campuses report a reduction in food waste as well as saving water and energy consumption.

The article quotes the Sustainabble Endowments Institute (which issues the College Sustainability Report Card) that says 126 of 300 tracked colleges and universities “had curtailed use of trays, some of them banishing trays only from certain dining halls, and some introducing, for example, ‘trayless Tuesdays.’”

The article also quotes Dr. Joseph H. Spina, executive director of the National Association of College and University Food Services, who explained that another benefit of going trayless is the, “preparation for the cocktail-party circuit. You eventually have to learn how to hold your hors d’oeuvre and cocktail in one hand while making animated conversation with the other. So it’s a life lesson.”