Disclaimer
The following document was created by one or more students as part of requirements for completing a Trent academic course.
The views expressed in this document may not reflect official Trent policy. Trent University and its agents shall not be held liable for any damage
whatsoever, which may arise as a result of errors or omissions in the information appearing on pages contained herein.
Carnegie Mellon University
Environmental Practices
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania is one of North America’s leading centres of environmental excellence. Through this paper, I will focus on the body responsible for environmental decision–making – an internal, although often privately funded organization of CMU – Green Practices. First, a short overview of Carnegie Mellon:
Founded in 1900, CMU was created to open a vocational training school for the sons and daughters of working-class families in Pittsburgh. Today, the university
consists of 7 colleges including schools of the Technology, Fine Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Science, Business, Computer Science, and Public Policy and Management. It is primarily known for being a technological leader in the United States, especially in the computer sciences, which I believe puts it in a great position to prove how environmental stewardship can successfully coincide with technological advance and the accepted notions of ‘progress’ and ‘excellence.’
CMU enjoys a body of 3000 faculty and staff members and 7500 students. It also has over a century to have built up the funds to be able to become one of the United States’ leading private research universities. Although their financial situation is no doubt very different than that of Trent, CMU considers itself to be a model for other institutions and offers many ideas that could be taken, modified, and applied to Trent. Although we do not enjoy their large-scale budget (I was unable to find numbers, however), our problems will be of smaller scale as well. CMU does not have the green space that we take for granted here at Trent, as it lies within the city of Pittsburgh. Therefore, accessibility to public transit will be more difficult in rural Peterborough than at CMU. However, their limited space does not prevent them from investing time, money, and research into alternative forms of energy and transportation. Their
limitations are identified as challenges to overcome, not obstacles. These limitations fuel environmental stewardship at CMU where they stifle it at Trent. CMU shows us what we
can do with collective agreement and a common value system across the campus. In this paper, I will illustrate what CMU has achieved, is achieving, and how they can do it successfully, in order to provide a model that Trent can use to achieve our goals.
‘The Green Practices Committee will strive to develop university practices that
improve environmental quality, decrease waste, and conserve natural resources and energy, thereby establishing Carnegie Mellon as a practical model for other universities and companies.’
After scouring the CMU web site, I finally stumbled across the Green Practices web site, listed under “administrative departments’ Environmental Practices Committee.” This was a little outdated since the name was changed to Green Practices in 1999. The site gives detailed summaries of new initiatives as well as providing some statistics on previous programs.
Green Practices is comprised of 5 professors, ranging from art to civil
engineering, 16 staff members, including architects and dining service managers, and 5 students. As far as I can tell, the committee operates on a volunteer basis, receiving funding for projects but not for salary, although this is not specified on the web site. In the ‘timeline’ section, however, it states that in 2000 they hire a full-time environmental coordinator although I cannot find who that is. I have emailed one of the members about this information and am waiting for a reply.
Green Practices’ recommendations outlines the following areas in which it hopes
to achieve environmental excellence:dining service, recycling, procurement, communication, building renovation and construction, landscaping, environmental awards, and transportation. Although not mentioned under the recommendations page,
research into all of these areas is readily explored and encouraged at CMU.
Dining Services:
Goal for tomorrow: “Through product substitutions and exploitation of composting
environmental education in the dining halls.” CMU has been studying the possibility of composting for over 3 years. A comprehensive study was completed in 2003 siting the high cost of handling in Pennsylvania as the main deterrent. Trent does not suffer from the same space constraints as city universities do, so handling and pickup should not pose as big a problem for us as for CMU.
Recycling:
Goal for tomorrow: “Expand the recycling program to include kitchens, resident halls,
and other un-served areas.” Currently, CMU recycles 19% of their waste, coming sixth out of the 17 schools entered in the US ‘Recycle Mania.’ Challenge, out-recycling both Harvard and Yale. As well, there exists a recycling policy under CMU’s list of internal policies. We should investigate the existence of a province-wide body that could perhaps spark a similar challenge for Ontario universities, or issue a personal challenge ourselves. This way we would not only raise support for furthering Trent’s recycling, but boost Ontario’s diversion rate as well.
Procurement:
Goal for tomorrow: “Develop environmental criteria and guidelines for campus
purchasers and vendors.” Under CMU’s purchasing policy, there exists room for
environmental concern within decision-making. The policy states that “Buyers and Users should utilize suppliers and service providers that make use, to a practicable extent, of materials and services that support the Carnegie Mellon environmental mission and goals of reducing, reusing and recycling.” This includes the decision to only purchase paper that is made with at least 30% recycled material, as well as the ban on polystyrene in dining halls in favour of washable dinnerware.
Communication:
Goal for tomorrow: “Initiate a vigorous, multi-pronged effort at communication of
campus environmental activities. Develop a physical “Environmental Center” on campus.”
Perhaps CMU’s greatest environmental feat is how it successfully gains collective support for initiatives across the campus. They have taken great pains to make sure that
all CMU students learn about becoming not only good citizens, but good environmental
stewards as well. Here are some of the ways in which they achieve this:
• The Green Practices web site itself provides a great example of how CMU communicates its environmental mission with the whole campus. Thorough, interesting, pleasing to look at, and easy to maneuver, www.cmu.edu/greenpractices.html educates the campus about past and current environmental events happening on campus.
• In addition to the web site, Green Practices prints a seasonal publication called “The Green Scene” which highlights events and innovations in environmentalism at CMU. It is printed on 100% recycled paper and available online as well.
• CMU art teachers encourage their students to create art that raises awareness. One example being a life-size creation of a car stuffed with actual garbage found on campus to illustrate the grossness of overconsumption.
• Something really unique is happening at CMU in the form of the ‘Environment Across the Curriculum Initiative (EAC). This initiative allows for all students to receive the basics of environmentalism regardless of their program of study. This program has been funded by the ‘National Science Foundation’ in hopes that all CMU graduates will become educated in all aspects of society.
Environmental Awards:
Goal for tomorrow: “Initiate a new campus award focused on sustainable practices.” As
of now, CMU offers the Carnegie Mellon Undergraduate Environmental Research Award for students who exemplify the school’s environmental mission through environmental research. As well, the existence of challenges such as ‘Recycle Mania,’ ‘Energy Fest’
and ‘Dumpster Drive’ help to make environmentalism something to compete for. In this way, they foster the idea that challenge is exciting and fun not overwhelming and
unachievable.
Energy Management:
Goal for tomorrow: “Develop a long-term energy management and implementation
plan. Exploit federal and state funding for energy management innovations.” Currently there are many initiatives taking place at CMU with respect to energy conservation.
• CMU participates in the ‘Solar Decathlon,’ a multi-school challenge. For the 2002 decathlon, CMU students designed and created a solar-powered house, which is in the process of being reassembled for use as a visitor centre on CMU campus.
• As of 2000, CMU’s objective for new building construction is to meet the
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver certification.
The ‘New House’ residence dorm was the 1st building to be built under these guidelines and there are 3 others under construction.
• Committed to procuring 5% of its energy from wind power, CMU needed a way to offset the extra cost (2-cents/kW hour). To do so, they issued a series of energy saving challenges, which not only save money, but also reduce energy
consumption and therefore CMU’s ecological footprint.
• One of the challenges issued was the ‘Sleep is Good’ initiative. There is an entire web site dedicated to explaining how much energy can be saved if every screen on campus was set to ‘sleep’ after 10 idle minutes. They offer a ‘free smoothie’ coupon to those who participate. Each screen would save $5/annually under this challenge; multiplied by all the screens on campus, ‘Sleep is Good’ will save CMU $100,000 if successful!
• At present, there are 3 ‘Green Roofs’ at CMU like those we have here at Trent. As we know, they reduce heating and cooling bills, extend the life of the roofs,
protect them from UV rays, lower storm water waste streams, and act as a CO2 sink.
• The Environmental Protection Agency promotes a program called ‘Lab 21,’ which shows how schools can achieve ‘high performance, low energy’ designs for new laboratories. CMU’s Doherty Hall conforms to the Lab 21 design.
• CMU enjoys a wide array of alternative vehicles including many vans and trucks that run on natural gas. The most exciting is the recent purchase of a GEM NEV car that is 100% electric and therefore has no emissions. In January of 2001 CMU adopted the policy that all new vehicle purchases would use alternative fuel.
Building Renovation and Construction:
Goal for tomorrow: “Commit to use of green technologies and materials in the renovation of classrooms, so that these functional spaces enhance environmental awareness on campus. Make available competitive seed funding for research projects focused on campus green building practices. Follow LEED guidelines in construction projects on campus.” I have already mentioned how this is underway.
Landscaping:
Goal for tomorrow: “Initiate an environmentally sensitive, low maintenance campus
greening effort to include environmentally progressive landscaping designs in the campus master panning project.” In this area, Trent has already succeeded with our alternatives to pesticides and herbicides as well as our reduction of invasive species efforts.
Transportation:
Goal for tomorrow: “Establish more flexible parking permits that will encourage
increased bus use. Initiate a Transportation Management office to replace the Parking Office.” Although I have not found any indication that this goal has been met, I am certain that there is a way to achieve this objective at Trent University. We could
certainly find another school, I’m sure, that has succeeded in placing some sort of monetary incentive on taking the bus.
Research:
CMU’s ‘Steinbrenner Institute for environmental education’ has been developed specifically for tackling environmental problems, with the help of a $4 million donation from a board trustee and his wife. This centre, however, is not the only place on campus that environmental research takes place. Students investigate ideas and meet challenges in their schoolwork. Because environmentalism is relatively so new, there is room for students to take an active role. I think this could definitely be achieved at Trent due to our strong environmental science program. Similarly, arts courses such as“greening the campus” could become more involved in forming policy and spearheading initiatives across campus.
Funding:
In addition to the aforementioned $4 million, Green Practices has received funding in sums such as $10,000 from the Heinz endowment for waste reductioninitiatives, as well as donations from the Luce Foundation and the National Science Foundation. These are only the ones I’ve found. Perhaps, once we assemble a plan, we could approach private investors to assist in our meeting our goals. In some cases, a loan would be sufficient as we could eventually turn a profit (e.g. hydropower).
In conclusion, Carnegie Mellon University enjoys a huge resource base that Trent does not; therefore their lofty accompishments may seem defeating. However, if I’ve learned anything from studying CMU, challenges can become catalysts for change, for greater environmental goals and greater environmental achievement. This campus-wide mindset, in my mind, is CMU’s greatest environmental contribution. It provides us with an example of how collective values can create an atmosphere for environmental
compliance. It costs relatively little capital but a lot of time and a lot of heart. I think that heart exists at Trent so issuing challenges, raising awareness, ‘creating a buzz’ could happen with a little organization and elbow grease.
