The past several years have seen the creation and implementation of a number of initiatives spearheaded by students and faculty aimed at making the University’s campus more environmentally sustainable. However, despite the successes, according to some students, there remains more room for improvement and transparency in the University’s sustainability efforts.
“There have been a lot of successes at Wesleyan in terms of sustainability and a lot of student groups work very hard to create initiatives on campus,” said Environmental Organizers Network (EON) Co-Director and Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) member Melody Oliphant ’13. “But, for me, there is a huge disconnect between what we broadcast to the public about the legitimacy of our sustainability on campus and the reality of our sustainable initiatives as an institution.”
Each year the University receives a sustainability “grade” as part of the College Sustainability Report Card, an annual initiative run by the Sustainable Endowments Institute. With nearly 300 colleges participating, Wesleyan’s rankings this year dropped down to a B+ from an A- the previous year. The grades are based primarily on survey responses from school administrators and students.
According to Bill Nelligan, who is the Director of Environmental Health, Safety and Sustainability as well as Coordinator and Chair of the Sustainability Advisory Group for Environmental Stewardship (SAGES), such rating systems, especially the College Sustainability Report Card, may not accurately reflect initiatives on campus.
“I believe their methodology is suspect,” he said. “We gained in ratings on a part of the survey that was not submitted last year—how do you explain that?”
In the last three years, according to Nelligan, the University has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 22 percent, which he attributed to energy efficiency projects acrosscampus. The University’s goal, according to Nelligan, is to become carbon neutral by 2050. However, he noted that there was room for improvement when it comes to efficiency.
“There is still a lot of room on the energy efficiency front,” he said. “We can improve our efficiency by shutting off lights, being aware of what we leave plugged in and how we live in student housing.”
Nelligan added that the fiscal year 2010 energy consumption levels in wood-frame houses varied significantly from house to house. He added that because of the age of some of these houses, they are not as sustainable as they could be, but that this could be resolved through outreach to the residents of the houses about how to maximize sustainability.
“Our goal is to optimize the energy consumption of every building on campus to reduce wasted energy and unnecessary spending,” he said.
Oliphant added that the “Do It In the Dark” project, which encourages students to cut down on energy usage, isn’t as successful as it could be.
“These are great ideas but they aren’t living up to their potential in terms of reducing energy consumption, and a lot of the problem there is just simply a lack of advertising,” she said.
President Michael Roth also said that students have shown tremendous initiative in reducing energy consumption, especially in residence halls. He said that despite the commitment he sees to recycling, he would like to see more overall reductions in the amount of waste.
“We also can do more just in terms of some basic things, like changing over to more efficient lighting sources and moving toward renewable forms of energy, like geothermal and solar,” Roth said.
The past fall has also seen the creation of the student group Working for Intelligent Landscape Design (WILD Wes), which began its efforts to re-landscape areas of campus in ways that would maximize sustainability.
“Just from watching the student group WILD Wes grow, if you have a group of students that care about something, the University will respond and that is where the potential for real explosive growth comes from,” said former Sustainability Intern Miles Bukiet ’11. “It comes from the students not just demanding a change but creating a plan for that change.”
According to Oliphant, WesFresh has also successfully collaborated with Bon Appétit to ensure that 100 percent of the liquid eggs used at Usdan are from cage-free sources and has secured the elimination of bottled water from Wesshop.
“This is incredible on Bon Appétit’s behalf because, I believe, it’s four and a half cents more expensive per ounce for these cage free liquid eggs,” Oliphant said. “But, apparently because these eggs have more volume, we’re able to make up the cost.”
However, Oliphant said that she would like to see more of a commitment to sustainability on the part of the administration.
“The only changes in sustainability that are apparent to me are coming from the student body and not the administration,” she said. “The hesitation in removing bottled water from the Usdan Café stems from the proximity to North College. Administrators, trustees, or visitors on tours will walk through and want a bottle of water. That, to me, is a small example of how the administration is unwilling to commit to sustainability in a tangible sense.”
Bukiet, on the other hand, said that his experiences with the administration’s commitment to sustainability have been positive.
“From the administrative standpoint I know that there is a genuine effort to deal with sustainability in a serious way and that they are actively looking for solutions,” he said. “I think the whole thing comes down to approaching the dialogue with the right tenor.”
However, according to Nelligan, the University and the administration could be doing more to make their initiatives known.
“I think we haven’t done enough advertising about the things we have been doing, so the general public may not know about how sustainable we really are,” he said. “For instance, the energy audits get little press, but huge savings.”
Nelligan said that, for example, there is a geothermal house on Fountain Avenue that has operated for several years, and that the University operates nine fully electric vehicles, which has led to savings in gasoline. There are also two small-scale solar panel installations on campus.
According to Roth, the Allbritton Center has received LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification, while Fauver Residence Hall was certified as LEED Silver. The University is also exploring the feasibility of geothermal heating and cooling at the Freeman Athletic Center, as well as investigating a solar grant for the facility.
“So far we’re getting some samples back that are encouraging,” he said. “I think that would be very exciting. It’s still not totally clear; we have to take this one step at a time.”
Roth also said that the newly founded College of the Environment will take on water conservation as its theme for next year. According to Nelligan, Physical Plant plans to replace approximately 1,000 toilets and urinals over the summer, which will result in an estimated 15 million gallons of water to be saved annually.
The recent composting initiative has also garnered praise from students and faculty members. However, according to EON Co-Coordinator Marjorie Dodson ’13, more can be done.
“Yes, we’re composting for the senior houses, but we don’t have post-consumer waste composting in Usdan,” she said. “That’s tons of food waste going down the drain.”
Roth stressed the need for greater consistency when it comes to Wesleyan’s commitment to sustainability.
“We’ve made progress getting it into the consciousness of everybody—every staff member, every faculty member, every student—that we have to be better stewards of the environment,” he said. “It’s a challenge, as you’ll see after WesFest when you look at Foss Hill. We’re not consistently responsible for the environment—we’ve made some real progress but I think that being more consistent in caring for the environment is important.”
According to Oliphant, the key to consistency is a personal commitment to sustainability on the part of every student.
“Many students may think they don’t have the time to make a personal commitment, but it’s just a matter of prioritizing sustainability on campus because people do have time, it’s just that they don’t see it as their personal priority,” she said.
Oliphant said that she was surprised that the Green Fund, which students are automatically “opted into” in order to supply the Fund’s annual $80,000 budget, was met with some hesitation at the end of last year.
“With the image that Wesleyan espouses of sustainability, that should not have been met with so much hesitation, or at least it was my hope that it wouldn’t be,” she said.
Evan Weber ’13, Chair of the Green Fund Committee last year, said that this year, the Fund’s money has gone toward the registration and cost of transporting students to this weekend’s Powershift environmental conference in Washington D.C., the partial funding of the composting initiative, and bringing lecturers to campus, among other things.
Weber said that another round of proposals being accepted this semester will include a greenhouse that will grow produce on campus and an exercise bike in the fitness center that will help power the Freeman Athletic center, which Weber called the most energy consumptive building on campus.
Oliphant and Dodson said that they would like to see the University start an entire sustainability office in order to promote visibility and awareness of the issue. They said that they thought that the University is in need of an administrator whose job is solely to oversee sustainability. According to Dodson, many of Wesleyan’s peer institutions have this type of position.
“I feel like it’s very natural, as a Wesleyan student, to want to dream big,” she said. “You have great initiatives like WesFresh and WILD Wes, but you don’t have anybody who is dying to work on recycling or making people turn off their lights. People are dreaming bigger than that and getting more creative than that, which is really great, but you sort of need somebody who’s in charge of making sure that there is some movement for the things like recycling.”
Dodson and Oliphant praised the efforts of Nelligan and SAGES, but said that sustainability may be an issue that demands greater centralization.
“Physical plant, I think, is one of the most sustainably minded parts of Wesleyan; there are some really great people there,” Dodson said. “But I think that this is an issue that goes beyond Physical Plant.”
Nelligan said that he believes that centralization is not necessarily the best approach and that SAGES is able to identify and work towards meeting the needs of sustainability.
“This is a global issue and needs to be addressed by all constituents, under the leadership of a governing body such as SAGES,” he said. “Living sustainably is a core value that everyone on campus must embody. It shouldn’t be one person’s job to make Wesleyan sustainable; it should become the culture of our institution that everyone embraces.”
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