Environmental stewardship is the University’s new message
for the campus community.

University administrators are adding awareness programs to
existing efforts focused on upgrading technology to increase
environmental performance.

Such prior initiatives, including a new heat and electricity
system at its Central Power Plant, earned the University an award
last September — the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Energy Star Combined Heat and Power Award.

The new initiatives will will focus on how the University
utilizes campus from a behavioral standpoint, said Andy Berki,
environmental stewardship coordinator in Occupational Safety and
Environmental Health.

OSEH plans to encourage individuals to save resources in terms
of both waste minimization and energy conservation, he said.

In one program, the Pollution Prevention Lab Survey, OSEH is
working with individual laboratories to reduce their total
consumption of lab materials. For instance, OSEH has collaborated
with labs to develop “micro-teaching techniques” that
use fewer materials.

“Instead of using 100 milliliters or 50 milliliters of a
solvent, we’re working with the Department of Chemistry on
the front end to use maybe 10 milliliters … and generate a
lot less waste,” Berki said.

To promote energy conservation, OSEH has begun an awareness
campaign aimed at students, faculty and staff. Members of the
University community can expect to see signs around light switches
and near computers encouraging individuals to conserve power.

“So what are you waiting for?” exhorts one poster.
“Turn off the juice when not in use and help conserve
energy!”

In addition, the Environmental Sustainability Task Force,
convened by University President Mary Sue Coleman in the 2003 fall
term, will further increase awareness of environmental challenges
on campus, Berki said.

The task force has met several times since August 2003 to
develop quantitative indicators to measure environmental
stewardship, said Douglas Kelbaugh, Dean of the A. Alfred Taubman
College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Kelbaugh co-chairs the task force, comprised of faculty,
facilities staff and students, with SNRE Dean Rosina Bierbaum.

The indicators will measure University performance in the
categories of energy, water use, land use, emissions, material
use/solid waste and “other,” he said.

The “other” category is designed to monitor
miscellaneous issues that do not fit neatly into the former
categories, Kelbaugh said.

He cited fertilizer and pesticide use, purchasing of
environmentally-friendly office products and light pollution as
examples of such issues.

“The hope is that by profiling performance, we will
provide incentives to improve (it),” Kelbaugh said.

“The obvious purpose is to … modify behaviors in a
way that our individual and University-wide ecological footprint is
lessened, and that our endowment of natural capital is conserved
and not squandered.”

The final indicators used to measure environmental impact will
be announced in a public address and forum scheduled for Feb.
19.

Public input and comment on the indicators will be invited, said
Architecture student John Beeson, who serves on the task force.

Beeson said the indicators will help the University community
improve campus environmental performance. “Immediately, it
helps general students just to understand their impact,” he
said.

Despite progress through new programs and measures, challenges
still linger to progress toward greater environmentalism at the
University.

“The fact that we do have large attrition of both students
and faculty and staff provides a huge challenge,” Berki
said.

To address the constantly shifting nature of the University
community, environmental awareness programs must be repeated year
after year, Berki said.

He added that Midwestern institutions such as the University
have less access to environmentally-friendly goods such as wind or
water power.

“It’d be nice to get a higher percentage of
renewable (power), but we just can’t get it. The Huron River
just won’t do it,” he said.

But Berki said he is optimistic. “I think that it’s
going in a positive direction,” he said. “More people
are taking the environment seriously.”