Few simple steps that let universities be more eco-friendly
In nowadays society there is no anything special in being eco-friendly. It is not only a trend, it has already started to be a standard. And universities’ lives are not an exception. To be a “great university” means not only to achieve good academic results or financial stability, but also it means to be responsible for sustainable development and ecological factors. Being eco-friendly became an obligatory feature of really successful universities.
There are plenty of independent ratings and reviews of best ecological practices in universities all over the world. And one of such rating had been taken into account by The New York Times magazine for its article about best US universities in dimension of being eco-friendly (the article’s title is “Eco-friendly universities: UCLA, Santa Cruz and Berkeley going greener”). To say the truth, it is not important who is a winner or loser in such ratings, but it is highly important to see best eco-friendly practices and fields of implementation in case of spreading them among other universities. Let’s look closely to such practices that The New York Times was writing about.
First of all, all eco-friendly practices could be divided into two main categories. The first one is “infrastructural” that includes all special processes and practices correlated to universities’ infrastructure – transportation, energy and water systems, operation with waste, etc. The other category of eco-friendly practices is “operational”, which is correlated to internal processes that reduce pollution or resource consumption. And the major feature that divides both these category is a need of funding: the first, infrastructural, category of practices needs a financial investments, in contrast to the second “operational” category. Both these sets of practices have good examples that were shown in article and can be spread among other universities.
For example, one of the best infrastructural practices, according to the article, is transport system in Santa Cruz University. This system is based on bike shuttle network that allows transporting of more than 300 commuters to campus each day. Shuttle systems (not only bike shuttles) are a good way of pollution reduction. Of course, developing infrastructure of campus for bike riders (parking slots and public bike systems) is a best solution of transportation problem of any university in case of ecology. But still the general idea is the same for any other transports: the less transport you use, the better it is for the environment. So, shuttle services are the best response for universities’ transportation problems.
Another good example of eco-friendly universities that could be shared is waste management system of University of California (Los Angeles). The waste processes are built in the way that allows composting of more than 70% of all dinning leftovers. Moreover, university’s waste management system includes recycling of water from labs and air-conditioning. The university has its own natural gas-fired cogeneration plant that covers 100% of university’s heating and cooling systems, and 70% of all university’s electricity.
All in all, being eco-friendly is an obligatory standard for all the universities that want to be successful in nowadays world. It is not a trend, but a strong need to be responsible for the environment you are performing in. There are plenty of eco-friendly practices that include transporting, energy usage and waste management, which must be shared and implemented by all universities all over the world.
WORKS CITED PAGE
Littlefield, Amy. “Eco-friendly universities: UCLA, Santa Cruz and Berkeley going greener”. The New York Times. August 21, 2009. Web. URL: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2009/08/ucla-eco-friendly-universities-.html. March 17, 2016.
