Task force recommends measures to enhance conservation on campus

Demonstrating its leadership in environmental stewardship, Wayne State University has developed a comprehensive set of ecological initiatives to guide the university into the next decade and beyond. The recommendations are contained in a report prepared by a 31-member Task Force on Environmental Initiatives appointed by WSU President Irvin D. Reid.

“Our recommendations are made with the underlying goal of enriching university life and sustaining the mission of innovation throughout the entire institutional community,” wrote task force co-chairs Nabelah Ghareeb, associate vice president for business and auxiliary operations, and Ralph Kummler, dean of the College of Engineering, in the introduction to the 58-page report.

The report comes prior to the public launching of another Reid initiative, the Forum on Contemporary Issues in Society, an ongoing series aimed at stimulating public discussion on important contemporary issues. The theme of the first program is “sustainability,” and the event will bring environmental champion Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to campus Nov. 2 to speak on environmental issues.

Presentation of the task force’s recommendations follows a yearlong review of current sustainability practices on campus. In making its recommendations, the group kept the university’s strategic goals in mind. These include upgrading the physical environment and infrastructure of the campus. The task force consisted of subcommittees that looked specifically at energy conversation, recycling practices, sustainability, transportation and waste product disposal.

The report notes that the recommendations are made “with the recognition that protecting the environment is becoming urgent worldwide as human impact strains the planet’s resources.”

Key recommendations made in the document are:

• Develop energy-efficiency policies to guide all future construction.
• Design and implement the Wayne State Energy Reduction Program and a Campuswide Lighting Initiative.
• Wherever possible, use “green” power — power that preserves environmental quality.
• Establish a recycling infrastructure that efficiently removes waste streams and economically reuses university resources.
• Continue to teach the campus community about recycling.
• Establish an Academic Study Group to identify additional research, scholarship and instructional opportunities to address the growing interest in industrial and urban sustainability.
• Introduce a Sustainability Certificate Program or a set of certificate programs.
• Challenge all units to streamline their paper-intensive processes, using the Dean of Students Office as a prototype.
• Decrease the economic, environmental and public health impacts associated with heavy vehicle traffic to and from campus. Reduce the number of miles that students, staff and faculty drive to the university by encouraging the use of convenient, economic, alternative transportation, or living in Midtown.
• Reduce — through purchasing practices and education — costs and environmental, community and occupational risks associated with the use and disposal of materials.
• Practice waste minimization techniques.
• Monitor and reduce the purchase of chemicals, and lessen the risks of using toxic chemicals.
• Create an ongoing standing committee to analyze, recommend and implement both strategies and methods for improving environmental performance.
• Develop written administrative policies to promote energy conservation measures in the university’s activities, services and business practices.
• Continue to educate the campus community on the importance of environmental stewardship, disseminating information about environmental research and policy, increasing student, faculty and staff awareness of environmental issues and offering additional opportunities for environmental education.
• Centralize the coordination of the university’s sustainable environmental initiatives under a single unit to achieve cost savings and streamline operations.
• Work with surrounding communities to build a sustainable university and neighborhoods.

Sustainability practices are not new to Wayne State. The university has had an active paper recycling program and has adopted energy conversation practices, such as programmed heat reduction on winter weekends, in use for many years.

More recently, the university has been using a donated, alternative-fuel police patrol vehicle and has established a new student organization aimed at environmental preservation. It also has promoted alternative transportation for students, established an alternative energy master’s degree program, and incorporated additional energy conservation measures into construction of a new Engineering Development Center, to name only a few.

For more information on the Task Force on Environmental Initiatives, go to www.livinggreen.wayne.edu.  

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 11 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students.