The big picture and small steps of sustainability: The university story
By Linda Robson, CFAO Fellow for Energy Studies
(Originally appeared in Business as an Agent of World Benefit August 2007 enews)
In the last two years,
Specifically, we employ an approach that is strengths-based, using a vocabulary of hope and compelling images of a vibrant campus and robust region. By employing an approach that is inclusive and invitational, and by holding positive expectations, we are building a sustainability program which seeks to shift the general campus culture toward the adoption of sustainability principles, which promote people, the planet and prosperity.
These values are clear in our hearts and minds, yet when it comes to the day-to-day building and representing of the university's sustainability program, we adopted these strategic principles:
1. Embrace the big picture and manage it well: Building connections across campus
* Strengthen ties with colleagues and thought leaders outside the university
* Relate big ideas to everyday life (make them bite size)
* Give sustainability a familiar context so people can see themselves in the concept/practices
* Kai Zen—small steps of continuous improvement
2. Technical strength: Trustworthy and accurate
* Present both sides
* Be transparent
3. Be cool and have fun! Make campus sustainability mainstream
* Sustainability is fun, cool, optimistic and current (This ain't your father's environmentalism!)
* Campus sustainability at the university is nonpartisan/non patronizing
* Campus sustainability is an achievable experience, full of rich learning, research and other opportunities
* We don't scold, shame or blame. Guilt and finger pointing are not good motivators...and they're boring...
4. Belong: Empathy and emotion are powerful motivators
* We use stories of the university and elsewhere to engage people's hearts and minds and hold their attention
* Break stereotypes about sustainability, use inclusive language and images
* We're going toward mass ownership of campus sustainability
* Positive change is open to everyone
5. Feature success: Glorify the departments and individuals who are doing their part with gusto
* Introduce heroes/energy stars on campus to emulate (individuals, offices, departments, institutes)
As shorthand for our collaborative approach, the sustainability team has adopted the slogan, "Changing light bulbs and behaviors." New paradigms are being fostered and slowly adopted at the university, and, taken together, are making it a healthier, happier place.
Changing light bulbs: University leadership gets it
In Fall 2005, in light of rising energy costs and a consistently growing campus population and physical footprint, several members of the university's administration began exploring alternative approaches to conserving energy and garnering the involvement of the campus community in this process. Provost John Anderson and University CFAO Hossein Sadid launched the University Energy Advisory Committee (EAC), a body charged with "institutionalizing a commitment to cost effective, environmental impact reduction in association with campus facilities and operations, curriculum development, research and student life."
Partnering programs
One of our program's most valuable assets is the active role Gene Matthews, university director of facilities services, plays in campus sustainability, with specific regard to energy. By measuring and managing the campus' mechanical systems, maintaining operations at the highest levels of efficacy and efficiency, Matthews and his team are increasingly well-known for being able to wring energy savings out of buildings like water out of a towel. Between 2005 and 2007, the overall energy consumption of the campus has been cut by 6.9 million kilowatt hours. These achievements are supported through daily attention to energy. The university maintains an active list of energy efficiency and conservation projects. Currently, over 230 energy projects have been completed, are active, or in planning stages, including projects such as:
High performance building at Case Western Reserve
The sustainability program at Case Western Reserve began with high performance building and management techniques. To this day, energy management and building systems are core strengths of our program. The Village @ 115th is the university's newest residential complex, which opened in August 2006. The Village is a LEED certified residential complex and is the first of its kind in the country. The complex as a whole obtained a silver LEED rating, while one building which employs experimental energy management practices among other features, obtained a gold LEED rating.
Based on the experience of designing and building the Village, high performance and green techniques have been employed in subsequent new construction and renovations at the university. To capture this growing area of knowledge and skill, and to encourage high performance and green building as an ongoing practice, the sustainability team conducted extensive research on green and high performance building standards adopted by other institutions of higher education and municipalities. We developed a set of standards, tailored to the university's context, which has been adopted for all new campus construction and renovations in existing university buildings.
Aircuity air exchange system
Case Western Reserve is currently piloting an air exchange detection system on one floor of the
Square D power logic demand-side management
The facilities service at the university has posted a link on their Web site, making real-time graphs of the university's energy consumption available to the campus community. When campus energy consumption reaches or surpasses an established maximum threshold, we refer members of the campus community to these readings and ask them to reduce their energy consumption (i.e. turning off overhead lights in offices, turning off lights in rooms that are not being used, or holding off on running certain pieces of research equipment until later in the day). With the aid of the real time data, students, faculty and staff can see the impact of their behaviors.
We are changing behaviors by recruiting members of the campus community to be energy ambassadors, issuing a Weekly Bright Ideas e-mail to highlight the ease of promoting people, planet and prosperity, challenging the campus to a 30-day CO2 Monthly Challenge experiment each month to reduce individuals' and the university's carbon footprint, using a strengths-based sustainability strategic planning framework (SOAR: strengths, opportunities, aspirations and results) to work closely with members of the EAC, facilities services, members of university administration, BAWB Associate Director Chris Laszlo, and others to establish vision and mission statements, guiding principles, and a three-year strategic plan for how sustainability should be implemented at the university, and many more programs.
For more information about these activities or other aspects of the university's sustainability program, visit www.case.edu/news/sustain or contact Linda Robson. Together, we're making Case a healthier, happier place!
What's your role?
Sustainability is simple, on campus or in your own home. There are opportunities to be good to your community and the planet—which can also save money—all around you. Here are four easy steps to get started at home or in your office:
1. Do you really need to print that? Only print documents that you really need hard copies of, use misprints as scratch paper for meetings or notes, and find out how to enable the double-sided printing function on your home and office printers.
2. Close the loop. Reduce, reuse, recycle.
3. Don't be afraid of the phantom! Phantom energy use is when unpowered items continue using energy. Turn off your printer or computer speakers, click off your monitor, and turn off lights that aren't needed or being used. Unplug cell phone or iPod chargers, unplug the cord to your laptop, or anything with a digital clock to put a stop to the phantom pull of energy and money each month.
4. The Season to Stroll. Take advantage of the season and enjoy your neighborhood, the campus, or some of our area enclaves and choose to walk instead of driving short distances. Walking one mile translates to a $0.15 in gas and keeps 1lb of climate changing CO2 from being spewed into our atmosphere.
