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Dave Jackson brings a refreshing simplicity to “sustainability” — today’s environmental buzzword.
“Think about the university as an old station wagon: It’s time to drive down to the landfill, throw that car away, and get a new one,” says Jackson, assistant to the director of Facilities Management at The University of Iowa.
He pauses, then adds: “I should say we need to recycle that car, and reuse the pieces to build a new one that doesn’t run on gas.”
Such sentiments are becoming more common at United States higher education institutions, where the sustainability movement is not only growing — it’s booming.
Membership tripled in the last year at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education in Louisville, Kentucky, to 587 institutions, government groups, and businesses, all dedicated to reducing their campus’ “environmental footprint.” Judy Walton, acting executive director of the organization, expects the growth to continue.
“The campus sustainability movement is on the forefront of a cultural transition,” she said.
“One reason is growing public awareness about global warming. In many ways business is leading the charge, demanding sustainability-literate graduates who can address environmental problems and are familiar with entirely new technologies.”
Changing attitudes
For many campuses, meeting those demands means dramatic and widespread changes in both methods and attitudes.
Adaptation is already under way at the UI, as efforts to embrace sustainability have gained both individual adherents and institutional commitment.
The university became an early member of the Chicago Climate Exchange in 2004, legally binding it to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
Enrollment in classes such as Sustainable Systems, and student groups like the UI Environmental Coalition, whose projects range from environmental consulting to promoting green modes of transportation on campus, indicate a growing student interest.
This spring, Barbara Eckstein, a professor of English and an interim associate vice provost, began soliciting and collating ideas for developing a “sustainability curriculum” at Iowa.
Eckstein had greenallies in obvious programs areas like civil and environmental engineering, environmental sciences, and public health, but in ethics, history, anthropology, and other humanities departments.
In these very different areas of study, she has found faculty and staff eager to unite their efforts. She has also found looming challenges.
In some departments where the degree requirements are stringent and narrow, it will take considerable tailoring to fit sustainability into the curriculum; other departments may need more instructors or funding.
Eckstein believes the key to success is increased communication and cooperation rather than any massive interdisciplinary shift—an approach in line with the overarching principles of the idea itself.
“Sustainability is a set of relationships,” she said. “It isn’t a matter of building something new, or investing in something new, it is finding a new system of coordination. Yes, it’s a labor investment and a thought investment, but that’s what we do.”
Professors have been active in a variety of ways already, but that role may expand quickly: A sustainability resolution approved by the Faculty Senate on March 25 specified that building on the University’s early progress will “require leadership and action from everyone on campus.”
UI President Sally Mason a month later announced five new faculty positions in a “sustainability” specialty.
Eckstein emphasized that ultimately, for the green movement to be effective at Iowa, students must rally to the cause as well.
“No one has missed that things are getting more expensive, but it can be hard to marshal the forces of young people and convince them that the cool thing to do is use mass transportation,” she said.
“A strong culture of consumerism runs very deep in our society, but in many ways we live in a period of increasing consciousness.”
New awareness
In other parts of campus, there is optimism about rising awareness and participation. Don Guckert, director of Facilities Management, thinks sustainability is past the tipping point.
“More and more it feels like our numbers aren’t just increasing, they are multiplying,” he said. “It’s the birth of a new direction.”
Guckert would know: Much of The University of Iowa’s strategy for sustainability originates in his department, on the second and third floors of the University Services Building.
As Zuhair Mased, associate director of Utilities and Energy Management at Iowa, points out, buildings are a linchpin of sustainability at institutions of higher education.
“Consider the cost of a building over its entire life cycle,” he said. “Up front, you pay 20 to 40 percent of what it will cost you in the end. The rest goes to heat and power. When you apply that to a university building that might last 100 years, the difference is huge.”
Investing in sustainability
Mased calls the strategy of designing for sustainability before construction “system integration.”
Like the design of other green projects, it can come with a higher initial cost. Jerald Schnoor, chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering for Iowa’s College of Engineering and chair of the state’s Climate Change Advisory Council, maintains that money invested in sustainability is well spent.
If planning is good, savings start immediately, Schnoor said.
“Some projects have a payback period that is extremely short, and will return the investment within a year. Others, like replacing shingles with solar panels, may not be financially profitable yet, but because the technology is renewable, they are a part of the larger solution.”