Spring Break
Letter: University back-tracks on goal of sustainability
Issue date: 10/8/08 Section: Opinion
A commitment to sustainability is a laudable undertaking for this university. Certainly the installation of LEDs, the replacement of a police cruiser with a mule and the recycling of 98 percent of the demolition waste from Baker, Sayles and Salisbury halls are meaningful steps.
Yet at the time these activities were occurring, tons of plastic and Styrofoam waste was generated from Drumlin Hall, public spaces were chilled to an unnecessary and uncomfortable temperature in the warm months and residence hall rooms over heated in the winter, and hundreds of thousands of paper flyers, bulletins and announcements were printed, delivered and discarded.
Perhaps most regrettable was the decision to cut down the decades-old oak grove behind Carlson Hall to construct a parking lot to compensate for the loss of spaces due to the construction of a new residence hall.
Here was an opportunity to examine and put in place a means of reducing the carbon emissions from the thousands of vehicles driven to and from campus every day. Yet this opportunity was squandered, and the trees are gone.
The point is, sustainability will require careful decisions based on thorough considerations of the way we do business: how we teach and learn, feed and house ourselves, and recreate and relax. We will need to examine carefully how we do what we do and the environmental impacts from our activities. Then, tough decisions must be made decisions that may effect some changes, decisions that can make a difference. The question is not "can we do it?" but "will we?"
- E. Andrew Kapp, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor, Occupational & Environmental Safety & Health
Yet at the time these activities were occurring, tons of plastic and Styrofoam waste was generated from Drumlin Hall, public spaces were chilled to an unnecessary and uncomfortable temperature in the warm months and residence hall rooms over heated in the winter, and hundreds of thousands of paper flyers, bulletins and announcements were printed, delivered and discarded.
Perhaps most regrettable was the decision to cut down the decades-old oak grove behind Carlson Hall to construct a parking lot to compensate for the loss of spaces due to the construction of a new residence hall.
Here was an opportunity to examine and put in place a means of reducing the carbon emissions from the thousands of vehicles driven to and from campus every day. Yet this opportunity was squandered, and the trees are gone.
The point is, sustainability will require careful decisions based on thorough considerations of the way we do business: how we teach and learn, feed and house ourselves, and recreate and relax. We will need to examine carefully how we do what we do and the environmental impacts from our activities. Then, tough decisions must be made decisions that may effect some changes, decisions that can make a difference. The question is not "can we do it?" but "will we?"
- E. Andrew Kapp, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor, Occupational & Environmental Safety & Health
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