Appendix 6:
Sustainability
at Columbia University
Planning Committee
The
Columbia University Environmental Stewardship Task Force, created in the
2005-2006 school year, is Òa volunteer group of Columbia administrators who
have accepted the dual charges of implementing practical programs to reduce the
UniversityÕs environmental footprint and promoting a culture that values the
environment and acts to protect itÓ. The Environmental Stewardship Task
Force is spearheaded by Robert Kasdin, Senior Executive Vice President. The Environmental Stewardship Task
Force regularly consults the Columbia University Green Umbrella, an umbrella
organization incorporating several environmental student organizations that
represents the environmental interests of the Columbia university student
body.
Commitment Statement
Columbia
UniversityÕs commitment to environmental stewardship is noted by President
Bollinger on the homepage of the Environmental Stewardship website. Specific staff departments at Columbia
have signed on to environmental commitment statements, as well; for example,
Columbia Dining has adopted StanfordÕs Green Business Pledge.
Sustainability Director
Nilda
Mesa was named Director of Environmental Stewardship in the summer of
2006.
Facilities
Website: http://cuf.columbia.edu/cuf-ops.html
Functions: Columbia
University Facilities encompasses the following major departments: Construction
Coordination, Capital Project Management, Finance and Administration, Housing,
Operations, Parking, Planning and Space Management, and Public Safety. Of these departments, the Operations
division is most comparable to BarnardÕs Facilities department. Columbia Operations oversees the
maintenance and cleaning of academic buildings, administrative buildings, and
residence halls; manages grounds; and administers the University Physical Plant
and the UniversityÕs energy management.
Trash
and Recycling
The Clean + Go Green
reuse and recycling drive, held on August 8, 2006, collected unwanted items
from University offices. The drive
collected over 50 computer monitors; more than 125 small electronics such as
CPUs, keyboards, printers, fax machines, and cell phones; over 25 file cabinets; many batteries, toner
cartridges, and aerosol and paint cans; and recyclable metal, paper, and
cardboard. Facilities sorted and
disposed of all materials properly, recycling as possible. The event was organized by Helen
Bielak, manager of Custodial Services.
Hazardous
and Universal Waste
Columbia has joined the
ChemTracker Consortium, an internet-based program that allows its 22 college
and university members to track their hazardous chemical inputs and outputs and
to exchange information on hazardous waste management issues. The system supported by the ChemTracker
Consortium requires Columbia to bar-code all chemicals received and to place
used chemical bottles in specific waste receptacles so that the output barcodes
may be read and the UniversityÕs chemical use tracked. The Environmental Health and Safety
Department is responsible for this initiative.
Energy
Facilities has installed
54 low-flow fume hoods on 3 floors of the Chandler Hall science building,
reducing the universityÕs carbon dioxide emissions by 4.6 million pounds
annually. These hoods reduce the
energy needed to heat or cool fresh air drawn into the hoods for ventilation.
All on and off-campus
buildings owned by Columbia have some level of HVAC computer control, allowing
for greater energy efficiency. All
three buildings of the Medical Center have fully computerized systems. In 2007, modern web-based controls will
be introduced to other University buildings.
An energy audit of
university classroom, lecture hall, scientific-lab, office and mechanical
spaces in 31 Columbia buildings was completed in September 2005 by independent
energy technicians. This audit
identified outdated equipment and provided data on the energy usage for each
building. Outdated equipment
identified in this audit will be upgraded or replaced by the close of
2006.
In Spring 2006, an energy
audit was to be completed in all off-campus housing buildings. This project was funded by the
Residential Technical Assistance Program (ResTech) of the New York State Energy
Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The audit focused on heating, air conditioning, ventilation,
appliances, insulation, and health and safety concerns.
Facilities manages a
university-wide energy and utility accounting system that includes information
on electric, natural gas, steam, and chilled water use in both academic and
residential buildings. Plans are underway
to incorporate water and fuel oil data into the system.
Most academic spaces have
lighting controls involving timers that turn off lights overnight. Facilities has committed to
incorporating modern occupancy sensors in new construction projects.
Over 60% of the windows
in off-campus housing have been retrofitted with energy efficient windows.
Most motorized cleaning
equipment used by Facilities staff is Energy Star rated.
Energy conservation
programs at Columbia are funded by ConEdison and the New York State Energy
Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Since 2001, Columbia has received about 1 million dollars in
funding from NYSERDA.
Water
The bathrooms on the
second, third, and fourth floors of the residential building Wallach Hall are
equipped with water-saving dual flush toilets. These toilets save water by giving users the option to
choose a light flush, which utilizes about half a gallon less water than a full
flush. Users may press the flush
lever upwards to produce a light flush for liquid waste, or press the lever
downwards to produce a full flush for solid waste. These toilets were installed in the Spring 2006 semester as
a pilot program to test student reception and viability.
The underground water
loop that supplies the Columbia campusÕs water has been converted to variable
speed pumping, which saves energy and operations costs. In 2005, this conversion saved $40,000.
Since 1996, Facilities
has installed low-flow showerheads in faculty and graduate housing. Facilities has also upgraded and
replaced toilets and urinals with water efficient models as possible.
Custodial
and Grounds Environmental Impacts
Facilities purchases
Green Seal certified cleaning products.
Green Seal is a nonprofit agency that provides science-based
environmental certification standards for household cleaners and other products
and that advises institutional environmental stewardship in the governmental,
lodging, architectural building, and university sectors. The Green Seal certification standards
are endorsed by many governmental agencies including the Department of Energy,
the National Park Service, and the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, mixing and dilution of
cleaning products is centrally controlled; the Custodial division of Facilities
uses more than 50 wall-mounted units that make dilution factors uniform and
prevent the use of excess chemicals.
In October 2006, Columbia
implemented a more environmentally sustainable pest control policy. The policy encourages pest control
vendors to assist in basic building maintenance that will prevent pests from
entering buildings, with an expected reduction in the use of chemical baits and
traps. The lengthy three-year
contract the vendors are signed to further encourages them to invest in long
term, non-chemical pest management initiatives such as building maintenance
because the vendors will bear responsibility for the success of pest management
over a long period of time. In
addition, vendors are required to gain approval from the Environmental Health
& Safety Department for all products used, and only EPA-approved products
are permitted.
Dining
Website: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/dining/
Staff size: 11 Central
Office administrators and managers (Dining Central Office handles Dining
administration, information systems, accounting, human resources, and
marketing); 10 retail and board plan managers
Functions: Columbia
Dining manages the following dining establishments: the Blue Java coffee bars
in Butler Library, Dodge Hall, Journalism, and the John Jay Hall Lobby; CafŽ
212, Ferris Booth Commons, CafŽ East, and Tasti-D-Lite in Alfred Lerner Hall;
Carleton Lounge in the Mudd Building; Hartley Kosher Deli in Hartley Hall; John
Jay Dining Hall and JJÕs Place in John Jay Hall; Lenfest CafŽ in the Jerome
Green Hall; Uris Deli in Uris Hall; and Wein Food Court in Wein Hall
Trash
and Recycling
Columbia Dining recycles
commingled materials and cardboard.
Dining recycles more than 1,000,000 bottles and cans a year and over 150,000
cardboard boxes a year. In
addition, cooking oil is picked up biweekly by J + R Rendering and
re-used. Dining recycles
approximately 4,000 gallons of oil a year.
The environmental firm
Green Forest, Inc. advises Dining on ways to create a more efficient waste
management and recycling program.
In conjunction with the
Columbia Food Sustainability Program, a student group, Dining has developed a
Waste Prevention Program. The
ProgramÕs goal is to encourage students to waste less food, beverages, and paper
products in John Jay Dining Hall, which is an all-you-can-eat facility
typically generating significant quantities of needless waste. The Waste Prevention Program completes
regular waste audits, presents the results to the student body, and creates dining
hall displays to generate public awareness of waste issues. Particularly, the Program attempts to
spread awareness of DiningÕs association with City Harvest, in the hopes that
students will realize that if they wasted less food, more might be donated to
those in need in New York City. In
the 2005-2006 school year, the Waste Prevention Program waste audits indicated
a 22% reduction in food waste and a 19% reduction in paper waste in the John
Jay Dining Hall.
John Jay Dining Hall
donates all un-served food to City Harvest, a non-profit that transports food
from institutions like Columbia to soup kitchens, shelters, and other
non-profits that serve the hungry.
City Harvest drops off disposable aluminum trays to John Jay Dining Hall
on Thursdays. It takes about one
hour for one Dining worker to fill the trays with un-served food; usually about
300 pounds of starches, vegetables, and some meat are donated. City Harvest picks up the trays the
next day. Columbia has been
working with City Harvest since 1996; since 2000 they have upgraded to weekly
pick-ups.
Packaging
Dining uses napkins made
from 100% recycled materials; about 6,600,000 napkins are used a year.
All in-house prepared
foods and packaged beverages (i.e., salad, cut fruit, yogurt parfaits, juice
and iced coffee, etc.) are made with NatureWorks PLA, a 100% corn derived
material. NatureWorks PLA offers
the benefits of being biodegradable as well as of being made from a
non-petroleum and entirely renewable resource. Dining is investigating vendors for biodegradable take-out
bags.
Energy
Dining is committed to
installing Energy Star appliances whenever old equipment needs to be replaced.
Dining regularly cleans
filters and uses Humitech moisture reducers in their coolers to save energy.
Food
Offerings and Indirect Environmental Effects
Since the 2004-2005
school year, Dining has been integrating locally grown and raised foods into
their offerings, seeking out local food vendors and basing their menu planning
on the seasonal availability of local produce and meat whenever possible. Through collaboration with the Columbia
Food Sustainability Project, a student group, John Jay Dining Hall offers the
following local foods: apples and apple cider from Red Jacket Orchards of
Geneva, New York; local fruit and vegetables such as pears, potatoes, and
tomatoes from J. Kings, a Long island produce supply company that distributes
goods from 25 Long Island-located farms; and milk from the local distributor
Beyer Farms.
Columbia Dining requires
coffee vendors (currently Starbucks and Blue Java) to offer at least one Fair
Trade option. Since 2000, all
dining locations where coffee is served offer Fair Trade brews.
Keeper Springs bottled
water is sold at all retail dining locations. Keeper Springs, the company, donates all profits after taxes
to the WaterKeeper Alliance, an international network of environmental groups
that protects waterways.
Dining supports the
student-formed campus organic food co-op, CORE Foods (previously LOAF). A section of JJÕs Place is open for
CORE Foods especial use, and Dining has helped CORE foods work with vendors,
purchasing, cash handling, and register tracking.
Environmental
Commitment Statement
Columbia Dining has
adopted StanfordÕs Green Business Pledge:
ÒWe believe a successful
business is dependent on a healthy environment. We are actively working to show
our environmental responsibility to our community by committing to the
following objectives: to comply with all applicable regulations and to strive
to exceed compliance; to conserve energy, water, materials, and other
resources; to develop and implement practices that prevent pollution and waste;
to be an environmentally responsible business within our community.Ó
Publicity
Dining spreads awareness
of their environmental actions through their website. The website lists DiningÕs environmental events, such as the
local foods Harvest Dinner, in the Coming Events section on the homepage. The Dining website also includes an Our
Green Initiatives/Environmental Stewardship page that describes each of the
departmentÕs programs in detail.
Links to the Our Green Initiatives page are prominently displayed on the
homepage and the About Us page of the site.
Dining attempts to
clearly label environmentally friendly ingredients and products, to establish
environmental awareness through in-house posters and signs, and to showcase
their environmental stewardship to students in the dining areas. For example: local foods and dishes
made with local ingredients are clearly labeled in John Jay Dining Hall; Fair
Trade coffee offerings are clearly labeled at DiningÕs several coffee
bars; John Jay contains signs
encouraging students to waste less; and John Jay plans to showcase a dish made
with local ingredients every week in the 2006-2007 school year.
Purchasing
Purchasing supplies 30%
and 100% recycled paper. Before
2006, only virgin paper was purchased for Columbia University use. Now, Print Services uses 30% recycled
paper for all its over-the-counter services and self-service copiers. In addition, Columbia University
offices may request 30% recycled paper with no increase in price; they may also
request 100% recycled paper but are required to pay a higher price. The student group Students for
Environmental and Economic Justice (SEEJ) was influential in encouraging these
changes. PurchasingÕs decision to
purchase recycled paper stock has been preceeded by extensive testing of the
viability of the stock, first by SEEJ and Print Services in 2005 and later by a
University strategic sourcing committee.
This committee contained representatives from those departments that buy
paper through the Purchasing Office.
Columbia University
Purchasing has a commitment to procuring Energy Star appliances in off-campus
apartments and the Medical Center labs as appliances are replaced. A cost analysis will be completed in
2007 to decide whether this policy will be extended to the main Morningside
campus.
Housing
University Housing has
made a commitment to remaining in compliance with state recycling and hazardous
waste laws, to retrofitting outdated appliances wherever possible, to making
positive environmental changes with every renovation, and to supporting vendors
with sustainable practices.
Trash
and Recycling
Housing has hired the New
York-based environmental consulting firm Green Forest, Inc. to monitor their
recycling program and to offer suggestions for improvement. Green Forest and the company Northeast
Lamp Recycling advise UHD on compliance with New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation and EPA regulations for hazardous waste disposal.
The Eco-Reps program has
been formed in order to encourage every-day environmental stewardship among
Columbia students. Fall 2006 is
the inaugural semester of the program.
The collaborative Group for Environmental Opportunities (GEO), which
contains both students and administrators from Housing and Dining, is
responsible for the Eco-Reps program.
Eco-Reps promote waste reduction and recycling, saving energy, and other
practical environmental concerns in the residential halls through information
campaigns, flyering, monitoring recycling, and reporting dorm environmental
issues to appropriate departments.
The program is based on the framework of the Residential Advisor program
and compensates Eco-Reps for their work.
Another GEO initiative,
the Give + Go Green program, organized student move-out donation centers on May
9-11, 2006 and allowed the local charities City Harvest, Salvation Army, and
Per Scholas to pick-up studentsÕ goods.
UHD estimates that they collected 300 pounds of food and 150 bags of
clothing and small appliances. In
Spring 2005, a similar initiative called Dump and Run was organized through the
collaborative efforts of University Housing and Dining and the Columbia/Barnard
Earth-Coalition.
Energy
Lighting Units
UHD has installed
automatic light timers in half of McBain residence hall and will complete
installation during Summer 2006.
In Spring 2007, UHD will install light timers in East Campus.
The Lightbulb Exchange
program of Spring 2006 distributed 600 free compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs to
students in Watt and Woodbridge residence halls. At least in part, the
Lightbulb Exchange program was a response to a resolution for improving the
lighting in residence halls brought to UHD in 2003 by the University Housing
Council and the Columbia College Student Council. The Group for Environmental Opportunities (GEO) was mainly
responsible for the program; this collaborative group contains both students
and University Housing and Dining (UHD) administrators. GEO estimates that for every compact
fluorescent bulb there was an initial investment of $5 and will be an ultimate
energy-cost savings of $100, with the entire project preventing 446,000 pounds
of CO2 from being released into the environment. GEO plans to continue the program next
year.
Lighting retrofits have
been completed in Shapiro and Hogan residence halls.
Residential Appliances
University Housing and
Dining (UHD) has a commitment to systematically auditing their equipment to
replace inefficient, older equipment with new Energy Star-efficient appliances
wherever possible. As of Fall
2006, the following residential halls have been retrofitted with Energy Star
refrigerators: East Campus, River, Woodbridge, Hogan, and parts of Ruggles.
Energy Star dishwashers have been installed in East Campus, Ruggles, River, and
Hogan.
All on-campus laundry
facilities have been retrofitted with Maytag Front Load Washers. These units
save 20 gallons per cycle as compared to the washers previously used at
Columbia and have a larger loading capacity. In 2004, Columbia saved 3,190,600
gallons of water using the Maytag Washers. UHD is also currently working with their vendor to find an
appropriate environmentally friendly detergent.
UHD completes regular
preventative maintenance on existing appliances to ensure that they run at
maximum efficiency.
Environmentally
Significant Purchasing
UHDÕs furniture vendor,
Adden Furniture, is committed to creating products which endure for up to 50
years, are made from North American hardwood, and are free of all rainforest
materials. Because 94 percent of
North American hardwood is privately-owned, managed, and continually
replenished, it is thought to be a comparatively sustainable wood choice.
A note on sources:
The following information
was taken from the Columbia University Environmental Stewardship Task Force
website and CU departmental websites and is accurate up to 2006.
Consult http://www.environment.columbia.edu
for up-to-date details.