Best behavior

University of UtahAt the University of Utah, director of sustainability Craig Forster explains his ideas for raising awareness to Gary Toushek. "In terms of sustainability, weÔÇÖre ahead in some ways, and weÔÇÖre behind other folks in other ways. The spectrum is very large.ÔÇØ Craig Forster, director of sustainability at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, is discussing how to involve students, faculty, the administration and the outside┬ácommunity in a meaningful discussion of important environmental and conservation issues. ItÔÇÖs not an easy task. HeÔÇÖs been thinking about this for a long time, at least a decade, and in 2007 he agreed to take part in a pilot project that would create an Office of Sustainability at the university (originally established in 1850 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leader Brigham Young). Most of the 20,000-plus undergraduate and 6,600-plus graduate students live off campus and commute. Forster believes that sustainabilityÔÇöoneÔÇÖs attitude towards the environment, energy conservation, waste reduction, recycling, and so onÔÇöshould be a fundamental element of education, entrenched and integrated into culture, oneÔÇÖs social fiber, as a part of daily life. For him personally, after earning a PhD in geology, it was a matter of feeling part of the academia at the University of Utah, philosophically at least, and still being connected to the student ethos. ÔÇ£ThereÔÇÖs been a student group on campus for a number of years that has undergone its own evolution,ÔÇØ says Forster. ÔÇ£Today itÔÇÖs called SEED (Sustainable Environments and Ecological Design).ÔÇØ Those studentsÔÇöin particular two student leadersÔÇöbegan by asking permission to have an organic vegetable garden adjacent to a certain campus building, and after a long wait they were refused. They thought that the answer was unreasonable and decided that a full-time sustainability officer was needed on staff. ÔÇ£They began a sustainable campus initiative, went through various steps that attracted some attention, and got me involved. I created a task force, and we wrote a proposal in 2007 that was able to capitalize on the energy and interest in some administrative and faculty members. An Office of Sustainability was created with a bare-bones budget for our pilot year, and so far weÔÇÖve been successful. The office has been made permanent, with a larger budget.ÔÇØ Apart from Forster and sustainability coordinator Jen Colby, the office consists of fellows, interns and volunteers. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre well sized in terms of our evolution,ÔÇØ he says. Asked about his goals, he says the short message is to change the behavior of everybody on campus. And he proceeds to describe the connection between education and operations. The operations side, Forster says, mostly revolves around environmental stewardship. ÔÇ£How we lighten our impact on the planet through energy, water, efficiency, recycling, and waste reduction, whether in the home, the city, or the campus, is all part of the package. What weÔÇÖre trying to get started in operations is connecting with things that have a social responsibility elementÔÇöthe people who work and study here, their health, safety and welfare. Some universities are considering fair wages for people who work on their campuses. Here weÔÇÖre thinking about how people in staff positions get professional development opportunities that would help play a more valuable role in various programs.ÔÇØ On the education side, Forster is trying to improve the connection between what students are learning in classes, what operations are happening, and what constitutes a good learning laboratory. ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs an opportunity to experiment with some technologies and strategies. Often, operations are held behind a curtain to protect the Disneyland that students see. We happen to have the right array of personalities on the operations side to be able to facilitate that. So we have classes with people who are engaged in thinking about how a campus becomes water neutral, and what engineers need to do to design the various features of that. Could we have a living machine wastewater treatment system here? Why not? Vermont does.ÔÇØ He acknowledges the support of university president Michael Young, who has recently signed a climate commitment, with the long-term goal of becoming climate neutral. The school offers sustainability courses, as well as environmental degree programs with a connection to sustainability, and Forster is thinking about how to infuse sustainability into the knowledge base of all graduates. ÔÇ£We were a bit worried that if we created a Department of Sustainability, people would say, ÔÇÿWell, that takes care of the issue,ÔÇÖ rather than making sustainability a pervasive component of every class in every course. WeÔÇÖre working on it from that direction. WhatÔÇÖs interesting is that the universityÔÇÖs administration wants to track what students want to see happen in this regard. And without that, it wouldnÔÇÖt matter what faculty or staff said, it wouldnÔÇÖt have connected. So weÔÇÖre seeing the start of a sustainable culture in which to participate, and itÔÇÖs viewed as a positive thing here.ÔÇØThe university constructed the first state-funded, LEED-certified building in Utah, and another building will have some enhancements to hopefully qualify for LEED Silver; yet another will be retrofitted, possibly to LEED Gold. ÔÇ£One of this officeÔÇÖs tasks is to figure out how to frame a policy and move it forward. But I think that the LEED energy efficiency goals are insufficient. My bottom line is that we need net zero energy buildings, especially in new construction. Carbon neutral buildings have been constructed in other places, so we should be able to show our own examples of how it works. ThatÔÇÖs what our role should be.ÔÇØ