The ROI of green

Bentley CollegeBentley College gets the green light for its sustainability efforts, Jenn Monroe reports. As a leader in business education, Bentley College seems a perfect place to calculate the costs and benefits of going green first-hand. The Waltham, Massachusetts, collegeÔÇÖs president, Gloria C. Larson, recently signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, pledging to eliminate the campusÔÇÖs greenhouse gas emissions over time, among other initiatives. As part of this pledge, all new construction must meet at least LEED Silver requirements.But Bentley College doesnÔÇÖt have any new construction planned at the moment. Enter Kerri Roche, assistant director of sustainability and energy. She heads up a 15-member Sustainability Task Force made up of faculty, staff members and students who are brainstorming areas that could become more green. Ultimately their work will help form both the collegeÔÇÖs climate neutrality and five-year sustainability plans. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre putting those ideas together and creating a wish list,ÔÇØ she says. Some of the task forceÔÇÖs initiatives include finding alternative fuels for college vehicles, using renewable energy on campus, and even deciding which toner is used in printers and copiers.Although sheÔÇÖs been in her position for only six months, Roche and the task force are already helping the institution make changes for the better. ÔÇ£Everyone wants to go green,ÔÇØ she says, ÔÇ£but, in some areas, we were starting from zero.ÔÇØ Thus far the task force has identified and targeted one existing building to become LEED certified within the next year. ÔÇ£We chose it because it was a newer residence hall,ÔÇØ she says. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre using it to see what this process entails. The LEED certification book is a little scary.ÔÇØRoche has also focused on recycling. ÔÇ£There was a big push for recycling three or four years ago, but then it was not so popular,ÔÇØ she says. ÔÇ£Now everyone is very conscious of green initiatives.ÔÇØIn the past, BentleyÔÇÖs recycling program consisted of co-mingled paper bins around campus and 50-gallon totes in the residence hall lobbies for bottle and cans. Under RocheÔÇÖs guidance the program has been enhanced. The college purchased a recycling truck and hired its own full-time recycling technician. All faculty and staff members have desk-side recycling bins, and soon all kitchen areas will have bins for bottles and cans. When the 4,000 undergraduate students return in the fall, they will find the former residence hall mailrooms transformed into recycling centers for paper, bottles, cans and batteries.Roche says students will be excited about the expansion of the recycling effort because the college can now participate in RecycleMania, a 10-week competition among college and university recycling programs in the US. Campuses compete in different contests to see which institution can collect the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or have the highest recycling rate. The Bentley effort will be coordinated by the Bentley Green Society and the Student Government Association, two student-groups that work together to raise awareness and plan programming for students. Students also can find out about the collegeÔÇÖs green plans at the developing sustainability page on the Bentley website. ÔÇ£It will talk about the task force and its mission, give information on how to recycle, link to the Bentley Green Society page and have information about projects the facilities department is working on,ÔÇØ Roche says. ┬áSome graduate students are already taking part in the collegeÔÇÖs sustainability plans. One summer course is looking at business and sustainability, and students have been assigned group projects, two of which are on campus. ÔÇ£One is looking at wind power, and the other is looking at how to green the athletic center,ÔÇØ Roche says. ÔÇ£It was great to see the professor come to me to look for projects on the Bentley campus. There may also be another project as part of class this fall. ÔÇ£Bentley is primarily a business school,ÔÇØ she continues. ÔÇ£When youÔÇÖre going green with business students, you need to say, ÔÇÿYes, while the startup costs may be high, you have to calculate the return on your investment.ÔÇÖ Our professors see a great teaching aspect to sustainability.ÔÇØ Reducing waste is another issue Roche is addressing. Poland Spring is the bottled water vendor for Bentley and is working with the college to transition from five-gallon water fountains to bottleless coolers. The first was installed in June, and eventually theyÔÇÖll be found around the campus, including inside the athletic center.Bentley College also served as a beta site for InforÔÇÖs green module to monitor efficiency in its HVAC equipment. With the module, the college can sub-meter its equipment and watch for spikes in electrical usage. Work orders for maintenance will be based upon these spikes, rather than on recommended time frames. Addressing maintenance issues quickly will help save energy and money. In another waste-reduction effort, Bentley College featured ÔÇ£tray-lessÔÇØ dining on Earth Day and saw a 50 percent reduction in waste. ÔÇ£If students donÔÇÖt use trays, it saves money and the energy to wash them, while producing less waste,ÔÇØ she says. Roche says she would like to adopt a permanent tray-less policy and will test it again during the collegeÔÇÖs Green Week in September.Almost no area on the Bentley College campus will go untouched. The facilities staff is upgrading all the lighting across campus, and there is an effort to switch to as many green cleaning supplies as possible. The food services department, which is managed by Sodexo, already uses 100 percent green supplies, and BentleyÔÇÖs facilities department is 70 percent there. ÔÇ£Because weÔÇÖre a college, by law there are some supplies we canÔÇÖt go green with,ÔÇØ she explains, ÔÇ£but we want to go green as much as possible.ÔÇØ