Sustainability on Campus 

by Hannah Rudolph

 

KINGSTON- Rhode Island

 

Having a sustainable University not only impacts the environment, but also affects tuition price. At the University Of Rhode Island efforts are being made to achieve sustainability, but if they stay business as usual costs of energy will increase thus raising tuition prices.

 

The university has made substantial progress in improving the campus sustainability over all, however there are still major changes that need to be made. According to Professor Still one of the major changes that needs to made is increasing the energy efficiency in existing buildings. The new buildings on campus such as CBLS pass LEED certification, but that still leaves the old buildings that cause a threat to sustainability initiatives. “The older buildings tend to have poor insolation, tend to have older windows, poor weather stripping around the windows and the doorways, and they usually have older and inefficient heating systems and cooling systems” said Still. All of these problems add up and reduce the over all energy efficiency in the buildings, and energy and money are being wasted.

 

Another issue that threatens sustainability is transportation. The university has a large amount of students and faculty that drive cars to campus and commute to campus. This is much less efficient than a group of students car pooling, or using transportation such as a bus to bring them to and from campus. When students and faculty all drive individually this effects green house gas production there for harming sustainability.

 

“One of the bigger things that we also need to do is just increase awareness” said Still. “I don’t think that there is many people who are thinking about sustainability on a daily basis” Still continued. 

 

Richard Ribb is the Special Projects Coordinator for the URI Sustainability Office. As a part of his job he seeks opportunities to develop, collaborate and secure funding for sustainability projects involving ecology, energy transportation, education and other aspects of sustainability according to Ribb’s “URI Green Thinker” page. 

 

Ribb believes that getting people involved at the campus level is one of the more challenging parts of his job. He says people are often busy doing other things, but they can engage in sustainable activities across whatever they do. Ribb said URI holds events such as “Earth Day” and “Clean Up” to get people thinking sustainably. “ We have a sustainability website that we update constantly that has a lot of information and resources” said Ribb. 

 

Ribb said that URI is integrating sustainable principles into the campus master plan such as campaigns that encourage students to take shorter showers, turn off their electronic appliances when not in use, and reduce food waste in the cafeteria.

 

“We have a whole faculty and staff that we need to get engaged in this, we have staff that uses vehicles, that uses electronic equipment, that uses cleaning supplies and we are trying to turn that towards more sustainable materials and products” said Ribb. 

 

Ribb stated that in 2007 URI created a contract with a company called NORESCO which is a energy performance firm. He said NORESCO came up with a plan to retrofit the older parts of campus that needed to become much more energy efficient. NORESCO conducted an energy audit to look at how URI used energy and where URI is losing energy. They then developed a plan to fix lighting fixtures, windows, heating and air conditioning systems and thermostats. “The improvements made have saved the university considerable money that is then being used to pay for the improvements through the contract” said Ribb.

 

Ribb said the next step, with the help of NORESCO, is developing a solar farm where the closed landfill URI used years ago is, right off of campus. Ribb said they are looking to introduce more solar thermal work to the university.

 

“ We can do an awful lot, but everyone has to pull their weight, jump in and get involved” Ribb concluded.