Author: Marjorie Camarda
Two Oxy students want to turn grease from the Marketplace into clean burning biodiesel fuel. Three Occidental professors serve on Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s GREEN L.A. Commission. With plans for reusable energy and such prominent representation, one would think Occidental was leading the campaign towards smart, sustainable development. However, whether they are recycled or not, the College is still a few cans short of an environmental six-pack.
Self-identifying as a progressive institution dedicated to a healthy learning environment, Occidental sought to codify its aspirations of sustainable development in the Campus Master Plan. Developed in May 2006 by the Pasadena-based Architects and Urbanists firm Moule & Polyzoides, the Master Plan details green-friendly development standards for the College’s next 50 years. The report includes recommendations for creating a coherent campus design to increase pedestrian walkability and expanding informal campus green space. In the 42-page document, Occidental makes an institutional commitment to link environmental stewardship with every new project on campus, “providing a model of environmentally responsible management that recognizes Occidental as a leader in this area among its peer institutions.” The Master Plan puts chief responsibility for greening Occidental squarely on senior administrators and the President.
“I think Oxy has been a leader in the sense that it has done a far better job, in terms of its original development, in preserving a balance of open space and buildings,” President Susan Prager said. “In the modern era, in terms of green building, we aren’t [leaders] in part because we haven’t done much building on the campus aside from small, temporary-fix projects.”
Building a Sustainable Campus
Prager identified Occidental’s new residence hall, still under construction, as the College’s best current opportunity to implement environmentally friendly policy.
Prager said the College will have a building that considers” environmental efficiencies.” Originally billed as site-sensitive, protective of natural resources and energy efficient, the project plan incorporated many sustainability recommendations from the Master Plan. Although originally intended to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver qualifications, administrators later chose to forgo official certification. “After discussion, the Buildings and Grounds Committee of Board of Trustees determined that paying nearly $100,000 for that ‘piece of paper’ was not a wise use of resources,” Trustee Carl Botterud ’79 said in a recent Weekly Letter to the Editor.
Prager said she was not involved in decisions regarding the residence hall’s sustainability measures. “The decision was made due to cost, well before I arrived,” she said. “It is my understanding that a decision was made to qualify the building in the sense of these standard levels, but not to go through the process that gives that certification.”
Urban and Environmental Policy Professor Mark Vallianatos was not as quick to dismiss the value of a LEED certificate. “Getting outside certification gives you access to green building experts and creates a more transparent and structured system for ensuring that environmental design features planned for a building are effectively incorporated,” he said.
Occidental’s Environmental Stewards Program, which Vallianatos leads, has lobbied for greater sustainability requirements since the new residence hall project was proposed. “The Fall 2005 Environmental Stewards class, along with the Environmental Action Coalition and the Faculty Senate, advocated for formal certification but the leadership of the College then decided that it was not needed,” Vallianatos said. “Information on the status of environmental features in the new residence hall have not been available during construction so I’m still convinced that the College should have used the formal certification process for this building.”
While discussion surrounding environmental concerns in residence halls continues, Occidental’s Facilities Department is working to meet challenges posed by the Master Plan. Superintendent of Grounds John Castaneda said that he takes issues of sustainability seriously in planning the campus’ planting and groundcover. “Water is a scarce resource, and it is becoming a problem as our rainfall table is fluctuating,” he said. “We have been aware of our water situation and are trying to implement plants and flowers that are drought tolerant. We realize that we can have a better handle on deciding what kind of plants we use in order to not waste our most valuable resource.”
Researching A Green Future
Occidental students are also working independently to make goals for sustainability a reality. David Fong (first-year) and Richard Kerr (first-year) will conduct a Richter Undergraduate Research project with Physics Professor Adrian Hightower this summer to create biodiesel fuel from waste oil used in on-campus dining facilities. “I got started with this project through my CORE class, ‘Renewable Energy Strategies and Policies in West Africa’,” Fong said. “Richard and I decided we were going to make biodiesel in the Haines kitchen when we were bored. We got all the stuff we needed except for one ingredient, which we asked Professor Hightower for. He offered to let us use his lab and we got started.”
The pair has included a proposal in their project to convert Occidental’s existing fleet of diesel vehicles to the new, clean burning fuel at minimum cost to the College. Prager said that the Vice Presidents received the idea well and were enthusiastic about taking up a demonstration project, converting one vehicle to “see where it goes from there.”
Prager said she is also committed to improving Occidental’s reputation on environmental issues. Some have suggested that Prager sign the nationwide President’s Climate Commitment pledge to work towards eventual climate neutrality. 70 institutions nationwide have already joined the project. Prager says that she does not know enough about the program to sign it yet, but said she is “open to the possibility.” “Because of the changes in leadership in the past few years, the most promising topics the Stewards worked on were approved but never got off the ground,” Vallianatos said. “With a new President, we are optimistic about [the] implementation of environmental priorities.”
Future Projects and Plans
With no new projects in the planning stages, Prager said she is focusing on the College’s existing facilities to find new opportunities for campus greening. Renovation of residence halls and the expansion of air conditioning across campus are among the top projects.
“I think that we will face an interesting decision with Erdman Hall, identified by Facilities and Student Life staff as a top priority,” Prager said. “If you think about an energy efficient approach, a compromise may be to put in ceiling fans, certainly a cheaper solution in terms of operating cost.”
However, balancing sustainability standards while expanding systems like air conditioning remains an issue. “I think that the hardest thing about it is that global warming is here,” Prager said. “It is not just our own cost, it’s the broader societal costs, the greater world at risk.”
To achieve the campus energy efficiency standards set in the Master Plan, Moule & Polyzoides recommended demolishing some buildings, including Chilcott Residence Hall, from Occidental’s 1960-70s building boom.
“Many of these buildings were built very cheaply, some have greater durability than others,” Prager said. “I think that we will face some hard decisions down the road, if it is wiser to demolish and then build anew.”
The Master Plan also makes key provisions about protecting the campus’ original Myron Hunt design “that maximized buildings’ expressive power as individual objects and delivered a highly interwoven overall campus form.” Prager agreed that key buildi
ngs, like Johnson, Fowler and Thorne Hall are vital to the future of the College. “We would never think about [demolishing] one of the older buildings. Their exteriors are extremely durable and they contribute so much to the extraordinary harmony of this campus,” Prager said. “There are only a few glaring things that are out of that harmony. I think Herrick Chapel is the most egregious.”
Prager credits the Trustees for seeking durable building solutions in the new residence hall as a contribution to campus sustainability.
“I think that everyone today sees that building something that is not durable and energy efficient will be bad in the long term,” she said. “The Trustees, and certainly the Buildings and Grounds committee, are aware of the fact that [constructing] a building that people are going to think has outlived its useful life in 50 years is not a wise, long-term decision.”
Moving from Discussion to Application
In order to demonstrate student support for actions to reduce Occidental’s climate impact, the Environmental Stewards class introduced and passed a Climate Change and Renewable Energy Initiative Resolution in the ASOC General Assembly in November 2006. Focusing on the environmental responsibilities that accompany Oxy’s mission to demonstrate “leadership in an increasingly complex, interdependent and pluralistic world,” the proposal would require new or refurbished buildings to generate at least partial power from solar panels.
Describing the recent climate changes as a defining challenge of the current generation, the initiative requests a comprehensive audit of Occidental’s greenhouse gas emissions, covering vehicle fleets as well as campus-wide ventilation and power systems.
“We hope that a carbon audit can be carried out to establish baseline data on Oxy’s climate impacts,” Vallianatos said. “This will allow the College to set a reduction target and do accurate planning for reducing our impacts. The College should conduct a climate audit now, it’s a fairly quick and cost-free step since there are reputable metrics for calculating emissions.”
Students in the Environmental Stewards program have volunteered their labor to offset any costs incurred while determining carbon emissions. “For the audit to be accurate, most of this information would have to come from the facilities department,” Sonya Reese (junior) said. “Its not necessarily part of anyone’s job in that department to collect this data for us. The employees have their set responsibilities and the Environmental Stewards class understands that. This is one of the reasons we need the support of the administration,” Reese said.
Although it is absent among the emissions concerns listed in the Master Plan, the Environmental Stewards said reducing carbon output should be central in the College’s planning, especially considering global warming.
“The audit is an absolutely great way to push [Occidental] towards its sustainability standards in the campus master plan,” ASOC President Matt Kuzio (senior) said.
President Prager said she did not know enough about the carbon audit process to lend her support to the project. “I think that my answer would really depend on what the cost trade-offs look like in something like that,” she said.
The Master Plan also stipulates that the best way to assess the impact of sustainability practices on campus would be an annual audit of energy and water expenditures to monitor their volume. Prager said she would support examining Occidental’s water consumption. “Doing an analysis of water usage would be a study that would, I think, pay for itself very quickly.”
The Environmental Stewards’ General Assembly resolution also calls for a possible student referendum, seeking approval to raise student body fees by five dollars a semester. Proceeds would go to a Climate Change Action & Campus Greening Fund for environmental projects. Numerous colleges nationwide have already passed similar fee increases.
“There is no explicit protocol in the Constitution that says students cannot raise their own student body fees. I see no reason why a vote to raise fees for the specific program could not take place in the spring election,” Kuzio said.
However, Kuzio said, there are several issues to consider if such a student vote were to take place. “As a student body, we must consider the equity issues of imposing yet another cost to financing an education at Occidental College,” he said. “What type of precedent does it set to raise fees for a particular student issue? What issues qualify and do not qualify for such action? Does such action alleviate college officials from further action?”
If approved, Kuzio estimates that the increase in student body fees would raise approximately $9,000. “A vote of that type would recognize and give legitimacy to the power of student funds that could be used as leverage to demonstrate to the administration that this is a priority,” he said. “Off the top of my head, one possibility would be to ask for matching funds in a 3:1 ratio toward sustainability projects.”
Student opinion on the proposal remains unclear. “Five dollars doesn’t seem like that much since we are already paying Oxy tuition,” UEP major Abby Scott (junior) said. “Global Warming is a much larger issue, but I think that taking these kinds of steps in the right direction is very important.”
Editor-In-Chief Jake Stevens contributed to this report.
Factbox:
Schools with student-imposed fees for renewable energy and energy efficiency:
Evergreen State CollegeMiddle Tennessee State UniversityTennessee Technological UniversityUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignUniversity of Colorado at Denver Metro State University Community College of DenverUniversity of OregonNorthland CollegeAppalachian State UniversityUniversity of North Carolina-Chapel HilUniversity of the SouthWestern Washington UniversityConnecticut CollegeWarren Wilson CollegeUniversity of DenverHarvard University, Kennedy School of GovernmentUniversity of California, Santa CruzCentral Oregon Community CollegeUniversity of Wisconsin-Green BayMesa State CollegeUniversity of Colorado at BoulderUniversity of Utah
College Presidents who signed the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education President’s Climate Commitment:
Nancy S. Dye, President, Oberlin CollegeLaura Skandera Trombley, President, Pitzer CollegeDarroch F. Young, Chancellor, L.A. Community College DistrictAmy Gutmann, President, University of PennsylvaniaDon N. Zillman, President, University of Maine at Presque IslePaul J. Zingg, President, California State University-ChicoDaniel O. Bernstine, President, Portland State UniversityMichael Crow, President, Dickinson CollegeWilliam G. Durden, President, Dickinson CollegeDianne Harrison, President, California State University, Monterey BayJ. Michael Ortiz, President, California State Polytechnic UniversityJames Moeser, Chancellor, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillDavid Shi, President, Furman University
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