With greenhouse gases and global warming peeking over the horizon, Cal Poly’s environmental sustainability groups push for changes in the way students and others engage environmentally.
The Center for Sustainability in Engineering (CSinE), “whose business is the innovation of and management of technology to provide new and creative solutions in the global community’s quest for sustainable solutions,” according to their website, aims to get Cal Poly engineers involved in environmental sustainability.
Linda Vanasupa, co-director of CSinE, also said sustainability is a goal of CSinE.
“Myself and other colleagues continue to pursue the questions and issues in sustainability,” Vanasupa said. “For me, it is not limited to environmental sustainability, it includes the question of social equity, which is of course linked to environmental sustainability and economic sufficiency and well-being.”
Vanasupa said CSinE does this with the group Sino-Us Strategic Alliance for Innovation (SUSTAIN) which partners with Tongji University in Shanghai, China, Stanford University and the China-US Center for Sustainable Development to address increasing global threats to living systems, national calls for education reform and dwindling economic resources, according to their two websites.
SUSTAIN is currently working on an effort in San Luis Obispo, SUSTAIN-SLO, to get a diverse array of Cal Poly majors working toward a new way of teaching environmental sustainability with new courses and projects, such as an effort to make a sustainable food system. SUSTAIN-SLO is set to start next quarter.
Another campus group aiming for environmental sustainability is the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences’ (CAFES) Center for Sustainability, which was recently recognized in February 2010.
Hunter Francis, the director for CAFES Center for Sustainability, said the college is currently working on changing curriculum to gear it more toward sustainability, managing the operations of Cal Poly’s vast amount of land and educating students and the community on ecosystem services such as composting. Francis said students who want to be more environmentally conscious should “educate themselves on the impact of their decisions … whether it’s food or transportation.”
“Food is a great place to start,” Francis said. “We all eat every day. Learning where your food comes from (is important).”
The work with these groups put in to make Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo more sustainable is paying off as Cal Poly received a “B+” on GreenReportCard.org, a website that rates the environmental activities of colleges throughout the US and Canada. This is the highest score among all of the California State Universities.
They received “B’s” in the categories food and recycling, green building and endowment transparency and a “C” in investment priorities. Yet, Poly received an “A” in the other categories (administration, climate change and energy, student involvement and transportation), except for shareholder engagement, of which Cal Poly was not applicable.
Francis said he felt Cal Poly has been using better building practices than before. Poly Canyon Village, when first constructed, received a LEED Gold certification for “meeting required standards in sustainable building according to the U.S. Green Building Council … by (earning) 42 of the required 39 to 51 points to earn designation,” according to a press release.
Even so, Francis said there is still work to be done.
“On the food realm, I think we can do a better job of choosing organic foods so students have a choice,” Francis said.
Though Cal Poly received an “A” in student involvement, Wynn Calder, the director of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future (USLF), said students can change many of their habits to become more environmentally responsible.
“In my experience, students, faculty and staff can all do quite a lot every day to conserve energy and water,” Calder said. “It is important to stress that the big challenge we face is getting people to change their behavior. Awareness, and even intention, are often not enough.”
Calder said students should start to reduce use of disposable materials, recycle as much as possible, drive less by carpooling and taking public transportation and turn off lights, computers, printers and other electronic devices when rooms are unoccupied overnight and on weekends.
Calder also said to save energy, mini-fridges and space heaters should be avoided, as well as non-energy efficient electronics, and students should make an effort to take shorter showers at lower heat levels.
Francis said he also encourages students to get involved in student groups, such as the Real Food Collaborative, which aims to “unite to bring more ‘real’ food into our campus dining system — local, organic and fair trade food — and to form a student-run food cooperative on campus” according to the group’s Facebook page.
Francis said a student CAFES group is also in the works. In addition to several environmental sustainability events coming up.
Events include a Cal Poly-Eco Farm Mixer at Asilomar on Jan. 28, a campus and community gathering on Feb. 4 and the 9th Annual Change the Status Quo Conference on Feb. 25 and Feb. 26, as well as many more throughout the rest of the year, Francis said.
Overall, though Cal Poly still has some work to do, Francis said he was optimistic.
“I think we’re going in the right direction,” Francis said.