Ryan ChartrandJorge Montezuma, a Cal Poly undergraduate, doesn’t live his life like the average college student, in their own world of text messaging, iPod listening and sporting the latest “Go Green” T-shirt that only gives off the image of being “environmentally aware.”
He enjoys the simplicity of riding his bike everywhere not only because it’s fun for him, but also because he thinks it’s better for the environment.
Montezuma works for the organic farming enterprise project class and says that tasks such as recycling, taking a phone charger out of the wall if it’s not being used and buying locally-grown organic foods are just part of his everyday life.
Montezuma, a sincere and gentle-spoken environmental engineering senior, has said he long ago made the personal choice to help the planet as best he can. “I just try to talk to people to make them realize that there’s more than just wanting to buy things, you have to be a conscientious consumer because individual decisions matter a lot when it comes to the environment,” he said.
Sustainable development meets the needs of the present population without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
At Cal Poly, sustainability has begun to permeate all aspects of the campus whether it is taught in the curriculum, embedded in research done by faculty and students or in the actual structures on campus.
Four years ago, Cal Poly President Warren Baker signed The Talloires Declaration, which states that the university must lessen the problems of environmental pollution and degradation and the depletion of natural resources.
“(Cal Poly) recognizes that sustainability is one of a handful of defining issues in the 21st century and that universities have a particular responsibility to give high priority and visibility to the issue of sustainability,” Baker said to the CSU Board of Trustees in September.
So far the campus has saved 58 grown trees, 2,769 pounds of landfill, 4,679 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, 12,657 gallons of water and 26 million BTUs of energy, according to the Second Biennial Progress Report for Cal Poly facilities and operations.
Though the interest and awareness of sustainability has deepened over the years, it is an ongoing project for the Cal Poly community, and supporters say the campus has only scratched the surface when it comes to environmental issues.
Recently, Cal Poly’s student involvement in sustainability was graded as a “C” from Greenreportcard.org, with the campus getting an overall evaluation of a “B-.” The site only mentioned two instances of student involvement on Cal Poly’s campus: the California Alliance to Save Energy’s Green Campus Program, and 12 student groups that have joined forces to create the Empower Poly Coalition. Greedreportcard.org failed to mention that the coalition is a much larger umbrella organization that unites over 22 clubs together in their efforts to promote sustainability among Cal Poly.
In response to the meager grade, Montezuma said, “I think there’s a lot more going on (on campus). I went on the Web site and checked out UCLA; we have some of the same clubs and they got an ‘A-.'”
Ben Eckold, the president of the Empower Poly Coalition, also disagreed with the grade because “the administration got a better grade than the students,” he said.
Campus dining received an “A” from the Web site, largely due to the efforts of Associate Campus Dining Director Alan Cushman, who has been involved with sustainability since the 1980s when composting first began on campus.
“The university was slow to join in,” Cushman said when talking about attempts to make the campus more sustainable.
Currently he is partnering with the Bio-diesel Club to convert all the Campus Dining trucks to run on bio-diesel fuel. Since the trucks that currently run on cooking oil have to purchase it from another vendor, the main objective of the club is to eliminate the middle-man and build a processor to convert the campus dining cooking oil into bio-diesel right on campus.
In addition to the Bio-diesel Club, there’s also the Zero Waste club, the Fair Trade club, Engineers without Borders, the Cal Poly Organic Farm and many more in the coalition.
“There’s a greater voice in the student body because of them (the Empower Poly Coalition),” Cushman said.
Montezuma is the external vice president of the Empower Poly Coalition, as well as the President of the Sierra Student Coalition, the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization.
He was born in Lima, Peru, which he described as, “over-congested and over-populated.” His father, a mechanical engineer, had a tourism company which sent the family to a variety of places such as San Jose and Costa Rica. Eventually Montezuma and his family ended up back in Peru where his mother worked for the environmental department in the city. While visiting his mother at work, Montezuma realised that he loved science and math and decided to choose that career path as well, meaning he had already decided his future before moved to the United States.
Montezuma said he no longer tries to separate his involvement in sustainable organizations and his academic endeavors from his personal life.
“Some people try to put work here, school here, and life over here,” he explained while sitting on the grass barefoot, his bike next to him. “But back in the day, you lived to work, and the concept of fun was built into work.” Montezuma said. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing to mix everything, you just have to find a balance.”
Interest in sustainability has expanded on campus since the last SARC (Sustainable Agriculture Resource Consortium) meeting and enrollment in the organic farming class has increased.
Tom Neuhaus, professor of food science and nutrition and advisor to The Fair Trade club, believes more people are aware of environmental issues on campus. But making measurable progress toward a more sustainable university is a constant battle he said.
“This campus has a reputation of being very passive (concerning sustainability) and it’s time for that to change,” he said.
Brigette Bonfiglio, a Fair Trade Club representative and nutrition senior, thinks each and every person can help to encourage positive change on campus.
“I joined the club my last year at Cal Poly because I felt like it was time for me to be active on campus and try to make a difference,” she said.
Bud Evans, a political science professor that teaches an array of courses centered on the concept of sustainability, agrees with Montezuma that there needs to be more advocacy on campus.
“What I’ve observed with Poly is that it talks right, but it doesn’t really come through and deliver except when it is really forced to,” he said.
Howard-Greene explained the campus’s priorities on the subject of sustainable development.
He said that it is important to the administration to maintain the campus in a sustainable way “not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it creates teaching and research opportunities by doing that.”
Yet the number one priority for the administration is educating and exposing students to sustainable development within the educational programs on campus. The creation of majors, minors and other classes relating to sustainability has already begun, Howard-Green said.
“We’re working across the curriculum in ways in which we can engage in sustainability,” he said. “In the administration’s sense, the biggest impact that Cal Poly will have on sustainability, both in the near-term and long-term, is in the kind of students that we graduate.”
Examples of sustainable practices on campus include a recent energy audit of the campus, constructing buildings to be LEED certified, recycling and reducing the consumption of energy on campus.
The new Poly Canyon Village is contracted to be LEED certified, and the Faculty Offices East (Building 25) has been chosen as the first demonstration building to be submitted for certification in the spring of 2008.
In the end, faculty, students and the administration seem to agree this campus is making progress to become even more sustainable, and that the students’ efforts are in fact making a difference.
“We’ve had a tremendous amount of growth in grassroots activity on campus,” Howard-Greene said.
After finishing Cal Poly and getting work experience in his field, Montezuma would like to return to South America to help a community work on sustainable development.
“I want to connect many organizations that are doing the same thing with sustainable development in developing countries, and have them share experiences,” he said. “Involvement has become a part of my life now; it’s not bad, it’s just my life.”