Will Purple Really Go Green?

My column this week gives an overview of efforts to make Northwestern more green. Going into this, I was expecting to find a profile of environmental failure. My long list of grievances included a belief that dorms threw away recyclables, that off-campus students had no recycling and that tons of food waste was not being reused. It turns out there are a number of positive efforts towards greening NU. Because I couldn’t include everything in a 500 word column, I would like to embellish on the good, clear up some myths about the bad and examine the things that are still ugly. It would be wise to read the column first.

The (Nearly) Good:

There are positive changes around campus, but most of them are not meeting their potential. For instance, there are “how to conserve water” stickers above various public sinks, but not all of them. Food waste is not composted from dining halls, but Campus Kitchens picks some leftovers and distributes them to the homeless. Waste vegetable oil is not yet fueling our shuttles, but it is purchased through Mahoney, a company that reuses the oil as animal feed.

Juliee Calihane, head of recycling at NU Facilities Management, has seen it all before. She has been working on improving recycling for over ten years and believes the ball is finally rolling not because of a change in administration, but because of a change in culture. “Attention to sustainability ebbs and flows, but these days, you can’t go a day without hearing about global warming,” she said. “We still need a lot of cultural change here before we become a progressive environmental institution.”

Whatever the reasons for the excitement, Jesse Sleamaker, cochair of SEED, is grateful that the administration has been more receptive. “The passions of the people in the administrations lie with the students. When students are proactive, it takes on a great deal of weight,” he said. Though he is thrilled NU is finally doing something about outdoor recycling, he said, “If Julie [Cahillane] hadn’t been working on it for ten years, I doubt we would have been able to push it through.”

Students in ESW are excited to finish up the shuttle project soon. Project Leads Tom Ledolter and Aaron Greco were part of the team that created the oil filtration system, engineered the duel-fuel engine and continue to work out the kinks. “We’re very optimistic the shuttle project could be done soon,” Ledolter said. ESW was also working on a sustainable shuttle stop to go between Norris and the library. Imagine a solar-fueled, heated shelter made from recycled material to keep you warm while you wait for the shuttle on a winter night. It sounds lovely, but the university has prevented it because they don’t find it aesthetically pleasing. Someone please compare Norris University Center to a picture of this shelter (http://msgroups.mccormick.northwestern.edu/esw/localshuttlestop.htm) and decide which is more “aesthetically pleasing.”

Finally, ECO deserves more credit for their grassroots efforts. Co-chair Benjamin Singer was part of the creation of NU’s newest green group and has worked hard to green Hillel and NU as a whole. ECO has an internal division in charge of making green improvements within Hillel. You might know them for their external division which placed recycling bins for batteries and ink cartridges in Norris. “We recognize there is a lack of resources for students to dispose of these items,” Singer said, “but it would be hypocritical to encourage sustainability and then not give people a way to follow through.” Singer is excited about his group’s impact, but would love to see NU take more of a lead. “They are supposed to set a forward-thinking example, but I’m frustrated at the perceived lack of effort,” Singer said.

The (Not-So) Bad:

For years, the buzz around the dorms has been that the big blue bins end up right back in the trash dumpsters. That is not entirely true. The recyclables in the dorms are actually put in proper bins and recycled, according the Julie Cahillane, the head of recycling through NU Facilities Management. “We work with the custodial staffs in all dorms to make sure we recycle as much as possible,” she said. That should put some minds at ease.

The Ugly:

In a 2004 statement by President Henry Bienen, he said, “Sustainability is an important global issue and [Northwestern University Administrators] are committed to taking appropriate steps to minimize Northwestern’s impact on the environment.” Then in 2007, the students voted that “sustainability” was their second highest priority. Simultaneously, NU purchased enough Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to provide 40,000 megawatt hours annually for the next four years.

This is an important step towards sustainability, but it doesn’t prove that NU is committed. That would happen if the university began to address tangible, far-reaching projects that are being left to student catalysts. Unfortunately, each of these student groups indicated some degree of fighting the university to get their initiatives pushed through. Simple things like improving outdoor recycling units took a small group of people several years of grappling with bureaucracy before the changes finally got approved. But even with this improvement, there will still be over 2,600 off-campus students with little or no place to recycle. RECs certainly make a positive impact, but it’s time the university begin promoting tangible, practical improvements as well.

There’s no reason we shouldn’t create a Department of Sustainability. Everything could be centralized here, so student efforts would be less fragmented. We could move beyond the obvious and even start funding some serious forward-thinking changes. Tom Ledolter would love to see a community garden plot for growing vegetables for the dining halls, coupled with a composting project for food waste. Julie Cahillane would like abundant and user-friendly recycling across campus. Ben Singer would like to see NU capture its obvious surplus of wind in a windfarm on the Lakefill, an addition that would generate reusable energy while beautifying campus. They all want to see a decrease in student apathy.

It will be a while before we’re fertilizing the Shakespeare garden with the leftovers from Sergeant Dining Hall, but I think change is on the horizon. It looks like purple is nearly ready to go green.