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Focus : Living & Working Green - Real Estate & Construction

Colleges and universities throughout the region are catching up with their students, inaugurating campuswide recycling programs, building green buildings according to stringent design standards and joining a growing list of colleges that have agreed to make institutional commitments to neutralize their greenhouse gas emissions.

In some ways this is all old news for the student population. “They’re pre-educated,” said Paul Steinmetz, director of university relations at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury. “They’ve been learning this all their lives.”

Two years ago, WestConn opened its new science building, the first building in Connecticut to be built to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver standards and the first of a growing list of campus buildings that have been and will be built according to the LEED standards – although the university won’t go through the expensive process of having the buildings LEED certified, as it did for the science building.

WestConn is also inaugurating a campuswide recycling program after designing a more efficient recycling program that reduced its garbage output by 35 percent so far this year. The university recycled 18,000 pounds of paper and cardboard and 1,200 pounds of beverage containers this semester and is just beginning a campus campaign to boost recycling numbers even more.

Role models

But the more visible green efforts of local colleges and universities are in bricks and mortar. Just last week, for example, Westchester Community College in Valhalla broke ground on a 70,000-square-foot Gateway Center, scheduled to open in three years. The environmentally friendly green building will include leading-edge technology and innovative use of lighting.

In addition, the college has signed an agreement to neutralize its greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate global warming research and educational efforts. The American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment “recognizes the responsibility of institutions of higher education to serve as role models for their communities and train those who will develop solutions to reverse global warming,” said Joseph N. Hankin, the college president.

As part of the agreement, the college will inventory its greenhouse gas emissions, develop a plan to achieve “climate neutrality,” and track progress on various goals and actions regarding regulating emissions, the college said in a media release.

“We are investigating ways to reduce emissions, not just on the campus, but at all of our extension centers,” said Patrick Hennessey, director of college and community relations. The college has five free-standing extension centers in the county. “We are putting our money where our mouth is,” he said.

Good stewards

And in lower Fairfield County, Fairfield University hopes to reduce the university’s carbon footprint by more than 10,000 metric tons a year, the result of a multimillion-dollar investment in a new natural gas burning combined heat and power (CHP) plant that will replace one of three older boilers.

The 4.5-megawatt CHP plant was designed to generate 90 percent of the university’s electrical load, and the waste heat from the unit will be captured for the heating and cooling system. U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman and U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays were on hand late last month to cut the ribbon for the $9.5 million project.

Also last month, the Student Environment Association launched a “Change a Light, Change the World” campaign to urge a switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, and the university’s environmental steering committee of faculty, staff and students created an Earth-friendly handbook and Web site for the campus and community.

In addition, the new campus center uses energy-efficient equipment and carpet tiles, flooring, structural steel and ceiling tiles are made of recycled materials. Throughout the campus, the university has installed water-conserving plumbing, including 1.6-gallon flush toilets; and 7,700 lighting fixtures were outfitted with energy-efficient lamps and electronic starters.

“As a Jesuit institution, we’re charged to be good stewards of the Earth,” said Rev. Jeffrey von Arx, president. “We take that mission seriously.”

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