From wind farms to solar panels, sustainability efforts are popping up everywhere, and the U Office of Sustainability is interested in what students have seen.
On Wednesday, the office is hosting a forum in the Union that will be open to the public, where the U’s plans for sustainability will be outlined and recommendations from students and faculty will be discussed. The forum is meant for students, faculty and staff to shape U President Michael Young’s climate action plan. In April 2008, Young signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, requiring his administration to present the U’s definitive Climate Action Plan for becoming more sustainable by May 2010.
“We’re hoping for a lot of people, but it’s more important that we get some energy and some useful feedback,” said Myron Willson, director of the Office of Sustainability.
Willson said his office hopes to supplement research done on green initiatives on other college campuses such as Harvard, University of Washington, Arizona State University and Cornell University.
“We’re really trying to stay open to the ideas that people have that are specific to the University of Utah campus,” Willson said, noting that some measures in place on other campuses might not translate to the U.
One public suggestion already under the office’s consideration is a new sustainability certificate that would award students for contributing to campus efficiency in a substantial way.
“(The ideas) could be all over the map,” Willson said. There will be another forum Nov. 10 to capture more of the public’s ideas, he said.
The sustainability office has already identified a range of categories of emphasis, including transportation, building efficiency and renewable energy, and plans to use the information sessions as part of a broader look at specific sustainable technologies, methods and practices.
Willson said the success of similar forums at other colleges depended largely on the aggressiveness of the promotional campaign for the event and the energy and enthusiasm for sustainability measures among students and faculty.
“We’re going to use it as a long-term benchmark in terms of how we can improve the process,” he said.
