By Grace Tesoro
Contributing Writer
Susquehanna has earned a spot on the Sierra Club’s “Cool Schools” list, ranking among 270 universities across the U.S. to be named a “green campus,” meaning a campus working to be as sustainable as possible.
To earn a spot on this list, Kathy Straub, department head of Earth and Environmental Sciences and director of the Center for Environmental Education and Research, along with the help of Heather Pearson, an Environmental Studies graduate, completed a lengthy STARS report, which was submitted last February.
“The STARS report is broad and yet very specific questions, an overview of campus sustainability, and it’s used by institutions all over the united states and even in Canada and other countries, and it’s like a good objective measure of how sustainable your campus is,” Straub said.
Straub explained that from this report, the Sierra Club, a national nonprofit environmental organization, takes a subset of these questions and score them off the questions they have selected.
To be ranked among other universities on Sierra Club’s “Cool Schools” list, Susquehanna first had to organize the University Sustainability Committee.
“In 2007, I got a small group together because we didn’t have anything organized or official on campus involving sustainability, and from there we created the University’s Sustainability Committee, consisting of faculty members, students, the director of facilities, and so in that sense sustainability has been more organized,” Straub explained.
She continued by saying that the university did not previously have a person whose job it was to be in charge of sustainability, this is now Derek Martin, Susquehanna’s sustainability coordinator.
“This is the first time we have ever been on the Cool Schools list so that’s exciting in and of itself, but I think it is a sign of change we have had in a short amount of time,” Martin said.
Martin gave insight about how it was not too long ago when Susquehanna had been burning coal on campus for heating.
“It is funny because then, the Sierra Club had called us out about that activity, I think in 2010 to 2013 they had a campaign against a lot of universities that were burning coal still, and we were targeted as one of those universities, because coal is very environmentally damaging,” Martin commented.
“Going from their list of ‘bad performing schools’ to us being on their ‘Cool Schools’ list shows the dramatic changes that we have had in just a very short few years,” Martin continued.
Some of the initiatives that have helped the university become more sustainable would include the transition to the use of natural gas for heating.
“There are mini boilers placed in each building or in a cluster of buildings as a source of heat,” Martin said, elaborating on the universities replacement to coal burning.
Another prominent feature are the solar panels, serving as one of the sources that gives Susquehanna 30 percent of the campus’ electricity.
“A third of electricity comes from the solar panels, the equivalent to all the dorms, so we are sourcing a lot of that on site which is exciting,” Martin commented.
Martin also described some of the possible solutions that would further help Susquehanna become more sustainable in the hopes of climbing up the ranks of the Sierra Club’s ‘Cool Schools’ list.
“We need to work more on our waste and recycling programs, cut down on the amount of waste that we have, and better recycle what we do have so we aren’t throwing things directly into landfills,” Martin said.
As for Straub, her hope is that the message of sustainability is a positive one that will encourage students and staff to get more involved in sustainability.
Straub said she wants recycling, locally sourced food and sustainability to become a part of Susquehanna’s culture.
She hopes that Susquehanna and its students eventually begin to associate the campus in this way.