Blueprint for a Green Campus (2006)

Pdf's: SUMMARY | Introduction | Creating a Climate-Friendly Campus | Campus Water Use | Environmental Literacy | Creating a Safe and Healthy Campus | Waste Reduction and Recycling | Campus Purchasing | Institutional Incentives

Introduction

In 2000, the University of Colorado Environmental Center undertook a major project. With the end goal of making CU-Boulder a national leader in sustainable environmental practices, the Environmental Center drafted a comprehensive action plan called the Blueprint for a Green Campus. The original Blueprint, released in 2000, received acclaim from the campus community, local officials and state representatives as a forward-thinking, practical policy prescription. The 2000 Blueprint also brought about a number of positive changes in CU’s environmental practices. Since the original draft, the Environmental Center has sought to strengthen the content and vision of the original document. Additionally, over the past several years, revision to the document has become necessary as environmental programs have advanced and evolved. The Environmental Center also saw a need to address such issues green building, campus food services, and water conservation and quality—all of which were absent from the 2000 version.
 
Thus, in 2004, the Environmental Center decided to overhaul and reissue the Blueprint.  For the revision process, the Environmental Center formed an advisory committee of faculty, administrators, business leaders, community members, local officials and students to set the topics, tone and structure. Task forces were formed for each of the seven major topic areas and reconstructed each section with a stronger vision, more cohesive voice and greater content.
 
We think you’ll agree that the revised Blueprint for a Green Campus is a highly comprehensive and practical environmental action plan.  The main tenet of the document is to achieve sustainability on an institutional scale. As the CU-Boulder campus grows and changes, its environmental impacts and additional demands for energy, transportation, and resources can be handled through increased efficiency rather than increased consumption.  The Blueprint shows that CU-Boulder can reduce its environmental footprint without sacrificing quality of education or research opportunities, and while saving financial resources. The Blueprint lays out realistic goals and actions that will continue to make CU-Boulder a national environmental leader