Blueprint for a Green Campus (2001 Update)

Greening Campus Consumption and Disposal Habits

Part I: Purchasing Environmentally-Responsible Products

The Vision

CU adopts an environmentally-preferable purchasing policy which will institute standards for environmentally responsible purchasing.

Progress Within the Past Year

It has become clear through discussions with purchasing agents at the Procurement Center, that in order to change what products we receive in various contracts, there needs to be a consumer demand for the product. Hence, we have created a Green Products Guide, which is intended to give buyers an idea of what types of "greener" products are available, and what they should be looking for and asking for when shopping for these products.

Students and staff identified the following six categories of products that are commonly purchased for use at CU: paper products, office supplies, office equipment, small remodels, cleaning products and office furniture. Research was conducted on what qualities make a product in a certain category green, and what "green" alternatives are currently being offered through the Book Store, Printing Services, the Distribution Center, contracts through Procurement Services and some outside sources. In all of the categories except office furniture, there seem to be several green alternatives offered through the university.

The information was then taken to put together the Green Products Guide. In order to extend the shelf life of the Guide, it does not concentrate on specific products or contracts, as both of these are apt to change on a yearly basis. Rather, the format consists of the following:

Category (six categories mentioned above)
Components (what specific products are in each category)
Green Attributes (what qualifies products in the category as environmentally friendly);
Questions to Ask (direction for buyers when looking for these products)
Current Availability (can these products be found on campus)
Proven Products (these are specific products that are comparable in price and quality to other non-green products of similar nature).

The guide will be distributed to purchasing contacts all across campus.

A few departments have already begun or continue to change their purchasing habits and work towards a campus policy for green purchasing:

Facilities Management purchases low or no VOC paints, finishes and adhesives.
Transportation has identified six areas where there is room for improvement in this area.
Housing purchases most of the recycled products in the paper products category.
Between 1995-2000, Housing invested $200,000 in recycled plastic playground equipment and picnic tables for Family Housing.
Housing will be developing a system for including green products in construction projects and remodels. This system will include a series of triggers for performing project review to assess the practicality of including green materials; developing product specifications that will be included in front-end documents used in bidding projects; assisting project managers and contractors with procurement, installation, and verification; and maintaining records of customer- and maintenance staff-satisfaction.
The Environmental Center has done some preliminary work to find out what green products people are already purchasing through a survey given out on America Recycles Day.
The Environmental Center also conducted a blind toilet paper test, in which participants were given two unmarked rolls of toilet paper to test for a week. One roll was made with virgin tissue (marked A), and the other with 100% recycled tissue with 30% post-consumer content (marked B). At the end of the week, participants were called, and asked which roll they preferred. 64% of the participants preferred the recycled roll.
UCSU began a survey of UCSU departments to determine their green purchasing habits, specifically for paper products.
Wardenburg has a centralized policy for paper and uses only Eureka 100% Post-Consumer Recycled paper.
The Copy Center continues to be a campus leader in offering several styles of recycled paper for copies.

This past year, CU negotiated a new beverage contract which included environmental considerations in the bid process. The contract that was awarded commits funding to campus waste reduction and recycling efforts.

Plans for Upcoming Year

The Environmental Center will actively promote the Green Products Guide. The goal will be to make everyone on campus who buys significant quantities of materials aware of both the guide, and the fact that there are products available that are more environmentally friendly.

When the Blueprint Committee met to discuss green purchasing, they suggested continued research on Price, Quality and Availability (PQA) of specific products in order to get a clear idea of where a purchasing policy would be supporting high quality products. The Committee also devoted some members to research which vendor contracts could be revised to include environmentally-preferable alternatives.

There should also be continued work on determining what green products departments are already purchasing, and creating and adopting reporting requirements which allow the campus to track progress and identify areas of improvement.

Once all of this information is collected, it should be easier to implement a purchasing policy that supports peoples' current purchasing habits as well as the environmental products that are equivalent in Price, Quality and Availability to their counterparts.

Shortcomings

The Blueprint Committee was unable to discuss this topic until late February. In order to proceed with many of the action items listed in the Blueprint, strong administrative support is necessary. The development of a green products purchasing policy hinges on further research. Progress on this goal may require that such a policy be drafted, and adopted by the Chancellor.

The centralization of purchasing at the Procurement Center also presents challenges to approaching this issue limited to the Boulder campus. It may make sense to consider a system wide green procurement policy.

Discussion Topics

What are departments doing now to promote green products?
How can we track the amount of green products being purchased?
Who can help determine PQA of the more environmentally friendly products?
How can we combine efforts and make this a campus-wide movement?
What would be an appropriate "green" procurement policy?
Should this issue also be addressed system-wide for all campuses?

Part II: Capping Solid Waste Going to the Landfill at Year 2000 Levels

The Vision

As CU grows, we will cap the amount of solid waste going to the landfill at year 2000 volumes by increasing recycling and composting efforts and by using market incentives, new technologies, and purchasing policies to reduce waste generation on campus.

Progress Within the Past Year

A number of improvements were recommended in order to reach a sixty percent diversion goal for recycling. Over the past year, the following measures were planned or implemented.

UCSU approved a four-year capital expansion plan. Funding has been alloacted for the first two years of this plan and the following improvements have occurred in 2000-01.

Seven outdoor recycling and waste management stations were sited in public spaces on campus. These attractive, durable containers have resulted in fairly high participation with nominal contamination. The Grounds department provides regular collection service at these locations.

The cardboard recycling system for housing was designed and approved over the past year. The new program is operational as of March, 2001 and provides service to the six dining units and six locations at Family Housing. $45,300 was allocated by UCSU with an additional $9,800 in grant funding from the Boulder County Recycling and Composting Authority. Facilities Management and the Housing department approved a collection and billing structure that will deliver cost-effective service. UCSU will implement procedural training for students and Dining Service employees this spring semester. A plan is being developed to phase-in service for all of the Residence Halls, since some site improvements will be required. We expect the program to be fully implemented with service to the six dining halls, six Family Housing sites, and 11 Residence Hall sites by 2003.

Another capital improvement is additional classroom recycling containers. UCSU provided funding for fifteen recycling cabinets to be stationed at the larger lecture halls. A short list of locations has been identified. Design and construction of attractive, code-compliant cabinets should be completed this spring semester.

Funding for improvements to recycling educational materials was also prioritized. Informational stickers for each residence hall room, each family housing apartment, and each office deskside container were produced and distributed.

This fall, Housing created and filled a new "Environmental Coordinator" position which is primarily responsible for improving Housing’s waste reduction and recycling efforts as well as other environmental issues within the department. This is a major commitment towards the Blueprint vision and is already leading to significant advancements, improved communications, and coordinated planning.

The Housing department implemented a "pay as you print" printing program in the computer labs. This is a major step towards sending the right market signals to students. Free printing encourages the over-consumption of paper. It will be important to evaluate the impact of this program on paper use, and to consider the possibility of expanding this to other computer labs on campus.

The UMC expansion and renovation project has served as the campus pilot program for recovering Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste for recycling and reuse. As of January 2001, over 2 million pounds of C&D waste was recovered from the UMC project. More is expected through this year. Materials have primarily consisted of steel, concrete, and stone. The pilot project will be evaluated for its success - both in terms of cost-effectiveness and diversion rate.

Efforts to formalize and expand Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste recovery as part of campus construction projects is underway. Recycling staff and project managers are in the process of determining the potential for C&D recovery in the Grandview area as well as in Housing’s new construction and renovation projects.

As of November 2000, Housing’s grounds crews have been taking organic waste (leaves, tree limbs, shrub trimmings, grass clippings, Christmas trees) to Facilities Management for composting. Housing supervisors will be working with grounds crews to develop a means for estimating and tracking the volume of organics that are diverted through this program.

A pilot program for Office Pak recycling in Family Housing courts was conducted. The pilot proved successful and Facilities Management has now formalized collections of Office Pak.

Facilities Management commenced back-hauling of reusable office supplies and paper to campus departments. This unique service adds no staff time as it is done as part of a routine collections.

Facilities Management added more magazine and catalog recycling locations on main campus.

Plans for Upcoming Year

UCSU recently approved its second year of a four year capital improvement plan for recycling. Equipment scheduled for purchase in FY 2001-2002 includes:

enclosures for outdoor recycling stations,
a binding shear and containers for textbook recycling, and
additional containers for magazines, cardboard, and public locations.

Significant improvements in signage, displays, and other promotional materials are also planned.

The Environmental Center is also working on developing the academic opportunities for students around waste reduction and recycling. Although curricular development is outside the scope of the Blueprint, it is nonetheless an important aspect of the long-term development of recycling on campus. As interest and funding opportunities in creating coursework increase, recycling staff will need to devote attention to this emerging area.

Planning is underway for two other operational improvements. Food waste composting and computer/electronics recovery require careful consideration and advance planning before funding and operational plans can be recommended.

The renovation of the Farrand dining facility may include the appropriate features and equipment to handle compostable waste. This could serve as the template for including food waste composting in the renovation of other dining facilities in the next few years.

Waste minimization efforts such as revising CU's construction/demolition process, soft drink and food service vendor contracts, and other revisions to limit the amount of waste imported to campus are a high priority. Commitment and assistance from CU's administration will be required for these improvements to occur.

The campus has begun improving the measurement and reporting of unit cost data from waste generation and disposal, as well as diversion and recovery rates. This cooperative effort between the Environmental Center, Facilities, and Housing will provide baseline data and information on trends, which will assist the administration in determining whether to support the proposed goal.

New Issues

In the Blueprint document, very little reference is made to the future of CU's recycling facility. The Athletic department's displacement of the Intermediate Processing Facility (IPF) is emerging as one of the most pressing issues the campus will face relative to the goal of capping solid waste going to landfills at 2000 levels. To date, an amendment to the Micro-Master Plan for Athletic department's expansion has been approved. This amendment calls for the Athletic department to: replace CU's recycling facility, enable space for planned expansion, site the facility within comparable access to student employees and class tours. The amendment states that these steps need to be taken by Athletics before their planned expansion closes the current IPF, so that there is no interruption in recycling service.

Shortcomings

Budgetary constraints: For several years the recycling collections program within Facilities Management has seen budget cuts, while the volume of material collected has gone up. While they have been able to increase efficiency to accommodate this, in the long run expanded recycling and waste diversion efforts will likely require additional funding.

Waste reduction: It is unlikely that the goal can be met without expanded waste reduction efforts, including market incentives for waste reduction.

Next Steps

Administrative commitment to future waste reduction and recycling efforts will be important in any meaningful planning discussion. In addition, the displacement of CU's recycling facility by the Athletic department will be a significant near-term issue that campus planners, the Athletic department, and UCSU must resolve. Funding must be allocated for a study to find a site capable of meeting the minimum conditions detailed in the amended Athletic department Master Plan.