Hypothetical RCC Sustainability Assessment

This week, the assignment was to consider how we would assess the sustainability of our school.  If I were going to assess how green our campus, I would consider the following factors.

Exactly how efficient is our bus system?
Photo found at thebergernetwork.com

1) Whether the school uses any energy efficient appliances

2) How many recycling receptacles the campus has and how much the students actually use them

3) How efficient the available public transportation to and from the school is

4) How much or little trash the school produces

5) Where the cafeteria and vending machine food comes from and how it gets to the school

6) The ratio of students to physical size of college to amount of actual use of the area

7) Whether the college uses any forms of renewable energy

8) Whether the school prints everything on paper or makes effort to issue information electronically

            -How well is the school website designed and how much is it used?

            -What efforts do individual teachers make to cut down on paper consumption?

9) How much green house gas emissions our school produces

Other schools have already been assessed for their sustainability.  One such school is Berkshire School in Sheffield, Massachusetts.  Their sustainability is measured by the Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment, and Rating Systems (STARS) that was developed by the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.  Berkshire School is rated annually, and as of January of 2012, Berkshire School attained silver status.  This might sound good, but silver is fourth highest out of five ranks that STARS provides.  However, it does mean that Berkshire School has done quite a lot to go green.

The conceptual model for sustainability used at Berkshire School.
Photo found at berkshireschool.org

In their effort to become green, Berkshire School considers three things environmental integrity, economic justice, and social equity.  The school has a Director of Sustainability and a sustainability committee that are tasked with establishing guidelines through which the school can become more sustainable.  The committee pursues this within five general categories.

1)    Education/Administration in which the goal is to promote education, research, and awareness of social, economic, and environmental sustainability for both the staff and students.

2)    Energy in which their eventual goal is to create a net zero Green House Gas emissions for both the campus and student living areas.

3)    Food in which they want to create a local and organic food system that produces as little waste as possible

4)    Land use in which the goal is to protect and preserve the natural environment and nature of the campus.

5)    Procurement/Disposal in which they want to produce the most efficient way of procuring and disposing of campus necessities and supplies.

If I were going to devise a plan for assessing an area of our school, I would try to assess the sustainability of our food supply.  Due to the fact that the vast majority of the food available for purchase is prepackaged and frozen, I think the sustainability level is very low. 

Of course the first step in would be to gain permission to assess the sustainability of our food resources.  I would prepare a presentation as to why the assessment would be a good idea and help benefit student life on campus and then contact the President of Riverside Community College, Dr. Cynthia Azari for permission.  The presentation would mention things such as there are some government incentives for sustainability and many organizations will donate to aid the process of sustainability.

Once I had permission, I would search for volunteers to help carry out the assessment.  That way, the project would be much less costly, another incentive for the powers that be to approve the assessment.  There is a sustainability club at the college who would probably be willing to help.  I would also contact the president of Alpha Gamma Sigma to see if any of the members would be interested in obtaining volunteer service hours by aiding in this project.

Although not a pretty sight, this is generally what eventually
happens to our leftover food.
Photo found at novaksanitary.com

Next, I would conduct some preliminary research.  I would arrange an interview with Cheryl Ruzak, the Director of Food Services, to find out things like how much food is ordered per week, where it comes from, how much it costs, how much of each thing is ordered, how much of each thing is sold, and how much waste the cafeteria produces on a weekly basis by themselves for things such as preparation of food.  If she could not answer some of those questions, I would enlist the volunteers to help in a field experiment to obtain said answers.

Once I know how much food is ordered, I would measure it against how much is purchased.  I would also measure how much trash is produced by the cafeteria against how much is produced by the students.  Once I know where the food comes from, I would research the path it took as far back as I could (to the very original supplier if I could) and generate an estimate of the environmental effects.  And if  by some miracle I had enough volunteers willing to dig through and separate trash, I would also want to do an evaluation of how much of food purchased from the cafeteria is actually consumed.  Because I have seen people buy a chicken finger meal and then throw half of it away.