Seeing Sustainability in The Community, Practices on Campus, and How to Energize the Efforts

This paper analyzes human Interactions and motivations behind behavior towards the environment using a public park in western New York as an observation site. It analyzes the practice of sustainability at the State University of New York (SUNY), Erie Community College. Behavior and practices are good predictors of support for sustainability. Local leadership is essential to the sustainability of a public park. Their stewardship to preserve some green space for an otherwise heavily developed area provides the opportunity for residents to commune with nature. Experiencing the plants and wildlife of this space within a short distance from where they live promotes appreciation for the environment. Public awareness of the root causes of environmental damage is likely to drive more meaningful changes in behavior. Therefore, several experiential activities related to sustainability that are open to the public are suggested to promote learning and acceptance in the community. College leadership is encouraged to make sustainability a centerpiece of their leadership goals and to collaborate with community leaders for substantive change. Suggestions for creating internal structures on campus to guide the development and implementation of a climate action plan are described. Broader statewide efforts to promote sustainability across the SUNY 64 campus system are summarized. A Chief Sustainability Officer and Executive Director of Climate Action has been established and has registered all 64 campuses in the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) with the goal of collaboration, evaluation, and creating action plans using their Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS) ranking system. Additionally, state funding is available to support developing Clean Energy curriculum and promoting student projects in energy efficiency and sustainability. In conclusion, recommendations for energizing the community and campus to work together to achieve sustainability goals to accelerate climate action in and through higher education are presented. Specifically, minimizing the consumption of natural resources for campus operations and maintenance is the first recommendation. The electricity consumed is largely produced from fossil fuels. The campus is encouraged to employ renewable energy substitutes such as photovoltaic generation to offset it. Further reduction can be achieved by emulating the features of one energy-efficient building on campus, which received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification. Renovation of the remaining 90% of the buildings on campus should be modeled after the LEED building. Among the features considered are installing high-efficiency heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, lighting, water heating, and building envelope insulating systems, including energy-efficient glass and well-sealed doors. In addition to the buildings, green transportation, water use, landscaping, and recycling are included. The LEED process also looks at non-energy-related design aspects, such as maintenance and equipment life cycle. The community would get behind these sustainability practices because they benefit everyone and the environment and are a more efficient use of taxpayer dollars.