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T
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V
ERDANT
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Sending out an
SES · · · · · · · S
upport
E
nvironmental
S
ustainability
A Yearly Newsletter
Issue No. 1 - Spring 2009Is Hunter CollegeSustainable?
A deeper look intoHunter College’s role inthe environmentalarena. How does thecollege function andwhat is its impact?
Page 2
The CUNY Sustainabil-ity Project
Chancellor Goldstein’splan for sustainabilityat CUNY and what theHunter Collegeadministration has tosay about it.
Page 3
The Hunter Voice: Loudand Clear
The latest studentsurvey results onenvironmentalsustainability. Find outwhat your fellow peersreally think.
Page 4
Special Feature: TheHunter Solar Project
A new way to thinkabout energy. Learnabout an initiative torevamp Hunter’soutdated method of energy consumption.
Page 5
Special Feature: GwenHill, Leo Delgado, andEnvironmentalism atHunter
Take a page from Gwenand Leo’s book. Readabout how students canmake positive changesthat will improve the future for everyone.
Page 6
Make GREEN Your Color
What can HunterCollege do to improveits environmentalstanding? What canYOU do to improve your environmentalstanding?
Page 7 and 8
Let’s GetGoing...
Why environmental sustainability? And why HunterCollege?
The Big Picture: Outside of Hunter Collegeand NYC
The United States makes up only approximately 5percent of the global population. However, it con-sumes about one-quarter of the world’s energy and15 percent of the world’s meat. That is proportion-ally five times as much energy and three times asmuch meat than would be true if energy and foodwere equitably distributed.From the year 1990 to the year 2004, the UnitedStates has increased its oil consumption by 21 per-cent. In 2004, consumption reached 7,900 tons of oilper capita. Globally, that figure is among the high-est. It is also a liberal representation of the UnitedStates’ energy consumption, for it concerns only oiland not energy sources such as coal. Comparableeconomically advanced nations such as Germanyonly consume about half as much oil as the UnitedStates.From the year 1950 to the year 2004, the UnitedStates has emitted a total of 213 billion tons of CO
₂
.Since 1990, U.S. emissions have increased by 20percent as other nations pledged to reduce emis-sions by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. In 2004, 20.1tons of CO
₂
were emitted per capita. (All figures aretaken from the
Council on Foreign Relations.)
What exactly does
sustainability
mean?
Environmentally sustainable development is “de-velopment that meets the needs of the present with-out compromising the ability of future generationsto meet their own needs” (United Nations). It meanstaking into consideration all factors that affect thequality of life on earth when pursuing our goals. Forevery action, the decisions that are involved must beevaluated on societal, economic, and environmentalterms. Essentially, sustainability is the model we allstrive to attain so that there is a healthy, stable, andfunctioning system for future generations to thrivein.
Home Sweet Home
As students of one of the most developed cities inthe world, it is important to realize our obligation tothe environment — our obligation to take responsi- bility for what we have done and collectively con-tinue to do to the place we call home. Only afteraccepting our responsibility for the present-daysituation can we attempt to change our harmfulways, give back to our environment, and make theworld a more sustainable place to live in. The firstand most obvious place to start is where we nourishour minds and quench our thirsts for knowledge —a breeding ground for intellectual growth, socialawareness, and innovation — Hunter College.
Note to the Reader
The most important thing we would like readers todepart with after reading this newsletter is the rec-ognition that every individual effort towardsachieving sustainability has a significant impact, justas every individual act towards destabilizing theearth has culminated to the environmental crisis weare in now. It is our hope that the urgency of thecurrent environmental situation and the possibleremedies offered in this newsletter will inspire read-ers to initiate action and implement change.Allow us to implant into your minds three seeds of thought to consider while reading the rest of thisnewsletter. One from the 31st president, one from agreat English playwright, and one from our veryown school motto.
Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.
- Herbert Hoover
Strong reasons make strong actions.
- William Shakespeare
Mihi cura futuri (The care of the future is mine)
- Arthur Henry Dundon, a past Vice President fromHunter College
HUNTER COLLEGE
The Verdant Vine
1
Hunter College
Is Hunter College sustainable? De-pending upon who you ask, theanswer to this question may vary.One factor that contributes to a cer-tain answer is the personal judgmentof how much sustainability theremust be in order for something to beconsidered “sustainable.” Is it fair tolabel something as “sustainable”after it has reached a certain accept-able threshold of sustainability?Some would argue “no” and say thatnothing is truly sustainable if it is not100 percent sustainable. One mustalways work towards greater sustain-ability no matter at what stage theyare in. Others would disagree andoffer that being sustainable does notentail being 100 percent sustainable if the inefficiencies that do exist are notsignificantly harmful. But even so,how would one universally define theterm “significantly harmful?” In lightof these questions, it is difficult toobjectively assert whether or notHunter College is sustainable. This iswhy we want to give you the facts andleave the answer up to you to decide.What judgment we will provide is the belief that striving to increase sustain-ability is not dependent on whether ornot something is already labeled as“sustainable.” In other words, you cannever be too sustainable.Facts on Hunter’s consumption (andmore!):•Hunter (Main Campus) used8,445,000 cubic feet of gas from July2007 to June 2008 for heating andcooling.•Hunter uses #2 fuel oil, a lightergrade of oil to run emergency gen-erators.•Hunter (Main Campus) currentlyhas 5 battery recycling cylinders; 2will be shipped from Brookdale.•Hunter ships a truckload of elec-tronic waste containing heavy met-als every 2 months, including fluo-rescent light bulbs.•Hunter ships out a lab pack every 6weeks that can contain up to 1000kg (2205 pounds) of hazardouschemical wastes.•Hunter ships out an average of 1500pounds of biological waste eachweek.•After extensive research and inves-tigation, we were unable to uncoverany figures pertaining to electricity,water, and paper use.
HUNTER COLLEGE2
The Verdant Vine
Hunter College’s sources of resource consumption
Is Hunter College Sustainable?
Have you ever wondered what Hunter College’s environmental impact is? Find out how much it takes to operate Hunter College.
What is the CUNY Sustainability Project?
“The CUNY Sustainability Project was given institutional clarity and impetusthrough the acceptance by Chancellor Goldstein on June 6, 2007 of MayorBloomberg’s ’30 in 10’ challenge. This challenge will motivate New York City’s public and private universities to reduce their greenhouse gas emis-sions 30% by 2017” (From
Establishment of the CUNY Task Force on Sustainabil-ity and Mission Statement
).In compliance with this new call for actionagainst environmental degradation, theCUNY Sustainability Project decided that all23 CUNY institutions would create a“unique” 10 year Sustainability Plan to work towards the goal of reducing ’30 in 10.’ Eachplan should address methods of increasingconservation, preventive maintenance,awareness, and data gathering. Although thespecific design of each 10 year plan is leftcompletely up to the respective institution to which it belongs, certain benchmarks would have to be put in place in order for the CUNY Sustain-ability Project to be able to evaluate and monitor the implementation andprogress of each plan. In fact, each institution will be expected to have cre-ated a comprehensive 10 year Sustainability Plan by January 2009.To ensure the creation of such a plan, each institution must also create itsown Sustainability Council comprised of staff members, faculty, and stu-dents. The purpose of the council is to have an organized body dedicated tothe realization of the CUNY Sustainability Project’s mission while also en-couraging student involvement.To serve as a supportive resource for each institution’s council, the CUNYSustainability Project has also established the CUNY Task Force on Sustain-ability. The Task Force is made up of representatives from various organi-zations who have specialized knowledge andresources in fields that could assist each insti-tution in becoming more sustainable. TheTask Force is also comprised of representa-tives from each institution’s SustainabilityCouncil.One interesting aspect of the CUNY Sustain-ability Project is that the responsibility of moving towards sustainability still belongsprimarily to each individual institution orcampus. It is for this reason that there is adisparity in how much sustainability different campuses are achieving up tothis point. For example, the College of Staten Island bought a Biodiesel Kitthat can transform used cooking oil from the cafeteria into biodiesel fuel thatwould be used to run large vehicles and portable light towers. This seems to be a relatively larger progression towards sustainability when compared tothe efforts of other campuses. Perhaps this means that the CUNY Sustainabil-ity Project has to work harder towards increasing accountability and dedica-tion to the mission.
Hunter College - The “Green Trendsetter” for CUNY?
Conan Freud, Acting VP for Finance and Administration at Hunter College,is also the chair of "Hunter Green” — the Hunter College SustainabilityCouncil. Along with Andrew Silver, Director of Operations, Freud overseesthe council and represents Hunter on the CUNY Sustainability Task Force. As"Hunter Green,” Freud and the other council members must propose andexecute a plan for reducing Hunter's carbon footprint by 30 percent over thenext 10 years. Although this seems like a daunting task, Freud is optimistic— he already considers Hunter relatively sustainable to other CUNY institu-tions for a myriad of reasons, yet expresses concern for the problem this maypose:
If Hunter is already at a state of relative sustainability, what more can Hunterdo to become even more sustainable?
Freud firmly believes that “Hunter was Green before Green was fashion-able.” As proof, Freud offers a laundry list of sustainable behaviors and conditions that haveefficiently minimized Hunter’s carbon foot-print: 1) most students and faculty take publictransportation to Hunter, 2) Hunter’s swim-ming facilities have been recently renovated toinclude a dehumidification system, energyefficient lighting, and replacement thermostats,3) occupancy sensors are installed throughoutHunter that conserve electricity from lighting, 4)Hunter has a recycling program that recycles glass, cans, paper, plastic, elec-tronics, and batteries, 5) Hunter Public Safety officers ride on bicycles duringnice weather, 6) the Hunter Cafeteria sells reusable mugs made of recyclablematerials, 7) Hunter now asks students to pay their tuition bills online, re-ducing the need to waste paper for printing and postage, and 8) Hunter'sheating, ventilation, and air conditioning system has been upgraded.While all of these are examples of sustainable behavior and actions at HunterCollege, they are not as visible as one would hope them to be. Moreover,although there is a recycling program in place at Hunter, students have iden-tified that trash still mixes among recyclables. Freud and Silver agree thatimprovements to the program are imperative to refine recycling at Hunter, but ultimately, it comes down to modifying the behavior of both studentsand faculty for a Greener Hunter.In assessing what changes need to take place, the council is currently at acrucial “Measurement Phase.” The council is trying to establish baselinemeasurements to determine realistic carbon footprint reduction goals forHunter College. Once the baseline is estab-lished and the plans are drawn, it is up to“Hunter Green” to lessen the college’s carbonemissions by 2017. Freud and Silver haveplans and projects that they hope to enact orare already taking place. These include energyefficient windows for Thomas Hunter Hall,energy efficient escalators, planting smalltrees on Hunter’s terraces, and incorporatingsustainability across all curricula at Hunter asa reminder that “we have a social obligation to do our best and to do ourpart.”
HUNTER COLLEGEThe Verdant Vine
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The CUNY Sustainability Project
An opportunity for Hunter College to lead the way for change
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