Environmental Stewardship
Here To Stay

Perhaps you’ve been hearing a lot about Environmental Stewardship lately, but what does it mean to you in your job? If you haven’t already, you’ll soon be seeing and feeling the impact in your building. Environmental Stewardship is not just a suggestion any longer. It’s an integrated part of the University’s Boldness By Design initiative, and it’s also a major focus for the new Division of Housing & Food Services Strategic Plan.

One of the recently adopted H&FS values directly addresses our social responsibility: “We will care today about those things that will define this world’s future.” In order to assure the long-term sustainability of the Division and the University community, we must make some significant behavioral and system changes to increase efficiency of materials and systems, while reducing energy usage and waste.

After a yearlong study by a team of students, faculty, and staff, the recommendations below were recently presented to, and are supported by, Vice President Poston and Provost Wilcox.

Specific goals have been set, and Units / Departments will be held accountable to meet them.

[Note: This is only a brief summary of the Phase I recommendations. For more details on these recommendations, as well as the research that led to them, please visit the Social Responsibility link, where the entire document is provided in PDF format. It is very long, so please view it electronically instead of printing it out.]

Systems Management

• Campus-wide systems monitoring and analysis for energy usage & material waste

• Data will be collected by building for energy consumption, material inputs, recycling and waste outputs.

• This will allow for better tracking of the impact from conservation campaigns.

• Geographical Information System (GIS) will allow transparency, providing a visual method for campus & community to view impact of changes.

• Transition recycling & waste removal to back docks – custodial staff will remove from offices instead of recycling staff.

Energy Reduction

To meet MSU’s commitment to the Chicago Climate Exchange of 6% greenhouse gas reduction by 2010, MSU will reduce energy consumption in each of 579 buildings by 9%: 3% each in HVAC, lighting, and computer/other equipment usage.

• All remodeling/renovation projects with less than 5000 sq. ft. will meet standards for environmental stewardship best practices. Previously, this only applied to projects over 5000 sq. ft.

• At least 6% of fuels burned at the Power Plant will be from renewable sources, biomass, or comparable sources.

• Engineering studies will be implemented for outdated fume hoods and obsolete control technologies.

• HVAC Commissioning Team will develop aggressive three-year plan to prioritize buildings for “tune-ups” in order to achieve a minimum of 5% electrical savings.

• Policy will be developed regarding building requests for extended HVAC running times.

• Classroom scheduling will be consolidated to conserve energy.

• General fund computer lab hours and numbers of computers will be decreased, and energy-saving hibernation technology for lesser used labs will be implemented.

• A plan for installation of occupancy sensor lighting in all 330 general fund classrooms will be developed/implemented.

Materials Strategies

Phase I of recycling plan will be implemented – collect five materials in every building: white paper, mixed paper, newspaper, cardboard, and plastic (#1 & #2). MSU must double current recycling volume to support the new $13.3M recycling facility just approved by the Board of Trustees Jan. 18. We are behind other institutions in this area.

• Attractiveness, ease of use, and functionality of recycling containers will be enhanced.

• Duplex printing will be default setting on current & new equipment. This should reduce paper consumption by 30%.

• Purchase recycled paper – goal is at least 75% of white paper purchased will be recycled content by fall 2009.

• Phone directories will be provided upon request only.

• Pack Up, Pitch In campaign will include a new partnership with East Lansing.

Purchasing

• “Take Back Programs” will be leveraged through purchasing contracts to reduce material outputs. This will include MSU Surplus Store and printer/toner cartridges.

• Campus, building, and unit level equipment purchasing will be tracked for plug load, Energy Star rating, recycled content, eco-labels, certification, etc.

Behavior / Culture Change

Units/departments will be required to undergo certification process – they must demonstrate how they follow best practices. Incentives and public recognition will be involved. If all units within a building become certified, building will be certified.

Building-level Environmental Stewardship Teams will be created to assist in implementing best practices and communication.

Communications

• Systemic Environmental Stewardship Campus Education and Communications Program will be developed to educate, influence and inform the campus community.

• White Paper will be published to highlight MSU’s innovative systems and processes.

You will soon be hearing more about the Division’s sustainability goals, but if you have specific questions in the meantime, feel free to contact any of the staff members in the H&FS Environmental Stewardship Work Group: Diane Barker, Jeff Bonk, Rick Gierman, Mary Lou Heberlein, Marta Mittermaier, Chuck Roberts, Alex Vaszily, or Alan Wilkinson.

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