UA News

The Sustainable Endowments Institute's "College Sustainability Report Card 2010" again lists the University as one of the most environmentally sensitive campuses in the nation.

A national report again lists the University of Arizona as among the nation's most environmentally aware campuses.

The Sustainable Endowments Institute released its College Sustainability Report Card 2010 of colleges and universities on Wednesday. The new report card awarded the UA an "A" rating in a number of important sustainability measures, along with an overall "B" rating, citing a number of strengths across the University.

The institute evaluated environmental sustainability efforts at 332 schools in the U.S. and Canada. In all, four surveys collected this summer measured information about sustainability in campus operations, dining services, endowment investment practices and student activities. The report assessed 48 indicators, from green building initiatives and recycling programs to investment policies.

In addition to scoring schools for their efforts, the report also provides access to this information as a way for schools to learn from each other's experiences. Schools were selected from the 2007 National Association of College and University Business Officers Endowment Study and from additional independent research on endowment size.

In all, the report generated 1,100 survey responses and more than 10,000 pages of data.

The report card noted the UA for its campus comprehensive plan, hiring residence life and campus sustainability coordinators, and the Campus Sustainability Committee that coordinates research, curriculum, operations, planning and building design across the University. The committee is comprised of UA faculty, staff, administrators and students, as well as community leaders.

An update of the 2003 campus plan is nearly complete and the Arizona Board of Regents is expected to review and approve it later this year. The new plan will highlight the University's accomplishments toward creating an increasingly sustainable campus in the planning, design and construction of new facilities. It also lists gains in the reuse and renewal of existing resources, alternative transportation, and in the operation and maintenance of the campus.

The UA also received high marks for its transportation efforts, which include replacing older vehicles with flex-fuel ones, bus discounts, the CatTran shuttles and other programs, and for university investments in renewable energy funds.

The UA cited its own 2010-2014 Strategic Plan which places climate, environmental, water and energy sustainability as a "top priority for increasing achievements in research, scholarship and creative expression."

The UA also submitted several key programs it has addressed since last year's report card.  Those include:

• Organizing and coordinating the various sustainability efforts across campus
• Establishing a campus-wide sustainability Web site
• Establishing a campus sustainability walking tour that identifies 12 sites, including signage and a brochure
• Coordinating a week-long series of Earth Day events in collaboration with the City of Tucson and Pima County
• Ramping up campus recycling efforts through increased participation across campus and by participating in the nationwide Recyclemania competition

Also noteworthy was a composting plan approved by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality that was scrapped due to state budget cuts.

"The University of Arizona is among the world's leaders with significant sustainable advances at a campus, community, national and global level," said Bob Smith, the associate vice president for the UA's planning, design and construction unit. "The entire UA community is fully invested in sustainability leadership and achievement – in its campus planning, design and construction endeavors, as well as in its renowned academic and research efforts."   

Smith said planning, design and construction has been working for the past decade to further build upon the University's status as a world leader in sustainability research, discovery and accomplishment. 

"As an integral part of a thriving, sustainable community, we view our campus as a laboratory for the use of green building design and construction techniques developed here on campus, and elsewhere throughout the world," he said.

The University's established design and specification standards for years have required energy efficiency and resource conservation strategies consistent with LEED Silver criteria. Current and future construction projects are being designed to exceed those standards.

Other campus building projects have used a number of advanced applications, including green roofs, bioswales, rain and condensate water harvesting, waterless urinals, low-flow fume hoods, mechanical system relief air to warm and cool outdoor seating areas, and super-insulating exo-skeletal wall systems. 

Campus landscaping is irrigated with reclaimed water and stormwater drainage is managed with an extensive system of detention basins. Gas turbine generators and a state-of-the-art thermal ice storage system each year save approximately 30 percent on energy costs and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by almost 40,000 tons. Roughly 500 kilowatts of solar power and new solar water heating systems are also being installed on several buildings on campus.

Glenn Schrader, a professor of engineering and director of the campus sustainability committee, said the University has done well in this and other campus environmental surveys in large part because of the breadth and depth of projects on campus, including a National Wildlife Federation report  in 2008.

"We have more projects going on than ever before," Schrader said. "The history of sustainability on this campus is all about grassroots projects that have drawn the interest of both students and faculty."

The UA offers more than 160 courses in 27 departments that incorporate sustainability. Nearly two dozen centers and programs work on sustainability research. Water sustainability alone has nine related centers and institutes with 10 field sites, laboratories and other research facilities.