Offices and departments at MSU are working to become more environmentally friendly, as the university ramps up its sustainability efforts and looks to fall in line with other schools across the nation.
MSU is one of about 284 U.S. colleges and universities taking part in Green Office Programs being run by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, or AASHE.
Under the self-reporting program — the Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System, or STARS — higher education institutions conduct internal reviews of their sustainability practices across one year, before submitting their findings to AASHE’s national board.
“It was really empowering institutions,” said Meghan Fay Zahniser, a STARS program manager.
In the program’s year-and-a-half run, numerous schools have joined and received proper certification, and Fay Zahniser said many more continue to express interest on a daily basis.
MSU’s efforts received “silver” certification as recently as 2009 and include initiatives designed to save the university both time and electrical energy, ranging from using more efficient lightbulbs to turning off lights and computers on a frequent basis.
The school also encourages different offices and departments to follow various “best practices,” said Lauren Olson, a project coordinator in the Office of Campus Sustainability.
“We have multiple different areas that people can look at,” Olson said.
Olson’s office in recent years has intensified its outreach efforts across campus, steering more on-campus visitors and patrons toward recycling and waste reduction programs. About 46.7 percent of units at MSU — either various departments, buildings or offices — have been certified “green” under the university’s internal reporting system, including the Administration Building and Kellogg Center.
Many of the program’s certification measures have been relatively easy to keep in place, Michelle Carlson, an administrative assistant and environmental steward with MSU’s Academic Technology Services said in an email.
Through the program, Carlson said her office has reduced landfill waste by 55 percent from June of last year to June 2011.
“ATS employees saw our Green Certification as something that vindicated the work they had already been doing,” Carlson said in the email. “ATS as a whole has really embraced recycling and sustainability efforts.”
Fay Zahniser said AASHE’s efforts will provide a framework for discussions on environmental sustainability in the coming years, an issue that will continue to grow in importance.
“It’s going to present a lot of opportunities for sharing best practices,” she said.
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