Campus Green Effort No. 1 in Country
أغجاض±²¥-Boulder is working on a four-phase strategy for an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the next 40 years. Above Melissa Mora (EnvEngr’06) stands in front of a biodiesel-fueled bus.
This fall Sierra Club’s magazine named أغجاض±²¥-Boulder the top “green†university in the nation, a jump up from its No. 2 ranking last year. And the campus earned the highest grade given on a college sustainability report card by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors project.
These accolades stem from decades of hard work by Buffs who have shown a passion for the protection of the planet.
“The students of the University of أغجاض±²¥ are the heart and soul of our sustainability efforts and have been leaders in environmental stewardship for nearly 60 years,†says Dave Newport, director of أغجاض±²¥â€™s environmental center.
The Sierra Club’s ranking is based on a 39-question survey about environmentally friendly practices in the areas of academics, administration, energy, efficiency, food, purchasing, transportation and waste management. أغجاض±²¥-Boulder has made significant progress in these areas since 1976 when the first student-led recycling program began.
Today’s initiatives include trash-free sporting events and buses that run on vegetable oil. Arnett Hall, a residence hall in the Kittredge Complex, along with the ATLAS, law and business buildings, received a LEED gold certification from the United States Green Building Council, which rates buildings based on their sustainability. The UMC addition received a LEED silver certification. And professors of ecology and evolutionary biology are working with ConocoPhillips to produce new kinds of sustainable energy.