As many environmental regulations in the United States are reconsidered and loosened, these colleges and universities are committed to cultivating sustainable campuses and future environmental leaders.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS; DAVIS, CALIF.
U.C. Davis is among the schools leading the way in emissions reduction and waste diversion. The university boasts the largest solar power plant on any campus and diverts 73 percent of its waste from landfills.
“We teach at least 180 courses a year with sustainability content,” says Camille Kirk, the school’s director of sustainability. “Our students are future leaders and active citizens, and they take their U.C. Davis training and go out and do great work in private, public and nonprofit settings.”
COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC, BAR HARBOR, MAINE
College of the Atlantic is a small school off the coast of Maine that has touted itself as a place “for idealists with elbow grease.”
It was the first school to achieve carbon neutrality, and nearly a decade ago, the school created one of the first sustainable enterprise incubators. Students have developed solar car charging stations, renewable power sources for local businesses and some of the early concepts of urban farms. About three-quarters of students continue to pursue these ventures after graduating, but according to sustainable development professor Jay Friedlander, that’s not the point. “It’s not about cranking out ventures,” he says. “It’s about students experiencing what it’s like to be a sustainable entrepreneur and to do that with a safety net.”
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, STANFORD, CALIF.
Stanford is a leader in two of California’s most critical measures of sustainability: transportation and water usage. In a state where transit is the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, 40 percent of campus cars are electric. Meanwhile, the university has reduced potable water use by 49 percent since 2000, helping to offset the effects of a three-year drought.
Stanford is not only building a sustainable community, but providing an open-source model for other institutions as well. “We very meticulously measure our performance,” says Fahmida Ahmed, director of sustainability. “So if there are any questions whenever others are inspired by Stanford and want to replicate that process for themselves, we can actually share that formula with them.”
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY, FORT COLLINS, COLO.
Colorado State University was the world’s first university to achieve a platinum ranking under the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s STARS rating system. But the school’s commitment to the environment extends beyond its four walls — research from C.S.U. has been used in massive infrastructure projects and E.P.A. emissions reports, and the university is developing a test site to help companies control their methane emissions. In 2011, the school launched the Center for the New Energy Economy, which works with legislators and regulators to promote clean energy policy.
GREEN MOUNTAIN COLLEGE, POULTNEY, VT.
This small liberal arts school in the mountains of Vermont was the second institution of higher learning in the country to become carbon neutral. It reportedly generates 85 percent of its heat from a biomass facility on campus that runs on local wood chips. G.M.C. also provides a compelling model in its spending and sourcing. “Where we spend our money matters for the environment and for social justice,” says the school’s sustainability page. The school was among the first American colleges to divest from fossil fuels, and purchases from suppliers that are local, transparent in their supply chain and ecologically responsible.
Tag: emissions
This Student-Invented Device Eliminates Almost All of the Emissions from a Very Common Household Polluter
Without a doubt, the only thing that’s green about lawns is its color.
We’ve already gone on a long tirade about this expensive and resource-intensive crop, but did you know that simply mowing your grass once a week comes at a hefty environmental price?
Here’s why: The typical gasoline-powered lawnmower is a huge, filthy polluter. The EPA estimates that in a single hour, these mowers emit 11 times the air pollution of a new car that’s driven in the same amount of time. That’s something that the planet — and our lungs — shouldn’t have to go through just for a nice patch of green. (Unless you own an electric mower, of course!)
That’s where NOx-Out comes in. It’s a one-of-a-kind device from the student engineers at the University of California-Riverside (UCR). By fitting this L-shaped pipe over a regular mower’s muffler, it significantly cuts emissions from lawnmowers more than 90 percent. According to a UCR press release, when an earlier version of the NOx-Out was tested, it cut carbon monoxide by 87 percent; nitrogen oxides by 67 percent and particulate matter by 44 percent. In the current version, 93 percent of particulate matter emissions were eliminated.
The device, which won a huge grant from the EPA’s P3 (People, Prosperity and the Planet) competition, works in a three-step process, UCR says. “First, a glass quartz filter captures particulate matter. Then an ultra-fine spray of urea solution is dispersed into the exhaust stream. The urea spray primes the dirty air for the final stage, when a catalyst converts the harmful nitrogen oxide and ammonia into harmless nitrogen gas and water and releases them into the air.”
MORE: Why New Farm and Construction Equipment Will Improve Air Quality and Save Lives
The idea for the NOx-Out came from team member Rosalva Chavez, a UCR environmental engineering student. Chavez suspected that her janitor father, who earned extra money mowing lawns over the weekend, had developed coughing and asthma due to his exposure to emissions via gasoline-powered lawn equipment.
The best news about this story? As TreeHugger found, the UCR campus will be using these devices on their own lawns, and eventually, the entire University of California system could benefit from cleaner air, thanks to the NOx-Out.
UCR says that team is also thinking about commercializing the product once it’s further refined — selling for about $30 each. When 80 percent of Americans live in a home with a lawn, that’s a small price to pay to help out the planet.
[ph]
DON’T MISS: A Roof That Can Clean the Air?