If you’ve ever walked around the grounds of West Virginia University’s Agriculture Sciences Building on the Evansdale campus, you’ve probably unknowingly walked on top of a grass-clad classroom roof.
Or if you’re noticing new trees being planted throughout the campus or are hearing the university’s law school will soon be getting 48 solar panels on its roof, it’s all part of WVU’s sustainability plan adopted back in 2007.
These three initiatives are just a taste of how WVU has embraced the sustainability concept during the last 12 years as it moves toward purchasing green and incorporating green concepts into building maintenance and design, plus promoting recycling, and encouraging energy and water conservation in all campus buildings.
“It is important to West Virginia University to be a leader because it is important to our students,” WVU President Gordon Gee said. “They are inheriting a world affected by climate change. It is also important for this university to be a leader in the state, and help show the way as new technology enables us to take better care of our earth. While I am pleased with the strides we have made in recent years, there is always work to be done.”
Sustainability ranking
In its most-recent issue, SIERRA Magazine ranked the greenest colleges in North America, the 13th year for the list. WVU was not on the list, neither were any other university or college in West Virginia,
Using information from the self-reporting Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, the magazine examined which schools offer the best sustainability-focused courses, ecofriendly cafeteria provisions and carbon-neutral land and energy policies, as well as the most opportunities to engage with the growing environmental movement.
SIERRA Magazine said 282 universities and colleges in the U.S. and Canada vied for the honor to make the annual list.
Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia was ranked first. The Canadian school was given kudos for diverting more than 70% of its waste stream away from landfills, as well as not using fossil fuels for heating.
The school heats its buildings with a biomass system that burns waste wood. It also uses electricity produced from hydropower, wind and solar. Also, the 28,000-student university is in the process of switching its entire motor fleet to electric or hybrid vehicles, SIERRA Magazine said.
The other schools rounding out the top 10 are the University of California, Irvine; SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry; University of New Hampshire; University of Connecticut; University of California, Merced; Colby College; Middlebury College; Colorado State University; and Arizona State University.
“We’re thrilled that Cool Schools participation has been steadily increasing each year — this year, a record 282 schools vied to become the eco-savviest in all of academia,” Katie O’Reilly, SIERRA’s Adventure + Lifestyle editor, said in an email to The Dominion Post.
“Colleges and universities effectively function as incubators — not only do they influence students (the generation tasked most with reversing and mitigating the climate crisis) and their communities, but we’ve seen schools’ policies and practices influence their states and regions, too. And research shows that parents and students are increasingly seeking schools with proven green track records. We hope to spark healthy competition amongst institutions of higher learning, and inspire everyone to shoot for an A+ in the most important subject there is,” she said.
WVU and sustainability
For its part, WVU is making progress with its sustainability efforts, said Traci Knabenshue, WVU’s sustainability director.
For the last several years, the university has worked on performance contracting, an audit and funding mechanism to make energy efficiency upgrades to its buildings, she said.
“WVU has made improvements to HVAC systems, lighting, water usage, etc. in over 75 buildings by funding the facilities improvements through the utility savings they create,” she said in an email. “Performance contracting has resulted in WVU emitting over 360 million fewer pounds of greenhouse gases into the environment and saved us over $19 million in energy costs.”
The school is also building sustainability into its new buildings and the renovations of its existing ones. This includes the use of natural light, where possible, and using low-VOC — volatile organic compound — paints and furnishings, as well as landscaping that can absorb storm water runoff.
Knabenshue said the end goal for WVU with its sustainability efforts is to leave no carbon footprint.
“We’re just beginning to dip our toes in the water of the possibilities for energy with our first solar panel installation that will go on the roof of the law school,” she said. “And I think there are opportunities for us to strengthen sustainability requirements in goods and services we procure to run all three of our campuses.”
There is still a ways for WVU to go compared to other large universities.
In February, Penn State, for example, announced a partnership with Lightsource BP, a San Francisco solar company, to develop 70 megawatts of large-scale, offsite solar energy. The solar project will provide 25% of the university’s statewide electricity needs for 25 years.
Penn State also has a goal to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 35% next year, which it hopes to accomplish by eliminating the use of fossil fuels and implementing even more solar power projects.
Watch Morgantown
James Kotcon is an associate professor of plant pathology and environmental protection at WVU’s Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources & Design. He is also an adviser to the Student Sierra Coalition and Energy chair of the Morgantown Municipal Green Team, a committee formed in 2007 to advise city leaders on environmental sustainability.
“The city is far ahead of WVU on this,” Kotcon said.
For example, when President Donald Trump announced in June 2017, the United States would cease participating the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, Morgantown City Council passed its own resolution in support of the international agreement. Council also agreed to set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by just under 30% by 2025.
Because Morgantown is proactive on sustainability, Kotcon said he would love to see the city and WVU collaborate on sustainability projects such as recycling. Pizza boxes, for example, can’t be recycled because of pizza grease, but can be used as kindling for a fire.
“WVU wants to do a better job on recycling,” he said. “But, they need to learn more.
“The number one problem is plastic bags. They clog the gears of the sorting machines.”
Both Knabenshue and Kotcon said the student body is more proactive and genuinely concerned about sustainability and that has helped.
“We have students right now engaged in everything from developing a plan to implement recycling bins in our outdoor spaces on campus, refining what types of green roof we like to install on buildings, and how to move away from the use of Styrofoam,” Knabenshue said.
But more still needs to be done, Kotcon said.
“It needs to be a core function of WVU.”
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