Assessing Sustainability

To know if something/place is green or sustainable a person has to do their "homework" and research it, whether it be your home, workplace, school or even your lifestyle. 

This weeks blog assignment for my Environmental Science class was to assess RCC's campus in sustainability. Green factors that I  think are important when assessing if a campus is strong in environmental advocacy are as follows:

1. Establishment of a Green Committee (Student Sustainability Collective) - Organization helping promote sustainability on campus.
2. Utility consumption (water, electricity, gas) and if the campus utilizes any renewable type of energy for campus operations.
3. Campus advocacy of using public transportation (frequent bus timetables) and or bicycle use (designated areas or lanes on campus)
4. Whether or not there is a Recycle program in place.
5. Cafeteria/Bookstore operations - products sold and methods of waste disposal.
6. Whether or not there is a student/community garden on site.
7. Landscaping choices; usage of California native vegetation and/or drought-tolerant plants.
8. Resource efficient appliances in use; automatic light sensors, communicative thermostats, water efficient sink/toilets.
9. Office/Teacher supplies; usage of sustainable materials (recycled paper, etc.)
10. Technology; use of energy star certified equipment and settings

These are the Top 10 I could think of, realistically almost every single aspect on campus could be analyzed and assessed to determine RCC's sustainability. The sustainability factors can be compared to other colleges with environmental audits to distinguish the relativity of certain factors. I will focus on one factor assessment from another college, the Cafeteria/Bookstore. 

In the fall of 2005 the Student Sustainability Coalition at Santa Barbara City College issued a SBCC Campus Sustainability Audit, revealing the campuses current sustainability practices. I am of course interested in the Cafeteria/Bookstore findings. According to SBCC's audit the bookstore practices typical "General Stewardship Practices" this would include the recycling of paper, batteries, cell phones and the buying of some products that are made from post-consumer material. The Cafeteria's assessment was rather low, key issues that were assessed have yet to be "researched" or implemented.
 
To further assess a certain sustainability area at RCC I picked one area and researched it, particularly utility consumption. In order to obtain further information for utility consumption at RCC I would need to do the following:

• Find a comparable college similar in size and population to RCC. Santa Barbara City College and Riverside City College are very similar in size and student population, approx. between 19,000-20,000
• Contact  Melinda Chavez (951) 222-8770 Ext. 8660 she is responsible for Accounts Payable: Utilities within the Financial Department at RCC. I would then request and review utility invoices to analyze amounts of energies used; wattage, etc.for a specific fiscal school year.
• I would then do the same with Santa Barbara City College, review energy/resource invoices within a specific fiscal school year.

Although differences in energy/resource providers may vary from region to region and prices may fluctuate depending on weather, season and energy demand, the analyzing of units, gallons, wattage, etc. would be comparable on a invoice to invoice evaluation. These are detailed steps I would take to further research an area of sustainability at RCC's campus.

On a disappointing side note I discovered the last time RCCD performed an annual waste management report was in the 08/09 fiscal school year and promising upcoming green changes in 2012. It's now 2013 those changes have yet to happen.