Tuesday, August 26, 2008
A Top 25 "Greenie"
Carnegie Mellon University: "Carnegie Mellon is one of America’s 25 environmentally responsible schools, says the 'Kaplan College Guide 2009.” To develop the guide, Kaplan reviewed a range of green criteria, including environmentally responsible campus projects; initiatives and courses offered; organizations and student groups on campus; and achievements noted in the Sustainable Endowments Institute's 'College Sustainability Report Card 2008,' which named Carnegie Mellon a Campus Sustainability Leader."
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7 comments:
...Right.
It's great that CMU has the Green Initiative, but I doubt that its efforts have made up for the fact that CMU simply dumps computer parts in their trashes. There's CRTs all over Wean, and full desktops can often be found in dumpsters. My friend found Randy Paush's desktop a few years ago.. Computers contain so many terrible chemicals that can be detrimental to the environment (not to mention that these machines could easily be donated instead of tossed away...)
I agree with rmcausland, while CMU has a Green Intiative, we still have a LONG way to go. One thing, I noticed is that the trashcans in our individual dorm rooms do not include recycling. If each dorm room had a designated black trashcan and blue recycling bin, we would be more likely to recycle. I doubt any of the girls on my floor actually separate their paper and plastics from wrappers! :-/ I think if the university posted visible color coded disposal sites on each floor, we would all be more likely to recycle.
I know that in my dorm on campus there are recycle cans from regular trash cans but that still doesn't mean people are recycling. Over oreintation week I saw a lot of people not recycle and for that matter just litter and leave garbage everywhere. I believe that CMU has made a good start but there is still more work to be done as Allison and rmcausland stated!
I think Carnegie Mellon does deserve this place on the top 25 list; however, now that they have received it, I would love to see more campus-wide efforts to implement more of these sorts of things.
For example, while Stever House seems to have the motion-activated light switches and is deemed the true "green" dorm on campus, how can these same practices be transferred to other places--such as Mudge House? They do make motion-activated light switches which do not cost too much, which could easily replace switches in bathrooms, closets, and other less-used places in the dorms.
I'm no expert either on the practice of creating roof gardens, but perhaps this is something that could be implemented as well for research...etc.
Finally, recycling--for being the easiest way of helping the environment--is still not happening. I know in my room in Mudge we have bins for trash and recycling, but many people still throw their bottles in the trash; which, is virtually impossible to stop. Word of mouth, encouraging your friends, or simply picking up slack for others, I think, is the only way we'll make any more progress as far as that goes.
One the reasons I was so attracted to CMU as a school was its seemingly green practices. I'm not denouncing or discounting its attempts at green initiatives, however, I think that the main problems on CMUs campus are behavioral. There are hundreds of recycling bins all over campus, and yet there are still hundreds, maybe thous of bottles in the garbage everyday. Instead of encouraging students to use their own reusable bottles at fountain machines on campus, we are readily supplied with paper or plastic cups every time we go for a meal block. Little things I know, but it all adds up. We're in the top 25? I wonder what things are like on other campuses....
Great, we have a "Green School". I guess they overlooked the dumpsters full of sets and materials we throw away every year in drama. We could salvage it but it's not worth the labor. That's right, it's not worth the free labor to create less trash. Oh well. I guess spring carnival creates more material waste in a week than we do in a year. Pick your battle I guess.
I think it's a good sign that the green initiative is being pressured onto large corporations like Fox, and other studios. I think the absolute best way to handle the conversion into a more green world is to not focus on brand new buildings and cars (and trashing the old ones) but to focus on the conversion of old existing structures to increase their efficiency. It's more economical to make small changes to older buildings than tearing one down and starting from scratch. Also, because much of Hollywood is mobile I look forward to seeing the future of mobile green energy beyond the first step of using bio-diesel.
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