By Jeff Kart •
June 2, 2009
LEED, for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, has become the alpha acronym when referring to green, or eco-friendly, buildings. The standard, from the U.S. Green Building Council, recently went 3.0.
Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, is taking the green diploma to an even higher degree. University officials are betting a new Living Learning Center will meet the Living Building Challenge, the world’s most stringent green building rating system from the Cascadia Region Green Building Council, a chapter of the USGBC and its Canadian counterpart.
While it is possible to go carless in St. Louis (especially if you live in the city), most residents would claim that it’s challenging. In many cases, this perception represents an unwillingness to give up the convenience of a personal vehicle, but there is merit to the argument: our public transportation system is good, but not great, and the concept of a walkable neighborhood is still very much in its formative stages. In the last month, though, St. Louis-based Enterprise Rent-a-Car (a company I’ve blogged about recently) has started an experiment that may help residents rethink the idea of car ownership: it’s WeCar car-sharing program has launched (rather quietly) at Washington University and in the downtown loft district.
As local blogger Steve Patterson noted when WeCar rolled out at Wash, the program appears to be all-hybrid: six Priuses at Wash, one at their medical campus, and nine downtown. Mayor Francis Slay is already singing WeCar’s praises: “It will help the environment,” Slay said. “It will also give people more options as far as commuting. Some people would like to take light rail or the bus to work but they need the flexibility during the day. They can use the WeCar.”
What’s the best defense against charges of “greenwashing?” Its measurement, of course: accurate, verifiable assessments provide evidence that an institution is “walking the walk” in its efforts to operate more sustainably. While the business world might have the most to gain in terms of releasing concrete data regarding sustainability initiatives, higher education’s enthusiastic embrace of green initiatives has also drawn scrutiny from a variety of stakeholders: students, faculty, administrators, alumni and board members all want to know that a campus’ efforts to “go green” represent sound investments in both the institution’s, and the planet’s, well-being. While a number of reports have measured various aspects of college and university environmental programs, no single method for assessing campus sustainability exists… well, until now.
Last week, I ran across an article from the Washington University Record noting that it, along with 89 other institutions, was participating in the pilot stage of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS). The pilot represents the start of “a collaborative process to develop a campus sustainability rating system” with the following goals:
- Provide a guide for advancing sustainability in all sectors of higher education, from governance and operations to academics and community engagement.
- Enable meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions by establishing a common standard of measurement for sustainability in higher education.
- Create incentives for continuous improvement toward sustainability.
- Facilitate information sharing about higher education sustainability practices and performance.
- Build a stronger, more diverse campus sustainability community and promote a comprehensive understanding of sustainability that includes its social, economic and environmental dimensions.
Image source: Washington University
Washington University in St Louis has made a $55 million dollar investment in sustainability, focusing on the development of the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES). the university annouced Monday.
I-CARES will foster "institutional, regional and international research on the development and production of biofuels from plant and microbial systems and the exploration of sustainable alternative energy and environmental systems and practices." The center
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