Concordiensis

Issue date: 5/31/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Ali Perse/Concordy

As the academic year draws to a close, an issue that is looming on the horizon for the fall semester is sustainability. With greater attention to global warming and environmentally sound practices, the student government and environmentally-conscious students have questioned the administration on what Union College is doing to avoid depleting resources and to find new ways to recycle and reuse products on campus.

Since his arrival on campus, President Stephen Ainlay has made sustainability one of the "foundational" issues that have been identified as a strategic priority for Union.

"It is also something that many members of our community are interested in -- students, faculty, staff, and administrators," said Ainlay.

"In addition to looking for opportunities to improve our own practices, as an educational institution, we will also look for teaching and research opportunities around issues of sustainability and environment," added Ainlay.

Stephen Po-Chedley, '08, a member of Ozone House and founder of URecycle, has been instrumental in spearheading the charge for a more sustainable Union. Po-Chedley established URecycle as a campus-wide program in November of 2005, and by May of 2006, the program had taken in over five tons of recyclable material.

Po-Chedley has also worked with the administration to lead a dialogue on sustainability and promoting environmentally sound practices.

Po-Chedley describes URecycle as a way of reducing waste and reducing energy consumption through programs such as "Do it in the Dark," a campus wide competition to see which housing could reduce its emissions the most. Furthermore, URecycle's programs have saved the college in waste costs. The proposal for a sustainable campus, U Sustain, details the necessity to work with the administration in working for a more fluid and dynamic solution to save costs, reduce consumption, and ultimately promote a campus that is less wasteful.

Po-Chedley's efforts have been recounted by Dan Amira, '07.

Amira created a documentary on sustainability at Union and compared it to efforts at other colleges in the Northeast, mainly Middlebury College and Williams College.

Whereas Middlebury has a large-scale recycling program with solid administrative support, many of Union's initiatives are only in their nascent stages of development. On of the biggest contrasts Amira saw was that most of the initiatives at Union have come from students and not the administration.

Continued...

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