The Center for Sustainability brainstormed ideas for a green campus at the first meeting that was held in the Physical Education Building on Wednesday, Oct. 23.
The forum started with a presentation of the Center’s goals and future plans.
“We really want to lock ideas and look at how those can integrate in the best possible ways for our campus,” said Adam Green, Center for Sustainability director.
Perrin Pellegrin, a managing partner for Innovative Workshop Consulting, said the center hopes to get new ideas out of the workshop.
“We want to create a district wide sustainability plan that’s easy, comprehensible and sustainable so that everybody actively is making changes on campus,” Pellegrin said.
Pellegrin explained that the fundamentals of sustainability are economic, social and environmental. Some of the key phrases used during the presentation were “energy savings,” “renewable resources” and “water reduction.”
City College is currently making an effort to use renewable resources. City College finds homes for old computers that are no longer in use and purchases paper with 20 percent recycled content. The bookstore also has items for sale that are environmentally friendly, such as the decomposition book.
A survey was conducted before the workshop and 12 people answered the questions, including, “What specifically would you like to see come out of this first workshop in order to continue sustainability measures on campus?” and “How would you implement your ideas for sustainability here at SBCC?”
Director of Facilities, Julie Hendricks, said that the forum is a great way to interact and make for new thoughts.
“We want to identify themes and focus on a few core issues that we can tackle and address,” Hendricks said.
Benchmarking is another concept that the center uses. The idea around benchmarking is to see environmental improvement over time.
The elimination of plastic straws in the campus cafeterias and reducing all waste on campus by 25 percent by 2018 were two of the ideas discussed during the workshop.
The Center for Sustainability plans on having another workshop to get more faculties involved.
“Getting connected to other goals with other colleges will make City College a better educational institution,” Green said.
The audience consisted of approximately 50 people with representatives from all different areas. Students, staff, community members and deans attended the forum.
“I think it is wonderful,” said Savanah Maya, anthropology major and member of the Student Sustainability Coalition Club. “It’s really encouraging that a lot of people are becoming more environmentally conscious.”
The participants were told of new ways to help create a more environmentally friendly campus.
“There are a lot of things on campus I didn’t know about, like reusable pens for example,” said Shelly Dixon, director of the Professional Development Center.
The Center will shape and map out the most reachable goals in a report that will be issued and emailed to all participants.
