Sacramento State has joined a pilot program with 90 other campuses in the United States and Canada to assess the use of resources to reduce the environmental impact.

The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System will give students, faculty and staff an opportunity to see how well Sac State is doing to provide sustainability by rating the campus in a variety of categories.

Sustainability is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainability falls into three main categories: environmental, economic and social.

The system functions like a midterm exam. The program gives participating campuses the opportunity to show where they are successfully achieving sustainability, and provides the campuses with feedback to highlight activities that can be improved, said Jillian Buckholz, sustainability coordinator at Chico State, one of the pilot campuses.

Ratings fall into the categories of administration and finance, education and research, and operations. Scoring for each section will be based on whether the campus does or does not take the indicated approach.

The assessment will be done by faculty and students at Sac State who are members of the system’s the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education – the organization that is conducting the system.

Each of the three sections has numerous categories. The operations section includes categories for recycling programs, e-waste recycling, renewable electricity and use of local foods in the dining areas on campus.

The administration and finance section contains categories related to planning, investment and development teams to organize projects for sustainability and waste reduction.

The sections will contain the preliminary data, which is the first phase of the program. Education and research are not being examined as part of the first phase of the pilot program. This section will be scored during the second phase of the program, which is scheduled for completion by the end of summer. Participating campuses will be ranked in spring 2009 based on the information gathered through this program.

The program will be used to identify practical methods for developing greener, more sustainable campuses. While the program will have no direct impact on the environment, it is the first step in researching what steps to take in the future.

Many Sac State students are doing some of the things needed for campus sustainability. Associated Students Inc. holds sustainability as one of its main missions on campus.

“ASI supports sustainability and environmentally friendly causes,” said Walter Wallace, ASI vice president of University Affairs and board member for the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System.

“Our board meetings are entirely paperless, and all of our programs use 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper.”ASI also coordinates the on-campus recycling program.

Wallace said that there are a number of things students can do to help the environment.

“Separating recyclables from your garbage and composting help to reduce waste going to landfills,” Wallace said. “Don’t buy products that are wrapped in layers of packaging. Buy more fruits and vegetables instead of prepackaged snacks; ride a bicycle or walk to campus or work if you live close enough; these things all help. One person can’t save the world, but they can make a difference.”

Sac State operations members are also helping to reduce environmental impact.

Interim Vice President of Risk Management and Environmental Safety Mike Christensen said the campus implemented many environmental conservation practices, including recycling programs, to divert waste from landfills and a storm water and waste management program to help keep the river clean.

Sac State has a water treatment plant that cleans the water from the river that is fed by a pumping station. The pumping station and water inlet is the large boat-shaped structure jutting into the American River southeast of Guy West Bridge.

“Storm water runs off campus and goes into the river where it is picked up by the water inlet. The water is then pumped to the treatment plant before it is sent back to campus as drinking water,” Christensen said.

UC Davis is not participating in the program. Graham Fogg, professor of hydrogeology at UC Davis, said that the campus is working on a program to reduce the campus carbon footprint. This means finding ways to use renewable electricity, reducing emissions output from gasoline, diesel equipment, and reliance on equipment that produces greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. UC Davis encourages students to ride bicycles and to recycle in order to aid in environmental sustainability and reduce emissions.

Sustainability is often a controversial term among various social groups. The term has been negatively associated with limits and controls on business and lifestyle choices, such as manufacturing output constraints and closures of wildlife areas to protect endangered species.

“A lot of people hear the term ‘sustainability’ and they think of tree-hugger, save-the-whale types,” said Claudia Bridges, assistant professor of College of Business Administration and a member of the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System.

“We are in the capital of the most progressive state in the country. Businesses are moving here at an incredible rate with a focus on alternative energy and sustainability, and we have got a university that is educating future employees of these companies, and I think it is our responsibility to ensure that the students are going out there with a level of education in that area,” Bridges said.

The immediate need to achieve the goals of sustainability education is awareness, Bridges said.

“It needs to start at the top, with the college department heads. They need to go back and tell the departments that we need to meet certain goals of educating students to be knowledgeable about sustainability. Then the information needs to be passed on to the community and incorporated into the curriculum.”

Derek Fleming can be reached at [email protected].