Members of the Sustainability Committee gathered at Capital Public Radio for their quarterly meeting to discuss their goals to improve sustainability on campus by bringing awareness and change to Sacramento State.

Friday morning’s meeting was led by Paul Serafimidis, associate director of Facilities Management. Other members of the committee included: Energy Conservation Coordinator Nat Martin, Recycling Coordinator Joey Martinez, Sustainability and Operations Analyst Kristina Cullen, as well as representatives from the Student Housing Advisory Committee and Union WELL Inc.

Representatives brought their goals and completed tasks to the table to share with the rest of the committee.

Faculty Representative Kristin Kiesel discussed how to bring awareness to sustainability through an academic approach.

“As a first step, we need to network with select faculty we already know to either directly teach sustainability related topics in their curricular activities, in their classes, or involve students in extracurricular activities such as aquaponics,” Kiesel said.

Martin talked about his goals in terms of energy efficiency.

“I’ve boiled it down to one single goal, which is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Martin said.

He discussed the lighting project in Yosemite Hall, which not only improved the quality of lighting in the building, but also reduced the amount of energy being used. Other changes in energy efficiency seen on campus were the addition of solar panels and the transition to LED lighting in street lights.

Robert Anchor, manager of grounds and landscape, discussed the sustainable changes he has seen in the campus’s landscape.

“Part of our other objectives is to implement drought tolerant landscaping by replacing targeted grass areas with wood chips,” Anchor said.

Replacing turf with sustainable material, as well as implementing mulch, allows the campus to use less water to maintain the landscape. Anchor said one of their goals is to reduce water use for landscaping by 20 percent by 2020.

Sac State Sustainability will be involved in different events that are open to the public. Mulching Mania will be on March 12 and Earth Day will be on April 16. Also, This Way to Sustainability Conference will take place at Chico State on March 26 and 27.

A full calendar of these events can be accessed on the Sac State Sustainability website at www.csus.edu/sustainability. Students and faculty are encouraged to attend in order to gain a better understanding of the changes occurring on campus.

“Sac State is a green campus,” Martinez said. “We want students to know how and why.”