Environmental Education

ENVIRONMENTAL
EDUCATION
which opened in August and is well
positioned for LEED® Silver certification
through the U.S. Green Building Council
(the paperwork is being finalized). One
benefit of switching to green cleaning
products was immediately apparent.
“There isn’t the smell,” says director of
campus recreation Jeff Hunt. “Some
people think they need to smell the
cleanliness, but that smell is exactly
what you’re trying to get away from.”
At sustainability-minded schools
everywhere, the buildings — even those
equipped with high-efficiency light
fixtures, waterless urinals and recycled
floors — are only the beginning. Says
Hatch, “No longer is the issue just about
a building design going green, but rather
what we’re starting to look like in terms of
our programs, our services, our awareness.”
Awareness is on the rise at the University
of California, Berkeley, where a “PlayGreen”
initiative emphasizing environmentally
sound operations was launched in January.
“We wanted to use our relationship with
SPORT UTILITY
Poolside solar
panels are only
part of the
San Diego State
recreation
department’s
commitment to
energy savings.
students to educate and inspire them,
but also connect them,” says Mike
Weinberger, Cal’s director of recreational
sports. “There are a lot of student
sustainability groups on campus, and we
weren’t sure they were all talking to each
other. We thought we could facilitate
that by building a community that’s
focused on green initiatives.”
Weinberger quickly realized that his
own charges had to set an example, so he
asked himself, “What are we doing as a
department? What are the things that we
can do to save energy or reduce pollution?”
Several things, it turns out. Weinberger
schedules custodial work to take place
during the Golden Bear Recreation Center’s
Lindenwood University
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regular operating hours, allowing the
building to go completely dark between
its closing at midnight and reopening at
6 a.m. and producing energy savings
approaching 25 percent. “Inevitably,
there were complaints — ‘I’m working
out and somebody’s mopping the floor
next to me,’ ” Weinberger says. “We had
to educate our users, explain what we
were doing and kind of sell it.”
The educational process extended to
staff members, too. “There are ebbs and
flows in the day around certain types of
equipment, and you have to work with
your staff to set their schedule so that
they’re cleaning an area at low use times.”
Shower detail presents the greatest
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PHOTO COURTESY OF SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY