Miami University may be a campus of red bricks and beige Georgian facades, but administrators are hoping to make campus green.
The Task Force on Environmental Sustainability, appointed by President David Hodge, worked through the summer to create its final report. The idea for the task force was spearheaded by alumnae Kate Waller and has since grown into a community dialogue on the issue of environmental sustainability.
A town hall meeting was held late April and the task force's preliminary recommendations were posted on the president's Web site in the spring. Since then, any additional feedback received is being added as an appendix to the report.
Energy management engineer and task force co-chair Tony Ferraro said the final report should be delivered to the president's office by the end of the week.
Ferraro said the university is not new to the eco-friendly movement. Already, steps have been taken to complete variable speed drives, lighting retrofits and insulation upgrades among other energy efficient changes on campus.
However, this can be a disadvantage when Miami tries to meet the demands of state and national legislation.
Miami completed several energy savings projects before 2007, when House Bill 251 was passed. The bill required public universities in Ohio to decrease energy use by 20 percent during the time period 2004-2014.
"(For) another university that may have not done that much (before 2004, meeting 20 percent) is going to be a lot easier for them than it is for us, because we've done ... all those things (before 2004) that now another 20 percent on top of that will be slightly difficult to get (for Miami)," Ferraro said.
Mark Boardman, director of the Institute of Environmental Studies at Miami and member of the task force, said that while measurements of increased energy efficiency at the university are important, their importance should not be exaggerated.
"There's a concern that I have that... we are detaching ourselves from our individual responsibility to make the small individual choices that are going to matter," Boardman said.
He mentions that these individual choices include unplugging computers, turning off lights and adjusting the one's air conditioners use in the summer.
Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter
"I think universities have a real opportunity to discuss these issues and to help us just before we enter the working world," Boardman said.
He said the university sustainability initiative could have a long-term impact on students' thought processes when they enter careers and start to shape their home lives.
However, Boardman said he thought the principles of sustainability should be even more integrated into life at Miami.
"The university should include sustainability into our culture," Boardman said. "In the same way we have a Miami Plan that says humanities are important and social sciences are important and natural sciences and quantitative reasoning are important, one of the values we should hold up as important is our responsibility to sustain our lifestyle."
In addition to being conscious about the environment, Boardman said the university is saving money from the initiative through water-saving showers in residence halls and energy-saving lightbulbs.
Read More
How one professor and her classes are preserving Oxford’s Black history
By Sean Scott | March 20, 2024Jazma Sutton, an assistant professor of history, teaches The Black Midwest (HST 350Q) and Black Women in America (HST 450D) classes. In both courses, she has students working with the Smith Library of Regional History and Miami’s archives to document and preserve Black history in Oxford.
Miami faculty members recount Freedom Summer in new documentary
By Luke Macy | February 25, 2022After seven years of work, “Training for Freedom,” a documentary highlighting Oxford’s involvement in the Freedom Summer of 1964, premiered on PBS Western Reserve on Valentine’s Day.
“Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic”: History in the making
By Alice Momany | August 29, 2021In March 2020, Miami University’s archives launched “Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a collection focused on life during the COVID-19 pandemic.