Selected Sustainability Projects and Activities of NJHEPS Member Campuses
Bergen Community College
A project is being developed to place a photovoltaic array on the rooftop of the main structure of Bergen Community College. It will produce grid-connected electricity intended to serve as a learning tool for demonstrating the potential for generating electric power in northern New Jersey through solar technologies.
Burlington County College
Burlington County College developed an electric-powered car to compete in the 12th annual American Tour de Sol in May 2000, a nation-wide electric vehicle championship sponsored by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. Also, a number of energy conservation initiatives was aimed at reducing electricity consumption.
Drew University
Prof. Fred Curtis of the Department of Economics, and offers courses in Theories of Sustainable Development, is leading a team of students who will revise and expand Drew’s campus-wide recycling program. Prof. Curtis’ colleague, Prof. Laurel Kearns, who is also a participating member of the Partnership, had led the organizing effort for the heavily-attended Tipple-Vosburgh Lectures and Alumni Reunion, "Greening the Church for the Next Millennium," which took place on October 19, 1999 at the Drew campus in Madison, NJ. Professors Curtis and Kearns are working with students and staff to revise and reinvigorate Drew's campus-wide recycling program. Other students and faculty members are engaged in a pilot "reforestation" program to return part of the campus grounds to more natural and indigenous plants. "Turning sustainability from a concept in a classroom into an on-going project on campus," notes Prof. Curtis, "benefits the classroom, the campus and the environment, a win-win-win result."
Kean University
Prof. Jon Erickson, Chair of the Department of Public Administration, leads SEAK (Sustainable Environment at Kean) a team which includes Professors Sylvio Codella and Robert Schuhmacher of the Biology Department, Prof. Paul Rockman, Geology and Meteorology, and Prof. Donald Wheeler, Sociology and Global Studies, in establishing a horticulture project at the Kean campus in Union, NJ that will catalog the species of trees and shrubs on the campus, and establish a butterfly garden to advance community sensitivity to the importance of biodiversity. Kean is also the home of SUSTAIN (Students Undertaking Sustainability Through Activism, Instruction and Networking), the student led Partnership initiative that seeks to establish a statewide network of student environmental organizations.
Middlesex County College
Professor Diane Trainor of the Dept. of Chemistry and Coordinator of Environmental Sciences, and Prof. Bob Colburn of the Biology Department, are exploring a project for reducing solid waste management costs while also producing a usable by-product: composting of food wastes generated on campus. "If we can successfully recycle food," noted Prof. Trainor, we can reduce the burden on landfills while also developing a compost that can moderate the use of chemical fertilizers and imported soil amendment products. Dr. Reginald Luke, Dean of the Science, Mathematics and Health Technologies Division, is also a member of the MCC-NJHEPS team.
Montclair State University
Prof. Robert Taylor, of the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, led an effort to produce an environmental assessment, or "audit," of campus operations. The document is aimed at educating MSU’s administrators about the need for improving solid waste management and recycling, energy conservation, environmental health and safety, and a number of other areas relating to how the campus is maintained on a day-to-day basis. As the effort moves into its next term, it is expected to establish benchmarks for measurable improvements in campus operations.
Princeton University
The Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI) promotes and coordinates interdisciplinary research in the environmental field and provides undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral education and training in environmental science, technology, and policy. PEI, through is re-examining an extensive audit performed by Princeton Environmental Reform Committee (PERC) students five years ago. Data collected by students during Fall 1999 in PEI’s environmental studies course, ENV 201, will be organized into report form by a smaller group of students supported by NJHPS and PEI in Spring 2000. The team expects to update and report on the indicators examined in the earlier audit that included solid waste, toxic substances, procurement, food services, energy and water, transportation and pesticide use. "We are pleased," states PEI’s Executive Director Janet Gruschow, "that what began as a class project in one of our undergraduate courses in environmental studies, has been taken up by a group of students who are committed to seeing a revision of the 1995 PERC Environmental Audit come to fruition. It will be useful to view the data five years later and determine if Princeton has made progress toward sustainability." Princeton, along with Rutgers, also has the distinction of managing a substantial portion of its food service wastes as animal feed.
Ramapo College of New Jersey
Under the leadership of Prof. Cliff Peterson of American and International Studies, Prof. Michael Edelstein of the Institute for Environmental Studies, and Gene Ritchie, Associate Director of Facilities, Ramapo College acquired a group of six mountain bikes in order to establish a bicycle-mounted patrol that would reduce operational costs. Due to reductions in the use of security automobiles, it is estimated that fuel savings alone should exceed $10,000 per year. Reductions in vehicle emissions are also an added benefit. Further, security personnel report improved morale due to closer interactions with the campus community and the feeling of well-being derived from the physical exercise in operating the bikes. Ramapo College is also operating a state-of-the-art fuel cell for independent generation of electricity and heat recovery.
Becoming perhaps the first higher education institution in New Jersey to do so, Ramapo College of New Jersey in Mahwah is now supplying most of its electrical needs for one of its new dormitories with a natural gas-powered fuel cell.
The device can produce electricity at a cost of about 4 cents per kilowatt-hour compared with the 11-cents per-hour-electricity it now purchases from the local utility. Waste heat from the fuel cell is used for heating potable water further reducing the overall energy bill. The device also acts as an "uninterruptible power source" (UPS) for RCNJ’s computer and TV facilities, avoiding an estimated $200,000 investment in separate UPSs for the College.
And finally, according to RCNJ’s Associate Vice-President for Administration and Finance, Richard Roberts, "Ramapo College in involved in a consortium of State agencies that are aggregating their electricity procurement under the newly deregulated market. A portion of the overall system-wide buying is being set-aside for purchasing power from ‘green sources.’"
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Taking advantage of a highly efficient and low-cost geothermal energy system, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey near Atlantic City has enjoyed very substantial savings in its energy bill. On line since 1994, the system consists of a series of heat exchangers and deep-well storage units which remove heated water from Stockton’s buildings in the summer and send it through a lattice work of underground plumbing which cools the water and circulates it back through the school’s interior spaces. The cycle is merely reversed in the winter, removing heat from below ground to help warm the buildings inside when it is cold outside. "The system has nearly paid for itself," observed Lynn Stiles, Stockton’s Dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and chief advocate for the original installation of the system.
But Stockton’s energy conserving devices don’t end with the geothermal units. The facilities staff, directed by Marvin Witmer, has introduced an impressive array of solar photovoltaic panels which generate electricity from sunlight and a variety of glazing, lighting and switching retrofits. These have combined to significantly reduce the school’s heating, ventilation and lighting bills. Naturally, the impact on the environment is reduced as well due to fewer emissions.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
New Brunswick Campus: Prof. Peter Smouse, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, NJHEPS team leader at RU, documents an impressive array of activities undertaken by Rutgers in campus operations, as well as programmatic and curricular developments. He comments that "Rutgers is a signatory of the Talloires Declaration, and has already initiated a number of environmentally responsible projects, but there is still much to do." Rutgers has a number of energy conservation initiatives, including cogeneration plants at both the New Brunswick and Camden campuses; an integrated pest management program, aimed at reducing human exposure and environmental harm; a campus-wide food waste recycling program; and an extensive array of programs in urban ecology, environmental literacy, brownfields and landfill reclamation, marine and coastal protection, and other environmental programs. By virtue of its formidable resources, numerous research institutes, departments, and programs, Rutgers is a major contributor to the NJHEPS effort. Rutgers, along with Princeton, also has the distinction of managing a substantial portion of its food service wastes as animal feed. Further, Rutgers has managed to substantially reduce its emissions and costs for facilities operations by replacing obsolete boilers, modifying ventilation and air-conditioning equipment, installing more efficient lighting systems, and switching fuel use to a greater emphasis on natural gas instead of fuel oil.
Newark Campus: Under the leadership of Prof. Thomas Bryant, Director, Entrepreneurial Management Programs, and William Newburry, Professor of International Business, the Rutgers Graduate School of Management will play host to the New Jersey Sustainable Business Conference (April 18, 2000) which will bring New Jersey’s governor, business leaders, and the academic community together to examine the promise of "green" enterprise in the "Garden State." The team, which includes NJHEPS, the New Jersey Office of Sustainable Business, New Jersey Future, and others, anticipates developing this into an annual event.
Camden Campus: With its $1.2 billion capital plant and its annual budget in excess of $1 billion, RU plays a major role as a purchaser for state and regional enterprises. Through the leadership of Kevin Lyons, Purchasing Officer, Purchasing Division, and Adjunct Professor, Graduate Department of Public Policy and Administration, Camden Campus, RU has demonstrated a powerful model in "environmental contract management" for the state and the nation. Not only has Kevin Lyons’ approach to purchasing led to considerable monetary savings for RU, it has also resulted in avoided environmental impacts. "Greening the supplier chain is the next urgent step for corporate responsibility," he observes, "as consumers, shareholders and the general public raise their expectations, expectations that the New Jersey higher education sector is ready to institutionalize and provide leadership in." Extensive detail and model contracts are available through Kevin Lyons’ office or website at http://info.rutgers.edu:80/Services/procure/.
Stevens Institute of Technology
Under the leadership of Dr. Christos Christodoulatos, Associate Prof. of Civil, Environmental & Ocean Engineering, and Mr. Frank Cannavale from the Department of Chemistry, a significant project designed to minimize environmental impacts and promote sustainability has been established at S.I.T. in Hoboken, NJ. It is a centralized Chemicals Management System (CMS). The main objective of the CMS is to minimize, and when possible eliminate, the use of toxic and hazardous substances purchased, stored and disposed by the institution. Consistent with this effort, a centralized chemical purchasing system has been developed and implemented which keeps an inventory of all chemicals available on campus and orders chemicals from outside vendors only when they are not available in storage. The main component of the CMS is a database which keeps track of all chemicals on campus (physical location, quantity, date of purchase, etc.). By averaging the expenditures on disposal costs for the four years 1994 through 1997, and comparing that average to the expenditure for 1998, S.I.T. was able to demonstrate a reduction in costs of 55%. A pilot project is to be established in partnership with Montclair State University. "I hope that the success, however small, of the Stevens centralized Chemical Management System," says Prof. Christodoulatos, "will encourage other Institutions to adopt this approach and work together for the creation of a sustainable environment."
The College of New Jersey (TCNJ)
Prof. David Rose of the Department of Biology is leading the team effort at TCNJ in Ewing, NJ to expand the campus recycling program and develop campus biological diversity through selected campus horticulture projects. TCNJ has also undertaken a major initiative in energy conservation by partnering with the US EPA’s Energy Star Program for reducing electricity demand.
TCNJ recently replaced a large stock of its old office furnishings with new. Unable to store the used furniture on its premises and pressed with the high costs of its disposal, TCNJ called on the nearby Trenton Waste Exchange to take away the old furniture. "The College has saved thousands of dollars," noted David Rose, TCNJ biologist and NJHEPS member. "Without the Waste Exchange, we would have had to dispose the items at cost." According to its website, the Trenton Waste Exchange is "a nonprofit organization, (that) helps businesses and other agencies to locate a home for unwanted but usable office furniture, business machines, office supplies, seconds, and discontinued and/or obsolete merchandise. These items are contributed directly to local nonprofits and charities for reuse. Donations may be tax deductible."
TCNJ also carried out a series of "demand side management" initiatives for electricity conservation through the PSE&G standard offer program. This meant that significant cost savings were accompanied by major reductions in emissions and fuel use. The College’s heating, cooling and electric needs for lighting and motors have been reconfigured to save energy. A significant component of this is a combined heat and power co-generation facility. Furthermore, TCNJ constructed two new residential buildings and one academic building which are served by energy-saving geothermal systems.
William Paterson University
WPU has undertaken a range of recycling and waste minimization, campus "beautification," and ecological restoration initiatives at the campus in Wayne, NJ. Led by Prof. Richard Pardi of Environmental Science and Geography, and Mr. Val Weiss of Campus Facilities, the Partnership team will strengthen these programs by: acquiring additional recycling containers, intensifying public participation, and expanding campus purchase of recycled paper; promoting the use of plant species throughout the campus landscape; and assisting faculty and students in the studying and improving the ecology of Oldham Pond, a 20-acre site in North Haledon donated in May 1998 by the Bayer Corporation.