What We're Doing: Green Campus

Going Green at your campus is an excellent way to achieve significant operating cost reduction, build team spirit and create a highly desirable environment for faculty, staff and students. Below, please find tips and information to help get your campus geared up and headed in a “green” direction.

Develop a Go Green Team

Nominate individuals to take responsibility for a particular environmental improvement. Establish an informal committee to help coordinate efforts and share information.

Recycling

Visit Earth 911 (www.earth911.org) for information about local recycling facilities or work with the local waste management company to establish a recycling pick up.

Recycle ink and toner cartridges. Recycling cartridges reduces landfill waste and associated toxins.

Obtain recycling bins for all office employees and classrooms. Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees, almost 7,000 gallons of water and more than three cubic yards of landfill space.

Purchasing

Buy “green” products. Work with your purchasing department to establish a practice of purchasing recycled paper and environment friendly products whenever possible, including breakroom consumables.

Buy ENERGY STAR qualified products. ENERGY STAR printers, computers, fax machines, monitors and other office machines can reduce energy use by as much as 75 percent. Setting equipment to “standby” or “sleep mode” when equipment is not in use reduces energy usage and saves on energy costs.

Energy Efficient Lighting

Approach building management about switching lighting from traditional bulbs to compact fluorescents (CFL).

Tell them what the advantages are, including these points:

  • According to the U.S. Environmental Protection agency, 30 percent of a commercial building’s energy is used inefficiently or unnecessarily, resulting in higher than needed utility bills.
  • Compact fluorescent bulbs last longer than traditional bulbs. Lifespan of a modern compact fluorescent is between 6,000 and 15,000 hours, whereas incandescent bulbs typically have a life span of 750 hours to 1,000 hours.
  • Replacing four of the most often used incandescent light bulbs with CFLs can save you $35 annually.
  • For a given light output, CFLs use between one-fifth and one-quarter of the power of an equivalent incandescent lamp, thereby saving significant amounts of energy in use and reducing the need for electrical generation.
  • Compact fluorescents emit the same light as a traditional incandescent bulb, but use 75 percent to 80 percent less electricity.

Employee Awareness

Place Apollo Group, Inc. Go Green information posters in high traffic and employee common areas. Go Green posters will be available in October.

Volunteer Opportunities

Provide employees with a list of upcoming local environmental events or volunteer opportunities. Solicit employee input for a regular listing of these events.

Visit https://apollo.volunteermatch.org/ for more than 50 volunteer listings and 200 virtual volunteer listings.