One of Dr. Cully Nordby’s goals is to put herself out of business.
With the nation’s current economic problems, Nordby is not irrational for hoping to lose her position as the chair of the Sustainability Committee, which is dedicated to promoting environmentally friendly practices.
“The ultimate goal of the Sustainability Committee and the sustainability actions in my mind is to put ourselves out of business,” she said.
“If we’re really successful at what we do, then all of these efforts to be more sustainable aren’t seen as special efforts or above and beyond what we should be doing. They just become a part of what everybody else is doing and the way that everybody works and lives on campus,” she added.
This summer, many different areas of UCLA have said they will conserve energy and resources through sustainable programs and efforts. These sustainable causes will be implemented with the desirable goal of reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, said Dave Johnson, UCLA’s director of energy services and utilities in Facilities Management.
UCLA is one of the first campuses in the country to have completed a climate action plan, which all members of the Sustainability Committee worked on, Nordby said. The plan describes how UCLA will meet the University of California’s goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to levels of 2000 by 2014 and to levels of 1990 by 2020.
UCLA will be able to meet both goals by 2012, Nordby said. The plan extensively outlines UCLA’s sustainable initiatives, which range from lighting and Heating, Ventilating and Air conditioning retrofits to research initiatives.
“UCLA has already done such an amazing job on being energy conscious and trying to reduce our energy consumption, which is also saving us lots of money,” she said. “We’ve been doing that so well and we have a really progressive program in place.”
There is currently a campus-wide sustainability assessment in place that will give a comprehensive view of UCLA’s operations and academics to see how institutionalized sustainability is at UCLA, Nordby said. This Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Reporting System, which is funded by The Green Initiative Fund, will hopefully be completed by the fall quarter, she added.
Nurit Katz, the UCLA sustainability consultant, who is leading the assessment, said the assessment is broader than the climate action plans and will provide a baseline data to do better planning for sustainability.
The assessment is designed to “provide a guide for advancing sustainability in all sectors of higher education, (and) enable meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions by establishing a common standard of measurement for sustainability in higher education,” according to the Web site for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
Facilities management
As part of its outlined Energy Conservation Program, Facilities Management is currently retrofitting the ventilation systems of 25 buildings for modern, energy-saving systems, Johnson said.
This HVAC Modernization program will take four years to complete, and Facilities Management is already a quarter of the way finished, Johnson said. With the ventilation system retrofits, energy usage in these buildings will be reduced by 25 percent.
As of now, about 80 percent of UCLA’s green house gas emissions is due to the energy used by and in UCLA buildings, Johnson added.
Under the Summer Shutdown program, buildings that are not in use will be shut down on 13 consecutive Sundays, as well as on the weekends of Fourth of July and Labor Day. Facilities Management will shut off the ventilation systems in the buildings that do not need to maintain constant temperatures, Johnson said.
Transportation
UCLA Transportation has already met the University’s climate action goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation because of its 25 years of sustainable transportation programs, said Renee Fortier, the director of UCLA Transportation. UCLA Transportation currently provides alternative transportation programs including vanpools, subsidized transit pass programs and subsidized hourly on-campus car rentals.
UCLA Transportation is working with the Anderson School of Management on commuter cafes to encourage sustainable behavior. Commuter cafes will enable new students at Anderson to meet potential carpool partners and form effective carpools. By doing so, students may opt for carpools instead of single-occupant parking permits, Fortier added.
UCLA housing
Throughout the summer, UCLA Housing will implement various sustainable plans on the Hill.
UCLA Housing’s sustainable actions have two goals: to reduce individuals’ consumption and to educate them about sustainability, said Robert Gilbert, the sustainability coordinator for UCLA Housing and Hospitality Services.
During the conference season of the summer, individuals who attend sports camps or other conferences at UCLA will live in the residential halls for short periods of time. These individuals will use key cards made of disposable corn resin, Gilbert added.
To reduce water usage, UCLA Housing will voluntarily follow the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s restrictions by replacing hoses with new nozzles and reprogramming the sprinklers, Gilbert said. On June 1, the LADWP began enforcing outdoor watering restrictions due to Southern California’s current water supply shortage, according to the LADWP Web site.
UCLA Housing already uses computer systems to adjust the air conditioning and heating of unoccupied buildings, which conserves energy, Gilbert said.
Nordby believes the assorted efforts to address the growing support for sustainability are all guided toward one mission.
“It’s really about the university taking the responsibility to demonstrate that this can be done in a financially feasible way and a socially responsible way, and that we can make a difference and show that it’s possible to live in a way that is more sustainable and environmentally sound,” Nordby said.
No matter what season it is, Gilbert said he believes it is important to abide by the same principles throughout the year.
“Why wouldn’t you be as sustainable during the year as in the summer?” he asked. “It’s important to be living by that standard all the time and not change it based on the season.”