HOW MANY EARTHS?

The newly formed Presidential Commission on Sustainability wants to implement change. To do that, it’s starting with education about what sustainability is, which sustainability practices Clarion University currently employs, and what the university can do to be more sustainable in the future.

“Sustainability requires meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs,” said Dr. Suzie Boyden, biology professor and commission chair. “Something is sustainable if it can continue to exist in perpetuity: If the natural resources, human resources and cultural resources required to support an activity or a community are not depleted faster than they are naturally renewed.”

The ultimate goal, she said, is to maintain and enhance the quality of human enterprise and existence in balance with the natural resource capital of the planet.

HOW MANY EARTHS?

To help the university community understand sustainability, the PCOS introduced itself last fall with a quiz that calculates one’s carbon footprint – or how many Earths would be required to sustain the human race if everyone lived like the person taking the quiz. The results were eye opening.

Through the Ecological Footprint Calculator, Dr. Joseph Croskey, assistant professor in Advising Services, learned that 5.5 Earths were needed to sustain his lifestyle. That news propelled him to pledge to eat vegetarian more often, use a bicycle to get to work in the summer, convert to solar power for his home, and purchase a more efficient vehicle.

The convenience of plastic packaging is a well-known environmental culprit. Cathi Wenner, a staff member in Academic Affairs, decided to break up with bottled water after she learned that it contributed to her quiz result of 4.1 Earths. She said once her family finishes the bottled water they have, they will begin carrying reusable water bottles.

Juanice and Dr. Tony Vega each took the pledge. Juanice, interim assistant dean of the MBA program, who needed 3.4 Earths, pledged to eat meatless once per week and purchase more local produce. Her husband, professor of biology and geosciences, pledged to reduce his 3.6 Earths to one.

“We recycle and conserve water, gas, electricity, etc., where possible,” Tony Vega said. He hopes within a few years to replace his family’s gas furnace with a geothermal heat pump. “Heating/cooling, hot water, and refrigeration are the largest energy hogs in a household, and the heat pump reduces all but refrigeration to a fraction of normal usage,” Vega explained. He equated the heat pump’s energy consumption to that required to light a 100-watt bulb.

Josh Domitrovich, coordinator for career mentoring and internships, learned that 3.4 Earths would be needed if everyone lived like him.

“I thought I was doing well by walking to work,” Domitrovich said. “But I need to do more to reduce my carbon footprint, especially with buying local produce.”

Dr. Nripendra Singh, professor of management and marketing and PCOS member, vowed “to reduce my carbon footprint by doing composting, reusing and recycling my waste.” The quiz showed that his lifestyle requires only 1.6 Earths, but he wants to do better.

Teaching people to care is one of the goals of Clarion University employee Erin Lewis, assistant director of career services, who only needed 1.2 Earths.

“As someone who is super environmentally conscious, already using reusable food bags, cloth diapering and so much more, my best personal goal is to help educate more people on this lifestyle and to shop the local farmer’s market,” she said.

Close to 200 people took the quiz and signed pledges to reduce their carbon footprint.

Goals

“The goal is to really impact the local community,” Boyden said.

The university, through the commission, is leaning into that goal by taking a hard look at what it currently does sustainably and what it can do in the future. Everything can be more sustainable, from fleet vehicles and office supplies to investments the university makes, Boyden said. We can even explore green athletics and natural pest management techniques.

“Sustainability is good for businesses, and, of course, our university is in the education business,” said President Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson, who is excited to see the recommendations the commission makes. “It is good for us in so many ways.”

“Becoming a leader in sustainable development and education is arguably the greatest action we can take to impact our students, communities and society as a whole,” Boyden said.

Over the next year, the commission plans to evaluate the university’s environmental sustainability in four key areas: academics, engagement, operations, and planning and administration.

“There are a lot of people on the campus who want to be doing things — from the president to the student body,” Boyden said.

This generation of students has inherited environmental problems. They are entering a world in which climate change very directly will affect them and their livelihoods, noted Boyden and commission co-chair Dr. Jessica Thomas, assistant professor of biology and geosciences. They believe that, as educators, their job is to empower students and bring scientific literacy to the conversation.

“We need to prepare them for that,” Boyden said.

“It’s a humanitarian issue,” Thomas added. Students have a keen interest in sustainability, which they expressed during a forum co-hosted by the commission and Student Senate. Particularly of concern to students is the reduction of paper and plastic waste on campus. Ways to address their concerns include initiatives in dining services, the installation of water bottle filling stations, and movement toward online textbooks and other paperless approaches to teaching.

Going Green

Recycling is high on the list of short-term campus sustainability goals. G. Chad Thomas, assistant director of facilities management, is leading the charge to tackle this issue. Other short-term goals include reducing the use of single-use plastic water bottles by providing students with reusable water bottles, and pursuing, in cooperation with several student organizations, the installation of a rain garden to trap and filter campus runoff.

The PCOS is in the planning stages of a self-study through the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System. STARS will help the university set and meet sustainability goals, while fostering collaboration and information-sharing, and it will enable Clarion to benchmark with peers.

Boyden believes the university can integrate sustainability into its curricular and co-curricular activities, and the university’s scenic location makes that possible.

“We think Clarion University should be THE school that people in northwestern Pennsylvania think of when they think of the outdoors and the environment,” Boyden said.

The bottom line may be teaching people to care.

“Our students have roots in this landscape,” Boyden said. “They have grown up hunting, fishing, camping and hiking these hills and valleys. I believe they represent a population who, regardless of their academic or career interests, care about the natural world and our relationship with it.”

She said PCOS members are optimistic, but realistic, too.

“We can’t change the world with this commission, but it can give the university community the tools to make a difference.”