The Environmental Role Model Working Group was established by the UCES and began meeting in April 1995. The group was charged with preparing a concrete proposal to promote Virginia Tech as a role model for environmentally responsible behavior and leadership.

Two guiding principles emerged and became the framework of the working group proposal. First, Virginia Tech was viewed on a very broad scope encompassing all aspects of the university community; academic, research, physical plant operations, faculty and student life, etc. Second, recommendations were created to complement and to enhance Virginia Tech's expectation to become the model land-grant university of the 21st century.

Recommendations

1. Statement of Policy: The working group exhorts the administration to endorse a concise, fundamental policy statement on environmental studies and responsibility, recognized and endorsed by the President Torgerson and the Board of Visitors.

2. Environmental/Energy Audit: The working group supports the UCES recommendation of conducting an Environmental/Energy Audit. The audit will serve as a data collection mechanism to determine the quantity and quality of the waste stream and energy use. The group proposes that the audit be conducted using existing University expertise, perhaps as a project conducted by graduate and upper-level undergraduate students supervised by expert faculty. The College of Engineering's Green Engineering Initiative is one source of partial funding for conducting audits.

3. University Outreach: The working group recommends making the promotion and recognition of new, innovative, or noteworthy environmental research, instruction, operations, etc. practiced at Virginia Tech a high priority. A committee should be established for this purpose and utilize the existing communication and public relations infrastructure of Virginia Tech.

4. Incorporate University Environmental Goals into Campus Life: The working group contends that environmental stewardship and sound resource management should be actively promoted and demonstrated across the campus. Therefore, another function of the committee recommended in item #3 is to facilitate the communication of ideas and promote environmental responsibility at Virginia Tech via a regular column in various student and local publications as well as electronically (Internet, BevNet).

5. Address Counter-Productive Regulatory and Administrative Procedures: Establish an ad-hoc committee on waste reduction and recycling to address counter-productive environmental regulations and administrative procedures, investigate problems, assist in loosening of appropriate regulations and facilitate cost-effective solutions.

6. Establish a Standing Committee to Implement Goals: The working group recommends the formation of a standing committee designed to address areas of concern in a comprehensive manner and to implement the previous five recommendations. The standing committee would also serve as a future clearing house for ideas and information about environmental programs, policy, outreach, problem solving, etc. at Virginia Tech.

Mark A. Widdowson, Ph.D., P.E.

Chair, Working Group on Virginia Tech as an Environmental Role Model

on behalf of

Larry Bechtel, Don Cordes, Donna Dunay, Greg Evanylo, Richard Hirsh, Holly Lesko, Bob Lyons, Bernadette Mondy, Dwight Paulette, Ray Pethtel, and Jennifer Berns (student), working group members

Proposal of the Working Group, Virginia Tech as an Environmental Role Model

Introduction

Background

The final report of the University Committee on Environmental Studies (UCES), submitted tot he Provost in November, 1993, provided a set of recommendations on "the future direction and organization of environmental studies at Virginia Tech." In their report, the UCES exhorted the university to exercise "environmentally responsible behavior and leadership." At the direction of Dr. David Conn., Special Assistant to the Provost on Environmental Studies, a working group was formed to study and address this recommendation. The working group was charged with preparing "a concrete proposal for making Virginia Tech an environmental role model." The 12-person working group began deliberation in April 1995, culminating in the following proposal.

Scope

The working group contends that, in many ways, Virginia Tech is no different than any industrial facility or research park in terms of consumption of energy and materials and the generation, reuse, recycling, and disposal of waste. Unlike the private sector, Virginia Tech, by virtue of its mission statement, seeks to serve as a role model for the public sector, private industry, and local governments, and the Commonwealth of Virginia itself. Therefore, Virginia Tech is bound to conduct its affairs in an environmentally responsible manner. As a role model, Virginia Tech must be a leader in stewardship of the environment; a leader not merely in word but in deed; leading by example and actively promoting and demonstrating innovative and sound environmental practices to society. As such, the working group discussed the broad spectrum of the day-to-day operations within the university, and many aspects of these operations are addressed in this proposal: physical plant and facilities, activities of academic programs impacting the environment, and university life (student, faculty, and staff).

Relation of Proposal to University Goals

The working group has created a set of recommendations that is consistent with and complementary to the stated goals of the university. The working group asserts that as Virginia Tech pursues the goal of becoming the "model land-grant university of the 21st century" through the Phase II restructuring plan, the university must function as an effective environmental role model. However, this concept is not intended to result in a financial burden and may, on the contrary, result in substantial cost savings over the long term. The working group also expects these proposals will complement other university goals discussed in the document Restructuring Virginia Tech: "Administrative Efficiency and Productivity" (including control of costs) and "Enhancing the Quality of Life and Economic Health of the Commonwealth."

Recommendations of the Working Group

1. Statement of Policy: ENVIRONMENTAL DECLARATION.

The committee exhorts the administration to endorse a concise, fundamental policy statement on environmental responsibility. The "Virginia Tech Environmental Declaration" is envisioned as a statement of position by the university on the importance and value of responsible environmental behavior and stewardship and as a statement of intent to operate the university on this principle. The proposed policy statement should be endorsed by the Board of Visitors, President Torgersen, and senior-level administrators and communicated to the university and the public by the President. The "Virginia Tech Environmental Declaration" could be conceived and written by a group appointed by the Provost or the task could be assigned to a standing committee (see #6).

2. Conduct Environmental/Energy Audit.

The UCES specifically recommended that "an 'environmental audit' of all university activities should be conducted periodically (possibly as a student project) to identify those activities that are environmentally harmful and to suggest appropriate preventative measures as well as optimal land and resource management practices." The working group endorses this idea based on the following justifications:

• Environmental/Energy auditing (E/EA) is consistent with Virginia Tech's land grant mission.
  
• Virginia Tech, as a state agency, is answerable to the citizens of Virginia, and therefore needs E/EA as the first step toward disciplined energy and resource use and as a means of promoting environmental responsibility.
  
• E/EA is an approach at the forefront of technology, increasingly used by business and industry. Developing audits at Virginia Tech will provide our best students an opportunity to practice a "real-world" skill.
  
• Governor Allen recently signed into law two new statutes encouraging environmental audits and voluntary remediation. In addition, the General Assembly recently adopted a joint resolution (HJR 453) requesting "agencies of the Commonwealth to engage in pollution prevention planning."

The proposed audit will serve as a data collection mechanism to determine the content, quantity, and quality of VT's waste stream and energy use (university operations and academic units). The goal of such an auditing practice is to correct short-term problems and direct the university toward sound, long-term operations with respect to energy efficiency and waste generation.

As a means of reducing financial hardship and promoting university-wide participation, the working group strongly recommends that the proposed E/EA's be conducted using Virginia Tech expertise. The E/EA auditing proposal would be formally presented tot he College of Engineering's Green Engineering Initiative. E/EA's could be conducted by upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, trained and supervised by faculty with expertise in this area, in cooperation with the audited units. As a follow-up to each audit, we propose that a committee (see #6) work with the audited units to facilitate the development of solutions to address problems or inefficiencies.

3. University Outreach

A role model actively seeks to promote, teach, and demonstrate a value system, in this case, and environmental value system. The focus of this recommendation is to work within the existing communication and public relations infrastructure of Virginia Tech to recognize new, innovative, or noteworthy environmental research, instruction, and university operations practiced within the university (e.g., recycling initiatives). The working group recommends that a committee (see #6) serve as a clearing house of ideas, pass information to public relations offices at Virginia Tech, and oversee the creation and maintenance of an electronic communication mechanism (i.e., homepage on Internet).

4. Incorporation of University Environmental Goals into Campus Life

The working group promotes the view of the Virginia Tech campus as an ecosystem of extraordinary complexity, necessary unity, and impressive natural beauty. Indeed, with its residence halls, dining facilities, power plant, electric service, police department, physical plant maintenance, repair and support services, veterinary school and hospital, and extraordinary spectrum of academic research activities, the university has the complexity and vigor of a city. To sustain its life, Virginia Tech continuously expends significant planetary resources, and generates a voluminous array of "waste products." Because the campus is a learning center for the future leaders of the Commonwealth, environmental stewardship and sound resource management should be actively promoted and visibly demonstrated throughout university operations, and not relegated entirely to the classroom or laboratory. Therefore, one outcome of this proposal will be increased emphasis upon cooperation among all members of the Virginia Tech community and heightened personal responsibility for the promotion, protection, and enhancement of the natural environment "in which we live and move and have our being."

The working group recommends the communication of ideas and the promotion of environmental responsibility at Virginia Tech via a regular column in Spectrum and student publications as well as through electronic communication. This recommendation can be viewed as a parallel component to the previous recommendation, serving as an inreach component to communication of environmental responsibility. The goal is to raise awareness of environmental issues on campus, to develop ownership of Virginia Tech's environmental goals by all parties within the university community, and to promote the view of the campus as an ecosystem.

5. Address Counter-Productive Regulatory and Administrative Procedures

Groups within the operations side of the university as well as academic programs are often faced with cumbersome state and federally mandated procedures and regulations which result in a number of problems: inefficient and unfunded solutions to environmental problems, the inability to recycle some surplus items, etc. This problem creates an atmosphere of frustration on campus and also translates into a drain on human and financial resources. For example, during the past biennium and current biennium, approximately $2.16, million of $2.41 million in unfunded regulatory mandates can be viewed as environmental of energy-related expenses. As a first step in addressing this university-wide problem, the working group proposes to establish an ad hoc committee on waste reduction and recycling for addressing the issue of counter-productive environmental regulations and administrative procedures. The charge of the proposed committee would be to investigate problems, assist in appropriate loosening of regulations, and facilitate cost-effective solutions.

6. Establish a Standing Committee to Implement Goals

In addition to the recommendation on environmental audits, the UCES recommended the formation of a standing committee to "oversee and report publicly on actions taken in pursuit of this (environmental role model) commitment." After evaluating other alternatives, the working group concludes that no administrative structure has been designed to address the areas of concern discussed here or in the UCES report in a comprehensive manner and that a standing committee should be formed to oversee and facilitate the implementation of these recommendations. We propose that the standing committee would actively undertake oversight of the five other recommendations contained in this proposal.

Justification of Recommendations

The working group has proposed six recommendations in response to the charge of the UCES. These recommendations are designed to promote and facilitate the concept of Virginia Tech as an environmental role model. If Virginia Tech is to be effective and consistent, as an institution of environmental studies, academic must be complemented by environmentally responsible operations.

We believe that these recommendations are consistent with the stated goals of Virginia Tech and that, if adopted, will contribute to the university's effort to achieve these goals. However, as noted in the first recommendation of this proposal (Statement of Policy: Environmental Declaration), we urge the university to adopt a basic policy statement on the environment. We offer the following listing of justifications for the implementation of the proposed recommendations:

• as a first step to establishing a systematic framework for dealing with current and future federal and state environmental regulations
  
• as a means of controlling overall university waste management and energy use costs through implementation of comprehensive waste reduction and energy efficiency programs
  
• as an opportunity to demonstrate positive environmental stewardship and recognize what Virginia Tech has in fact done to address environmental issues, and what still needs to be addressed
  
• as a vehicle to enhance open communications regarding Virginia Tech as an environmental role model.

Thanks for your help. If you have any questions or comments, please call the Virginia Tech Recycling office at 231-9915 or email lbechtel@vt.edu.

Last Modified: November 15, 1995
http://www.vt.edu:10021/vtrecycle/rolemodel.html