Making green out of being green

By Clayton Gutzmore - Staff Writer
& Kelly Rivera - Copy editor

Money doesn’t grow on trees but it does come out of trash, and Broward College proves this theory by practicing sustainability. Sustainability is exercising the habits of recycling and reducing your carbon footprint on Earth; whether it’s throwing an empty bottle in the recycling bin or turning off the light or fan in a room, it’s all about reducing the amount of energy and waste we create to make Earth a better place.
BC has its very own Environmental Sustainability Committee whose goal is to coordinate efforts to increase environmental literacy and spread environmental awareness through out the campuses. The college-wide committee is co-chaired by Alex Denis, Associate Vice President of Procurement, and Sean Devaney, Manager of Facilities on South Campus. “The committee meets to discuss issues that have an impact on campus life, review policies, [and] suggest new policy. Simply, we all have an interest in providing a safe, clean and environmentally sound campus community for our students, faculty, staff and community partners,” said Devaney.
Each campus has its own individual committee that handles the sustainability issues. According to Dr. Peggy Green, professor of Natural Science at North Campus and member of the Sustainability Committee, the committee is recommending the college hire a Sustainability Director to oversee issues like recycling and energy conservation and to infuse sustainability in the curriculum.
BC has benefited from sustainability by using the TerraCycle program, run by Jarrod Hersh, Senior Financial Aid Advisor for South Campus.
This program involves taking candy wrappers, potato chip bags and other disposable items and sending them to TerraCycle. They then make products to sell out of the trash and pay about $0.02 for each item which funds the Michelle A. Lawless Scholarship.

According to Dr. Green, BC has saved $8.5 million over a 10-year period with these energy saving measures.
By using these methods and recycling, BC also reduces the release of carbon dioxide and other pollutants in the air. “BC is an institution of higher learning, we are teaching the leaders of tomorrow. How our graduates conserve and consume will be influenced by the values they learn here at BC,” said Dr. Green.
She encourages sustainability among students and staff members. “Our future and that of all life on Earth depends on humans learning to live in a sustainable way that does not use the Earth’s resources faster than the Earth can generate them,” said Dr. Green.
Student participation is a factor for sustainable living at BC and many students have embraced the cause by participating in campus projects like promoting sustainable campus dining and maintaining the native landscape.
“Student groups are supportive and active in committee initiatives such as the campus environmental fairs, electronic recycling, paper & comingled recycling, wild flower gardens, campus clean-up [of] cigarette butts, book recycling programs and the graduation pledge,” says Devaney. BC graduates are given the opportunity to sign a pledge stating they will be green in all of their endeavors after graduation.
The committee is trying to bring Trash to Treasure, a creative reuse center, to South Campus for Environmental Awareness Week in Feb. 2010. Trash to Treasure is a nonprofit organization that locates and finds clean reusable material to redistribute as educational and artistic resources.
Specifically, BC’s Sustainability Committee on North Campus is in the process of upgrading the parking lot lighting to concrete poles with LED lights. “Not only will the fixture use less energy, the lamps will last up to fifteen years,” said Devaney.
He goes on to say that President J. David Armstrong and the college administration are very much in support of college-wide sustainability initiatives. Dr. Green believes that students are supportive, “From my interactions with students from North, I would say, yes, enthusiastically.”
“It is a continuous process of considering sustainability in all decisions, at all levels, both at work and home,” said Devaney. Denis added, “Our sustainable practices will also call for us to prepare our students for a world in which sustainability will be at the forefront of every decision from the boardroom to the classroom.”
BC is turning 50 years old next semester and the committee would like students to submit their theme ideas for Environmental Awareness Week in February. For more information, log on to the BC website.