Sustainability Council Meeting

By Broadside Correspondent Lema Baha

Twice a month representatives from college departments, faculty senate, Student Government, Greek organizations and other activist groups at George Mason University, gather for the Sustainability Council meetings. The council’s name is a basic explanation of the organizations main goal, which is to represent all aspects of sustainability in campus, which include economic, equity and environmental issues.

The organization began in 2004 as the Environmental Task Force and it organized the first Earth Day celebration events held at Mason.

Lenna Storm, who was hired in August 2007 as the University Sustainability Coordinator, changed the name of the organization and integrated it into a formal aspect of the administrations sustainability program. Storm is currently finishing her thesis in the Environmental Science and Policy masters program. She worked as a process engineer for General Electric and her interest in process efficiency somehow led her to environmental work. She explained her role in the council by saying, “I am trying to save Mason some money and help us be good stewards of the earth at the same time.” She explained that the council believes that the environment is essential in promoting sustainability at Mason, and its top goals include reducing wastes at Mason, saving energy and reducing carbon emissions produced by the campus.

The Sustainability Council has six working groups, which are the Co-curricular Initiatives, Curriculum Greening Group, Energy Management Office, Food Working Group, Native Plants and Landscaping Group, Recycling and Waste Management and the Transportation Committee.

Anne Whitley is the ransportation coordinator, and she manages the university’s alternate transportation programs such as shuttles, bicycles and carpools. She feels that these are all simple ways people can contribute to helping the environment.

One of the events the Transportation group is planning is a Bike-to-Mason Day on April 22. This event honors Earth Day by encouraging students to ride a bicycle to school and help set an example of how everyday habits can change the environment.

Another exciting event is the Mason Energy Challenge which is being organized by David McAbee. This event is a result of the Energy Savings Contract that Mason signed with Siemens Building Technologies in 2005. The contract helped replace more than 55,000 light fixtures, installed occupancy sensors and various energy and water conserving technologies. This contract has helped lower energy use, but has not reached its potential success. This is a result of the fact that many students and faculty members have not changed their energy use habits. The Mason Energy Management Office and the Office of Housing and Residence Life are now holding the first Mason Energy Challenge. This is a competition between the residents of Brunswick and Amherst Halls who will try to conserve as much energy as possible between the dates of March17 and April 18.

The winners will be announced on Earth Day April 22. McAbee hopes that this competition will be the beginning of a more energy-friendly student body and that more students will participate in the years to come.

McAbee has already spent an extensive amount of time researching with an energy meter how students waste energy. He has discussed with the students strategies to save energy, examples being as simple as turning of their lights and televisions regularly. The Sustainability Council hopes to form a dynamic and structured way for Mason to help improve environmental conditions through simple actions such as recycling, educating students and reducing carbon emissions.