UVM is committed to green building, and so is our president. During UVM's 2005 convocation ceremony, President Daniel Mark Fogel signed a green building policy requiring that environmental objectives, with accompanying standards for measurement, be developed specific to each new building and major renovation.
What does this mean? At a minimum, environmental objectives will include achieving a level equivalent to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)–certified and formal building commissioning. Read the UVM green building policy (PDF format).
Green building in action: UVM has five buildings that are LEED certified, including:
Measured success: UVM has been recycling for over a decade, and diverts approximately 35% of solid waste through recycling and composting efforts. We strive to make this number grow each year. In addition, the UVM Recycle Office coordinates donations to local non–profits at the end of each academic year and coordinates zero-waste student Orientation sessions.
Materials recycled: The materials UVM recycles includes paper, containers, cardboard, food waste, cooking oil, books, scrap metal, wood, appliances, batteries, film and transparencies, computers, electronics and laser printer cartridges. In conjunction with the Green Building policy, construction and demolition waste is also recycled to the fullest extent. Examples of this include the deconstruction of University Heights, reusing waste from deconstruction of Carrigan Hall, and stringent management of Davis Center construction materials. Learn more on the UVM Recycling and Solid Waste website.
Step 1: Trading cars for buses: UVM's Transportation and Parking Services worked with the Campus Area Transportation Management Association in Burlington to develop a program where students, faculty and staff can ride local buses for free. This program has met tremendous success. An ongoing environmental studies class helped promote the effort.
Step 2: Getting greener buses: UVM is actively replacing part of its bus fleet with six compressed natural gas–fueled buses over six years as part of a collaborative project with the city of Burlington. Learn more about this effort in a UVM news article.
Step 3: Still need a car? UVM is a partner in CarShareVermont, a car-sharing organization that started in 2008. Two of the CarShare cars are housed at UVM. Learn more at CarShareVermont's website.
UVM's Energy Management Office works with local utilities to save electricity and natural gas. Between 2000–2005, they calculate a savings of $2,460,000 in electric and $1,997,000 in natural gas.
What can you do? There's much to do, and you can help. See some of the tips on the Energy Management website.
UVM's 500 laboratories are creating 40% less normalized chemical waste thanks to the UVM's Environmental Safey program's participation in the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) development of a new performance–based regulation for laboratories. This pilot program resulted in the EPA's May 2006 proposal of new national regulations for laboratory safety. Learn about this new performance–based regulation on the Campus Consortium for Environmental Excellence website.
The 2006 Campus Master Plan for UVM declared the university's intention to become a "model for environmental sustainability." Aside from aforementioned LEED–certified construction and environmental principles, the plan also contains a vision for a pedestrian campus with less land used for parking and best practices in stormwater management. Read the plan on the Campus Planning Services website.
To minimize the amount of water used on campus, the Grounds crew limits irrigation to new plantings, athletics fields, and the historic green as needed. Fortunately there is an abundance of rainfall to grow healthy lawns and plantings in the Green Mountains of Vermont. However, we do have water concerns. Our campus is on a hill overlooking beautiful Lake Champlain, our drinking water source and wastewater destination. To protect water quality the university is decreasing the use of salt and winter sand, monitors storm water ponds and basins and keeps them clean and operational. Staff and consultants work with the Environmental Science faculty and students to strive for continuous improvement.
Green up our beautiful city by donating your time.
Volunteering can make the place where we live a better version of itself. Pick up litter on a Vermont Green–Up Day
(or any day!), help with a river clean–up, or volunteer at one of the
many local non–for–profits that care about the environment such as
Recycle North or the Friends of Burlington Area Community Gardens.
Last modified May 14 2009 10:54 AM
