Greening Our Campuses Through Advice and Advocacy
The Environmental Council (EC) composed of students, faculty, and professional staff from both 911±¬ÁÏÍøºìÁì½í's Biddeford and Portland campuses, aims to help the University president assess 911±¬ÁÏÍøºìÁì½í's progress in "greening" the campus. This mission also involves recommending initiatives and mechanisms through which 911±¬ÁÏÍøºìÁì½í might become more environmentally friendly. Thus, the EC acts in both advisory and advocacy capacities.
The EC is a focal point for increasing awareness and understanding of environmental issues both on campus and in the extended community. Members of the EC, and others who have worked hard over the years to make it a reality, believe the EC should be effectively integrated into the University's decision-making process in order to ensure wise resource use on campus and to encourage greater awareness of the environmental challenges facing society. The EC considers the tract of land where the Biddeford Campus resides one of the few remaining ecologically intact natural habitats in coastal southern Maine. Promoting the careful stewardship of this land is a high priority for the EC.
The EC was formed in the fall of 2006. It evolved out of what was previously known as the 911±¬ÁÏÍøºìÁì½í School-Wide Environmental Awareness System (SEAS), and the pioneering efforts of faculty and students in the Department of Environmental Studies (now the School of Marine and Environmental Programs).
You can participate in EC meetings via Zoom. Please contact one of the Environmental Council co-chairs to be added to the EC distribution email list and receive the Zoom link.
- Wednesday, January 29, 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
- Wednesday, February 26, 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
- Wednesday, March 26, 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
- Wednesday, April 23, 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
Past Projects
In 2011, the EC endorsed a project to encourage a more sustainable solution for drinking water on 911±¬ÁÏÍøºìÁì½í’s campuses. At the end of the 2010-2011 academic year, there were 71 Poland Spring bottled water cooler units in the academic departments spread across the Biddeford and Portland campuses. The University purchased more than 16,000 gallons of water a year to fill these coolers.
The EC worked with a local vendor to install 72 filtered water coolers on campus, which provide water to nearly twice as many people previously serviced by the bottled water coolers. The coolers are 48% more energy efficient than the bottled coolers. They have a nine-stage filtration process, which provides exceptional tasting water from our own taps.
There are environmental implications for bottled water including: emissions from transportation, aquifer depletion from large-scale extraction, fossil fuel consumption to make water bottles, and toxin-release from incineration of bottles. There are also potential health implications from drinking water from these bottles such as the consumption of BPA, an endocrine disrupter, which leaches into the water from the plastic. By endorsing this project and seeing it through to its completion, the EC helped 911±¬ÁÏÍøºìÁì½í do its part to address these concerns.
911±¬ÁÏÍøºìÁì½í’s Library Services undertook a data collection project focused on paper usage in 2012. The study revealed that the Biddeford Campus’ Ketchum Library goes through approximately eight-to-ten cases of paper per week, or 275 cases each year, and the Portland Campus’ Abplanalp Library goes through an average of six cases per week, or 180 cases each year.
Waste paper was collected and measured for a month, and during that time more than 200 pounds of paper was collected or 22,000 sheets, which is roughly equivalent to 44 reams of paper (nearly 50% of print jobs are immediately discarded/recycled). Moving forward, the University is exploring pay-for-print options to make users more aware of their paper consumption.
In March of 2014, President Ripich and the University Council voted unanimously to sponsor, on a trial basis, a shuttle bus between 911±¬ÁÏÍøºìÁì½í's Biddeford and Portland campuses during the 2014-15 academic year. The initiative grew out of a proposal by the Environmental Council. During the Fall 2013 semester, the EC analyzed feasibility data from the entire 911±¬ÁÏÍøºìÁì½í community to better understand demand for this service. The EC concluded there were four reasons why such a shuttle would be successful. First, the 911±¬ÁÏÍøºìÁì½í Dental and Physical Therapy students present a predictable population that is based in Portland and takes classes (in the Gross Anatomy Lab) on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Biddeford. Second, there is a large community of staff and faculty who live in the Portland area and have expressed interest in a shuttle. Third, 911±¬ÁÏÍøºìÁì½í has a number of undergraduate programs in which students take classes in Biddeford during their first two years and then in Portland during their third and fourth years. As there is no on-campus housing in Portland, these students find off-campus housing in the Portland area. A bus service provides them with the option to remain on the Biddeford Campus. Finally, the 911±¬ÁÏÍøºìÁì½í Climate Action Plan calls for a 5% reduction in transportation emissions from 2010 levels by 2016. Transportation emissions account for more than a third of all University emissions.
In the Fall of 2013, the EC was approached by a group of students looking to create internship opportunities at 911±¬ÁÏÍøºìÁì½í focused on increasing education and awareness of divesting the 911±¬ÁÏÍøºìÁì½í endowment from fossil fuel companies. The EC voted upon and passed five semester-long internships, which began in the Spring 2014 semester. The students are both conducting research and educating the wider 911±¬ÁÏÍøºìÁì½í community about divestment and related issues.