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Portland State University 2006 Campus Sustainability Achievement Award Application

Category

Four-year and graduate institutions over 10,000 student FTE

Contact

Dresden Skees-Gregory
Sustainability Coordinator
Portland State University
Portland, OR
(503)725-8945
dresdeng@pdx.edu

Governance & Administration

As an institution of higher learning located in downtown Portland, Portland State University strives to be a physical model and research center for urban livability and sustainability. It is Oregon’s largest University, with 49 buildings on a 45-acre campus and 24,000 full and part-time students. The approach we employ to meet our goal is collaborative, diverse, and technically innovative, and the process incorporates internal stakeholders in addition to external organizations. Within the University’s mission, vision and values statements are ideas that reflect the overarching sustainability goals of PSU. Relevant excerpts include:

“Our vision is to be an internationally recognized urban university known for excellence in student learning, innovative research, and community engagement that contributes to the economic vitality, environmental sustainability, and quality of life in the Portland region and beyond.”

“We embrace our role as a responsible citizen of the city, the state, the region, and the global community and foster actions, programs, and scholarship that will lead to a sustainable future.”

Another guiding document which supports sustainability is the Declaration of Support for Sustainability, which lists and describes four action steps for our physical campus, community, and academic programs specifically related to sustainability. The declaration was voted on and passed by the Faculty Senate and the Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU), and it was signed by hundreds of individuals and other campus groups to show PSU’s interdisciplinary and cross- campus commitment to sustainability in our physical campus, academic programs, courses, and research initiatives. As stated in the declaration, it is the intent of PSU to “infuse” sustainability into all academic programs, so in practice all future students will learn about sustainability in a general sense and the application of sustainability within their discipline.

PSU has two sustainability coordinators charged with the task of coordinating sustainability-related endeavors, one for academic programs and one for facilities management and operations. While they often work collaboratively to meet sustainability goals, the academic sustainability coordinator oversees programs and course offerings, and the other coordinates all physical aspects of campus sustainability including green building, energy management, food service, transportation, and student group projects. The Facilities and Planning Department at Portland State also supports a resource management coordinator to manage waste and recycling services.

Enhancing environmental sustainability on campus is one of the guiding principles of the PSU Master Plan for the physical campus. The plan calls for “Green Street” development, pedestrian throughways, landscape plantings that teach Northwest biodiversity, LEED certification to at least the Silver level for all new buildings, and an increase in urban density that provides wildlife habitat and green areas within the city.

PSU is a member of the Oregon Natural Step Network, Cascadia Green Building Council, and the National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology Program. These memberships allow PSU to strategically network with other institutions to determine best management practices in higher education and within the Portland area. In the past year, representatives from PSU have attended Oregon Natural Step workshops and trainings to the benefit of numerous campus programs.

Operations

While the campus continues moving forward on numerous operational changes and improvements for greater long-term viability, we are also performing a Sustainability Assessment to measure our current environmental performance and evaluating employee and community health. When completed next month, the assessment will provide a baseline for sustainability indicators and it will be used to prioritize and rank sustainability initiatives.

Portland State University is number one destination for riders on TriMet, the Portland area public transportation system. This is partly due to the transportation options made available to Portland State employees and students by our Transportation and Parking Department. A significant discount is given to faculty, staff, and students for TriMet passes. Also, PSU allows faculty and staff free membership and the workday use of 10 cars (four of which are hybrids) located on or near campus through Flexcar, a national car sharing program. Commuting by bicycle is convenient with bike parking throughout campus and bike parking at all new residence halls. A bicycle cooperative, sponsored by Parking and Transportation, is now open, so commuting to PSU by bike is even easier.

Through our Stormwater Management Plan and numerous stormwater projects, PSU is seeking to decrease impervious surface, incorporate water reuse whenever feasible, decrease herbicides and pesticides used on campus, and combine stormwater and community features for a greater sense of place. The largest ecoroof in the city is located on the Broadway building, and the rainwater harvesting system on the LEED-Silver Epler Building reduces the building's annual demand for municipally treated potable water by approximately 110,000 gallons/year. Portland State University was the first university in the nation to be Salmon Safe certified for our ecologically sustainable land management practices that protect agricultural and urban watersheds for the health of salmon.

In the past two years two new green buildings have been completed. The Broadway Building received LEED Silver, and the newest addition to campus boasts a Gold level certification. The new engineering building incorporates a number of sustainable features, including an innovative geothermal heating and cooling system and high-efficiency building envelope, high-efficiency lighting, day-lighting and occupancy sensors, and a rainwater collection system to reclaim water to utilize in flushing the toilets on the first floor.

In July 2005, PSU signed a new contract that requires our food service provider to purchase specific percentages of locally sourced and organic food, to compost pre- and post-consumer food waste, to supply compostable serviceware, reduce waste whenever possible, recycle, and submit quarterly reports on their progress towards meeting goals outlined in the contract. The program has resulted in healthier food choices, educational opportunities, more local and organic food served, and the diversion of tons of compostable and recyclable materials from the landfill.

Lastly, at the request of the recently formed Utilities Use Taskforce, our janitorial staff has restructured their daily routine to reduce their off-hours lighting demand, and they have also implemented a new lighting shut off procedure. In addition to their energy-related tasks, our janitorial staff uses Green Seal certified cleaners.

Curriculum & Research

Although PSU believes sustainability should be integrated into all disciplines and not just a stand-alone degree, undergraduate students do now have two sustainability minors to choose from, one in sustainability and the other in sustainable urban development. Undergraduate majors with strong sustainability curriculum include Community Development and Environmental Science and Research. Whether they are interested in business, urban planning, or education, graduate students have several programs with a strong sustainability emphasis to choose from, including Urban Planning, Public Administration, International Management, as well as a graduate certificate in Sustainability.

All PSU undergraduate students are required to participate in University Studies, a general education requirement, and must enroll in what we term a “cluster”, or group of themed classes which focus on the topic across many disciplines. Sustainability is well represented in this program with two clusters, Environmental Sustainability and Global Environmental Change. The University Studies program culminates for students in the nationally recognized senior capstone project. Undergraduate seniors embark on a community project to integrate all of the skills they have learned throughout the University Studies program. During their capstone project, students from different academic programs and backgrounds come together to work as a team and collaborate with a faculty member and community partner on a community project.

In the past two years, two senior capstone projects have been partnerships between the program, PSU Facilities and Planning, and the City Repair Project to create natural building demonstration sites on PSU’s campus. The first project was a cob oven and dome with an ecoroof, and the second was a set of cob benches located outside the library. Both of these successful projects demonstrate PSU’s commitment to sustainability and our learning laboratory approach to academics.

Faculty members are known to work closely with facilities managers on projects to enhance the environmental sustainability of campus and support unique research opportunities for students. One project, a solar photovoltaic test facility, recently received federal funding and is beginning the installation process. When completed it will provide students with research opportunities to measure and compare performance of various solar technologies while providing PSU with onsite renewable energy generation.

In the Leadership for Ecology, Culture, and Learning program in the Graduate School of Education, students are developing new methods of teaching young students through school Learning Gardens in partnership with Portland Public Schools. Two graduate students from the program recently won a grant award from the Environmental Protection Agency’s P3 (People, Prosperity, Plant) Program for their web-based sustainability education tool for children.

PSU is also bringing together academic programs to facilitate cross-discipline research for sustainability, as evident in the newly formed Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices (CSP2). The purpose of the center is to facilitate collaborative research across academic disciplines and provide grant funding to sustainability related research on campus. In the past year CSP2 has awarded four research grants internally to further faculty research in diverse but relevant fields including household consumption and pollution patterns, environmental impact of nanotechnology, and a sustainable food supply chain.

Community Service and Outreach

Collaborations between PSU and local region and international organizations are the cornerstones of PSU and one reason we have achieved excellence in sustainability related endeavors. PSU offers more than 400 community-based learning courses across all academic disciplines, engaging over 400 community organizations in a wide variety of partnerships designed to apply scholarly learning to salient community issues. Over 6,000 students participate annually in partnerships with external organizations in the Portland Metropolitan area as part of the community based learning program and other civic engagement opportunities. They work on topics ranging from neighborhood livability to social justice.

The Leadership for Ecology, Culture, and Learning Program, an academic program within the Portland International Initiative for Ecology, Culture, and Learning has partnerships with Portland Public Schools to develop ecological education programs for students in grades K-8 by developing interdisciplinary, multi-sensory, intergenerational, and multi-cultural curriculum taught in school gardens.

Community Environmental Services (CES) is a research and service sub-unit within the College of Urban and Public Affairs’ Center for Urban Studies and provides outreach and assistance within the Portland Metro area on waste reduction, recycling, and organizational sustainability practices. Their current projects, among other activities, include multi-family apartment building recycling, public events recycling, airport food court waste composting, and a commercial waste reduction and buy recycled program.

Portland State University partners with the City of Portland to maintain an award-winning “Green Street” for sustainable stormwater management. Utilizing flow-through planter strips, a green street is designed to manage urban street stormwater runoff and filter pollutants at the source. The City has also been an important partner for student-driven projects. Our cob oven and dome natural building demonstration site was made possible through funding and partnerships with the City of Portland, The City Repair Project, and Portland State University.

The Sustainability Office offers campus sustainability tours to internal and external groups and also has a printed self-guided campus tour available. These tours include our efforts in sustainable food systems, stormwater management, green building, and land use planning. Tours have been given to groups of staff, students, visiting domestic officials, and delegates from China and Japan.

Internally, sustainability outreach has taken on many forms including open forums and discussions, numerous campaigns, and speakers. The Multicultural Center attracts throngs of community members and students with its speaker and film events, several of which have addressed social justice and environmental issues. The student-run Food For Thought Café located in the student union offers local, organic, and vegetarian fare, including locally roasted fair trade organic coffee. Their outreach efforts include speaker events on local farming, food and social justice issues.

Last fall PSU Recycles! implemented a residence hall education and outreach campaign that includes annual training for Resident Assistants on waste prevention and recycling, attending residence hall floor meetings, and developing new brochures and signage. The education program was implemented in conjunction the distribution of recycling bins to every apartment room on campus in the fall of 2005 and a residence hall battery recycling program.

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