University of North Carolina
Located on a rolling 729-acre central campus, with more than 28,000 students, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is located in a quintessential “college town.” Yet this year, community members and visitors cannot help but notice the extensive amount of construction on campus. In the middle of its $2 billion capital improvement program, UNC is finding sustainable and innovative ways to move forward.
UNC established itself as a leader in sustainability in 2001 when it was the first in the state to hire a full-time staff person to coordinate multiple sustainability initiatives across the university. The Sustainability Office staff continues to grow, including its most recent hire, Brian Cain, research and outreach manager, who works to engage the campus in sustainability initiatives and communicate UNC’s sustainability efforts to the community. With so much happening across the UNC campus, Cain admits to the struggle of keeping up with it all. “There’s a lot to keep track of.”
Transformation On Campus
The university has a strong relationship with the Town of Chapel Hill (population 55,000) and, together, the two have pledged to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050.
Since 2003, the university has achieved a 25% reduction in water consumption and a 12% reduction in energy consumption per square foot. The reason? Water efficient fixtures, thermal energy storage systems, and extensive rainwater capture and reuse systems across campus.
The Rams Head Center is a good example.
What was once a surface parking lot is now a 700-space, multi-level parking garage. Atop the garage is a 40,000-square-foot “green roof” – a leafy, tree-studded plaza surrounded by a recreation center, grocery store, and a dining hall. The 30-inch deep roof absorbs up to 32,000 gallons of rainwater, while the two cisterns directly underneath the sidewalks on the roof hold 56,000 gallons. Excess water overflows into a spillway, then flows into a gravel infiltration bed installed below nearby Ehringhaus Field, an artificial turf athletic field.
The Rams Head Center roof – one of four vegetated roofs on campus – is so well camouflaged that a recent survey revealed that many of the “students did not realize they were even on a roof,” said Cain.
Across campus, captured rainwater is used in toilets in the FedEx Global Education Center, and a roof-top solar hot water system serves the newly renovated 1960 Morrison Residence Hall.
Many sustainability features on campus are driven by student efforts. In fact, the students’ self-imposed $8 per year renewable energy fee largely helped to fund Morrison’s solar water system, said Cain.
Amid the construction across campus are plans for more cisterns and other water-capture systems. Cain said the university is creating a non-potable water utility that can charge for the reuse of rainwater and reclaimed wastewater, thus providing funds to maintain and expand these important water management features.
The strong town-gown relationship also helps make transportation easy for students and faculty. UNC’s financial support enables the Chapel Hill Transit system to operate fare-free. Kiosks display real-time bus schedules based on GPS tracking to make it easier and reduce waiting time for bus riders .
Employees and those students living more than two miles from campus are eligible to participate in a comprehensive Commuter Alternatives Program, which includes free annual passes on the Triangle Transit Authority buses, and enables the 9,000 students not living on campus to get to class without a car.
Transformation in the Classroom
The students’ push for sustainability does not stop at an $8 renewable energy fee. The university’s new sustainability minor was developed by the UNC Institute for the Environment and the College of Arts and Sciences in response to a request from the Student Government.
The new interdisciplinary minor incorporates studies in business, public policy, environmental science, and planning. It includes a required environmental capstone project, where students have the opportunity to work with a client and apply their knowledge of sustainability to solve current problems and produce tangible results.
Elizabeth Shay, director of the Sustainable Triangle Field Site program, pointed to the products of some recent capstones, specifically the creation of an employee education tool for employees of Wachovia Bank. “The environmental education module addresses the environmental, economic and social impacts of everyday activities, and suggests changes people can implement.”
Current capstone projects include environmental footprinting of frozen food packaging; creating an online sustainability education tool for the UNC community; designing a sustainability education center for a green mixed-use development in Chapel Hill; and establishing a greenhouse gas inventory for the Chapel Hill Transit fleet.
At the university’s renowned Kenan-Flagler Business School, students can earn either their MBA or undergraduate business degree with a concentration in sustainable enterprise.
Tracy Triggs-Matthews, program manager of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise, explained that through CSE Consulting, MBA students have opportunities to work with companies, serving as a consultant on specific sustainability-focused projects. “Students obtain real rigorous work experience helping businesses tackle tough sustainability issues, helping to focus them on the triple bottom line: financial profitability, social equity and ecological integrity,” Triggs-Matthews said.
CSE Consulting works with a variety of organizations, including large companies such as Johnson & Johnson as well as small nonprofits.