Sustainability in Universities - Report Example

Sustainability in Universities Sustainability is one of the key issues that contemporary organizations, business or otherwise, have had to embrace. Depleting the world’s resources is spelling out a recipe for disaster for the future generations. Sustainability is thus a move that governments and organizational leadership is emphasizing on as a way to not only secure the earth for our future generations but as a cost cutting measure, which makes it possible to use existing resources in a more "thrifty" yet economically positive manner. Green energy is one of the key measures felt by most people. Arguably, businesses are not the only organizations that are harnessing green energy and emphasizing on resources, but rather universities are at the forefront of improving the greening of the environment. One of the key attributes of universities going green is the fact that they not only emphasize on a need to harness energy but also they keenly focus on continual improvement in recycling and using already existing resources, or recycling products for reuse as a way to keep the energy rich and profitable for the future. Universities are no longer emphasizing on competition as a way of survival but rather their focus has shifted to sustainability to profit all individuals in the world. Most of the world’s problems, particularly those oriented to energy and reduced productivity can be traced back to misuse of earthly resources. One of the universities is emphasizing on green energy which has seen more universities dig geothermal wells around the campuses to create energy. Vermont Universities for instance is using wood chips from already chopped wood and timber to create energy. Ivy League universities such as Princeton, which mostly focuses on creating the most competitive leaders of the future has shifted to green energy as a key component of decision making in production and operations of organizations that their esteemed students go to. This has even seen more universities get credited as greening havens by LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) (Joshi "Sustainability is about more than recycling at top colleges"). The increase in sustainability awareness from college students has been noted to not only emphasized on a need to increase greening within the schools but rather as a strategy to perpetrate greening initiatives in their professions on the completion of school. The initiatives made by these universities are not strategies to increase the grading of the students, nor a skill being developed to assist these students achieve their individual success but rather a non-gradable skill, which will assist them become better leaders to lead the world into a better future. Countless greening initiatives have been developed by the organizational leaders, which has also has resulted in the development of greening regulatory boards such as American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. Universities and colleges are pushing their systems to be carbon neutral (Mascarelli 154). Climate neutrality and carbon neutrality are initiatives developed to reduce pollution and seek energy alternatives that are more climate-friendly and sustainable. Recycling has been a widely used term in the past decade, but facing reality, recycling just "doesn’t cut it." New methods of production are also being introduced in technical universities whereas greening initiatives and ways to reuse already used energy sources is now a discipline being taught in contemporary universities (Brinkhurst et al 338). By 2011-2012 year, the expectation for compliance from universities and colleges to climate neutrality was as high as 90% of all 650 educational institutes within America (Mascarelli 156). University design is also focused on space consumption and maximization of space utility, through reduced expenditure on lighting and other similar features, as per the requirements of LEED Certification (Breen 686). As evidenced, sustainability is now not only focused on recycling and energy alternatives, but has also extended to design and other features of conservation that were previously ignored. However, the levels of compliance reported by universities are not entirely true. Some organizations have fully focused on greening the environment, whereas others are not too committed to the cause, or lack the funds necessary to undertake sustainability projects. This has thus led to the falsification of information, with organizations pretending to be green in order to maintain a positive public reputation. This is a term defined as greenwashing (Jones "Are colleges greenwashing?"). Why would an organization greenwash itself for the price of fame alone? Well the answer is quite easy, more sales. Good publicity has been realized to influence organizations positively. In 2005, Wal-Mart introduced its plans to encompass sustainability in all its projects. Regardless on 4.5% to 9% of its intended initiatives were achieved. Regardless, the organization, in its annual newsletter published its adherence to sustainability which saw the organization’s revenues soar from $312 billion to $419 billion from 2005 to 2010, without entirely focusing on its sales. Sustainability in colleges and universities around the world is very crucial, not only because it is part of the universities corporate social responsibility programs, since such institutions do not need such, but rather due to its overall impact of sustainability on societies. One of the key advantages is motivation. With universities venturing into such project, the worldwide awareness on sustainability is achieved and likewise public participation and partnerships to induce sustainability awareness (Alshuwaikhat & Abubakar 1779). Another key reason why sustainability is being enhanced is the aspect of social justice, in that organizations are giving back to the society and protecting their future as opposed the previous ways through which organizations could capitalize on polluting the environment. The origin of sustainability is always contended with people questioning when people began becoming aware of the levels of pollution that the world was in. Primarily, one of the key reasons sustainability awareness began was in the 1990s when the apocalyptic comments began, which popularized the effects of solution to the world, with energy resources also being depleted. This thus led to a revolution and activism against pollution, which led to the initiation of a new philosophy which was focusing on renewable resources of energy (Ricketts 23). The awareness about sustainability is thus one of the key advantages of the pre-apocalypse trauma of the late 1990s and the early 2000s. Sustainability in universities and advocating for ecocity in universities is a crucial consideration for the future (Finlay & Massey 153). Sustainability is not only a popular trend at the moment but probably a production and energy strategy that might be embraced for the rest of our lives. As such, acquainting oneself with the discipline this early would have a great impact on individual nations that adapt to sustainability models and avoid greenwashing to enhance longevity in their lean production and contribute to reduced costs of operation. Universities and colleges should emphasize on sustainability since if the students embrace these traits that early, once they are leaders after completion of their studies, their decision making and production processes will be purely based on these set of principles. Work Cited Alshuwaikhat, Habib M., and Ismaila Abubakar. "An Integrated Approach to Achieving Campus Sustainability: Assessment of the Current Campus Environmental Management Practices." Journal of Cleaner Production 16.16 (2008): 1777-85. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. Breen, Sheryl D. "The Mixed Political Blessing of Campus Sustainability." Political Science and Politics 43.4 (2010): 685-90. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. Brinkhurst, Marena et al. "Achieving Campus Sustainability: Top-Down, Bottom-Up, Or neither?" International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 12.4 (2011): 338-54. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. Finlay, Jessica and Jennifer Massey. "Eco-Campus: Applying the Eco-city Model to Develop Green University and College Campuses." International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 13.2 (2012): 150-65. Web. 5 Mar. 2014. Jones, Chelsea. “Are Colleges Greenwashing?” Sustainability Law at Lewis & Clark Law School. Sustainability Law, 6 Dec 2013. Web. 17 Apr 2014. Joshi, Monika. "Sustainability is about more than recycling at top colleges." USA Today April 19, 2014. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 Apr. 2014. Mascarelli, Amanda Leigh. "How Green Is Your Campus?" Nature 461.7261 (2009): 154-155. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. Ricketts, Glenn M. "The Roots of Sustainability." Academic Questions 23.1 (2010): 20-53. Web. 5 Mar. 2014. Read More