By Eric Broude
Daily Titan Staff Writer

Cal State Fullerton is doing a number of things to become more environmentally friendly. All of the current building projects are designed with sustainability in mind. There are also many programs that are meant to lower the energy use of the campus, as well as reduce the university’s carbon footprint.

“(Students should know) that we’re working on it from many different angles,” said Scott Hewitt, professor of chemistry and biochemistry. “We’ve already done a lot, but we want to do a lot more.”

An ad-hoc Sustainability Committee, with a primary to roll to look at recommendations from an earlier committee created by Gordon, has been recreated to review those past recommendations and submit proposals to implement them on campus, said Willem van der Pol, director of the Physical Plant. That committee is chaired by Willie Hagan, vice president for finance and administration, and Steve Murray, dean of the College of Natural Science and Mathematics, van der Pol added.

First, the campus has pursued the construction of new buildings that are environmentally sustainable.

“We’re under a mandate from the Chancellor that all new projects going back to 2006 have to be at least Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified equivalent,” said Michael Smith, director of the Office of Design and Construction.

Buildings are rated on the LEED scale, a four-level scale used internationally to rate construction projects in terms of environmental sustainability.

The first level is LEED certified, the next level is silver certification, then gold and finally platinum.

In addition, buildings are either certified or certified equivalent. Certified is better than equivalent because it means the building was submitted to be officially LEED evaluated. Because it costs $100,000 just to submit, most CSUF buildings are only certified equivalent, which means, “We rate ourselves,” said Smith.

The Arboretum Visitor’s Center, the Mihaylo Business building and the new campus police station are all LEED silver equivalent, as will be the new Children’s Center. The Student Recreation Center is the most environmentally-friendly building on campus and is LEED gold certified.

“The new student housing will be LEED gold certified,” said Smith. “We’re pretty confident about that. We’re going to try to notch it up to platinum certified … but I can’t promise anything.”

The LEED scale consists of a list of sustainability guidelines that a building can follow. A building project earns credits on the scale for each of the guidelines followed and the number of credits the project earns in total determines where on the scale the building falls. For example, the Rec Center earned two credits for having a 40 percent reduction in water use. This was part of the total of 40 credits earned by the project, which put it in the gold range of 39-51 credits.

There is also a project currently underway to calculate the campus’ carbon footprint, said van der Pol.

The two biggest problems CSUF has are transportation and water, said Hewitt.

Van der Pol said that the largest contributor to the emissions generated by CSUF is transportation. Because of this, the Parking and Transportation Services is trying to get as many people off the road as possible, he added.

They do this by encouraging students and faculty to walk, ride bikes, take the bus and train, or carpool. The university offers incentive programs to employees such as offering them $2 a day for walking or biking to campus, or $1 a day for carpooling, said Hewitt. Van der Pol added that, though it wasn’t a factor in the decision to create more on campus housing, it will help to reduce the number of commuters, and therefore the number of drivers.

“In California alone, 10 percent of electrical (usage) goes toward water,” said van der Pol. This is used for pumping, heating and filtering, he added.

The university is also doing many little things to become more environmentally friendly.

As much fluorescent lighting is used as possible. In some hallways, every other bulb is removed to reduce energy costs. In most buildings, the lighting is set to sensors, which turn off the lights if no one is in the room. There is a project currently in progress that will allow the Information Technology department to remotely turn the university’s computers on and off when they require maintenance, which will decrease the time they must be left on significantly.

“Not only is it green,” Hewitt said. “But it saves money too, and we need to save as much as we can right now. People are more interested in going green because of the poor economy. I think we’re moving faster because of that.”

Van der Pol said that he believes the most important part of sustainability at CSUF is behavior and learning. If students learn energy-saving behaviors while going to CSUF, they will carry those behaviors through their lives. “That’s where you’re going to make the difference,” he said.

“We’re all part of the problem and we all need to be part of the solution,” said van der Pol. “And that starts with awareness.”