The Commons, boasting seven LEED certified buildings, is Vanderbilt’s colossus of sustainability. The light bulbs are equipped with occupancy sensors, cooking oils are converted to biodiesel and the bathrooms even offer dual flush toilets.
Student groups like SPEAR actively work with the administration to develop new recycling programs. Their work at move in recently saved tons of cardboard from being thrown needlessly into landfills.
We even have a sustainability office, employing four people, whose job is to implement Vanderbilt’s environmental commitment statement. This promises proactive education, research and outreach to promote best practices for sustainability.
Yet for all of Vanderbilt’s LEED certified buildings, recycling programs and energy saving initiatives, the fact remains that Vanderbilt pollutes at any alarming rate. We produce roughly 487,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalents each year. In fact, according to UN figures, Vanderbilt releases more metric tons of CO2 per year than many central African states including Chad, Central African Republic, Burundi, Gambia, Western Sahara, and Cape Verde.
If you break that number down to emissions per student, one finds that Vanderbilt pollutes at a rate higher than many comparable universities. Among these are schools are the chief competitors preventing Vanderbilt from rising in the national rankings like Duke, U Penn, and Yale. Worse still, according to a non-profit greenreportcard.org, we are the second least sustainable school in Tennessee. As a leading University in the country, this is simply embarrassing.
The path towards a more sustainable Vanderbilt begins with you, the individual, and your commitment to green choices. First, if you are a bottled water consumer, don’t buy them again. Buy a water bottle or reuse the bottled water container you have already purchased. With a water bottle, you can not only get free ice-cold filtered water but also use your meal plan side on something else.
Second, turn off your lights and televisions when you leave the room. Much like turning off the faucet off when you are done with the water, this should be a no-brainer. Yet, far too often Towers is lit up like a Christmas tree at all hours of the night.
Finally, make your voice heard. The Vanderbilt administration has taken many steps to support the green movement. But when push comes to shove, without student support, many of the most needed renovations required to make Vanderbilt sustainable will be rejected due to expense. By supporting innovation alongside the sustainability office and SPEAR, you are increasing the value of your degree by making Vanderbilt more marketable and thereby competitive with other top national universities.
Though the Commons is a good start, Vanderbilt still has a long way to go before our school colors include green.
—Steve Braun is a senior in the College of Arts and Science. He can be reached at steven.a.braun@vanderbilt.edu.
