Opinion

UH less green than advertised

David Delgado// The Daily Cougar

David Delgado// The Daily Cougar

The University is not a green campus. It’s light burgundy, at best.

In Feb. 2011 UH received a silver rating from the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, a program established by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Overall, UH was given a score of 54.31 percent — out of 100. That’s a failing grade in most classes.

Although the University was deemed environmentally accommodating, it’s a title largely contingent on things we don’t have: flowing paths, active composting opportunities and continued sustainability efforts.

The director for the city’s sustainment agenda, Laura Spanjien, made it clear that Houston’s environmental improvements have been significant. She’s not just talking about the annual Earth Day breakfasts, either. The new bike-share programs introduced at Discovery Green, City Hall, and Montrose; numerous charging stations for electric cars and the re-utilization of buildings are among the improvements being made across the city.

Mayor Annise Parker calls it a mindset.

“Having a sustainable attitude is more than about purchasing vehicles or initiating energy savings in city buildings. It’s more about rethinking everything that we do,” Parker said at Hermann Square Park at the second annual Earth Day Breakfast.

It’s advice our campus should adhere to. On a national scale, the physical results of UH’s “green” efforts seem too pale.  The University’s contemporaries are scattered: North Carolina on Chapel Hill is one of America’s most conscious colleges. Just above is the University of California in Los Angeles — a territory known more for its monster mashes than its environmental programs. Northeastern University in Massachusetts sits high and tight, while the University of Connecticut is virtually the most green-conscious educational institution on the planet according to Sierra Magazine, one of the nation’s oldest environmental organizations.

It might have something to do with previous performances.

However, UH’s organic garden, student groups and themed months maximized the STARS score in regards to the “co-curricular education” category, which makes sense given that almost every residence hall has some sort of sustainability component. Another section the University does well in is “coordination and planning,” which primarily evaluates an institution’s plans. In “sustainability coordination,” UH scored three out of three. In “strategic plan,” six out of six. Our “physical campus plan” got us four out of four, and our “sustainability plan” was scored three out of three — big hits all around.

Putting the plans in action is something else entirely. The University’s score in “energy distribution” looked meager, 6.79 out of 16.5. The biggest hits stemmed from “clean and renewable energy” at .27 out of seven and “waste reduction,” which earned our campus a zero out of five. We didn’t fare well in “investment,” either, with a .25 out of 16.75.

What was truly bleak was our score in “Innovation.” UH — a Tier One-accredited university in the fourth largest city of one of the most affluent nations in the world — received a zero. An absence of achievement.

Emily Messa, the associate vice president for administration, said she believes it will only get better.

“We are always working on sustainability. It is an incredibly time-consuming effort that requires the collaboration of many areas of campus. When we do update the report next year, there will be a number of enhancements,” Messa said.

“For example, we now have a sustainability minor, we have taken major strides to provide recycling bin coverage, we now have single-stream recycling and we have the first LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) silver-certified building on campus with the completion of the Cougar Woods Dining Hall.”

Things could be worse. But until the day comes when we live up to being part of the energy capital of the planet, pedal the sidewalks lightly.

Senior staff columnist Bryan Washington is an English junior and may be reached at [email protected].

1 Comment

  • I have to say I’m very disappointed with this opinion piece. No school is going to be perfect at everything, but I believe UH does a fair amount well with sustainability. Speaking of perfection, I would hope an English major could get rid of typos like “sustainment” and misspelling Spanjian’s name.

    For the “Innovation” area, I guess you didn’t notice the report showed that UH was ‘not pursuing’ that area? If they were “pursing” that area, you might have an argument, but that’s not the case. Not to mention this report is from 2011, and I’ve seen a lot of changes myself that UH has improved and has probably not been reported in the 2011 version.

    I can’t comment on what I don’t know, but I’d guess that areas UH has missed were probably due to internal politics (since sustainability, and the report itself, covers so many areas of UH) that have hopefully been resolved or ameliorated since then.
    I love Texas, but our state hasn’t always been considered to be as eco-conscious as other parts of the nation, but we’re getting there. It’s the mindset that being “green” or “sustainability” has to equate to being a hippie, treehugger, global warming alarmist type that has been a turn off for a lot of people from understand how important it is. There should be nothing political about lessening negative impacts on our planet’s environment, conserving resources, and taking actions to try to be “sustainable”. Unfortunately for some, it is. I think UH is working on changing that mindset, as many other universities are, but it’s difficult to change beliefs and values of people.

    When I see people too lazy to toss a can/bottle into the recycling bin, even when it’s next to the trash can they ended up dumping it in, it makes me shake my head. Or how few people seem to even consider using METRO, even though it’s a decent alternative, cheap, and totally safe. Or cars idling to pick up people. UH can place lots of recycling bins, host events, and more, but if students can’t figure this stuff themselves, I’d be more disappointed in the students than the UH administration on this. Not that UH administration has no role in this, but students should be equally expected to be more open to sustainability in the first place.
    You make so many comparisons to universities outside of Texas, yet you don’t even consider how well UH does compared to the rest of the state. I’d like to vouch that we’re pretty high up there. Are we the best, maybe not, but I do believe they’re working on it.

    UH does have an Office of Sustainability, that works to oversee all issues relating to sustainability on campus and improving it campus-wide. Yet not even one mention of it in this article. Plus you use have an article tag with their old name “GreenUH”. You don’t mention that the Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges lists UH on there. In fact, out of 322 colleges, only 5 were from Texas. You don’t see Rice or A&M on there either by the way. UH ordered lots of brand new Solar Belly receptacles and single stream will make it much more convenient now.

    I hope next time you work on an opinion piece, especially about sustainability, you do more research on the topic instead of sweeping UH under the rug because it’s not good enough compared to smaller universities or universities from states with a greener mindset to begin with.

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