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There are 4 comments on The Greening of BU

  1. I think it’s great that the administration has taken such large steps toward sustainability; however, it’s not enough to just install environmentally friendly lights or water systems. Sustainability has to be a state of mind too.

    At Splash, I don’t know how many nice recycling bags and reusable coffee cups were given out, but it was a lot. So a lot of people have the cups, but how many of them actually use them on a daily basis as they were intended? I honestly haven’t seen a lot of them when I’m in line for Starbucks.

    Likewise, just this past semester, Sustainability@BU placed “challenges” in the dorms on big posterboards. I believe one of them was about cutting down shower times to reduce water consumption. A respectable challenge, albeit not difficult. If it’s not that difficult for students to turn off the shower, why is it so difficult for cleaning staff to turn off the faucets? The cleaning staff for the communal bathroom on my floor will fill containers from the faucet to later rinse off the shower stalls of suds. Later really is later though. The staff member will leave the faucets running for minutes at a time, overfilling the containers and wasting gallons of clean water (x however many days shower stalls are cleaned x residential building x academic days). There must be a more efficient and sustainable way for the cleaning staff to clean the shower stalls.

    While working in an on-campus mailroom, many professors will collect their mail, stand there to filter through, and dump whatever they do not want in the garbage – regardless of recyclability. This kind of behavior is undesirable when it comes to BU’s sustainability.

    The point of these three examples are to show how BU students, staff, and faculty aren’t in that sustainability state of mind. So I applaud BU renovations for taking the first steps toward being more environmentally friendly, but I can’t say that the people here are so committed. I would encourage administration to place more emphasis on changing how the people at BU think about sustainability.

  2. Congrats to Dennis, Susan, Dining Services, the faculty/staff Eco-Liaisons, the student Eco-Reps, and the entire BU Community that worked to make this distinction possible for BU. I look forward to future BU Today reports on the good works of these committees, and I encourage all faculty, staff, and students to check out the Sustainabilty@BU website. There, you’ll find loads of ideas that you can easily incorporate into your daily routine. For more ideas, join the BU http://www.Carbonrally.com Challenge. And, this week and next, we should all make use of the Goodwill donation bins throughout campus. Again, congrats to the team and thank you BU for making this a high priority for the University’s future.

  3. Congratulations BU for the award, but a lot more could be done, especially about lights on when not in use.

    All the lights on Mugar and the GSU are on after hours, during summer, during Christmas vacation. Can they be turned off when not in use or could an automatic system could be installed to turn on/ off the lights when necessary? I have been thinking about writing a letter, but I didn’t know to whom. I hope the administrators read my comment or somebody could direct me to the right person.

    Also, there should be a campaign to ask students and teachers to turn off the light switches when leaving the classrooms and offices.

    Kudos for the achievements!

  4. The print quota should be evaluated based on the total sales of printer and copier paper and toner and ink cartridges in the area — Barnes and Noble, other stores, through BU Purchasing, etc. I see cost shifting onto departments, and personal printers, not necessarily a reduction of pulped trees, or at least not so large as claimed.

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