Oh Green World

We know it’s on your mind—and at the UO, shrinking our carbon footprint is at the top of our list, too. Here in the pristine northwest, green is more than just a school color. It’s a lifestyle in which each of us makes daily, conscious choices about resource use, conservation, and preservation. The UO Office of Sustainability coordinates campus eco-efforts and provides official policy on this important issue. The Institute for a Sustainable Environment applies UO faculty research to real world environmental problems.

The University of Oregon has been engaged in sustainability practices for well over three decades, with all paper waste from UO Printing Services recycled since 1975. The UO’s award-winning Campus Recycling Program, one of the oldest in the nation, began in 1989 as a student initiative and was quickly adopted by the university. Since that time, the UO has increasingly committed to green living, even offering a sustainability initiatives walking tour. A milestone was reached in 2000, when the university adopted the UO Sustainable Development Plan.

One jewel in the UO’s eco-crown is Lillis Business Complex. A living bio-roof garden, a day-lighting system that reduces demand for electric lighting by 40 percent, and the second largest photovoltaic solar collector array in the state all add up to certification under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, making Lillis one of the nation’s most environmentally friendly business school facilities.

The Lillis Business Complex isn’t the only green building on campus. The Living-Learning Center is illuminated by natural light and circulates air through cross-ventilation, resulting in a facility 30 percent more efficient than required by the Oregon Energy Code. A low-lying swale at the Moss Street Children’s Center slows the entry of storm water into the sewer system. And the east balcony of the Erb Memorial Union (EMU) sports “solar umbrellas” to supplement the building’s energy usage. In addition, permeable paving in the parking lot alongside the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art allows rainwater to return to earth without flowing through pipes—a cleaner way to channel runoff into the Willamette River.

How Green is Our Valley

The UO offers plenty of ways to make a positive environmental impact. Getting involved in sustainability efforts during your college years will not only help you save the planet, it will equip you to play a role in our 21st century economy.

• The University of Oregon requires that all new construction projects follow the Sustainable Development Plan, including LEED Silver equivalence in development and construction projects
  
• The pioneering efforts of the UO School of Law led to the groundbreaking Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program, including the first public interest environmental law clinic in the country. The Law Students for Sustainable Business group sponsors an annual symposium
• The first of its kind in the nation, the Green Chemistry sequence in the UO Chemistry Department focuses on reducing, recycling, or eliminating toxic chemicals used in the laboratory, without stalling scientific progress. The UO’s $1 million Green Organic Lab is the first if its kind in the world
• The engaged and active UO student body has multiple student groups devoted to sustainability, including the Coalition Against Environmental Racism (CAER), which focuses on how pollution and resource depletion on communities of color, and the Environmental Leadership Program, an opportunity for students to team with government and nonprofits for environmental monitoring
• Attendees of the Ecological Design Center’s annual Holistic Options for Planet Earth Sustainability (HOPES) conference discuss the relationship between ecology and design and how their connection can produce sustainable architecture
• University Housing practices a wide array of sustainability efforts in the management of residence halls and dining venues, from serving local foods to encouraging residents to use recycling bins in their rooms to using biodegradable forks and cups. Unused food scraps become compost for the UO Urban Farm
• The UO's popular Summer Sustainability Trips include Project Tomato, a four-day agricultural education trip for incoming freshmen. Students bike to three organic farms and harvest tomatoes, which they process into a week's worth of pizza sauce for the dining halls—about 64 gallons—learning about sustainable agriculture along the way.
• A bank of 20 elliptical workout machines in the UO Student Recreation Center captures kinetic energy and feeds it to the university’s power grid, 50 watts per 30-minute workout. The 6,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity produced annually is nearly enough to power a small energy efficient home for a full year. The building's power usage also is offset by a student-funded photovoltaic system on the gymnasium roof
• The UO Landscape Architecture Program calls the Urban Farm its “outdoor university classroom.” The acre-and-a-half garden just north of the main campus is a model of productive urban space, where students learn about nature through growing food and composting
• The UO Outdoor Program initiated a Bike Loan Program in 2008 to provide access to reliable, sustainable transportation for the student body, and bike parking is plentiful across campus. Students also ride free on Lane Transit District buses, including the low-emission, hybrid-electric EmX line that runs past campus along Franklin Boulevard