In February, 1994, a group of seven members of the Princeton University community, including five students and two administrators, attended the Campus Earth Summit held at Yale University. Together with over 400 students, faculty, and administrators from around the world, including representatives from universities in all fifty of the United States, we drafted a campus blueprint for a sustainable future. In doing so, we discussed and documented the many ways to improve campus environmental practices and education.
During the course of the weekend, we became more and more aware of the lack of environmental awareness and action on Princeton's campus. Compared with students from other universities, our students are less respectful and less-informed of environmental issues that face today's society. Compared with other administrations, ours shows little concern for its impact on the environment and little interest in educating its students in a field in which world leaders are so desperately needed. We feel that a renowned university like Princeton must set an example to society by understanding the need to lessen our impact on our planet and acting in appropriate ways. We also feel that as an international community, Princeton University has the duty to ensure that all people who pass through our university leave with the determination and the tools necessary to move us towards a sustainable future. In order to accomplish this, our curriculum and actions need to be reevaluated, specifically addressing the need for environmental consideration in all areas of study and decision-making.
In the year since the Campus Earth Summit, we have rallied the support of a large number of our university's students, staff, faculty, and administrators. We reorganized the existing Ad Hoc Environmental Committee and formed PERC, the Princeton Environmental Reform Committee, and dedicated ourselves to improving the relationship between Princeton University and the environment.
In order to best focus our efforts and gain the attention of the university community, we decided that an objective study of the current status of environmental commitment on campus was necessary. Following the example of many other major universities, we decided to conduct an environmental audit of the university, assessing all areas of environmental impact, including energy and water use, hazardous and solid waste disposal and recycling, recycled product use, dining services, and environmental education. For the past year, eleven task forces have worked on collecting, compiling, and presenting the data for this audit.
The audit will be used as a guide in improving the practices of our campus. The audit reveals many areas of potential improvement and includes intelligent suggestions that are both environmentally friendly and economically sound. We, therefore, ask the members of the university community to use this audit as a means of evaluating our campus practices, and to consider what actions each of us can take, individually and collectively, to improve both Princeton University and the earth on which we live.
Mark Borsuk '95
Founding Chair
Princeton Environmental Reform Committee
Princeton University is a private institution located in Central New Jersey. The main campus has an area of about 660 acres and consists of 278 buildings. The Forrestal Campus (a separate research facility) has an area of 175 acres, containing 19 buildings (excluding the Plasma Physics Lab). This audit will not include the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory or any of the other buildings on the Forrestal campus because they are not serviced by University Facilities. The central campus population consists of about 4000 employees, 4500 undergraduates, and 2000 graduate students. University housing shelters 700 faculty and staff members, 1000 graduate students, and 4300 undergraduates.
An assessment of campus environmental practices must begin with a history of environmentalism at Princeton. The first attempt to initiate institutional environmental improvement formally began in 1990 following the 20th anniversary of Earth Day with the formation of the Ad Hoc Environmental Committee. The Ad Hoc committee, an unofficial gathering of students, faculty, and administrators took on various projects as they saw necessary. Over the next several years, the Ad Hoc committee served as a clearing house and discussion group on such issues as the formation of the Environmental Studies Program, initiated a number of small scale environmental research projects on campus, pushed for an official university environmental advisory committee and supported the initiation of a university-wide recycling program. The promotion of recycling on campus was initially undertaken by undergraduate students through the efforts of Princeton Recycles, a student organization. With the passage of more stringent New Jersey recycling laws, recycling became an institution as opposed to a student-only initiative.
While the reform efforts of the Ad Hoc committee were largely successful, they were unable to secure their most important goal, a recognized university environmental advisory committee. This committee would implement all environmental improvements that it felt would improve the university and would ensure that these changes were maintained through the years. Because of the difficulty in accomplishing this goal without sufficient supporting data, the Ad Hoc committee lost momentum. In 1994, however, environmental efforts were revitalized with the formation of the Princeton Environmental Reform Committee (PERC).
The motivation for forming PERC arose from the Campus Earth Summit held at Yale in February 1994. This conference brought together students, faculty, and administrators from universities around the world to discuss campus ecology. At the summit, the participants produced a blueprint for environmentalism, outlining how a campus can lessen its environmental impacts. Upon returning from Yale, the delegates from Princeton formed PERC in an attempt to expand campus ecology at Princeton according to the plans outlined at the Summit.
Replacing the defunct Ad Hoc Environmental Committee, PERC is a union of staff, faculty, students, and administrators joined together to promote campus ecology. PERC offers the unique opportunity for students and the university administration to work together to solve campus environmental problems. Because it is a joint student-administrative effort, the changes brought on through this alliance will be long-lasting. Too often in Princetonís environmental past, changes have occurred as a result of a small student coalition which loses continuity as students graduate. PERCís mission is to institutionalize environmental improvements which will remain effective long after its student members graduate.
In order to best focus the efforts of PERC as well as provide evidence to the university community of the need for improvement, PERC decided to conduct an objective environmental audit of the campus. This audit was started in the spring of 1994 and continued into the summer. Sponsored by the Facilities Department, the summer portion of audit research was conducted by two PERC members working full-time. The project was continued in the fall by PERC and completed during the spring of 1995.
In writing the audit, the experiences of many other schools were consulted as a source of advice. While no one university or college stands out as perfect in all respects, many of the recommendations contained in the audit were inspired by the innovations of other campus environmentalists. Yale, Stanford, and UCLA each conducted audits earlier as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of Earth Day in 1990, and therefore served as valuable models. Yale and Stanford have particularly strong student groups which were the impetus for these efforts while the UCLA audit was done by graduate students. Brown and Georgetown serve as outstanding examples of institutionalized changes such as an environmental coordinator position and a university advisory committee.
In conducting the present audit, the members of PERC have made the first attempt to objectively and thoroughly address the environmental impacts of the Princeton University campus. For one year, the thirty members of PERC evaluated campus practices and decision making, reviewed regulatory policies, interviewed university officials, and researched policies of other universities. The result of this effort is by no means a comprehensive audit, but it provides a precedent and a framework for future annual reviews. It also makes apparent many issues where easily implemented changes will result in significant improvements in terms of lessening environmental impact, promoting administrative efficiency, and returning economic benefit. When such potential areas of improvement were apparent, the audit contains detailed recommendations for implementing change. In order to be successful, such changes will require the full commitment of all members of the university community, including students, faculty, and staff. By taking the actions recommended in this audit Princeton University will be an educational institution that leads by example in moving our society towards an environmentally sustainable future.
Executive Summary.................................................................................................................... i
Acknowledgments.................................................................................................................... ii
Chapter 1: Solid Waste............................................................................................................... 3
Chapter 2: Toxic Substances...................................................................................................... 19
Chapter 3: Procurement............................................................................................................. 37
Chapter 4: Food Services............................................................................................................ 47
Chapter 5: Energy Use.................................................................................................................. 57
Chapter 6: Water Use................................................................................................................. 67
Chapter 7: New Facilities........................................................................................................... 71
Chapter 8: Academic Opportunities........................................................................................ 83
Chapter 9: Transportation......................................................................................................... 95
Chapter 10: Other Areas of Impact........................................................................................... 109
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................... 119
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