Spring Break
Is Duke green? We don't care!
guest commentary
By: Pete Zseleczky
Issue date: 11/29/07 Section: Columns
Last update: 11/29/07 at 6:36 AM EST
Last update: 11/29/07 at 6:36 AM EST
- Page 1 of 2 next >
When the Eco-Olympics came to an end this year, a critical question was raised: What environmental good has this event actually achieved?
Although Duke strives to achieve sustainability among students and faculty, indifference is the main feeling on campus. The dorm that won the Eco-Olympics has less than 50 percent participation in effortless online surveys and trivia, and eight dorms have yet to send one representative to attend an environmentally themed movie screening.
Duke has poured millions of dollars into restoring wetlands and ensuring that all new buildings are certified "green," but the apathy of the student body toward environmental issues completely nullifies efforts of the University, making a truly "green" campus unattainable. With a lack of student concern for the environmental initiatives Duke is making, future leaders of the world are graduating indifferent to the future of our planet.
In order to become green, Duke needs to take an active role in educating its students about the environment, starting with the requirement of one "environmental" credit toward graduation. Those who have not experienced a Duke student's indifference first-hand-namely national "green evaluators"-see the University's green programs as impressive. The 2007 KIWI Green College Report praises the Eco-Olympics but fails to mention that it is only between freshman dorms, and so involves roughly one-quarter of Duke's population. The Sustainable Endowment Institute's College Sustainability Report Card gives Duke a 'B-plus,' impressed with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified buildings and critical only of a lack of endowment transparency.
What makes Duke so different from truly green campuses is the attitude of its students. The majority of Duke students will only make the green choice if there is nothing more convenient available. Warren Wilson College in Asheville is an example of a school that has created a green campus by bringing together students who care about the environment with the resources of a college that can support such efforts. According to the KIWI report, the school uses 2,000 pounds of organic crops produced on campus and harvested by students in their cafeteria. Warren Wilson requires students to work on environmental projects beneficial to the outdoors and the school.
Although Duke strives to achieve sustainability among students and faculty, indifference is the main feeling on campus. The dorm that won the Eco-Olympics has less than 50 percent participation in effortless online surveys and trivia, and eight dorms have yet to send one representative to attend an environmentally themed movie screening.
Duke has poured millions of dollars into restoring wetlands and ensuring that all new buildings are certified "green," but the apathy of the student body toward environmental issues completely nullifies efforts of the University, making a truly "green" campus unattainable. With a lack of student concern for the environmental initiatives Duke is making, future leaders of the world are graduating indifferent to the future of our planet.
In order to become green, Duke needs to take an active role in educating its students about the environment, starting with the requirement of one "environmental" credit toward graduation. Those who have not experienced a Duke student's indifference first-hand-namely national "green evaluators"-see the University's green programs as impressive. The 2007 KIWI Green College Report praises the Eco-Olympics but fails to mention that it is only between freshman dorms, and so involves roughly one-quarter of Duke's population. The Sustainable Endowment Institute's College Sustainability Report Card gives Duke a 'B-plus,' impressed with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified buildings and critical only of a lack of endowment transparency.
What makes Duke so different from truly green campuses is the attitude of its students. The majority of Duke students will only make the green choice if there is nothing more convenient available. Warren Wilson College in Asheville is an example of a school that has created a green campus by bringing together students who care about the environment with the resources of a college that can support such efforts. According to the KIWI report, the school uses 2,000 pounds of organic crops produced on campus and harvested by students in their cafeteria. Warren Wilson requires students to work on environmental projects beneficial to the outdoors and the school.
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 4
Daniel S.
posted 11/29/07 @ 10:44 AM EST
2 words: WHO CARES?
John Doe
posted 11/29/07 @ 10:55 AM EST
The tagline of this should have been: Pete Zseleczky is a Pratt freshman who never gets any
Gary Packwood
posted 11/29/07 @ 3:05 PM EST
Engage the Stakeholders
Before you put the hammer down on the students, why not engage the stakeholders who manage the trash on campus with respect to their thoughts about recycling?
Who is going to separate the trash at food service sites? That includes pulling banana peels from the glass recycling containers and all forms of unthinkable things from the aluminum can recycling bins. (Continued…)
big boy
posted 11/29/07 @ 3:53 PM EST
Im sick and tired of all this "green" nonsense and concern for the environment that has come only in the past year or so (thanks largely in part to Al Gore). (Continued…)
Post a Comment