Pollution has long been a burden to the health and wellbeing of humans worldwide, yet the NEIU Green Cycle Group (GCG) and Governor Rod Blagojevich believe there is hope for the future, at least at NEIU.
The University Sustainability Compact (USC), which is being circulated to all Illinois state universities, calls upon each university to take individual responsibility for their contribution to the pollution problem Illinois is currently facing.
The USC is supported by the state of Illinois in cooperation with the Illinois Green Government Coordination Council (GGCC). It asks that the universites that receive and ultimately sign the USC participate in keeping Illinois as clean and green as possible by completing a set of standards to be put in place by Dec. 31, 2010.
Members of the GCG have been lobbying the administration to enact similar measures to those proposed in the USC. SGA President Eron McCormick has also endorsed the idea.
“Rather than wait for the administration at NEIU to initiate clean energy development here, the Green Cycle Group is working with the Student Government Association to place a referendum on the ballot for the April student elections,” said McCormick.
The referendum asks: “Do you support an increase of $2 per student per semester to fund cleaner energy technologies at NEIU, including solar, wind, biomass and geothermal installations, as well as improving the campus’ energy efficiency?”
Such standards include the use of rewnable resources, such as solar and hydro power, to provide at least three percent of the total energy used on campus, which leads to the recommendation that all new construction meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.
On-campus transportation should use renewable fuels, be it hybrid or flex-fuel in make when possible, and will urge the use of car-pool and car-sharing programs. Other points that the USC makes are in reference to the reduction of carbon emissions and water usage on campus.
As water pollution has become one of the largest issues, the USC recommends the utilization of storm water management programs on campus. Such programs include the installation of rain gardens and swales – ditches dug into sloping areas to slow the speed of runoff – on campus to ease flooding and erosion.
The USC also recommends the introduction of permeable pavement in parking lots across campus to combat erosion and flooding.
Campuses that participate in the USC are asked to also make an attempt to purchase set amounts of food from local farms and to compost organic waste produced by the campus. This compost could then be used in a few years as an inexpensive replacement for the fertilizer most campuses currently use in landscaping.
Overall, the USC is urging colleges and universities across Illinois to get in touch with the three Rs that most students learn in grade school: reduce, reuse, and recycle.