"To create the future, we will need a huge shift in thinking, values, and action." -Albert Einstein 

Universities and the American Culture of Consumption
American commercial culture considers the natural world as a resource to exploit and consume for human enjoyment. Americans value affluence. Less than 5% of the world's population lives in the US, but we consume over 25% of Earth's resources.[1] Universities operate within this social system that measures success in terms of materialistic consumption; bigger is better. While using natural resources benefits humans in many ways, excessive use of resources is not sustainable in the long term.

Universities, like individuals, often fail to see their role in the natural world and refuse to reexamine their "rational" policies. In his article, "Impending Sustainability," William Rees claims, "currently, many universities seem to define their role not in terms of creating better, more intellectually aware global citizens, but rather as producing a product." This product-oriented strategy reinforces environmentally irresponsible practices.

As an institution committed to the education of its students, Brown University has the responsibility to graduate students who are cognizant of their environmental impacts.

Thinking Long-Term: Universities and Environmental Responsibility
Universities:

• traditionally value long-term planning.
• benefit from high performance building design (HPBD) because the longer a building's useful life, the more its owner's profit from high performance building designs.
• are uniquely positioned to benefit from intelligent resource use.

Unlike commercial buildings, campus buildings are intended to last for many decades, even centuries. The overall savings from reduced operating and maintenance costs in well-designed, high performance buildings increase over time.

More important than operational savings, however, is the effect that a HPBD program would have on the community. As more building owners, architects, engineers, and builders follow Brown's lead in high performance building, the associated environmental, economic, and social benefits will multiply. Brown University has a leadership role in education and it should rejoin other campus leaders in environmental campus design.

Educating Students
Publicizing HPBD implementation on campus will promote environmental awareness amongst students. For example, the students at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay are very excited about the Mary Ann Cofrin Academic Building. Not only does this campus building provide superior user satisfaction, but the design team planned the building as a tool for enhancing the university's educational mission. The main building entry provides a "museum-like orientation and demonstration area to teach building users and visitors about the building's environmental mission." Electronic kiosks present real time and historical reports showing the amount of energy used and the current and accumulated contribution of solar power (through daylighting and photovoltaics). The kiosk is a centralized source for information about the building, including:

William Odell of Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, Inc. (HOK) reports these electronic kiosks have become a student hang out and that some students make it a point to check how the building is doing every day. Using real time data and multimedia channels to explain the building design and environmental features are important education and outreach components of campus HPBD projects. A copy of the entire case study is available here.

Students who are exposed to environmental issues and solutions may then go on to be environmentally conscious leaders in their community. More than 14 million graduates leave American colleges and universities each year. Today's students represent future lawyers, politicians, business leaders, scientists, and educators. In order to survive in the 21st century and beyond, citizens must understand their relations with the natural environment and other humans. Brown University strives to give its students a competitive advantage over other graduates and Brown can do this by improving its commitment to environmental responsibility on campus.

In addition to its students, Brown's actions influence staff, alumni, parents, and the greater community. By supporting research, community service, cross-disciplinary courses in environmental issues, and HPBD, Brown University can change the way people think about the natural environment. 

"Our Universities are a training ground for future leaders, a laboratory for cutting edge research, a place to develop solutions to our biggest challenges, an economic engine for the region, and taken together have a tremendous influence over environmental, economic, and social policies in the country." -Ivy Council (Resolution on global warming)

Universities Policies for Environmental Change

In October 1990, twenty-two university presidents met to discuss the role of universities in environmental management and sustainable development. These leaders created the Talloires Declaration, a ten-point action plan committing signatory institutions to sustainability and environmental literacy in teaching and practice. It proclaims, "Universities educate most of the people who develop and manage society's institutions. For this reason, universities bear profound responsibilities to increase the awareness, knowledge, technologies, and tools to create an environmentally sustainable future." Although Brown University signed the Talloires Declaration, little effort to reduce Brown's environmental impacts has been made. It is now time to move from passive signatory to active participant in the progress towards environmental sustainability.

Brown University 's current Environmental Change Initiative (ECI) maintains, "Understanding the drivers and impacts of emerging environmental problems at local, regional, and global scales requires the interdisciplinary synthesis of approaches and tools from a variety of fields."

Brown needs to undertake an interdisciplinary approach to address the environmental problems facing our globe, the problems to which Brown also contributes. The ECI mentions areas of study, such as ecology, earth systems, economics, and sociology, that intersect environmental issues. HPBD involves departments such as human health, economics, environmental studies, and engineering.

While increasing environmental awareness and research opportunities in the curriculum is a step in the right direction, Brown University should also practice what it preaches. As the most visible component of an institution, buildings convey information about how the organization values the environment as well as its students, faculty, and visitors. Since buildings directly and indirectly affect the natural environment, ensuring Brown capital improvements meet or exceed high performance targets is a good place to start.

Other leading Universities have adopted serious strategies for systematically decreasing the environmentally impacts of their universities. They have policies stating their commitment to environmental improvement and developed specific plans that detail how they will reach these goals. These institutions hire staff, form committees, allocate budgets, and demonstrate clear administrative support for environmental initiatives. They measure and track their progress in order to meet and update their environment-related goals. Brown University can learn from these leading campuses to create superior environmental initiatives.

To learn more about what other universities and colleges are doing to reduce their environmental impacts, specifically programs that relate to campus facilities, please visit "What Others are Doing."