New Environmental Team hopes to green up our act

The new VQI Environmental Team wants to add another color to Villanova’s Blue and White: Green. The Environmental Team was formed over the summer to address environmental issues on campus.

"We live on a planet where the population is going to be 10 billion by 2050. I think universities have a responsibility to promote environmental stewardship, to promote environmental literacy and to exercise environmental responsibility, and that needs to be formalized through this team," says team chairperson Dr. Kelman Wieder of biology.

The team hopes to tackle this daunting task by taking what facilitator John Kelley, Ph.D. of OPTIR describes as a "multi-pronged approach. We are talking research, we are talking education and direct service and we are talking about active projects." Each year the team will focus on several projects which address the campus’ environmental needs. This action-oriented team will try to complete the selected projects in one year and them move on to address other needs the following year.

This year the team has chosen five projects: environmental audit, green purchasing, recycling and paper reduction, communications and environmental research and scholarship. The environmental audit sub-team will put together an environmental audit of the entire campus by year’s end. Much of the data exists currently but it has never been put together in the form of an audit until now. Green purchasing will address "closing the loop" through the purchase of recycled materials for use on campus. Recycling and paper reduction will attempt both to cut down on the amount of paper that is used on campus and to insure that the paper which is used is captured and recycled.

The communications sub-team was formed to communicate the activities of the environmental team and its vision of a greener campus to the rest of the University and the outside world. Environmental research and scholarship, the final sub-team this year, will focus on identifying funding opportunities for faculty research as well as for scholarships to be awarded to students who do environmental research projects or senior theses. It will act as a clearinghouse for environmental research and summer internship programs to be completed on or off Villanova’s campus.

Team member Kevin O’Donnell of Facilities Management played a key role in founding the environmental team. He sums up his hopes for the team by saying, "I see this as a good opportunity to address environmental issues and concerns throughout the campus. The team will coordinate the efforts of many of us who have an interest in improving our ethics and our environmental stewardship. Using the resources of staff, faculty and students in a coordinated manner will be of great value to the University."

Dr.Wieder agrees. "The University in establishing this team seems to be willing to make a commitment. If universities don’t do it, it’s not going to happen."