Spring Break
Drexel launches greening strategy
Janhavi Purohit
Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: News
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As part of a move to make Drexel University's campus more environmentally sound, the University has introduced the new "Greening of Drexel" campaign.
Vice President of University Facilities Robert Francis said the campaign was introduced after a new assessment from the Sustainable Endowments Institute, which measures the performance of college campuses across the country and their level of sustainability.
"We just decided to improve our score compared with other institutions, so we're attacking the four fundamental areas," Francis said.
The four points of focus for the campaign are energy and climate control, food and recycling, green building, and transportation, all per guidelines from the Sustainable Endowments Institute, according to Francis.
The University will address the issue of energy and climate control by creating sustainable designs for the new building projects by Drexel's engineers.
"We'll either go for LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] certification in our buildings, like the new science building, or follow the LEED design standards, which is what we do right now," Francis said.
The recent power cuts over the Thanksgiving holiday was a "test," intended to see how the program worked, according to Francis.
"We will know the results by the time the bills come in, and we will compare them with previous years. We hope to learn a lot that will help us do better over the holiday period, which is a much longer time," he said.
Temperature cuts over the approaching winter break will be more severe than ones during Thanksgiving, Francis said.
The University also plans to undertake an initiative with low-flow and restricted-flow showerheads and water saving devices.
"We will buy 100 new showerheads and implement them in the different buildings," Francis said.
The details of the initiative are still to be determined.
In terms of transportation, Francis said students are encouraged to use mass transit. Francis also said the University is looking at ways to use alternative fuels in the campus shuttles. Addressing the topic of food and recycling, Francis said the University sees this as less of a concern.
Vice President of University Facilities Robert Francis said the campaign was introduced after a new assessment from the Sustainable Endowments Institute, which measures the performance of college campuses across the country and their level of sustainability.
"We just decided to improve our score compared with other institutions, so we're attacking the four fundamental areas," Francis said.
The four points of focus for the campaign are energy and climate control, food and recycling, green building, and transportation, all per guidelines from the Sustainable Endowments Institute, according to Francis.
The University will address the issue of energy and climate control by creating sustainable designs for the new building projects by Drexel's engineers.
"We'll either go for LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] certification in our buildings, like the new science building, or follow the LEED design standards, which is what we do right now," Francis said.
The recent power cuts over the Thanksgiving holiday was a "test," intended to see how the program worked, according to Francis.
"We will know the results by the time the bills come in, and we will compare them with previous years. We hope to learn a lot that will help us do better over the holiday period, which is a much longer time," he said.
Temperature cuts over the approaching winter break will be more severe than ones during Thanksgiving, Francis said.
The University also plans to undertake an initiative with low-flow and restricted-flow showerheads and water saving devices.
"We will buy 100 new showerheads and implement them in the different buildings," Francis said.
The details of the initiative are still to be determined.
In terms of transportation, Francis said students are encouraged to use mass transit. Francis also said the University is looking at ways to use alternative fuels in the campus shuttles. Addressing the topic of food and recycling, Francis said the University sees this as less of a concern.
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