Campus Greening: Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio

The Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies at Oberlin College

The enthusiasm for seeking creative solutions to sustainability issues abounds at Oberlin College. Student-led efforts and institutional initiatives have led to significant reductions in campus environmental impact.

In 2005, faculty and students collaborated to design and build a campus resource use monitoring system with real-time web-based feedback on electricity consumption. In combination with dormitory competitions, the system has resulted in up to 56 percent reductions in electricity use in winning dorms. The system has been funded through a variety of grants including a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “People, Prosperity and the Planet” (P3) award. Oberlin was the only undergraduate institution and the only institution without an engineering program to receive a $75,000 P3 Phase II grant to support this work.

In the spring of 2006, students with Oberlin’s Environmental Policy Implementation Group worked with CityWheels, a Cleveland-based business, to create an innovative car-sharing program for Oberlin. The on-campus group is currently retrofitting 2,500 incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs in student-owned lighting fixtures.

Oberlin has also expanded its recycling and source-reduction initiatives. A new student group, the Recycled Products Co-op (RPC), collects used office supplies and redistributes them for a donation. The donation is used to purchase recycled-content and environmentally friendly products that are then sold at cost. Twice annually, the College Recycling Assistants hold a campus-wide event called “The Big Swap”; at last semester’s Big Swap, they collected 388 bags of clothing, books, and dorm room items! And in November 2006, Campus Dining Service (CDS) Recyclers will be conducting a waste audit in the dining halls to increase awareness of food waste on campus. (In spring 2006, CDS Recyclers successfully reduced use of take-out boxes in a targeted dining hall by 40 percent.)

Oberlin as a whole supports sustainability initiatives as well. In 2005–06, the college made several advances in the area of “green” energy. The installation of a new solar parking pavilion adjacent to the existing photovoltaic array on the roof of the innovative Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies makes Oberlin the home of Ohio’s largest solar array, with a total rated production of 159 kilowatts. Oberlin is also one of two liberal arts colleges that made the EPA’s initial top-ten list for college/university green energy purchases, with 60 percent of its electricity supplied by green sources.

Other highlights of 2005–06 include:

• The Board of Trustees adopted a resolution that all new construction and major renovations will be at least LEED “silver” certified.
• The inclusion of a “move toward environmental sustainability” in the Strategic Plan of 2005 integrates the comprehensive Environmental Policy, adopted by the Board of Trustees in 2004, into the college’s long-range plan.
• The creation of an Office of Environmental Sustainability in 2006.
• The completion of the new Lewis Center Annex, an adaptive reuse of an old home that now houses the Environmental Studies Laboratory.
• A transition to 100 percent environmentally friendly cleaning products.
• The hiring of an Eco-Purchasing Intern and the creation of an Eco-Purchasing Committee to draft a policy for green purchasing.

—Submitted by Meredith Dowling, Assistant Coordinator, Office of Environmental Sustainability, Oberlin College