2008 Woodie Awards
RSSUnsustainable Lehigh
Editorial
By Edit Board
Issue date: 11/2/07 Section: Opinion
Lehigh's D-plus rank of college susceptibility by the Sustainable Endowments Institute is not only an embarrassment to our university, but also a testament to just how far behind we actually are. Lehigh's administration is bobbling around with their hands in their pockets while other institutions make real progress toward reducing their impact on the environment. In the study of 200 top universities, Lehigh was ranked behind 77 percent of the other schools and dropped from a C- rank last year.
Sustainability isn't necessarily about global warming or the notion that all pollution is bad. Sustainability is a level of resource use that we can continue indefinitely, in other words, using less energy or natural resources than natural processes produce. Switching to low flush toilets or turning off computers at night isn't going to save the world, but implementing programs and policies that help reduce consumption and more importantly, set an example to students for future resource use, should be standard practice at our university.
Lehigh ranked acceptably in food and recycling programs, but in major factors - the administration, transportation, endowment transparency, climate change and energy - we scored poorly.
We don't need to suggest how the administration could reduce energy because these programs and policies are already in place at the hundreds of other universities that severely thromped Lehigh. It wouldn't be hard to adapt many of the programs that are proving to work at other schools, such as real-time energy monitoring systems, car-sharing programs, purchasing renewable energy, alternatively fueled transportation and motion sensor lights in classrooms..
Last February, the Students for Sustainable Development and the Global Union hosted a discussion with a panel of faculty and administrators about how to make Lehigh more sustainable. Instead of addressing their deficiencies and making pledges for improvements, however, administrators made excuses about how everything they do must have "a viable return on investment" and blamed students for not practicing environmentally friendly practices. Well Lehigh students learn from the best - we received an F on transportation sustainability and a D on our administration.
Sustainability isn't necessarily about global warming or the notion that all pollution is bad. Sustainability is a level of resource use that we can continue indefinitely, in other words, using less energy or natural resources than natural processes produce. Switching to low flush toilets or turning off computers at night isn't going to save the world, but implementing programs and policies that help reduce consumption and more importantly, set an example to students for future resource use, should be standard practice at our university.
Lehigh ranked acceptably in food and recycling programs, but in major factors - the administration, transportation, endowment transparency, climate change and energy - we scored poorly.
We don't need to suggest how the administration could reduce energy because these programs and policies are already in place at the hundreds of other universities that severely thromped Lehigh. It wouldn't be hard to adapt many of the programs that are proving to work at other schools, such as real-time energy monitoring systems, car-sharing programs, purchasing renewable energy, alternatively fueled transportation and motion sensor lights in classrooms..
Last February, the Students for Sustainable Development and the Global Union hosted a discussion with a panel of faculty and administrators about how to make Lehigh more sustainable. Instead of addressing their deficiencies and making pledges for improvements, however, administrators made excuses about how everything they do must have "a viable return on investment" and blamed students for not practicing environmentally friendly practices. Well Lehigh students learn from the best - we received an F on transportation sustainability and a D on our administration.
