The Brown & White

The Lehigh Environmental Advisory Group, formed by President Alice Gast, will meet for the first time Wednesday in order to start organizing its agenda on environmental initiatives for the Lehigh community.

"This group is to help think through and make decisions and priorities for environmental initiatives through operations and education," Gast said. "This is a great opportunity for students to help drive decisions."

Gast said Lehigh has the opportunity to accomplish a great amount as an educational institution and as a community through this group. She said there is a lot of interest involved with regard to doing the right thing.

Gast said ideas have already been heard, but the plan is to gather input from everybody. According to Gast, the first task of the group may be to bring all of these ideas together.

"What we can implement easily we will do right away," she said. "We owe it to the world and ourselves to decrease our environmental impact and energy consumption."

Gast said there are many methods used by other institutions and the group is looking for good ideas. They are looking at the best practices out there, she said, and the goal is to assess things that can be done and their impact.

"We look to other institutions and other cities because we are a small community," she said. "Lehigh can inspire other communities and businesses to make changes."

Gast said the group will provide areas to improve, but the community should send new ideas through the Web site and e-mails.

She said, "It takes an institutional and individual commitment in every aspect of reducing waste. There are opportunities to assess our impact and look at the way we do things."

Gast said each person needs to make a personal sacrifice and the community should contribute.

"Think about personal and institutional changes that would have the biggest impact," she said.

Gast said she urges the community to stay up to date on what others are doing.

Peggy Plympton, co-chair of the committee and vice president of finance and administration, said, "LEAG is a campus-wide place for suggestions, thoughts and analysis of the ways Lehigh can manage itself."

Sudhakar Neti, co-chair on the committee and professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics, said it is up to the faculty, staff and students to minimize Lehigh's large carbon footprint.

Neti said Lehigh is a community of 6,000 and therefore only a small part of the Lehigh Valley, but that doesn't mean we should not get started.

Lehigh should be a leader because we are already trying to do things on campus, Neti said. For example, he said, Mudd Laboratory is LEEDs certified and Lehigh is starting to use bio fuels.

Neti said the group should talk to students and the people who run the buildings in order to figure out ways to both decrease the footprints and save money. He said the group should look at the demand and supply sides on campus with analysis.

Neti said the group must come to consensus while avoiding drastically changing social norms on campus. He said Lehigh should consider making its own power for heat and air conditioning.

"We want something with quick paybacks," he said, "not in 20 years."

Plympton said LEAG and Sahagian's Environmental Initiative differ in their function. LEAG is more focused on how Lehigh is a participant in the local and global community, Plympton said.

Plympton said membership in the committee will last two years for most, so its goals will not be immediately exacted.

"This is an ongoing program that the university needs to be engaged in," Plympton said.

Dork Sahagian, director of the Environmental Initiative and faculty representative in the LEAG, said there are four essential things that can be improved on campus: First is recycling, but if people would use the recycling system properly it wouldn't be as big an issue.

Second is energy and electricity. Sahagian said there is not much that can be done to increase efficiency of the heating plant but buildings are steadily being improved, such as Coppee Hall.

Next is improving transportation to avoid having students drive up and down the hill in SUVs instead of waiting for the bus.

Fourth, Sahagian said Lehigh should monitor what is being purchased. He said changes in purchasing of recycled paper or bottled water could have a major impact, but the issue is administrative and out of the students' control.

"I am really pleased that now at the administrative level we are addressing the environmental situation on campus," he said.

Alice Kodama, a junior on the committee, said last November the group Green Action met with Gast and asked her to sign the President's Climate Commitment and the Taillories Declaration but Gast declined both.

"Both commitments are for the university to sign, promising to decrease its climate footprint," Kodama said.

Kodama said Gast suggested instead Green Action select two undergraduate student representatives.

"This shows that she is both reasonable and wants to decrease the carbon footprint in a reasonable time frame," Kodama said.

Kodama said the ultimate goal is to make short-term changes, such as decreasing energy use and improving the heating system.

"I am worried there will be obstacles due to regulations of universities," Kodama said. "This group is a really important link between the students, faculty, and administration."

Kodama said she wants students to be viewed as having more of a strong voice and are more respected.

Gast said the plan is to move forward and try to make changes as needed. She said the group should get a lot of ideas and feedback from the campus.

She said experts regarding environmental issues such as Sahagian will be able to connect to others in the field.

Gast said staff such as Plympton will be able to help implement things. She said there are issues of climate change; and the environmental impact of such things as green houses and energy consumption is important.

Plympton said the first meeting will likely involve identifying certain areas that need attention, discovering what can be learned from other institutions and identifying what is already going on around campus.