As Northwestern students work to reduce water and energy use for Green Cup this month, the University has vowed to make an effort to revamp joint sustainability efforts with the City of Evanston.
At the Jan. 28 and Jan. 29 meeting of the Big Ten City Managers group, the city and NU shared their sustainability projects with the other Big Ten universities and the city managers of their respective college towns. The semiannual meeting in Evanston focused on sustainability issues and green initiatives in and around Big Ten universities.
Each city and university made presentations about their separate and joint green projects. Evanston focused, in particular, on the Evanston Climate Action Plan, a plan to reduce green house gas emissions 13 percent by 2012, with more than 200 strategies in areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy, transportation, land development, water and local food production and distribution.
“The beauty of the climate action plan is that the projects have very specific goals,” said Catherine Hurley, Evanston’s sustainable programs coordinator. “We are making good progress, and we’ve made a considerable impact. Evanston has significantly reduced levels of green house gases, and the plan has been very helpful in focusing people’s energy on making Evanston a better place to live.”
Both Evanston and NU officials agreed after the meeting to expand sustainability collaboration, Hurley said.
Julie Cahillane, NU’s manager of refuse and recycling, said she would like to see a collaboration on more environmentally friendly transportation projects.
Students for Ecological and Environmental Development co-chair Dylan Lewis said the University’s hiring a sustainability coordinator would also be a great way to improve its green efforts. SEED has been working with the University to hire a coordinator, who Lewis said will not only improve environmental action cohesiveness amongst students but the rest of the Evanston community.
“They would be a direct connection to administration to advocate for environmental changes around campus, which I think is really important because here, the people working on these projects are primarily students, and I think it’s important to have someone on campus whose primary job is environmental action,” the Communication senior said. “They could also help promote environmental action to off-campus students, which could extend out to Evanston and promote sustainability in the community.”
In addition to the Evanston Climate Action Plan, the city recently announced two new drop-off locations for battery recycling. Evanston also won the 2010 Citizens Utility Board Energy Saver Community Competition for electricity savings and won 10,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs. The city plans to distribute the light bulbs to businesses and homes in Evanston.
While the University and the city have no concrete action plan on a partnership, Cahillane said she remains optimistic.
“There is so much overlap between a campus and the municipality that is the host for that campus, which means there is a need to exchange ideas,” Cahillane said. “The environment isn’t just an environment over Northwestern or over Evanston. Neither of us operate in a bubble, and, when it comes to sustainability, our goals should be the same.”
