SNU Sustainability
We are excited to announce that February 1st at 6:30 in the Heritage Room will be a forum to discuss the proposed vote about sustainability. This will be an open forum, so please bring your concerns and ideas for discussion. There will be an expert panel of people who have worked hard to research and develop this plan to answer your questions and discuss your ideas.
Southern Nazarene University is taking seriously the care for God's creation through environmental stewardship, education, and service. We want to equip students with the resources for good stewardship practices through our new sustainability program. Positive solutions to creating sustainability for the world cannot be achieved through simple recycling programs. Because of this, we are structuring our sustainability program
to be interdependent between the program and the participant. Our goal
is to shape students to be sent from SNU into the world with the habits
of good stewardship.
In order to create an environmentally conscious university, Student Government has proposed the addition of a new staff position on campus that would oversee campus-wide "green" projects and student workers, help raise awareness through education, and promote efficient activity on campus. In order to make funds available for the new staff position and programs, a $20 student fee increase per semester has been proposed by Student Government, which would take effect in the fall of 2010. In order for a proper approval at the Spring Board of Trustees meeting, a majority student vote of approval is needed. On Tuesday, February 9th, there will be online voting in order to allow current students to voice their support of the fee increase. With the addition of an organized and efficient recycling and and sustainability program, it is estimated that SNU's campus in Bethany, Oklahoma could save the following amounts of materials:
-100 tons of paper
-15 tons of glass/metal/plastic
-2 tons of electronics
-1/3 ton of batteries
Currently, SNU has been making efforts to fulfill their responsibility to be good stewards of the earth by recycling the campus' grass clippings to the horse barn, which is not only good financially and environmentally, but it also provides the horses with high quality food. SNU is installing bike racks across campus to reduce fueled transportation around campus. The new residential building that SNU is currently constructing in being to meet specific LEED qualification, and will contain 90% of the material recovered from the recently demolished Garey Hall.
Future plans of the university include promoting and accelerating environmental stewardship by hosting "freecycling" at the beginning of each semester in which departments across campus pull unused or unwanted items together to swap and giveaway, and a yearly Senior Swap Day, which is a school sponsored garage sale at the end of each year for students, faculty, and staff. The long term plan for sustainability includes obtaining:
-Front loading washers
-More motion pr photo censored light switches
-LEDs and energy saving light bulbs
-More fuel-efficient campus vehicles
-Community garden
-Increased recycling efforts
There is general rule that how someone's belonging are treated is a direct reflection of way someone feels about the owner. While this is true for all people, Christians have an even calling to care for creation, because we believe that God has commanded humans to take care of the earth for the well being of future generations. Implementing the proper programming and providing the university with capable staff will not only hale advance the efforts of SNU's campus, but will also start to effect the community surrounding Southern Nazarene University community has a role to play in reducing our effect on the world by recycling, conserving energy, and by motivating others to do so. The habits, attitudes, and creativity of everyone of us have the potential to make a great difference, not just for Southern Nazarene University in the here and now, but for the larger world and its future well being.
Click Here to read the Sustainability Policy
Click Here to read the full job description for the proposed position
Click Here to read the letter that started the whole sustainability proposal
Below is an estimated buget for the proposed Sustainability Program.
The savings seen within departments through energy costs, etc. will
stay within those departments (ie: if utility bills are less within
residence halls, the bills they pay will go down and the savings will
stay within the residence life department). The savings/income seen
within the Sustainability Program will be reinvested into the
Sustainability Program (ie: when recycling is sold, that money will be
seen as income back into the program).
The process by which the estimates were obtained was by researching
other universities across the country who have a sustainability
program, comparing their student population to ours, and averaging out
what we can expect our costs and savings to be. Because this is the
first program of its kind on OUR campus these are merely estimates.
Once the program is under way, we will have a better understanding of
where our savings are and are not taking place, and adjustments may be
made accordingly. Further, there will be an on-going review of the
program, assessing where we can better distribute funds to make the
program truly sustainable.
Click Here for the budget
CLICK HERE to listen to the first part of the recording of the forum
CLICK HERE to listen to the second part of the recording of the forum
CLICK HERE to listen to the third part of the recording of the forum