A campus going green

University of North Alabama - The older buildings on the University of North Alabama campus have their charm - the tall windows, high ceilings and endearingly creaky floors - but heating and cooling them throughout the harsh Alabama climate can be a strain on any budget.

Bringing these structures, with an average age of 65 years, into the more environmentally-friendly 21st century can be just as daunting as paying the monthly utilities bill, according to Michael Gautney, facilities administration and planning director at UNA.

"You have to look at what we're already doing," he said. "We use compact fluorescent bulbs in almost all of our lighting; we donate our used grease from the kitchens to the city (of Florence); we recycle. So much of what we're going to do won't be as noticeable."

UNA is scheduled to receive almost $1 million toward green innovations on campus as part of the initial phase of the Green Campus Initiative, which Gautney helped write, and for which UNA must match the funds. The majority of the money will be spent in Keller and Wesleyan halls.

Another $500,000 for phase two of the project has been approved by the House Appropriations Committee and is scheduled for a vote by the U.S. House before the end of the legislative session.

As part of the Green Campus Initiative, UNA will replace windows, doors and look at alternative energy sources, including solar power, for these buildings to reduce the university's overall impact on the environment.

The biggest challenge UNA faces in completing these tasks isn't getting the money, said Gautney, but tackling the "logistics of doing the renovations while the building is occupied and maintaining those operations while we do the work behind the scenes."

Keller and Wesleyan are academic buildings, for instance, and it would be difficult to displace the classrooms for an extended period to do the upgrades. The work must be done, and Gautney said campus downtimes during breaks will provide the window for the most work to take place.

Each year, UNA spends around $2.5 million on utilities, including electricity, natural gas, water, sewage and solid waste disposal. From 2005 to 2006, however, university officials saw an almost $100,000 reduction in utility costs.

"We repaired older systems that were inefficient, including the water lines that run to the student apartments, and that showed a decrease in water consumption for the year," Gautney said.

Other savings are expected this year after renovations have been completed at Willingham Hall, home to the English, history and political science faculty, as well as at Collier Library, where the windows were coated with a substance that restricts heat and UVA rays from penetrating the building's interior.

Making these changes a part of the university culture has become the focus for UNA President Bill Cale and, even with a recycling program in place, some of the changes have involved reducing the amount of paper waste on campus by making access to bills, schedules and grades online.

Going beyond paper, the changes also involve the vehicle traffic that congests the campus largely from 8 a.m. to noon.

"When I first arrived on campus, the bus fleet was in place, but it was largely underutilized," Cale said. "We can go a long way toward reducing our carbon footprint by encouraging students to ride the bus and trying to find off-site places for them to park, because I don't think there's one student out there who won't tell you that parking is not a problem on campus."

Cale stopped short of saying that freshmen would be restricted from having cars on campus, but it remains an option if other measures, including raising the fines for parking violations, fail to work to alleviate the overall congestion.

Getting the university community on board with ongoing environmental efforts has proven a key for success at other college campuses that have already gone green.

Josh Cleveland, program manager at Net Impact, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, Calif., that sponsors a Green Challenge each year for colleges, said more students and school administrators are seeing a need to develop environmentally friendly campuses.

"A crucial first step is that students and faculty alike need to reach a common ground about what the campus role is in creating a sustainable future because college campuses have a history of being on the forefront of these core environmental issues, and this gives them the opportunity to be even more so," he said.

Even in the midst of an economic downturn, which is the case in Alabama where all two- and four-year schools in the state saw large chunks cut from their state appropriations, Cleveland said it's possible to make sustainable synonymous with cost savings.

"I hear from schools all the time that how much they cut shows they are doing what they believe in," he said. "And that's a huge asset for schools because, if they're not walking the talk, it shows they're not committed to something the students are, and people might not want to spend their time and money there for an undergraduate or graduate degree."

Michelle Rupe Eubanks can be reached at 740-5745 or michelle.eubanks@TimesDaily.com.