A green campus doesn't just mean a beautifully landscaped college or university campus, although that certainly can be part of being a green campus.  A green campus is a college or university that seeks to develop and manage itself in an environmentally-friendly fashion by continually implementing best management practices to reduce its ecological footprint and mitigate environmental impacts.  A green campus challenges itself to become a living classroom and a model for future sustainable societies - thereby leading the way to the future through education.

 

 

Washington State University is rapidly becoming a green campus, although it has not designated its actions as a formal green campus policy.  One of the primary goals of the WSU Campus & Community Ecology Project is to engage WSU communities to collectively develop and implement such a green campus policy.

 

 

WSU already has significant, award-winning programs in environmental management and facilities operations that everyone recognizes, such as our recycling program.  The physical structure and operation of the University is central to achieving greater sustainability as an instutition and academic community.  However, faculty, staff, and students are often relatively uninformed about the ecology and management of the institution and community that houses and surrounds them. 

 

The Campus & Community Ecology Project promotes efforts of administrators, faculty, staff, students, and our university communities to better understand the changes that are needed to define and address progress toward sustainability.  The summary report, Initial Steps Toward Sustainability at WSU, outlines some of the basic steps that are already being taken and others that are clearly needed to begin to advance the institution farther down the path of greater environmental stewardship and sustainability.  Some of the major sustainabiliy issues that are addressed in the Campus & Community Ecology Project include: