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Sustainability a priority at School of Law
The new Sustainability Committee is coming up with ways to make the law school environmentally friendly
by Jason N. Reed |
Environmental sustainability has been a big priority at the University for a long time. The University's School of Law was the first public law school in the nation to establish an environmental law program, and now it is in the early stages of making upgrades to the award-winning law center.
Dean Margaret Paris asked Jill Forcier, the administrative assistant of the Ocean and Coastal Law Center and Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program, to serve as chair of the newly formed Sustainability Committee so they could find the best green practices for the law center, and then come up with a list of ways for the law community to improve sustainability there.
"Clearly the law school wants to advance that interest in sustainability that we, at the University, have always had," Director of Communications Credence Sol said.
A number of suggestions have been thrown around by the School of Law community such as: a dishwasher in the faculty and staff lounge to reduce paper waste, the elimination of plastic water bottles at functions and meetings to reduce plastic consumption, and a system where employees will have their own silverware and coffee cups at meetings to help reduce waste.
"They are thinking of how not to be the pigs on campus, and we want to play nice with others," Building Manager Jim Horstrup said.
Horstrup has had a number of sustainability ideas for the law center, and began working there from its inception in 1999. A pile of cardboard boxes sits idle in a corner of his office, and all of them are filled with electronic sensors for the classrooms. These sensors activate the lights when motion is registered in a room, and turn the lights off after two minutes of no movement. Installation of the sensors will begin within a month, Horstrup said.
Many offices are bright enough from sunlight entering windows that people using the rooms don't need additional, artificial light. Horstrup wants the motion detectors altered and set so lights turn off in those rooms after two minutes of inactivity, and the lights will have to be manually turned on if they are needed.
Dean Margaret Paris asked Jill Forcier, the administrative assistant of the Ocean and Coastal Law Center and Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program, to serve as chair of the newly formed Sustainability Committee so they could find the best green practices for the law center, and then come up with a list of ways for the law community to improve sustainability there.
"Clearly the law school wants to advance that interest in sustainability that we, at the University, have always had," Director of Communications Credence Sol said.
A number of suggestions have been thrown around by the School of Law community such as: a dishwasher in the faculty and staff lounge to reduce paper waste, the elimination of plastic water bottles at functions and meetings to reduce plastic consumption, and a system where employees will have their own silverware and coffee cups at meetings to help reduce waste.
"They are thinking of how not to be the pigs on campus, and we want to play nice with others," Building Manager Jim Horstrup said.
Horstrup has had a number of sustainability ideas for the law center, and began working there from its inception in 1999. A pile of cardboard boxes sits idle in a corner of his office, and all of them are filled with electronic sensors for the classrooms. These sensors activate the lights when motion is registered in a room, and turn the lights off after two minutes of no movement. Installation of the sensors will begin within a month, Horstrup said.
Many offices are bright enough from sunlight entering windows that people using the rooms don't need additional, artificial light. Horstrup wants the motion detectors altered and set so lights turn off in those rooms after two minutes of inactivity, and the lights will have to be manually turned on if they are needed.
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