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By Constance Tillotson
and Jorge Casuso
April 30 -- The mention of Santa Monica conjures the image
of environmentally protected beaches, yoga studios and organic
food restaurants. So it seems fitting that Santa Monica College
is ramping up its efforts to become a “sustainable campus.”
Last week, the college took a major stride to become more
“green,” when it unveiled the student-initiated
SMC 2005-2006 Environmental Audit during the EcoFabulous event
on campus Tuesday.
Developed by SMC’s Eco-Action Club, which is made up
of 18 members who promote environmental choices to the student
body, the comprehensive report takes a closer look at campus
practices in transportation, water and energy use, waste and
recycling, and food service.
It also includes recommendations, including putting the campus
on a solar grid to cut down on last year’s $1.5 million
power bill, working closely with Santa Monica’s Sustainable
City Department, hiring a director to help implement the recommendations
and adding staff to tackle everything from landscaping to
chemical safety.
“This is a very important report,” Dr. Chui Tsang,
SMC’s president, told the students, faculty and City
officials gathered under the campus clock tower last Tuesday.
“This could be beneficial to the community and to humankind,”
Tsang said. “This is the kind of concept we want to
take forward in the near future.”
City officials also weighed in on the importance of the audit,
the first the college has conducted since 1993.
“We can take pride here in Santa Monica and on campus
that we are at ground zero,” said Mayor Richard Bloom.
“We have a great thing going.”
“I thing there’s nothing more important we can
do as a community than to come together for the planet,”
said Council member Kevin McKeown. “The thing I’m
most excited about is the sense of willingness.
“The real change happens when you decide to change,”
McKeown said. “The changes we’re going to make
on this campus are the changes you’re going to make.”
Produced by the Academic Senate’s Environmental Affairs
Committee, the report was spearheaded and edited by Genevieve
Bertone, executive director of Sustainable Works, a non-profit
organization housed on campus.
“I knew this idea had to happen but would not be funded,”
said Genevieve Bertone. “So I thought of a way I could
donate my time to make it happen.”
Bertone, who is in her Master’s program in urban planning
at UCLA, created a partnership between UCLA and SMC and got
the go-ahead to make the audit her thesis project.
“This project really helped all of us -- the school,
students, faculty and City -- really connect,” said
Bertone, who earned an A. “We realized we are in a place
where we have no excuse not to make the changes.”
The report evolved through the volunteer efforts of students,
professors, staff and administrators, said Garen Baghdasarian,
the advisor of the Eco Action Club.
“We already do a lot right at the campus,” said
Baghdasarian, who has been a professor of environmental studies
at SMC for six years. “I am really proud of the students
and their enthusiasm for the environment and society to want
to do things even better.”
The audit calls for making sustainability “a strategic
planning initiative” by creating “a campus-wide
sustainability plan… that includes goals for each resource
area and outlines a plan for regular examination of the indicators
used for this Audit.”
The report recommends using goals already listed in Santa
Monica’s Sustainable City Plan and updating the plan
on a regular basis in partnership with Santa Monica’s
Sustainable City Department.
“We hope the audit leads to more collaborations with
the City,” Bertone said.
Several City sponsored rebate and efficiency programs are
available to SMC, which can collaborate with the City to “affect
change on a region-wide scale and expose our
students to urban functions, politics and governance structures,”
according to the report.
The audit also recommends hiring a full time director or
coordinator to move ahead the audit’s recommendations.
The position would be paid for with cost savings from “conservation
measures and efficiency programs.”
The audit also identifies several paid posts that could be
created, including an irrigation technician and landscape
specialist; recycling support staff; a chemical safety officer,
and additional support staff in facilities, grounds and maintenance.
Faculty with environmental education also should be hired,
the audit recommended.
“A Task Force on Sustainability could be created that
involves high-level involvement from students, faculty, staff,
administration, and the City of Santa Monica,” the authors
wrote.
In addition, the College “should more proactively partner
with graduate programs in public affairs, public policy, social
welfare, and urban planning.”
But for the plan to work, students, administrators and faculty
must realize that taking even small steps can make a difference,
Bertone said.
“You don’t have to chain yourself to a Redwood
tree,” she said during the Ecofabulous event last week.
“You can change light bulbs.”
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