People, planet, and productivity:
Sustainable UCAR
Kimberly Kosmenko.
UCAR/NCAR’s new sustainability coordinator,
Kimberly Kosmenko, started work in March
as part of SaSS. She
holds a master’s degree in environmental science
and policy from CU-Boulder and has experience
in land conservation and environmental nonprofit
work. Here, Kimberly tells Staff Notes Monthly
about her plans to help UCAR develop and
implement a comprehensive sustainability
plan.
As one of UCAR’s newest staff members,
I have the unique pleasure of announcing
an exciting new suite of activities that
will happen under the auspices of Sustainable
UCAR. Growing out of the Environmental
Stewardship Program, Sustainable UCAR provides
collaborative opportunities and leadership
for UCAR, NCAR, and UOP to work toward environmental
sustainability.
I’m often asked what
sustainability really means. For an organization
like UCAR, sustainability is about operating
in a way that supports environmental
and human health while enhancing organizational
productivity. Many organizations refer
to this as the triple bottom line—people,
planet, and productivity. Because UCAR
is an organization that strives to benefit
society by producing excellent research and
education on climate and atmospheric science,
working toward sustainability aligns perfectly
with our mission.
More often than not, I’m
asked if we can really accomplish something meaningful
in the name of going green—and do it
without spending a lot of money. Examples
from other research and academic institutions
demonstrate opportunities to increase
the triple bottom line. Harvard University’s
Green Campus Initiative manages an internal
revolving loan fund to enable projects
for sustainability education, small-scale
building improvements, waste reduction,
and more—and
shows an average return on investment
of more than 20% while reducing resource
consumption and carbon emissions.
Closer
to home, facilities managers at CU-Boulder
collaborated with the campus Environmental
Center on a suite of strategies to reduce
water use—including the installation
of new fixtures, shifting irrigation
practices, and community education—that
lowered annual consumption by 10–20%.
In the meantime, the university saved
more than $256,500 in the first two years
of the program.
Another Colorado neighbor,
the National Renewable Energy Lab, leveraged
private funding to install an on-site
biomass energy plant as part of a goal
to be net carbon neutral. NREL now generates
renewable, local power with virtually
no upfront costs.
What’s possible here
at UCAR? Sustainability is a process
rather than a destination, and UCAR has the
knowledge and institutional support to take
a leadership role. A comprehensive sustainability
plan includes goals for managing carbon footprint,
energy and water consumption, transportation,
ecological health of our land, waste
reduction, and outreach and education. This
year, Sustainable UCAR will partner with
members of the UCAR community
to assess our carbon footprint and resource
consumption. Using the data from these
assessments, we’ll develop a suite
of programmatic goals.
Thanks to past
environmental stewardship efforts, we
already have a comprehensive recycling
program and have compost collection in many
locations, with plans to expand. We’ll
continue to support the efforts of Event
Services to move toward providing “zero
waste” food service and Physical Plant
Services’ efforts to increase building
efficiency. This summer, we’ll bring
in several distinguished speakers to
offer a series of brown bag lunch discussions,
offering you the opportunity to learn
more about sustainability. A small sustainability
committee will convene to work hands
on with the nuts and bolts of program
implementation. Information on all of our
initiatives, along with resources for going
green, will appear on our soon-to-be-released
website over the course of the year.
Reaching
for sustainability is a community effort,
and I invite you to ask questions, make
suggestions, and get involved. I look forward
to working with all of you on this exciting
process.
