On Tuesday, December 11, 2007, the Peralta Colleges’ Board of Trustee’s adopted a comprehensive policy for Environmental Sustainability, one of the most aggressive in the nation amongst 2-year and 4-year colleges.
This Policy has been in the works for over a year, with people from every segment of the District commenting and revising it, including, District Academic Senate, individual faculty, individual administrators, students, Department of General Services, and the Chancellor’s Sustainability Committee.
These are just some of the highlights from the Policy:
- All new building construction and major renovations shall aim for LEED-Gold Certified (LEED is a green-building certification standard) and shall be at least LEED-Silver certified. This will cover the Laney Library, Field House, and Merritt D building.
- All existing buildings will be LEED certified in 10 years.
- 100% Post-Consumer Waste recycled paper for all bulk copy paper District-wide.
- Reduce energy-related Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 50% in 5 years!… and 100% in 10 years! We’ll be carbon-neutral in 10 years!
- Be energy-efficient. New construction will beat State requirements by 35%.
- Comprehensive recycling in 1 year
- Provide a scent-free and VOC-free indoor environment
- Food services must use compostable utensils and CANNOT use polystyrene foam
- Give preference to purchasing products certified by Green Seal, Energy Star, Forest Stewardship Council, and the like.
- 1/3 of the savings or rebates generated by sustainability programs will go towards paying for other sustainability programs that do not generate savings.
