Sustainability Master Plan points to a greener tomorrow
By: Andy Stewart
Issue date: 11/20/09 Section: News
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Well, its new Sustainability Master Plan does propose to utilize manure from the Greenville Zoo as part of a campus composting program.
Earlier this month, Furman's Board of Trustees approved "Sustainable Furman," the university's official title for the Sustainability Master Plan. Sustainable Furman includes a "Climate Action Plan" detailing the university's strategies for reducing and eventually neutralizing its greenhouse gas emissions and outlines goals and strategies for further integrating sustainable practices into all aspects of campus life.
Sustainable Furman is drafted around eight core areas of focus, including curricular opportunities, co-curricular experiences and transportation systems. These are further subdivided into specific strategies and initiatives, including developing curricular opportunities to serve the broader community and promoting new, more efficient transportation options.
For now, though, Sustainable Furman includes specific proposals such as creating an alternative, sustainability-centered spring break program, increasing the operating hours and routes of the campus shuttle, creating a sustainability service division within the Heller Service Corps, revising parking policies and researching the effectiveness of changes in automobile registration fees to discourage casual car use on campus.
Furman first marked sustainability as a point of focus when the university revised its strategic plan in 1997. The Board of Trustees then adopted a resolution in 2001 to begin promoting sustainable practices.
In 2007, university president David E. Shi signed the American College and University's President Climate Commitment, which promotes institutional action against global climate change and requires all of its 660 signatory colleges and universities to develop a Climate Action Plan (CAP).
"We were one of the first schools to connect the idea of a CAP with a larger Sustainable Master Plan," said Angela Halfacre, director of the David E. Shi Center for Sustainability.