Emory University’s Triple Bottom Line of Sustainability
By Ciannat HowettDirector of Sustainability Initiatives, Emory University
In light of current global challenges and as part of Emory University’s commitment to positive transformation in the world, Emory has identified sustainability as a top priority of the university. Our vision is to help restore our global ecosystem, foster healthy living and reduce the university’s impact on the local environment. We’re assessing our progress using the environmental, economic and social “triple bottom line” of sustainability.
In 2005, Emory’s Board of Trustees issued a new strategic plan for the University to guide it through 2015. The strategic plan identifies sustainability as a core principle of Emory. Applying the triple bottom line of sustainability, our decisions and choices must pass a new set of filters: what is the social impact of this decision? The environmental impact? The economic impact? What will be the local impact? The global impact? The impact to future generations?
Traditionally, colleges and universities, including Emory, have seen their impacts on the local and global community and future generations largely in positive terms — the important societal gains from our research and teaching touch far into the future. One of the challenges of applying a sustainability lens to our decision-making is that it forces us to look at the operational domain of our activities and consider some of the not-so-positive ways in which we impact the future and the globe. Operationally, a large research institution like Emory can be compared to a small city, and our sustainability commitment calls upon us to view in a new way the daily decisions we make about our energy use, water consumption, waste handling, transportation systems, greenspace protection, the food we serve in our hospitals and cafeterias, the materials we purchase, the buildings we build, and so on. As a major employer, we touch so many lives locally — how are we sustaining those people and our local place? Are we going beyond our campus gates to enrich the community and ensure that our operations and presence further a healthy, productive and meaningful life for all community members?
And, as we proceed with our sustainability efforts, how do we ensure that we are making real and fundamental changes to benefit society and the environment to avoid “greenwashing” or overstating the sustainability virtues of our institutions? One of my favorite New Yorker cartoons is a picture of two industrialists looking out their window at billowing smokestacks and the caption reads, “Can’t we just dye the smoke green?” For an institution like Emory that is grounded in ethical engagement, a green smokescreen would be the worst thing we could do in the name of sustainability. Therefore, we have also prioritized tracking and verifying, by third parties where possible, our efforts toward sustainability so that they can be seen as a manifestation of our values.
Emory’s commitment to sustainability includes building LEED-certified residence halls, such as Turman Residence Hall.
Building Green
One of the areas in which the manifestation of Emory’s values can be seen most concretely is in the area of green building. Currently, Emory has more square feet of building space certified by the U.S. Green Building Council under its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program than any other campus in America. LEED-certified buildings must meet certain high standards for energy efficiency, water conservation, indoor air quality and appropriateness of the site (e.g., near public transportation), and a percentage of the building must be constructed from recycled, renewable or locally sourced materials. Since buildings produce 48 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gases in their construction, operation and maintenance, building green is arguably the most important thing that an institution can do to reduce its carbon footprint. This commitment to green building will help Emory achieve its goal of 25 percent reduced energy use from our 2005 levels by 2015.
Building to meet the national LEED green standards costs Emory approximately 0.8-1.5 percent more initially, but Emory has recovered those costs in energy savings in four and a half years or less in every case. Research shows that green buildings also improve worker productivity and student test scores. Examples of our LEED buildings include the Whitehead Biomedical Research Building — the first LEED-certified building in the South — and the Winship Cancer Institute. (It just made sense to Emory to avoid known or potential carcinogens in the paint and carpet of a building dedicated to fighting cancer.) Soon, Emory’s new hospital will be among a handful of LEED-certified hospitals in the country.
Emory plans to retrofit existing buildings on campus to make them more energy efficient one million square feet at a time, and our trustees have made the commitment that all current and future construction must meet LEED standards. Our current design standard is LEED Silver level, but we also have some LEED Gold-level buildings. Two of the most exciting building projects on track to achieve LEED Gold certification are new freshmen residence halls. The halls will have a sustainability theme, and students will participate in sustainability-related programming throughout the year. The buildings also contain innovative sustainability features such as solar panels to drive a pump from an underground cistern that will capture rainwater to fill the dual-flush toilets in the buildings (with dual-flush toilets, you push down for a little bit of water, and up for more water).
Integrating green building with transportation alternatives is also essential. Emory is developing more staff and faculty housing close to campus to reduce long commutes and keep cars off the road. Through a partnership with Cousins Properties, Emory is constructing a mixed-use residential and retail community on our campus and across from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The project is part of a national pilot program for LEED for Neighborhood Development, and 20 percent of the units will be made affordable for Emory workforce housing. Emory is also exploring alternatives for mortgage assistance for employees who agree to live and work close to Emory and forego a parking pass.
Integrating Sustainability Into the Curriculum
Emory hopes to instill sustainability practices into the daily lifestyle and habits of our students and staff. Our students are the most powerful way in which we can touch the world and future generations, so a great deal of the focus of our sustainability initiative revolves around education about sustainability. A key component of this educational initiative is integrating sustainability into Emory’s curriculum. Emory boasts the longest- running faculty development programs in sustainability in the country. Named the “Piedmont Project” after the ecosystem in which we are located, the program has trained more than 130 faculty participants from every school and division within the University, from medicine to journalism. We now train faculty from other schools across the country about how to create a similar program on their campuses.
As part of Emory’s efforts to get its commuters out of their cars, Emory is promoting biking through events such as its Bike to Emory Day (see bike.emory.edu).
Promoting Alternative Transportation
Like all of Atlanta, Emory suffers from traffic congestion and the poor air quality that results from tailpipe emissions. We are attempting to change the culture at Emory by providing incentives to switch from driving cars to walking, biking, carpooling and taking the bus. We provide free transit passes on the city’s MARTA transit system to staff, and we established our own “Cliff ” shuttle bus system, which is the second-largest bus system in metro Atlanta (second in size only to MARTA). Every month, some 240,000 faculty, students and staff ride this 100-percent alternatively fueled system, which powers half its fleet on biodiesel made from recycled cooking oil from Emory’s cafeterias and hospital. Our bike program is a partnership with Fuji Bikes and includes a free bike-share program, mobile bike repair stations and discounted bikes for staff and students. Several years ago, Emory brought a car-share program, FlexCar (now ZipCar), to Atlanta as its first customer, and we hope that bike-share programs will similarly spread throughout the city. Emory has also launched several park-n-ride facilities at area shopping malls around the perimeter of Atlanta — our commuters park at the malls and take our Cliff shuttles to campus. This partnership with the malls takes vehicles off the road, and we didn’t have to pour more asphalt for new parking lots.
Protecting Green Space
On average, metro Atlanta loses 50 acres of greenspace every day. In 2004, Emory’s trustees adopted a Land Use Classification plan that identifies areas appropriate for development and sets aside 54 percent of the campus as protected green space. This green space includes Wesley Woods, one of the most biodiverse forests within Atlanta’s I-285 perimeter. To ensure protection of our forest canopy in all areas of campus, Emory instituted a no-net-loss-of-forest-canopy policy, which guarantees that every time a tree is removed, enough trees will be planted to maintain the same forest canopy.
Conserving Water
Georgia is experiencing a period of extreme drought, so water conservation is increasingly important to building a sustainable institution. Emory’s comprehensive water management plan encourages incorporating innovative water-saving technology into our green buildings, including underground rainwater cisterns to collect rainwater for use in irrigation. Our current system of underground cisterns holds 300,000 gallons of storm water runoff that is recycled to water landscapes, allowing us to save some of our oldest campus trees during the drought. In another example, large heat wheels pull moisture from the air while efficiently ventilating our buildings. The condensate from our heat wheels on Emory’s Children’s Pediatric Center and the Whitehead Biomedical Research Buildings alone amount to four million of gallons of water a year that we use to cool our buildings — water that doesn’t get withdrawn from the Chattahoochee River and for which we aren’t billed.
Recycling Waste
Recycling at Emory goes far beyond paper, cans and plastic. We find new uses for 95 percent of our electronic waste and plan to match that mark by 2015 with construction and road debris, animal bedding and food waste. For example, we crush stone debris from demolition and recycle it into roadbed material. Our cross-country team will run in Lullwater Preserve on a trail made of recycled tires — easy on the feet and the environment. We also have a large outreach program in the community and handle the recycling for the CDC, area schools and retirement communities. Recently, we helped Delta Air Lines set up its in-flight recycling program.
Providing Local and Sustainably Grown Food
Currently, a piece of food in America travels approximately 1,500 miles before it lands on your plate. Reducing the distance from farm to table is a priority of Emory’s sustainability initiative to reduce petroleum use and greenhouse gas emissions, and to promote health and wellness. Emory’s sustainability vision statement sets an ambitious goal of 75 percent local or sustainably grown food in our hospitals and cafeterias by 2015. Sustainably grown food includes the attributes of organic farming, but also includes worker safety and fair wage protections. To accomplish our goal, Emory is working closely with our food vendors, local farmers and the nonprofit Georgia Organics. We have hired an Emory Farm Liaison to work with local producers and distributors to help remove hurdles to local food supply and encourage increased production. We also have launched an awareness campaign on campus to educate students and staff about what food is local and seasonal in Georgia. As a part of our educational effort, we have a weekly Farmers’ Market and seven food gardens on campus that demonstrate local production. I’ve even heard students remark, “So that is what a broccoli plant looks like!” We are providing an education on healthy eating that we hope will last a lifetime.
Emory’s vision is to develop a model for healthy living on our campus that can translate to communities around the globe — a catalyst for sustainability in our own community, for the region and beyond. Through our sustainability initiatives on campus, we hope to set an example for an ethical and moral approach to creating a healthy and productive place to live, learn and work.
For more information on Emory’s sustainability initiatives, visit emory.edu/sustainability.
