Greening Our Campuses Through Advice and Advocacy
The Environmental Council (EC) composed of students, faculty, and professional staff from both ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ's Biddeford and Portland campuses, aims to help the University president assess ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ's progress in "greening" the campus. This mission also involves recommending initiatives and mechanisms through which ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ might become more environmentally friendly. Thus, the EC acts in both advisory and advocacy capacities.
The EC is a focal point for increasing awareness and understanding of environmental issues both on campus and in the extended community. Members of the EC, and others who have worked hard over the years to make it a reality, believe the EC should be effectively integrated into the University's decision-making process in order to ensure wise resource use on campus and to encourage greater awareness of the environmental challenges facing society. The EC considers the tract of land where the Biddeford Campus resides one of the few remaining ecologically intact natural habitats in coastal southern Maine. Promoting the careful stewardship of this land is a high priority for the EC.
The EC was formed in the fall of 2006. It evolved out of what was previously known as the ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ School-Wide Environmental Awareness System (SEAS), and the pioneering efforts of faculty and students in the Department of Environmental Studies (now the School of Marine and Environmental Programs).
You can participate in EC meetings via Zoom. Please contact one of the Environmental Council co-chairs to be added to the EC distribution email list and receive the Zoom link.
- Wednesday, January 29, 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
- Wednesday, February 26, 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
- Wednesday, March 26, 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
- Wednesday, April 23, 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
Past Projects
In 2011, the EC endorsed a project to encourage a more sustainable solution for drinking water on ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ’s campuses. At the end of the 2010-2011 academic year, there were 71 Poland Spring bottled water cooler units in the academic departments spread across the Biddeford and Portland campuses. The University purchased more than 16,000 gallons of water a year to fill these coolers.
The EC worked with a local vendor to install 72 filtered water coolers on campus, which provide water to nearly twice as many people previously serviced by the bottled water coolers. The coolers are 48% more energy efficient than the bottled coolers. They have a nine-stage filtration process, which provides exceptional tasting water from our own taps.
There are environmental implications for bottled water including: emissions from transportation, aquifer depletion from large-scale extraction, fossil fuel consumption to make water bottles, and toxin-release from incineration of bottles. There are also potential health implications from drinking water from these bottles such as the consumption of BPA, an endocrine disrupter, which leaches into the water from the plastic. By endorsing this project and seeing it through to its completion, the EC helped ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ do its part to address these concerns.
ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ’s Library Services undertook a data collection project focused on paper usage in 2012. The study revealed that the Biddeford Campus’ Ketchum Library goes through approximately eight-to-ten cases of paper per week, or 275 cases each year, and the Portland Campus’ Abplanal