 
CSI's Becoming a Green Machine
Staten Island Advance - Thursday, May 29, 2008
In an effort to "go green," the College of Staten Island has
implemented solar-powered LED lights on the 'Stop' signs around its
loop road. Ask any student from one of the city's concrete-campus
colleges and they'll tell you that the College of Staten Island
looks more like a country club than a school.
Well, it's about to get just a little bit greener.
The Willowbrook institution has recently launched a variety of
initiatives to further conservation practices across the board and
hopes to speed the programs up in the not-to-distant future,
according to President Tomas D. Morales.
Easily identifiable additions are located throughout the largest
urban campus in the country, starting with transportation.
The most obvious innovations are the solar-powered LED lights on
'Stop' signs around the loop road. A bit less conspicuously, the
parking lots, footpaths and gravel areas are now constantly repaired
with re-used millings from reconditioned highways.
And those lots may be a just bit emptier this fall when non-stop bus
service between the St. George Ferry and the school, a booming
success during its pilot stages, is set to officially begin. The MTA
route, which may connect to a hybrid shuttle bus if other plans go
through, should reduce student-reliance on cars.
Prominently positioned recycling receptacles now greet entrants in
front of each building, and maintenance staff from the Office of
Buildings and Grounds have been meticulous in keeping the paper,
cans, bottles, glass and regular trash separate from one another. In
fact, CSI is attempting to become a 'paperless campus' altogether --
no, not the MLA research variety -- through emphasis on electronic
communication.
Reducing fossil fuels is another concern, but an inventive idea to
possibly convert used cooking oil into biodiesel, a substance that
reduces greenhouse gas emissions when added to diesel fuel, may
limit pollution from the school's heavy machinery and moveable
lighting towers.
The coup de grace, of course, will be the college's new student
residence halls. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
certified, the dormitories are set to finish in 2010 and will
feature state-of-the-art heating and cooling systems, inside an
energy-efficient building design.
The changes stem, in part, from CSI's participation in the brand new
University Sustainability Council of CUNY Chancellor Matthew
Goldstein, which just held its first meeting. The group is
attempting to lower greenhouse gas emissions from all campus
buildings by 30-percent in the next 10 years and effectively create
a fully eco-friendly environment.
By Jamie Lee
Reprinted here with permission
from the
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