Over the past few years, Pomona has sought to decrease significantly its impact on the environment. Still, some people want to see it do even more...

ow green is Pomona College? It depends on whom you ask. Take, for example,
the case of the Mahonia repens.

During a recent makeover of Marston Quad, groundskeepers tore out about 5,000 square feet of Algerian ivy, a notoriously thirsty plant, and replaced it with Mahonia repens, also known as Oregon grape. The leafy green groundcover was a desirable alternative because of its low-water needs. The edible berries it produces are an added bonus for local species of berry-loving birds.

The installation of the Mahonia repens is part of a campus-wide plan to introduce more low-water and native plants, particularly in areas where buildings are being renovated. Additional water-saving measures include the replacement of sprinklers with drip irrigation, which delivers water directly to the base of plants instead of raining it down from above, eliminating evaporation and runoff; the generous use of mulch, which allows soil to retain more water; and the installation of a computerized system that waters an area only when sensors indicate it’s needed.

“Pomona is trying to do our part to be environmentally friendly and save water and have a beautiful campus,” says Ronald Nemo, staff horticulturist and interim supervisor of the grounds department.

Nemo estimates that Pomona’s efforts could reduce landscape water usage by as much as 50 percent. Some students have suggested to Nemo that the College could save a lot more water if it got rid of the grass that carpets large swaths of campus. That’s not going to happen, Nemo says.

And that, in a nutshell, illustrates the diverging opinions on Pomona College’s level of environmental consciousness. The College is steadily implementing measures aimed at increasing campus environmental sustainability, but some—like those who favor abolishing the lawns—say they don’t go far enough.

“The balance between energy efficient structures and the historical architecture of Pomona College can’t be applied as an absolute or exclusive measure,” says James Hansen, director of campus planning and maintenance. “Our challenge is to find ways that we can introduce energy conservation without compromising the campus aesthetics.” 

Over the past few years, the College has made several changes aimed at decreasing its impact on the environment. A number of classrooms and dorms now share a common boiler room, instead of each building having its own separate room, which was less energy efficient. All carts driven on campus are electric. A much wider variety of materials, from aerosol cans to carbon paper, can now be tossed into campus recycling bins. Students have started an organic farm on campus to experiment with farming techniques and test classroom theories about sustainable agriculture.

Currently, the most high-profile project is the new biology building that began construction in July. The three-story building is a model of environmentally sensitive design. It will be cooled by ice created at night, when energy demand is lowest. Windows will allow the sun to provide much of the interior lighting, with artificial lights used only when needed. Photovoltaic panels on the roof of the building are expected to meet about nine percent of the building’s energy needs. These and a slew of other conservation-minded features have qualified the building for a silver certification by the U.S. Green Building Council, a 10-year-old coalition of environmentally conscious building industry leaders.

The council certifies buildings under its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, a building rating system designed to encourage green building practices. The LEED program awards “basic,” “silver,” “gold” and “platinum” honors to buildings, based on the environmental friendliness of their construction and design. Pomona’s new building will meet even tougher environmental standards than a platinum-ranked building constructed at the University of California’s Santa Barbara campus three years earlier. This disparity is a reflection of rapidly changing technology and the near-constant updating of LEED criteria.

Constructing buildings that conform to LEED standards makes sense, says Ed Gulick ’94, project manager for the Green Resource Center, a Bay Area nonprofit that works to spur the market for green building by educating building professionals and the general public on the numerous environmental, health and economic benefits.

“Buildings compose one of the largest assets we have in society,” Gulick says. “We spend 90 percent of our time in them, they use 40 percent of the energy we produce, 60 percent of the electricity, and 40 percent of the materials we extract are used to create buildings and the stuff to fill them. Buildings are notoriously inefficient.”

But things are starting to change for the greener, now that the business world is beginning to realize that green building is as good for the pocketbook as it is for the environment.

Studies have shown that workplaces with green-building design features, such as increased ventilation and daylight, not only use less energy, but employees who work in them are more productive and take fewer days off. And while state-of-the-art green technologies can carry a hefty price tag, energy-efficient alternatives for many building components are increasingly available at competitive prices, while other green measures have always been relatively inexpensive, like installing windows that can be opened.

Constructing an environmentally sensitive structure has become easier with the LEED standards in place, eliminating any confusion as to what constitutes a green building.
“LEED standards provide a road map for achieving an efficient building,” says Hansen. “Although you also have to acknowledge that the certification process is a separate animal from the construction process. LEED certification can be a lengthy process that does have costs associated with it. I’m sure that many new buildings will take advantage of the guidelines provided by LEED without the burden of the certification process.”

Gulick agrees that the LEED standards have helped to boost the visibility—and the popularity—of green building.

“I fully expect more and more cities are going to start providing incentives for LEED buildings across the country,” he says. “A lot of developers are going for it because the market has started to demand it.”

Environmentally sensitive construction has secured its place at Pomona College, says George E. “Buddy” Moss ’52, a member of the Pomona College Board of Trustees.
“We do have other buildings being planned over the next 10-year period,” Moss says. “I know sustainability will be really at the forefront in consideration of design of these edifices. It is part of the culture now.”

In fact, environmentally sustainable practices are now an official part of the Pomona College culture. The Board of Trustees put into words the College’s ongoing commitment to environmental responsibility last year when it adopted an official Statement of Environmental Policy. The Board’s support for sustainability was summed up in the opening paragraph of the statement, which reads “Pomona College recognizes that the local and global environment in which it operates must be protected for future generations. It is therefore committed to the further development of an ethos of resource sustainability among faculty, staff and students and to the incorporation of environmentally sound practices in its operations. Such commitments are essential if future generations are to have a healthy and productive environment.”

The policy states among its goals a desire to enhance ongoing efforts to reduce energy and water usage, expand recycling, increase usage of recycled materials and improve air quality by encouraging carpooling and other alternative modes of transportation.

In drafting the policy, the Board of Trustees solicited input from students, faculty and staff members, reflecting the fact that all members of the Pomona College community must work together in order for resources to be used responsibly.

“Working on the Statement of Environmental Policy was a great example of cooperation,” says Moss, who chaired the task force that hammered out the statement and now presides over the implementation committee that is overseeing how that policy is put into action. “Environmental sustainability is something we are all interested in.”

Representatives of all segments of the College community continue to meet on a regular basis to oversee the implementation of the policy’s objectives. This all-inclusive effort, with students, faculty and the administration working together on environmental policy, is a new force on the Pomona campus, and one to be reckoned with, says Professor of Politics Rick Worthington.

“Concern for the environment has been an issue for students for as long as I have been here, which is 12 years,” says Worthington. “What is new is that it is getting into school policy at the highest levels.”

Worthington sees two reasons for the cooperative effort—a change in the nature of student activism and the alliance created by the recent formation of an Environmental Analysis Program.

Recent years have seen the focus of environmental activism embrace thinking globally and acting locally. Today’s students are more likely to try to push for change in their own local environment rather than focusing solely on influencing policy in Washington D.C., Worthington says. When the Environmental Analysis Program was established in 2001, it brought together environmentally conscious professors and students, making it easier for campus environmentalists to meet and coordinate efforts for change.

“Once things got coordinated, ideas started coming through to the deans, president and Board of Trustees,” says Worthington. “The real challenge will be to implement all these ideas.”

One student-generated idea that won recent approval from the administration called for turning leftover food from the dining halls into compost to be used at the student farm.

“It’s great. Instead of throwing out the leftover food, it’s going to be composted and used at the farm to grow tasty organic vegetables,” says Josh Tulkin ’03.

As the environmental affairs commissioner for the Associated Students of Pomona College, Tulkin has worked hard to improve the lines of communication between students and the administration. Tulkin hopes that his efforts will result in more students getting their ideas heard.

“There are a lot of ideas and students interested in working on them, but they all require administrative action and we hit a wall there sometimes,” Tulkin says. “What has always been a barrier to student involvement is a feeling of disempowerment, not knowing who to talk to or where to go with your ideas. I think students will get more involved when they see the door is open.”

Tulkin says he is pleased with the environmental practices the school has implemented, but he and other students would like to see more, and they are working with the administration to try to get that done. Students have already started a program to recycle printer cartridges on campus. And a group of students is working with staff members in campus planning and maintenance to draft sustainable building guidelines for all campus buildings.

“Our goal is to bring several proposals to the board and see them through to implementation,” Tulkin says.

Other measures that students are interested in include creating an environmental speakers’ fund that would bring well-known lecturers to campus to raise awareness of environmental issues; installing photovoltaic panels throughout campus with the goal of generating 10 percent renewable energy; replacing the plastic utensils in the dining halls with others that are biodegradable; increasing the use of native plants on campus and labeling them to make people aware of which plants are native; and creating a position in the administration for a full-time sustainability coordinator to oversee implementation of the campus environmental policy.

“I truly commend Pomona on its efforts so far, but there is more that needs to be done,” says Tulkin. “There’s an inscription on the gates to Pomona College that says ‘They only are loyal to this college who departing, bear their added riches in trust for mankind.’ Day after day pumping out emissions from fossil fuels to power our college is not bearing our added riches in trust for mankind.”

Hansen, the staff person responsible for overseeing implementation of the environmental policy, says when it comes to sustainability, the College is trying to do quite a bit. “There is a lot of commitment that runs from the trustee level to the administration, the faculty and students,” Hansen says.

He appreciates the new ideas that come from all segments of the College community, but says it isn’t possible to implement all of them, although some may be put in place in the future.

“A challenge for us is finding ways to use the technology,” says Hansen. “For example, students are very interested in photovoltaics. In the future, I think we’ll see better use of photovoltaics on campus, but right now we are limited by the state of technology. If you look at powering an entire science building with them, the technology just isn’t quite there yet.”

Other suggestions are not likely to happen for a long, long time, if ever. This appears especially true for proposals that would drastically change Pomona College’s storied green landscape by planting only low-water foliage.

“It is sort of a tightrope to walk,” Hansen says. “The campus has been here more than 100 years. To turn it completely back to native materials, it just would not be Pomona College anymore.”