Detroit Development News

The 31-member Task Force on Environmental Initiatives at Wayne State University has released a 58-page report that details specific steps the university should take to increase its level of sustainability.

Robin Boyle is chair of the urban planning department as well a professor. He served as co-chair of the task force's sustainability committee.  "First, WSU realized that we were, in many respects, not promoting what was already happening," he says. Resident hall recycling was one example of an individual initiative that the task force has recognized, with the hopes of expanding it campus-wide.

The university also recognized it could be doing much more. "We became aware that WSU was a couple of steps behind other large research universities," says Boyle. "We had to pull things together to catch up."

Some recommendations include:

• Develop energy-efficiency policies to guide all future construction.

• Reduce energy and paper usage campus-wide and use alternative energy sources whenever possible.
  

• Pull together courses that deal with environmental issues
  into a certificate program and, potentially, a formal degree.
  

• Encourage faculty, staff and students to live in Midtown and use public transit with the goal of reducing vehicle miles.
  

Boyle sees the university's efforts as important to not only the environment, but to the economy. "We'd like to try and find ways to take this enthusiasm for sustainable matters and turn this into job opportunities." he says. Pointing out that the world in which WSU lives is much different that that, say of, University of Colorado at Boulder, he says, "It is important that an urban research university addresses the context in which it is placed."

Source: Robin Boyle, Wayne State University
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh