The University of Idaho hasn’t always been known for its sustainable efforts, but with a recent push for environmental awareness and a growing Sustainability Center, the university is gaining national recognition.
“There’s no one definition for sustainability,” said Kaitlyn Martin, the student director of the Sustainability Center. “You have to create one on your own.”
UI was recently praised for its environmentalism by Best Choice Schools, which ranked the campus 18th in its list of “50 Great Affordable Eco-Friendly Colleges.”
The university received recognition due to programs designed and implemented by students to encourage others to reduce their environmental impact. Best Choice School cited the university’s green roof on the Student Union Building, and the effort to return a total of 84 acres to native vegetation in the state. UI also caught Best Choice’s attention by setting aside more than $35 million for energy conservation projects, and encouraging the student body to get involved with a program that exchanges a free meal for an hour spent educating fellow diners about composting and recycling in the Idaho Commons. Additionally, all new construction on the UI campus must be built to LEED Silver standards.
The biomass boiler in the steam plant was also cited as a top sustainable effort by the university. The boiler burns wood chips to heat all the buildings on campus. The wood chips are waste products from the local timber industry and the steam is transported through tunnels that run underneath the sidewalks, clearing them of snow in the winter. Also, the charcoal from the burning is used to fertilize local fields, and more than 97 percent of the water remains in the system to be boiled again.
“Everything the article mentioned was done by the Sustainability Center,” said Amaya Amigo, events coordinator for the Sustainability Center. “It shows how the center is such an important part of the campus.”
The Sustainability Center was established in 2006 and while quickly growing, it’s still a small organization. Its mission is to integrate sustainability at UI while working toward carbon-neutrality. The center is student-run by nine student staff coordinators including Martin, and is student-funded by the dedicated activity fee students pay each year. The center receives training and guidance from Jeannie Matheison, Sustainability program adviser, but the students working in the Sustainability Center are responsible for choosing and executing the center’s major goals.
Amigo said her goal is to have fun and interactive events students can connect with. This year the center has already hosted one of its biggest events — the biannual bike fix. The center brought in four mechanics to give free tune-ups to students’ bikes. The event’s purpose is threefold, she said, the center gets exposure and the chance to show some of what it does on campus, organizations from the campus and community get to showcase their work and students get their bikes fixed, reducing their their carbon footprint.
“We put on over 100 events a year that help get people involved and aware,” Martin said.
Many environmental projects echo the bike fix when it comes to accomplishing as many goals as possible as efficiently as possible.
There are always a lot of events going on through the center, Amigo said, from working on the student farm to game day recycling to Vandalizing the Kitchen with the campus dietician.
One of the center’s biggest contributions to campus is designating $9,000 in grants for student projects that deal with the three pillars of sustainability: social, environmental and economic.
The Sustainability Center also offers Earthfest, a month-long Earth Day in April. Earthfest features events like an interdisciplinary symposium called UIdeas and the Moscow Race for Action.
Each year, the student director picks a focal point for the center. This year, the sustainability is focusing on the No Impact Challenge — a week-long international environmental effort inspired by the No Impact Man book, film and blog.
Students can sign up for the No Impact Challenge any time between now and April on the Sustainability Center’s website.
Though the No Impact Challenge only lasts a week, this year has been dubbed the Year of No Impact, Martin said, because the center is focusing on a different one of five core values each month — transportation, consumption, food, water and energy.
“My strengths are in communications and connecting people with resources, so this year we’re bringing the No Impact Challenge to UI campus in April,” Martin said. “It’s a carbon cleanse, and we’re challenging students to look at how their choices affect the environment.”
Alyssa Baugh can be reached at