The organization’s recently published report, "State of the Campus Environment: National Report Card on Environmental Performance and Sustainability in Higher Education," rates the UO as one of the top schools in four of 17 categories. The UO was listed among the best in Employing Environmental Coordinators and Administrators; Recycling, Solid Waste, and Material Flow; Doing More with Recycling Solid Waste and Materials Flow; and Land and Grounds Management Programs. The report studied 891 U.S. schools, roughly 22 percent of the country’s institutions of higher education.

"There is no doubt that the UO is very environmentally friendly," says Vice President Dan Williams, Administration. "It is a leader in the sustainability movement, both administratively and academically."

Williams credited student involvement as well as efforts from the administration and university staff.

"As a public institution, we should try out good public policy," says Williams. "We have the luxury to do what’s not done in the private sector, and we provide students with an important learning tool."

The university’s environmental leadership, highlighted by these NWF listings, did not happen overnight.

"We’ve been doing it for decades in areas ranging from alternative modes of transportation to recycling," says Christine Thompson, University Planning. "The Environmental Issues Committee was created in 1991. Then the Environmental Policy was created in 1997. That policy officially put into words what we were already doing."

UO Recycling Manager Karyn Kaplan agrees.

"The university is very committed even beyond recycling to waste sustainability," she explains. "We’re not just focusing on recycling, but a holistic approach to waste reduction."

Even with all these successes, campus sustainability efforts continue to grow, adds Tim King, Facilities Services.

"For example, we’re developing a more comprehensive tree policy," says King, who supervises UO landscaping activities. "We still have more to do. We’re evolving as we go."

The UO’s sustainability work has drawn attention from other groups and institutions in addition to the NWF. Schools around the world look at the UO’s program as a model.

"We are contacted often by schools requesting information about our recycling program," said Kaplan. "We gave the University of South Wales a 10-day tour of our facilities."

Aside from the environmental benefits, the UO policy of maintaining a sustainable campus has economic advantages. It provides jobs for students and residents, and it saves money and resources.

"We’re landscaping with plants that are naturally resistant to pests," says King. "In addition, we use natural predators to help reduce our need for spraying. These practices both lead to plants that are healthier and more resistant to diseases and to ways to save us money."

What makes the UO’s environmentally sustainable campus work, according to Williams, Thompson, Kaplan and King, is broad support from across campus—faculty, staff and students.

"The administration is not reactive," said Williams. "It initiates and supports ideas."

"If I had to pick one thing that contributed to our success, it would be a cooperative effort and involvement campus wide," says Kaplan. "It’s a unique system of cooperation and funding from all aspects of campus."

Only two schools scored exemplary marks in more categories. Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif., and Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C., each earned exemplary marks in five categories.

Dave Frohnmayer
UO President

During the first two quarters of Fiscal Year 2000-01, the UO attracted approximately $29 million in grant funding. During the same period of 2001-02, the figure increased to approximately $43 million, a record-setting level, according to recently compiled UO data.

About 85 percent of UO research funding flows into the state from federal sources.

Not only is the total amount of awards won by UO researchers increasing, but so is the overall number of grants: from 283 in the first half of last year to 319 in the first half of this year—a 13 percent increase. The UO has experienced growth in research funding nearly every year since FY 1985-86, when awards totaled $24 million, and reached an all time high of $62 million in FY 1999-2000.

"Much of this success in attracting research funding is based on our exceptional faculty’s ability to leverage modest research investments by the state," says Vice President Rich Linton, Research and Graduate Studies.

Linton attributes the unprecedented success to the commitment and research excellence of the UO faculty. He notes that the faculty win large amounts of competitive grant support in critical areas of strength at the UO: the biological and physical sciences, and the many research programs in Education.

"The university also has many internationally recognized research centers, such as Molecular Biology and Neuroscience," he says. "These receive little state funding, but leverage it more than 10-fold to bring in millions of research dollars from federal agencies, especially the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. This illustrates the very high return the state is getting on its investment in research. But the return is even larger than that because each dollar devoted to academic research also [creates] additional dollars in new economic activity."

In addition to the direct effects of wages and salaries paid to UO employees, the university purchases goods and services from local businesses. There are also indirect effects as these initial receivers of research expenditures, in turn, purchase goods and services. Considering these "multiplier effects," UO research pumps annually an estimated $150 million plus into the Oregon economy.

Since May 2001, 71 pallets of monitors and other computer and electronic equipment that might otherwise find itself in a landfill have been collected for "demanufacturing"—disassembling the computers, grouping like components together and sending these pieces off for recycling. Environmental Health collected an average of more than eight pallets per month in the first eight months of the program but that number dropped to four pallets in January.

According to Nick Williams, Facilities Services environmental manager and the computer harvest coordinator, the program will continue monthly through the end of winter quarter. Then the harvest will move to a quarterly pickup schedule. However, non-working monitors and computer equipment can be turned in to Environmental Health at any time.

Through December, the UO had picked up 515 CPUs, 447 monitors and 50 Macintosh computers for demanufacturing. In all, 1,808 pieces of computer, scientific and electronic equipment had been tagged for the program, not the landfill.

Since the computer harvest program started, Williams has been contacted by several universities and even the U.S. Department of Justice for information regarding the program. The justice department was interested in setting up its own program and was looking at the UO as a model program, Williams says.

"Live" equipment still in working condition goes into surplus stock, but the non-working, "dead" equipment is taken apart and recycled.

"We know the rate of obsolescence continues to accelerate, but we have a process and program in place to take care of it," Williams says.

"The issue is protection of ground water and of the air," he explains. "This whole harvesting program is a result of a multi-function group. It’s not possible without the work of a lot of people. They put department designations aside. It’s a model for other initiatives."

The lead from monitor glass leaches out of discarded computers and into groundwater. When the glass is broken, the particles enter the air. Although most landfills are lined, keeping lead out ensures cleaner ground water.

Known as the Facilities Asset Management Information System (FAMIS), the program will track everything from maintenance requests to inventories to facilities payroll.

"Unofficially, we like to say FAMIS stands for ‘Fix and Maintain Important Stuff,’" says Greta Pressman, Facilities Services campus relations manager, with a chuckle.

A "really cool" web site for requesting maintenance using FAMIS will be up soon, Pressman says.

"The site will allow everybody doing business with Facilities Services to request service, get immediate confirmation and get information on costs if it’s a billable job," she notes.

To ease the transition from the old system to FAMIS, Facilities Services hosted several one-hour informational meetings. Those who attended learned how to navigate through the new online request-and-reporting form as well as how FAMIS means the 3- and 4-digit billing system will end because jobs now can be billed directly to departmental accounts.

"The new system is designed to provide building managers and department contacts with better, faster information about work that they request as well as an improved method for making those requests," Pressman says.