University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
PAE-4: Sustainability Plan

The Chancellor provided a charge to a Campus Sustainability Team to generate a comprehensive plan. The Co-Captains of the Team were Steven Arndt (Director of Facilities Management) and Michael Lizotte (Director of the Aquatic Research Laboratory). The team members included 7 staff, 8 faculty and teaching staff, and 9 students were involved in the development and completion of the sustainability plan. The Campus Sustainability Team formed four squads to generate ideas on the topics of Operations, Teaching, Research and Outreach. These squads generated a wide range of ideas that were summarized into 113 recommendations. A series of online surveys was made available to the entire team, who were asked to rank the recommendations in terms of breadth (how much the campus would be impacted) and depth (would the individuals impacted gain understanding of sustainability). A writing squad drafted the plan and collected comments from the entire team and the campus community in open sessions. The writing team also met with Administration to define the organization and resources that would be used to implement the plan. A prioritization exercise was facilitated by Johnson Controls, including off-campus stakeholders. The plan was presented to the four governance groups (Oshkosh Student Association, Faculty Senate, Classified Staff Advisory Council, and Senate of Academic Staff) for their endorsement.

The Campus Sustainability Plan contains an Executive Summary, an Introduction, six sections containing specific recommendations (Organization, Operations, Teaching, Outreach, Research, and Assessment), and a Conclusion. The recommendation sections are organized in a similar fashion, starting out with a long term vision, an introduction, major goal, history of campus activity, and an action plan. The action plan contains recommendations for achieving the stated goals. Specific recommendations are categorized as either possible today (“initial consideration”), requiring more time (“within three years”), or long term (defined as 5 years or greater). Measurable goals include: • Create a permanent Campus Sustainability Council • Create a permanent full time position with the title of Campus Sustainability Director. • Designate sustainability responsibilities for Administrators • Establish a Campus Sustainability Fund • Reduce electricity consumption 20% from 2005 levels by 2012. • Reduce the annual consumption of fossil fuels for heating by 50% from 2000 levels by 2012. • Reduce overall water consumption levels by 50% from 2000 levels by 2012. • Utilize energy efficient and sustainable design standards on all new construction and applicable renovation projects; seek to meet or exceed a LEED “Silver” level. • Reduce automobile trips to campus by 20% by 2012. • Develop and follow sustainability-focused purchasing policies in more than 50% of spending for campus materials and equipment by 2012. • Reduce production of municipal solid waste by 30% from 2000 levels by 2012. • Increase biodiversity and usable green space of the campus while reducing dependence on fossil fuels, other extracted minerals, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. • Sustainability should be a recognized, emphasized, and common curricular theme across colleges, departments and general education initiatives. • Expand the opportunities for students to garner hands-on experience in a wide range of sustainability initiatives by increasing the number of available internship, service learning, and volunteer experiences. • Develop and maintain research and scholarship that supports campus sustainability efforts, contributes to the professional development of staff, and challenges students to apply their emerging skills and knowledge. • Develop and maintain sufficient outreach efforts so that the sustainability lessons learned by UW Oshkosh are known, appreciated, understood, and used by the public. • Establish the means to assess campus sustainability and provide information to students, staff and community.

Some metrics are required for annual reporting to the State of Wisconsin (energy and water consumption). Sustainability progress is been reported as part of the university’s Annual Report. Greenhouse gas inventories are reported annually to ACUPCC. The Campus Sustainability Council reviews progess at monthly meeting, and during an annual exercise to determine annual goals and budget. The AASHE STARS assessments will be the broadest assessment of campus sustainability to date.