Editor,
I am referring to the article titled "UNM gets C on sustainability exam" published in the Daily Lobo on Oct. 30.
The surveys that were compiled, which ultimately gave UNM its C rating under "Administration" concerning sustainability, were never seen by myself or discussed in any of the Sustainability Task Force meetings.
As a member of the task force for the past nine months, as well as a history undergraduate in the arts and sciences department, I would like to take this opportunity to explain the accomplishments that have been witnessed this year.
Last year, the task force never existed, but now it is going to be established as a permanent administrative committee. UNM was unaware of the changes it would have to make to combat the rising repercussions of nonrenewable energy use. From the efforts of the task force as well as outside influences from our state government, sustainable goals have been established.
On Jan. 16, 2006, Gov. Bill Richardson signed Executive Order 2006-001 that states: ". the state adopt specific standards to implement and facilitate the use of high performance energy efficient green building practices for all state-funded existing and new buildings throughout the state of New Mexico." In order to meet this objective, the task force and Physical Plant have been reorganizing their priorities to see these policies implemented on campus. As a result, four occurrences have taken place on UNM campuses concerning sustainability.
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Beginning on July 1, the SUB has been operating on 100 percent renewable energy - courtesy of Physical Plant - and will continue to do so until the end of the fiscal year. The SUB roughly represents 2.3 percent of the campus energy usage, and the expenditure was $11,000 to make the SUB electricity-carbon neutral. In total, it would cost the University an estimated $500,000 every year to make the entire campus run on renewable energy.
Second, the draft policies that will become the documents governing sustainability at UNM have been finished, and the process of getting them approved has begun. The task force has made the administrative and SMART goals policies available for student input at Zimmerman Library.
The third and fourth moves toward sustainability on campus were David Schmidly taking over as UNM president and ASUNM creating a sustainability committee. Schimdly has started moving UNM in a direction, which will disrupt its energy-consumption habits and convert it into a low-emission university.
The student government has also taken the initiative. Its newly-formed Sustainability Committee has been holding meetings with guest speakers from various groups to formalize its efforts when proceeding next year to the Legislature to request renewable energy funds.
So, although UNM received a C, it is not a good reflection of sustainability at UNM and does not take into account the many advancements in sustainability over the past year.
In addition, Physical Plant has formed or plans to generate a number of renewable projects in the fields of environmental services, maintenance and planning, purchasing, transportation, water reduction and designing buildings for LEED Silver Level Certification.
William Dauphinais
UNM student
