With budget forecasts tight for the foreseeable future, colleges are challenging their constituencies to find ways to save money. At a time when we are also focused on making our campuses more environmentally friendly, the costs of green projects may seem prohibitive. They aren’t.

Fortunately there are many ways in which individuals and organizations can save energy and lower campus costs at the same time. These efforts can be made part of the campus culture if they are synchronized with long-term campus planning and education. Energy is one piece of the equation, but there are many other aspects to greening a campus that don’t require major resources. Minimizing waste production, conserving water, and recycling are all part of the larger process of changing the way we use valuable resources.

Take, for example, recycling. At Hamilton College, our total annual production of waste is approximately 1,100 tons. Of this, 210 tons is recycled material—paper, plastics, and glass. This 19-percent recycling rate jumps during our annual RecycleMania competition to approximately 26 percent. (RecycleMania is a contest, supported by the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Recycling Coalition, that encourages waste reduction and waste minimization with friendly competition among colleges.)

Our challenge is to sustain this higher rate through the year. That 7-percent increase in the recycling rates equates to 58 tons of waste, or $4,200 in reduced expenditures and a major volume decrease at the local landfill. Our end-of-the-year “Ham and Scram” effort to collect food, used clothes, and furniture from departing students eliminated an additional 27 tons of waste.

Recycling efforts have succeeded when education is consistent and results are reported in ways individuals can relate to. Transferring this success to other conservation work will require the same persistent focus on education and on developing programs that touch an individual’s fundamental motivation to conserve. A common question is “What’s in it for me?” We need to change that prevailing attitude to “What can I do?”

For an institution to conserve, individuals need to understand why conservation is necessary, what it means to them, how they can help, and how their efforts will make a difference. Improving education and conservation programs can help reduce energy use, carbon output, and costs.

While conservation programs for the broader Hamilton campus are still in their infancy, the college’s physical-plant department has had success internally by helping department members understand how much of an impact they can have in reducing energy use. This awareness and excitement has fostered a variety of ideas and efforts that have helped reduce our annual electrical use by 135,000 kilowatt-hours (equal to the power needed for more than a dozen typical homes annually, according to the Environmental Protection Agency).

What about space conservation? Can we, as colleges and universities, reduce our physical footprint on the landscape? For the most part buildings are well used, supporting a variety of programs day and night. However, consider the savings if we could reduce square footage through consolidation and elimination of unnecessary space. Reducing square footage—especially removing a building—reduces energy use, reduces long-term carbon production, lowers maintenance costs, decreases heat-island effect (if the area is returned to planted green space), improves stormwater runoff, and provides valuable open space.

At Hamilton, we have removed six buildings in the past five years. Five of these had potential for reuse, but were essentially extra space that we did not need. Their elimination created wonderful green space and improved views on campus. The two buildings we will remove this summer will create a new green space in the center of campus, reduce our annual carbon emissions by 82 metric tons, save $20,000 annually in energy costs, decrease maintenance requirements by $8,000, and provide building stone for an upcoming renovation project.

Lastly, we sometimes forget what we already know. Many college and university Web sites have sustainability pages with vast amounts of information on campus energy policies, energy-saving ideas, and sustainable actions that are easy for individuals or groups. Getting started may be the most difficult step in the process. Work with with your institution’s physical-plant department. They are already invested in sustainability and the benefits of improving all aspects of the physical campus.

To paraphrase an old and true college cheer: “Go Green!” —Steve Bellona

Steve Bellona, the Buildings & Grounds January guest blogger, is Hamilton College’s associate vice president for facilities and planning. You can read his previous posts here, here, and here.