Sustainable RCC

This week our assignment was to mock assess just how "green" RCC is. I decided that the easiest way to do so would be to head to the staff of the school for preliminary information. (Note, I did not actually do that) I also pulled an example of a environmental impact assessment from Humboldt State University, one because I think that HSU would be very environmentally minded, and two because I do eventually plan to transfer there. So I'm a little more interested in their campus.

1.     When checking the sustainability of RCC I would want to schedule a meeting with one of the heads of maintenance and facilities. The first step to finding out how green the campus is would be to get the definite information from someone in the know. Making cursory observations could lead me down a bad path of assumptions and misinformation. I would want to know how they handle the different kinds of trash that the school goes through in a day, a week, a month. What do they make an effort to recycle, how do they deal with food trash, ect. I would also want to find out if the school's power grid is connected to any kind of renewable source, maybe ask i the school has any kind of wind turbine system or solar panel attached directly to it. Lastly, I would want to ask how the school handles green spaces, areas where they focus on grass and flora rather than concrete. Walking around the school one can see that they have several green spaces, I would want to know if they plan to expand any of these or add any more.

2.     I decided to look at Humboldt State University as an example of another campus making actual sustainability assessments. I found that they are assessing how the school can deal with its storm water runoff. This document shows all of the information that the school has made for its assessment so far. The problems that the assessment have shown include an increased sediment load in the storm drain and a increase in harmful chemicals making their way to Humboldt Bay, as the water is untreated. The assessment also initially tested for lead in the drinking water but found none and quickly abandoned that part of the project.

Photo showing the harmful affects of overuse of fertilizer.
Taken from the article at the bottom of the blog

3.     For my assessment I would want to see how the school maintains it's green areas. I would want to see what kind of fertilizer that they use and what kind of tools, whether they be powered or not. My ultimate goal would be to see what kind of chemicals or nutrients the school was putting in the ground and potentially in to the watershed. I would start by furthering my questioning of the head of facilities, simple questions about what kind of fertilizer they use and how often they maintain the grounds. From here I could see what kind of chemicals were going into the ground and just how much exhaust was potentially getting put in to the atmosphere every maintenance day. I don't think that the staff would give me any problems if I tried to attain this information.

To add some extra information, I found an article about the dangers of rampant fertilizer usage. It can be found here