迪克西·里德

2021年11月16日

萨克拉门托 State is stepping up in its commitment to achieve full carbon neutrality by 2040, five years ahead of California’s deadline.

To that end, the University has installed nearly 500 “three-stream” recycling bins that provide the campus community a place to dispose of post-consumer food waste, commonly known as “compost,” along with trash and mixed recyclables. 垃圾箱还允许大学遵守将于1月1日星期六生效的全州有机回收规定。

The University’s organics recycling program is expected to divert approximately 60 tons of food waste from the landfill each year.

Composting is just the latest part of 囊状态’s sustainability efforts, which include a campus-wide lighting retrofit and a solar-array project that began on Lot 10 and eventually will expand to two additional parking structures.

这些努力并没有被忽视。 今年早些时候，Sac州立大学获得了高等教育可持续发展协会颁发的著名的STARS金奖。 由于将校园温室气体排放量降至20年来的最低水平，并获得了“美国树校园”、“美国蜜蜂校园”和“野生动物花园”的认证，因此获得了高分。

The association’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System, known as STARS, is a transparent, self-reporting framework that allows institutions to measure their sustainability success.

Also among the University’s growing number of awards and recognitions were three from the 2020 California Higher Education Energy-Efficiency and Sustainability Conference. 萨克拉门托 State’s premiere Student Climate Change Summit won the award for Best Practice in Student Sustainability. Sac州立大学还获得了Ernest E. Tschannen科学综合大楼整体可持续设计的最佳实践奖，以及停车场结构5的可持续运输奖。

萨克州立继续通过种植数百棵树来增加城市森林，这些树从空气中清除了1.7吨污染，产生了237吨氧气，并储存了3000多吨碳。

堆肥计划同样有助于减少排放。 每年，加州人扔掉600万吨食物垃圾，这些垃圾在垃圾填埋场分解后会产生对环境有害的温室气体。

The University’s 480 new recycling bin sets are uniformly illustrated and direct the campus community to use the one marked “compost” for their food scraps, food-soiled paper products, fruits and vegetables, meat and bones, bread, and coffee grounds and filters.

“Now we have consistent bins and signage throughout the campus,” said Ryan Todd, director of Energy and Sustainability. “Your plastic food container will go into the recycling can. 包裹三明治的塑料薄膜会被扔进垃圾桶。 And leftover food goes into the compost can.”

Education is key to the program’s success, said Samantha Elizalde, president of Associated Students 公司。

“We all take part in helping our environment,” she said, “and it’s important that we educate ourselves and others on what is trash versus what is recyclable versus what is compostable.

“Our trash ends up somewhere, so we must do our part to make sure it ends up in the right place.”

存放在堆肥箱内的食物残渣将被送往当地养猪场用作饲料，并被送往厌氧消化池，转化为生物压缩天然气燃料。

“Our trash ends up somewhere, so we must do our part to make sure it ends up in the right place.” ——Samantha Elizalde，联合学生公司总裁

 “As a higher education institution, we have a responsibility and obligation to reduce our carbon footprint,” said Jonathan Bowman, the University’s vice president for 政府 and chief financial officer.

“At 萨克拉门托 State, we lead by example. Through a myriad of comprehensive changes we have made on this campus, we have seamlessly integrated sustainability into our day-to-day operations – actions that are embedded into the fabric of our University.”

In 2016, 囊状态 President Robert S. Nelsen signed Second Nature’s Carbon Commitment, pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality on campus.

The University set a 2040 deadline, which is five years ahead of 萨克拉门托’s and California’s goal to slash overall emissions to zero.

Sac州立大学继续通过其他项目，如大规模的照明改造和扩大太阳能电池阵列的安装，在这方面取得了长足的进步。

在2019冠状病毒病大流行期间，校园关闭，工作人员努力将大学图书馆的5000个白炽灯泡换成了少三分之一但更亮的LED灯泡。

The $2.36 million project, funded primarily by the CSU Chancellor’s Office, reduced the 图书馆’s energy usage by about 54.5% and saved 囊状态 an estimated $100,000 annually in energy costs.

The University recently received another $7 million from the Chancellor’s Office to retrofit the lighting in 27 campus buildings. 预计每年将节省460万千瓦时（kWh）和超过40万美元的能源成本。

萨克州立大学在大黄蜂体育场以南的10号地块完成了大规模太阳能电池阵列的安装。 3979块太阳能电池板每年将产生约225万千瓦时的电力。

该大学最终将把太阳能项目扩展到3号和5号停车场，那里总共有2886块电池板，每年将产生近200万千瓦时的电力。

Once completed, renewable energy sources will provide about 17-20% of 囊状态’s total annual power, and 30% during the summer months when solar is at highest production.

这个680万美元的太阳能项目是由博彩平台免费的电力购买协议资助的。

该大学现有的面板位于WELL和图书馆的顶部。

“We are doing so much because, as a campus, we can no longer focus on reducing one emissions source at a time,” Todd said. “We need to have a sustained, multipronged approach to emissions reductions, tackling a variety of sources at the same time.

“囊状态 creates emissions from using energy, gas and generating waste. Unless we reduce emissions in each of those categories, we won’t achieve the goals we’ve set.”