Collegiate Times

For an end-of-the-semester project, four Virginia Tech students in an environmental planning studio proposed innovative environmental legislation. After earning an A on their project, the students decided to take the next step and propose the idea to the university.

Now, working with the Advisory Council for Environmental Sustainability, the students have adapted the lessons they learned in the classroom to construct a green fee proposal for Tech.

The proposal suggests students pay a $6 fee per semester in order to help maintain campus sustainability. While campus sustainability is the overall goal of the green fee, decreasing pollution and increasing environmental awareness complement the students' goal.

With the aims of energy efficiency and recycling, the proposal has found support on campus. Petitions in the past year demonstrated student backing, and the Graduate Student Assembly and the Student Government Association's House and Senate recently passed the proposal. A survey currently available online at sga.vt.edu attempts to further assess student opinion.

?Students seem to be very in favor of the green fee,? said Katelyn Keefe, green fee coordinator and senior environmental planning major. ?The environment is something that's important to everyone.?

Though it's come a long way from a mere classroom project, the proposal still has a long way to go.

?Honestly, we still need to work with various commissions and through the administration ? It's not something that current freshmen will see most likely until their junior or senior year,? Keefe said. ?But, it still is something definitely worth pursuing.?

One of the project's planners said energy-saving is a big part of the plan.

?I guess the ultimate goal would be renewable energy, but it's really about the small things. In class, we discussed bringing the recycling programs back in funding and cutting back on overall waste,? said Amanda Komar, a senior environmental planning and policy major and one of the students originally involved with the project.

If implemented, the green fee would benefit several components of the campus and community, Keefe said.

?If you think about Tech's campus, everyone has an environmental impact beyond directly our campus and beyond Blacksburg,? she said. ?We need to protect our environment. The green fee's campus sustainability aim has a long-term focus.?

With the $6 per-student per-semester proposal, the green fee could potentially generate $307,548 annually, allowing funding for various environmentally-sound programs, primarily geared toward energy efficiency and recycling.

?We use energy every day on campus, with a lot of pollution and a lot of environmental costs with the use. Implementing energy efficiency measures is not only good for the environment but also in turn would be economical,? Keefe said.

In the current green fee proposal, allocations for energy efficiency would go toward improving campus buildings. Rather than piecemeal, the money would allow for the upgrading of entire buildings at a time, implementing energy-efficient appliances and fixtures.

For the recycling component, the green fee proposal recommends distributing funds to enlarge Tech's recycling programs.

?In order to implement recycling, you need funding for a start-up program. The recycling program at Tech does as much as possible with funding, but ultimately it would be awesome if we could pursue recycling further,? Keefe said.

Tech experienced severe budget cuts a few years ago, directly impacting the recycling at the university, said Recycling Coordinator Larry Bechtel.

?We've done what we could, and for the most part, departments were able to continue with recycling if they so chose - they just had to get the paper out of the buildings. With the Environmental Coalition becoming active, we've been able to set up a route again, but on a much smaller scale,? he said.

Bechtel explained that, if implemented, the green fee could potentially increase Tech's recycling.

?If the green fee went through and the money was allocated to recycling, then it would be possible to pay student organizations to manage, and that means expansion of the program,? he said.