For first-year Student Senator Jack Benage, inspiration struck on his way to class last fall – when he realized he could not see a single recycling bin anywhere along SMU’s traditional entrance to campus.

“If there are any permanent bins on Bishop Boulevard, they aren’t prominent enough,” he says. “I asked several students if they recalled the presence of recycling bins during home tailgate parties, and none of them could remember seeing any.”

Benage took action: He wrote and sponsored a Student Senate proposal to add recycling bins to the Boulevard festivities that take place before every SMU home football game. In 2009, the Senate passed the legislation, which aims to establish a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio of recycling bins to trash cans during Boulevard tailgate activities.

That victory “got me thinking about how SMU could be more environmentally friendly,” Benage says. It also attracted attention from other students concerned about the environment. As a result, the University has formed a new committee on sustainability, which has become a hub for environmental efforts by faculty, staff and students.

“We noticed a lot of overlap as far as green efforts are concerned,” says Tiana Lightfoot ’07. “Coordinating all these efforts became important, and that’s where the Sustainability Committee comes in.”

Lightfoot, a markets and culture graduate and former student leader in the Environmental Society, now works with Engineering Dean Geoffrey Orsak in SMU’s greenest facility – the Embrey Engineering Building. A showpiece of campus sustainability, the Embrey Building was certified in December 2007 as meeting the gold standard established by the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Engineering and Environmental Design (LEED) program. A three-story skylight provides natural sunlight to the interior, while specially designed pavers reflect excess rays away from the building to make it easier to cool in the summer. Recycled materials appear everywhere from cabinets to carpets, while the landscaping features drought-tolerant plants kept healthy with recycled water. The building also serves as a living laboratory for students in the Environmental and Civil Engineering Department housed within it.

SMU, which has been a member of the USGBC since 2004, also will seek LEED certification for new construction on campus. The projects include Prothro Hall in the Perkins School of Theology, the new Caruth Hall in the Lyle School of Engineering and the new building for the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

Making Older Buildings Earth Friendly

Yet even older campus buildings can be made significantly more earth-friendly, says Michael Paul, Sustainability Committee interim co-chair and executive director of facilities management and sustainability in SMU’s Office of Campus Planning and Plant Operations (CPPO). Paul’s department has initiated dozens of refinements designed to reduce the University’s ecological footprint.

Super-efficient, long-lasting LCD and compact fluorescent bulbs now illuminate signs and buildings, while upgraded heating and cooling systems save even more electricity. Rainwater recovered from the roofs of campus buildings is used to soak lawns and flower beds. Recycling boxes in every facility allow community members to deposit paper, plastic, aluminum and other materials into a single convenient receptacle.

Even paper products used are now Green Seal Certified: made with 20 to 40 percent recycled materials and constructed without cores, resulting in less waste delivered to landfills.

The University demonstrated its commitment to sustainability by joining the EPA Green Power Partnership in 2006 and the Green Building Initiative in 2008. In addition, SMU is a member of the National Center for Science and the Environment, part of the subgroup that works with university curricula, says Bonnie Jacobs, Sustainability Committee interim co-chair and director of the Environmental Science Program in Dedman College.

The awareness theme continues into SMU’s residence halls. These campus communities have added an Environmental Representative (or E-Rep) to each Hall or Community Council, says Cori Cusker, residence hall director of Boaz Hall.

E-Reps promote and model environmentally conscious behavior in their halls or communities – from providing recycling bags to planning educational meetings. E-Reps also help rally SMU participation in Recyclemania, an annual intercollegiate competition that helps colleges and universities set goals for campus waste reduction.