Sustainability groups move to Market Center Building

Over the last few weeks, many of the sustainability organizations on Portland State’s Campus have moved into a first-floor sustainability suite in the Market Center Building on Market Street and Fifth Avenue—a high visibility location, according to Mark Gregory, associate vice president of Finance and Administration.

“The idea to co-locate academic and operational sustainability offices was born in 2008 to promote collaboration and better serve faculty, students and staff,” Gregory said.

In 2009, some sustainability groups moved into offices on the eighth floor of the Market Center Building, according to Gregory. The move to the suite on the first floor precedes plans to move groups into the yet-to-be-built Oregon Sustainability Center. 

“The decision to consolidate the offices happened organically,” Sustainability Leadership and Outreach Coordinator Heather Spalding said. “When the ISS [Institute for Sustainable Solutions] changed its name from the Center for Sustainable Processes/Practices, a new director and associate director were also being hired. The first floor of Market Center Building was chosen to be the sustainability suite, and we all decided to join up and share the space.”

The offices are currently trying to find ways to identify common purposes and to present themselves as parts of a unified whole, according to Spalding.

“I see this consolidation to be positive,” she said. “It will help us leverage PSU into a hub for sustainability research, engagement and action.”

The groups in the new sustainability suite are using an open office plan with shared workspaces, meeting rooms and conference areas that allow for cross-office collaborations, according to Gregory.

Though co-locating PSU sustainability offices can make it easier for them to collaborate, there have also been drawbacks to the Market Center location, Spalding said. The Market Center Building is on the edge of campus, which makes it more difficult to engage with students.

“It is important to consciously take trips up to the park blocks, the Green Space, etc., to stay in touch with the heart of campus,” Gregory said.

Community sustainability organizations, such as the Portland Sustainability Institute, Oregon BEST and the Community Environmental Services, are also sharing space in the Market Center Building with PSU organizations, according to Associate Director of the Institute for Sustainable Solutions Robert Richardson.

Construction on the new Oregon Sustainability Center is scheduled to begin in 2012, and should be completed by late 2013. When construction is complete, the sustainability offices currently in the Market Center Building will move into the center, according to Spalding.

PSU was recently given a gold rating by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education and the university has many environmentally focused projects underway, according to Gregory.

“We’ve been focusing on building grass roots leadership across the campus, communication infrastructure via PSU EcoWiki, and tracking greenhouse gas emissions,” Gregory said. “We have also done a fair amount of strategic planning around our energy and carbon goals, resulting in our climate action plan. We have also been drafting campus-wide policy that will support the climate action plan.”

A program focused on developing interdisciplinary faculty collaborations around sustainability issues will be taking place this summer, according to Richardson.

Though much has been accomplished by PSU sustainability organizations, Spalding believes there is still more to be done, particularly in gaining endowments, investments and growing organizations to meet student demand.

“Young people are going to have many opportunities to create positive solutions to the challenges we face in the coming years, but they need to have the self confidence and real life experience to be effective,” she said. “We need to use our collective voice to make changes— at the individual, local, state, national and global level.” ?