University ‘green teams’ could help clean up Portland State

Portland State students probably aren’t familiar with the term “green teams.” However, if the university’s sustainability office is successful, that could very well change in the near future.

Kelli Martin, an energy conservation outreach specialist who works in PSU’s sustainability office, defined a “green team” as a group of faculty and staff who come together with a common interest to make their department as sustainable as possible.

The idea isn’t new, Martin said, but comes from the University of British Columbia, which has been using green teams for some time.

Noelle Studer-Spevak, Portland State’s Sustainability Coordinator, said the University of British Columbia has one person per department who is allotted a certain amount of paid hours to help focus on making their area of work more sustainable.

The idea of the group mentality came into effect when more than one person per department decided they wanted to work on becoming sustainable. Thus, a “green team” was formed, she said.

Martin, who has been with PSU’s Sustainability Department since September, said the first thing that green teams generally tackle is consumption—shutting off printers, fax machines, and other electronic devices.

“They are thinking about everything, from kilowatt cost to the lifespan of the machine,” Martin said.

Other ways that departments can improve include purchasing sustainable paper, overall reduction of energy and using other methods of transportation such as carpooling or public transit, she said.

The Blue Ribbon Business Products company also puts out a catalog of greener office products—which any interested department can order from—called the greener business office products catalog, Martin said.

The catalog covers all basic office needs, and everything in it is safe for the environment, she said.

Sarah Horne, a graduate research assistant and outreach specialist who also works at the sustainability office, has organized some informational meetings for anyone already involved in a green team, as well as for any staff and faculty interested in starting one.

The next green team meeting is Jan. 14, in the Native American Student and Community Center, she said. Heather Spalding, Studer-Spevak’s sustainability assistant, lends her full support to the idea of green teams.

“For anyone who is making decisions and working on the different processes of the university, it’s a way to unify in a very positive manner,” she said. “It also creates some institutional memory of what we do, so this can carry on indefinitely or at least for the next several years.”

Spalding also said she would like to see green teams around in the future.

“Hopefully in ten years there will be new people on the green teams continuing to make the campus better,” she said.

One of the good things about a green team is it can create a little bit of competition between departments without it being official, Martin said.

Once a team is established, other departments can quickly see how easy it would be to make their area of work sustainable, she said. This can put a little bit of pressure on them to begin moving in that direction themselves.

For more information about green teams, including how to start your own, visit the PSU ecowiki at www.ecowiki.pdx.edu.