Justin Heavey hopes to help society move toward a more sustainable future, starting with his college campus.

Growing up in Oneonta, N.Y., Heavey always loved being outdoors.

‘I kind of took it for granted,’ he said. ‘When you’re young you don’t realize how much of the things you use everyday come from the natural world.’

Heavey, a junior environmental studies major at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, has been vital in the college’s effort to become more sustainable. He helped organize ESF’s Climate Action Plan, which details the steps needed for a carbon-neutral campus by 2015. Heavey said he hopes to take what he learns at ESF and bring the message of sustainability to other universities and communities.

Although he is a staple in the ESF community today, Heavey didn’t begin his education at the college. He transferred to ESF at the beginning of his sophomore year in 2008, after attending Tompkins Cortland Community College in Ithaca for a year.

‘I was there just studying general stuff,’ he said. ‘What eventually brought me to ESF was learning about peak oil (production), which led me to realize how dependent society is on energy and how important it is to us.’

Heavey began his work at ESF before he began classes. During the summer before he transferred to ESF, he performed a sustainability audit for the college as part of the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, a national rating system known as STARS. The program is supported by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

Although the Climate Action Plan was released over two months ago, on Sept. 15, the work is far from over, Heavey said. There are dozens of sustainability initiatives that are in the development stage, he said, that will eventually be added to the formal plan.

A green orientation program for incoming freshmen and transfer students will be implemented next year to teach them about the college’s goals on carbon neutrality and sustainability. The orientation will show students that the college’s goals depend largely on their participation and support, Heavey said.

Heavy stressed the importance of following through with all 40 initiatives outlined in the Climate Action Plan and re-evaluating it as it develops. ‘These things aren’t things that you do just once and stop. It’s an ongoing effort,’ he said.

He believes that the university setting is the perfect place to experiment and test the effectiveness of sustainability programs. ‘The university setting is a good living laboratory to try stuff out and see how it works,’ he said.

Heavey credits ESF with doing as much as possible to become more environmentally conscious and its efforts to continue to do so.

‘The thing about trying to be more sustainable is that, to some degree, there is always more that you can do,’ he said, ‘and I think that ESF has a good handle on that fact. They’re committed to not just saying, ‘Okay, we did our part, we are done.”

Achieving a more sustainable campus is more difficult at some universities than it is at others because of varying challenges and restraints, such as finances and location, Heavey said.

Despite ESF and SU’s unique relationship, there haven’t been many roadblocks to sustainability, other than the two colleges having different administrations. This could make it hard to create a campus-wide initiative, he said.

Heavey believes the relationship between the two colleges allows for collaborative opportunities.

‘SU is pursuing a composting program for all of the dining halls and we’re looking at ways that we can collaborate with them on that,’ he said.

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education is trying to increase the cooperation and synergy among universities to allow institutions to have more opportunities to work together, Heavey said.

‘I’d like to maybe see us host something where we get sustainability representatives to come talk about what they are doing and see what we are doing,’ he said.

With the Climate Action Plan in place, Heavey’s main focus now is getting students involved through awareness campaigns. He credits the plan for helping him to realize the severity of environmental issues.

‘I saw the numbers and saw the amount of energy that is actually being used. Until you see some of those numbers it’s hard to see what the impacts really are,’ he said.

Heavey plans to attend graduate school directly after graduating. He plans to have a career in the field of energy development, and wants to continue to make positive changes at a local level.

‘It’s great to want to change the world, but it can be a daunting task,’ he said. ‘Take a look at where you’re at, see where you are and what you can change in your settings.’

jlsiart@syr.edu

Published on November 18, 2009 at 12:00 pm