MORGANTOWN  -- A year after consolidating its sustainability efforts under one program and director, West Virginia University is going greener throughout its operations.

“We want to look at sustainability in all aspects of the institution, which is education, student affairs and community aspects,” said Sustainability Director Clement Solomon. “It’s a comprehensive, holistic approach.”

Quick, easy gains in sustainability on college campuses generally start with recycling, Solomon said.

“If you walk down the street you see more little blue bins than you’ve seen in your life,” Solomon said. “Everybody at least has some familiarity with recycling, so it’s a good starting point.”

Recycling is encouraged year-round on campus.

WVU runs its own recycling programs for paper, aluminum, No.1 plastic and cardboard, according to the university’s 2008 report “On a Sustainable Path” generated by Solomon’s office. It also recycles fluorescent tubes, scrap metal, electronics and toner cartridges.

And for the past two years, the university has participated in the nationwide Ecolympics campus recycling and energy conservation event.

Another good starting point, Solomon said, is light bulbs.

In a single one-day event on campus, members of the community exchanged 700 incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescents.

“People see that there is financial saving,” Solomon said. “This is no more just an environmental movement, it is as much an economic and a social revolution.”

At the institutional level, the university is in the second of four phases of a performance-based contract with Siemens Building Systems aimed at reducing water and energy use.

In the first year, 2008, the university realized $1.2 million in savings, well above the guaranteed savings of $750,000. That $1.2 million represents not just money saved but resources conserved, Solomon pointed out — and not just one-time savings but systemic improvements that will accrue to the university every year from now on.

Beyond these projects, WVU has sustainability initiatives in all aspects of campus life, including purchasing, composting, transportation and other areas.

When compared with universities of similar size, WVU used a little more winter energy per square foot in 2007 than the average campus, according to data published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and reprinted in WVU’s sustainability report. On the other hand, it used a little less electricity than average.

The 2008 numbers will be available soon, Solomon said, and should reflect the university’s ongoing improvements. In Solomon’s view, sustainability practices that succeed in the long-term are built not on prescription, but on collaboration.

“It’s not in your face and saying, ‘You have to do this or do that,’” he said. “It’s appealing to the volunteer nature, the goodwill nature of every human being.”

He envisions WVU’s campuses as sustainability classrooms.

“If all that a student had to gain in their student life was instruction, they could just go to the University of Phoenix and get a degree,” he said.

“How can we make this a beyond-the-classroom experience?” he asked. “We want to build the social, civic engagement aspect in students.”