A Push for Green Campuses

To environmentalists, the $1.2 billion that taxpayers approved for the Los Angeles Community College District to upgrade its nine campuses provides an opportunity to think green.

Groups from the Sierra Club to newly formed student chapters of Greenpeace have joined forces to pressure the college trustees to construct their new classrooms and offices as “green” buildings using recycled wood, solar power and super-efficient air conditioning.

The activists say the massive project could set a standard for environmentally friendly construction across the state and give the movement its highest visibility yet. Scattered public and residential green projects in Southern California do not approach the scope of the district’s venture, which will add 50 to 60 buildings in the city.

But supporters and opponents agree the costs associated with such innovation would mean fewer new buildings in the overcrowded 120,000-student district. Activists estimate that such technology could raise construction costs by 10% to 20%, but could reduce energy bills by 50% over the long term.

District trustees, scheduled to consider the issue Nov. 14, will have to balance the short-term costs of construction against long-term savings expected from lower energy bills and longer-lasting buildings.

District Chancellor Mark Drummond said he will “aggressively press for ecologically friendly campuses.” He acknowledged, however, that some may view the proposals as expensive bells and whistles that would mean sacrificing classroom space and parking.

But Martin Schlageter, Los Angeles/Orange County conservation coordinator for the Sierra Club, said environmentally friendly construction on the campuses could help “others overcome fear of the unknown.

“The sheer quantity of the investment would make this project stand out worldwide,” Schlageter said.

Examples of green construction include the Santa Monica Police Station, where toilets are flushed with waste water from sinks; and the Lake View Terrace branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, where floors made of easily renewable bamboo were installed.

Campus activists sponsored three public forums in the last two weeks to rally support. About 1,000 students signed petitions and letters to the board of trustees urging members to consider an eco-friendly approach, said Glenn Hurowitz, field organizer for Greenpeace.

Anticipating the need for an ethnically diverse coalition, Hurowitz urged campus leaders at Southwest, Valley and East Los Angeles colleges, with their heavily black and Latino student bodies, to support the effort.

Maria Grunwald, the district’s student trustee and a Valley College sophomore, said organizations on all nine campuses have voted to support the environmentalists, although most current students will have graduated before the first building is erected.

“We are young, and we were brought up in an environmentally conscious time,” Grunwald said. “Besides, we will still live here when the buildings are there 40 years from now, and our kids will go to these colleges.”

Environmentalists have at least two allies on the seven-member board: Mona Field and Nancy Pearlman. Field, a Glendale Community College politics instructor, said she will support any conservation measure the district can afford. Pearlman was elected in April and represents more constituents than any other Green Party officeholder in the nation.

“It will be very telling whether my colleagues want to make a major policy stand on green buildings now that we finally have the money,” Pearlman said.

Although there has not been much vocal opposition, the effort will likely meet resistance when a vote nears.

Kris Vosburgh, executive director of Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., said if the public is going to get fewer structures, the district should have told voters before the election in April.

“It says to me there’s a possibility they won’t get all the project completed, which will compel them to come back and ask for more bond money,” Vosburgh said.