Bergen Community College’s green initiatives focus on renewable energy, sustainability education, campus and community workshops, workforce partnerships andcollaborating withBergen County for a sustainable future.
Completed activities
- BCC is a member of NJHEPS, AASHE, ACUPCC & USGBC
- BCC has completed its GHG inventory
- The College has completed its application for the $100,000 NJ BPU Energy Audit Program and should be conducting its audit this fall.
- BCC has sent in a pre-proposal for the NJ DEP Local Government GHG reduction grant
Physical Plant:the following facilities upgrades have been implemented over the past14 years to reduce power consumption and GHG emissions on campus
- PSE&G Standard offer 1: The College reduced its power consumption by approximately 400 kilowatts per hour saving 2 million kilowatts per year. The college currently receives approximately $200,000 a year in rebates from PSE&G as part of this program. The college was ranked number 5 in the State from 1995 to 2005 among colleges in the state for GHG reduction.
- Installation, lighting, occupancy, sensors and timers in various areas of the colleg
- As part of the PSE&G Smart Start Program, the general lighting in the Pitkin Building and Ender Hall has been converted from magnetic ballast to electronic ballast. The lamps in many areas of the college have been switched from T-12 to T-8.
- The installation of solar film on most of the exterior windowsThe installation of gas heating boilers and appliances
- Increasing the amount of roof insulation
- Installation of high efficiency chillers and HVAC units
Current Activities
 - Ramping up campus recycling efforts: Green Team students assemble, locate, and maintaining campus recycling bins. The student team also promotes awareness of the program and assists the custodial staff in emptying, collecting and sorting the various bins. At the present time; paper, newsprint, plastic, glass, metal, batteries, vegetable oil and print cartridges are being recycled.
- Cafeteria waste composting program: The project which is also maintained by the Green team uses 3 BCUA "Earth Machine" units to compost a fraction of the main cafeterias kitchen scraps. Plans are under way to begin composting at the cyber café and at the Meadowlands campus.
- Student / CDC organic vegetable garden: This past springthe Green team teamed up with the child development Center to start a vegetable garden outside of the CDC for the campus community to grow organic vegetables.
- Campus Energy Plan: The results of our energy audit will help us develop a long term campus energy plan in conjunction with a participating NJ Energy Services Company (ESCo). This plan must be submitted to the ACUPCC by May 2010. The bulk of the energy savings will come from efficiency retrofits to existing HVAC, lighting and plug power. Another important area is smart building applications like occupancy sensors for HVAC, lighting and plug power.
- Reduced Printing: This semester the library & free time labs are implementing 2 sided printing as the default on all computers.
- Plug power: The Director of Technologies is exploring rolling out a sleep mode application for all computers on campus. Sleep mode reduces the power consumption of each PC by over 95%.
- Curriculum Development in Sustainability Studies: BCC faculty are currently developing a one year certificate in Sustainability that will be articulated with similar BS or BA programs @ Ramapo, Kean and Stevens Tech. The following courses have already been developed and approved. (Photovoltaic Systems Technolog Electric Power Technology Energy and Society)
On the Horizon
 - Bio-diesel from waste vegetable oil:The new science wing will have a bio diesel reactor that will convert all the colleges' fryer oil into bio-diesel that can be used on campus. Green team students will partner with organic chemistry students to run the system.
- Sustainability Requirement for all BCC graduates: The idea of having all BCC students take at least one course that includes sustainability topics will be brought to the faculty senate this semester. This requirement will be similar to our diversity requirement.
- Lose the sod: This spring the Environmental Club, Green Team and Horticulture students will replant a campus detention basin with zero maintenance plants and grasses. One of the grasses, switch grass can be used as a feedstock to generate bio-fuel.
- Campus renewable energy generation:The energy plan will include an ambitious goal of generating 10 to 20% of the Paramus energy needs using on campus renewables that include; Solar, Wind, Geothermal and Thermal Biomass.
- Change the culture: An marketing campaign to get the campus community to embrace sustainability practices is being developed
- Parking fee for all members of the college communities: A fee of $20 per vehicle per semester would help offset the GHG emissions from commuting (> 50% of our Carbon footprint) and help reduce campus congestion. The income generated could be used to deploy on campus renewable energy projects or purchase carbon offsets.
Goals
- 30% reduction in our normalized per capita energy consumption by 2015
- 30% reduction in our per capita garbage production by 2015
- To have Carbon neutral campus by 2030
Contact Us
 P.J. Ricatto Ph.D., Dean of Math, Science and Technology, Co-Sustainability Officer pjricatto@bergen.edu
Bill Shapiro, PE, Co-Sustainability Officer, Professor of Mathematics and Chemistry wshapiro@bergen.edu
Rachel Wieland, Professor of Mathematics, Envir Club Advisor
rwieland@bergen.edu |