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 Even the most casual observer of the environmental movement knows how to best sustain and enrich the world: recycle; decrease our demand for fossil fuels; reduce our consumption of natural resources; and change our habits such as turning lights off when you leave a room.
For a number of years, the Los Angeles Community College District has been committed to environmental issues and it has established one of the largest sustainable building programs in the nation. Students and faculty at the LACCD’s nine colleges are embracing the District's environmental mission and realizing that many “how-to-go green” resources already exist on campus.
Roana Thornock, director of the Los Angeles Valley College's accelerated program, obtained a grant to set up sustainability workshops for faculty and staff. To run them, she recruited Barent Roth, executive director of Sustainable Works, a Santa Monica-based nonprofit environmental education organization.
On Friday, May 22, participants attended the sixth and final session for faculty and staff. To honor the occasion, the college presented all workshop participants, including students, with "Go Green" certificates, designating them as "Green Ambassadors.” The Southern California Gas Company also took part in the ceremony by presenting a $157,000 rebate check, awarded for the installation of solar panels that are generating additional electrical power for the campus.
The sessions covered water conservation, renewable energy, waste management, transportation and travel, shopping and food, and chemical hazards.
“We want to be a college that changes the way we do things and the way we think about things when it comes to the environment,” Thornock said. “With these workshops, teachers will be able to spread the news in the classroom.”
Students have also had an opportunity to get involved at their own workshops. The first student workshop took place last fall, a second this spring. Students served as crew leaders at both sessions and met once a week for 90 minutes, discussed environmental issues, watched movies, went on field trips and were required to perform three hours of community service.
Though Valley College's energy needs will grow with the addition of two new structures -- a Student Services Building, to be completed next spring, and a library to be done in two to three years -- the solar panels on the roof of the south gym will assume some of the demand.
Even more important, perhaps, are the lessons on renewable energy that have been learned weekly at the campus, lessons that can be applied in the years to come. For more information on how Los Angeles Valley College is going green visit www.LACCDBuildsGreen.org/valley.php.
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