Here’s something Boston University students aren’t accustomed to: transparency on part of their institution’s administration. The university, which tends to withhold information about its inner workings, is doing a surprising 180 all in the name of sustainability.
Today marks the launch of the new sustainability@BU website, capping work uniting students, faculty, groups and even off-campus initiatives in order to highlight consumption and decrease waste on campus. The project is part of a campus-wide call to action sparked by BU President Robert Brown’s 2008 matriculation speech and headed up by Vice President for operations Gary Nicksa through Facilities Management and Planning. It’s a clear step in the right direction for the administration, environmentally and bureaucratically.
This is an unusual show of openness from the administration, complete with previously unseen statistics on campus energy usage and waste. And although the new transparency stops short of financial revelations and deeper raw data, the website’s uncensored and unsavory information about the university’s habits has its benefits, even without monetary figures. Those benefits, despite their potential to tarnish BU’s reputation, outweigh the damages by far. And with the consequences of global warming looming, kilowatts may trump dollars for significance these days.
Releasing budget figures or detailed statistics has never been one of BU’s strong points, but this divulgence of sustainable practice is a feat in itself, one the school would have been foolish to forego in the name of a generally undisputed cause ‘-‘- waste reduction. Regardless, the amount of effort it takes to get any project up and running at a university of this size is a triumph. And while it would be ideal to see how much goes where, baby steps are necessary in order to get anything accomplished. Sustainability@BU, despite being a cause most can rally behind, is no exception to this.
With its open and plaintive call to action, the project will, hopefully, enlighten the campus ‘-‘- students and administration alike ‘-‘- on the impact of daily decisions and how to make those choices more environmentally friendly.
The efforts being made to be transparent are certainly commendable, and it is definitely a step in the right direction, though there is always room for improvement. Students know that at the administrative machine that is BU, information is often hard to come by. And while it is disappointing for the university to avoid publishing financial information, it is hardly surprising. Let’s hope the good choices here become less of a rarity and more of a routine.