Speak up Be heard: Sustainability
We welcome you to submit your own comment or question. Questions and comments are published anonymously.
Lawns to Xeriscape
Now that I work on the Tempe Campus, I've noticed how many lawns there are West of Old Main. Does ASU have any plans to support sustainability and convert the lawns into xeriscapes? Considering water supply issues and climate change, seeing the sprinklers go off in the mornings does not seem to align with sustainability.
Yes - the university is continuing to allocate resources to reduce non-programmable turf areas around the campus. Currently there is a project taking place around the SDFC and the Apache Parking structure to eliminate turf and update it with a desert landscape. FDM will also be doing this later along the Forrest Mall area while we replace aged underground lighting conduit that supports the light poles in the area.
Employee tuition waiver question
I am using the employee tuition waiver for my son who is currently an ASU Online student. Since he is taking classes in 2 sessions, there are fees for his college in amounts over 1300.00. Will ASU work on helping employees with these college fees, as we have to take out loans to pay for these fees?
No – There are no offsets over and above the 75% reduction to in-state tuition.
Working from home options + academic breaks
During the pandemic, many of us have discovered that some time out of the office, working from home is actually better for productivity and well-being, and saves money for parking, childcare, etc. I want to know that senior leadership is at least open to the idea of options for personnel to have 1-2 days working at home. I also understand that during the pandemic, breaks were removed to shorten the academic calendar, but removing staggered break time was extremely stressful for students, staff, and faculty who felt overworked. Some universities replaced those longer holiday periods with "mental health days", ie every 2nd to 3rd Friday of the month was given off. Is this a possibility in the future?
The health of our community is a top priority. Please find the university's policies and announcements regarding Hybrid work environment here: https://www.asu.edu/aad/manuals/spp/spp306.html
Incentives for sustainable transit
If sustainability is truly valued at ASU, why not give students/staff/faculty an incentive to obtain/drive/park Electric Vehicles. It would be nice to have special pricing on parking permits, or even some type of bonus for purchasing an EV. For example, we say we value health and back it up with HIP bonuses of $200 per staff. Why don't we back up sustainability with something similar?
Currently, the university has been builiding up the EV infrastructure across all ASU campus parking facilities. As part of the overall transportation demand management plans, we are working on various incentives for use of alternative modes to include incentive opportunites for EV and Hybrid vehicles.
Sustainable parking suggestions
Sustainability is said to be important to ASU. How about putting your money where your mouth is and incentivizing it? 1. Provide parking discounts for electric or hybrid cars 2. Provide more charging stations 3. Provide closer parking for hybrids/electric cars 4. Provide permits for those who telecommute part of the week
ASU already offers over 72 charging stations throughout all of the campuses which are located in the prime parking areas. For more information please visit https://cfo.asu.edu/ev-charging . ASU parking permits are already deeply discounted and sold below the current market rate.
Solar panels above walkways
Can we have solar panels built above the walkways around the ASU campuses? it would help to have shade whilst walking along Cady mall, orange street, and university drive among others.
ASU is continually evaluating opportunities for renewable energy and improving the campus. In general, large, utility scale solar projects provide significantly more renewable energy per dollar investment, but do not generally include the co-benefits of shade that were raised. ASU’s approach is to do this with landscaping and vegetation, so there is balance. There are many considerations that go into an on-campus solar evaluation, including the shade benefits, aesthetics, sun angles, what shade is cast by nearby buildings, where future buildings may be constructed, what trees are nearby and how will they grow in the future (potentially shading panels), overhead clearance, rights of way, needed support structures, maintenance accessibility, cost, etc. We will take your suggestions into mind when evaluating additional potential locations for on-campus solar.
Sustainability of working from home
There is a huge push in Procurement to return to the office fulltime by Fall. WFH has proven to not only be beneficial for employees' work life balance, overall physical and mental health, but also sustainable. Most companies have transitioned to exclusively WFH, with higher pay; therefore, ASU should consider following suit in order to retain current talent. Being that ASU prides itself in being a sustainable university, senior leadership should be open to offering more WFH schedules, as 100% of our work could be done remotely and to stay competitive.
Telework during High Pollution Advisory Days
Hello! I wanted to make the suggestion that since we have proven our capabilities with remote access (students, staff, and faculty), why wouldn't we set the benchmark in regards to telecommuting/remote learning during High Pollution Advisory Days? Many parts of the country suffer from all kinds of weather and have the ability to implement "Snow Days" or something similar to accommodate and keep people safe. With ASU's mission and commitment toward sustainability it doesn't make sense to me that we don't have a better plan in place. Companies like Intel have "work from home" policies in place for days when the is a high pollution advisory, why doesn't ASU set the mark? I think this is something that should be taken up with Dr. Crow so that it is proliferated to all organizations through out the ASU community.
Sustainability and mandate to return to campus
The ASU staff has been remarkable in proving that we are competent, efficient, and effective working from home. At that same time, thousands of staff vehicles remaining off the road has contributed to the reduction of emissions, exhaust, and pollution. Would ASU leadership consider supporting the commitment to sustainability by easing the mandate that staff return to campus for those who would like to be either permanently remote or have hybrid schedules?
Recycling by maintenance
I have observed in the maintenance departments that a lot of recyclable material is discarded in the waste dumpsters. They collect the old fluorescent lights bulbs but not much else. Is there a program that collects these materials? Below are some examples.
AC motors (copper)
faucets (brass)
Shower valves (brass)
Batteries
A. Fluorescent bulbs are recycled through Environmental Health and Safety.
B. Motors are also recycled in conjunction with EH+S efforts due to the oil that is held in the motors. Oil is drained in a 55 gallon drum and recycled, then the motor themselves are recycled through a contracted vendor.
C. Faucets are mainly comprised of brass and stainless steel. These materials have a recycling receptacle in all of the maintenance hubs around campus, which are centralized by Facilities Maintenance staff into larger centralized dumpsters.