Western Washington University has almost reached its $20 million fundraising goal to begin the construction of the first carbon-neutral building on a college campus in Washington state.
It will run off renewable energy, have the technology to store energy on-site, be designed to maximize energy efficiency and use cross-laminated timber in construction. While building, the workers will aim to “reduce waste and transportation inefficiency,” according to a press release from Western.
The $72 million facility will be constructed at the southern end of campus, against East College Way and be connected to the existing Communications Facility via skybridge. The university plans to complete construction by summer 2024.
Thanks to a $10 million donation, the building will be named after Fred Kaiser and Grace Borsari, the founders of Alpha Technologies. In the past, the pair has donated millions of dollars for scholarships, equipment and the Institute of Energy Studies. They’ve also provided many jobs and internships to students and graduates.
They are also known for having to pay more than $36 million to the Internal Revenue Service in 2004 because their company, G.B. Enterprises Inc., “exaggerated its true sales commissions” by more than $56 million, as first reported by the Front, Western’s student newspaper.
The new building is one of many efforts to create a more environmentally sustainable campus.
President Sabah Randhawa announced the creation of the President’s Sustainability Council to oversee the integration of the 2017 Sustainability Action Plan (SAP) around campus.
“Our vision for sustainability honors the way sustainability is interconnected with our core values around social and economic justice,” Randhawa said in a statement.
The university is seeking Western faculty, staff and students to join the sustainability council, which will work with the director of the Sustainability Engagement Institute to implement the plan. In the first year, the council will establish a vision and governance structure, create sub-councils, report progress made on action plan goals and review greenhouse gas usage.
Many aspects of the plan and the general sustainability effort were prompted by student demands over the years. The action plan included suggestions and commentary from the nearly 1,800 students, staff and faculty who had a wide range of ideas about how the campus could improve.
More recently, students have asked the university to not re-sign its contract with Aramark, a national food service company, when it’s up in 2023 due to complaints about unsustainable and poor quality food, involvement with prisons across the country and alleged mistreatment of workers.
The action plan addresses the need to “engage in sustainable food practices,” incorporate more local food and improve food waste management in dining halls. The university has not indicated whether it will renew the contract.
