Colleges, Institutions, Universities and some Organizations teach or preach their students several noble aspects like how to harvest rain water or how to dispose off the waste water from its laboratories but fail miserably in putting them into practice. Green campus is an area of the organization or the organization as a whole itself is contributing to have an infrastructure or development that is structured and planned to incur less energy, less water, less or pollution free, less or no CO2 emission.
Eco score on a scale of 1 for very poor to 5 for an exemplary.
After evaluating the 20 parameters, if total score reaches 75points out of 100, the campus is eligible for “Green-Campus” status. If the score is in between 60-75, campus will be recognized as “Best practices” campus.
A GREEN CAMPUS is a place where environmentally responsible practice and education go hand in hand and where environmentally responsible tenets are borne out by example.
GREEN CAMPUS is a higher education community that is improving energy efficiency, conserving resources, and enhancing environmental quality by educating for sustainability and creating healthy living and learning environments.
Benefits of Green Campuses:
Green Campuses can have tremendous benefits, both tangible and intangible. The most tangible benefits are the reduction in water and energy consumption right from day one of occupancy. The energy savings could range from 20 – 30 % and water savings around 30 – 50%. Intangible benefits of green campus include health & well-being of the occupants, enhancing air quality & promoting biodiversity, safety benefits and conservation of scarce national resources.
Benefits to the Environment
- Environmental impacts of the campus are quantified
- Improves overall environmental performance
- Improves waste management
- Decreases resource use
- Improves management of environmental aspects
Benefits to the Institute
- Good publicity-Green campus flag flies over the Quad throughout the year
- Empowers students and staff
- Encourages innovation and change
- Reduces associated costs
- Prevents and reduces environmental impacts
- Creates a more balanced campus community
- Sets an example in the locality
- Institute becomes a better neighbor
Benefits to the Students
- Improves learning outcomes
- Research skills (developing an action plan, investigation, setting targets, monitoring programme and reporting progress)
- Introduction to new topics
- Transferrable skills to work place-Communication, facilitation, team work, committee services.