by Veronika Chatelain
In a world where pollution is slowly taking over, CUNY is taking a stand to better help the collapsing environment.
This year, Kingsborough took home the 2008 Sustainability Award for Education.
Bill Keller, Vice President of Kingsborough, accepted the award on behalf of the college. However, Professors Betsy McCully and Tara Weiss should receive the real credit for the award.
They created ECO-fest and made it happen, with guidance from Dean Reza Fakhari.
The nomination for the award came as no surprise to Keller. “Kingsborough has done too much not to win,” says Keller. Adding that ever since the elimination of all Styrofoam materials in cafeteria, Kingsborough has replaced those non eco-friendly materials with biodegradable resources, which was what helped Kingsborough in their win.
With other CUNY schools in the running, such as LaGuardia, Queens and Lehman College, Kingsborough raised the stakes by holding their annual ECO-Festival, which originated in 2005. ECO-Fest is a 3-day event in which the community, faculty and students connect and face issues that affect our environment.
Keller explains, “Give a person a fish , they eat for a day, teach a person to fish they eat for a lifetime”.
Through the involvement of the environmentally concerned public, Keller is a strong believer that Kingsborough has set a path for other schools to follow, he hopes that this sweeping victory and hard work that is put into ECO-Fest will influence other schools to change their environment in a positive way.
Although Kingsborough has taken the prize this year Keller ensures his supporters that the community college will maintain their reputation for having good sustainability by continuing to hold their annual ECO-Festival.
In addition to ECO-Fest, Kingsborough will be hosting a student competition where students can bring ideas on saving the environment to the table,
Keller states “What more can the campus do to help the save our environment?” The student competition will be called KCC GOES GREEN.
The Sustainability Award is a courteous award, but when asked if there was anything that could be done differently, Keller confesses that he wished “Kingsborough was in a different location.”
He admits that the location of the school is not eco-friendly because it is not directly by a subway station.
The site causes problems, which affect the environment in a negative way.
The fact that the location of the school is distant from the subway compels more students and faculty to drive, which also jeopardizes our environment.
But with hard work and determination, Kingsborough will not let this issue rest with much ease.
They have already provided shuttle buses departing from Brighton Beach to the school and they have recently added one more stop on the shuttle bus line that departs from Stillwell Avenue. V.P. Keller has been part of the Kingsborough staff for years, and he has seen the school change both positively and negatively for the environment’s sake.
Keller believes that since the issues of Global Warming are rapidly ascending, Kingsborough has become more aware of the tribulations that surround our environment.
During the speech given at the CUNY Sustainability Awards of 2008, it was acknowledged that “with renowned keynote speakers, appropriate films and seminars, Kingsborough…seeks to involve all members of their community…”
Keller has let out another KCC sustainable secret! Keller has revealed that KCC Reads; a reading club in Kingsborough; will be discussing sustainability in Africa; along with other student-involved clubs they are teaming up with ECO-Fest to discuss ways to help save the environment.
In addition to the projects at-hand in Kingsborough, they have also installed solar panels on top of the Marine Academic Center, reducing the usage of energy.
Over the past year, Mayor Bloomberg has been planting trees all over New York and of course Kingsborough took part in that as well by installing 30-40 trees in the past 12 months. Kingsborough has definitely earned an award in sustainability with their immeasurable amounts of projects to save the environment.
Keller stresses that Kingsborough will not stop at the win of an award but they will continue in their efforts in trying to be the environments “super-man”.
Kingsborough will do whatever they can to keep up with their well-earned reputation and their positive influence on the environment.
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