A Vision of Sustainability - Full Documentary

[00:00:00] Speaker ?: 作詞・作曲・編曲 初音ミク [00:00:30] Speaker 1: A lot goes into obtaining a carbon footprint of zero. [00:00:45] Speaker 2: There's an old saying, you want to leave the world better than you found it. [00:00:52] Speaker 3: The theme tonight is what you love about Minnesota. [00:00:55] Speaker 4: We're up against the biggest problem we've ever faced. [00:01:00] Speaker 5: Because you just don't see it. You know, and you just, there's no perception of it being environmentally friendly. [00:01:10] Speaker 6: Actually, over the two years we've been doing this, we've donated over 2,000 pounds of vegetables to food shops. [00:01:18] Speaker 7: There's this idea that if you make a mess, you should clean it up. [00:01:24] Speaker 3: College campuses are the place where people put into actions their words. We're turning out young, bright minds. [00:01:33] Speaker 5: You know, this place is special for all kinds of reasons, but this is just one of them. [00:01:48] Speaker 1: The green movement has taken the world by storm over the past decade. More and more people are becoming concerned with the effects society is having on the environment. Many organizations have publicly announced their commitment to reducing their carbon footprint. The University of St. Thomas has also jumped on the green train, implementing a plan to becoming carbon neutral by 2035. [00:02:15] Speaker 2: You know, Catholic University has an important role in discussing sciences and truth in society. But beyond just simply that academic sense, a university is also a place where we come to set an example, in some sense, for the world and for culture. [00:02:37] Speaker 8: The Catholic Church says that we should take care of the environment, that we are stewards of the environment, that the earth is our temporary home given to us to take care of and preserve for future generations. [00:02:49] Speaker 2: The mission statement of the University of St. Thomas includes that we are forming students to be morally responsible actors in society. [00:03:00] Speaker 9: I do. Come on in. Sweet. I'm not in the spirit. [00:03:06] Speaker 2: The issue of climate, climate change, care for creation have enormous, enormous implications for the health of our planet for ages to come. [00:03:19] Speaker 1: The University of St. Thomas is setting the goal to becoming carbon neutral. Carbon neutrality is achieved when the carbon emissions are reduced to zero. With only 22 years to achieve the goal, this is an incredibly short amount of time. [00:03:36] Speaker 3: Being carbon neutral means that you're not going to emit more carbon, which is a heat-trapping gas into the atmosphere. So being carbon neutral means that you're going to cut down on your current energy use, which emits carbon dioxide. And then when you emit, you're going to do other things to take up for it. [00:03:52] Speaker 7: And we have really hard targets. Every year we know how much carbon we're supposed to emit. And if we miss those targets, it actually costs the University money. So we're working really hard to move in that direction. [00:04:05] Speaker 5: The objective isn't necessarily for St. Thomas as a legal entity, as a bunch of buildings, as a campus, to be environmentally friendly. It's to create an atmosphere that students can develop sustainable practices in, see some real-life examples while they're here for four years, and then be environmentally friendly and sustainable for the next 40 years after they graduate. [00:04:31] Speaker 3: So we're sitting here in April in Minnesota, and we've just experienced really tremendous snowfall and cold. And it's at this time of the year with this kind of weather that even I think, well, maybe global warming isn't that bad. But what we're actually seeing is something that scientists have predicted. And it's a term that I like to call weather whiplash. [00:05:07] Speaker 1: Weather whiplash. That's how Dr. John Abraham from the University of St. Thomas describes the extreme heat, cold, and weather patterns affecting regions across the world. [00:05:21] Speaker 8: Think you're looking at a winter wonderland? Well, think again. It's a spring wonderland, and everyone's wondering. [00:05:27] Speaker 3: There's a cost to doing nothing. I mean, we just survived an incredible heat wave and drought last year, which cost about $40 billion. Hurricane Sandy came by in late October, early November, which cost about $60 to $70 billion. These are tremendous costs of climate change, and they've only begun. So people who tell you it's too expensive to do something about it, I'd say it's too expensive not to, and that's the takeaway message. [00:05:52] Speaker 1: So how does St. Thomas come into play? [00:05:55] Speaker 3: College campuses are the place where people put into actions their words. It's great for me as a scientist to go out and talk about the need to do something about climate change. And it's great for people to talk to their family and friends. But in the end, we need to do something about it. And if we make smart choices, we can improve the environment while save energy, while creating jobs, and while diversifying our energy supply. And we need people to be on the vanguard. We need courageous institutions to put their money where their mouth is and take action, and we're seeing that with St. Thomas. [00:06:31] Speaker 1: So putting money into sustainability means smoothly moving along in the reduction of carbon. If St. Thomas maintains its reduction goals, current strategies are adequate. If it does not, money is added for projects that will further reduce the carbon footprint. The early years are the easiest. As it becomes more difficult to achieve the goals, more money, creativity, and involvement are essential for success. Students, faculty, and administrators must work together to make it happen. [00:07:09] Speaker 4: It's very good to see this kind of intergenerational movement, young people and old people coming together. And that's what we really need, I think, at this point. And a college is a great place to do that. I hope that the strong involvement of faculty, among other things, in this kind of work. [00:07:39] Speaker 1: The state-of-the-art Anderson Student Center is one of the many sustainability efforts at the University of St. Thomas. But like with all major projects, there have been challenges along the way. [00:07:51] Speaker 10: It's been seven generations of students who have been involved with us, helping us design the Anderson Student Center in order for it to be a truly sustainable building that was engaging students. [00:08:03] Speaker 1: The Student Center has moved St. Thomas closer to its goal of carbon neutrality, with its state-of-the-art features. [00:08:11] Speaker 10: We worked closely with a group of people, internally and externally, on making sure our materials were sustainable. If you look at all the windows, we don't have a lot of wall space, which has been kind of frustrating for people who want to have great artwork. [00:08:29] Speaker 1: Vice President of Student Affairs at the University of St. Thomas, Jane Canney, was a crucial member in the development of the Student Center. She played a major role in acquiring the LEED Building Certification. [00:08:41] Speaker 11: Anderson Student Center is LEED Gold Certified, which is the second to top level. And I've heard that a lot of people, there was an event where a faculty from Macalester were over here for something, and they found out that Anderson Student Center was LEED Gold Certified. They were really impressed. They had no idea that St. Thomas would do something like that. So, you know, these things are happening, but people don't know about them necessarily. [00:09:08] Speaker 1: In addition to the Student Center, St. Thomas has succeeded in converting from electrical power to wind power. [00:09:16] Speaker 9: More than 23,000 residential customers and 275 business customers participate in WindSource. And first among them is the University of St. Thomas. And that's why we're here today. [00:09:33] Speaker 10: It was really our challenge of our own imagination. What happened then is students came forward, faculty members came forward, and staff came forward and said, these are projects we'd love to do. How can you help us pay for them? Can you help fund these? And so we did create the Campus Sustainability Funds, these mini-grants, that have some really wonderful projects. [00:09:56] Speaker 11: Great that the faculty and students and staff all have this opportunity to apply for these grants. It hasn't been as well publicized as maybe it could be. A lot of students don't know about it. The word kind of gets around to the faculty, but students don't realize, oh, I can apply for things, too. [00:10:14] Speaker 1: Despite the challenges, St. Thomas is determined to meet the goal of carbon neutrality. [00:10:21] Speaker 11: On the one hand, I don't think it's realistic to say that we're going to have no energy coming from fossil fuels on campus by 2035. I think there have been a lot of great efforts to use energy more efficiently, and some of the new buildings are LEED certified. So there's some great things that have gone on. So, you know, there's kind of a certain amount of emissions that are going to be easier to cut down on. And then as you get lower and lower, there are going to be things that are harder or more expensive to reduce just through conservation by itself. [00:10:55] Speaker 6: We are working skillfully and acting wisely for the common good by way of a sustainable world. [00:11:02] Speaker 11: In my mind, the biggest challenge is just getting the word out about all these things that are happening. [00:11:09] Speaker 10: So I think the carbon neutral concept, even looking at how much we use in terms of travel for faculty and staff travel, what does that look like? We didn't, you know, just beginning to measure all of that taught us a great deal. So I think our only challenge is to continue to move forward and be more visionary along the way. [00:11:44] Speaker 1: With a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2035, the University of St. Thomas is creating different projects to reach its goal. [00:11:53] Speaker 6: I think that the University has made amazing progress over the last few years. [00:12:00] Speaker 1: Biology professor Adam Kaye works in the on-campus greenhouse on one of the many projects contributing to sustainability. [00:12:07] Speaker 6: There is a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of projects that are happening. [00:12:12] Speaker 1: The stewardship garden is student-run and grows produce for the surrounding area. Senior Ashila Richardson is actively involved with the garden and is excited about St. Thomas' involvement with the community. [00:12:27] Speaker 12: It's really empowering to know that, like, just as part of, you know, being in school and doing a project like this, you provide food to people that really need it and kind of just, like, branch out from, you know, our borders of St. Thomas to what else is out there. [00:12:48] Speaker 6: Over the two years that we've been doing this, we've donated over 2,000 pounds of vegetables to food shelves. [00:12:53] Speaker 1: Professor Paul Lora is also excited about student involvement. [00:12:57] Speaker 7: We've got real targets, we've got real money, and we're getting students actively involved. And already, I think we're in our second year, we've had eight grants, mostly led by students, that have already been funded for carbon neutrality. [00:13:10] Speaker 1: These grants are helping St. Thomas reach its carbon neutral goal. [00:13:14] Speaker 7: We've had students go out and get grants for solar panels, and those panels are going to be generating clean energy for a quarter of a century, at least. Planting trees makes a difference. Getting people on bikes makes a difference. We've got electric carts on campus. Biology students have gotten grants to do community gardening. All those things have real impact on sustainability and carbon. [00:13:34] Speaker 1: Senior Quinn Renholt is an environmental student, participating in Professor Chip Small's aquaponics project. Renholt advocates creating less waste on campus, with some interesting alternatives. [00:13:47] Speaker 13: So we're taking coffee grounds as just one example of food waste and looking at alternative ways of disposal. So by feeding them to the worms, you're actually producing, rather than just generating waste. [00:13:58] Speaker 1: Current thinking is linear. We extract things to make things, and throw them away when we're done. But there really is no away. Creating a perpetual cycle, where waste from one cycle equals food for another, is sustainable. The aquaponics project strives to create an enclosed ecosystem, with worms, fish, and basil plants. [00:14:21] Speaker 11: We're combining worm composting and aquaponics. So we're turning coffee grounds from campus into worms, and then feeding the worms to fish, and then the fish waste goes to produce vegetables. And my students are doing experiments to measure the efficiency of that system. [00:14:38] Speaker 1: The energy-saving alternatives and projects have increased student awareness and interest in sustainability. [00:14:45] Speaker 11: I've been really impressed coming into St. Thomas, the great work that is going on here. And for whatever reason, it doesn't really have that reputation outside the university. Most people don't think of us as a school that's really doing leading, cutting-edge work in sustainability. But we are. [00:15:01] Speaker 1: The University of St. Thomas is encouraging students to think about their lives in a more sustainable way, and to carry what they have learned for many years to come. [00:15:12] Speaker 7: St. Thomas is interested in campus sustainability for a lot of reasons. I mean, I think at the base, there's this idea that if you make a mess, you should clean it up. [00:15:38] Speaker 1: This idea has pushed St. Thomas students to implement many projects to keep the sustainability community moving forward. [00:15:46] Speaker 7: There's already a difference made. The trees are growing as we speak, and I've also seen a couple years of students go through working on environmental issues. And the ones who were able to go out to employers or graduate school committees and say, "I care about this stuff. I was at a university that gave me background knowledge, tools, and insights. They put me on real-world projects, and I went out and made a difference." [00:16:12] Speaker 1: Dr. Laura gives students credit for the efforts that have been made and are going to continue. Professor of Biology Adam Kaye agrees with this idea. [00:16:22] Speaker 6: Adam Kaye: We have a lot of energy, but we also have a lot of young people that are really going to make the decisions of the future. And if we can get everybody on board with this idea, and I think I really should emphasize this, that the environmental challenges that we're facing are massive. And we can't just sit back and say, "Something's going to solve our problems." [00:16:46] Speaker 7: We're going to look to students to try and understand what the best solutions are in the future. So I think what we'll see is, you know, students over the next 5 or 10, 15 years, they're going to come up with really interesting, creative solutions. Maybe we haven't even thought about them yet. [00:17:02] Speaker 1: Environmental science student, Quinn Renholt, is excited about expanding his projects. [00:17:07] Speaker 14: Quinn Renholt: There's a lot of good stuff going on with the garden right now that's been in existence for a few years. Big expansions in worm composting on campus, which is my project. But I think it'd be really great to see some more with renewable energies, whether it's in the form of solar panels or there's all kinds of opportunities in that. And it's a big field, so maybe get some engineers involved. Quinn Renholt: What else? [00:17:30] Speaker 1: Student Ashla Richardson believes sustainability awareness is the first step. [00:17:36] Speaker 12: Ashla Richardson: It's something that, like, everybody just needs to kind of be a little bit mindful of in every part of their life. And that we're always doing things that consume and produce things. And, you know, the more aware you are of your lifestyle and the choices you make and what comes along with it, you know, the better off we all will be. Allison Scherer: My congratulations to all of the graduates. [00:18:12] Speaker 1: Allison Scherer: Every year, students proudly graduate from St. Thomas to become the leaders of tomorrow. Allison Scherer: Environmentalist director and psychologist, Elise Amel reflects on how the university has prepared students for their careers. [00:18:33] Speaker 15: Elise Amel: But each one of those jobs is going to be in a context where we will have to think differently about how we do them. Allison Scherer: And so students who understand environmental problems and the limitations of renewable resources are just going to have an advantage over students who don't understand that. [00:18:52] Speaker 1: Allison Scherer: 2012 graduate Matt Scott has created a nonprofit organization called Dribble Daily, which creates playing fields in areas of urban decay. [00:19:01] Speaker 16: Matt Scott: First one is environmental stewardship. So by going into these decaying areas of the city and revitalizing that ground itself, we're adding value, actual value to the property and giving people a sense of civic pride. Allison Scherer: We're also attacking urban blight, and what that is is sort of that decaying feel that you get in sort of a concrete wasteland area, imagine like Flint, Michigan or rough areas of Detroit. [00:19:32] Speaker 15: Allison Scherer: Sometimes it's hard to see the difference that even an individual is making, but if you think about a behavior as being something that's compounded by many people in many places, Allison Scherer: it always makes a difference, what an individual does or what we as a university do. Allison Scherer: All of our compound behavior has gotten us to where we are, and so all of our compounded behavior is going to be needed to get us out. [00:20:00] Speaker 1: Allison Scherer: Another 2012 graduate, now currently employed at 3M, agrees that small efforts around campus give hope to future Tommies. [00:20:09] Speaker 17: Allison Scherer: There's no renewable resources going on or any programs of that sort, so I rounded up a group of my friends, and we had Dr. Paul Lora as our advisor, and we were able to install the first solar farm on St. Thomas. Allison Scherer: It's an array of 20 solar panels on top of Brady Hall, and they produce about 3.5 kilowatts of energy, so to put that in perspective, it's enough to power a few of the dorm rooms in the dormitory. Allison Scherer: It doesn't really do a whole lot to reduce the overall impact of St. Thomas, but every little drop counts, and furthermore, we want it to be more of a symbol and a way to inspire other students to continue the process. [00:20:51] Speaker 16: Allison Scherer: I would just encourage people to really follow their dreams and think about doing what's right for society. I know it sounds cliche, but by doing what's right, there are opportunities to do business and work to help make the community a better place. [00:21:08] Speaker 15: Allison Scherer: I think St. Thomas has made progress, and while I think that we can make more progress and faster progress, or would like to see faster progress, you know, we're all humans. Change is hard. Allison Scherer: We have structures that have been in place for a long time, and those things all take a lot of time. Lots of different wheels are in motion that have to be readjusted, and so I think we've got to balance urgency with patience to recognize we have made progress. Allison Scherer: We still have more to do, and I think we can do it. We're smart people. We're dedicated people. So, I'm hopeful. [00:21:52] Speaker 1: Allison Scherer: A lot goes into obtaining a carbon footprint of zero. [00:21:56] Speaker 15: Allison Scherer: It always makes a difference. [00:22:02] Speaker 16: Jason Scherer: It has the power to break down barriers of race, language, you know, sex, religion. [00:22:09] Speaker 17: Allison Scherer: Twenty, thirty years from now, who knows what could happen. [00:22:11] Speaker 2: Allison Scherer: There's an old saying, you want to leave the world better than you found it. [00:22:19] Speaker 4: Allison Scherer: The college is a great place to do that. 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