Green Building

Fort Lewis College has made a commitment to green building. The Student Life Center, built before LEED certification, was designed utilizing state of the art green building principles. This has been followed with the construction of  a new building, an addition to an existing building, and the reconstruction of the segment of another existing building, all of which  received LEED Gold Status.

• The Student Life Center was the first showcase green building on campus. Read all of the sustainability features here.
• Animas Hall is the first building to recieve LEED Gold Status. Read the case study.
• Berndt Hall Reconstruction for Biology is the second campus building to receive LEED Gold Status. Read the case study.
• The Student Union Addition is the third and most recent campus building to receive LEED Gold Status. Read the case study.  See the real-time energy data for the Student Union online.

Zero-Waste

Fort Lewis College has a long history of recycling on campus, and has recently contracted with the city of Durango to capture more of the waste stream through recycling.

Fort Lewis brought on an Earth Tub Composter in 2007. Purchase of the composter was supported by ASFLC, Sodexho, Inc., and the President’s Office and is run by the Environmental Center with the cooperation of Sodexho’s staff.

Check out all the projects our Zero-Waste Team is working on now.
 

Climate Action

Fort Lewis College became a charter signatory to the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment on April 6th, 2007. Learn more about the ACUPCC

Read our Strategies for Achieving Carbon Neutrality and our Greenhouse Gas Reduction Strategies

Greenhouse gas Inventories: The Environmental Center's Climate Action team conducted our first inventory in the fall of 2007. We will be conducting our second GHG inventory in the Fall of 2010.

Food

The Environmental Center manages an organic demonstration garden, teaching students local food production practices. It is the goal to begin incorporating some of this food into the campus dining.

The Old Fort Farmstand holds a campus Farmer's Market every Thursday afternoon, showcasing many of their sustainable agriculture projects. The garden and hoop houses are used to produce food, but also as a teaching classroom and research site to explore sustainable agriculture.

Check out what the Local Food Team is doing at the Environmental Center.

Resource Use

Purchasing - Fort Lewis purchases 100 percent recycled paper, environmentally-friendly custodial products, and Energy Star rated equipment and appliances.

Water - We use a state-of-the-art irrigation system, using a highly sophisticated weather station to determine the proper amount of water to irrigate in each area during a 24-hour period. This water is also non-potable, easing pressures on the local water system. Fort Lewis College has also converted many of the water fixtures in campus buildings to low-flow fixtures.