WSU Goes Green

In May 2007, Winona State University's (WSU) president , Dr. Judith Ramaley, joined many other campus leaders by signing the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. This formal document provides a framework for focusing campus attention on sustainability and climate change issues. Institutional structures were created, specifically  a Sustainability Coordinator and a Campus-wide Climate Commitment Committee.  

In September 2009 the Office of Sustainability released the Climate Action Plan.  WSU is committed to becoming "climate neutral" which means that the "University will have zero impact on the Earth's climate and the neutrality will be achieved by minimizing GHG emissions as much as possible and using carbon offsets or other measures to mitigate the remaining GHG emissions."

With support from the WSU administration, the Sustainability team completed an inventory of WSU's greenhouse gas emissions from electricity and heating, which will be updated every two years. They also drafted a proposed policy for new campus construction, drafted a purchasing policy requiring Energy-Star products, conducted a waste assessment and created significant programs and activities in transportation, education, curriculum, recycling and other areas.  WSU, as a partner of Sustain Winona, selected ISO 14001 as a tracking mechanism of goals and actions. In June 2009, the Sustain Winona Environmental Management System plan was approved by an outside auditor from Purdue University.