Composting and WEC Solar Panels to Lead Campus Sustainability Efforts in 2020

A solar array atop the Wellness and Events Center, plus a food waste recycling effort, are the first two major sustainability projects underway as part of NJIT's commitment to sustainability in the recently adopted 2025 strategic plan.

NJIT also recently became a member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, joining several other institutions in New Jersey and nationwide which are deeper into their sustainability journeys.

"As part of the process of developing the new strategic plan, sustainability came to the forefront as a theme through all aspects of the university. People were interested in creating a sustainability initiative program and culture that would formalize a lot of things that had been done ad-hoc over a period of time," explained Andrew Christ, senior vice president for real estate development and capital operations.

The WEC solar panels will generate up to 500 kilowatts, which is 10 times more than the 50-kilowatt field on the Campus Center roof. There's also a 40-kilowatt field on top of Oak Hall. Those were installed a decade ago, but the WEC opened in 2017 and was designed with newer panels in mind, Christ explained. Architects put all of its rooftop mechanical equipment in one place to achieve the largest possible open area. Construction is likely to begin in summer 2020, he said.

Food waste recycling is set to begin in the fall of 2020. Composting is scheduled to begin within two years from now at the faculty/staff dining hall, which is located on the third floor of the Campus Center. Plans call for using a food digesting machine currently being developed by interdisciplinary team of students under the direction of Prof. Jay Meegoda. It will be the size of three refrigerators, which is considered small by industrial standards. That requires innovation in how the machine works. It will intake the cafeteria's 300 pounds of weekly recyclable food waste. "All of that in two years from now will not go to the incinerator," Meegoda said.

Initial composter development funding of $500 and then $3,000 came from the university, Meegoda said. Assistance with developing prototype equipment is being provided by Prof. Martina Decker from the Materials Design Lab in the Hillier College of Architecture and Design's Idea Factory, located in the  Cypress Hall basement. A research team led by Meegoda and students from the NJIT Green club are applying for a $200,000 grant from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. A decision from the state is expected in March.

Meanwhile, the upcoming university strategic plan calls for an audit to measure our carbon footprint, which is necessary in order to decide other environmentally-friendly steps, Christ noted. He is open to learning about new ideas through NJIT's membership in the sustainability organization. For example, he said, the campus already has a few water bottle filling stations, which the student government helped purchase and the University pays to install. But a ban on bottled-water sales in favor of biodegradable boxed water, as other colleges have done, is not in the cards at this time. Electric car charging stations are already available. There aren’t currently plans to installed license plate readers or coded window stickers in the campus parking garages, which would reduce pollution caused by idling as drivers wait their turns to swipe ID cards, although Christ acknowledged that Rutgers and other N.J. schools already do this.

Christ said his personal choice for the next big endeavor would be a person, not a thing — he will request budget allocation to hire a full-time employee focused on sustainability. Other universities have entire sustainability departments. A private conference happening on campus March 24-26 next year, the Zero Waste Summit, is produced by a for-profit events and consultancy firm, and officials there said they hope NJIT leaders participate.

"I think in order to create that sustainable culture we need to involve every constituency of the campus, most importantly our students," Christ said, in explaining that sustainability must become part of college culture, not just the domain of employees. "They have to push us, they have to drive us, and they have to tell us how far they want us to go. Because at the end of the day, 70-cents-plus on the dollar comes from student tuition, so those resources necessary to achieve carbon neutrality come from our students."

Senior civil engineering major Daniel Cruz, a vice president of NJIT Green, said he and his peers definitely see the environment as a top concern of their generation. "I think a lot of people our age and younger are filled with that fear of the future," he said. "If the bottom-line people don't figure out what to do then we have to, because it's not going away."