The expert advice to answer your most pressing questions. This issue, Cassiopeia Camara, the administrative assistant at Colorado State University (CSU), shares on green technology.
What is your role when it comes to green technology?
CC: I am brand new to the team, and in my role as administrative assistant, I chair the campus recreation service committee. One of the committee’s objectives this spring was to start brainstorming some ways we can bring sustainability to the department and ideally set up green initiatives for an even larger impact.
What green technology do you use?
CC: Field Lights: Campus recreation at CSU is currently partnering with Musco Sports Lighting to add field lights to seven acres of play fields and retrofit an additional 24 acres of lighted fields to LED fixtures. Energy savings of 50 to 60 percent are expected.
Software: Connect2Concepts is a technology company that allows our staff to manage all aspects of facilities. Its benefits are seen daily from consolidated communication to organizing audits, incident reports and work orders. Not only has it streamlined processes but it is paperless. For example, in fall 2018 we had a total of 560 items — incident reports, usage counts, etc. — submitted through the database, which saved us a minimum of 560 sheets of paper.
We also use DocuSign. It is a management service that allows for electronic exchanges of signed documents. We use this in a variety of capacities, the main one being for our Student Development Fund and David Karspeck Fund applications — these are two funds that students can apply to for professional development. DocuSign allows us to send the same application to as many people as we need to virtually, without having to get everyone together in one room for signatures.
Student Employee Module: This is a database that creates checklists for student employees that can be accessed by multiple parties at once, including student supervisors, our IT department and the administrative assistant. Items in the module include I.D. requests, permissions for systems, violation point tracking and uniform dispersal. Previously the checklist would have been tracked manually and would use one to two pages per student. With a student staff of approximately 350 students, we are saving thousands of pages annually. A module to include professional staff is also being developed.
What is your advice on adding green technology to a campus recreation center?
CC: While some of the items such as Connect2Concepts may seem expensive, they can be worth their value in time saved and environmental impact. If products like these aren’t an option, our biggest piece of advice is no action is too small: choose energy-efficient appliances moving forward, research eco-friendly companies, pick-up that piece of litter, recycle paper and make a difference where you can.
