CPCC takes great pride in conducting its own operations in a manner that supports our focus on environmental responsibility and energy conservation. As a non-profit institution of higher education, CPCC is challenged with an extremely limited budget and resources that must be committed to learning. As such, it is challenging commit to environmentally friendly business practices and still meet the needs of students and the community. However, CPCC is committed to walking the talk in whatever ways possible, and there are a number of things that the school is proud to have accomplished in this regard. All of these business practices, activities and initiatives take place yearly including 2007.

• CPCC established the Center for Sustainability Advisory Board in 2007 made up of community business leaders from various organizations. Members have been challenged to actively support and channel the college’s focus on those topics and programs that will support environmental education and workforce development in the Charlotte region.

• CPCC Facilities Services plans energy efficiency into all construction projects. This includes energy reduction in all lighting and HVAC and also includes water conservation design and environmentally friendly landscape maintenance.

• All CPCC Maintenance diesel vehicles are being converted to run on biodiesel. We have positioned ourselves to primarily use Bio-diesel by increasing the number of diesel vehicles in our service fleet.

• CPCC Facilities Services added two Ford Escape Hybrids to its fleet during 2007.

• CPCC Facilities Services developed a detailed Recycling Services Contract during 2007 which will be implemented in 2008.

• CPCC uses the Orkin Green Program for pest management.

• CPCC is a supporting member of Carolinas Clean Air Coalition and have collaborated on a number of joint projects including ozone gardening and public seminars.

• CPCC is a supporting member of the National Wildlife Federation and is using their established program in the planning and development of our wildlife habitat project on all six college campuses.

• Recent library interior remodeling included environmentally friendly, 100% recyclable carpet.

• CPCC’s Annual Report is printed on 100# Chorus Art Text containing 50% recycled paper (25% post-consumer), and the inks used during the printing process are soy-based. The goal of CPCC is to specify recycled papers whenever possible, supported by the Forest Stewardship Council.

• Building construction uses motion detection light system, auto shut-off sinks, and CFLs for lighting.

• CPCC Facilities Services reported over 50 tons of paper and electronics recycled by the college in 2007.

• CPCC Facilities Services reported that paper purchasing totals were reduced by over five thousand dollars in 2007 due to recycle and electronic communication efforts.

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  CPCC Facilities Services reported that the college recycles about 2240 cubic yards of waste per year.

• The Harris Campus was selected in 2007 to be a pilot for the college for recycling efforts, working with the city/county on a proposed process to capture all of our recyclables with county approved receptacles and collection schedules.

• The North Carolina E-Procurement Purchasing System encourages state run organizations to purchase green products and to track these purchases. CPCC has, for many years including during 2007, reached 100% of the goal in the purchasing of recycled products.

• During the annual clean-up of the Graphic Arts Lab, three trash containers of clean paper were donated to Precious Child Academy for use by the children.  A perfect example of recycling/reuse in action.

• All campus grass clippings are recycled back into existing turf resulting in no grass waste going into landfill.

• CPCC uses 70 yards of composed soil in flower beds which improve water conservation. A majority of the composting materials come form the college’s own landscape maintenance recycle program.

• CPCC recycles and reuses 80% of all campus leaves which are then composted and used by the college.

• All pesticides used by CPCC are water based and have no petroleum components. All pesticides are used in conjunction with proper cultural practices which result in minimum usage. These IPM standards call for very eco-friendly methods of pest mitigation and discourages the use of harsh or dangerous chemicals. All applicators have the Ornamental & Turf Pesticide license.

• CPCC offers discounts to employees for Charlotte Transit Bus passes, encouraging use of mass transit.

• CPCC has a dedicated Program Coordinator working to increase awareness, promote continuing education and community programs and to encourage sustainability thinking in all elements of instruction and college operations.

• CPCC is in year two of a three year project to have all six campuses registered with the National Wildlife Federation as Certified Wildlife Habitats. Our Central Campus was officially certified in December 2007. These areas on each campus will serve as environmental education resources showcasing landscape management opportunities using native drought tolerant plants that attract a variety of wildlife. This project came about from an internal Innovation Grant provided by the college to encourage forward thinking by faculty and staff.

• Planned Ozone Garden project began in 2007 as a partnership with Carolinas Clean Air Coalition, placing ozone sensitive native plants into our wildlife habitats. This project will help to illustrate the effect of ozone on the health of living organisms including humans.

• “Kill A Watt” – The electrical Usage Monitor device made available to students and staff beginning in 2007, to determine wattage use of home appliances for energy evaluation.

• CPCC Student Life and Service-Learning has a long history of coordinating America Recycles Day events and educational activities on our campuses including the ’07 program.   

• 2007 Earth Day service project – In conjunction with National/Global Youth Service Day, CPCC Service-Learning Center sponsored a day of environmental service on April 19, 2007 that involved 100 students and staff in six different service projects around the county, accumulating over 400 service hours of work cleaning up streams, landscaping greenways, and establishing wildlife habitat areas on three of our campus locations.

• Little Sugar Creek Adopt-a-Stream - CPCC Student Life and Biology Departments have worked in partnership for 10 years, including during 2007, to clean and monitor the section of Little Sugar Creek adjoining the CPCC Central Campus.  During that time, we have conducted 20 stream clean-up projects and involved over 1000 students in environmental service and education on Little Sugar Creek. 

• Additional environmental service projects for CPCC students are conducted each semester with local organizations like the Carolina Raptor Center (cage and trail maintenance), Seigle Avenue Preschool and Greenway Park Elementary School (landscape maintenance and plantings), Joshua’s Farm (maintenance of sensory trail enjoyed by guests with developmental disabilities), Carolina Wildcare (care for injured wildlife), and a variety of local non-profit organizations that request landscape maintenance on their grounds.  Student Life has involved students in Adopt-A-Street clean-up projects along roads near Levine Campus. Through our Alternative Spring Break program, dozens of CPCC students have been involved in week-long service projects in Charleston, SC (painting and repairing an environmental education center and working to improve areas of area parks and beaches).

• Facilities Services - Housekeeping Department reports that 50% of purchased supplies are “green” products. In addition, the department began the testing green cleaning products.

• CPCC was one of the first institutions in North Carolina to offer on-line self service services (admission, registration, bill payment, grade view) and a majority of our students utilize these services. This reduced the need for students to drive to the college and for the college to keep its offices open round the clock.

• Various Engineering Technologies classes such as “Power Generation” have students run comparative analysis on alternative energy systems, then present their research to the class.

• The college use of Learning Management Systems which allow students to take courses or parts of courses online eliminates the need for campus-based class meetings and the daily commute of students and faculty thereby saving energy. This also saves the energy required to facilitate a “brick and mortar” classroom. Our on-line course enrollment increased 54% since fall 2006 with no incremental cost in electrical power, HVAC or other facilities. Computer asset recovery – Dell provides a service that recycles our computer assets that have passed their system life cycle. We utilize this service to recycle some of our equipment.

• Asset Transfer – we transfer assets that are past their system life cycle for this college but may have useful life at other community colleges in North Carolina. Utilization of hundreds of computers has been extended for another year or two through this process.

• Printer Toner Cartridge Recycling – CPCC works with Duraline to purchase recycled printer and copier toner cartridges and to deliver empty cartridges for recycling. Duraline gives CPCC credit for the empty cartridges. This program is being extended college wide.

• Workstation, Printer and Projector Power Management – CPCC is implementing a power management plan that consists of powering down assets remotely to conserve energy during non operating hours while still allowing for remote maintenance.

• Purchasing Energy Efficient Monitors – All new monitor purchases have an energy star rating.  Replacing 5000 CRT monitors with flat panel LCD monitors has reduced power consumption at a rate of 500KW/hour.  
• CPCC Facilities Management – Maintenance energy conservation measure to deload the house boiler of the domestic water load by providing dedicated domestic water heaters:

1-      The waste heat standby losses are greatly reduced due to a smaller volume of water being heated.

2-      The waste heat standby losses are greatly reduced due to a smaller surface area dissipating heat.

3-      Greater domestic water reliability is realized due to dual units.

4-      Less wear and tear on the house boiler and vessel because it is no longer trying to deliver very domestic water heating small loads.

• CPCC uses its “Report-to-Web” tools to store reports online, thus reducing the need for printing paper reports and multiple copies, saving paper and power consumed by printers.

• The college has migrated a majority of CPCC communication with students, formally delivered through the US Postal Service, to either email communication or via the web thereby saving paper, postage and energy.

• CPCC has been migrating paper forms to Web forms.  Specifically, we have been implementing a Document Imaging and Workflow system.  This has reduced the need to print forms and make multiple copies of forms.

• CPCC has worked with Human Resources to implement the PeopleClick on-line employment application system.  This system has greatly reduced submission of paper applications by providing a web application to serve this purpose.

• CPCC is currently piloting a program to offer employees the ability to telecommute (work from home) that is convenient, efficient and safe.  The suitability to telecommute will be based on job duties and will be determined by each department.  Telecommuting has a direct impact on the environment by reducing travel requirements. It also assists with reducing power consumption and other utility requirements of the college.

Virtualization:

-To date, we are running 38 virtual servers on 5 physical servers. This has reduced load enough to allow us to remove a 12 KVA UPS system. Also, we are reducing remote campus Active Directory servers from two per campus to one per campus by virtualizing them on a single piece of hardware.

-Furthermore, by providing virtual sandboxes and workstation virtual machines, we have reduced the number of physical workstations needed by developers. These changes have set the groundwork for a greener working environment. 

CFS patners with Sierra Club and American Forestry Foundation to plant 2500 trees!