Paper Example on Universities Uphold Environmental Sustainability: ACUPCC's Commitment to Climate Change

An effective university leadership should word towards preserving the surrounding environment. As such, the university leaders should create an efficient plan to ensure a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. The American Colleges and University President's Climate Commitment(ACUPCC) endeavors to tackle global climate change by consolidating colleges and universities that have agreed to neutralize their greenhouse gas emissions and speed up research and academic efforts of higher educational institutions to equip the society with the necessary knowledge to restore the global climate (Dyer & Dyer, 2017). The ACUPCC is responsible for encouraging colleges and universities to provide learners with a sustainable perspective in their thinking. Sustainable development entails development that fulfills current needs without affecting future generations' ability to meet their needs. Waste minimization is an important activity that can enhance sustainability. Waste minimization can improve economic, environmental, and social sustainability through proper disposal, community education, good infrastructure, recycling, and sustainable purchasing.

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Waste minimization is a conglomeration of processes and practices focused on reducing the amount of produced waste. The method of eliminating and reducing waste supports efforts to enhance a more sustainable society. Waste minimization entails changing processes, products, and societal patterns of consumption (Dyer &Dyer, 2017). The most environmentally resourceful way of minimizing waste is to put strategies in place to ensure that there is no production of waste. Waste minimization is a primary focus for most waste management strategies. Effective waste treatment and disposal can need a significant amount of time and resources. As such, waste minimization is an effective way of avoiding incurring extra expenses while it is a safe and sustainable endeavor.

Waste minimization has numerous benefits to the environment, which leads to positive economic and social advancements. Waste minimization leads to efficient production practices (Rada et al., 2016). Minimizing waste can help to achieve more output per production unit. Waste minimization can lead to economic returns. When people use products efficiently, then the cost of purchasing new materials will be minimized. As such, universities will save some money. Waste minimization helps to create a good institutional image. A university that is known to champion waste minimization issues has wide recognition. Additionally, non-governmental organizations can be interested in supporting institutions that are known to be proactive in environmental protection. Waste minimization helps to reduce the environmental impacts of waste. This means that the community can experience a better climate, reliable rainfall patterns, and non-fluctuating weather.

Waste minimization can be enhanced through sustainable purchasing. Sustainable purchasing entails buying products that have minimal or zero waste production. Such a strategic purchasing means that the consumption of products will not have negative impacts on the environment. The university's preferred suppliers should be encouraged to include products that promote environmental protection in their product catalog. Buying products from suppliers who are proactive in environmental protection issues can create awareness for others. As such, most suppliers can re-think their strategy to ensure that the products they offer have minimal waste. Additionally, the university staff members should be empowered to buy products that are environmentally friendly during their purchases. Thus, this kind of sustainable purchasing can play a significant role in ensuring that products with minimal waste are bought in the university.

The university can impact sustainable purchasing by encouraging staff members to buy products that have minimal waste. The university should also buy its supplies from suppliers that have met the minimum requirements in the provision of environmentally friendly products. The university's influence can help suppliers put labels showing their environmental compliance alongside their product description. Additionally, the government can legislate laws that would put a threshold on the products supplied to the universities. For example, the county government can legislate a law requiring all suppliers that wish to get supply tenders from the university comply with environmental protection laws.

Waste can be minimized through proper disposal. Today, many students dispose of small pieces of paper used to wrap sweets at the wrong places. When these papers accumulate, they lead to environmental pollution. The university uses a large amount of money to hire cleaners to keep the environment neat. Proper waste disposal not only entails putting wastes in dustbins, instead it involves disposing of waste where it is required (Epstein & Theuer, 2017). For example, decomposable waste should be separated from non-decomposable waste. This is because certain types of wastes can be recycled and used to create other useful products. For instance, decomposable waste can be used to form manure, which can be applied in farms to nourish the crops. Such a move can enable the university to achieve sustainability in tow ways: by reducing expenses used to buy fertilizers and minimizing waste on the environment.

The government can help in promoting responsible waste disposal by creating policies that govern waste management. For instance, proper regulations should be laid out that illegalize disposal of waste in roads or public places. The regulations should also ensure that the offenders get severe punishments such as imprisonments or huge fines. Additionally, the government should introduce payments for waste disposal. This can be enhanced by automating the process of disposing of waste. All students and staff members should be issued with waste disposal cards that are to be used. When one goes to dispose waste in the waste disposal bin, the waste should be weighed. Upon exceeding a specific limit, the individual should pay for disposing of the extra waste. Such an initiative can help in ensuring proper waste disposal and also minimize waste. The introduction of such a mechanism can arouse consciousness in people's buying trends such that most would consider buying products that have less waste.

Waste can be minimized through community education. The community at the university is constituted of students, staff members, and visitors. Some of the people that are found within the university premises have not had an opportunity to get information about ways of minimizing waste. Education about waste minimization can be an effective way of ensuring people become conscious of environmental protection methods. Community education carries activities aimed at creating awareness on better means of reducing waste (Le Hesran et al., 2019). The university can hold seminars to sensitive people on the effects of waste and the need to protect the environment. Additionally, the university can educate people on alternative methods that can be used instead of conventional methods that are unsustainable.

The government can assist the university in sensitizing environmental protection through funding programs geared to educate people. Additionally, through the environment department, the government can donate experts to train the university staff on the best methods of minimizing waste. The university can invest in good training equipment such as halls, projects, and learning materials to help people understand great concepts in environmental management (Le Hesran et al., 2019). Also, the government can legislate policies requiring the university to offer environmental protection education to the community after a certain period. When more people receive education on proper ways of protecting the environment, waste would be minimized significantly.

Waste can be minimized by recycling. The university should practice single-stream recycling whereby all waste papers, metals, glass, and plastics are placed in one bin for recycling. The university should sort the waste according to their categories. Waste that can decompose should be disposed of in their special bins. As part of its climate action plan, the university should expand the composition on campus. The university should revise the purchasing formula to take care of its waste recycling such that there is a reduction in packaging waste. The purchased products should be packed with recyclable materials.

Moreover, there should be several recycling centers to meet the needs of different faculties. For example, the university can convert the existing trash room into a multipurpose recycling center in the entire school or town. The recycling center should also cater to non-traditional waste such as electronic materials like fluorescent light bulbs, toner and ink cartridges, electronic waste, batteries, and markers. Since the school population is growing, more efforts should be focused on expanding electronic waste.

The climate action plan should set a goal for recycling such that each year the expected percentage is achieved. The current recycling rate should be checked to enable future planning and assessment. The university should set different goals for various waste, such as decomposing waste, electronic waste, plastics, and metal wastes. Since the waste materials are disposed of in different volumes, the university should set different commensurate goals with their disposal levels. However, the use of reusable, durable products, and reduced wastes from packaging containers will continue to reduce waste, and thus may prove to be a more meaningful way of minimizing waste.

The university can promote the recycling of waste by providing bins and demarcating different types of wastes. Sometimes, it is difficult for recycling work because people mix different kinds of waste (Le Hesran et al., 2019). For example, in some circumstances, some people put both electronic waste and decomposable waste in one bin. This means that for recycling to occur, there must be an additional expense in sorting the waste before it can be recycled. However, when the university correctly designates the bins for each waste, people will dispose of each waste in the required bin. As such, it will be easier to recycle each waste based on its type.

Moreover, the county government should support the university by providing enough waste bins. The provision of enough waste bins would ease recycling processes. Thus, the environment would be kept safe from waste landfills.

Waste minimization can be enhanced through the development of appropriate infrastructure. Waste minimization involves various procedures and processes (Le Hesran et al., 2019). The university should have well-developed systems that promote waste management. Some kinds of waste materials need to be burnt in an incinerator. Thus, the university should invest in the construction of more incinerators. Other waste materials require the use of recycling machines to convert waste products into useful items. For instance, plastic waste can be converted into plates or drinking bottles that can be sold to earn the university an extra income. Recycling can enable the university to make more money. However, the whole process of converting waste materials into useful products requires machines and other infrastructure. As such, the university must invest in providing the machines and rooms that can enhance waste minimization.

Both the county government and the university should work together and provide the necessary infrastructure to minimize waste. For example, some recycling machines are expensive. The government sh...