The committees, which started meeting at the beginning of the semester, are Energy & Climate, Buildings & Grounds, Dining Services, Transportation and Purchasing & Materials Management.

Matt Malten, assistant vice chancellor for sustainability, said that this part of the initiative is comparable to projects at similar research universities with medical schools, and that it involves evaluation of practices such as turning off lights and raising the heat in classrooms.

“We’re doing a full parametric analysis trying to figure out if it’s achievable,” he said. “It’s not just how much energy we use. It’s also what fuel sources we use. [It] depends on how successful we are in educating individual energy consumption behavior on campus.”

Groups of two or three University administrators head each of the committees, which also include technical experts in each field and student representatives. Malten sits on every committee, as well as the Sustainability Operations Leadership Council (SOLC), which oversees the group.

The Energy & Climate committee, which focuses on the University’s power use, aims to reduce the University’s greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent lower than the 1990 level by 2020.

In order to meet these aims, the University will switch from a high-energy pressurized steam distribution system to a low-energy depressurized system, along with swapping its fluorescent light bulbs for more efficient ones.

“It’s not just what we’re planning to do in the future, but we’re collecting data on what we’ve done in the past,” Malten said. “Our data shows that in all of our construction projects since the mid-1990s, we’ve had dramatic increases of energy efficiency.”

The University’s green student groups have demanded carbon neutrality from the administration for years. Junior Lee Cordova, former president of Green Action, said that although the University will not be eliminating its carbon footprint, he appreciates the administration’s commitment.

“[Reducing emissions is] not necessarily a daring goal, but it would be very exciting if that’s something we could do,” Cordova said. “The University has stayed relatively conservationist, considering the level of growth we’ve had.”

The Buildings & Grounds committee focuses on ensuring that every new building on campus will be LEED certified at the silver level. According to Malten, while the University may attempt to reach a higher LEED level on some buildings, silver makes the most sense for buildings on a college campus.

“Universities have achieved LEED Silver as a minimum, because we design our buildings to last 75 to 100 years,” he said. “We’re trying to look hard at ‘has there been anybody able to make the case that achieving LEED Gold is possible as well?’”

Cordova said that from Green Action’s perspective, having all buildings certified LEED Platinum would be ideal, but that he understands LEED certification is one of many factors considered when planning a building.

“LEED certification is important, but a building has a lot of needs,” he said. “The DUC would be more efficient without the huge windows in the atrium, but they kind of define the space.”

The third goal, as proposed by the Dining Services Committee, is to purchase all food from within 150 miles of campus by 2015. While Cordova said that this is not one of Green Action’s top priorities, monitoring food remains important since it plays a large part in students’ lives.

The Transportation committee aims to reduce by 10 percent the number of individuals commuting to campus solo by car by 2020. While this initiative faces a setback because of pending Metro cutbacks, Malten is confident that the administration can reach its goal through increasing bicycle use and walking.

“A significant part of the population lives a mile and a half from campus,” he said. “How do we get people to bike to campus and walk to campus more?”

Cordova said that relaying this message to students is difficult, because fliers will be less visible for students who move out of Residential Life.

“For a lot of students, there’s no excuse for driving,” he said.

The final goal, steered by the Purchasing & Materials Management committee, is to recycle 35 percent more by 2012 and 65 percent more by 2020. Recycling is perhaps the largest issue for student groups, which have hosted events like “Recyclemania,” slated to be held again next semester, to encourage more recycling.

“There’s a lot of different groups working on recycling. It’s so dependent on student behavior,” Cordova said, noting an impending University-wide project aimed at redesigning the school’s recycle bins to increase their accessibility.

While the University hopes to reach these goals, Vice Chancellor for Administration Henry Webber stressed that the administration wants to be cautious when moving forward in this project.

“It’s an important step, but it’s not a giant step,” Webber said. “The truth is that achieving success in sustainability is going to be built on lots of small and medium-sized steps.”

Webber added that while he cannot promise total transparency on the process, he wants to get students involved.

“There may be at some point things that are confidential to the groups, but I don’t think secrecy is the idea here,” he said.

Cordova, while he encourages students to stay informed of the issues and push the University toward greater sustainability, said that these matters involve high-level processes, which require knowledge of how the University operates.

“If the average student wants to get involved in it, it’s going to be a little harder than just joining Green Action,” he said.

This is the second article in a two-part series about Washington University’s sustainability efforts.

With additional reporting by Kat Zhao