On March 20, the Bureau of Facilities Management and AIEES held a conference entitled"Presentation of Research Results on How to Construct a Sustainable Green Campus". At this conference, SNU officially announced plans to build a center solely dedicated to the purpose of supervising greenhouse gas emission and energy consumption on campus.
Professor LEE Seung Muk of Graduate School of Public Health gave a presentation on why the establishment of this center is essential. According to Professor Lee, SNU ranks fifth in terms of energy consumption among institutions in the country and has the highest greenhouse gas emissions in Seoul. In 2010, the Ministry of Land and Sea designated SNU as an institution to be put under inspection according to the 'Greenhouse Gas and Energy Target Management System'. Due to this government policy, SNU is obligated
to submit a report on the amount of its greenhouse gas emissions in the past, set a specific goal to reduce the emissions and submit plans to reach this goal. At the end of each year SNU must submit a follow-up report on how it succeeded in reaching its goal. If SNU fails to do so, the government will issue orders to change how SNU manages its emissions.In order to make sure that SNU will be able to abide by these government regulations, in December last year, SNU came to the decision to build a center that exclusively supervises greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption on campus and which will be in charge of the evaluation and reduction of such emissions. Professor LEE said,"SNU's campus is very large, so SNU has various sources of greenhouse gas emission. In order to keep track of all these sources, we need a centralized management center that can encompass all the current systems of supervision." He also added,"The new center will be able to function as the executor of the greenhouse gas cut-back plan."
After the announcement, there were several presentations by SNU students and faculty members on how to make the SNU campus more environmentally friendly. Last year, AIEES conducted a 'Design & Integration Project' for which 3 teams were selected to research ways of building a more eco-friendly campus. One of the 3 teams, 'Real-Verde', found ways to recycle trash more appropriately after a series of experiments conducted on the trashcans in front of the Library Lounge, 'Doraji'. KIM Hoon, a student in the 'Real-Verde' team, said,"With just a little effort, we can reduce a considerable amount of trash and save lots of resources."
After the Design & Integration Project presentations, there were presentations by nine teams of 'The Eco Green Gwanak Campus Construction Research Project', from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The 9th team of this project had conducted experiments involving the toilets of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and found ways to save more than half of the water spent on flushing the toilets. The team also recommended that SNU install devices such as water-saving toilets
in the restrooms on campus.Professor IM Jung Gi of Department of Radiology, vice-president of research at SNU, claimed that"SNU and the members of the Division of Management will refer to the research results which are going to aid SNU in the course of building a 'green campus'."
Written by JANG Hyo Jeong, SNU English Editor, fatalbonds@snu.ac.kr
Reviewed by Eli Park Sorensen, SNU Professor of Liberal Studies, eps7257@snu.ac.kr
Proofread by Brett Johnson, SNU English Editor, morningcalm2@gmail.com