Sophomore environmental science and policy major Jeremy Krones demonstrates his interactive map application.
Students hunting for organic food gardens or the greenest buildings on the campus now have a new tool to guide their searches — an interactive map posted on the Office of Sustainability’s website.
An intern at the sustainability office — sophomore environmental science and policy major Jeremy Krones — created the map in an effort to educate the student body about all things sustainable on the campus.
“We were talking about how to get sustainability initiatives to the greater student body,” Krones said. “A lot of what we, as the university, do [with sustainability] — certain students are involved but the greater student body isn’t.”
Last semester, Krones began retrofitting an existing map of the campus with side tabs pointing to specific sites with such features as green roofs, solar energy or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. Users click on tabs within the map to see pictures and descriptions of the different sustainable campus landmarks.
“People are walking around saying ‘great, a recycle bin, what does that mean?'” Krones said. “I wanted to learn more about what we do on campus to be more sustainable.”
Much of the information Krones used to create the map was already available on different sections of the Office of Sustainability website, but he said he hoped collecting them in one place would make it easier for students to learn about them. A link to the tool was posted last month to the sustainability office’s homepage, www.sustainability.umd.edu.
“My goal at this university is for people to know what’s going on,” Krones said.
Krones said it was important for students to take an active approach in making the university more sustainable instead of being “greenwashed” with honors, such as being called one of the greenest universities in the country.
“I think a lot of students, especially in our college generation, are taking a stand in saying, ‘We don’t believe that to be true and we want to make sure that we will be the greenest campus,'” Krones said.
Although his own work with the map is done, Krones said he hoped the office would add a comments section for users to offer suggestions on anything from where to change a light bulb or add a recycling bin on the campus.
Office of Sustainability manager Mark Stewart said he and his colleagues have been discussing various ways to make the map more approachable to students, and added that the sustainability council is studying the feasibility of incorporating sustainable landmarks into the standard campus visitor’s map rather than maintaining a separate one.
“We’re interested in having a map that’s going to be used by students,” Stewart said. “Centralizing those efforts is always smart.”
As it is, Krones said he posted the map to his personal Facebook page, but said he wasn’t sure if it’s reaching many students.
Even so, several students said they liked the idea of having a map showing them a more sustainable campus.
“I didn’t know about it, but I’m sure if I looked at the map I’d learn a lot,” freshman letters and sciences major Leah Bulka said. “I think it would help in getting people more aware.”
Freshman art and psychology major Katie Wolford said the map might even help boost school spirit.
“It would be cool to know, ‘Oh, we’re actually good at this sort of thing, go Maryland,'” she said.
saravia at umdbk dot com
