What does it take to make a college campus sustainable? Is it the opening of an energy-efficient building or two? Solar panels on rooftops? A community garden? High-tech waterless urinals? Dozens of recycling bins scattered along the bike routes that snake through campus?

Those are all important ingredients in the recipe for a sustainable campus, says Julie Newman, director of Yale University's Office of Sustainability. But a campus will not truly be sustainable — economically, environmentally and humanly — until all these pieces are integrated, and students, staff and faculty begin working together toward a unified commitment and vision.

At Yale, "My role is to make sustainability everybody's business … so everybody is working toward this," said Newman, the keynote speaker at the fourth annual UC Davis Sustainability Summit.

More than 50 students, staff and faculty packed into the Putah Creek Lodge on May 17 to hear Newman and others discuss campus sustainability efforts here and elsewhere, during the half-day conference sponsored by the California Student Sustainability Coalition and the Office of Administration.

Speakers discussed innovative programs on the Davis campus and throughout the UC system, proof — Newman pointed out — that "the movement is really taking off across campuses nationwide." At the same time, though, Newman cautioned that there is a difference between truly innovative integration and the tendency among some to paint everything "green" with a broad brush.

A sustainable campus or community is one that employs integrated, coordinated practices that can meet present needs while at the same time, enhance the environment and the ability of future generations to thrive. Those practices involve everything from water conservation and energy efficiency to innovative materiel purchasing practices, and campus, transportation and building planning.

At the summit, Stan Nosek, UC Davis' vice chancellor for administration, tipped his hat to the student group at Davis for its sustainability leadership on campus. "We're not engaging the students," he said. "We're following the students. We're following the students' lead … I urge all of us to take (sustainability) as a personal passion."

Under Nosek's leadership, the campus has established a Sustainability Advisory Committee that earlier this year issued its first annual report. "Blueprint for a Green Future" included a list of recommendations for future action. Nosek has since committed spending up to $54,000 on several initiatives outlined in the document.

Those initiatives include: the creation of a campus "green map" that highlights sustainability-oriented locations on campus; the development of a campus sustainability Web site; the production of a short video documentary that highlights key ways that UC Davis "walks the walk" in its commitment to sustainability; the launching of a research grant competition for promising student-researchers interested in sustainability; the development of a financing plan for a comprehensive building "renewal" program to make them more energy-efficient, user-friendly and seismically safe; and increasing sustainable practices in the campus's food services.

Even as the campus readies to act on those initiatives, Matt St. Clair, sustainability specialist with the UC Office of the President, offered praise for steps already taken.

St. Clair pointed out, for example, that UC Davis has the highest number of "green building baseline credits" — 33 — of any campus in the entire UC system. Each credit represents a commitment to incorporate a green building measure — energy efficiency, water-use efficiency, non-toxic building materials — into new buildings on campus. In addition, UC Davis soon will be given a best practices award for its innovative R4 waste reduction program. The award will be presented at the fifth annual UC/CSU Sustainability Conference hosted in June at UC Santa Barbara.

"Your campus deserves kudos," he said.

Other campuses have taken big steps, too:

• At UC Santa Barbara, St. Clair said, students agreed to increase their fees by $2.80 an academic quarter for a new green initiative fund, raising roughly $1 million in the next four years to spend on campus conservation projects.
• At UC Berkeley, a recently established Environmental Alumni Network already has grown to more than 300 members. In addition, a demonstration "green" room at a residence hall that shows how students can live a sustainable lifestyle even includes biodegradable soaps and shampoos.
• At UC Santa Cruz, the food service is purchasing 18 percent of all its produce from local, socially responsible organic growers who employ sustainable farming techniques.

The California Student Sustainability Coalition gave out awards — hand-painted pots with hand-planted sunflower and basil plants — at the conference to four UC Davis staff and faculty members for "their support and endless efforts in the sustainability movement": Jill Blackwelder, chair of the campus's Sustainability Advisory Committee and the associate vice chancellor for Safety Services; Bill Starr, the campus's senior architect; Joan Ogden, associate professor of environmental science and policy; and Camille Kirk, an associate environmental planner in the Office of Resource Management and Planning.