The Chronicle on "Green" at Stanford

![Stanfords ultra-green Y2E2](http://instruct.westvalley.edu/dsmith/fieldtrips/y2e2.jpg "Y2E2")

Stanford's ultra-green Y2E2

According to some, “greening” our buildings just ain’t enough. An [article last week in the San Francisco Chronicle ](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/12/28/BAHR1B6J5H.DTL)discussed Stanford’s need to change outlooks and behavior with regards to energy use. The article quotes Fahmida Ahmed, who works in Stanford’s Office of Sustainability:

We’re a university, we’re not a cement factory. We’ve got to influence minds.

Green building projects, such as the famed Y2E2, have helped reduce energy use at Stanford, but much more remains to be done. Challenges remain, as the Chronicle reports:

Stanford has done little to boost its use of solar power, because cheaper, more efficient solar systems are on the horizon. And while 660 U.S. colleges and universities have signed a pledge to create carbon-neutral campuses, Stanford isn’t one of them because “we don’t know how to get there without purchasing offsets.”

For more on green buildings at Stanford, be sure to check out the next issue of the Review, where I’ll be reporting on the performance of Y2E2 and how it may have not met all initial expectations. Check it out — on newsstands Friday!