The air is crisper, the days are shorter, and you start wondering if the winter’s trends of last year are going to carry over.  (Jeans in the boot?  Jeans out of the boot?  Who’s to know?)  If you’re a college student, you’re heading back to school.  If you’re a student in East Los Angeles, you’re also going green. 

Last Spring, East Los Angeles College installed 5,952 solar panels, which will create nearly half of the college’s energy.  Placed hanging over 530 parking spaces on a campus lot, the panels are expected to last for forty years, produce 1.9 million kilowatts annually, and save the college around $270,000 a year.  The LA Times reports that “The Los Angeles Community College Districts, which includes East Los Angeles, is undergoing one of the largest green building efforts in the country’s public sector, with more than 40 buildings planned and all facilities set to employ only renewable energy.”

It’s not just the junior college sector that’s taking on a green sheen.  Back in 2004, the UC university system passed a policy determining all new or renovated building had to be environmentally friendly.  Recent reports now reveal this has saved the system nearly $5 million dollars.  Now, building green on campus has become much more mainstream.  Plus, campuses can boast a recent study showing “eco-friendly construction helps lower absenteeism, proves productivity and staves off health problems for students and teachers.” 

East LA College isn’t the only California institution rocking a green agenda. Santiago Canyon College in Orange County has vertical perforated solar fins cooling their library.  Santa Clara University has a building comprised of carpet tiles made of yarn.  Students at the university also created a solar house for the third biennial Solar Decathlon, sponsored by the Department of Energy.  They “designed, constructed, transported, and rebuilt an energy-efficient home for the competition…the house is its own electrical conductor--the floors, walls, windows, and roof were designed to absorb and produce the energy needed to run the house.”  And finally, Stanford University has a building constructed partially from redwood taken from old wine vats.  (Can you imagine?  One day you’re a majestic redwood, the next you are fermenting a petite syrah.  For shame Industrial Revolution vintners!) 

Congratulations to California Colleges for making green issues a priority – hopefully, future students will be as horrified over things like gas-powered Hummers as I was over the redwood wine vats.  (No, wait, I’m presently equally horrified at those as well.)