College Housing Northwest, Portland, Oregon, USA
An Oregon Natural Step Network
Overview
College Housing Northwest is a non-profit organization providing housing for students at Portland State University (Portland State) and Central Oregon Community College. It has 120 employees and approximately $9.8 million in annual revenues.
Background
College Housing Northwest (CHNW) was founded in 1969 by a group of students and faculty members at Portland State. At that time, Portland State was not allowed to have housing on its campus and planned to demolish several apartment buildings and convert them into parking lots as part of a redevelopment effort. Students recognized the need for the preservation of those housing resources and convinced both the University and the State Board of Higher Education to allow them to form a non-profit organization to operate student housing called Portland Student Services. This organization later became College Housing Northwest. Portland Student Services was truly a product of the ‘60s’ culture, which included taking care of the earth. For example, the founding group also formed Portland Recycling Team, which operated a drop site on campus.
CHNW currently operates 1,407 apartments at Portland State and a 108-bed residence hall at Central Oregon Community College. Together they house approximately 1,920 students. CHNW owns 384 of the apartments it operates and partners with the Housing Authority of Portland for operation of 96 units at Portland State. The rest are owned by the two client schools.
Since 1988, Gary Meddaugh has been the CEO of CHNW. Meddaugh came to the job with an extensive background in both business management and earth stewardship. Through the ‘70s and early ‘80s Meddaugh managed a United Methodist Camp and Conference Center that had a two-acre organic garden, solar greenhouse, and vegetarian food program and offered several programs on the stewardship of the earth.
Introduction to The Natural Step
After coming to Portland as CEO of what is now College Housing Northwest, Meddaugh was able to find a model that made sustainability meaningful and workable in a business environment. Through his friend John Emrick of Norm Thompson, he was invited by Dick and Jeanne Roy of The Northwest Earth Institute to attend one of the early Natural Step workshops in Portland. Excited about the concepts and the possibility of building a business model that incorporates a healthy relationship with the environment as part of its business strategy, Meddaugh encouraged each member of his management team to go to a Natural Step workshop.
While the management team found The Natural Step framework to be a meaningful and important way to move the organization forward, it agreed that some outside assistance would be helpful to incorporate the concepts into the business. Russell Barton of Ekos International worked with CHNW over the course of 18 months to develop the vision, the goals, and the strategies to incorporate sustainability into the company.
Implementation of the NEXUS Model
What evolved out of this work is what the company calls The Nexus Model, referring to the nexus of three converging circles: human enhancement, organizational excellence, and environmental sustainability. The Natural Step principles serve as a framework for the environmental component. After the management team and an expanded group of 23 employees developed this approach, it was presented to the Board of Directors, which adopted it with this strategic directive: “Implement Nexus to achieve our mission and be the provider of choice for innovative and eco-friendly student housing.”
The company launched a program to educate all employees and develop plans for making the changes to the organization. It operated with the belief that the fundamental way to make this change successful over time was to focus early efforts on changing the culture, instead of just doing "green" things. Training programs about the Nexus model and The Natural Step were begun first for managers, then all employees. A workbook was created entitled “Solutions at the Nexus: Sustainable Excellence at College Housing Northwest.” The workbook served as the centerpiece of the company-wide training effort. The initial training was four hours long. It covered the history of CHNW; a sustainable vision for CHNW; a discussion of the environmental, social, and political challenges to sustainability; an introduction to operating at the Nexus; an overview of The Natural Step system conditions; and discussion of a company-wide Nexus implementation plan.
To allow wide involvement in the program and achieve early success, the company allowed employees, without management interference, to look for low-hanging fruit throughout the company. An employee Low-Hanging Fruit Team was formed to promote, review, recognize, and celebrate ideas. At the same time, the expanded Nexus group worked on strategies to move the company forward using the Nexus model. When the managers looked at all processes and practices of the company, however, they became overwhelmed. As a result, several adjustments were made.
A senior executive was put in charge of implementing the change. CHNW has found great value in having one person in the organization be responsible for making sure everyone is actually doing things, not just talking about them. That person needs to have management support, must be very direct, and must both engage the staff and work with them to find even better and more appropriate products and ways of doing things. For example, if the painting department group says it is doing well and that it has replaced oil-based paint with recycled paint for certain applications, it can still be challenged and engaged to make certain it is looking deep enough and examining every option for improvement: “Have you considered low/zero-VOC paint?” CHNW appointed Vice President Dan Potter, who had been with the company for 28 years, to fill this role. His new, restructured position includes responsibility for budget preparation, new acquisition start-up, and new construction and remodeling supervision, as well as the Nexus program development.
The company also set up a new annual plan strategy called GAME (Goals, Actions, Measurements, and Excitement). Each year the Board sets overall goals, the management team determines how they will be accomplished, and each supervisor writes a GAME Plan. Measurements include task completion, a key indicators report (occupancy, revenue, HR, statistics, etc.), and responses from an annual customer survey. A group of employees was put in charge of excitement. CHNW found that excitement is one of the keys to keeping the Nexus approach in front of employees at all times. This involves communication both with employees and CHNW's customers--its tenants. The employee team refined a monthly tenant newsletter to include Nexus-type information and added a quarterly employee newsletter that emphasizes Nexus.
The company decided that if it wanted to walk its talk, it needed to do a better job of training. The total training budget—not just Nexus--has nearly doubled, from $25,000 to $42,280. All new employees receive orientation at the start of employment and additional training within the first 30 days. This training, presented by CHNW staff, includes the Nexus program as well as the mission, policies and procedures of CHNW, employee safety, and customer service.
During the first year Potter has focused most of his efforts in the areas of purchasing and energy. He went to each group—paint, mechanical, carpentry, cleaning—and tried to determine where the opportunities were for more sustainable products. He took his employees on field trips to local sources of sustainable supplies, such as Endura Woods, Rebuilding Center, and Environmental Building Supplies; got a copy of Green Specs published by Environmental Building News, and met with painting and cleaning vendors. He then gave his employees the task of renovating an old storage area into a studio apartment using what they had learned. They had a chance to try reclaimed wood, waterbased wood finish, cork flooring, low-flow plumbing fixtures, zero-VOC paint, energy conserving light fixtures, and recyclable carpet. This exercise helped the employees to start thinking differently and gave them positive encouragement.
Potter also formed an energy conservation group that meets once a month to decide what projects to undertake. The company did have an energy audit for two buildings by the gas utility, but Potter found that it’s more helpful to have his in-house experts make suggestions and determine pay-back times. When a project is complex, he hires an outside engineer to help make a decision.
Initial Results
The first year of the program resulted in 83 submissions to the Low-Hanging Fruit Team. Approximately 55 percent of them met the Nexus test, as determined by the team and the appropriate department supervisor, and were implemented. They were primarily small steps such as using double-sided copies, increasing all forms of recycling from broken window glass to office paper, using e-mail instead of paper, replacing paper dishes with reusable ceramic ones, being aware of energy and resource usage, etc. From these initial steps, the company realized financial savings of approximately $5,000 a year, but, more importantly, they were the beginning of a change in the cultural mindset. Paint. As a result of extensive research, College Housing has selected a zero-VOC paint. Potter had put together a matrix that considered important factors, such as quality, appearance, environmental impact, odor, and cost, and let his employees test the paints. Sherwin-Williams Harmony best met all criteria.
Cleaning products. Potter met with the company’s vendor Coastwide Labs to request more environmentally sustainable cleaners, and employees tried all sorts of “green” products. They didn’t find any that satisfied them until Coastwide Labs came out with a hydrogen peroxide product that replaces three conventional cleaners. Since that decision, Coastwide Labs has received third-party certification for six “Sustainable Earth” products.
Energy. In the laundry rooms, top-loading washing machines were replaced with more hot-water-efficient side-loaders, saving $15,000 in utility costs. Occupancy sensors were installed in these rooms to turn out lights. LED (Light Emitting Diode) bulbs were installed in all exit signs. And in common areas, the fluorescent bulbs were replaced by more energy-efficient T8 bulbs. Other measures have been carried out in single buildings: an ultra-low-flow shower head retrofit, a switch to compact fluorescents in dorm rooms, and replacement of an electric water heater with a high-efficiency natural gas one.
Water. A water study in conjunction with a doctoral student at Portland State has resulted in a plan to retrofit plumbing fixtures in older facilities that will ultimately affect over 1,000 units. CHNW completed an informal study in three of its buildings to gauge the results of various actions with and without water conservation education. In one building, it made many retrofits to improve water consumption efficiency combined with an educational program for the employees and tenants. In another building, it implemented just the educational program, and in the third (control), it did neither. In the control building and the building with just education, there was no real difference in outcomes. There were significant improvements in the building with retrofits and education.
New student housing at PSU. A 134-unit housing complex to be completed at PSU by summer 2003 is seeking a LEED (a national environmental performance ranking system) silver rank. The architect firm was selected because of its experience in sustainable construction and has considered life-cycle operational costs as well as up-front construction costs. The units have been designed in the European style—with less floor space than traditional American ones. In a closet by the front door will be a space for hanging a bicycle. The building will be so well insulated that computers, lights, cooking, and bodies will provide most of the heat. Rainwater will be captured for flushing toilets and irrigating landscaping. As the water comes through downspouts to the ground, it will be sent through a bioswale for filtering and then stored in an underground tank. Before use, it will be treated with filters and an ultraviolet light. The heat from shower water will be captured and used to heat cold entry water to the hot water tank. Other features include wheatboard cabinets, and low-toxicity finishes.
So far, the financial results include a two percent increase in occupancy (to 97.5%) and $120,000 per year in additional income. The company has saved approximately $10,000 per year from recent retrofits to reduce utility consumption.
The Future
Potter’s next focus will be on carpet purchases, additional energy savings measures, and improvements in residential recycling. CHNW knows that if the recycling system is more convenient (containers close to where they are needed) and more materials are accepted, more students will participate.
Lessons Learned
- Prioritize the projects and break them down into manageable pieces. Trying to analyze every system at once was not very effective. It was overwhelming for a small organization not used to taking on things of this scope. Starting out that way was unnerving to some people for a period of time and made them feel as though they were losing.
- It is important to understand that cultural change is an ongoing process, and management needs to be consistent in its approach to succeed. Not everyone shares the view that the world is in trouble and that we need to help save it. Not everyone wants to understand that view or make it their first priority. To change the culture, continual training is necessary.
- CHNW found there is great value in having a champion to get people motivated, someone who has the responsibility of implementing the vision, whose job is to challenge employees and work with them to find better and more appropriate products and ways of doing things. As this person starts to do things and lead by example, others see what the company is trying to accomplish. Then they have ideas and make meaningful contributions toward the common goal.
Source
Interview with Gary Meddaugh, President, in March 2001 and phone comments from Dan Potter, Vice President, in May 2001.
This case study was prepared by Kent Snyder for the Oregon Natural Step Network in May 2001 and updated by the Network in October 2002.