In UCA’s efforts to create a greener and more sustainable community, there have been obstacles put in place due to COVID-19. 

UCA’s Physical Plant is making efforts to develop a greener university “through a comprehensive recycling program, energy conservation practicesand the use of environmentally friendly chemicals,” Construction Manager Kevin Carter said in an informative PowerPoint.  

With a need for more cleaning and disinfecting on campus, there is more chemical waste. “As far as chemicals go, we are using more disinfectant, of course, than we have in the past,” Recycling & Custodial Manager Adam Hensley said. 

As there is a need for more cleaning, there is a need for workers willing to clean and put themselves at risk of the virus. 

“There is definitely a heightened risk, pretty much for everybody, but they’re the ones disinfecting all the surfaces,” Hensley said. “I was pretty concerned early on that that would be more of an issue, but we really didn’t see any large spikes of our people getting sick.”

Unfortunately, even before COVID-19, the university had started cutting staff “because they were projecting that they wouldn’t have as many students in the next few years,” Hensley said. “Once COVID had hit, it pretty much froze any other positions and any people that left or anything else, we couldn’t really replace.”

Many areas of campus have lost 15-30 percent of their staff. The custodial staff at the physical plant had “75 [employees] at one point, and now we’re down to right under 50,” Hensley said. This, in turn, has impacted the workload of present employees. 

In addition, there has been a decrease of recycling around campus. “From a sustainability viewpoint, [COVID-19] has hurt our numbers on recycling because classes have been more online,” Vice President of Facilities Management Larry Lawrence said. “When there’s no people here, we have less trash and recyclables.” 

“I think recycling [at the beginning of the pandemic]  was affected quite a bit because they shut down the Conway Recycling Facility,” Hensley said. Without means to recycle, it just went to the landfill for the months that it was closed.

However, with less people on campus, there has been an opportunity for the university to conserve energy. “When COVID first started, we did adjust the temperatures in the buildings, which was a positive. We were able to save some energy.” 

One sustainability advancement UCA has made is the installation occupancy sensors, which is a “lighting control device that detects occupancy of a space by people and turns the lights on or off automatically, using infrared or ultrasonic technology,” Carter’s PowerPoint said. So, with less people in classrooms, there is less energy being used from lighting.

Despite COVID-19, the university is able to make advancements. “When you upgrade equipment, it’s much more energy efficient. Overtime, we’re making progress,” Lawrence said.