Correction: A new version of this story has been posted due to a factual error. The Justice regrets the error.Janna Cohen-Rosenthal '03 filled the new position of sustainability coordinator last March after Brandeis added its signature to the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, which urges universities to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions and research climate stability.

Cohen-Rosenthal has been working with Bill Bushey, Brandeis' energy manager, on several sustainability efforts, including the project to reduce the usage of bottled water on campus.

In an e-mail to the Justice, Bushey explained that "the sustainability program's focus areas include but are not limited to: energy and water conservation; waste minimization; recycling; sustainable building and landscape design; student, faculty, and staff commuting; and procurement of Green products."

Cohen-Rosenthal will also lead the campus Sustainability Team and secure resources, including students, faculty and staff, to achieve goals, Bushey wrote.

She is currently working on a project to increase the recycling rate on campus.

"When I started, we had the opportunity to switch to single-stream recycling. With this type of recycling, the recycling does not have to be sorted between paper and cans and bottles; it can all just be put together," she said.

"The recycling is incredibly cheaper than throwing stuff away, so the University is very committed. In fact, it costs 80 percent less per ton to recycle than it does to throw things away."

She is also involved on a project called Eco Reps, in which one student per quad becomes the point person for energy use, sustainability and recycling. The students will be paid for three hours of work a week and will do outreach energy conservation programs. The Campus Sustainability Initiative has posted a job description of Eco Reps on their website and is currently hiring for the position., she said.

Bushey said Cohen-Rosenthal will also work closely with Environmental Studies classes and other groups and committees that focus on sustainability on campus.

Cohen-Rosenthal also said all the public cluster computers will be updated to go into sleep mode, and she is working on a program to conserve energy on computers on campus.

Other programs include a residence energy conservation competition between the first-year quads and the use of Zipcars to reduce the number of cars on campus.

Cohen-Rosenthal will also work extensively on reducing the distribution and availability of bottled water on campus. According to a recently updated overview of sustainability efforts by Dining Services, bottled water has been eliminated from all campus dining catering menus as well as from the main retail food court. The overview also states that Nalgene bottles will now be sold in the Provisions on Demand Market in order to provide students with alternatives to buying bottled water.

Cohen-Rosenthal explained that the sustainability efforts to reduce the use of bottled water on campus will focus on creating more options to help eliminate the need for bottled water rather than focus on eliminating bottled water outright from campus. For example, every student will be given a reusable water bottle, which will be handed out this week, except to first-year students, who have already received theirs.

Cohen-Rosenthal said the campus tap water that will be provided in Brandeis dining halls and water fountains comes from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and is healthful and clean.

President Reinharz, who has been working on developing and implementing a policy to ban the sale of bottled water on campus, wrote in a campus-wide e-mail last Monday that "the production, transport and disposal of bottled water are wasteful, energy-intensive and polluting."

On Reinharz's request, Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy will convene a committee of students, faculty and staff to review the use of bottled water on campus and submit a report to Reinharz by mid-October.

Correction: In the original story, the details about how and when students would be hired for Eco Reps was not finalized. There is actually a job description for Eco Reps posted on the Campus Sustainability Initiative website, and they are now hiring.