"Sustainability" has become a buzzword lately, and unlike most new fad words -- "gastropub" and "carbon-neutral" come to mind, I actually like the word, and the concept.

I like it because it goes beyond environmentalism and into a broader concept: is what we do sustainable? Maybe I should tell the next person who asks me, "are you a greenie?" that I am a "sustainabilist."

It's not a surprise, coming on the heels of the state opening its first sustainability office, that the University of Maryland is making a major push for a greener campus. Among the goals, according to a press release:

• Reducing energy consumption system-wide by 15 percent and greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020 per Governor Martin O'Malley's EmPOWER Maryland initiative and Climate Change Commission recommendations as a way to save taxpayers money, reduce stress on Maryland's energy markets, and improve the environment;

• Crafting and enacting new policies for capital projects, human resources, and procurement to achieve these objectives;

• Conducting audits of greenhouse gas emission for all USM institutions and using best practices to reduce these emissions;

• Developing a system-wide strategy for campus sustainability and energy efficiency, including "green" building guidelines and sustainability benchmarks for all new construction and major facility renovations;

• Refocusing and strengthening instructional and research programs dealing with environmental sustainability and climate change;

• Bringing the expertise of USM's institutions to bear in addressing Maryland's three-part challenge of Chesapeake Bay restoration, growth, and climate change.

It's no surprise, either, that the school's chancellor, William Kirwan, tapped Don Boesch for the job of sustainability czar. 

Boesch is not only the longtime president of the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science, which has labs in Frostburg, Solomons Island and Horn Point, but he is also an important part of Baystat, the governor's initiative to apply numerical goals to reduce pollution. The affable New Orleans native has long been  a fixture not only in Maryland environmental circles but also in bay policy-making. (I'd call him an elder statesman, but he might get mad at me.)