University officials met Monday to discuss Marquette's progress in becoming environmentally friendly. It is important to continue brainstorming initiatives to "go green" and to recognize the achievements that the university has already made. But as new ideas are brought up, we urge the university to move forward to ensure that ideas become a reality.

First, the accolades. New campus buildings have been constructed from recycled materials, and Zilber Hall, Eckstein Hall, Discovery Learning Complex and McCabe Hall will all receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.

Environmentally-conscious building is a notable achievement, especially for a campus like Marquette's that is constantly expanding. We hope the university continues to pursue LEED certification for future construction projects.

But while Marquette has been collecting LEED certifications, other worthy projects have not advanced quite as far.

The university's Renewal Task Force has been around for 10 years and seems to have been exploring single-stream recycling for just as long. A single-stream system would allow student and faculty to put all their recyclables in one container. The university's trash company would then sort the recycling. Such a system has been discussed by both the administration and Marquette University Student Government and would really encourage more students to recycle. We hope that after Monday's meeting, where Whittow said a single-stream system would remove confusion from the current system, the university will finally move ahead on the idea.

On Monday, the Renewal Task Force also discussed the creation of a Web site, which would showcase the university's sustainable projects. This is a simple action that would make the task force more accountable for its actions and allow interested parties to monitor progress.

The university should also harness the ideas developed by its students. John Kristan and Shazia Ali, who ran for MUSG's top spots last month, included support for rooftop gardens on campus buildings as part of their campaign platform. Also, engineering students have worked to develop a plan for an electric LIMO with MUSG funds. The university should pursue both of these ideas at the administrative level as there is clearly a student interest in pursuing these initiatives and they could clearly further Marquette's green status.

Marquette should continue its brainstorming sessions, perhaps making the meetings a more regular event. The more discussion of ideas for a sustainable campus, the more robust Marquette's environmental position will become. But talk is just talk without action. We urge the university to move forward on ideas, like single-stream recycling and student-proposed projects that are already on the table.