SC Greenhouse gets New Tankless Hot Water System

A hot water heater at the greenhouse failed, and the heater for the other building was rusty, and near failure, too. SC got the funding to make a nice little green project out of the situation. For just about the same money, scrap piping is being used from Shriwise and a new tankless water heater that will serve both greenhouse buildings. The unit is very efficient, and best of all, will only make hot water when needed.

Recycling bins, Electricity and New Furniture

For residence life we provide recycling bins for all of the residence halls. All of the residence halls have recycling and my hall staff encourages recycling through events and competitions. Some of the hall staff also helps with the collection of recyclables. We have recently joined the Green Team for the recycle mania.

As for electricity, during semester breaks (winter break, spring break, or summer break) the hall staff checks to make sure that students have everything unplugged, thermostats turned down, and blinds closed. We also check to make sure that students don’t replace the water saving shower heads in their bathrooms. The hall staff also helps me remind students not to leave their windows open in some of the buildings that have AC units that run constantly if windows are left open. We also do health and safety inspections once a semester where we look for issues including overloaded outlets and unauthorized appliances.

I’ve mentioned in the past on the Jinx Tale “points of pride” that we have recycled and donated old unused furniture last summer. Again this summer we recycled 2460lbs of metal bed frames out of Wallingford Hall. When purchasing new furnishings for the residence halls I always strive to choose “Green” products. Our most recent furnishing addition was 150 new beds in Wallingford hall. They were purchased from a company called KLN Steel. KLN uses recycled products and environmentally preferable products, KLN has been declared "GREEN" by GSA and is listed in GSA's Environmental Products and Services Guide. KLN is the only furniture manufacturer on federal GSA schedules that has earned the environmental designation. KLN earned this designation through its initiatives in recycling, packaging, green fuels, land use and VOC reduction. You can find out more about this manufacturer’s environmental initiatives at http://www.kln.com/Environmental/index.aspx

New Laptops and Reforestation

The new laptops for freshmen, returning juniors, and faculty this year will have a reforestation effort attached to them. For every unit we purchase, Dell will plant a tree. This was an added value to the laptop decision this year. At this point we are looking at a total of around 380 units.

SC Hosts 2009 Kansas State Envirothon Competition

Eighteen high schools from around the state traveled to Southwestern College on Wednesday, May 13 for the 2009 Kansas Envirothon. The entire competition took place at the SC biology field station, north of Winfield.

The Kansas Envirothon is an outdoor, environmental high school competition where students learn and are tested on soils, forestry, wildlife, aquatics, and a current issue. The winner of the Kansas Envirothon will represent Kansas at the Canon Envirothon national competition.

“I think it is very exciting that many high schools around the state of Kansas are beginning to teach environmental care,” says Jason Speegle, director of Green Team Southwestern. “It is a vital part of our society, and teenagers and college students will be the ones to lead our country in a cultural shift toward environmental sustainability. Southwestern College and the Green Team are thrilled to be hosting the Kansas Envirothon this year and hope to be very involved with the event for years to come.”

The current issue for the 2009 Kansas competition is “Biodiversity in a Changing World.” Southwestern College professors Charles Hunter and Rick Cowlishaw educated the students in this current issue during their time at the SC biology field station.

Each county is allowed to send one team of five high school students to the state competition. Participating high schools and counties included: Hiawatha (Brown), Clay Center (Clay), Pittsburg (Crawford), Wilson (Ellsworth), Hill City (Graham), Holton (Jackson), Northern Heights (Lyon), Hillsboro (Marion), Valley Heights (Marshall), Council Grove (Morris), Centralia (Nemaha), Rock Creek (Pottawatomie), Riley County (Riley), Salina South (Saline), Linn (Washington), Neodesha (Wilson), and either Wathena or Troy High School (Doniphan).

The Canon Envirothon competition will be held Aug. 2-8 in Asheville, N.C.

SC Participates in RecycleMania

Southwestern College recently participated in a 10-week nationwide competition called RecycleMania. SC recycled nearly 21,000 pounds of cardboard, paper products, plastic, aluminum, glass, steel, and food products.

“I thought this would be a good way to set benchmarks in order to determine how much Southwestern actually recycles and to measure how much waste the college produces,” says Jason Speegle, director of Green Team Southwestern. “In years to come, we hope to take steps that will allow us to recycle more and waste less. This competition shows us how to measure our progress in both areas.”

According to the RecycleMania Web site (www.recyclemaniacs.org), RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities.

More than 500 colleges and universities entered the competition. SC entered its name into three separate competitions during RecycleMania.

The first competition is called the Grand Champion division which measures the amount of trash that a campus produces versus the amount of recycling collected. SC finished 110th out of 206 schools with a cumulative recycling rate of 25.04% of its waste.

The second competition was called the Per Capita Classic in which the amount of recycling collected is measured per person on campus. SC finished 151st out of 293 schools with a recycling rate of 10.42 pounds per person (Kansas State finished 214th).

In the final Waste Minimization competition, schools measured how much waste (trash + recyclables) it produced per person. SC finished 63rd out of 148 schools with 41.59 pounds of waste per person.

SC Students Help Rebuilding Efforts in Greensburg, KS

The Campus Council on Ministry (CCOM) at Southwestern College took 15 students for a spring break mission trip to Greensburg.

“There are so many choices these students could have done for fun during spring break,” says Ashlee Alley, director of campus ministry at Southwestern. “I am excited that students want to spend their break in service to others.”
Greensburg was hit by a devastating F-5 class tornado May 4, 2007. Following that tornado, the leaders of Greensburg decided to bring back the town in a completely sustainable way.

Jason Speegle, director of Green Team Southwestern, and two of his students also went on the mission trip. The entire group received a tour of the green buildings that have been built in Greensburg.

According to Alley, the whole group worked with the leaders of Mennonite Housing, a group that does rebuilding following a natural disaster.
“We tried to help them in any way we could. They are the crew leaders for the project,” Alley says.

Winfield native and Southwestern College student Alex Gottlob donated seven trees that the students planted during the trip.
The students left Saturday, March 14, and returned Thursday, March 19. While in Greensburg, they lodged at the Greensburg United Methodist Church.