Green Team Southwestern offers $500 Heart of Leadership Award to High School Groups for Environmental Service Projects

Green Team Southwestern, along with Leadership Southwestern and Discipleship Southwestern are offering three Heart of Leadership awards of $500 each to fund high school projects in the following areas: Community Service, Environmental Service, and Church Missions.

If you are involved in high school or church group and are working on a terrific service project, let us hear about it. You may be eligible to receive The Heart of Leadership Award.

We will award $500 to one project in each of the following categories:

* Environmental Service Project
* Community Service Project
* Church Mission Project

For more information or to apply, visit the Heart of Leadership webpage. Materials must be submitted online by February 4, 2011.

5 Southwestern Students Attend AASHE Conference

Five Southwestern College Green Team members recently attended workshops by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) in Denver, Colo.
Students attending the conference were Clint Dick, Spivey; Mark Strecker and Stephen Strecker, Tonkawa, Okla.; Sarah Rommelfanger, Baldwin City; and Autumn East, Royse City, Texas.
Jason Speegle, director of Green Team Southwestern, says it is beneficial for his students to see what other colleges are doing about sustainable living.
“It is good to expose our Green Team students to other people at other colleges,” Speegle says. “There is a world outside of Southwestern College that is trying to progress toward the same goal that we are. It creates a motivation towards a larger sustainable effort. This was a huge educational opportunity.”
According to Speegle, close to 1,000 universities were represented at the conference.
“I thought the size and scale of the AASHE community was amazing,” Mark Strecker says. “I had no idea that North American higher education had such a heavy investment in sustainability. I learned a lot in the way of how to make Southwestern more sustainable and the different paths that can be taken to do so. Overall it was a great experience.”
Joining the Green Team members were Southwestern College assistant professor of biology Rick Cowlishaw and vice president for planning and new programs Steve Wilke.
“The AASHE conference was hectic, but we all learned so much that we can now take to Southwestern College and the Winfield community,” Rommelfanger says. “Events like the AASHE conference are very important and very effective ways to spread cutting-edge knowledge about fields that affect everyone. Sustainability is one of the most important ideas for our time, especially for the current generation of students while the stewardship-oriented perception of a citizen’s social duty is expanding at such a huge rate.”

Green Team Collaborates on Creating a True Community Garden

Green Team Southwestern is collaborating with Winfield High School (USD 465) in the creation of a community garden in Winfield. The community garden will be a sustainable source of fresh produce for the community for years to come. Several Green Team students are currently working with staff from USD 465 in order to prepare the land for next spring's planting season. "If the land is not properly cultivated in the fall, the ground will not produce a good yield of produce in the summer," says Winfield Superintendent Marvin Estes.

Some of the crops produced in the community garden will be sold at local farmers' markets in order to generate income to keep the garden running. Some of the produce will also be available to those volunteers who work the garden throughout the year. However, a large portion of the produce will be donated to the local Winfield food pantry in order to provide nourishment for the needy residents of Cowley County.

Green Team Southwestern was recently awarded a matching grant in the amount of $500 from Kansas Campus Compact. The grant is a part of the Commemmorate Kansas/Serve Kansas program and will help with the expenses of starting the community garden. The Green Team will dedicate the garden on the anniversary of Kansas becoming a state, January 29, 2011.

Be Free to Be Green - Plastic Bags

Southwestern College and the Crew from the KSCW have teamed up to bring you Be Free to Be Green tips on how to save money and care for the planet. This vignette discusses the benefits of using reusable tote bags instead of paper or plastic.

Green Team Southwestern Hosts Speakers in the Green Construction Field

On September 23, Green Team Southwestern hosted Blaine Kohpay and Clint Fiechtlas a part of the annual Lunches with Leaders seminar series. Both Kohpay and Fiechtl shared of their extensive work in the rebuilding process of Greensburg, Kansas following the devastating tornado in May of 2007. They have been instrumental in the reconstruction of at least a dozen buildings in Greensburg and most have been built to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Enviornmental Design) standards.

E. Blaine Kohpay has over a decade of experience as a Construction Administrator, and has extensive experience in the LEED Certification process. He is part of the team helping to rebuild Greensburg, Kansas, having provided construction administration services for the Greensburg Business Incubator (LEED-NC Platinum Certified), the Kiowa County Courthouse (seeking LEED-NC Gold Certification) and the Greensburg Public Works facility (seeking LEED-NC Gold Certification), as well as Kiowa County Commons (seeking LEED-NC Platinum Certification), currently under construction. In addition, Blaine is currently providing construction administration for the City of Wichita Transit Facility (seeking LEED-NC Silver Certification), upgrades for the Kansas Air National Guard at Smoky Hill in Salina (seeking LEED-NC Silver Certification) and the Army Reserve Center in Sinton, Texas (seeking LEED-NC Silver Certification).

Clint Fiechtl, P.E., a mechanical project engineer, is a Senior Associate of Professional Engineering Consultants, P.A., (PEC), a multi-discipline engineering firm located in Wichita. In addition to design and project management, Mr. Fiechtl is involved with management of the Test and Balance Department (TAB) and is a NEBB qualified Building Systems Commissioning Administrator. He is trained for technical commissioning. Prior to joining PEC, Mr. Fiechtl served as a Controls System Specialist at Building Controls and Services, Inc. (BCS), and as a project manager at a local mechanical contracting firm. He has more than 19 years of mechanical systems experience.

Southwestern College Deets Library Becoming More Environmentally Friendly

The director and staff of the Southwestern College Harold and Mary Ellen Deets Library are seeking out ways to be more environmentally friendly.

“We are trying to take a page from the financial aid department here at Southwestern, they have gone paperless,” says Veronica McAsey, director of the Deets Library. “This triggered something with us. We wanted to see how to handle the consumption of paper in our office and tried out a couple of ideas.”

For Earth Day 2010 (April 22) the library celebrated by not providing paper coffee cups for the day. Its success in encouraging patrons to use reusable cups demonstrated that the library does not need to provide paper coffee cups next year. This will save about 5,000 cups from the landfill and $600 of the library’s budget.

The library also started to use the bookseller Better World Books for some of its book purchases. Sixty-nine used books were bought from Better World Books, which saved these books from the landfill. The purchases also supported world literacy programs with a portion of the sale going to various organizations. Approximately 350 withdrawn library books or donated textbooks were shipped to Better World Books to be sold online or recycled. A portion of the sales funded Worldfund, a Latin American literacy program that the library selected to sponsor.

Be Free to Be Green - Greening Your Dorm Room

Southwestern College and the Crew from the KSCW have teamed up to bring you Be Free to Be Green tips on how to save money and care for the planet. This vignette discusses the tips on how to Green your dorm room.

Building for the Future

As a farmer and a pilot, the earth and sky were important to Norman Hege ’64. “When I’m flying over farms I wish I was down there farming. When I’m farming and I see a plane fly over, I wish I was up there flying. I have a very good life,” he told his family. Norman died in a car accident in 1987, but an endowment established by Keith ’56 and Elizabeth Hege has now ensured that he will be remembered by others who love the land. Flanked by Keith and Elizabeth, Norman’s widow, Phyllis, cut a ribbon to open the Norman Hege Educational Center at Southwestern College’s Floyd and Edna Moore Biological Field Station.

For nearly a decade students have studied an astonishingly diverse array of ecosystems at the 240-acre field station, from tallgrass prairie to the rockbottom Dutch Creek. Faculty taught in the open air, and classes have taken shelter from the elements in an old barn on the property. The Hege Center will change that.The newly-constructed log cabin is a large classroom with access to power for light microscopes, overhead projectors, aquarium pumps, and other scientific instruments. Students can plug in their laptops and work on reports just feet from where they are gathering data. And the center is unique among the college’s facilities: It is completely off the grid, generating its own power using solar panels and a wind turbine. Banks of batteries store up to 20 kilowatt hours of power, and are constantly being recharged by the renewable power sources. A composting toilet (underwritten by Kent and Sharon Olmstead) provides for sanitation needs.

This center, Keith Hege told about 60 guests at the ribbon-cutting, represents the Biblical mustard seed in the college’s goal of sustainable living. “We are planting a little green plant,” he said, “and it will put down roots. And we will watch this little mustard seed grow into something that transcends the college.”


Builders in the Building

The construction of the Norman Hege Education Center brought together the talents and contributions of many Moundbuilders: Jeff Camp ’82, contractor for construction of the cabin. Brian Robinson ’05 and Justin Cates, Cates Supply, construction of wind turbine. Alex Gottlob ’09, trees and landscaping.

(Excerpted from remarks by Patrick Ross, head of the Division of Natural Sciences)

Before us stands a simple log cabin, perhaps not too much larger than the sod houses that the early settlers might have built. Our hope is that this cabin will become an important nexus for the study of the ecology of the prairie landscape that surrounds us. But it means even more to us than that. Now more than ever we need to reach out to the next generation to help them learn about the delicate interlocking nature of the prairie ecosystem and all of Earth’s ecosystems. If there is one idea that all of my ecology students learn, it is that you can’t change just one thing. All life is interconnected. All actions are interrelated.

In one sense this lesson teaches us some terrible truths about the devastating environmental impacts that have been produced by some of our species’ foolish missteps. But from this idea also comes hope, a hope that small changes for the good can result in an interwoven cascade of effects with far-reaching consequence for the betterment of our home and the species that we share it with. Small changes like the building of this cabin.

Green Team Southwestern Welcomes New Students

As the 2010-2011 school year has begun, Southwestern College welcomed one of the largest incoming classes in recent memory. Green Team Southwestern is excited to welcome 9 new students to the team, bringing the total number of students to 17. The plan for the growth of Green Team Southwestern is to add 8-12 new students each year.

The new members of Green Team Southwestern include Stephen Strecker (Tonkawa, OK), Erica Dunigan (Hutchinson, KS), Ashley LeJuerrne (Wichita, KS), Autumn East (Royse City, TX), Christian Pressley (Andover, KS), Trinity Brooks (Stillwater, OK), Joey Tran (Arlington, TX), Maggie Collett (Wardsville, MO), and Daniel Van Sickle (Maize, KS).

Green Team Southwestern Vision

Recognizing that the majority of private colleges are located in rural areas and are the economic drivers of their communities, Green Team Southwestern serves to create a model of sustainable living that will transform both higher education and the people it serves.

Green Team Southwestern Mission

Green Team Southwestern is a service-learning program dedicated to responsible citizenship and environmental sustainability.

Mission Interpreted: The Green Team is dedicated to:

• Creating a living laboratory of sustainable learning in which all members of the community develop healthy habits of environmental stewardship.
• Implementing organizational changes that result in carbon neutrality.
• Infusing the broader communities of Winfield, Cowley County and beyond with the principles and practical applications of environmental sustainability.

Be Free to be GREEN - Energy Efficient Lighting

Southwestern College and the Crew from the KSCW have teamed up to bring you Be Free to Be Green tips on how to save money and care for the planet. This vignette discusses the benefits of using energy efficient lighting in your home.

Second Cowley County Electronics Recycling Event

The Cowley County Conservation District along with Cowley County K-State Research & Extension, The City of Winfield, Sunflower RC&D, Winfield Correctional Facility, ABCDE, USD #465, and Southwestern College Green Team combined resources to conduct the second of two Cowley County Electronic Waste Recycle Days August 28, 2010 at the Agri-Business building in Arkansas City. Over an entire semi-truck trailer was filled (35 pallets) with electronics that Cowley County residents brought to be recycled.

Electronic waste is an ever-growing product, that when recycled, keeps toxins out of landfills, preserves our natural resources, and provides jobs through recycling centers and packaging facilities. In order to conserve natural resources and the energy needed to produce new electronic equipment from virgin resources, electronic equipment can be refurbished, reused, and recycled instead of being thrown into a landfill. E-waste contains valuable materials such as gold, silver, copper, steel and plastic. It makes sense to recycle these materials instead of throwing them into our landfills.

Items that were accepted included televisions, computers, mice, keyboards, cameras, microwaves, DVD and VCR players, cell phones, MP3 players, just to name a few.

Green Team Excels in National RecycleMania Competition

Southwestern College’s Green Team participated for the second year in RecycleMania, a national collegiate competition focused on waste minimization and recycling. In the Per Capita Classic, which measures the weight of recycled material per student, Southwestern placed 61st out of 346 colleges and universities, just edging out the University of North Carolina, Notre Dame, and Brown University. The Per Capita Classic champion was the United States Coast Guard Academy. Among Kansas institutions, Southwestern was the Grand Champion, the winner of the Per Capita Classic, and had the best results for several targeted recyclables: bottles and cans, paper, and corrugated cardboard. The other Kansas schools that participated (and trailed SC) are Kansas State University, the University of Kansas, Bethany College and Johnson County Community College.

Kansas Envirothon Returns to SC Campus

Southwestern College in Winfield was the host for the 2010 Kansas Envirothon on Wednesday, May 12.

Holton High School was tops among 14 schools represented.

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. Each school is allowed to send one team of five high school students to the state competition. Holton High School will represent Kansas at the Canon Envirothon in Fresno, Calif. The current issue for the 2010 Kansas competition is "Protection of groundwater through urban, agricultural and environmental planning."

“One of the reasons that Southwestern College offered to host the Kansas State Envirothon competition was to demonstrate that environmental responsibility is one of our institutional priorities,” says Jason Speegle, Green Team director at Southwestern College. “The Envirothon has a long tradition of environmental based scholastics. Southwestern has great facilities and great students, faculty, and staff. The ability to bring all of those elements together makes for a great event.”

Southwestern faculty members Rick Cowlishaw, Charlie Hunter, and Pat Ross participated in the event by being presenters. Cowlishaw and Hunter discussed current issues with the students while Ross discussed aquatics.

“The Kansas Envirothon was great this year,” Speegle says. “It was somewhat easier for us to plan the logistics since this was our second year to host the event. We were also able to interact with the Cowley County Conservation District in the planning and bring in more quality presenters from the area than we did last year.”

SC Graduation Regalia Is Environmentally Friendly

Southwestern College Commencement was Sunday, May 9, and SC teamed up with Jostens to use environmentally friendly graduation regalia.

“Our Jostens representative informed us that Southwestern College would be one of the first colleges to use the elements gown exclusively,” say Jason VenJohn, Moundbuilder Market merchandise manager.

This gown carries a strong environmental story while preserving the elegance and tradition of graduation. The acetate fabric fiber is made from natural wood sourced exclusively from renewable managed forests. Acetate fabric is proved to decompose in soil within a year.

The gown contains an Eco-Zip coil zipper with tape and teeth made from 100% recycled PET. Earth-friendly plastic gown packaging is proven to decompose in a landfill within a reasonably short period of time. It contains ECM BioFilms material that facilitates the decomposition process.

In addition, Jostens donates $1 to an environmental sustainability project for every gown purchased.

Southwestern Senior Helps Winfield Business "Go Green"

Several businesses in Winfield are now more energy efficient thanks to the efforts of one Southwestern College senior.

Cassi Reimer, Ulysses, decided for her senior Leadership project to share her energy efficient knowledge with some Winfield businesses. She performed home energy audits at Long & Neises CPA, Buterbaugh & Handlin, Hometown True Value, Moonshadow Bookstore, Winfield Chamber of Commerce, the office of Dr. Alan Marcotte DDS., and State Farm Insurance.

Along with the energy audit, Reimer also checked the water flow out of the faucets and toilets, and checked for recycling. “After the audit, I calculated how much energy and money they would save if they made some green improvements, for example changing all their light bulbs to energy efficient ones,” Reimer says. “Then, I gave them the results and asked if they wanted to make any changes. I told each of them if they bought the supplies, I could provide the manual labor.”

Three of the businesses accepted Reimer’s offer.

• Moonshadow Bookstore had Reimer caulk the windows and seal the door to reduce the airflow.

• Hometown True Value asked Reimer and her volunteers to remove an old air conditioning unit. They removed it and replaced the hole which will reduce heat loss and excess air flow.

• Buterbaugh & Handlin installed a hot water heater jacket and sealed socket/light switch gaps behind the plates to reduce heat loss.
Matt Bradbury, owner of Hometown True Value, liked the ideas that Reimer offered.

“She gave a different perspective to look at,” Bradbury said. “When you’re around the business day-after-day, you don’t realize the changes that can be made. She came in and gave me a fresh new way to look at my business.”

Reimer says that these businesses should begin seeing money savings in their energy bills. “I had big dreams for this project and I am so grateful to these businesses for allowing me the opportunity to help,” Reimer says.

Cowley County Recycles Electronic Waste

The Cowley County Conservation District along with Cowley County K-State Research & Extension, The City of Winfield, Sunflower RC&D, Winfield Correctional Facility, ABCDE, USD #465, and Southwestern College Green Team combined resources to conduct the first of two Cowley County Electronic Waste Recycle Day on April 27, 2010. A second date is planned for August 28 at the Agri-Business building in Arkansas City.

The electronic waste is an ever-growing product, that when recycled, keeps toxins out of landfills, preserves our natural resources, and provides jobs through recycling centers and packaging facilities. In order to conserve natural resources and the energy needed to produce new electronic equipment from virgin resources, electronic equipment can be refurbished, reused, and recycled instead of being landfilled. E-waste contains valuable materials such as gold, silver, copper, steel and plastic. It makes sense to recycle these materials instead of throwing them into our landfills.

The collection site was the Cowley County Fairgrounds from 3pm-7pm on Tuesday, April 27. Items that were accepted included televisions, computers, mice, keyboards, cameras, microwaves, DVD and VCR players, cell phones, MP3 players, just to name a few. A complete list can be found at www.cowleycountyconservationdistrict.com. A total of 1.5 semi-truck trailers worth of electronics were collected to be recycled. Twelve students from Southwestern College volunteered during the afternoon.

The program was free to Cowley County households, government agencies, and educational institutions, but a $1 minimum donation was requested to cover the cost of transportation to the Rice County recycling facility. Businesses were also allowed to bring items, but were assessed a $5 fee for each monitor and television. All items will be secured and electronically cleaned, so by recycling e-waste through our program you are assured there will not be any security issues.

The E-Waste program is funded in part by a grant from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and Rice County Recycling and E-Waste with the support of the Solid Waste Management Reduction Initiative through Sunflower RC&D.

Sweep Winfield a Success

The city of Winfield is cleaner following the first “Sweep Winfield” event.
On Saturday, April 17, Southwestern College students teamed up for the first-year event, “Sweep Winfield,” organized by Kate Norton, assistant women’s soccer coach and Green Team Southwestern member. After two hours of combing the streets of Winfield, seven teams consisting of approximately 70 SC students collected more than 1,125 pounds of waste, and 25% of it was recyclable.
“It was exciting to see the number of students that participated along with the enthusiasm and competitive spirit that they brought,” says Jason Speegle, director of Green Team Southwestern. “It’s not glamorous, but the students made it fun and it benefits Winfield by disposing more than 1,100 pounds of waste.”
The groups participating in the event from the college were the Green Team, athletic training, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s soccer, football, Leadership Southwestern, and Phi Delta Theta. The team that collected the most garbage would be declared the winner. The golf team won first prize by collecting 254 pounds of garbage. Women’s soccer finished second (228 pounds of garbage) and football finished third (197 pounds of garbage).
Each member of the winning SC golf team won a prize bag filled with goodies donated by numerous Winfield businesses. Sponsors included Braum’s, Posh, Sodexo Education, Cuppa Jo’s, City of Winfield, Gottlob Lawn & Landscaping, Salon Avant, Gambino’s, Health World, and Winfield Recreation Commission.
“I thought the event went really well,” Norton says. “The participants had fun and were very competitive. I hope this becomes an annual Winfield event.”

Earth Day Celebration 2010

The Southwestern College Green Team kicked off their Earth Day celebration with “Sweep Winfield” on Saturday, April 17.
“Sweep Winfield” took place at several areas around Winfield. Teams were in the vicinity of College, First, Main, and Sixth Streets.
According to Kate Norton, assistant women’s soccer coach and Green Team member, the goal of “Sweep Winfield” was not just to pick up trash in Winfield but to also bridge the gap between the community of Winfield and the community of Southwestern College.
Numerous Southwestern College organizations participated in “Sweep Winfield” including the Green Team, athletic training, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s soccer, football, Leadership Southwestern, and Phi Delta Theta.
Winfield business sponsors for the event included Braum’s, Posh, Sodexo Education, Cuppa Jo’s, City of Winfield, Gottlob Lawn & Landscaping, Salon Avant, Gambino’s, Health World, and Winfield Recreation Commission.
Several additional events commemorating Earth Day include:
• Monday, April 19 at 7 p.m.—Home energy rating presentation in the Southwestern College Welcome Center. SC grad and certified residential energy rater Scott Kuhn will present.
• Tuesday, April 20 at 7 p.m.—Renewable energy information session on the Cole Mound Plaza (Mossman 101 in case of rain). Brian Robinson from Cates Supply will present.
• Wednesday, April 21 at 6:30 p.m.—Hope for Creation simulcast in Beech 104, presented by blessedearth.com. At 7 p.m., a nature hike around the SC campus beginning on the Warren Apartments lawn. Larry Schuster will guide the tour.
• Thursday, April 22—Earthday is plant-a-tree day at the college.
• Saturday, April 24—Creation Care Day, 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The SC Green Team will host area high school students for workshops on Biblical views on creation care.
• Tuesday, April 27—Electronic waste recycling collection at the Winfield fairgrounds from 3 to 7 p.m.

SC Green Team Receives Grant Through Kansas Campus Compact

The Southwestern College Green Team educated Winfield High School students on Thursday, Jan. 28 regarding the importance of sustainable living.
The Green Team spoke at Winfield High School Thursday morning in the auditorium as a part of the Commemorate Kansas/Serve Kansas mini-grant that was awarded through Kansas Campus Compact.
Sydnee Nelson, Clay Center; Timothy Henry, Caldwell; Sarah Rommelfanger, Baldwin City, and Tendai Kwaramba, Zimbabwe, students from the Southwestern College Green Team that developed and gave the educational presentation on sustainability in Kansas. The scope of the presentation included the history of Kansas as a leader in agriculture and sustainable living in the past as well as practical suggestions for sustainable living now and into the future.
The project culminated with a presentation on renewable energy by Brian Robinson and Justin Cates of Cates Supply at the Southwestern College biology field station. Cates Supply recently installed a 2.5-kilowatt solar array and a 200-watt wind turbine which provide all of the power for the Biology Field Station. The students were allowed to tour the biology field station with Rick Cowlishaw, Southwestern College assistant professor of biology, and see firsthand how renewable energy functions.
The Commemorate Kansas/Serve Kansas program was created to promote higher education participation in activities that foster a greater appreciation for Kansas history and promote opportunities for students, faculty, and community members to do measurable, meaningful, sustainable service to their communities in support of the Kansas State Historical Society’s efforts to commemorate the 149th Kansas Day. Six other institutions participating in the Commemorate Kansas/Serve Kansas program were Butler Community College, Fort Hays State University, Garden City Community College, Hutchinson Community College, Kansas State University, and Seward County Community College. “These creative projects are an indication that students and faculty at Kansas colleges and universities are aware of the importance of connecting their education with a civic purpose that serves all of Kansas’ citizens,” said Matthew Lindsey, executive director for Kansas Campus Compact
The Southwestern biology field Station is located on 240 acres of land approximately 10 miles north of Winfield. It will provide the students with a combination of Kansas’s past and present (agriculture) and its future (renewable energy generation).

Southwestern Reduces Electricity Use by 7%

Southwestern College has had a good year in the reduction of greenhouse gases.
“We calculated our carbon footprint (the amount of energy used on the SC campus) and just looking at the amount of electricity and natural gas, electricity being the biggest generator of greenhouse gases for the campus, we’ve reduced the amount of electricity in 2008-09 by 7%, compared to the baseline year of 2006-07,” says Rick Cowlishaw, assistant professor of biology at Southwestern College.
Cowlishaw and some of his students went back and compared the utility bills from Southwestern since 1999. They calculated all the electricity and natural gas used per year. The group then analyzed the data and the variation from year-to-year. They took into account the weather patterns during those years, some years being colder or hotter and so the college was using more fuel to heat or cool the college. Cowlishaw says there was about a 4% variation between 1999-2007 in terms of fuel use with year-to-year temperature differences explaining about 80% of that variation. This suggests that the 7% decrease in electricity use amounts to real changes in energy use on campus and not just a weather-related phenomenon.
“Southwestern actually had another consulting group calculate the amount of electricity and natural gas used in 2006-07 and there number was very much like our number,” Cowlishaw says. “Our numbers matched which gave us confidence that we were doing this right. We figured 2006-07 would be our baseline year because of the independent verification of the carbon footprint estimate for that year. It was also chosen so we could capture the effects of many energy-saving projects on campus that were carried out during and after that year. The carbon footprint for this year and that year is what we would measure against in future years and to determine whether we are reducing or increasing the amount of electricity we are using.”
Sodexo, the company in charge of plant facilities, conducted several projects to help in this effort. They have replaced all the old light bulbs on campus with energy efficient bulbs; changed out the older boilers with more energy efficient boilers; and have changed out old air-conditioning units with more energy efficient ones. Cowlishaw says these measures do cost money but will eventually pay for themselves.
“Look, we are an old school with lots of old equipment but I think Sodexo is being very good about going through the college and recognizing these easy things we can be doing and I think they have done things that have a significant effect on our footprint,” Cowlishaw says.
Southwestern College is a member of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment and has recently submitted their plan of action for 2010-11. According to Cowlishaw, Southwestern aims for a carbon footprint reduction of 20% by 2015.