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.”