Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Entertains Questions at SU

Today, I was incredibly fortunate to see current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speak at Syracuse University. She presented an hour-long Q&A with the Dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, James Steinberg, her former Deputy Secretary of State. Throughout the presentation, Secretary Clinton answered questions covering topics from American aid to developing nations, to how to promote human rights worldwide, and provided advice to students seeking a career in public service. The highlight, however, came from two questions regarding sustainability – one on energy diplomacy, and the other on international environmental protection.

Secretary Clinton at SU's Hendricks Chapel with Dean Steinberg

Early on in the program, Secretary Clinton was asked about how our nation was working to address future issues in the global political economy. She discussed how she implements the QDDR, the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Democracy Review, which was based on a similar program that has been used by the Pentagon for years. The program is essentially to look down the road, four years ahead, and figure out what the potential key points of diplomacy will be. One of her main examples front the first ever QDDR? Energy.

Energy diplomacy is important – it affects our politics across the world. For example, if Europeans are dependent of Russian natural gas, then they will oppose any worldwide treaties that would affect Russia’s ability to produce this gas. We saw this years ago during the 1973 Oil Crisis – we supported Israel politically and militarily, so the nations of OPEC, which were mostly in the Middle East and opposed Israel, decided to cut our supply of oil.

What Secretary Clinton pointed out is that there aren’t many people with expertise in energy diplomacy. She’s recruited a whole bunch to help steer our nation in the right direction, but there needs to be more experts on the topic. This doesn’t mean, however, that we aren’t still making progress. In fact, we just signed a momentous transboundary agreement with Mexico regarding oil drilling in the Gulf, following the BP oil spill of 2010.

Later on in the talk, Mrs. Clinton was asked about her thoughts on our worldwide environmental policy following our celebrations of the 42 annual Earth Day yesterday. Clinton described herself as a “perennial optimist,” and reminded us that while we are making progress, the problem isn’t just going to magically disappear. She acknowledged that there has not in fact been a big climate deal made in the Obama administration’s first years, but reminded us that those years did coincide with an enormous financial crisis. During a time of economic downturn, the front-end costs of environmental sustainability might have seemed a little lofty, but she was pretty confident that it would have been a worthwhile investment in the long-term.

Secretary Clinton proceeded to explain that she was very confident in the future of our world’s environment following the recent conference in Copenhagen. In fact, the summit resulted in the first agreement in which developing nations agreed to climate change measures. Up until now, the attitude had basically been: “It’s not our problem. The developed nations caused it. Let us do what they did to get on their level, and then we’ll make change.” However, that’s all changing. Following further work at Cancun and Durban, Secretary Clinton is confident, and excited to see the work that continues at Rio 2020. In other news, the USA has also officially joined the Clean Air and Climate Coalition, which is a group that has grown to include 10 nations and focuses on reducing the emissions of non-CO2 greenhouse gasses.

On the home front, SOS Clinton believes that we are finally taking responsibility and slowly cleaning up our own house. We can’t go after other polluting nations until we get our own problems in check – we need to fix the dangers of hydrofracking, push for other alternative energy sources, and generally be more sustainable. Her diagnosis? We’re getting better.

Recycling 101: 3 Case Studies

During the first breakout session of this year’s Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium (NECSC) Conference, held this year in the Syracuse University Sheraton, presenters from three different colleges and universities presented some case studies about personal experiences with the challenges of campus recycling.

Lorinda Hill: Night Maven

First up was Lorinda Hill, the recycling coordinator at Rockland Community College (RCC), a SUNY school in Suffern, New York. Known for her energy and dedication to her job, she was introduced to the crowd by one of her mottos: “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade – and compost the rest!” Lorinda presented her problem to the group – how can you encourage night students to recycle? She has had major successes with the day students at RCC, using informational signage, integrated learning materials, and her “Recycling Rangers” program, where she awards a sticker to those she sees recycling property. She says that while it may seem childish, it does keep encouraging people. Apparently, both kindergardeners and college students see the value in stickers – and it has been extremely successful.

Ms. Hill explained that despite the success of her daytime recycling campaigns, the smaller yet still significantly sized group of night students were not as environmentally conscious. Her night staff had actually been pulling recyclables from trash bags in order to keep the stream pure, but obviously this couldn’t go on. She had a few theories about why this might be a problem – night students are likely more tired, having often come from a full day of work; they are more distracted; and they are often only on campus for just the one class they are attending, unlike day students, who tend to take multiple classes throughout the day. To get to the root of this problem, Lorinda issued a quick 10-question survey. The results, however, were not necessarily what she expected.

The first question was simple: Do you recycle on campus? Well, most said yes. This conflicted with both the findings of her night staff, as well as with the answers to the following question, “Do you dispose of materials in the proper bin?” to which most replied that they didn’t. Additionally, later questions revealed that students didn’t necessarily know RCC’s recycling policies. Other questions sought to find out if students recycled at home, to see if maybe rebellion against values at home was in fact the cause of the problem.

Though many of the questions provided conflicting or ambiguous answers, some interesting trends could be noticed. The questions revealed that recycling was important to the majority of students – or at least they knew that society expected it to be, since they all generally said they it was important to them. This shows an important shift in the values of our society. Just like children have started to grow up being taught that cigarettes are bad for you and that all people are equal, they too are being taught that our environment is important and we should be taking care of it.

The surveys proved that the students all know that they’re supposed to recycle, they just may not do it for a variety of reasons. Other things often take precedence, or they might just be unaware of recycling polices, as Ms. Hill discovered. Overwhelmingly, however, people did recycle at home. Lorinda and her staff decided that based on these findings, the solution to this problem would be simple: do exactly the same thing they had been doing for the day students. More education, the Recycling Rangers program, and just making people excited and happy to recycle.

Towards Zero Waste: An Initiative for the BU Student Union

Up next were Dennis Carlberg, Sustainability Coordinator, and Sabrina Pashtan, Food Sustainability Coordinator at Boston University, who presented us with the process that has led them and their university to create an environmentally friendly Student Union on its way to achieving zero waste.

Boston University is a large school, with approximately 33,000 students spread across 17 schools and colleges in 329 buildings in the city of Boston, right along the Charles River. There, communication has become a foundation of sustainability. Since the campus sustainability program began in 2009, the coordinators of the program have used the internet to its fullest extent, presenting stunning visual representations of statistics right on their website’s homepage. Additionally, they make constant and consistent use of newsletters sent out to the student body.

Combined with their use of the internet is BU’s “Mug Challenge.” Students are encouraged to always use their own mug at campus/off campus coffee shops, rather than wasteful cardboard cups each time. Most of these shops have actually begun giving small discounts if you use the campus-provided mug, and students have shown an amazing response. The school uses the website Carbonrally.com to take care of the metrics, and three of their schools are in the National Top Five, along with Syracuse University and Notre Dame.

Offline, the school’s environmental-friendliness keeps going strong. The school offers a Green Campus Tour, as well as Green Office certifications for its staff, whose departments compete with an online leader board. On the student side, there is dining hall composting, trayless dining, cardboard boilers, the reusable mug discounts, and more. In fact, they were able to create a shift from 3 to 31% recycling from 2006 to 2012, though now it’s starting to plateau, leading Mr. Carlberg to ask, “What now?”

He decided to start with a “Trash Buddy” program. Trash buddies are little trash cans that sit inside your recycling bins, serving the dual purpose of saving space while reminding the user that there should be much more to reuse than to throw away. Another awesome addition was the placement of “Big Belly” Solar trash compactors around campus, which has reduced trash collection from 14 to 1.6 times per week, saving time, money, and preventing a lot of CO2 emissions that carting away the trash would normally cause. There’s also a program, coordinated with Goodwill, for students to donate anything they would normally have thrown out as the cleaned up to leave for the summer, reducing waste exponentially.

Sabrina Pashtan, Sustainability Coordinator for BU Food Services, stepped up to continue the conversation, focusing on the improvements being made to the George Sherman Student Union, especially in the Food Court. Starting a year or two following the introduction of a sustainability program to the university as a whole, the staff in the Student Union began to receive recycling training, to improve sorting of recyclables and compostables in the back-of-house. Next, compostable tableware was added as an option. But the biggest change came next.

The Union was soon renovated, and 5 sorting stations were added which containing slots for recycling, landfill (trash), and a double slot for compost, to emphasize how much can actually be composted. To help students learn the ropes of these sustainable practices, a “Green Team” of student volunteers who help out incoming freshman during the first few weeks of each year. To keep improving the Student Union, a water bottle filling station was added, and reusable tableware became an option for in-house dining. Condiments, from ketchup to soy sauce, are now served in bulk, and a reusable to-go container program was added to reduce the use of styrofoam and cardboard. Overall, this has resulted in a Green Restaurant certification for the Union, and diversion rate of over 75%!

They’re not stopping there. The success BU has had in the Student Union has caused staff and students alike to ask if it can be spread elsewhere. So now, the same principles governing the Union staff now apply to the Catering staff. All catering events are now waste-free, with the wait staff trained to sort materials while they clean. For non-staffed events, there is a zero-waste pickup program in place. The university could not be happier.

University Recycling: Engaging Students Through Creative Programming

The third and final presentation of the afternoon came from Emily Ball, a Masters Candidate at Clarkson University. Emily works as an intern for Clarkson’s Sustainability Division, and is in charge of their recycling campaign. Emily discussed with us the various methods she used to improve recycling rates at Clarkson.

Emily’s main plan of action was to increase awareness, and subsequently involvement. She started by teaming up with the other interns and plastering the campus in educational materials, including informational signs on all recycling bins around campus. Clarkson is on a zero-sort system, so deciding between plastic/cans/bottles/paper wasn’t the issue. Instead, it was solely a problem of getting students to recycle rather than throw things in the trash.

Ball knew that she had to make recycling easy, so students could get involved and become enthusiastic about it. She tried to get bins out to the students, but ended up having limited success with this initiative, since she had to distribute them by hand on a weekend. She had some success, however, getting funding for three new outdoor recycling bins to be placed around campus, which came with consistent, professional posters to alleviate confusion.

Emily’s biggest success, however, came from the “Recycled Molly” program. These “Mollys” were clear plastic molds of human shapes, made from cellophane and packing tape, filled with recyclable materials. These Mollys were placed around campus in highly visible areas, decked in signs with educational materials. Ball found extreme success in this program, since students were intrigued and amused by the statues, which often took recognizable shapes, such as that of (former) Broncos Quarterback Tim Tebow in his kneeling position. Ball looks to continue with visual pieces like these.

Chief Jake Edwards at NECSC Conference 2012

Today is the start of the annual Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium Conference, being conveniently held this year at the Sheraton at Syracuse University! This morning, leaders in sustainability from college and university campuses all across the northeastern United States filed into the Regency Ballroom at the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel and Conference Center for the first event of the day, a panel with Presidents of a few local universities - SUNY Empire State, RIT, Onondaga Community College, and our neighbor, ESF’s own Cornelius Murphy - who sat down to discuss a variety of sustainability topics, and how they have related to their work at their respective universities. However, the centerpiece of the day came just around 2 pm, when Chief Jake Edwards, of the Onondaga Nation Council of Chiefs, rose to give his keynote address.

Chief Edwards, who was speaking in the place of Onondaga Faithkeeper Oren Lyons, who was called to important business in Washington DC, has long been an advocate for sustainability and environmental rights. He currently is working for the restoration and preservation of Onondaga Creek and Onondaga Lake, as well as working to prevent hydrofracking in upstate New York and Pennsylvania, as well as promoting general sustainable living.

With his calm, peaceful demeanor, Edwards stepped to the podium and began to greet us with the traditional opening words of his people. Spoken in Onondagan, the greeting is meant to bring all those who are gathered together into one mindset. Within its words, the greeting offers thanks to the creator, and a thanksgiving for all things in this world, especially natures gifts. It thanks the creator for all the medicines, the three sisters, the waters (considered the lifeblood) of the earth, the thunder beings who replenish streams, the winds, the sun, grandmother moon, stars, and, interestingly, future generations. The greeting presents the core beliefs of the Onondagan people, which are shared by many indigenous folk – that we must give thanks to the land that has given us so much.

As Chief Edwards went on to explain, there is no word for “environment” in his language. To the Onondagan people, we are all a part of the environment. There is no difference between us and anything else living – we all need sun, water, food, and air, and we need to acknowledge that. According to the Onondagans, we need to share our Mother Earth – the key word being “our.” The word is completely inclusive – it includes every living being. We all share Mother Earth, and we are all responsible to take care of her as we would our kin. Just like an aging relative, it is our duty to take care of Mother Earth. As Edwards said, “There is no distinction between nature and all of us here in this room.” You cannot separate yourself from the air you are breathing. He references a conversation front the President’s panel, reminding us, yet again, that we are the stewards of our environment.

Chief Edwards believes that we are always students of our environment. He believes that we constantly need to learn, and to learn as much and as quickly as we can, so we can start doing as soon as possible. To him, everywhere is a school – he himself considers himself educated at the “university of the longhouse,” where he learned all he knows about his people and Mother Earth. Furthermore, just as we must acknowledge that the Maple is the leader of all trees, and strawberries are the leader of all fruit, we must be the leaders as well, inciting positive change in our attitudes towards our environment. We must learn so we can look ahead to see that our decisions will not negatively impact not only the next generation, but the 7th generation to follow us.

Continuing with his tangents and anecdotes, Chief Edwards related to us the story of the five nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, and the parable of the arrows. One arrow, the story goes, is easily broken. But when you bundle one arrow from each of the nations with the binding of knowledge and the creator’s love, then they cannot be broken. So too we must be like the arrows, bound together by our common bonds. Together, we are much stronger and more effective.

Another anecdote reflected back on the Thanksgiving story, and how the Turkey almost became our national bird. Our forefathers were so happy about all that the turkey and the rest of the land had provided them, they looked for a way to show their gratitude. Instead of the turkey, however, our national bird became the Bald Eagle, since it can soar high above and screech to warn us of impending peril. According to Edwards, with respect to the environment, it has been screeching for a very long time.

According to Chief Edwards, we have a lot of work to do. There is an unwritten, unspoken part of the Wampam Belt Treaty made with George Washington. It says that to live in these woods where the pact was made, one must live in peace with and with respect for the woods and for the natural law, and you must live in balance with our mother, who is now upset with us for disrespecting her. He cites another anecdote, this time about a trip to a hydrofracking site in Pennsylvania. He noticed a bird that was sniffing to see if the water was safe. When Edwards inquired about the situation, he was horrified to learn that those running the operation believed that the environmental benefit of the natural gas acquired, combined with potential profit, outweighs the danger to the bird. Offended, Edwards asked him how he could possibly say that – how can one chose one over the other, when they are both the same and inseparable from each other?

Towards the end of his speech, Chief Edwards focused more directly on the topic at hand. According to him, we have a lot of work to do. How can we be expected to make decisions for future generations if we don’t understand where we are, and where we’ve been? We need to start reading between the lines of textbooks, and finding out the truth about our Earth. We need to learn about the history we share with our Mother in order to prepare the land for future generations. We need to do our part today so that the seventh generation, the generation that will be born when we are one hundred and twenty years old, will have pure water, clean air, and the other necessities of life.We’ve started on the right path, but we need to put our foot down, and demand more of others. We need to kill the notion of focusing on ourselves and our own lifetimes – we’re just passing through, and we’ve got work to do while we’re here. We need to work to nourish our mother back to help, which is an everyday job that will require the cooperation of everyone on the planet.

He closed with a poignant note from the United Nations Earth Charter:

First, do no harm to the Earth.

Shades of Green: Energy Efficiency

A few weeks ago, I attended the Shades of Green conference in Madison County, NY. One of the many topics covered in the breakout session was energy efficiency, covered by Sam Gordon of the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board. The presentation, “Home Energy Efficiency: Save Energy, Save Money, Save the Planet” was a perfect example about how being sustainable benefits you as well as the environment.

The session began with Mr. Gordon presenting a simple concept: The recommended temperature to save energy at home is 68 degrees. Yes, it’s that simple. Keep your home at an incredibly comfortable 68 degrees, and you save energy, and therefore money! He continues on to discuss other simple, easy, DIY energy conservation techniques. Gordon cites his own personal example: By replacing appliances, like his fridge and dehumidifier, and lightbulbs, with more energy efficient brands, as well as practicing basic conservation, such as turning off lights and unplugging appliances that don’t need to be running very often, he cut his home energy use in half. So what does this mean? He can now make his home greener by installing solar panels for electricity, but now he can cut the amount (and therefore the cost) in half, saving himself a ton of money.

Some statistics followed this example: Residential uses make up one fourth of US energy consumption. Another 28% is used for transportation. Within the home itself, 60% of energy is consumed by heating and cooling systems, another 16% for water heating, and 12% each for your refrigerator and lighting/other appliances. An interesting and surprising fact was that your cable box can actually use almost as much energy as your refrigerator – many people don’t realize this, but it’s plugged in, running all day, consuming energy – even when you’re not watching TV. The European Union actually has laws regarding these boxes, enforcing mandator energy efficiency standards.

So how do we encourage this kind of efficiency and sustainability? To those who have learned about it, things like changing to an EnergyStar dryer in your home is a clear win-win situation. However, many don’t realize the benefits to your wallet, and see changes like these as solely good for the environment. According to Gordon, people need to start by making a commitment to energy efficiency. To do this, however, we need to establish social norms that say it’s ok to talk about energy and sustainability in everyday conversation. Mr. Gordon wants it so that you can talk to your neighbors about their home energy efficiency just like you would exchange tips for lawn care or ask them for a good dentist’s phone number.

To do this, National Grid has started a pilot program in the CNY area. Participants receive a smiley or frowny face on their energy bills, which is assigned by comparing their home energy efficiency to that of the average consumer. The central idea behind this goes something like this: People talk about their lawns, because they receive feedback from others on the state of their lawns.Therefore, if people receive feedback about the state of their energy usage, they will talk about it with their neighbors as well. According to Gordon, this feedback serves as both personal and comparative motivation.

Lastly, Mr. Gordon discussed the new CNY Energy Challenge, another pilot program with two main goals: First, to educate CNY residents about energy usage/conservation, and second, to encourage and facilitate the discussion about energy and sustainability topics between neighbors. The program is made up of 80 people, starting first in the city of Syracuse. The people are organized into groups of households, headed by a facilitator, who work as a group and meet biweekly for 12 weeks. As part of the program, the households learn from a five unit curriculum, which covers topics such as: determining your energy intake, household lighting, powering down electronics, heating and cooling systems, and the Home Energy Audit. The units are designed to teach the mechanics of, reasons behind, and benefits of each topic discussed. The program has another benefit – 10% discounts at local stores to buy energy efficient products, in order to act upon what they are learning.

Once again, Mr. Gordon’s presentation has shown exactly what it is that people need to realize: Sustainability, especially energy efficiency and conservation, serves to benefit the environment, your neighborhood, and your wallet.

 

On another note, if you are a SU student and are interested in joining Eco-Reps, please email SUEcoReps@gmail.com.

Eco-Reps Wants YOU!

Are you a Syracuse University Student? Well, then Eco-Reps Wants YOU!

What’s an Eco-Rep?
- A Leader
- An Educator
- An Ambassador

Eco-Reps is a new organization on campus, with the goals of inspiring and educating the student body about environmental and sustainability issues facing our campus, our country, and the world. We aim to do this in a fun, engaging way, through campus-wide programing that is exciting and unique, in addition to being informative and eye-opening. Some examples of past and planned programs include: Water Taste Tests, Tray Waste Audits, Recycled Fashion Show, Junkyard Wars, and more!

As a newly forming organization on campus, we are looking for interested Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors who want to be part of this one of a kind opportunity.

So what makes a good Eco-Rep? An Eco-Rep is a strong leader, organized, outspoken, full of energy, and passionate about sustainability. We’re looking for people of all disciplines, colleges, and majors!

Interested? If you’re ready to go or if you just want to know more, email SUEcoReps@gmail.com!

Caught Green Handed: On Vacation

Myrtle Beach!

After a week of midterms, two days of traveling, and a slightly skeevy Super 8, (which all hopefully explain and justify the lack of recent posts,) I’ve finally arrived in Myrtle Beach, SC, and man, it is NICE! As I sit and look out at the beautiful beach and ocean, it hit me. This is what I’m working to save. Everything I’m doing here, with this blog, and with my life, is so that the world can continue to enjoy places as naturally incredible as these.

Another thing hit me, a little later in the day. As I came back to take a shower, I stumbled upon something I had seen many times, and in various permutations.

Reuse Towels, Don't Waste Water!

Think about the last time you went to a hotel – you definitely saw one of the little signs somewhere in your bathroom that reminded you to save water by reusing your towels. There’s even a universal code for how to tell the cleaning staff what you’re doing – dirty towels on the floor, ones you plan to reuse get hung up. But have you ever considered the logic behind all this? The history? The actual environmental impact? Well, I’ll answer the questions you’ve always had, and maybe even a few you never though of:

Let’s do a little Q &A:

Q: What environmental benefits do these policies have?

A: According to Practically Green, a hotel of 250 rooms operating at 80% capacity can expect to save 220,000 gallons of water each year (and $66,000!). Energy, too, is also saved, since most laundry is done in hot water, and therefore requires a lot of energy to heat it to the desired temperature, as well as to power the washing machines and dryers. Chemicals such as chlorine and bleach are often used as detergents, and a decrease in laundry-doing is equivalent to a decrease in the entrance of these chemicals into our environments. Also, many hotels donate a portion of saved funds to worthy environmental causes, which is just an added bonus.

Q: Why do guests follow these procedures?

A: It’s easy. Well, that’s part of it at least. But think about it – it’s the same as if you were at home, except instead of having to take your own towels out of the bathroom or make them neat, housekeeping will do it for you. But that doesn’t fully explain why people do it. One argument is they know that by saving water, the hotel saves money, and therefore charges them less, so by following the procedures, they’re saving themselves money. A Scientific American article points out an interesting observation to take into account. According to the article, people tend to reuse towels more if they think others are also doing the same. Oh, and let’s not forget pure, good-hearted interest in saving the environment as a reason to reuse hotel towels.

Q: Is it a law that there must be these signs in hotel rooms?

A: Nope. Though it might seem like it, since a vast majority of American hotels have the reusing polices and resulting signs, it is purely the hotel’s decision.

Q: If it’s not a law, why do hotels do it?

A: There’s a few reasons for that. First of all, there’s the obvious reason: to help the environment. Now, we all should hope that environmental sustainability is a core belief and goal of every person and organization in the world, but let’s not be too naive. So why do it? Well, there’s the idea of personal gain. The hotels that participate in these policies have something to gain from them. A hotel has plenty of space, but most of it is front of house, guest-accessible space, with little left for waste management – i.e. trash, recycling, and laundry. Therefore, to successfully manage waste, hotels need to actively and masterfully design their programs. So in terms of towels, if guests reuse even a fraction of the towels they use daily, that’s a whole bunch of towels that the hotel does not need to be washing, and therefore less space, time, personnel, and money they need to dedicate to laundry.Oh, and speaking of money, hotels pay utilities just like everyone else, so each towel they don’t wash saves them money on their water and energy bills, and therefore creates more profit for them. (Special thanks to Waste Management World for help with this one).

Hope you found this informative! Have questions you want answered? Let me know!

ESF President Murphy: “Moving The Needle”

Cornelius B. “Neil” Murphy, has been President of SUNY ESF for just over a decade, but he’s been around Syracuse for much longer than that. With a PhD in Chemistry from SU, and then working his way up the ladder to become President and CEO of Syracuse-based O’Brien & Gere, he’s got plenty of experience in the realm of sustainability and the environment. So when a person with this kind of background gets up in front of a room to talk about sustainability measures, you can be sure that not a sound was made until he finished. To miss even a word of what he spoke would have been considered blasphemy in some circles.

This is exactly what happened last Friday at the Shades of Green Conference in Madison County, NY. President Murphy spoke about “Moving the Needle” – essentially, to make a measurable difference in the sustainability of our world. He believes that is largely the responsibility of higher educationto do so – and such is the goal of

President Murphy Speaks at Shades of Green Conference

ESF. As the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Murphy feels that it is the goal of the university to “educate a new generation of sustainability directors.” Furthermore, he feels that the only way a school can possibly be successful in teaching sustainability is to be sustainable as an institution in the first place. ESF itself needs to research and push boundaries in renewable energy systems, biomimicry, and resource recovery if it ever wants to successfully teach its students to do the same.

To illustrate his points, President Murphy presented the audience with some data to add to their background knowledge. He discussed the world’s energy usage – already at 16.3 trillion watts a year by 2005, and expected to have doubled as early as 2050. Worse, we use over 50,000 gallons of oil each second, and that’s a problem even before we consider greenhouse gases. According to the most recent (the fourth) UN Climate Change Committee, it is now predicted that our climate here in New York is shifting towards that of Miami or Atlanta. Syracuse without snow? A scary thought to most.

His evidence did provide hope, however. According to Ken Zweibel, a leading expert in the field of photovoltaic cell technology, published a paper in 2005 in Scientific American entitled “A Solar Grand Plan” in which he laid out a master plan to end American dependence on foreign oil, with solar power as the major game-changer. One memorable quote that President Murphy chose to present the audience was particularly poignant and enlightening. “The sun produces enough energy in one hour to supply the world’s energy needs for one year.” Imagine if we could take even just a small part of that. Oh wait – we can!

SUNY ESF is trying to do just that. The different initiatives being driven by students, staff, or by combination of the two is on an unimaginable scale. Take an anecdote shared by President Murphy for an example. He had a student whom he learned had been making biodiesel from used vegetable oils with his mother, in their garage, for years before he got into college. The university figured that if the kid could do it at home, the possibilities would endless if he started to do the same thing at the university – except replacing his home-made systems for some high tech (and costly) gadgets that university could offer him to work with. Now, all the formerly diesel vehicles on campus are run on biodiesel made with oil from SU’s dining halls.

It’s not just the people at ESF who are making a difference either – the buildings are environmentally friendly as well. There is a 16 kilowatt photovoltaic cell system on top of Walters Hall, home to the Department of Paper and Bioprocess Engineering, able to produce up to 1.5% of the colleges power per year. Baker Laboratory also has a photovoltaic cell system on its roof, and even some in its blinds, amounting to a total of 23 kilowatts. Murphy has a brilliant justification for these, even outside of their obvious benefits. His philosophy, and that of the college, is that they need to have these systems so that students will ask how they work. Inspiring students to be inquisitive – that’s a huge step towards moving the needle towards sustainability.

However, that only scratches the surface of what ESF has to offer. Like President Murphy said, in order to create tomorrow’s sustainability directors, they need to have everything possible available to them. So in addition to the photovoltaic systems on campus, there are also roof mounted vertical access turbines on top of Illick Hall, which take advantage of the wind tunnel created by the Carrier Dome and a wood chip boiler system that currently saves ESF a whole bunch of money by reducing heating costs each year.

In addition to producing renewable, clean energy, many features of the school’s campus are designed to harness the power of rainwater as well. There is a green roof on top of Walters Hall, which collects rainwater, and serves to cool the building while simultaneously getting more water to recharge into the hydrosystem. Additionally, porous pavement around campus helps do just the same. Centennial Hall, the new residence hall, is made with tons of natural materials, and almost all of the furniture is natural, environmentally friendly wood – just another one of the many ways ESF is staying sustainable.

In keeping with his theme of making sure ESF’s students are ready to lead the world in moving the needle, Murphy reminded us one last time: “If we can’t do it, who can?” So ESF did it. What is it? Well, currently under construction on campus is the state-of-the-art Gateway Building, the latest project on the path to meet the goals of ECN 2015 (ESF Carbon Neutral by 2015), the building will not only serve as the new “gateway” to campus, but will be the most sustainable building on campus, and one of the most sustainable in the world. According one of President Murphy’s anecdotes, the architects of the building offered them increasingly impressive designs, hitting LEED Silver and Gold, which weren’t good enough for the college, and even when they approached him with a design that would attain LEED Platinum, he still told them: “It’s not good enough.” Murphy made it clear – this building would defy expectations, and even LEED itself.

What will make this building so sustainable? Integrated heat and power systems, powered by 3 turbines within the building itself (two are natural gas, one is biodiesel) will drastically reduce energy costs within the building and around campus. A wood chip boiler with a pre-gasifier will create a state-of-the-art steam/thermal heating system – and all of the biomass to be burnt will be created by the Agriforestry department. The building itself will create a whopping 22% reduction in the school’s carbon footprint, an enormous accomplishment. The building will also have a special thermal wall, made of glass that will pre-heat air within the building using natural sunlight to make the heating system even more efficient.

But this isn’t enough for ESF. As has been mentioned before, the students need to be able to ask and understand what is going on. So the building will not just be super sustainable, but students will be able to use all of its various systems to learn about how to do things like it themselves! Oh, but that’s not the end of it. The building will be finished off with green roofs and a series of wetlands, simulating environments starting at saltwater and filtering down to completely freshwater, using just rainwater and snow. These wetlands will provide students with the opportunity to study environments right on campus, instead of having to take time-heavy trips (on busses or in cars that would create tons of greenhouse gasses and CO2) to places miles away where these environments exist naturally.

Oh, and one more thing – the entire project will have paid for itself within 7 years. Impressive, right?

The message of all of this? No more of this “do as I say not as I say, not as I do” crap. It’s generally considered to be terrible parenting, and it should be eradicated from our education system as well. ESF has got it right – how can a university “move the needle” and teach students to make sustainable changes in this world if the ones teaching them haven’t done it themselves? It just makes sense.

Shades of Green in Madison County!

This past Friday, I was fortunate enough to attend the Shades of Green in Madison County conference on sustainability. The conference took place at Morrisvile State College in Madison County, NY, and while the focus was on sustainability measures being implemented in Madison County and the surrounding areas, many of the messages and ideas transcended location. As described by the conference’s website, the purpose of the event was to:

“…help individuals, businesses, and communities advance green initiatives throughout Madison County to achieve more economically viable, sustainable and healthier places to live, go to school, work, shop, and enjoy!  Check out the agenda on the conference program page and register today! Shades of Green in Madison County: A Green Living Experience is an initiative of the Madison County Community Economic Development (CED) Committee.”

The day started off with a presentation by Peter Fleischer, the Executive Director of Empire State Futures (ESF), a coalition of over 50 organizations working towards a more sustainable and equitable New York State, promoting the idea of “Smart Growth” for land use and business expansion. Mr. Fleischer discussed how ESF works to promote sustainable development across the state. One particularly poignant example was ESF’s work with the food industry. According to Mr. Fleischer, New York State annually produces 4.5 billion dollars of food annually. Now, this seems like a huge amount of food, but compared to the $30 billion of food consumed by New York City alone each year, it is clear that New York cannot sustain itself, which led the speech in the direction of discussing what kind of things are done to make this consumption more sustainable.

The rest of the conference followed this discussion. It was a sustainability junkie’s heaven – discussions and presentations were available about a variety of topics, ranging from historical preservation to composting, sustainable gardening to retrofitting lighting systems, and had just about anything you would want to learn about in a sustainable context. This is in addition to the dozen or so exhibitors from around the state, including some local energy companies, NYSERDA, and my good friends at YouSave Green! As an inspiring finale to the day, SUNY ESF‘s President Cornelius Murphy gave a brilliant Keynote speech on how ESF (Not the same as the first Keynote speaker’s ESF) has changed the world of sustainability and environmental awareness.

I managed to rack up a bit of information during the conference:

Attn: Readers - Prepare for a knowledge infusion.

I plan on using all of this information, combined with what the presenters spoke about to bring a whole smothering of new posts over the next few days, starting with an overview of President Murphy’s speech, and continuing on to include:

• Home Energy Efficiency
• Geothermal Heating Systems
• Shopping Locally
• Home Gardens and their Sustainability Impact
• Reusing Waste to Create Energy Sources
• Effective Composting
• Coordinated Transportation Systems

Check back often to see all of these awesome posts!

Anything specific you want to learn about? Let me know!

Water Taste Test Shocks, Surprises SU Students

All day today in Schine Student Center, the Syracuse University Sustainability Club ran a water taste-test, challenging students, staff, potential students and their visiting parents to try to guess which type of water were which. The participants were presented with unmarked samples of bottled, filtered, and tap water, and asked to choose a favorite and then guess which was which.

Many participants were shocked to learn that they preferred certain types to others – though it was especially nice to see that many more people preferred the tap and filtered-tap water over bottled water. Even those who did prefer the bottled variety were shocked to learn the environmental and health dangers of drinking bottled water, and were excited and enthused to find out the benefits of filters and reusable bottles, especially when they learned about the new filling stations in Schine and Bird Library.Congrats to the Sustainability Club for an incredibly successful and informative event!

Tu B’Shvat: Going Green for the Big Man Upstairs

Today is Tu B’Shvat (Also spelled Tu Bishvat), the Jewish New Year for Trees. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go on about its origins or religious practices and significance. What I want to talk about is how this holiday relates to sustainability, and how I’ve used it to advance sustainable practices.

Traditionally eaten fruits and nuts, being purchased locally this year.

Many consider Tu B’Shvat to be the Jewish equivalent of Arbor Day or Earth Dat – A day to celebrate the gifts of the Earth, the beauty of nature, and everything else about the environment. So for this year’s tradition Tu B’Shvat Seder (traditional Jewish meal/service), I’ve worked with the Syracuse University Hillel to make a Tu B’Shvat that’s truly in the spirit of the holiday.