Birthright 2012: Israel Goes Green: Where’s the Water?

Miss me? Well, after surviving finals week, I trekked over the Atlantic to the land of my forefathers, the State of Israel. As a country filled with over 5,000 years of history, there was much to learn, a ton of places to explore, and many, many adventures to be had. However, there’s much more to Israel than its historical, political, and religious significance (though these shouldn’t be ignored). Israel is the number one nation in the world for startup greentech and cleantech, and is a leader in the world of sustainability.

History of Sustainability in Israel: I’m Thirsty

Israel may have been known as the biblical Land of Milk and Honey, but while it may overflow with these liquids, there’s one it seriously lacks – water. As with many other nations in the Middle East, Israel is mostly arid land, and a good portion of the country, which is roughly the size of New Jersey, is covered by the Negev Desert. This lack of water has been a major issue throughout history, but each of the peoples, kingdoms, empires, and countries who have controlled the land have had their own unique and successful ways of solving the problem.

One of the earliest governing bodies of Israel following the Jewish diaspora were a group of Hellenistic Greeks, led by the builder of much of ancient Israel, King Herod. To bring water to those who needed it, Herod started, and the Romans finished, a series of aqueducts along the coast, much like this one in Caesaria:

Aqueduct in Caesaria, Israel

As power changed hands in the final century BCE, the Romans continued to expand their power over Israel, now known as Judea, and with that power came more and more aqueducts. Water began to play an even more significant role, as the Romans used more water than any civilization up to this point. In addition to irrigation for farming and drinking water, the Romans needed water for their vast palaces, theaters, hippodromes and gardens. One thing that they didn’t seem the squander water on, however, were their public toilets.  These toilets, like the one below, were meeting places for the important people of the land. However, Roman toilets were technically extremely sustainable – no flushing means almost no water used, and there was no waste of paper as they used reusable brushes in place of toilet paper. (Don’t worry, I’m not going to suggest reverting to these toilets. I may love the environment, but I’m sanitary).

Ancient Roman Toilet (With some friends)

As the Middle Ages dawned, Roman power fell and Muslim power reigned over Israel, the Crusades began, with the intention of regaining the Holy Land. Like in Europe, the Crusader knights built fortresses with walls and moats – but with a twist for the Middle East. Their moats? They were dry. Basically, they were super deep pits, with smooth, unscalable walls, just like this one in Caesaria:

Crusader moat in Caesaria

Crusader fortresses, as with any other stronghold in Israel or the Middle East in general, needed to be built to survive siege. This didn’t just mean that they needed to be strong enough to withstand the battle, but they needed to be able to store massive amounts of water in order to stay alive during sieges which could last months. To solve this problems, these fortresses were built with giant cisterns like the one below.

Cistern from the top of a Crusader fortress in Tzfat

Exploring the cistern in Tzfat

Following the Crusader period, power continued to change hands once again. Eventually, under the Ottomans and the British Mandate of Palestine, Zionists began settling the countryside. Like with all other periods of time, water became a major issue. These new towns were differently organized than in the past. Instead of aqueducts and cisterns, water towers were built. The water tower below is one of the most famous in Israel, having been built with money donated by the famous Baron Edmund de Rothschild, one of the biggest philanthropic donators to Zionism.

“Benjamin’s Pool,” the water tower in Zichron Ya’akov

Israeli Sustainability Today: Water, Water Everywhere

With such a vast and colorful history of water conservation, it’s no wonder that Israel is the way it is now. As previously mentioned, Israel is the number one country in the world for cleantech and greentech startup investments, and has created some of the most important technologies in water conservation.

Israel is credited with the invention of what is potentially the most important water conservation technologies in our modern world: Drip Irrigation. One of the most important improvements in the system was made by Simcha Blass and his son Yeshayahu in Israel, and involved the use of plastics in the system. The Blass system uses larger and longer openings to disperse the water, using velocity to their advantage.

Tomatoes and cucumbers growing in the Negev

Drip irrigation changed farming forever, especially in the Middle East. The south of Israel, which is covered by the Negev desert, has now begun to be a booming agricultural site, growing most of the nation’s produce, and has become a hotspot for Thai immigrants to come work the fields. I actually shouldn’t say fields, because most of this agriculture is grown alternatively – in netted greenhouses, in tracked rows raised above the ground, and in a whole bunch of other ways. This way, farmers get the advantages of the Negev’s climate – the heat and air are good for many crops – while being able to directly control the water intake of each plant. In the system shown below, water is slowly released into the soil in the hanging trays, then trickles down to the bottom and drips down the slightly angled rows to a collection tube, which collects the water and recycles it to water the plants again.

Strawberries being grown above ground in the Negev

With farming, water isn’t the only concern. Many farms, just like the one I was fortunate enough to visit, are also concerned with producing organic, GMO-free, pesticide- and chemical-free produce as well. Much of the produce is grown netted in, and Israeli companies are credited with the invention of a specifically bred insect that eats the bugs and parasites that threaten farms around the world.

One invention, while not invented by an Israeli, has taken Israel by storm: the Dual Flush Toilet. Invented by Australian inventor Bruce Thompson in 1980, this toilet works more like an airplane toilet than a traditional toilet, using gravity rather than a siphon to remove waste. The toilet has two flushing options – more or less water – activated by two different levers or buttons, to be used for two different bathroom situations (I don’t think I need to explain which is which). The toilet is effective – there’s an average of 67% water use savings when used correctly  a majority of the time. Sure, it’s a little more expensive, but it’ll pay off in the end. In Israel, a nation where water is scarce, the extra cash upfront is worth it, and it’s actually uncommon NOT to see a dual flush toilet everywhere you go.

Conclusion

My 9th grade Global History teacher once told me (and every student she’s ever had): Geography is Destiny. Three simple words, exemplified by Israel better than perhaps any other nation in the world. A state seriously lacking in water, it has found ways throughout history to fix this problem. In modern times, it’s no wonder Israel is at the top of the sustainability game – it has to be.

Finals Week Spring 2012:

Finals week stressing you out? Well, it’s stressing the environment too. Think about it – during finals week, your lights are on longer and later, you’re working through paper like nothing else, eating and throwing out tons of packaged food and bottled water – it’s a bigger impact than many would realize. Of course, let’s not forget that at the end of the year, cleaning out your dorm room in going to be stressful and wasteful swell. We all know the old tips and tricks about de-stressing yourself, but how can we help the environment? Here’s a few good ways:

1. Recycle your books. It’s the end of the semester, and you probably don’t need that calculus textbook anymore – nor do you probably want it! Instead of throwing it out, or just letting it sit around unused. Why not “recycle” your books by selling them to friends, acquaintances, random people on Facebook, or even back to the bookstore. Not only will you save paper by not having to have another book printed (the laws of supply and demand will take care of that one) but you’ll also make back a good portion of your money to buy your own books for next semester – which you also can and should purchase used and from others. Of course, on either side of the transaction, don’t sell or buy books that aren’t in good condition.
2. Shut off your computer. You heard me right. Well, read me right. When you study, shut off your computer. Maybe add the iPad and smartphone to that too. You’ll save a ton of energy – you won’t be using nearly as much power – but you’ll also save time.  Shut down that computer and study, and by the time your done you’ll have time to goof around on Facebook.
3. Eat healthy snacks. I know, it sounds like something your mother told you when you were at home. Remember the SATs? AP tests? Your teachers probably reminded you to bring two things – something to write with and a healthy snack. Well, healthy snacks are good for more than just you. They do boost brain power, and don’t put preservatives and other chemicals into your system, but they also don’t do that to the environment. An apple, or a banana is entirely biodegradable, and will therefore be much healthier for the environment too.
4. Donate your stuff. Cleaning out your room? Don’t throw out anything – not that T-shirt you got for free from a club you’re not in, not that TV that you never used and won’t need next year ’cause your roommate’s is bigger, not even that tissue sitting in the corner. (OK, throw out the tissue. Please.) Almost everything you don’t want anymore, and that you can’t sell to a friend can be donated to charity. There are plenty of people in this world who could really use that old jacket you won’t need anymore since you’re graduating and moving back to Florida. Of course, our good friends supply and demand (full post about them coming soon!) will help prevent more waste.
5. Pass! There’s nothing more sustainable than not having to retake a class.

Good luck everyone!

Recycled Mollys: You Are What You Drink

One of the Mollys in late stages of construction.

Hey SU Students! Have you been by Schine and Newhouse this week? Wondering what those statues are you’ve seen or heard about? Well, they’re called Recycled Mollys, and there here to take back the tap. The display, designed and created by the Sustainability Division here at SU, is based off similar projects at other schools. Here, however, it was decided to focus on the dangers of bottled water. The statues, which are sustainable plastic molds of people, are filled with water bottles to show the campus how many bottles we each waste. Surrounding the Mollys, and being held by them, are signs denoting a wide variety of water bottle facts – how much oil, water, energy, etc is wasted each year to make them, and more.

One of the most striking facts, due in part to the actual composition of the Mollys, is about the health effects of bottled water. Many people assume that bottled water, since its processed, is probably regulated pretty well, right? Wrong. Actually, tap water is significantly more regulated, and doesn’t contain all of the preservatives and taste-changing chemicals that bottled water does. When you look at these statues, wondering why they’re filled with water bottles, remember that if you don’t drink tap, this is what you might as well look like.

Celebrate Earth Day the Easy Way!

The Earth flag is not an official flag, since there is no official governing body over Earth. The flag holds a photo transfer of a NASA image of the Earth on a dark blue background. It has been associated with Earth Day. Although the flag was originally copyrighted, a judge ruledhttp://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/CopyrightLaw/Copyrightability/articles/EarthFlagVsAlamoFlag_A.shtml that the copyright was invalid. Earth Flag Ltd. v. Alamo Flag Co., 154 F. Supp. 2d 663 (S.D.N.Y. 2001) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Happy Earth Day everyone! Created simultaneously in 1969 by Senator Gaylord Nelson UNESCO‘s John McConnell and first celebrated on April 22nd, 1970, Earth Day is a celebration of all things awesome about the environment. Here’s some ways to celebrate in a sustainable way:

1. Go outside! It’s nice out. Go play catch, take a bike ride, play a game of soccer. Do something outside. The only energy it will use is your own – nothing more environmentally friendly than that!
2. Recycle last night’s cans. I’m talking to you, college students. We know you partied. Just make sure those cans get recycled, ok?
3. Buy a water bottle. A reusable one of course. Buy a gift for mother nature – and yourself – to celebrate. The 5 dollars you spend today will mean a lot more savings to you and the planet down the road.
4. Make a donation. Donate to an environmental chariot – the NWF, WWF, COEJL, etc.
5. Make a commitment. Today is the day you start doing something sustainable. Commit today to start using a reusable shopping bag, or to walk to work instead of taking the subway. If (and when!) you’re successful, add another one on next year!

Enjoy!

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.

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!

Valentine’s Day!

I know it’s a little late, but Happy Valentine’s Day from SU Sustainability and Green in a Sea of Orange!