by Jennifer Lefebvre

Many colleges and universities are attempting to green their campuses using LEED-certification standards.  However, some of their existing buildings may be counter acting those efforts.  In an article by Tom Robinson in Today’s Campus, he addresses some of the culprits your campus and green efforts could be up against.

The article states that on a typical brick-and-mortar campus, buildings can account for 60 percent of the university’s electricity usage and 30 to 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.  LEED certification standards in new buildings can greatly reduce energy consumption by almost 50 percent.  However, like many college and university campuses, 95 percent of the buildings are existing ones and not new nor are they LEED certified.  This means that most of the buildings are gobbling up all of the electricity and creating greenhouse gas emissions.  What is the typical brick and mortar campus planner to do?  It’s not feasible or economically sound to raze all existing buildings, therefore an alternative is to incorporate new standards set forth by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE); Energy Star; or LEED for Existing Building Operations & Maintenance (EBO&M).

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by Beth Gray

APUS Earth Day Volunteers at CTMS

Thursday, April 22nd was Earth Day.  Americans have been celebrating Earth Day for the last 40 years as a day to recognize the importance of preserving our environment and its health.  For a brief history of Earth Day, see our article posted last week.

This year’s Earth Day happened to coincide with Bring a Child to Work Day, an initiative administered by the Take Our Sons and Daughters to Work Foundation.  Bring a Child to Work Day is a program designed to encourage young people to learn more about what the adults in their lives do in their jobs.  Students who participate gain not only a better understanding of their adult sponsors’ jobs but also job opportunities that they may not have previously considered.  This year, several dozen young people participated in this event at American Public University System’s (APUS) two locations. 

APUS’ Sustainability Committee saw the opportunity of having so many young people on campus to take some time to talk about sustainability with them.  A Committee member made a brief presentation to the group about the school’s sustainability efforts specifically and the importance of “going green” in general.  Needless to say, the creative minds of these young people impressed the group; the students provided some great ideas for how to be good stewards of the environment and were excited to share their own efforts to “go green” at home and in their schools.

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by Beth Gray

Today is the 40th anniversary of the celebration of the first Earth Day.  While today Earth Day and the sentiment surrounding it is a part of our everyday lives, the notion of a day to acknowledge the importance of being good stewards of our environment was not always so commonplace. 

In the early 1960s, Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-Wisconsin) began to formulate ideas for what would eventually become the first Earth Day.  Disturbed by the fact that in the midst of other significant events of the decade, “the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country,” Nelson proposed to President John Kennedy that he undertake a national conservation tour.  Convinced by Senator Nelson’s argument that the environment was a key issue that was being overlooked in the political sphere, President Kennedy began his conservation tour in September 1963, traveling through 11 states in five days.  Senator Nelson himself acknowledges that the tour itself failed to achieve his ultimate goal of putting the state of the environment at the top echelons of the nation’s political agenda.  He continued to advocate for environmental protection, however, and it was in 1969 that the idea of Earth Day finally occurred to him.

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by Allison G. S. Knox

Making significant changes to our daily lives can be difficult, especially when the results don’t appear immediately.  In thinking of the state of the environment, I believe that most of us want to help, but aren’t sure how to do so.  Often, it may seem like a daunting task and we perhaps feel that our small changes can’t possibly make enough of a difference to make the effort worthwhile.  It is important to realize, however, that even the smallest changes to our daily activities, can make such a difference to the overall health of the environment. 
 
It is no secret that our environment is polluted.  You drive down the highway and notice garbage all over the side of the road.  You see the garbage truck leave your driveway filled to the brim with endless trash bags, only to meet other garbage trucks also filled with trash bags at a landfill.  We also receive endless amounts of junk mail advertising something that we throw out almost immediately after classifying it as junk mail.  The environment is greatly impacted by the choices we make in our daily lives.

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by Jennifer Lefebvre

Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream began as a small “scoop shop” in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont.   From the company’s inception more than thirty years ago, their plan was to provide quality ice cream while also creating a company that was socially conscious about the world and its environment.  Within only a few years of opening, the demand for their ice cream grew and the company started making deliveries to local grocery stores and restaurants. In 1983, their first out-of-state franchise opened in Portland, Maine and they began to distribute ice cream in Boston, as well.  By 1985, they were expanding outside of New England and decided to establish the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation.  The company provided 7.5 percent of their pre-tax profits to fund community-oriented projects through the Foundation. In 1988, they received a corporate giving award from the Council on Economic Priorities.  Also in 1988, the company established a new Environmental Action Plan which was conceived largely by the company’s already environmentally conscious employees. 

The program began when a group of employees dove into the company’s dumpsters to evaluate the amount and type of waste generated by the company.  Their “research” gave them three types of trash to focus on:  plastic, paper, and cardboard.  They began shipping their plastic ingredient buckets to Vermont Republic Industries to be recycled and reused.  Ben & Jerry’s production crew purchased a baler which helped in recycling cardboard to be used by paper broker companies.  Through these measures, within one year of the inception of the plan, the company had already saved $17,000 in hauling and landfill costs.

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