Sustainability News and Events

“Would you like to buy some water?” yells out a young hippy woman with a thick southern drawl, “It’s free and I made it myself!”  She extends a small plastic cup of Louisville lake water with algae and mud floating on the surface to a woman dressed in a ball gown. The woman politely shakes her head no, only to be approached by an older man laughing hysterically with an arm outstretched towards her, “AHAHAHA HEY there!  Welcome to MIRANDA VILLAGE! Good to see you. I’m the Mayor of Miranda Village!”  The woman in the ball gown is a bit startled but she accepts his hand and greets him.  She meets Pastor Ben, a local “doctor”, and a breast-feeding woman before she finally reaches the registration table for the 2^nd Annual Edge Outreach “I-Thirst” Gala in Louisville, KY.

The gala was an opportunity for all of the supporters (both financial and otherwise) to enjoy a fun evening that incorporated entertainment, education, and fund raising all pertaining to Edge’s growing development work in water.  Between fine dining and interactive presentations, guests could learn all about water contamination and purification, hand pump repair, and well-drilling as it pertains in both “developed” and “undeveloped” nations around the globe, including the U.S.  They got to meet the crew of DePauw students, (Carter Johnson ’09, Jarrod Johnson ’09, Amanda Meyer ’10, Michelle Whitehead ’11, Mike Beeman ’09) who were on scene this past January when a massive earthquake struck Costa Rica, creating chaos comparable to hurricane Katrina in the U.S.  Along with other Edge Outreach workers and volunteers, the DePauw students were there to install water purifiers and aid in relief efforts of such international organizations as the Salvation Army as they worked with locals in Costa Rica in the midst of the disaster.

Attendees also had the opportunity to participate in an auction through which all funds would be donated to water projects.  Bidders had the opportunity to win everything from one of 50 rain barrels painted by local elementary school artists (we had the pleasure of meeting several of the artists), gift bags packed with Edge Outreach t-shirts and glass eggs from Romania, or yacht rides on Louisville’s beautiful waters! Participants were so excited and passionate about the aspect of the world’s water crisis that more than $26,000 was raised!

Though the event was supposed to end at 10:00 pm, the majority of the guests didn’t leave until after midnight when Edge Outreach volunteers finally had to start breaking down all of the decorations and materials.

The evening was truly an experience that reminded us the importance of kicking back and having fun, practicing humility, and building a stronger sense of community.  It truly quenched our thirst to be a part of powerful, sustainable, and positive change.

-The Water Movement

As part of the President’s Climate Commitment, DePauw will be raising the bar concerning recycling projects on campus by participating in a national college campus recycling competition called “Recyclemania”. Facilities director Ted Fares invited Ed Newman to DPU during Focus the Nation to share his experiences with recycling at Ohio University and how the competition first came about. Some ideas that came out of Mr. Newman’s visit include conducting a campus wide “Move-out” event where everyone pools the items left behind from move-out day and then sells the items in a massive “garage sale”. This has been a big success at Ohio state and we’re looking forward to eventually bringing this to DePauw.  Recyclemania has grown to include over 200 universities nation-wide and DPU will join the friendly competition in Fall 2009!

Chad Pregracke visited DePauw as part of the FTN event week on Wed, February 4th. Chad’s charismatic personality made his presentation stand out in the week as an event full of humor and fun. He proved that just because you do work that matters doesn’t mean you have to take yourself too seriously. Chad doesn’t necessarily view himself as an “environmentalist”, his project to clean up America’s rivers came out of his experience on the river and seeing first hand the kind of trash that has accumulated there over the years. As he said in his presentation, he was simply “sick of seeing it”. At a very young age, Chad set out to do something about it. He improved his way through the logistics of funding his project and starting a non-profit. Now, his organization “Living Lands and Waters” has grown into a large non=profit that incorporated thousands of volunteers from surrounding communities to pull millions of tons of trash out of US rivers. Chad’s uplifting story proves that one person, with a little perseverance and a good attitude, can really make a difference.

The “Students of a Warming World” (WT 2009) helped organize the 2nd annual Focus the Nation event week at DePauw. The week kicked off with a national webcast called “The first 100 days” which discussed climate change solutions for the first 100 days of the new administration. Highlights of the video included a personal interview with Billy Parish and Wahleah Johns on their journey to battle against coal fired power plants that dominate the water resources of their community.

Eban Goodstein again charges our generation to be the generation that rewires, repowers, and rethinks our world. We will be the generation that transitions from the fossil fuel age into a sustainable future. Watch the full webcast here: http://www.nationalteachin.org/videos.php#

Last wednesday, eight students representing Greek chapters came together at the first Greek sustainability roundtable to discuss the role of the greek chapters in moving our campus towards sustainability. The roundtable will be a hub for incubating new projects, sharing best practices, and connecting interested students from different houses.

At the next roundtable, Tony Robertson, the Assistant Director of Facilities Management, will be answering questions about starting or improving house recycling programs, getting professional energy audits, and purchasing green supplies through the university.

The next meeting will be Wednesday, March 4th over lunch. Contact  taylorcantril_2011 at depauw.edu for more information.

Anthony Barrata and Jessica Fenn led an incredibly active DePauw Environmental club this semester, and fulfilled one of the semesters largest goals which was to engage morewith the Greencastle community.

Energy Wars- 10 people were actively involved from DEC; last
year it was 4 dorms and this year it was 10 and 4 Greek houses. Final
results are still being calculated and some dorms are doing a lot
better than last year and a lot more dorms are doing worse. Using
spring semester as a control, dorms will be monitored to see if
people learned from the fall semester. Next year, hopefully all Greek
houses will participate in Energy Wars.

Community and Education/Talk Green At The Blue Door-
Sustainable eating, water issues, and worm composting. We have
involved the Greencastle community as well as DePauw University
students. 3 talks.

Central Elementary involvement- presented on composting before
their environmental club. They also met with teachers
and students at Greencastle High School

H20 Conference was a week long activity put on by students at DePauw concerned about local and global water issues. It featured the documentaries
F.L.O.W., Thirst, and ending with water taste testing. Also, DePauw
University banned bottled water in an effort to promote tap water
usage. D.E.C. ran the water taste testing table, and Hannah Ramage
worked  on presenting the problems of bottled water.

IN-ergize 2009 was a conference attended by members of DEC.

Start Green was funded by DEC and brochures were purchased as
well as a Campus Landfill demonstration.

Katia Satterfield helped clean up Walnut River with Greencastle
High School on October 25th.

The President’s Climate Commitment was a result of last
semester’s work, headed by the Sustainability Interns.

AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability and
Higher Education) was a conference in Raleigh that Sustainability
Interns Taylor Cantril, Missy Orr, and Tiffany Briery attended with Jen Everett, Rob Harper, Carol Steele, and DEC members Maggie Baber and Jessica Fenn.

Team Green was an informational tabling activity for
sustainability and environmental activities, headed by Missy! Orr.

Trashy Art Show was sponsored by DEC for girl scouts to
demonstrate reusing materials for artistic pieces.

DEC participated in the Old Gold Parade by using bicycles and
skateboards demonstrating eco-friendly transportation (see picture above)

Self education of the group by attending public speakers was
purposeful and engaging on environmental issues.

Group members of DEC also led discussions at Peace Camp in an
effort to voice environmental issues.

The Community group initiated action that eventually led to the Worm Composting Workshop led by Professor Ellen Muehlberger.

On Tuesday, December 9th, Putnam County and Greencastle residents gathered to learn how to build and maintain a worm composter.  The DePauw Environmental Club helped sponsor a workshop about worm composting from 7:00-8:30pm at the Putnam County Library.

Ellen Muehlberger enthusiastically talked about the benefits of worm composting, how to maintain a healthy worm bin, and how to harvest the worm castings.  She also demonstrate how to assemble your own worm bin.

The workshop was free and open to the public. For those who wished to pre-order worms to take home, the cost was $20. If you have anymore questions about worm composting, contact Ellen Muehlberger at ellen.muehlberger@gmail.com.

Worm composting is a way to turn kitchen scraps and newspaper into a rich, nutrient-packed, fertilizer for use in vegetable and flower gardens.  Worm castings are easy to harvest and smell lightly of fresh earth. Because the worms live in a small bin with loose bedding, they are contained; worm composting is a great way to compost if you do not have a lot of land, or live in an apartment. 

For more information:

http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/HENV/HENV-104-W.pdf

DePauw University’s Sustainability Initiative provides a roadmap including reports on how the university wishes to accomplish goals relating to enhanced sustainability in all of its manifestations following President Casey’s signing of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). The report addresses forthcoming institutional action, including the formation of sustainability work groups leading to accomplishment of ACUPCC goals. Additionally, liberal arts values related to sustainable behavior and studies promoting community engagement in the years to come are detailed.

President Casey’s letter regarding the Initiative:

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

As you know, in September I signed the Presidents Climate Commitment (PCC), pledging both responsibility for the way DePauw engages in its core activities and interacts with the world.  By signing the commitment we also entered into commitment to do all that we can to work with our community in a shared effort to minimize our contribution to global warming. As a member institution of the PCC, we must exercise leadership in our community, and throughout society, by modeling ways to minimize global warming emissions.  We must also graduate students who are not only aware of our responsibilities to the environment but who can serve as leaders as we work to solve this century’s economic, social and ecological challenges.

Today, DePauw has met the first benchmark required of those institutions that signed the Presidents Climate Commitment: we have developed our “Sustainability Initiative.”  This first statement defines the institutional structure that will ensure our sustainability efforts and sets forth, publicly, potential first sustainability activities.  The Sustainability Initiative also establishes working groups in the following areas:

Intellectual Life
Buildings and Grounds
Waste Minimization
Transportation and Air Travel
Community Relations
Communications and Reporting
Energy and Climate
Dining Services
Purchasing
Investments Diversity and Human Resources

Work group topics will range from environmental studies to energy conservation, from local food initiatives to reduced fossil fuel consumption, and from carbon footprint analysis to diversion of waste from landfills.

The complete Sustainability Initiative can be accessed here.  It provides more information about
the PCC and its requirements and about DePauw’s philosophical approach to this endeavor.

As a component of this first PCC requirement, DePauw must choose two tangible actions (from a list developed by the PCC organization) that we will put into effect immediately while working on other aspects of the program.  We have chosen to adopt the following two actions:

• Implement an energy-efficient appliance purchasing policy requiring purchase of ENERGY STAR certified products in all areas for which such ratings exist.
• Establish a policy that all new campus construction will be built to at least the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Silver standard or equivalent.  (In addition to the PCC requirement, we will also be renovating existing buildings at the LEED Silver level, where feasible.)

I invite your comments and suggestions on the Sustainability Initiative.  At the end of the Sustainability Initiative webpage you will be able to submit your comments and indicate the Working Group(s) with which you would like to participate.

Faculty members, staff members, students, and members of the Greencastle community are invited and encouraged to participate.  I urge you to find time in what I know are already very busy lives to actively contribute.

Most sincerely,

Brian W. Casey
President

 ”On a snowy weekend in Indianapolis, more than a hundred people from across Indiana gathered in a small room at the Holliday Nature Park Center. Members and friends of the Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC) had come together for the organization’s annual meeting and celebration of its 2008 award recipients. Executive Director Jesse Kharbanda’s final award was saved for their “Environmental Organization of the Year,” presented to a group he said “confounded the expectation of what can be accomplished on a college campus,” the DePauw Environmental Policy Project (DEPP)…”

Read the Full Story Here:

http://www.depauw.edu/news/?id=22625

After having their interests sparked by the IN-ergize conference, students at Purdue University which participate in the “Boiler Green Initiative” invited Keelin Kelly, a representative of the DePauw Environmental Policy Project to come give a presentation about how “DEPP” works and how they might implement a similar program and become active at the state legislature this January.

            Keelin was accompanied by Tiffany Briery and Sarah Batto. The presentation focused on how to start researching a policy issue that you’re interested in and how to start contacting your legislators. The group seemed excited to get involved and we expect to be collaborating with them soon!

See all the great sustainability action Purdue is taking at:
http://www.boilergreen.com/Projects/projects.html