Although adding some recycling bins to the CAC is helpful, why are none of them in the lobby where the majority of the people are? Are we ashamed of recycling? And in the Creative Arts Center we cannot find an aesthetically pleasing solution if that is the issue? It is sometimes hard to find the bins at all and most people are not going to go out of their way…

Interesting point in the article:

Students also have used some more offbeat approaches.

At the University of Missouri, northward relocation of hop crops because of warmer climates inspired a “Save the Ales” night at a local brew pub.

“If you tell them that over the next 30 years the price of beer will really go up because of climate change, they stop and listen,” says Lindsey Berger, a Missouri junior. “That’s one thing that will grab their attention.”

That’s definitely something to tell WVU students.

I think that saving energy on campus is still a goal far away from being met. Every single building keeps their lights and AC/heating on 24/7/365. I know during the winter at towers and pierpont halls, the buildings are OVERHEATED. When I used to live at pierpont, I remember other students including myself, used to open our windows to let the 30 degree air in just because it was 85 degrees inside. Once at Lyon’s Den, the candy bars were melting because it was 90 degrees! I am not exaggerating either, there was a thermometer there and I read it. The workers there were also complaining. By eliminating these overheating charges, I would think at least $10,000 would be saved, possibly lots more, not to mention energy pollution.

The other issue is recycling. A LOT of material is not recycled. We need to pick up the pace; people need to start thinking about throwing their drinks into a recycling bin rather than the garbage can. I also see heaps of paper go into the trash at some places on campus which don’t have recycling bins.

Well, those are my two cents on the situation. People should recycle, and Towers needs to turn down their thermostat.

Why are the computers left on all night long? No one is even in those buildings because they are locked. This would save copious amounts of electricity.
Why are there lights shinning up on the buildings in the evening? No one benefits from that light. If you are going to install a light, shine it on the sidewalks.
Any new building on campus that isn’t LEED Certified is unacceptable.

Dear President Garrison,
A strong first step would be publicly committing to reducing university based emissions at least 30% by 2015.

Please endorse the Sierra Student Coalitions proposal.

The community is on board, the WVU Student Government is on board, please join us in this incredible adventure.

Others have: See below!
http://www.wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=37534&catid=79

With urgency,
Christy Hartman

Christy Hartman
B.A. Candidate Philosophy 08’
B.A. Candidate Geography 08’

Its not just about going green its about establishing a green ideology and awareness.

We Should Be Doing Everything?
1. Promote commitment from the university, students, and faculty.
2. Green house gas inventory
3. Establish a Long term action plan and goals

The most important thing is education. As an institution our goal is to educate and improve the intellegance of the overall student body. In order to promotion a “green Ideology”, we need to incorporate it in to the cirriculum, teach all of our incoming students on the enviromental problems and there effects with required classes, lectures, and speakers. This will make them more aware, and understand that we can have an effect on the out come, but we have to act now!!

When it comes to opportunities to save energy and eliminate waste, the possibilities are limitless. Its more about the willingness of the university to set the example. Many other universities are all ready having an effect on their student body, by showing there commitment. It is more important for West Virginia University to be commited to this “going green” and not just using it as a smoke screen, pretending that they are part of the green movement by using terms like “going green”, like many of the corprate companies that install a efficent light or two.

I really suggest promoting organizations that are already active, such as the Sierra Student Coalition and a large inititive like Campus Climate Challange. Universities across the country have already establish a plan and stratagies for establishing a green campus, we just need to act.

I would just like to second every opinion expressed above. I am aware that you have been approached by the Sierra Student Coalition with many solutions for this increasing problem. I urge you to pay close attention to this and support a group of students ready to put huge amounts of time and energy into supporting this campaign. Please do not stifle the efforts of such an ambitious group. Thank you for your concern.

I agree with one of the earlier comments.

the school would save a ton of energy and money by keeping the buildings cooler in the winter, and warmer in the summer. Have the heat set to 65ish in the winter months and the ac set to 70-75ish in the summer months.

Less energy used on heating/cooling provides to saved money and eliminates the drastic temperature changes between indoors and outdoors resulting in a much more comfortable environment. overheated classes also put me to sleep.

WVU and the City of Morgantown need to participate in providing recycling opportunities closer to high-density student areas. Doing this would afford students the opportunity to recycle closer to home, reduce the need for students to drive out of their immediate area to recycle at places such as University Town Centre, K-Mart, and the old Wal-Mart (a major reason that keeps students from participating in recycling), and cut the amount of trash produced by students by tons per week.

To all interested readers,
Come support WVU students and faculty and the environmental movement by attending an Earth Day Forum at the National Research for Coal and Energy on the Evansdale campus. The event includes a key note speaker, a panel of local and state experts, a chance to win an iPod, and many informative exhibits. More information can be found at our website;
http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/earthday/

President Garrison,

As you know, the WVU Biodiesel Project is attempting to implement biodiesel into the WVU Motor Pool while educating the student population about biodiesel and other alternative fuel sources.

Our biggest challenge of late is getting a space for our process. In order to produce biodiesel on the scale which the University would need (a 20% biodiesel, 80% petroleum diesel mix), the Project needs a suitable location for production.

Implementing biodiesel on WVU’s campus would vastly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and improve the air quality of Morgantown and the surrounding area. Overall, biodiesel is a logical forward step towards creating a more sustainable campus.

For current happenings of the WVU Biodiesel Project, please check out our blog: http://wvubiodieselproject.blogspot.com/

Sincerely,

-Adam Johnson
WVU Biodiesel Project Publicist
wvubiodieselproject@gmail.com

I definitely agree with many of the above comments, especially fixing the heating problem in some of the older buildings. Some rooms in Percival Hall are awful at any time of the year because they are significantly overheated. I know that the Life Sciences building is also kept very cold during the summer.

As a whole, I think the University should also strive to adopt the progressive American Colleges and Universities Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). This plan sets goals for the University to achieve such as reducing greenhouse emissions in an ultimate attempt to establish climate neutrality. Our close neighbor, Frostburg State University, recently signed the commitment and has already made some significant strides to green their campus such as regularly participating in campus black-out times as well as nation-wide events such as Recyclemania. To date, only one University in ALL of WV has made this commitment which signifies a poor showing in my book. More information can be found here:

http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/

A huge step that this school could do to promote sustainability would be to put more time and money in at the WVU organic farm. Food travels for thousands of miles to get here, unnecessarily expelling many chemicals into the environment. The WVU organic farm could be giving food to the food courts and cafeterias around campus yet many pounds of vegetables are composted each year because there is supposedly no where for it to go. The towers cafeteria won’t take it because they want pre sliced tomatoes grown with many chemicals and shipped for miles while we have fresh local organic tomatoes that are way healthier for the students and the environment that are being wasted. To me this is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. By giving just a little food to the cafeterias around here the bond between agriculture, which is what this college was founded on, education, and sustainability could be greatly increased thereby making this school better and more whole while giving us a better reputation. All it would take is a few dollars, some compromises, and intellectual thought.

The recycling competition at the residence halls was a great success this year. I think after the competition ended a lot of students continued to recycle out of habit. I think we should tell new students when they come in that WVU is a campus that recycles and make it seem almost mandatory, that there is no other option but to recycle. Perhaps show a picture of one of the many recycling bins that the campus has so that students know where to go and offer an option for off-campus students as to where to take their recycling that is not to far away from campus. Perhaps have a monthly drive where students can take large amounts of recycling for those that do not have the option to drive to Walmart or the Mon County recycling center. I think this would be an obvious great start.

One of the things that I’ve noticed is the amount of paper towels used in bathrooms around campus. The trash cans are always full of them, and I can’t help but think there has to be some other way to stop wasting them so much. When I took a trip down to the Baltimore Inner Harbor, I noticed that they had installed the new Dyson Airblade hand dryers (http://www.dysonairblade.com/). The dryers literally blow the water off of your hands in seconds and use up to 80% less energy than regular hand dryers. Just think how much money the university could save if they eliminated something simple like paper towels from the budget. Along with saving money, the university is producing less trash. Just something to think about.

I would like to suggest that we use the energy being wasted at the Rec Center. Everyday all day long there are students, faculty, staff, friends, etc. that go to the rec to workout. When people are on the treadmills, Pre-cor machines, bikes, and any other machine that requires extensive amount of energy, it is lost in the form of heat from the machines.
We need to hook up all the machines to a capacitor or something of that nature when people workout. This will trap all the energy put into the machines and it can be used to help run some of the lights at the facility or other device.
By utilizing this otherwise wasted energy to help power something will lower carbon dioxide emissions and help to save the environment.
I’m not an engineer so I don’t know how this can be done, but I know it can be done! Thank you

I am pleased to see that WVU has begun considering pursuing a “green campus.” Reducing our energy demands requires both new ideas and common sense. We can make big changes, like LEED-certified building, but we also must must think in different terms. I can tell when there’s a freshman-level class downtown because the Blue & Gold line fills up at Towers, preventing the driver from picking up any more students on the way to Life Sciences. Providing more introductory courses for freshmen on the Evansdale campus could reduce the need to bus those same students back and forth between campuses. Requiring businesses contracted with the university (including fast food restaurants) to recycle could help reduce the waste produced by the thousands of students eating in the Mountainlair every day. On a much smaller energy impact scale, nearly every bathroom on campus has been updated with automatic paper towel dispensers, which do little to improve hygiene , yet waste energy that most adults can easily exert. What can we do to get every WVU student and employee to consider the environmental impacts – small and large – of their decisions?

I come from New Jersey, were the state has implemented recycling programs that are required by law to try and salvage what little “garden” the Garden State has left. To me, this state (WV) still holds much more of its natural beauty than the place I come from, and it shocks me that people here are not concerned whatsoever with maintaining that beauty (Morgantown and WVU obviously do not represent the nature of WV’s total population). I’m greatly concerned for this state because of its total disregard for environmental protection (i.e. non-existant recycling programs and no emmissions regulations), as I see it eventually ending up in a similar outcome.
Currently, I work at Ruby Hospital where we go through an amazing amount of paper products. Literally pounds and pounds of paper are simply tossed out every single day. Several employees have posted concerns on the Shoptalk forum, yet the hospital’s response for this problem is virtually non-existant. Currently, the IT department is in the process of upgrading the computer systems, which should help decrease the amount of paperwork produced, but there will still be a substantial amount of paper going into the trash. Since this is an affiliate of the university, I feel it’s time the university “motivated” the hospital’s poor recycling program so that recycling paper products is not only encouraged, but required.