从捐赠到雨桶, 埃尔迈拉大学 Students Drive 校园可持续发展

Sustainability is a strategic focus in 埃尔迈拉大学’s developing 2023-2028 Strategic Plan. 学院在这方面的工作已经开始, 由全校范围内的可持续发展委员会和首批 可持续性的领导人. The 可持续性的领导人 – one student from each class – were selected from a pool of applicants and will each receive a 可持续性奖学金. 以校园为画布来展示他们的想法, the students spent the 2022-2023 academic year designing meaningful projects to implement, often taking the lead in figuring out how they would accomplish their goals.

亚历克西斯·巴恩斯，26岁，a 护理专业她是第一个实施自己计划的人. 因为她的想法不需要资金, Barnes moved quickly and organized a Move-Out Day Donation Drive at the end of the 2022-2023 academic year. 这次运动的目的是抢救衣物, 家具, and other small items that otherwise would have been thrown out as students packed up to leave campus.

With the help of 校园 Security, Barnes organized 20 donation sites around campus. The 设施 team picked up the contents of the bins and placed them in a central location where The Salvation Army could come and pick everything up.

“没有他们的帮助，这是不可能做到的. 我很感激!她叫道.

Barnes was surprised by how much was donated in the week leading up to the official move-out day.

“最后一次搬家的前一天, 20个箱子里的大部分都装满了捐款, and I was able to fill eight trash bags full of materials to donate early to make room in the bins for the official move-out day,巴恩斯说。.

Her inspiration came from videos of students from other colleges and universities during their move-out days. The students found used items still in good shape and took them out of the trash.

“在此之前, I didn’t realize people threw out so many items that could be reused by others,”她说。.

巴恩斯的主要动机是不让垃圾进入垃圾填埋场. 她的第二个动机是支持当地社区. 所以她把这些东西捐给了救世军.

Barnes hopes to get students more involved next year and make the donation drive an annual feature, 捐款会捐给更多的社区组织.

阿什顿·克拉弗，25岁，a 护理专业, 准备实施他的计划, 可持续之家的雨桶, 当他8月份回到学校读大三的时候. The house serves as a testing ground for the Leaders and is a place where they can research best practices that might get implemented elsewhere on campus. It’s also an ideal spot for a rain barrel since it sits close to the campus’s community garden.

“Dr. Billingsley and his students in the Garden Club can use the collected water from the rain barrel,克雷弗解释道。. “这将减轻欧共体的水费和相关费用.”

While the Sustainability House provides an ideal location for the first barrel, Craver and the Sustainability Committee hope to approve more barrel placements and further reduce the College’s water costs.

“我们需要水来做很多事情，”他说. “It’s not potable (drinkable), but it can help water the plants around campus. 任何有排水沟系统的地方，我们都可以以较低的成本安装桶.”

格蕾丝·惠芬，24岁 环境科学专业; began tracking energy use at the Sustainability House to get a baseline and test efficiencies, 比如更换LED照明和运动探测器. 她计划利用这些数据来证明, 虽然这些类型的措施可能需要初始投资, 长期的能源节约弥补了更昂贵的设备.

So far, her research indicates that using LED lightbulbs could reduce energy use by 75%. Her next steps involve purchasing lights and motion detectors for the Sustainability House. She’ll then measure the energy savings while determining the best makes and models for campus use.

杰克坎贝尔, 设施运营总监和可持续发展委员会成员, 急切地提出与惠芬分享他的数据. His team has been systematically replacing older fluorescent bulbs with LED lights and has completely converted the Murray Athletic Center.

Christian Zweirlien, 23岁，a 生物化学专业, 计划与德里克·查尔方特合作， 艺术副教授, to use reclaimed materials to create artistic sculptures and small benches to place around campus. His hope is to use art as a medium to bring attention to the science of sustainability and highlight the importance of sustainability as a whole.

Zwierlein plans to upcycle wood from trees that were recently removed as part of an annual landscape management project.

As the four 可持续性的领导人 look ahead to the second year of the program, 团队很高兴能做出更多的事情.

Zweirlien hopes to provide leadership to the group by formalizing processes, 让他们更容易, 以及未来的领导者, 推行他们的措施.

克拉弗对该小组已经开始的工作感到兴奋, 与更大的学院倡议相结合. “I hope the campus community keeps the ball rolling on sustainability initiatives like the donation drive Alexis Barnes put together and the teach-in day about the climate,克雷弗说。.