In need of LEED

On Tuesday, I had the good fortune of being able to visit one of the most spectacular construction sites in New York.  No, a 175,000 square foot dark chocolate factory was not being built (unfortunately).  But it may be something even better: It's going to be a LEED platinum structure called the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental Energy and Systems headquarters building. 

If you're confused, or can't even read the entire name of the structure without getting distracted, it's O.K.  Here are a few basic facts about LEED to help you get started:  First, LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It's a rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council that gives certain levels of certification to buildings based on how environmentally sustainable they are.  At the most basic level of LEED certification, buildings must meet criteria that specify certain requirements for water efficiency, renewable energy use, sustainable materials used, and indoor environmental quality.  The levels that can be specified include basic LEED certification, LEED bronze, LEED silver, LEED gold, and LEED platinum.

So, what is so fantastic about the Center of Excellence Building near the Warehouse in downtown Syracuse?

Well, I'll just share a bit of the few juicy details that my tour guide told me.  

The building is going to have a green roof, meaning that it will feature a garden on the roof with plants (called "seedums") that will absorb rainwater to help stem significant amounts of runoff into the storm drains.  In addition, the building uses a soy-based foam as insulation, which happens to be more earth-friendly than other synthetic substitutes (the workers said you could probably eat it, but I'll save the soy for tofu in my dinner).  The windows also have a really neat coating on them, which consist of millions of tiny white dots to help control the amount of light that can warm or cool the building.  As for the last tidbit I'll share with you, the building will feature huge labs for students and scientists alike to test different modes of construction and the structural integrity of buildings and houses, in addition to studying how to make these sorts of buildings more sustainable.  And I think learning is the best part of the entire process!

I hope I've sated your LEED appetite.  

Keeping you updated on the green scene always,

-Marissa

Take a Closer Look

Lets take a closer look at the new dorm on campus: the Ernie Davis Dorm.  Expecting a LEED Silver rating, the dorm uses structural, mechanical, and orientation techniques to achieve a more environmentally sustainable building. Thanks to a class site visit, I was able to don a hard hat and follow a project manager through the site.  

So here are some points that I found: although the building will not utilize a green roof as expected, it will comply with LEED standards and use a white roof, which will effectively reflect sun rays (the few that actually hit this tundra we call Syracuse).  The air conditioning will be through a convective system, which uses water to aid the transfer of heat. This should make environmentalists feel a little less guilty about living in such a lavish building. Next, the daylighting!  The dorm will take advantage of those (too few yet glorious) sunny Syracuse days through the implementation of large expanses of glazing on the west and east sides of the first two floors. The lounges on every floor have three large windows and the second floor even boasts a sun roof.  (Depicted in the third picture). 

I absolutely can't wait to walk through the completed building, and am grateful that the university has not turned a blind eye to environmental initiatives. But lets let the next building be platinum:)

-Elysa

Talking Dirt with Brenda Lotito

Worms!  I used to have a phobia of them and then I grew used to them. Tonight I gained a whole new appreciation for the little squigglers as I learned that one pound of worms can chow down a half pound of food a day. And their compost (waste, effluent... they're all euphemisms for worm poop) is some of the richest known compost to the natural world.  Brenda Lotito has turned worm business into well, an actual business.  Her book, The Dirt on Worm Farming, spills the details on how to compost in your own house with a worm box.  Thanks to NYPIRG: Marissa, I, and a room of people were able to learn what makes and breaks this worm composting unit. Basically, a wooden box of newspaper (carbon), red worms, compostable material (nitrogen), and attention to (many) details will render you heaps of compost for your garden.   (Visit upstatewormfarms.com to learn more about composting, and feel free to contact us for information or for tips.) 

I knew that microbes, worms, nematodes, and all the little critters of life completed the food cycle, but who knew that people could facilitate this process even further?  Of course we can compost, but now we can breed worms and turn our food scraps into mulch.

I know what I will be doing this summer. First, I will be sure to avoid having food scraps. (Already started this and so should you! Did you know that the average person creates 4.6 lbs of food waste a day?!  Do as I learned from the Italians and take less, eat it all, and be content with an empty plate.)

But food scraps are inevitable (carrot peels, anyone?). So instead of dumping the scraps off to the landfill, I will convince my fisherman father that he should put those worms to work!  Feed 'em, Breed 'em, and maybe put a few on the kiddie poles for some bluegills.  

With your daily scoop of dirt,

-Elysa

On Our Way....From Misery to Happiness

When I joined SIFE's COW (Conversion of Organic Waste, to be described below) Team, I had every intention to make some sort of improvement in this degraded world, but I was not sure by which means I would do that. During one particularly invigorating brainstorm meeting, I realized: this is too awesome to be contained in this room.

A conversation is a mighty tool, and a conversation is the path that I am embarking on with this blog. So I will be sharing with you what I learn, and Marissa and I anticipate to hear and learn from you. 

I am writing this just having come back from one of those motivating green building conferences, one held by ESF. I am always invigorated to hear professionals lecture on ideas that I am passionate about, and would like to share one idea with you. Our country isn't necessarily happy. On our quest for satisfaction we have invested in materialism only to deviate ourselves from our goal. And between the environmental epidemic and the economic crisis, our country needs a complete overhaul.  According to Bill McKibben (who was not actually at the conference, but lets get him on campus soon), one way to get back on track is to reconnect with our community. I don't know about you but I think we have a pretty swell community here at SU/ESF. But what can we do to really push the envelope? Work together towards sustainability. Lets not leave it to a select few. Lets all work on it. Together. 

Although the future is full of uncertainties, we do have control over our actions. Just as we have the power to converse over the internet we have the power to recycle or compost. Or to take ourselves to the extent of our imaginations to initiate the greatest change this country has ever seen. So through this dialogue I want to give you the power of catching up on the latest happenings in campus sustainability so that you can make decisions... or start some initiatives if you wish. 

So one initiative that I ask you to help us with is composting. The COW Team hopes to build an anaerobic digester for the campus that will convert organic matter (dining hall leftovers) into methane (energy) and organic fertilizer. The machine will be housed under a greenhouse that will act as a living machine: one that creates its own energy and is conducive to plant life. But we need your help. The more awareness and support that this idea gains, the more likely it will become a reality. 

So lets take the advice of the Proclaimers and move from misery to happiness. From accumulation of waste to a community that creates its own energy. From a simple action to a fundamental shift in values. Sounds happy to me. 

-Elysa

Get aware! A little bit about one of the authors' motivations for the blog.

Apparently, vampire loads (i.e. appliances that are plugged in but not in use) cost Americans upwards of 3 billion dollars a year, according to the New York Times.  To think, by unplugging things when we aren't using them, we could make our bailout a little less painful.. But instead, we're content to allow billions of our dollars and our resources pour into powering things that aren't in use.  It's sort of like pouring money down a toilet.  Isn't anyone willing to save a buck here or there nowadays? I guess not.  

I shouldn't be one to proselytize, because I've done the same thing. In fact, I ride the elevator to the second floor to make people at the lower levels angry (I probably shouldn't say that).  But I think that the first step in changing a behavior is recognizing that you want a change.  You know, they tell alcoholics and druggies on the intervention shows that they have to "want" to change before they can start any new behaviors.  So I'll tell you why I want to change and how I'm going to go about doing that. 

Last semester, on a cold Friday morning, I saw a friend throw out an entire bowl of cereal.  

I'll pause here for dramatic effect.

Ok, I suppose for some of you, that wouldn't be earth shattering.  But for me, on that fateful Friday morning, it was.  

I began to think about the costs and effects of that wasted bowl of cereal.  

First, the cereal could have gone to someone who was a little hungrier.  Maybe it was the cereal before the serving that just ran out, or maybe it was that last serving.  Either way, the cereal did not sustain any hunger pangs, starving babies, or poor children in Ethiopia or Bangladesh or Burkina Faso.

Second, I had to think about where that cereal was going.  It joined the general garbage heap, which meant that it probably got put into a dumpster once the trash can was full, loaded onto a garbage truck, transported to some exotic location like Salina, New York, and dumped into a landfill to give off methane like the rest of the matter rotting there.

Third, I thought about the resources that went into making that kind of cereal.  Perhaps vast fields of corn or soy were harvested and then processed for it, which meant that the fields used for it depleted the nutrients in the soil, the pesticides caused bad agricultural runoff, and the local ecosystem was irrevocably damaged.  

Fourth, (I was starting to get really angry here), that wasted bowl of cereal might have meant that others wasted entire bowls of cereal too.  And other foods as well.   So therefore, the school was buying too much cereal and food for people that weren't going to eat it. Which meant that the school was spending too much money on it, which meant that they needed money for it, which meant that money from our meal plans and tuitions was going towards it, which meant that I had to pay more to go to school because of the indirect effects of my friend wasting a bowl of cereal.  

As one person could guess, by this point, I was fuming.  

Unfortunately, I couldn't just yell at my friend for wasting a bowl of cereal.  I'm not her mother, so who am I to scold?

I decided the only thing that could have prevented the situation from occurring altogether would have been a). Eating the bowl of cereal or b). Composting the uneaten cereal.  

Because she decided not to eat the cereal, I decided I had to do something.

So I emailed the chancellor.  

Of course, it was a long shot, because she probably gets upwards of 3,000 emails a day, most from star-struck fans and stalkers.  But I did. And I told her that I was angry that I didn't see a compost bin, and I drew up a 500+ word semi-lecture on why we should have compost bins in and around the dining halls on campus.  

To my surprise, she replied back, and told me that some of Syracuse's faculty is already working on composting initiatives (I was stunned that there were other brilliant greenies out there like me) and that she thought I had great ideas.  Perhaps I should talk to them, too!

So she forwarded the email to a terrific guy named Steve Lloyd (head of the sustainability committee here on our lovely campus), and he and a few other people gave me the lowdown on the compost scene.  

Here's what I learned:

They're trying, but they need to get insurance documents from some guy at Toad Hollow who's licensed to compost post-consumer waste.  Apparently he's a little slow, or tired, or won the lottery and stopped working, and hasn't given us the documents we need, so progress on that is at a bit of a stand-still.

However, SIFE, or Students In Free Enterprise (based in the Whitman School of Management), is working on  an exciting and not-smelly project to bring an anaerobic digester (think: super fancy-composter) here to our light green campus.  

So what Elysa and myself (Marissa) are trying to do is to get word out about our fancy composter (and other composting initiatives) that will be able to power millions of homes and starving people worldwide.

Ok, so maybe it won't go THAT far, but it could help power the Sheraton and/or other neighboring businesses.  

Basically, we're just trying to build awareness to help people understand the impacts of their choices here on our campus.  I'm going to strive to keep you educated and aware of what Syracuse is doing to be "green," and how you can help.  And we hope that you'll be open to new ideas, as we're open to your opinions and suggestions.

And maybe you'll eat that bowl of cereal. 

Until next time,

Marissa