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IUB's sustainability newsletter
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Sustainability in the News
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Indiana University Athletics to compete Saturday in EPA's Game Day Challenge
 The IU-Northwestern football game won't be the only contest Saturday (Oct. 30) at Memorial Stadium. Indiana University Athletics will compete against 90 other universities as part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Game Day Challenge, a friendly competition to promote waste reduction at football games.
IU Athletics will compete in four of the challenge's five award categories: waste generation, diversion rate, recycling and organics reduction. The participation is part of the Greening Cream & Crimson initiative launched this year by the department.
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IUOS names interns for the 2010-2011 academic year
The Indiana University Bloomington Office of Sustainability has named 14 interns to continue efforts toward a greening of Indiana University during the 2010-2011 academic year.
From its inception in 2007, the sustainability initiative at IU has strived to promote experiential learning as an integral part of the greening of the IUB campus. Sustainability internships have been offered over the past four summers, and internship projects were conducted over the course of the school year for the first time during the 2008-2009 academic year.
The 2010-2011 interns and their projects are:
- Mckenzie Beverage, IU Energy Challenge
- Briana Bobo, First Year Experience
- Karin Dunn, Document Management
- Emmy Fa, Green Events
- Isaac Farley, Greening of the Athletic Department
- Elizabeth Gawthrop, Academic Programs and Research Clearinghouse
- Aaron Harmon, Green Teams
- Stephanie Hopkins, Campus Garden Pilot
- Matt Kerby, Stategic Land Management
- Alexi Lamm, Hoosier to Hoosier Sale
- Jamie Panunzio, Sustainability Reporting, Research and Database
- Alex Rekkas, Utilities Conservation
- Hana Ros, College Themester
- Gerrell Williams, E-waste
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Two IU projects receive $1.1 million in funding to study water use, human-environment interactions
The National Science Foundation has allotted $1.1 million in funding to two Indiana University-led research projects in environmental science.
According to the NSF, the foundation is funding seven awards under its Environment, Society and Economics (ESE) umbrella to foster collaboration among geoscientists and social scientists to address crucial issues for environment, society and the economy -- and how the three affect each other. The awards will factor valuation of "ecosystem services" into economic activities in a way that provides critically important information about land and water use.
Only Indiana University and the University of North Carolina are represented twice among the seven grant projects' principal investigators.
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 Expert source: Federal fuel policy expert discusses proposed fuel efficiency standards
New fuel efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks and buses are being proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency. According to the agencies, the proposed emissions cuts would reduce fuel consumption by 10 percent by 2018.
Traditionally, the federal government's fuel-efficiency efforts have addressed cars, SUVs, small vans, and pick-up trucks.
"It is encouraging that larger trucks will also be addressed in the future," said John D. Graham, dean of the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
Graham previously served under George W. Bush as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (2001-2006) where he chaired the interagency work group that revitalized the Corporate Average Fuel Economy program.
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Majora Carter's Bronx tale: From urban neglect to eco-opportunity
When Majora Carter was growing up, she got used to hearing newscasters refer to her South Bronx neighborhood as a war zone. And the slides that she showed an Indiana University Bloomington audience in a recent lecture suggested that the description wasn't overblown.
 "This is what I grew up with," Carter siad, clicking through photographs of desolate streetscapes, flaming apartment buildings torched for insurance money, block after block of vacant lots and rubble piles.
But Carter never resigned herself to living in a degraded environment. Starting as a volunteer with the Bronx's Point Community Development Corp. and continuing as a founder and leader of the organization Sustainable South Bronx, Carter became a leading advocate for environmental justice.
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 Announcing a new course in the Department of Management & Entrepreneurship...
Sustainable Businesses
Spring Semester 2011
Z255 (section 30551)
Professor Benjamin Schultz
Course Goals: By the end of the semester students should be able to solve a business-related sustainability problem as presented by an assigned client (community business). Specifically, they should be able to articulate measurable means by which a given business can brand itself as sustainable, and post these online as the company's first annual sustainability report.
Course Structure: During the first half of the semester, students will examine sustainability issues in general, and specifically as they are of concern to businesses. The will also:
- Discover the difference between Going Green and becoming a sustainable operation.
- Examine corporate sustainability reports and learn how to create them.
- Study related political issues.
- Learn about employment, entrepreneurship and educational opportunities in the emerging field of Green Business.
During the second half of the semester, students will work in groups each with an assigned area business to help it create and post its first annual online sustainability report. They will work in a service-learning environment where they offer their experience and expertise to area businesses and also learn from being a part of that business during the semester. Local companies will benefit from student skills and knowledge.
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Announcing a new Fine Arts, Studio Art course...
Introduction to Landscape Architecture: Designing a Sustainable Edible Landscape for the IUB Campus
Spring Semester 2011
U201/U301 (sections 18585, 18586)
Professor Laurel Cornell
Landscape architecture is a career where you can work outside, use your analytic and design skills, and make a difference for the environment and for your community. In this course you will explore the elements of landscape architecture -- the site, human intention, topography, water, and plants -- by doing a series of short projects based on field research. Urban agriculture will be the focus, and your main project will be to design a sustainable landscape of edible trees, shrubs, and vines for the IUB campus. There are no prerequisites. People with a variety of backgrounds and with all kinds and levels of artistic skill can be successful in this course. Texts include: You Are Here. 2004. Katherine Harmon, The Changing Garden. 2003. Betsy Fryberger, and Food Rules: An Eater's Manual. 2009. Michael Pollan.
Questions? Email cornell@indiana.edu. |
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Sustainability Course Development Fellowship
Deadline: February 15
This award program supports faculty members' efforts to enhance teaching of topics related to sustainability and environmental literacy at the IU Bloomington campus. It will support innovative approaches to instruction of complex, interdisciplinary topics at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Service-learning courses and those that involve application of principles of sustainability to the IU Bloomington campus are of particluar interest.
Visit http://www.indiana.edu/~vpfaa/awards/sustainabilitycourse.shtml for guidelines and the application. |
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October's Sustainability Catalyst:
Amy Countryman, Bloomington Community Orchard Founder
by Emilie Rex
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Every month we celebrate an individual or group that is catalyzing the sustainability movement on our campus and in our community. This month, we want to express our gratitude to two-time sustainability intern and community orchard enthusiast Amy Countryman for her work and commitment to sustainability. Bill and I met Amy in the spring of 2009. She was finishing up her undergraduate coursework at SPEA and working as the waste audit intern for the Indiana University Task Force in Sustainability. With the help of student volunteers, she sifted through a new different dumpster every weekend, determining ultimately that 50% of residence hall waste was comprised of recyclable material.
We soon learned of Amy's desire to create a community orchard here in Bloomington. Under the guidance of SPEA's Director of Undergraduate Programs Dr. Burney Fischer, Amy transformed her undergraduate thesis focusing on the topic into one of the most successful sustainability projects in our community's history. We asked Burney to comment on the impact he perceived her work has had. Burney wrote, "Amy is that unusual student who does not just dream of change, but actually implements change. I was her faculty advisor for her BSES thesis 'An Edible Urban Forest: An Element of the Sustainability Equation' completed in December 2009. Her goal was clearly not to just complete a thesis for graduation, but to design an edible urban forest project for Bloomington. I think she has been very successful so far."
Jacqui Bauer, the City of Bloomington's Sustainability Coordinator, agreed wholeheartedly with Burney's assessment, remarking, "Amy's work on the community orchard is a great example of how student ideas and initiative can be a huge boon to Bloomington. Our smart, capable student population has such potential to take us to the next level with respect to sustainability."
This week, Amy graciously agreed to answer a couple of questions about her involvement in the Bloomington Community Orchard:
Q: Where did the idea for the BCO originate?
A: Folks have been aware of the need to expand on Bloomington's local food supply for a long time; the Orchard is just one manifestation of that greater vision. The Bloomington Community Orchard grew out of my undergraduate thesis, which occurred as I realized that we could greatly enhance the benefits we receive from publicly-owned trees. After examining other peoples' research, I realized that our local urban forest had less than 2% fruit- or nut-bearing trees. The same summer I was undertaking the thesis, I worked at a local orchard and was astounded by how much food one fruit tree can produce. This led me to the dream of creating public spaces where people could work together to grow fruit and community at the same time.
Q: Why does Bloomington need a community orchard?
A: A community orchard will and does benefit Bloomington in so many ways! This endeavor has been, first and foremost, an incredible amount of fun. We are working together to create- out of nothing- a place where people can learn how to grow fruit organically, build community by working and being together, and make sustainability delicious. Local food is a key element of a sustainable future.
Q: What was your vision of community at the outset and how did this vision inform the process for creating the orchard?
A: The Orchard is about finding others who share a vision of abundance, and coming together to create that. I believe we are capable of working together to meet our needs and create a sustainable community. The City of Bloomington has been incredibly supportive, and many community members are sharing their time and skills to make this happen. My vision of this community is that it is one in which people care passionately about making the world a better place and where people care deeply about each other and the Earth. This has certainly been my experience.
Q: What role do you see yourself playing as the orchard moves forward?
A: I see my role as Orchard support. The Orchard is no more mine than it is anyone's in the community. I'd like to contribute in a way that inspires growth and ownership in other people as we continue to expand on this model to take the vision of "fruit security" even further.
Q: Do you have any words of wisdom for students of sustainability interested in translating their coursework into tangible work that benefits their communities?
A: Pick a topic that inspires you, and that you're willing to see through. Do what you love; it brings joy to everyone involved. Personally, I love the idea of "Free Fruit for All." Feeding each other and ourselves is a simple and noble act.
Amy continued working with us this past summer as the Food Working Group Intern focusing on sustainable food procurement at the University. Her work mapping the local farm network serves as the foundation for current studies on the feasibility of locally sourcing food on campus.
On behalf of everyone at the Office of Sustainability, thank you, Amy. Your relentlessness, perseverance and uncompromising community vision is an inspiration, and we are privileged to work with you.
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 Kent McDaniel is the Executive Director of Transportation Services for Indiana University. He will be sharing his expertise with IUB's Green Teams at the next Green Bag luncheon on November 3rd.
Q: How long have you been working for Indiana University?
A: I was a part-time bus driver for Campus Bus while getting my MPA from SPEA starting in 1974. I started working full-time for the Institute for Urban Transportation that was affiliated with the School of Business in 1977. Eventually, I became the Executive Director of Transportation Services and as of this year, I report to the Office of Budgetary Administration and Planning.
Q: What is the Office of Parking Operations doing to make IU a more sustainable institution?
A: Parking Operations' primary responsibility is to provide and manage parking resources for the thousands of IU employees and students who expect to be able to drive their private vehicles to Campus and have access to convenient parking. However, Parking Operations has also provided financial and administrative support to many of our attempts to provide attractive alternative transportation opportunities in the hope of reducing the number of vehicles that currently drive to and through Campus every day. For example, Parking Operations created and provides IU's car pool program (see below). Parking Operations also provides administrative support four our Zipcar program. Financially, Parking Operations pays for the faculty/staff parking agreement with Bloomington Transit, some bicycle parking facilities around Campus, and has in the past paid for the required local share to match federal grants that have replaced the Campus Bus fleet and has also paid for IU's share of the local match for the bus facility we share with Bloomington Transit on Grimes Lane. Q: What is the RideShare program? How many participants are currently utilizing this program?
A: The Parking Operations' car pool program allows employees to pay a reduced fee for a car pool permit that provides a reserved parking space in your favorite parking lot or garage, a guaranteed ride home for those days when something unforeseen happens and you need to leave early or leave late so that you miss your ride, one day parking permits for every member of the pool for those days when their schedule doesn't allow them to ride with their car pool buddies, and an F permit for evening and weekend parking when you need to come to Campus without your other car pool members. Currently, we only have 19 officially registered car pools of three or more members. However, we believe there are many more unofficial car pools of two people, often married couples, who do not qualify as one of our official pools.
Q: At the November 3rd Green Bag luncheon you will be talking briefly about the Zimride and Zipcar car-sharing programs. How does the Indiana University community benefit from these programs?
A: Studies have shown that every shared car that is established in a community reduces the total number of cars in that community by 20. We currently have five cars on campus and hope to expand the Zipcar fleet. People who rely upon shared cars also tend to drive 40% fewer miles than people who own their own cars so we are reducing pollution, reducing congestion and demand for parking resources, and it saves money to pay by the hour rather than to own, operate, and maintain your own car.
Zimride uses social networking to help the IU community share rides for car pooling and fore one-time trips, like for going home for a weekend or holiday or for going out of town for an away basketball game. Sharing the ride helps save money and reduce you carbon footprint and also helps reduce congestion on our streets and demand for parking. There are 1,764 members of the IU community registered as Zimride users. We hope to be able to convince our students that they can come to Bloomington and use our universal access on Campus Bus and Bloomington Transit for their routine trips to class and work. For those occasions that cannot conveniently be served by fixed-route bus service, they can use Zipcar or Zimride. We want our students and their parents to feel that we will provide for their transportation needs and they can save money by coming to Bloomington and leaving their car behind.
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Working Group Update
Energy and the Built Environment |
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The Energy and the Built Environment Working Group has many exciting updates. Rebecca Barthelmie (Geography) has graciously agreed to co-chair this group with Jeff Kaden (University Architects Office). She will be replacing Matt Auer (SPEA, Hutton Honors College).
 8760 Engineering from St. Louis has been hired to develop the Integrated Energy Master Plan (IEMP), a project that is anticipated to be completed by June 2011. Recent meetings with 8760, their Indiana partner, Loftus Engineering, and IU staff has largely been an information gathering effort. Many documents have been shared related to IU Utilities, IU Sustainability, IU Master Plan, energy consumption, building utilization, etc. Future meetings will engage a number of stakeholders, including the Energy and Built Environment Working Group. The IEMP is intended to focus on energy conservation and reduction strategies through behavior change, broad building condition assessments, prioritization of building improvements campus-wide, opportunities for renewable energy systems, distrubuted energy production facilities, fuel switching opportunities at the Central Heating Plant, and efficiency improvements to all central energy production facilities on campus. Future meetings will be announced well in advance to allow for maximum participation. Up to 23 IUB campus buildings will be evaluated in detail for specific energy conservation measures as the first phase of the long-term Qualified Energy Savings Projects. The buildings will be selected from a list of reserach, academic office, classroom, and athletic facilities. This project will begin in December 2010 and last about 12 months. Examples of the types of projects that will be evaluated include HVAC system improvements, variable frequency drives on motors, upgraded lighting, occupancy sensors for lighting and HVAC control, water savings through new fixtures and aerators, upgraded temperature control systems, and re-programming controls for night setback and unoccupied hours. The projects, when aggregated, must achieve a 10-year or less payback. The campus will borrow the money for the project and the money to re-pay the loan will come from the energy savings. Successful projects have been completed at IUN, IUK, and IUSE. The IUSB vendor will be selected in the next month (once the final state approvals have been received), and the IUPUI project is about to begin. Recent legislative action has increased the dollar amount that any campus can bond (up to $15,000,000 per campus). This change has allowed the IUPUI and IUB campuses to take advantage of these opportunities.
 Additional projects of note include several Central Heating Plant improvements, current construction of the Briscoe Chilled Water Facility which will be connected to the chilled watar loop and will supplement the loop from the north, 11 LEED certification projects currently in design, construction, or occupied, approval of funding for the completion of an automated utility meter reading system, the first ever Fall Campus Energy Challenge currently underway, and the inclusion of renewable energy systems by Residential Programs and Services in both the Briscoe Quad (solar photo voltaic) and Tulip Tree Apartment (solar hot water heating and solar photo voltaic) renovations. The CyberInfrastructure Building currently under construction is also getting a solar hot water system for the building. |
Upcoming Events & Volunteer Opportunities
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For a complete listing of sustainability events, visit:
For a complete listing of Themester events, visit:
Help IU in our first Game Day Challenge!
Volunteer opportunities still available.
Volunteers receive: * the opportunity to help IU compete against 90 other universities in the EPA Game Day Challenge * a free Greening Cream & Crimson t-shirt * snacks! *
The 2010 Game Day Challenge is an initiative of the Environmental Protection Agency's WasteWise program.
Thursday, November 4th
An evening with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman IU Auditorium
7:00 PM
As part of the Themester COLL-T 200 "Living a Sustainable Life" Lecture Series, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman will be visiting the IU Auditorium on Novemeber 4, 2010. In recent years, Friedman has concentrated on environmental and economic global independence. He won Pulitzer Prizes for his international reporting from Lebanon (1983) and Isreal (1988) and for distinguished commentary (2002). His books include the award-winning bestsellers Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America and The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century.
Tickets are available at the IU Auditorium Box Office. Tickets are free. For more information about the COLL-T "Living a Sustainable Life" Lecture Series, visit http://themester.indiana.edu/events/T200.shtml.
Hoosier Environmental Council's 3rd annual Greening the Statehouse
IU Law School, Indianapolis
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Do you have an interest in bringing more public transit to Indiana? Working to make Hoosier agriculture more sustainable? Bring more renewable energy to our state? Tackle our air and water challenges?
Join us for the Hoosier Environmental Council's 3rd annual Greening the Statehouse event. We'll give you the complete download on environmental issues that are going to be at the forefront of the next legislative session. Our event will be kicked off by a speech by nationally-renowned sustainable agriculture advocate Rick Dove. Breakfast and lunch included.
To register and get a discount to our event, go here: http://www.hecweb.org/greenforum/. Students get a $5 discount; just enter 'student5' in the promo and discount code section on the registration page.
Hope to see you there -- Indiana Campus Sustainability Alliance
Tuesday, November 9th & Thursday, November 11th Wendell Berry reads from his work
One of America's preeminent philosophers of place, a leading advocate for environmental stewardship, and a fierce critic of agribusiness, Wendell Berry will present two Patten Foundation lectures reading from his vast collection of literary works each evening. For more information, visit http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/16040.html.
Friday, November 12th
Hymnody of Earth Performance
with Wendell Berry and the Bloomington Chamber Singers
Buskirk Chumley Theatre
8:00 PM
$20 general admission, $10 students
An evening of music and words exploring spiritual aspects of sustainability, presented and performed collaboratively by members of the Bloomingotn community in conjunction with Indiana University's 2010 Themester topic, sustain.ability: Thriving on a Small Planet. Core content will be an augmented, semi-staged verstion of Hymnody of Earth, a song cycle written in 1991 with music by Malcolm Dalglish and text by Wendell Berry.
The song cycle provides a framework to explore the fragile yet powerful relationship between humans and the world around them. Coinciding with Wendell Berry's on-campus visit as a 2010 Patten Foundation Lecturer (Novemner 7-12), the event provides a rare opportunity for creative energy generated by the confluence of Berry, Dalglish, and outstanding local performers from both the university and the local community.For additional event and ticket information, visit http://themester.indiana.edu/events/hymnody.shtml.
IU Rawles Hall, room 100
7:30 PM
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Brown to Green:
Building Community Capacity
by Bill Brown
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In conversations with my colleagues at other universities, we have recognized that one of the most common myths about campus sustainability is that you hire a director of sustainability, and they "do campus sustainability" while everybody else goes about business as usual. Sustainability, however, is not a spectator sport; it is a team sport, and the entire community is in the field of play. In order for sustainability to become the norm in any community, building a strong foundation of social capital and community capacity must be priority one. As an office of two employees, we function as catalysts for change, which requires a constant supply of partners willing to collaborate on common goals. The environmental, economic and social challenges we face today are growing exponentially, and so must our response.
For the past 18 months, the Office of Sustainability has been building social capital and community capacity. Step one was to put in place a system of governance, the Campus Sustainability Advisory Board, co-chaired by the same two leaders of the prior Campus Sustainability Task Force, Paul Sullivan and Michael Hamburger. This board of nearly 40 people represents a cross-section of campus and community life, including veterans of previous environmental and sustainability-related initiatives. Members of this board also serve on seven working groups, each of which have 20 to 30 volunteers from all walks of campus and community life. That's about 200 people who are directly involved in campus sustainability.
We also continued the student sustainability internship program initiated by the Task Force and greatly expanded the scope. Each academic year and summer session, we hire 18 student interns to collaborate with offices, working groups, departments and operational units to move sustainability initiatives forward. Sustainability interns form another layer of connection and capacity by linking academics and operations. Some of the campus initiatives conceived and led by these gifted students have involved hundreds and even thousands of participants. The Fall Energy Challenge, for example, led by Mckenzie Beverage, is currently engaging all 11 residence halls, 27 Greek houses, and 19 academic buildings, totaling more than 18,000 occupants.
In addition to the student leaders who serve on the Campus Sustainability Advisory Board, we initiated a Student Sustainability Council that has grown to include 22 student organizations large and small. They have created their own charter and are pursuing student-focused initiatives, as well as advising us on issues important to students.
Our Green Teams initiative involves 24 ad hoc Green Teams in buildings across campus. They meet within their units and gather monthly to share best practices. Our office has also entered into collaborations with specific entities on campus, such as IU Athletics and IU Alumni Association to reach a wider swath of the campus and broader community population. Our collaboration with First Year Experience exposed 8,000 incoming freshman to the concept of campus sustainability. The Hoosier-to-Hoosier Community Sale and E-Waste Days are also major collaborations with the Bloomington and Monroe County community. But we are just getting started!
Malcolm Gladwell, in his book, The Tipping Point, suggests that you need about 20% of a population engaged to reach a tipping point that will create a new norm. As we close in on that tipping point, we are always looking for more departments to engage in collaborations and we will be looking for a new partner each month.
Toward that end, I would like to end with this question: who have we not yet significantly engaged? Who should be part of this transformation as Indiana University Bloomington strives to become an international leader in campus sustainability? What key areas of the university community are still waiting for their voice to be heard? What functions are we duplicating that other units may already be pursuing? Who can we help? Who can help us? When can we get together?
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General comments and questions should be directed to sustain@indiana.edu.
Our address:
IU Office of Sustainability
1001 E. 10th St.
Geology 429
Bloomington, IN 47405
For IUOS staff:
Bill Brown
Director of Sustainability
brownwm@indiana.edu
812-855-1822
Emilie Rex
Assistant Director of Sustainability
ekrex@indiana.edu
812-855-2678
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