Campuses getting greener

Posted by Kelly on Mar 07, 2008 - 11:50 am

College campuses are finding new ways to be eco-friendly, such as reducing waste production, using lower watt light bulbs, and encouraging students to use more energy-efficient refrigerators.  Colleges from Harvard to Oberlin are finding new ways to make their campuses environment friendly and they are getting support from the students, who attend their ‘trash-free dances’ and compete in a competition to see which dorm is the most ‘green,‘ this winning the ‘Green Cup.‘  Oberlin has even incorporated their concern for the environment in their architecture. 

The Lewis Center at Oberlin, opened in 2000, was one of the first. It’s powered entirely by solar arrays, which produce 30 percent more energy than the building consumes—and this is in cloudy Ohio. Sensors throughout the building monitor energy use. And all wastewater is purified on site in a “living machine,“ an artificial wetland with carefully selected tropical plants and microorganisms that filter the water. Located in the building’s lobby, the living machine looks like a greenhouse. “You’d have no clue it’s a wastewater system,“ says Orr. It even includes an indoor waterfall, powered by the sun, with 600 gallons of water flowing across a rocky surface. As long as the sun is shining, the water flows.

Do we think this is something Wake could do?  Maybe to a certain extent, but piling up all of our trash on the quad as they do at Harvard would not fly.  We would never allow “Mount Trashmore,“ as it has been named, to sit on the Mag Quad.  I think we do some things to benefit the environment here, but aesthetics are still a big priority at Wake Forest.