Some pictures form Merry Lea

Our Trip to the Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center

On Monday, many of us had the opportunity to travel to Goshen College’s Merry Lea Environmental learning Center: http://www.goshen.edu/merrylea/

For those of us that weren’t able to make it, keep an eye out for the pictures we will be posting this weekend. Until then, you can take photo tour at Merry Lea’s site: http://www.goshen.edu/merrylea/education/webmap/map.html

The majority of our visit was spent at Rieth Village (featured left) which is an ecological field station for undergraduate programs and a fascinating model in sustainable design. Rieth Village was designed and constructed with a strong commitment to sustainability, successfully meeting the highest standards of the LEED rating system. The village consists of two cottages, which provide housing for up to 32 students and a third cottage which currently serves as the initial classroom and office building. This is the page for Reith Village: http://www.goshen.edu/merrylea/rieth/index.php

During the course of our visit, Merry Lea’s Executive Director, Luke Gascho, described many aspects of the design and implementation process for the center, facilitated a discussion between the IU, Purdue, and Goshen College representatives, and gave us an extensive tour. I propose that we use the blog to record some of the highlights and observations we made during the trip.

I will begin with what struck me the most:

-First, it was encouraging to see the fast pace of the steps Goshen College is taking towards sustainability. The college has signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment and has a five-year plan to Ensure Operational Excellence (among many other initiatives).

-Within the Merry Lea center, I was particularly impressed by the water-treatment system: a “cleansing biotope” consisting of gravel beds and a rooting system comprises the entire on-site water treatment system, whose final product meets Indiana’s requirements for treated water without the use of any chemicals.

-The center has also successfully designed the landscape to achieve a 0-storm water discharge.

- In the design of the village, great attention was paid to the types of materials used in construction in order to ensure the integrity of the sustainable system. Some of the factors taken into account were the environmental footprint of the production of the materials, durability, recyclability, and potential interactions with the environment. Some examples of the materials include rapidly renewable products (products which renew themselves every 7 years or less), such as a sunflower-hull/resin mix used to make the kitchen cabinetry, recycled concrete used to build the road system, recycled plastic and wood chips used as decking for the cottages.

Feel free to continue the list…

Democacy Now! Two interviews about climate change

Watch the June 3rd episode of Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/

Amy Goodman interviews Stephen Susman and John Holdren:

Groundbreaking Lawsuit Accuses Big Oil of Conspiracy to Deceive Public About Climate Change

Attorney Stephen Susman helped file a groundbreaking lawsuit earlier this year on behalf of 400 Inupiat villagers in the Alaskan town of Kivalina who are being forced to relocate because of flooding caused by global warming. The suit accuses twenty oil, gas and electric companies, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips and Peabody, of being responsible for emitting millions of tons of greenhouse gases causing the Arctic ice to melt.

“Global Disruption” More Accurately Describes Climate Change, Not “Global Warming” – Leading Scientist John Holdren

Leading scientist John Holdren says “global warming” is not the correct term to use; he prefers “global disruption.” “‘Global warming’ [is] misleading. It implies something that’s mainly about temperature, that’s gradual, and that’s uniform across the planet,” says Holdren. “In fact, temperature is only one of the things that’s changing. It’s a sort of an index of the state of the climate. The whole climate is changing: the winds, the ocean currents, the storm patterns, snow packs, snowmelt, flooding, droughts. Temperature is just a bit of it.”

Southern Indiana Renewable Energy Network

I’ve just become aware of a new initiative that may be of interest to many of us:

Southern Indiana Renewable Energy Network

SIREN is a community group of volunteers working together to expedite the transition to renewable energy production in Southern Indiana. Come to a meeting or join our email discussion list to learn more. Feel inspired? Download our membership form and become a member.

Visit SIREN’s website: http://sirensolar.org/index.htm

Their next meeting is on July 9 at the MCPL.

Accepting simple changes, like the design of milk jugs

Check out this New York Times article on a change that both Wal-mart and Costco are making to lower their costs as well as improve their environmental impacts. Consumer reaction here is key: A simple change, like the design in a milk jug, has a negative response. How can we educate the average consumer to help them understand why changes like these are necessary?

Solution, or Mess? A Milk Jug for a Green Earth

Going green, corporate style

Last week, a few of us drove to Indy to attend an event hosted by the Indiana Sustainability Alliance. The speaker was Mike Molnar, Director of Sustainability for Cummins Diesel Engine company, and he spoke about his company’s recent commitment to sustainability and massive effort to reduce their carbon footprint.

It was interesting to see some of the business logic that would propel a global industrial corporation to embrace environmentalism. I think there are 3 important factors at work:

• First, Cummins is primarily acting in anticipation of future carbon tax or cap legislation, whch explains why the program is almost entirely focused on greenhouse gas reductions.

• Second, the company is leveraging public concern about climate change to improve their brand image. This is supported by public carbon diclosure programs which allow Cummins to advertise their environmental responsibility relative to competitors.

• Finally, by focusing especially on reducing electricity use, Cummins is able to see a huge return on investment. Roughly, the company invested $11 million up front and is now seeing $7 million savings in energy costs annually.

Overall, it is really encouraging to see such progressive action from the private sector. One point, however, stuck out as impetus for critical discussion.  Cummins’ massive effort resulted in a 20-30% reduction in carbon intensitiy, measured as emissions divided by dollars of revenue. However, because the company’s business was growing so rapidly during this time, the absolute reduction was only about 2%. In order to address climate change, we need to significantly reduce total emissions below current levels. How can this be achieved in an economy that is constantly growing?