5.13.13

Goshen College President Jim Brenneman announced today that the college has taken a major step by voluntarily purchasing all of its electricity from renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power. This single action will reduce the college’s carbon footprint by about 45 percent.

Goshen College President Jim Brenneman, NIPSCO’s Manager of Public Affairs Angela Nelson and Goshen College Sustainability Coordinator and Utilities Manager Glenn Gilbert hold up a representational “green carbon footprint.”

The college is the first major customer of NIPSCO, the regional electricity provider, to take this action and participate in its new Green Power Program.

“What this means for Goshen College is that going forward from today, no more coal, gas or oil will be burned, no more carbon dioxide will be introduced into the atmosphere to provide electricity for our campus,” Brenneman said during an all-campus convocation. Before this step, the equivalent of 24 train cars of coal were needed (or about 12 tons per student) to provide electricity to campus each year. Coal is Indiana’s primary energy source.

In 2007, Brenneman became a charter signatory to the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. In doing so, he joined with leaders of 175 other higher education institutions in agreement to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions. Goshen College was one of two higher education institutions in Indiana and the first Mennonite college or university to sign the landmark climate commitment. There now are 664 signatories.

“We did that because we are very concerned about life on this planet, it was one more way we can care for the world and it was part of our broader ecological stewardship commitment,” Brenneman said. “Goshen College, like the Mennonite Church which we are a part of, has always been committed to being global citizens.

By signing up for this program – which is recently available to all customers – NIPSCO buys renewable energy certificates (RECs) on the college’s behalf. RECs are the environmental attributes associated with electricity that is generated from renewable sources. NIPSCO Green Power Program RECs are certified through Green-e® Energy, the nation’s leading renewable energy certification and verification program. Green-e® Energy provides independent, third-party certification to ensure that certified renewable energy meets strict environmental and consumer-protection standards.

Participants in the program pay a monthly premium in addition to the standard electric rate, which goes entirely to pay for the RECs.

In response to the college’s energy efficiency efforts and commitment to sustainability, NIPSCO’s Manager of Public Affairs Angela Nelson presented a $5,000 check to the college’s Ecological Stewardship Committee to help with further initiatives on campus in the future.

Since 2007, the college has been very successful at energy conservation. “In that time, both natural gas and electrical consumption have been reduced by over 25 percent,” said Glenn Gilbert, the campus’ sustainability coordinator and utilities manager. “Conservation will continue to be a major component of our strategy.” The college is using about the same amount of electricity on campus today as it did in 1992, despite adding 290,000 more square feet of building space.

Gilbert added, “We seek to be leaders in environmental sustainability and to model a safe and effective way for our society to move away from dependency on fossil fuel-based energy sources that have proven to be so destructive to our environment.”

To learn more about the college’s various green initiatives – including composting, prairie planting, making biodiesel, powering hot showers with solar panels and others – visit http://www.goshen.edu/gogreen.

The Home Heating project.

An Infraed (IR) photo showing a home's heat loss.

Since more than 30% of energy used to heat homes is lost, and the average household heating bill pays for $170 in wasted energy annually, this group’s goals were to save local homeowners money while simultaneously reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. They started by creating a survey that outlines the physical and behavioral elements on home energy use. They incorporated a social pedagogy involving interactions with home owners via the survey and email correspondence. They received positive feedback from the participants in the community. In fact 16 of the 33 households who took the survey submitted their 3-year utility data. This showed both winter heating and summer electric bills. After they collected and sorted the data, they made a statistical model that predicts under what conditions would be socially and financially sustainable. Then using the averages of summer electric and winter natural gas use, the group highlighted the most important characteristics. These included how many inches of insulation the house had, the type of cooling and heating system, if the basement was finished or not, frequency and type of filter cleaning, square footage of the house, and total number of windows in the house. Their analysis showed what circumstances caused the most expensive bills and greatest inefficiencies.

Other members of this group were in charge of the Infrared (IR) imaging cameras to see differences in newer and older homes. The photos were taken outside at night, primarily of windows and doors. The pictures were then sent to homeowners to show them where heat loss is happening in their homes. Interpreting what the photos meant for the homeowners will hopefully foster change that will promote environmental sustainability.

Many homeowners lack awareness which is why there is inefficient use of energy in their homes. With that in mind, the remaining group members created a brochure to give homeowners who participated in the home audit to help them understand what they could do about it. This pamphlet displays a hypothetical model they created that displays savings and returns over time for specific improvements. Their suggestions showed the economic savings for different programmable thermostats and furnace filters. By providing this information, local homeowners can grasp how their energy bills will be affected in the long-run.

The Electric Vanagon Project

The 1983 VW Vanagon

The purpose of this project was to look into the opportunity of developing a carbon neutral mode of transportation in converting a 1983 VW Vanagon that could benefit the Goshen community. One of the main options was converting it to run on vegetable oil. Using veggie oil would be easy because of the endless supply from local restaurants. It is also an organic and sustainable fuel source that burns cleaner than diesel. Since the vegetable oil takes a while to heat up the students quickly realized it only makes sense to convert it if it were used primarily for long trips.  They developed a carbon assessment of the costs of various fuel sources for powering the VW Vanagon in Indiana including electric. Through calculating the carbon and dollar costs of conversion, fuel consumption, and ongoing maintenance/use, the team realized how expensive some of the options were. By conducting a cost-benefit analysis, they found that the veggie oil option would only be a 2-month payback.

Part of this group proposed two scenarios that included funding for the conversion, policies they would need to consider, and who would own and operate the van. Their first option was that GC would use it as a sustainable transportation vehicle for students going to and from Merry Lea. Funding would come from the Ecological Stewardship Committee.  The second option was that a local non-profit organization, The Window, would use it in their operations for volunteers delivering 50-60 meals per day that they provide in the Goshen community. This option would be handed over to Enactus, a group of GC student leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better more sustainable world. Enactus would be in charge of funding it with a business grant. Both scenarios revolved around building social connections with a sustainable momentum in a transient community.

The Goshen Downtown Theater Project

The Goshen Theater in downtown Goshen

This project stems from the question of how can the community of Goshen collaborate and support the renovation, use, and ongoing management of the Goshen Downtown Theater? This well-known building in downtown Goshen has gone through many shifts in ownership over the years. With a rich history, this theater has been standing for over 100 years. Community involvement has served great importance as it has been used for church services, dance classes, film series, First Friday events, and is currently a non-profit. The community has a lot of pride in the theater. A feasibility study conducted a few years ago stated that it is a “hub” of diverse activities. By linking all parties in the Goshen community involved in envisioning how to use the theater, this group analyzed who uses the theater, for what purposes, and what do they value about it. They conducted a local business owner survey and got insights into the impact the theater has on their shops. They found that since many are closed by the time events go on, any increase in store traffic mostly goes unnoticed.

Other members working on this project looked into reducing heat energy and heat loss for some sustainable solutions. They generated potential ways the theater could be used and recommendations for solutions to decrease energy costs especially with lighting the theater.

They conducted an energy audit and calculated feasibility for renovation options. Their proposed future suggestions were realistic options for the very specific layout of the theater.  Overall the group recognized the challenges over the long-term, historically and over the next hundred years.

Reflections.

After all three groups presented the class discussed their reflections on their projects. I could tell they felt a renewed sense of disciplines connecting – integrating social environmental, economic, and even political and religious aspects. This final project was harder than they expected as they got to witness first-hand the complexities in these processes. Through investigation and incorporation of different perspectives, they learned what seemed obvious at first may not actually be feasible. Ultimately it was the locally grown solutions that resulted from collaborating with and catering to the community and their needs that can bring awareness and create sustainable models and relationships.

–By Kristina Lopienski

Senior Jon Mark, an environmental science and peace, justice and conflict studies double major, organized this event for a class project. The college’s student club EcoPAX harvested dandelion greens on April 10-11 from campus prairies that have had no pesticides sprayed for the last 2 years (so they are safe for consumption) and AVI Fresh Dining Hall chef Jeremy Corson prepared them for the lunch.

This project is an attempt to “make peace with dandelions.” These dark leafy greens are full of vitamin A, C and K, making them very nutritious. The plant was once known as a cure-all and there are many health effects of eating this plant, if they haven’t been sprayed with pesticides. You can read Goshen College Sustainability Coordinator Glenn Gilbert’s 2012 opinion piece about dandelions here.

Want to learn more about this event? Read more from The Elkhart Truth and on Goshen Commons.

The Goshen College prairie near the retention pond area by the athletic complex as part of a controlled burn to help manage the native landscape (Photo by Jodi H. Beyeler/Goshen College Communications and Marketing Office)

April 4, 2013

The campus was ablaze, but all was well. For the first time, several acres were burned (south of the Newcomer Center and the retention pond area by the athletic complex) as part of a management plant to establish the prairie and control non-native weeds. The controlled burn was led by Associate Professor of Biology and Environmental Science Ryan Sensenig, with assistance from biology student assistants and Sustainability Coordinator Glenn Gilbert. The fire department was on hand, as well as a few curious observers who gave standing ovations for the rabbits as they escaped the flames and ran for their lives.

In recent years, Goshen College has restored 12 acres of lawn to native landscaping (only part of this was burned today). In order to promote this native landscape, it is very helpful to simulate naturally occurring fires. For more background on this project, read this.

View more photos from the controlled prairie burn.

Read more about this from The Elkhart Truth and Goshen News.

Goshen College recently celebrated Earth Week from March 18-23. Each day had its own theme with a variety of speakers and activities to get involved with ranging from herb planting to upcycling art projects.  All of these events led up to Earth Hour, 60 minutes in which everyone was encouraged to turn out their lights and unplug their electronics. Many students participated, and some even took on their own challenges.  A few students share their personal reflections on their experiences throughout the week in evaluating their consumption of resources:

Aaron Stiffney, “Giving up meat”

I gave up meat this week because I’ve never experimented with being vegetarian. And also because I’m aware of how inefficient it is to raise meat compared to growing food. I didn’t think it would be very difficult before starting, but by the second day I was already tired of it. As the week went on it got much easier and I got used to it. The experience made me realize how eating habits formed at a young age carry into the rest of your life. My family ate meat at almost every meal when I was growing up making it difficult to completely drop it from my diet. Over all it was a really good experience being vegetarian for a short period. I think someday if I’m dedicated enough I could give up meat for an extended amount of time.

Jacob Putnam, “Using less water”

This week I cut down on my water consumption. While I still drank water every day, I wanted to see what little, simple things I could do to save. So naturally I did what any good college student would do: a quick Google search of, “ways to conserve water,” and it gave me some pretty nice tips. When I washed dishes, instead of constantly running the tap, I closed both drains and filled the sinks with water- one for washing and one for rinsing. I also used the same glass for drinking water to cut down on washing use. While brushing my teeth I turned off the water. But my hardest task was limiting my shower time to 5 minutes. Unfortunately these things did not come naturally to me. I had to constantly remind myself at the beginning, but with time I got used to it and have since been a lot better.

I decided to work on this not only because I never back down from a challenge, but also because I know how important water is. Many people don’t have access to clean water, yet it is something we take for granted. Earth is our home and in order to live, water is a vital part of that home. But we have to learn to protect our environment in doing so. Sure I might not be able to reap the direct benefits of saving water for myself, but I’m sure somewhere down the road my grandkids will say, “Boy, I sure am happy Grandpa Jacob taught us how to save water.”

Irene Schmid, “Giving up hot water”

Even though I only gave up hot showers for a short period of time, it still taught me the importance of water in my everyday life. As I reflect over my weeks of cold showers I have begun to recognize how I so frequently take water for granted, and yet continue to waste it. I realize that I am not the one who suffers the repercussions of wasted water from thoughtlessly idling in the shower. When I need water, I can always go and turn on the spigot. But when I take hot water out of my daily life I can begin- albeit only begin- to experience what it is like to not have the luxury of continuous water. I hope that in the future I can further learn from this experience and appreciate the impact that water has on my life.

–By Kristina Lopienski

Goshen College junior Natasha Weisenbeck, a public relations major from Clifton, Ill., is a student volunteer on the composting team. At the end of every day, a student volunteer spends 15 minutes collecting receptacles in the dining hall with all the food waste and dumping the contents into the campus compost bin, a large insulated wooden box located behind the dining hall dumpsters. Woodchips are added which introduces bacteria to the food, preventing odors and helping break up the pile. (Photo by Jodi H. Beyeler/Goshen College Communications and Marketing Office)

Where might you find coffee grounds, potato skins and egg shells mixed with meat, napkins and leftover spaghetti? Typically, beside other garbage in the dump. In fact, for years, this is where Goshen College sent its food waste.

However, in 2010 the college implemented a much better practice by taking something perceived as dirty trash and transforming it into something of value: compost. Beginning with a trial run that received enthusiastic support, the college began composting food waste in the dining hall. It has evolved to become a successful model due to the strong commitment of students and the implementation of a simple composting method.

This system – low-cost and low-tech – works well for a small college serving over 200 mouths per meal in the cafeteria. Goshen College Sustainability Coordinator Glenn Gilbert said, “What I like about this approach to composting is its simplicity and community engagement. Rather than invest in a complicated expensive form of technology that operates in the background, Goshen College has chosen to rely on student involvement, creating a simple system, that is easily replicable almost anywhere.”

Student energy and commitment

All students that eat in the dining hall participate in the process by scraping their food waste into special containers. Student volunteers are also critical to the daily maintenance and implementation of this project. The college’s student environmental club, EcoPAX, organizes the volunteers.

Junior Natasha Weisenbeck, a public relations major from Clifton, Ill., is one of those students. “It takes dedicated, excited people to engage and participate in the process, much like what we have here at Goshen,” she said.

In addition to volunteering with the student compost team for three years, she served as the campus compost intern last summer. Combining her passions for the environment and communication, she created tutorials, maintained the composting process and even solved a problem that has greatly improved the college’s approach.

Goshen College junior Natasha Weisenbeck uses the screener that she designed and built, which separates the woodchips from the compost which has been decomposing for up to three months prior. (Photo by Jodi H. Beyeler/Goshen College Communications and Marketing Office)

Weisenbeck identified the need for a better compost screening solution (to separate the final product from the woodchips which are combined with the food waste). She designed and constructed an innovative creation: a pivot screener which hangs on a 20-degree angle and hits bumpers allowing the compost waste to fall through the screen and be collected. The woodchips tumble to the end. This cuts the time in half from the prior – more basic approach – and creates a better quality final product.

At the United States Composting Council’s annual conference in late January 2013, Weisenbeck presented on the growth of the college’s composting program and demonstrated its simplicity for others to learn from. The college’s program was “definitely an outlier at the convention because we are so small. We’re unique in the sense that our operation is very low-tech and extremely low cost,” said Weisenbeck. “There was nothing else like it there.”

In addition to the significant role students play in making this program happen, the support and assistance of the AVIFresh dining hall staff is critical. If AVIFresh hadn’t been fully behind the project from the beginning, “it is unlikely that food waste composting at Goshen College would be a reality,” said Weisenbeck. As well, Gilbert and Lew Naylor, an adjunct chemistry professor and international composting consultant, provide vital technical support.

A low-cost approach

A benefit of the simple approach is that it is cost-effective, with just an 8-month payback. This is the result of using student labor and a reduction in garbage bags and landfill costs. The composting boxes – designed by Naylor, Gilbert and students – only cost about $150 in materials to build. Compared to alternatives, composters that use electricity are as much as 10 to 100 times the cost.

Even if all of the labor was paid instead of volunteer, composting saves the college money. Between waste pickup fees and garbage bag savings in the kitchen, the college saves an estimated $1,800 per semester.

A low-tech approach

On a typical weekday during the semester, about 75 to 100 pounds of food waste is produced in the college’s dining hall. When students are done eating, they have the option to scrape fruit, meat, napkins and any other compostable waste from their plates into waste receptacles clearly designated for composting.

At the end of a day, a student volunteer spends 15 minutes collecting the receptacles and dumping all of the contents into the campus compost bin, a large insulated wooden box located behind the dining hall dumpsters. Woodchips – received free from local tree trimmers – are added as mulch and combined with the food waste at a two-to-one ratio to provide airflow. This introduces bacteria to the food, which prevents odors and helps break up the pile.

On-site composting lasts for at least three weeks, self-heating to more than 140°F. Once full, a composter is transported to an on-campus location and replaced by an empty container. Decomposition continues for up to three more months prior to a screening process, during which the woodchips are separated and removed, using Weisenbeck’s pivot screener.

The cycle is complete when the compost is returned to AVIFresh dining services to be used as a natural fertilizer in their small garden, which eventually produces vegetables and herbs for meals to be served to students. In 2011, the compost-treated garden provided the dining hall with 88 pounds of plum tomatoes, 35 pounds of heirloom tomatoes, 71 batches of basil, and other vegetables like kale and peapods for immediate or frozen use.

View a video of Weisenbeck putting the pivot screener to use:

– By Kristina Lopienski

But how much e-coli and lawn fertilizer are also flowing in the river, and is it safe?

Some Goshen College students are collaborating with community members to monitor the water quality of the nearby Elkhart River – and the students are using their new iPads to do it.

On Oct. 1, Associate Professor of Biology Ryan Sensenig’s Ecology and Evolution class launched a five-week collaborative project between a local company, Hertzler Systems Inc., the Goshen College Informatics and Biology departments and members of the Community Clean Water Project to test the water quality of the Elkhart River. With their new iPads, the students can enter the water quality data they collect at the river directly into their tablets using an app designed by Goshen College sophomore Jacob Shetler during an internship with Hertzler Systems, Inc.

After being entered into the app, the water quality data is automatically uploaded to a server on campus where a software program, donated by Hertzler Inc., compiles the data and presents trends, means and some basic analysis. These data include everything from chemical results to counts of invertebrate species. Students of Sensenig’s biology class will each design a website that communicates these data to the public. The best designs will be selected by Hertzler Systems staff to be implemented with the help of a Goshen College informatics class in the spring.

“This will eventually allow anyone using a mobile device to access weekly water data in real-time in a user friendly way that promotes increased awareness,” said Sensenig.

Out in the field, students sampled macroinvertebrates from the Elkhart River as biological indicators of the quality of the water. Volunteers from the Community Clean Water Project helped the students gather samples. The volunteer group, which was formed about four years ago by Sensenig and local environmental educator Melissa Kinsey, adopted the statewide monitoring program of Hoosier Riverwatch at a local level. The group is made up of community volunteers who monitor the river year-round.

“Our goal is to learn about the quality of the water and to educate interested citizens,” said Kinsey. “We’re interested in creation care, protecting the earth’s resources, being aware of the human impact on the quality of the water and the safety of the water.

With the introduction of the iPad for all first-year students at Goshen College, Sensenig has adjusted the clean water project. “With the iPads, it allows us to emphasize to students the importance of using technology to communicate scientific findings to the public,” he said. “And having the ability to type in data right in the field is a compelling way of using the iPad.”

For many students in the class, this project is an introduction to citizen science. People who fish or boat on the Elkhart River, live along the river or are just concerned citizens will soon easily be able to access the latest information about the river’s water quality.

“It’s important for the students to be able to take everything they learned from class and figure out what are the most important things to communicate, and what is the best way to communicate it in a user-friendly way?” said Sensenig. “It’s not just enough to know the science, but they need to be able to engage the community.”

Evan Miller, of Hertzler Systems, Inc., which has donated thousands of dollars of time and software to the project, said, “At a personal level, as a member of my local community, it feels great to participate in something that brings together town, gown, and business for the good of a community asset, our river.”

– By Alysha Landis

Seven students, most of whom are environmental science majors, will launch their canoes from Mallard Roost Wetland Conservation Area, east of Ligonier, Ind., on Tuesday, September 18. They’ll paddle northwest, tracing the path of the Elkhart River as it winds its way through Ligonier, Goshen and Elkhart and joins the St. Joe River. They’ll then follow the St. Joe through South Bend, Niles and Berrien Springs, ending in Benton Harbor where the St. Joe meets Lake Michigan.

Along the way, students will test the water quality of the rivers. They’ll also visit a wide variety of residents and institutions along their path. Among the stops are a a gravel quarry, a solar company, and a church that developed an interest in water quality because they baptize in the Elkhart River. They’ll also speak with a chef, see a hydropower installation in South Bend and meet a county commissioner.

The watershed trip offers opportunities for collaboration with faculty and students from other universities. In South Bend, the SSR students will spend an evening with students and faculty from the Center for a Sustainable Future, Indiana University South Bend (IUSB). In Berrien Springs, they will share a cookout with Andrews University students and faculty and tour a dairy farm and wastewater treatment plant on campus.

The SSR canoe trip and the courses that follow it are part of a pedagogy called problem-based learning. This form of learning places more responsibility on students to figure out what they need to know and how they can learn it. The faculty are guides and coaches rather than “sages on stage,” and the entire watershed is the laboratory.

For example, in the SSR’s Landscape Limnology course, instructor Lisa Zinn, Wolf Lake, Ind., has posed the question, “How does Merry Lea affect the water quality of the headwaters of the Elkhart River, and what could Merry Lea do to better protect these headwaters?” Students will spend the bulk of the course seeking answers.

On an orientation hike on Merry Lea’s property, Dr. Dave Ostergren, who teaches an environmental policy course in the SSR, challenged the students to consider what policies had shaped the landscape they hiked through and what bodies made those policies.

The SSR culminates in an environmental problem-solving project that challenges students to address a local environmental problem.

“We began planning for the SSR in 1999,” Luke Gascho, Merry Lea’s executive director, told the SSR students on their first day at Merry Lea. That year, when the current SSR students were in second or third grade, Merry Lea staff resolved to develop innovative undergraduate programs on site that would immerse students in the landscapes they are studying. The long process included construction of Rieth Village, a platinum-rated LEED® facility where the students now live.

- By Jennifer Schrock

IUSB’s Center for a Sustainable Future has a new blog and one of their summer interns, Sarah Ward, wrote about her recent visit to Goshen College to learn about our efforts at sustainability. Check out what she learned!