Sustainability At Purdue University

Sustainability at Purdue University Team Green Bean Josh McKinney Jessica Melton Ryan Scott

Green Roof in Tokyo

Team Green Bean

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ENGL 421 - Francis Tobienne, Jr. 10-30-2009 Table of Contents 1. Title Page 1 2. Table of Contents 2 3. Executive Summary 3 a. Importance of Green Research 3 b. Green Buildings Overview 3 c. Community Outreach Overview 3 d. Interviews Overview 3 4. Research and Data Gathered 4 a. Green Buildings 4 i. Mechanical Engineering Building 4 ii. Schleman Hall 4 b. Community Outreach Efforts 5 i. Recycling 5 ii. Energy 6 iii. Storm Water Management 6 iv. Purdue Green Week 7 v. University of Vermont 7 Team Green Bean

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c. Interviews 8 5. Works Cited 12 6. Annotated Bibliography 13

Executive Summary Importance of Green Research

and other nonrenewable resources, “going green” and “sustainability” apply to those who want to help the Around the world, “going green” andworld continue to be a habitable and “sustainability” are key words thathospitable place. Alternative are heard often. But what do theytransportation, green roofs, recycling, mean? In short, humanity is at aand other community-based efforts crossroads. What with globalpave the way for a brighter, greener, warming, the scarcity and price of oilsustainable future. The members of Team Green Bean

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Team Green Bean have looked into the efforts Purdue has made thus farCommunity Outreach in securing itself as a green Overview university. They have also looked into the future regarding how Purdue canThe only way for Purdue to be totally make a more lasting impact on itsgreen is to have the community campus and the community around it.within and surrounding it be green as Team Green Bean has Researchers have put many hourswell. into this field of study, and theirresearched the strides made by such efforts and ideas will be summarizedorganizations as the Boiler Green herein. To focus this discussion,Initiative (BGI) and the University of Team Green Bean chose three mainVermont in capturing the attention of points of interest: Purdue’s greenthe community and getting help in buildings, community outreachthe effort to go green. Recycling and efforts, and interviews withenergy awareness are just a few of researchers and teachers ofthe topics that are important to the sustainability of Purdue and of the sustainability. community, and those, among others, will be covered, as well as how Purdue Green Buildingscan continue to maintain the Overview community’s support in its endeavors. In 2011, Purdue will open its first certified green building. The Roger B.Interviews Gatewood Addition to the MechanicalResearchers and teachers of Engineering building will add spacesustainability at Purdue are vital and sustainability to part of Purdue’sbecause they can share their Campus, and Team Green Beanknowledge with students, the looked into the particulars. The greencommunity, and university officials roof of Schleman Hall and otheralike. Team Green Bean conducted possible green building projects weretwo interviews with staff members also analyzed. The importance ofintegral to the green movement at green buildings is not to bePurdue, Dr. Fu Zhao and Dr. Robin understated. Buildings account forRidgeway. These interviews shed 48% of the total energy consumptionlight on what is like to teach in the United States and it issustainability and how being green is imperative that this energy either beimportant to the university. reduced or put to better use than it is now. Team Green Bean

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stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts. According to the USBGC, LEED “provides building owners and operators a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building

Research and Data Gathered Green Buildings Mechanical Engineering In 2011 Purdue University will open its first green building, thedesign, construction, operations and Roger B. Gatewood Addition to themaintenance solutions.”1 Mechanical Engineering building. The LEED essentially is a points $33 million addition will add just oversystem for construction engineers and 40,000 square feet to the building, orarchitects which allows building about 55 percent more room. Alongcreators to tally up the positive green with the new laboratories, classrooms,design decisions to achieve one of the and student areas, the building willfour different LEED levels – Certified, also bring a first to Purdue’s campus –Silver, Gold, or Platinum. For The a certified green building. Roger B. Gatewood Addition to be The Roger B. Gatewood AdditionLEED v2.2 Certified, it must achieve will the first building on Purdue’s26 of a possible 69 points. To achieve campus to be constructed to thethese points, Purdue is implementing standards of the U.S. Green Buildingseveral items including a higher solar Council, a non-profit organizationreflectance roof, low-flow plumbing which focuses on cost-efficient andfixtures, construction materials with energy-saving practices for greenrecycled content, Green Label Plus buildings. The U.S. Green Buildingcarpet, wood certified by the Forest Council (USGBC) has created anStewardship Council, and paint and internationally recognizedsealants certified to reduce indoor air certification system called LEED whichpollutants. was designed to improve several Though the Mechanical environmental metrics includingEngineering building’s addition will be energy savings, water usage, carbon dioxide emissions, improvement of1http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.a spx?CMSPageID=1988 indoor environmental quality and the Team Green Bean

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the first certified green building at Purdue, there have recently been other green construction projects on campus.

Schleman Hall The green roof atop Schleman is a plant-covered surface designed to both retain water from rain and insulate the building and is the result of a $68,700 grant from State Farm Insurance2. As a side effect of the natural materials used, the building’s roof will actually last longer than if it didn’t have a green roof. The roof includes monitoring equipmentRecycling powered by solar panels designed to check the efficiency and performance Recycling programs have long of the roof and provide data for makeexisted at Purdue, and in the last few design decisions for future green roofyears have grown in both importance projects on campus. Though theto students and faculty and future of green roofs at Purdueparticipation. In 2008 Purdue’s depend on the data gleaned fromrecycling rate was 26 percent, which Schleman Hall, Purdue is alreadyresulted in keeping 500 tons of trash considering green roofs on theout of landfills. The recycling rate at Horticulture Building, Mann Hall, thePurdue increased to 37 percent in Armory, and other new construction. 2009. The end goal for Purdue is to recycle 100 percent of its waste. Purdue Grounds have set a goal of a total of 65 percent recycled waste by 2014, so clearly the goal of 100 percent efficiency is many years off. To encourage the increase of recycling, Purdue Grounds installed 31 new recycling containers across the West Lafayette campus. 2http://www.boilergreen.com/page2/p Furthermore, there is a pilot program age8/greenroof.html in Freehafer Hall, which puts recycling

ommunity Outreach Efforts

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containers instead of trash cans atliving in dorms. University Residences the desk of every staff, and facultyspends $3000 weekly for its member in the building. The onlyemployees to check and sort items not recycled in Freehafer Hallrecyclable goods, including are those containing liquid, foodcardboard, plastic, and paper. waste, or food wrappers. These itemsHousing and Food services provides can be thrown away at trash cans incustomers with refillable bottles and common areas. The recycle bins areuses only 100 percent recycled fiber emptied twice a week by a custodialnapkins. The Purdue Memorial Union crew and creates no additionaluses green cleaning chemicals and required labor. This pilot program isnow has a sustainable floor that expected to be expanded and gorequires fewer chemicals for campus-wide in 2010, greatlymaintenance in its Commons area. increasing the recycling Purdue’s Veterinary Hospital has efforts of all staff and increasecreated compost with its used animal Purdue’s overall recycling ratebedding and manure. significantly. Another success for recycling at Another initiative Purdue isPurdue has been a collaborative taking to increase campus-wideproject between Boiler Green, Purdue participation is joining Recyclemania!Athletics, and Purdue Refuse and in 2010. Recyclemania! is competitionRecycling. Together, these groups between other colleges andhave worked together to setup a universities to see who can recyclerecycling program for Purdue home the most during a ten-week period infootball games at Ross-Ade Stadium. the spring 2010 semester. It is hopedOn game days volunteers begin at that students will want to participate8AM and continue working until an and that their involvement will carryhour after the game ends to collect over after the ten-week period. recyclable waste and encourage fans Purdue also has a few ratherto recycle. In 2008, there were a total unconventional recycling programsof 150 volunteers that put in 710.5 that are not immediately apparenthours. The result of their efforts was a when one first comes to campus. Thetotal of 45,140 lbs of recycled waste remnants of over 500,000 meals eachthat didn’t end up in a landfill 3. month from Purdue dining hall go toThrough the first three games of the the West Lafayette Waste Treatment2009 football season the program is Plant and are there recycled into methane. University Residences also3http://www.boilergreen.com/page2/p have recycling programs for thoseage10/Recycling.html Team Green Bean

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on pace to recycle of 52,000 lbs ofEngineering to give a lecture on how waste by the end of the season. buildings can be better suited to use daylight as a more effective way of lighting than light bulbs. After compiling all their data and gleaning more information from research, they will apply for grants to hold an efficient light bulb exchange to invite the community to learn more about their findings. This will increase awareness in the community and on campus about how to conserve energy using daylight and efficient light bulbs and will be an integral tool in Purdue going green Energy The Boiler Green Initiative (BGI) is a Water Purdue sponsored organizationStorm dedicated to helping Purdue and theManagement surrounding community become The Boiler Green Initiative also has a green and sustainable. Energy is the focus group relating to storm water main subject of one particular focus management. group, specifically energy used in Storm water is the runoff water lighting Purdue’s buildings. Their that gathers after a rain storm and objective is to ultimately use sunlight flows into drainage ditches, storm more effectively, reducing the sewers, reservoirs, and other large buildings’ energy needs. To aid them bodies of water. Along the way, in achieving this goal, they plan to storm water can collect debris and all find data on the percentage of light manner of pollutants, such as motor bulbs on campus, in the surrounding oil, pet waste, and lawn chemicals. community, and in public buildings Polluted storm water runoff is the that are energy efficient. They will biggest threat to the world’s drinking use this data to write a new report water, as most of this runoff flows into that analyzes what can be done to our public drinking systems. There light buildings more efficiently and to are many ways to help rid storm make recommendations on using water of its potentially damaging daylight as an effective lighting effects, and rain gardens are one of source. They will invite a professor them. from the Department of Architectural Team Green Bean

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Rain gardens have two mainbehalf of Purdue to the area in functions. They collect water fromgeneral. storms that might otherwise be The foci of this year’s programs directed into a public drinking systemwere environmentally friendly and they then filter out the impurities.programs and changing habits that Rain gardens also collect largewaste energy. The dedication of amounts of water to release back intoSchleman Hall’s green roof and the the ecosystem safely, instead ofidea to establish the university as an causing overflow problems in publicarboretum were just a couple of the sewers and water collection areas.events that focused on Overflow problems can also gatherenvironmentally friendly programs at impurities from surfaces but this canPurdue. BGI and Physical Facilities be avoided by using a rain garden. also teamed up for an inter-residence BGI is helping to bring rainhall energy competition to see who gardens to Purdue by first installingcould save the most energy. one at Hillel House. They are also All of Purdue Green Week’s beginning to draft and design aprograms could be deemed a success second rain garden at a location yetjust by them being held at all. This is to be determined. one way to get the community By providing rain gardens toinvolved, and Purdue went all out to Purdue’s campus, BGI is ensuring thatmake sure it set the bar for years to the community will pay attention tocome. By holding a Green Week the importance of safely taking careevery year, Purdue will be of storm water before it can become aaccountable for its green actions or public health hazard. Hopefully, too,inactions, and the community will be it will encourage community membersinvited to see all of these up close. to create rain gardens of their own.

Purdue Green Week

University of Vermont

With all the efforts Purdue related One of the main ways Purdue stays ingroups have made to ensure that the touch with the community and gainscommunity is involved in Purdue ideas is Green Week. This year,becoming green and sustainable, one Green Week was September 21wonders if even more can be done. through September 25, and manyThe University of Vermont had an events were scheduled toidea. Through two community events demonstrate to the community all ofand one online survey, the university Purdue’s efforts to go green. Thisgathered over 1,500 participants shows a sense of accountability onthroughout the area. Participants’ Team Green Bean

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visions of a sustainable communityBio: Dr. Fu Zhao is employed as an and university were gathered, and aAssistant Professor by the School of mission statement and plans andMechanical Engineering at Purdue. Fu designs were implements accordingteaches Mechanical and Ecological to those visions. This researchDesign Engineering. He has earned suggests that a more effective way tofour college degrees: a B.S. and an bring about change within a universityM.S. in Thermal Engineering both comes from the community as afrom Tsinghua University, China; and whole, not just those few groups onan M.S. in Electrical Engineering and a campus who actively seek change orPh.D. in Mechanical Engineering both those beings in power. When thefrom the University of Michigan. community as a whole has the opportunity to share their voice, it can be quite empowering and as such can be an important tool in helping universities plan to go green.

Interviews Paraphrased Interview Transcript Interviewer: Josh McKinney Topic: Sustainability in Teaching Date: 10-08-09 Guest: Dr. Fu Zhao Q. To begin, could you give a brief overview of your experience in sustainability? Well, here at Purdue my research is primarily in sustainable design and manufacturing. My focus isn’t merely on developing new technologies to tackle the challenges we face today, but consists mostly on the Team Green Bean

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redevelopment of old ideas andon sustainability we create awareness advances. By taking what we learnedfor engineering’s impact on the in the past and re-engineering theseenvironment and build a platform for technologies for the benefit of thesustainable future. environment today, we can help Q. What do you mean by “rereverse the damage done. I would say engineering old technologies”? that 90% of my research on this topic focuses on the functionality of oldTake for instance recycling biomass designs. into energy. This is not a new idea. Yet converting biomass into energy The other aspect of sustainability that posed many problems in the past and is important to me and to our futures still does today. Turning corn and is education. Most of my academic soybean fields to switch grass for a career has been centered on biomass boiler sounds sustainable, sustainable engineering, clean and but you had to give up acres of a crop environmentally conscious to make room for the grass. This manufacturing and biomass energy. drives up crop prices and also is When I began teaching at Purdue inenergy intensive. My interest is in January 2007, I mostly taughttaking bio waste already available Mechanical Engineering toand using it to efficiently produce undergraduate and graduates. What Ipower to the grid. Easy does not noticed over the next two semestersdescribe the solution. Unfortunately it was that the majority of my students,takes power to make power. What we all but one, in my environmentalas engineers need to focus on is how classes was mechanical engineeringto take the least amount of energy to students and not the variety I wasproduce the maximum amount of hoping for. After talking with myenergy. One example is to take a peers and students, I was told mytractor, plant a crop, fertilize and classes were to dry and did not bringharvest the crop just to burn it to any excitement to ecological designproduce energy. The amount of and awareness. So for the fall 2008energy required to get the plant from semester I revised my curriculum. a seed to the boiler greatly exceeds the amount of energy received from Since then I have noticed a much the crop. Being sustainable doesn’t larger enrollment into the program as just mean recycling; we must focus on well as a greater interest from the life cycle of our energy resources. students outside of engineering about the program. By educating students Team Green Bean

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Q. How important sustainability to Purdue?

is Q. Do you enjoy teaching sustainable engineering?

Being sustainable is very important toYes. I do admit that the amount of Purdue. Even though Purdue is just astudents I have now does burden my blip on a map, we can create a largegrading load, but I enjoy teaching impact on campus and around thestudents from many different world by providing a model forbackgrounds and degree programs. sustainable design. Since we areTeaching future engineers to be starting with an old campus, we haveenvironmentally responsible in their to take many factors into account.design is essential for being ‘green’. With tuition increasing every year,Yet to be completely successful, we every dollar needs to be spent tomust have the majority of the create the maximum amount ofstudents conscious of their role in efficiency in our facilities and oursustainability. Just because other projects. We need to focus on beingstudents are not engineers doesn’t sustainable which in turn helps themean their decisions in their future environment, our campus and ourcareers do not impact our ecology. wallets. Paraphrased Interview Transcript Q. Yesterday the Sustainable Interviewer: Josh McKinney Endowments Institute gave Guest: Dr. Robin Ridgway Purdue a B-minus in sustainable Topic: Sustainable Future for efforts. Do you think that Purdue Purdue’s efforts are in the right Date: 10-09-09 or wrong direction? Purdue is most definitely on the right path to sustainability. The grade from the article is correct, but I don’t think it gives justice to what we have accomplished here. The other campuses that were in the same grade range as Purdue have not even come close to achieving all we as aBio: Dr. Robin Ridgway is employed campus have accomplished and planby Physical Facilities at Purdue University. Robin oversees and for. advises Purdue and Wade Utility with Team Green Bean

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environmental compliance andQ. Why is LEED important and state/federal regulations. Shehow is Purdue planning on received her Ph.D. in environmentalimplementing the standards engineering from Purdue. outlined by LEED into the older buildings and facilities on campus? Q. Could you give a brief description of your job here at The new LEED standards are for new Purdue? building construction. These Well, my official title is Director ofstandards provide a strict set of Sustainability and Environmentalengineering and construction Stewardship. Basically my priority isguidelines to maximize the efficiency to take sustainability ideas proposedof the building and its facilities. The by my bosses or companies doingnew Robert B. Gatewood wing of the business with Purdue and make themMechanical Engineering building will into a reality. follow these new standards and will stand as a model for future When it comes to a new upcoming construction at Purdue. project, our campus is focusing on the most energy efficient way to build it. IWhere we run into problems are with find myself being the question askerthe older buildings on campus. Since in most situations. When the Mackeythe buildings were not constructed storm water project was inwith LEED standards around, they are development, I asked the questionssound, but not efficient. Our goal is to that helped shape the mostretro-commission the old buildings to sustainable design. perform like a new LEED certified building. Don’t get me confused with an engineer though. My role is not theTo achieve this goal we are looking at details of the design, but the critic ofany and all aspects of sustainable its performance and efficiency. If wedesign. The hard part is that we have don’t ask ourselves “does this activityno reliable way of knowing how much effect our air quality or waterenergy each building consumes on a supply?” then we will not know thedaily, monthly or yearly basis. Each long-term impact of our decisions. building will have a unique set of challenges to make it more efficient. The way we are planning on attacking this huge task is a three-step Team Green Bean

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strategy. First, we must retro-an asset to the environment, commission to increase buildingcommunity and eventually our efficiency. Next comes metering. Bybudget. metering the buildings input of From a faculty standpoint, I would say energy, we can determine how and that our new ‘green’ initiatives have where to increase efficiency. The last already started showing progress. yet most critical for short and long With efforts from the Boiler Green term projects is the Qualified Energy Initiative and staff we have placed Savings (QES) upgrades. Purdue was recycle bins at every desk. When at picked for the program to help work, recycling styrofoam, paper, strengthen our role in sustainability as plastic or cans is as easy as throwing well as the campus budget. This them in a divided trash can. We have program lets Purdue borrow up to $10 noticed a significant reduction in trash million for energy saving projects. The collected from the buildings while our projects are designed to pay the recycling center has seen a great money back within 10 years. increase in recycled materials. If The benefit of borrowing money andfaculty can recycle easily at work, being able to pay them back in athen there is no reason to throw timely manner proves that there isanything away. money to be saved. When the loans From a student standpoint, recycling are paid off, then all the savings will is not hard and its benefits can be be new capital to fund more ‘green’ seen around campus. The asset to projects around campus. For us this is students is a cleaner campus with the a win/win for our sustainable future. reduction of trashcans and knowing Q. Is ‘going green’ for Purdue an that they can contribute to a better, asset or liability for the campus more sustainable Purdue. as a whole? Faculty? Students? Q. Dr. Fu Zhao posed a question If we can increase our sustainability for my interviews and I would like correctly, financially we can put the to ask you, paper or plastic? campus in the equal or a little in the Oh well I hope I don’t disappoint him! black. Even though we will not be When I am done with my plastic and saving money in the short-term the paper bags, I re-use them around my financial rewards are not far off. We house. I mostly use my paper bags to must stay progressive and move put my recyclables in. For the used fiscally outward to create new plastic bags, they are a must when I developments in sustainability. So I clean out the cat box for obvious do see the efforts of university to be Team Green Bean

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reasons. I know there is no perfect answer to ‘paper or plastic’ debate so I recycle them as many times as possible.

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Works Cited 1. Boiler Green Initiative. Purdue University, 2009. Web. October 15,

2009.

2. Oskvarek, Jonathon. “Activities promote ‘green’ programs, habits.”

Purdue Exponent 18 Sept. 2009 3. Pollack, Noah, Eileen Horn, Robert Costanza, and Matt Sayre. “Envisioning helps promote sustainability in academia: A case study at the University of Vermont.” International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 10.4 (2009): 343-53. Print. 4. Ridgway, Robin. Personal Interview. 9 October 2009. 5. Sustainability at Purdue University. Purdue University, 2009. Web. October 15, 2009.

6. Zhao, Fu. Personal Interview. 8 October 2009.

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Annotated Bibliography Our issue is that of how Purdue University has gone green, and how the community has been impacted or has helped the efforts. Our print and electronic sources have been very helpful in answering these questions, and our interviews have given us a broader base of knowledge to pull from. We still need to find some more sources about how the community has been involved in Purdue’s sustainability efforts, but these sources have given us a great start. Boiler Green Initiative. Purdue University, 2009. Web. October 15, 2009. The Boiler Green Initiative website has information on a number of Purdue recycling and green projects. It has information on the details of the green roof on Schleman Hall as well as plans for future roof projects. The site also has hard numbers for the recycling programs at Purdue football games. It also has information about the various green initiatives that BGI is working with Purdue to implement, such as alternative transportation, carbon neutrality, and energy saving. We will use this in our paper to discuss the efforts Purdue has made to go green and the possible efforts it could make in the future to make the university more sustainable. Oskvarek, Jonathon. “Activities promote ‘green’ programs, habits.” Purdue Exponent 18 Sept. 2009 This article describes Purdue’s 2009 Green week and its activities. We will use this information in our White Paper to show the activities Purdue is making available to students and the community to support their green initiatives. This is a good resource because it provides necessary information to the community about how to get involved in going green and emphasizes the efforts Purdue is making to achieve its goals. Pollack, Noah, Eileen Horn, Robert Costanza, and Matt Sayre. “Envisioning helps promote sustainability in academia: A case study at the University of Vermont.” International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 10.4 (2009): 343-53. Print. Although we didn’t purchase complete access to this article, the abstract provided some good ideas about involving the community in universities’ sustainability efforts. This research project’s methodology included community events and online surveys to discover what community members envisioned a green university to be. We will use this article in Team Green Bean

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highlighting how important the community is to determining how and what should be done to make Purdue a sustainable university and how how the community can help Purdue focus its efforts. Ridgway, Robin. Personal Interview. 9 October 2009. Dr. Ridgway and I discussed the many difficulties of modernizing Purdue to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. Topics of the interview include Dr. Ridgway's role on campus, the next big project for Purdue and the complications of the LEED standards. We will use this interview to help show that Purdue is teaching students to be green and that faculty and staff are making an effort for the university to be sustainable. Sustainability at Purdue University. Purdue University, 2009. Web. October 15, 2009. The Sustainability at Purdue website is a great resource which links to many papers, articles and more regarding green efforts at Purdue. Of particular help to us have been the articles from details of Green Week 2009 which detail Purdue recycling programs, green roof projects, and other local community programs. It also links to Purdue’s housing and food service sustainability, which we will discuss in our paper concerning measures the university has taken to go green. Zhao, Fu. Personal Interview. 8 October 2009. Dr. Zhao and I discussed the teaching aspect pertaining to sustainability at Purdue University. Topics of the interview include Dr. Zhao's area of research, his involvement in Purdue's efforts and if Purdue is directing their efforts in the right direction to become a sustainable campus model. We will use this interview to argue that Purdue is making strides to become sustainable and a model in the community for green efforts.

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