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 Major Initiatives |
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| Dickinson is proud to announce our membership as part of the Leadership Circle in the AASHE Presidents Climate Commitment! This means that Dickinson agrees to offset all of the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses we put into the atmosphere through environmentally-friendly measures. You can do this in your own life, too! There are a number of e-calculators that will determine how many pounds of carbon you spent on, say, a flight to Europe. Once you've figured that out, you can purchase an offset for, say, $30 that will plant 25 trees in the Amazon. For a quick-and-dirty guide to carbon offsetting, check out this article in Grist Magazine |
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Soon enough, most of the seasonal produce in Dickinson's cafeteria will be grown organically as well as locally! The College Farm is in the second year of a three year process to become a certified organic farm. Advisor Jenn Halpin and her partner Matt Steiman have taken over the operations of approximately 30 acres of farmland in Boiling Springs, about six miles away from Dickinson. Long-term plans include a certified kitchen for making jam and salsa, academic research opportunities, and a community outreach center. For more information, email Jenn or Matt!
The Dickinson College Farm has recently established an off-grid living space for interns who live on the farm during the summer and fall. Interns are housed in yurts that do have lights and some minor appliances, powered by solar photovoltaic panels. |
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| Dickinson hired its first Director for the Center for Environment & Sustainability Education in the spring of 2008. The new director will start in August of 2008. Look for more information soon! |
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Projects |
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| Dickinson joined participants in all 50 states, at more than 1,400 events, calling on Congress to cut carbon emissions 80% by 2050. Check out the Green Devil's facebook page for more pictures, or go to the Step It Up website and look for the results of our action there. The day was a great success, thanks to all who showed up! |
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The College has applied for the 2008 PA Energy Harvest Grant to install green roofing, renewable energies, and skylights on the roof of Kaufman Hall, the academic building that houses the Environmental Studies and Geology Departments as well as the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM). This project aims to increase the energy efficiency of the building's heating, cooling, and lighting systems.
In 2006, Dickinson College worked with the fine folks from Mesa Environmental, now SunTechnics, to install solar panels above DPS at Kaufman Hall. See our solar energy section below.
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| Keep up your good green behavior! Sustainability Interns will be watching, and ready to reward you with a token for a free cookie, courtesy of the Green Devil, if your seen doing something great for the planet. |
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Sustainability Policies |
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With the green cleaning section of LEED-EB in mind, Dickinson College Facilities Management is purchasing only green cleaning products (Green Seal Certified for categories where such certification is available and Biorenewable products where certification is not available) from Spartan Chemical, Inc. beginning January 1, 2008.
What this means for you:
This means that we are using cleaning supplies that are not only more environmentally friendly, but also healthier for the inhabitants of the building in which they are used. It also means that the cleaning supplies do not have the noxious (and often nauseating) fumes associated with traditional cleaners. While this is beneficial to people living in the buildings, it can sometimes confuse people that assume bathroom or kitchen is not clean unless they can smell the remnants of the cleaning supplies. |
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| Dickinson College recently completed a Campus Facilities Master Plan, which has a strong focus on sustainability. Along with the formulation of the master plan the College has made the commitment to obtain LEED Silver for all new construction projects exceeding $500,000. Also, all projects will adhere to the LEED principles and guidelines, but smaller projects will not necessarily strive for formal LEED certification. |
| Facilities Management has implemented a set of Sustainability Standards for all repair and renovations, which ensures that campus structures and systems are sustainable. These standards include installing waterless urinals, motion-activated sinks, low-flow showers and sinks, compact fluorescents and energy efficient lights. Recently, Dickinson College's Center for Sustainable Living was awarded LEED Gold by USBGC, and the newly completed Rector Science Complex is currently in the application process for obtaining LEED Silver, and possibly LEED Gold. The Althouse renovation, just beginning, will be seeking LEED Silver or Gold and the recently completed Kaufman Renovation Project is seeking LEED Gold for Existing Buildings (LEED EB). |
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| The new Rector Science Complex is expected to use two-thirds (or less) of the amount of energy that a new science building of comparable size would use, as a result of its energy efficient systems including: |
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Integrated lighting system that decreases the amount of energy being used based on the ambient lighting in the room and reduces energy use by at least 20% anytime lights are on |
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Automatic motion-sensor lighting |
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Energy wheel that efficiently captures the temperature of the conditioned air in the building while circulating fresh air into the building |
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Energy monitor in the lobby of the building that shows people how much energy is being used at any given time in order to help them curb usage. |
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| The Center for Sustainable Living (or Treehouse) that received LEED Gold houses 14 students who are dedicated to living sustainably. It already has an energy monitoring system and numerous additional energy saving features. Some of these features include an innovative energy efficient heating and cooling systems, dual flush toilets, a grey water sewage system, a solar powered heating system, and a corn pellet stove (that is run exclusively by unusable, discarded corn kernels), among other items. |
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Dickinson College Dining Services purchase goods from seven local farms and producers, including a local dairy farm.
Dickinson College has received a $5,000 award from the Hobart Center for Food Service Sustainability for having the most innovative and best executed foodservice sustainability project of the year. The Dickinson College Organic Farm supplies the college dining hall with fresh produce raised without the use of chemicals. By purchasing vegetables from the college farm at market price, dining services is saving food and transportation costs. In the 2008 fiscal year, more than $6,500 was reinvested into the college farm instead of being paid to outside suppliers. In addition, Dickinson's director of Dining Services now meets with the Farm Director during the winter months to plan plantings for the spring. This maximizes the amount of vegetables that can be used by Dining Services during the growing season.
Dining Services offers exclusively fair-trade, organic, shade grown coffee on campus.
The College offers a vegan choice at lunch and dinner meals daily. We have added a dietician to our staff this year to help students with nutritional and dietary issues.
This means that you eat food and drink beverages that are fresher and are produced with fewer chemicals. Also, if you are looking to eat vegan and vegetarian diets you can set up an appointment with our dietician to learn how to avoid some of the typical malnourishment issues that many vegans experience by not eating properly. |
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Dickinson has a robust composting program, which was expanded during the 2007-2008 academic year through the purchase of a commercial grade Hobart Pulper. Dining Services now pulps all biodegradable material from dining operations, which is then sent to the College Farm to be used in the cultivating of vegetables that are sent back to the Dining Hall for student consumption. The College has completed the circle in our “farm to fork” program. Also, Dining Services has been using corn based cups for over a year along with second nature napkins, biodegradable paper plates and to-go containers. All to-go utensils are biodegradable. We have eliminated individually wrapped crackers from our operation. All of the above products along with all biodegradable kitchen waste and plate waste are run through the College's pulper. The pulper has allowed the College to eliminate a dumpster -- approximately 600-800 pounds -- per day from going to the landfill.
The College has eliminated all Styrofoam containers.
Each year, the College gives all first year students a reusable bottle and provides discounts for using these bottles in all dining cash operations. The College provides reusable bags for students to use at the “grab n go” section.
All used fryer oil is now being used in the Colleges' Biodiesel Program, which fuels the farming equipment at the Farm and other on-campus vehicles. The Biodiesel Program also makes soap from the used oil.
Dickinson Dining Services promotes sustainability by asking all its suppliers and manufacturers to look at ways to repackage their products in a more sustainable manner. We are looking into the new corn-based biodegradable water bottles to add to our line.
First and foremost, it means less hassle for our dining hall (Caf) patrons, because they can simply leave food scraps and napkins on their trays when they are finished. Also it means that your to-go containers, cups, lids, and straws should be composted and not recycled! Finally, everyone involved should think about how much they are taking in dining hall. Even better than composting is not wasting food! |
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Dickinson College purchases 50% of its electricity from wind energy from Community Energy. This currently amounts to eight megawatts per year from wind energy rather than traditional non-renewable power.
Also, Facilities Management plans to install a 400W, grid-tied wind turbine on top of Tome Hall for energy production and educational purposes.
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Thanks to an Energy Harvest Grant, Dickinson College was able to install a grid-tied 60kW solar photovoltaic array at Kaufman Hall. The system includes a 48kW array on the roof and a 12kW ground-mounted array that allows easy access for education purposes. This installation was made by Mesa Environmental, now SunTechnics. To see current electricity production from the Kaufman Hall array, click here. |
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In 2007 Dickinson College had a 3.5kW ground-mounted, grid-tied array installed at the farm. It is currently tied into the electrical system in the barn, which helps off-set the use of the lights and the refrigeration system in the barn.
In late 2007, a greenhouse with a solar thermal root-heating system, which allows for an extended growing season, was installed at the farm with the help of Mike Murphy '08 and Solar Tech of PA.
In conjunction with the 2008 Solar Scholars Conference, two pole mounted solar photovoltaic systems were installed. One system is connected to the farm house, and the other provides off-grid power to the yurts. |
| During the summer of 2007, a solar thermal system was integrated into the biodiesel production system to preheat the waste vegetable oil during pre-production and speed up the drying process in post-production. The system was designed by Sean Diamond '08. Solar Tech of PA installed the solar panels and water-heater and made a sizable material donation to make this project a reality. |
| During the summer of 2006, Physics Professor Hans Pfister, Technician Rick Lindsay, and Sean Diamond '08 designed and built a sun-tracking solar-thermal water collector out of basic aluminum pieces, a Fresnel array of mirrors, and used-car parts. This system is slated to be moved to the Center for Sustainable Living during the Fall 2008 semester. It will be used to pre-heat water in the house. This project was made possible thanks to a Keystone Innovation Zone grant. |
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The College sets all thermostats to 74°F during the cooling season (up from 72°F) and to 68°F during the heating season (down from 70°F) in order to realize immediate energy savings and environmental benefits associated with heating and cooling.
During the winter, you may need to wear an extra layer. If you do notice that a room or building feels unreasonably cold or hot, you need to contact facilities management via the website or over the phone at ext. 1700. The target temperature range is well within most people's comfort levels, so if you are experiencing extreme temperature, there is a good chance that there is something wrong with the system. |
The worst way to handle a temperature issue is by propping doors and opening window, which only causes the HVAC systems to work even harder to maintain the same temperature, rather than contacting facilities management for assistance. This will only waste more energy, cost more money, and result in higher carbon emissions! |
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The easiest way to increase the energy efficiency of any building or system is to make sure that electricity is not being used when it doesn't need to be. With this in mind the College has a sticker campaign to reduce energy use by students, faculty, and staff. Currently there are “Turn Me Off” stickers next to all appropriate light switches in bathrooms, classrooms, residence halls, common rooms, etc.
If you are the last one out of a room, and you see a Turn Me Off sticker next to the switch, please, by all means turn that light off! Also, if you find a room or switch on campus that you think could benefit from a sticker, let the Green Devil know via email. |
Please make sure that you are actually the last one out of the room (especially in the bathrooms!). There is nothing worse than being stuck in a dark room and having to stumble over obstructions. |
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Dickinson is currently replacing all traditional incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. CFLs tend to use approximately a quarter of the electricity that an incandescent bulb with comparable illumination. Unfortunately, CFL bulbs are not a viable option for sockets attached to dimmable switches, so these bulbs will not be replaced.
Please do not throw CFL bulbs in the garbage, because they include trace amounts of mercury that will contaminate landfills. Instead contact facilities management for a replacement via the website, or dispose of the dead bulb in the CFL recycling bin in the HUB. |
If a CFL bulb happens to break, do not panic. Please clear people out of the room and air out the room as well as possible, and follow the instructions here (starting at the bottom of page 2). |
Facilities Management is also investigating the possibility of replacing all of its outdoor pathway lighting with LED lights. LED lights tend to use much less than 10% of the electricity that traditional lighting uses. LED lighting also tends to have a whiter colored light, which provides greater visibility at night.
If you happen to be in the Academic Quad after dark, see if you can figure out which light is our LED test light. Then let the Green Devil know what you think via email. |
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| Section Coming Soon |
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| more coming soon! |
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