December 2011 - EC Sustainability Newsletters

EC Sustainability News | December 2011 Brought to you by the EC Sustainability Committee Recommendations may be sent to sustainable@elmhurst.edu Visit our website at http://public.elmhurst.edu/projects/sustainability

News and Campus Initiatives Illinois Sustainable College and University Symposium

The College was represented at the October 28, 2011 Sustainable College and University Symposium by two members of the Sustainability Committee. The purpose of attending was to learn about and meet with governmental, industrial and other higher education representatives to assist our efforts here at the College. Many schools are getting on board with sustainability programs, and the one here at Elmhurst appears to be a bit ahead in that our Sustainability Plan has been in place and is progressing toward goals set in 2009. It was great to see the enthusiasm in the student representative attending the symposium.

Elmhurst College became a member of the Illinois Campus Sustainability Compact this past summer. Our recent meetings indicate that we are close to receiving the initial level award under this program in the months to come.

Greening Your Home

In response to the request from the senior leadership, the Sustainability Committee postponed its November 2nd Greening your Home presentation. It will be rescheduled early in Spring Term.

Recommendations on Resource Conservation and Improved Recycling

Any ideas you have to conserve resources, improve recycling or making our College environment better are welcomed by the Committee. Please email them to sustainable@elmhurst.edu. In this light, seemingly little things may matter. Initial results indicate that we used over 12,000,000 sheets of paper in the Fiscal Year 2011. The Committee will begin to look at paper usage in its November meeting, but perhaps we can all start now in being mindful of the paper we use.

What You Can Do 1. Go to http://www.ewg.org/ourwater to get the scoop on how many chemicals are in our local drinking water. Check out Elmhurst 60126.

2. Dishwashers use one third less water than washing dishes by hand.

3. Tap water is equal or better than bottled water because bottled water is not regulated as strictly as tap water.

4. An open faucet will let out 5 gallons (19 liters) of water every 2 minutes.

5. A faucet that drips once every second can add up to 8 gallons (30 liters) per day, 56 gallons (210 liters) per week, 3,000 gallons (11,000 liters) per year.

Seven ways to save the seas (Submitted by an Elmhurst College student, from the May 2011

edition of Popular Science, page 46):

1. Stop filling them with poison. Synthetic fertilizer draining from farmland has helped create 405 near-lifeless patches of ocean worldwide. Fertilizer and sewage generate the growth of algae, which, when it eventually dies, asphyxiates surrounding marine life.

2. Put a price on carbon. A tax of just $12.50 per ton of CO2 would reduce carbon emission by 30 percent, keeping 214 million tons of pollution out of the ocean.

3. Repair the water cycle. A “perpetual salt fountain” could pull relatively fresh, nutrient-rich water from the deep ocean to the surface, creating oases in the middle of marine deserts.

4. Curb species invasions. In general, they can be compared as toothpaste out of a tube. You can’t stuff it back in. Same with invasive species that can result from improper release of ballast water of over 100,000 commercial liners that sail to the US each year.

5. Rescue coral reefs. Ninety percent of Australian and Indonesian reefs are threatened by bleaching. Possible use of bacteriophages, bacteria killing viruses, may be part of the solution.

6. Fish smarter. New technologies, including hooks, are being developed to reduce, and eventually eliminate, bycatching.

7. Increase your knowledge.