Syracuse University Energy Use and the American College and
University Presidents Climate Commitment
Molly Gallagher
March, 2009
Document story
Syracuse
University signed the American College and University Presidents Climate
commitment in 2007. The commitment promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
by mid-century. SU signed the commitment over a year ago. Despite numerous
sustainability initiatives across campus meant to lower emissions and reduce
electricity usage, there was an increase in energy usage during the fiscal year
of June 2007 to July 2008, according to SU total campus gas and electric usage.Continue Story....
Sustainabale Dining Option
Qitong Cheng
March, 2009
qicheng@syr.edu
To All
the Students in Syracuse University:
I
suppose that all of you who are visiting this Green University website are
caring about the sustainability of our university. We do have lots of problems
about recycling and other environmental issues, but there is one of them that
definitely needs our attention. That is food waste.
I don’t
know if all of you notice this problem, but being a student in Syracuse
University for almost two years, I notice that every dinning hall throws
gallons of food everyday. Who causes this problem? With no doubt, we are the
participants. Do you still remember that when you use your Meal Plan in the
dinning halls that you are always trying to take more food? Because you want
your money to be worthy for the food you take; in other word, you don’t want to
waste your money. However, it turns out that you usually can not eat all the
things that you take, so you have to throw them away. Because of this attitude,
we are wasting more food everyday than we thought. Continue Story....
Syracuse’s Near
Westside
By Molly Gallagher
The city of
Syracuse intends to make the Near Westside neighborhood environmentally
friendly, according to the Near Westside Initiative March, 2009, newsletter.
The city wants to make this neighborhood sustainable by using green
infrastructure, says the newsletter. Green infrastructure removes contamination
from stormwater, so it can be reused. According to the newsletter, the
infrastructure will cost less, because it will not use pipes to remove the
stormwater.
“Syracuse’s Near
Westside is an area that needs a lot of help…it’s a neighborhood that has a lot
to offer,” said Carissa Matthews, intern at the Syracuse Center of Excellence,
which works to create sustainable jobs and innovations in Syracuse.
The Syracuse Center
of Excellence and Home Headquarters, Inc., already strive to make homes in the
Near Westside neighborhood of Syracuse energy efficient. According to a media
alert from Home HeadQuarters and Syracuse Center of Excellence, Home
Headquarters provides energy assessments to homes in the Near Westside
neighborhood, with the help of Syracuse Center of Excellence.
Instead of
contributing to the old ways, we’re going to try and find green and healthy
ways to revitalize the city,” Matthews said.
Each assessment
indicates how much energy a house uses and describes how to improve this.
According to the media alert, this lowers utility bills. Syracuse Center of
Excellence uses this information and creates technologies that will improve
energy usage, says the media alert. Continue Story....
Syracuse University CarbonRally Everyone Is A Winner
By Alyse French
February 5, 2009
Syracuse University might have lost to the University of Notre Dame in a recent online competition to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, but according to Melissa Cadwell, “We were winners.”
Cadwell, marketing manager for the Sustainability Division of Energy and Computing Management at SU, spent part of last October planning how the division could raise awareness for the NBC-sponsored online carbon rally.
For one month, starting Nov. 22, SU and Notre Dame students logged onto CarbonRally.com, where they could accept challenges that would significantly reduce carbon, Cadwell said. The Website suggested sharing a ride to work or school once a week, which would reduce carbon emissions by 26 pounds, or packing waste-free lunches every day for a month, a 44.6 pound reduction.
According to a Jan. 29 article in The Daily Orange, Notre Dame beat SU, 1,932 members to 1,446. In just one month, rally participants succeeded in reducing 80 tons of atmospheric CO2, the DO reported.Continue Story....
Summerhill Biomass Systems Create Powdered Fuels
By Evan Klonsky
Posted 11/06/08
In August of 2006 Kim McKnight was an engineer looking into
the best ways to feed chickens using farming facilities. After spending late nights reading papers
about fluid mechanics and powder explosions, Kim realized that the work he was
doing on the farm could be applied to developing a system that creates
renewable energy in an unconventional way.
Later that year, Kim and his father James started Summerhill
Biomass Systems and came up with a vision for addressing this country’s growing
energy crisis. This vision is based off
of grinding wood chips, corn stalks and other agricultural waste into a fine
powder that is burned into the equivalent of fuel oil or propane. Instead of using liquid oil, which has been
the standard for years in the propane industry, the system uses powder as its
source to generate energy for applications such as home heating.
Continue Story....
Zip Car Coming To Syracuse
By Liam Daniel Migdail-Smith
Syracuse University finalized a contract Thursday with Zipcar, a Massachusetts-based car sharing company, according Al Sauer, director of Parking and Transit Services at SU.
“It is going to be something we’re going to do,” said Sauer, confirming rumors that a Zipcar program would be introduced at SU. “That’s a definite.”
Continue Story....
Building blocks
SU
assembles team to assess Archbold Gymnasium's energy use
By:
Alison Bryant
Posted:
10/8/08
Joseph Lore receives multiple
complaints during winter months about the exceptionally warm temperature of
Syracuse University's Department of Recreation Services office in Archbold Gymnasium.
Occupants of the space have no access to a thermostat and cannot adjust the
radiators. To rectify the problem, Lore, director of the department, must turn
on an individually controlled air conditioning unit.
A team of volunteers will assess Archbold's energy
use in the coming weeks as part of the Adopt-a-Building project, where the team
will use the findings to show employees opportunities for energy conservation,
said Steve Lloyd, chief sustainability officer at SU.
A six-person group of students and staff will check the presence of properly
marked recycling and trash receptacles within the building. They will count the
number of lights and machines left on in areas of low activity and conduct an
inventory of other potentially wasteful practices, Lloyd said.
.Continue Story.... |
