Don’t Touch That Dial

Upon the recommendation of the University Sustainability Committee and with the approval of President Ruscio and the President’s Council, the University is embarking on a program to reduce energy consumption through temperature regulation in University facilities. The settings for all buildings will be 68 degrees maximum during the winter months and at 74 degrees minimum through the summer months.

 

Maintaining these temperatures will conserve energy, save money, and reduce the University’s carbon footprint. The success of this program depends on participation of all students, faculty and staff.  Please contact Facilities Managment at 8490 for more information about the policy o, if the temperature is exceedingly cold or hot in your space, to submit a work order.

‘Lectric Vehicles Seen on Campus!

The Facilities Management and ITS Departments as well as the University Mail Room are now using electric vehicles.  These vehicles are compact, extremely quiet and have no exhaust smell so they are great for on-campus use.  These low speed vehicles are ’street legal’ on roads where the speed limit is no more than 35 MPH so they can also be used around town.  Even though they are not zero emission vehicles when pollution from electrical generation is factored in, they are more energy effecient and produce fewer greenhouse gases than petro powered vehicles.  Service costs are also lower since the vehicles are extremely simple.  For instance the brakes are regenereative – they produce electricity to recharge the batteries instead of using disposable brake pads.

Laura Henry-Stone & Sustainability Education

 

 

Dr. Laura Henry-Stone will be joining the campus community as a post doctorate fellow in the Environmental Studies program.　 She will be teaching Introduction to Environmental Studies this fall and continuing her research into using place based education in the pursuit of sustainable ecological systems.　 She will also be working to further integrate the environmental studies program with our other interdisciplinary programs, our campus sustainability efforts, and our community collaborations.  Laura received her BA in biology from Saint Mary’s College of Maryland,　her MA in Earth Literacy from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College,　and her PhD in Sustainability Education from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.  The two year position was funded by a grant to the Associated Colleges of the South from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.　

Cultivating Sustainability Conference

Washington and Lee Dining Service will host the Cultivating Sustainability Conference on Wednesday, September 30th. School nutrition and food service personnel, school and university officials, local legislators, administrators, farmers and producers, and those involved in food system development are invited to attend. The conference will offer strategic directions for scaling up a regional food system, discuss the critical role institutions can play in the development of a regional food system, and practical tracks for food service personnel to learn to source locally for their institutions.

Yellowstone Blog

Check out this blog:  http://wlbioinyellowstone.blogspot.com.  Dr. Bill Hamilton and the students in Biology 332 – Plant Functional Ecology will be blogging about their trip to Yellowstone.  Elk and bison and wolves oh my!  

See  http://www.wlu.edu/x30906.xml for information on Bill’s research in Yellowstone.

Lisa Greer – Coral Reefs & Climate Change

Lisa Greer, Assistant Professor of Geology, has been studying the dramatic population decrease in Caribbean populations of staghorn coral (Acroporoa cericonis) that began in the 1980s.  Fossilized specimens of the coral indicate that the die-off may not be caused solely by climate change.  The fossil record indicates that warmer temperatures have had little effect over the last 500,000 years that staghorn has been a major reef builder.

Greer hopes to be doing research this summer on the causes of the die-off in the Caribbean with W&L students in the R.E. Lee Research Program.

2009 Woolley Fellowship

March 23, 2009

The Center for International Education (CIE) at Washington and Lee University has announced the recipients of the 2009 Woolley Fellowships, provided through the generosity of Dr. and Mrs. Paul Woolley in honor and memory of their son, Erik.

Each fellowship provides up to $3,000 toward travel and living expenses to support an educational internship experience overseas. Proposals must demonstrate how projects will prepare students better for deeper global engagement, foster learning within an international professional practice and deepen students’ understanding of another culture.

Gaby Bucheli of Quito, Ecuador, will be interning in Manaus, Brazil, working on a project that examines the economic valuation of the environmental impact of oil extraction procedures. A member of the W&L class of 2011, Bucheli will be working with a multinational and multidisciplinary group of professionals from the fields of economics and geology, including Professor Jim Kahn, professor of economics and Director of Environmental Studies at Washington and Lee.

Environmental Studies Fellowship Position

Dr. Laura Henry-Stone has been awarded a grant for a two year post doctoral fellowship position in Environmental Studies at Washington and Lee University. Funding for the position is being provided by a grant to the Associated Colleges of the South by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Dr. Henry-Stone’s role will be to enhance the treatment of sustainability in the Environmental Studies curriculum and to further integrate the environmental studies program with our other interdisciplinary programs, such as the Shepherd Program in Poverty and Human Capability, the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, the Women’s Studies Program, and the African-American Studies Program.

Mackenzie Brown Inducted Into Omicron Delta Kappa

Omicron Delta Kappa, the national leadership honor society founded at W&L in 1914, held its annual inductions as part of the convocation ceremony.  ODK was the first college honor society of a national scope to give recognition and honor for meritorious leadership and service in extracurricular activities and to encourage development of general campus citizenship.

Mackenzie Elise Brown of Kingwood, W.Va, ‘09, Environmental Studies major, along with twenty-six other students, both law and undergraduate, as well as two local community members were inducted at the convocation on Monday, Jan 19, at 11:45 a.m. in Lee Chapel on the campus of Washington and Lee University.

Information Sources

Sustainability: The Journal of Record is now available on line through Leyburn Library here.  If you are interested in looking at the contents (and articles) of the current issue go here.  There are three articles relating to higher education including:  “Make Love, Not CO2.”   There is also an editorial by Amory Lovins, Co-Founder, Chair and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute who is scheduled to speak at this years Environment Virginia conference at VMI. The theme this year is:  Sustainability – The Nexus of Economic Prosperity and Environmental Stewardship.  The 20^th annual EV will be held March 31 – April 2, 2009. 

 

Please share your favorite electronic sustainability information sources.  There is too much information and, as you probably know, not much time.