Going Green @ Haverford

First year students Wynne Lewis and Rosalie Hooper are monitoring energy use on campus.

The energy patrol is on the job at Haverford!  Thanks to two newly created work study positions, first-year students Wynne Lewis and Rosalie Hooper are walking the campus six evenings a week monitoring academic and administrative buildings.  Part of the College’s ongoing effort to go greener, the effort is aimed at raising awareness about ways to save energy.  On their patrols, the student monitors will be  checking buildings to ensure the following:

• lights are turned off
• overnight room temperatures are set at 63 degrees
• space heaters have been turned off
• sinks and toilets are not running and are operating properly
• outside doors and windows are closed

When the student monitors encounter situations where energy is being wasted, they will leave a written notice as a friendly reminder about what we can all do to conserve. (The students only have access to unlocked areas, so if an office is locked they will slip the notice under the door.) Some issues, such as a broken thermostat,  may need to be addressed by Facilities Management.  In those cases, a work order will be generated.

If you have any questions about the program,  please contact Campus Sustainability Officer Claudia Kent at ckent@haverford.edu

The science of the environment and the social and political interactions of humans and the environment have emerged as perhaps the single most pressing problem of our era. Environmental Studies is a critical area that must be incorporated into our curriculum to prepare our students to contribue meaningfully to solving environmental crises. Continue reading… (PDF)

RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. Over a 10-week period, schools report recycling and trash data which are then ranked according to who collects the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or have the highest recycling rate. With each week’s reports and rankings, participating schools watch how their results fluctuate against other schools and use this to rally their campus communities to reduce and recycle more.

Starting in the Spring, it is part of the President’s Climate Commitment. Check it out: http://www.recyclemaniacs.org/overview.htm