crimson.blue.green

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Sustainable Lawrence as part of a series defining “sustainability” and highlighting examples in the Lawrence area.

Hanging on the wall in a custodial closet in the Kansas Union is a contraption that is helping reduce waste and create a greener, cleaner environment. This simple gadget dilutes and dispenses a single cleaning solution at just the right concentration for the specific task at hand – whether cleaning toilets or mopping floors. In the process the dispenser rules out spills, over-mixing, and other opportunities for waste. More importantly, it does away with the toxic chemicals found in more conventional cleaners, replacing them in this case with hydrogen peroxide and citrus oils. So if you notice a hint of orange in the air the next time you are in the Kansas Union, it isn’t the sweet smell of our Orange Bowl champions, but a more sustainable approach to making things sparkle.

Elsewhere on campus, Chevron Energy Solutions (CES) is is working with KU to shed new light in hallways, classrooms, and gymnasiums while cutting carbon emissions (and the University’s utility blls). Since 2001, CES has completed a number of energy and water conservation projects as part of an ongoing contract with the University. This includes replacing about 20,000 light fixtures with more energy efficient lights, updating heating and cooling equipment, and installing programmable thermostats and other equipment to better control building temperatures. One noticeable difference is in the Robinson Health and Physical Education Center, where timers have been installed for lights in the racquetball courts, and motion sensors shut off new energy efficient lights above basketball courts that aren’t in use. Combined, these projects help KU avoid about 15,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year and save enough energy to power almost 500 homes.

Boosted by concerns about global climate change, energy conservation efforts like these have taken center stage in the sustainability movement. But like many campuses throughout the U.S., sustainability at KU started with recycling. Efforts to recover aluminum cans date back to the 1970’s, so recycling has a long history on Mount Oread. The Environmental Stewardship program continues that tradition on a grand scale, capturing everything from plastic bottles to cardboard boxes. Baling equipment crunches all that waste into compact cubes that are sent on to a recycling facility in Kansas City. Eventually, those materials are converted into everything from eco-friendly kitty litter to energy conserving insulations.

Another effort to turn waste into a resource is taking place in a small lab in Burt Hall. Engineering students and faculty are converting cooking oil from a residence hall dining facility in to fuel. This oil once used to cook up delicious French fries for hungry college students is pumped through a series of tanks that filter, wash, and react the oil with methanol and potassium hydroxide. What comes out on the other side is biodiesel (and the waste produce glycerine). The lab is currently processing about 40 gallons of used oil a week, but they hope to one day capture all the used oil on campus. That could go a long way towards powering KU’s pretty new(er) blue buses.

Sustainability is showing up in smaller projects on the KU campus as well. One example is a raingarden that students have designed as landscaping for the Student Recreation & Fitness Center addition. Through this project, rainfall will be collected from the roof of the building and fed into the garden, slowing stormwater runoff and providing a free source of irrigation for its native grasses and flowers. The students hope to start planting in the Fall of 2008. In the meantime, you can find a different kind of garden sprouting up on the other side of campus thispring. EARTH, a project of the Center for Community Outreach, is reviving a former playground into an urban farm of sorts. Hidden behind the University Relations office (across the street from the Kansas Union), a campus garden is being cultivated to provide produce for area food pantries. The coordinators for this project see it is a way to promote sustainability on campus by teaching students basic gardening skills and giving something back to the community.

From community service to cleaning toilets, sustainability takes on many forms at the University of Kansas. It is showing up in research labs, classrooms, and campus operations. And as the sustainability movement grows, faculty, students, staff and community members continue to ponder just how they can add a little more green to the crimson and blue of Mount Oread.