Going Green @ Haverford

There is no all-conclusive vision of a sustainable future. The term “sustainable,” by itself, carries extensively different definitions depending on whom you ask. However, despite these discrepancies, one incontestable necessity toward an environmentally conscious future is collaboration. Haverford College took a mighty step in this direction last Friday by holding its first ever Sustainability Summit.

This conference, hosted by the Committee for Environmental Responsibility (CER) in conjunction with the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship (CPGC), brought together on-campus environmental actors including students, staff and faculty. The purpose of the Summit was first and foremost to foster holistic lines of communication and to enable utmost learning and efficiency within our environmental missions. For while technology and its innovation greatly advance our community toward a future of sustainability, it is real discussion, communication and collaboration that serve as the foundation for environmental change. The Summit succeeded in acting as a bridge between inspired idealism and real solutions.

The discussions began with presentations on past and current initiatives, including but not limited to: CER’s Green Office Program and Devereux Bike Sale; Facilities Management’s locational survey for Photovoltaic Panel installation; E-Haus’s community vegetarian meal provision; Institutional Advancement’s funding of Environmental Studies Department faculty; and the waste reduction mission of the Better Together Campaign. Looking forward, future plans included: an HCA Orchard; electric vehicle-charging stations; a Haverford Garden educational workshop; a Fair Trade sale; a carbon offsetting program; and enhanced composting and recycling systems. Needless to say, it was an exciting meeting filled with enthused ideas, lively discussion and collaborative solutions. More tangibly, the Summit produced a petition stating our vested interest in a Haverford College Presidential candidate who places a primary focus on sustainability.

The impetus for, and main topic of, the Sustainability Summit was achievement through efficient communication. While this initial Summit was not open to the entirety of the Haverford community, this does not signify any sort of organizational isolation. The new CER website (www.haverford.edu/greening_haverford/cer/) and GO! Board subforum are spaces of virtual environmental discussion where issues, ideas, plans and general inquiries are encouraged. Please help in planning a pathway toward a sustainable future.

- Steve Griffith ’12

While cruising the Sierra Club’s website a couple weeks ago I came across Ecofont. I’m sure a lot of environmental types out there are saying “where have  you been?” While I consider myself an environmental type, I’m a new member of the Sierra Club where this article was featured.

Ecofont is a software program developed by the Dutch. The software prints fonts with holes to save ink toner and reduce printing costs, supposedly up to 50% depending on who’s reporting. When typing, it literally looks like Swiss Cheese.  When printing, however, the ink bleeds and you can’t tell the difference from traditional fonts.

Of course I wanted to test this out. Before downloading the free version I did a little checking. It appears that Ecofont has been around for years and has won several awards. It’s also been reviewed by quite a few national and international publications, all generally giving it the thumbs up.

I start typing away, and yes, it looks a little strange. I printed out my document; no holes! Wow, they could be onto something here. Of course it’s difficult to test unless you do a lot of printing and know what you spend on ink. I figure I’ll use it until my free trial runs out.

Try it for yourself at:  www.ecofont.com/

Composting food waste at Haverford has been a hot topic for the last few years. The Dining Center, our biggest waste producer, throws out about a 1,000 lbs of food a day! Wow!!  Considering we’re only 1100 students, that’s significant. Students are really getting in on the action about bringing awareness about food waste. Better Together, a new interfaith social justice club that is organizing a year-long direct action campaign that seeks to reduce food, water and electronic waste at Haverford, recently weighed the post-consumer waste from the DC. They figured that each student wasted about 140z per person. This is all post-consumer, we haven’t even started talking about pre-consumer… Hopefully in the next couple years we’ll be able to do in-vessel composting at the DC.

ComposT-Twin at the Haverford College Apartments

Students in the Haverford College Apartments (HCA), have also been hot on the composting topic. With the installation of the student vegetable garden and adding fruit production next year, the need for soil amendment is growing (pun intended). We’ve had slightly better success here. Over the last few years we have been adding composters for students to recycle their kitchen and garden waste. We just added a fourth Mantis ComposT-Twin, which work great for us as they hold a lot of material (25 cubic feet). They also have a dual chamber which allows students to fill one side while the other side “cooks.”

Faculty have also gotten the composting bug. Taking a ride around campus the other day I counted 4 composting containers outside faculty housing. I’ve also gotten requests for us to supply containers which, of course,  I oblige in any way I can. We recently added two Compost Wizards behind a faculty apartment house, with the hope that we can get more faculty in the composting habit.

While not food waste, I did want to mention Grounds and Arboretum. Recently I had to calculate how much “yard waste” we compost for our Green House Gas emissions report. Haverford recycles between 95-98% of its green waste. That breaks down to 4,500 cubic feet of woodchips, 31,500 cubic feet of leaves and 21,600 cubic feet of general garden waste. Woodchips are aged and used for mulch while the leaves and green material are composted down and used on the community gardens.

While I know I’m getting long winded here I did want to mention how tough it is to educate people, especially on a large scale, on the proper way to compost. Teaching students and faculty that you can’t fill the container all the way up, and that you have to add a carbon source can sometimes be draining. On the flip side however, CER student Siena M. does a great job on spreading the word. Kudos to Siena.

Next step, Vermicomposting

vermicomposting