Going Green @ Haverford

It is with great enthusiasm that I introduce the newest Fund available on Haverford’s campus – The Greening Haverford Fund.  Designed as a carbon offset initiative of the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship (CPGC) in partnership with the Committee of Environmental Responsibility (CER), the Fund will allow Haverford to further engross itself in environmental integration, learning and activism. Support is available to all Haverford College students upon acceptance of their proposal and the scope of Fund is intentionally broad, including (but not limited to) the financing of on- or off-campus initiatives, conferences, workshops, speakers and events related to environmental sustainability.

For more details about the application, please visit our website at: www.haverford.edu/greening_haverford/greening_haverford_fund/. Also, do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or ideas you might have. We look forward to receiving our first applications!

If the possibility of seeing an actual silver squirrel was your reason for viewing this post, I advise you to look elsewhere. For everyone else, I have great news about the progress of the Green Office Program at Haverford.

CONGRATULATIONS to the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship, the Chemistry Department and the KINSC Administrative Office for becoming the first 3 offices to become Silver Squirrel certified as part of Haverford’s Green Office Program.

Established at the beginning of last semester, the Green Office Program seeks to make departments and administrative offices on campus more green. The program provides a checklist of sustainable actions. Examples of these actions include:

“We recycle our small printer cartridges in the green 5 gallon trash can in the Dining Center Lobby.”

and

“As incandescent light bulbs burn out we request CFL’s (Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs) from either Facilities Management at facilities@haverford.edu  or Claudia Kent, Sustainability Coordinator at ckent@haverford.edu.”

Departments and offices become certified to either a silver, gold or green squirrel (the highest level within the program) by completing all of the actions within a certain category. The document covers five sustainability categories: Waste Prevention and Purchasing, Energy Conservation, Transportation, Recycling, and Participation.

Congrats to our first 3 offices, and to learn more, click HERE!

The following came in through the suggestion box  from Elizabeth Finley in Alumni Relations and Annual Giving. It’s an interesting collection of articles.

Claudia

Hi:

I work in Alumni Relations & Annual Giving and meet with alumni regularly. I recently met with Seth Heald ’75 in Washington, D.C. He is passionate about climate change. He forwarded me the following information and links that may be interesting for you.

Elizabeth

Here are some links to news about Washington and Lee’s solar project, the largest in Virginia.

Seth Heald ’75
news.blogs.wlu.edu/2012/01/16/new-solar-energy-system-generating-power-at-wl/

This has gotten a lot of press because of Dominion Virginia Power’s attempt to block the project. The press may be more valuable to the climate movement than the reduction in greenhouse gases directly attributable to installing the solar panels. A good example of how a college showing some leadership on an issue can have an impact on the larger community.
www.newsleader.com/article/20120129/NEWS01/201290342/Staunton-solar-firm-faced-utility-challenge?odyssey=topicpage

www.newsleader.com/article/20120201/OPINION01/202010316

www2.wsls.com/news/2012/feb/01/state-law-hurting-virginias-green-future-lawmakers-ar-1657330/

Today Haverford is beginning its participation in a 2-month long competition called Recyclemania. The aim is simple: to recycle as much as possible. Last year Haverford came in 1st in the per capita division in the PA and in the Centennial Conference.

At Haverford, the competition is upcampus vs. downcampus. Students up campus can recycle in an bin labeled for recycling, while HCA residents should recycle in the large rectangular dumpster in front of apt. 38. The competition goes until March 5th.

Check back here for regular updates on our national standing and upcampus vs. downcampus.

Phrase of the day: “Reduce, Reuse, then Recycle”…in other words, don’t buy something disposable unless necessary, if you do buy something then reuse it, and then when you are done with it, please recycle!

Jonathan Wilson works with Haverford seniors (from left) Rebecca Tobet, Anna Rayne and Kelsey Capron in the Arboretum greenhouse. Photo by Mike Startup

by Jonathan Wilson, assistant professor of biology

Editor’s Note: Last semester Jon joined program Chairman Helen White, chemistry professor, and Nikhil Anand, anthropology professor, in the college’s new environmental studies interdisciplinary program which aims to bring students and faculty together to explore the interactions among earth systems, human societies, and local and global environments. This article is taken from the arboretum newsletter.

I’m a new tenure-track faculty member in the Biology Department, and I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. I came to Haverford last summer as part of the new Tri-Co (Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore) Environmental Studies program after two years as a geobiology postdoc at the California Institute of Technology. I did my undergraduate work at Johns Hopkins University in computer science and Earth and planetary sciences, and at Harvard University wrote my dissertation on the physiology of extinct plants.

My primary area of interest is using mathematical modeling to quantify the trade-offs plants make to maximize carbon dioxide uptake and minimize water loss.

Four Haverford biology majors are working on their senior thesis projects in the lab: Kelsey Capron, Emily Dutrow, Anna Rayne, and Rebecca Tobet. Our current lab projects include: the comparative physiology of leafless ferns, investigating whether leaf fossils faithfully record deep-time environmental change, vascular plant response to simulated herbivory, and the biomechanics and cell wall chemistry of sphenopsid fossils

We will be working closely with the Arboretum staff, which has provided crucial support for plant science in the biology curriculum. As projects develop, you’ll hear more.  Stay tuned to this space!