K.Elsenbroek
Reducing waste production at SIUC (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) by promoting sustainable hydration:
JUST TAP IT!
A phrase to promote the safety and use of tap water, pro-tap slogans are spreading through universities across the U.S.A have initiated campaigns to "Take Back the Tap".
Instead of turning to single use plastic water bottles, this project aimed to inform students about the negative environmental effects caused by the practices of water bottling companies.
Between dessicating water sources and destroying the surrounding land with heavy duty excavation equiptment and all of the bottles that don’t get recycled, bottled water just isn’t very earth friendly. Bottled water isn’t even that human friendly, the bottle itself is one time use because of all of the chemicals used to form the plastic that holds the water.
Along with educating students about the safety of tap water, hydration stations were installed on campus and > 2,000 stainless steel water bottles were given to students who decided to “Take Back the Tap”.
Check out the presentation!
Campus energy audit: an analysis of inappropriate indoor lighting:
Equivalent to 51.6 barrels of oil (or 22 metric tons of CO2), Faner Hall on the campus of Southern Illinois University was wasting ~$2,000/year on “inappropriate lighting.” Faner hall is a big, riot-proof, concrete building created in the 60’s and has a central garden/study area, which is surrounded by walls of windows. These walls of windows line several hallways in Faner, letting in tons of natural light.
Still remaining, however, were the blaring artificial lights…
Blueprints and light meter in hand, I identified areas of the building which received enough natural light and that did not always need artificial lighting- lights in areas like this were deemed “inappropriate.” I calculated the total energy waste by counting the: number of lights X wattage X hours operating. The physical plant has since installed photo-sensing mechanisms on these lights – so they turn off when there is enough natural light to see through the halls.
Download Poster ->