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News Mercyhurst increases sustainability on campus
By Casey Greene Managing editor The ambition of Mercyhurst College students has led the college to increase its eco-friendly dedication. The Green Energy Review Board (GERB) recently passed proposals for the installation of a green roof and increased investment in wind energy. The board is designed to review submitted proposals focused on sustainable measures and decide in what ways the college can support eco-friendly projects. Members of GERB include Executive Vice President for Administration Tom Billingsley, Director of the Physical Plant Ken Stepherson, Sustainability Coordinator Cathy Pedler, Professor of Chemistry Dr. Ron Brown, Green Team Chair Dr. James Snyder, MSG representative junior Zach Pekor and Green Team member junior Dustin Hankinson. Each term, traditional students pay a $5 fee that is put directly into the Green Energy Fund, which is then used to increase sustainable efforts on campus. The board reviews proposals and decides how to disperse money in the fund to support sustainable efforts and projects on campus. According to the Green Energy Fund Request for Proposals, “All members of the College community (students, faculty, administrators, and staff) are eligible to participate in proposals. Because this is a student fund, however, the project initiator must be a currently enrolled Mercyhurst student. There must also be a project supervisor who may be a faculty member, administrator or staff member.” “This fund is open to everyone,” Pekor said. “Anyone can fill out the form, which has guidelines included and write a proposal for a green project.” Snyder said the proposals for the green roof and wind energy agreement recently passed unanimously. “They went through months of development by students, faculty, staff and administrators to make sure they satisfied the wishes of the students,” he said. “The College would not have taken these steps if it were not for the student body and a totally committed core of Green Team students.” Green roof A section of Zurn’s roof will be getting an upgrade soon, an eco-friendly upgrade. Within the next two years, the roof of the ceramics lab will become the new location for a “green roof,” a living lawn or garden placed on top of a building to help replace the carbon footprint a building creates when it is built. Stepherson said Pekor is responsible for bringing the green roof project, which has been discussed for over a year, to the attention of GERB. “Zach worked very hard gathering information and discussing the project with the administration to gain support,” Stepherson said. Pekor submitted Green Energy Fund Request form to GERB, proposing the installation of a green roof. The proposal was unanimously supported by the board. “I chose a green roof mainly because of its aesthetic value and the ability to increase the sustainable efforts on campus,” Pekor said. “It is also a growing technology, which shows that Mercyhurst is keeping up with the times.” Other colleges such as Carnegie Mellon University, Penn State Univerity, Slippery Rock University and Oberlin College have at least one green roof on their campus. Junior Ricki Proper said she thinks the green roof project is a great addition to the campus. “I hope other schools follow our lead and create more green projects,” she said. The roof will come with many ecological, economic and aesthetic advantages. Pedler said the goal of the project is “…ultimately to reduce the ecological footprint of the school, but also to provide models of projects and practices that can be used by others in our community.” The roof will “…slow storm water, moderate temperature of buildings and reduce outside noise, among other benefits,” Pedler said. Stepherson said Mercyhurst will install an “extensive” green roof, which includes “…simple plant communities two to four inches in height.” The green roof in composed of four main layers: a waterproof under layer, a root barrier, insulation and actual plant life. “This roof is suited for smaller plants like sedums, mosses, herbs and grasses,” Pekor said. “Each layer is reliant on the one about and below it.” Stepherson said an “extensive” green roof was chosen because of the ease of installation. One major change is the price of installation of a green roof compared to a conventional roof. According to Billingsley, a regular roof costs around $38,000 to install, while a green roof costs around $58,000. He said the college would provide $43,000 toward the project, while the additional $15,000 needed to complete the roof would come from the Green Energy Fund. “The cost of a green roof is substantially higher than conventional, however, in my opinion, the value is worth the expense,” Stepherson said. Billingsley said construction on the green roof will begin within a few years. “The roof of the ceramics lab will need to be replaced sometime over the next two years,” Billingsley said. “When that time comes, we will move forward with the construction of the green roof.” Stepherson said the green roof project is an example of the school’s commitment to reducing the climate damage that we do to the planet everyday. “Mercyhurst College is dedicated to the reducing our carbon footprint, and improving our environment,” Stepherson said. “These projects in themselves show that dedication.” Wind energy Mercyhurst has further dedicated itself to renewable energy by coupling its commitment to the green roof with an increased investment in wind energy. A proposal to increase the college’s commitment to utilizing wind energy was submitted to GERB. Again, the board unanimously supported the proposal and pushed to put the plan in action. Billingsley said the college has invested 10 percent of its electric usage to wind energy over the past five years. With the college’s new wind energy agreement, the use of the renewable resources has increased to over 30 percent. “This is a clean source of electricity,” Billingsley said. “The point of this investment is to have less dependence on energy that results in carbon emissions.” Billingsley said 100 percent of the wind energy used by the college will help support wind farms throughout the United States. The wind energy will be directly fed into the college’s main power grid and used equally by the entire campus. The college has agreed to invest $35,000 a year over the next five years to purchase the wind energy, Billingsley said. He said the college’s strategic plan calls for the administration to commit $20,000 of this amount each year, while GERB will commit $15,000. “If it was not for the student’s initiative we would not be able to do this,” Billingsley said. Student support The green roof and wind energy projects are the types of investments in green design, technology and renewable energy that the Green Energy Fund was created to support, Snyder said. “The Green Energy Fund will be a gift that keeps on giving for years to come and these proposals are just the first results,” he said. “It’s up to next year’s students to take it from here. They will get to determine the agenda through new proposals and they will get to be the next agents of change at the college.” Junior Meghan Pugliese said she thinks the new projects are good ideas. “It’s nice to see Mercyhurst taking the necessary steps toward utilizing renewable resources,” she said. Junior Whitney Paul agreed. “Someone needs to take the steps toward further sustainability,” she said. “I’m glad Mercyhurst is the one doing that.” Billingsley said he believes these types of projects would not occur if it wasn’t for the ambition of students. “Students led the way and now it’s concrete,” Billingsley said. Pedler said she agrees. “These projects would never have happened with out student action,” she said.
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