The members of Student Action For the Earth (SAFE) work to educate their peers, both on and off campus, about sustaining and promoting environmental protection and awareness. Relying heavily on public events and social interactions, SAFE strives to make the campus of Lebanon Valley College “greener” in every aspect of college life.

One such way that SAFE calls attention to sustaining our planet is through its Down N Dirty project. This event was recently held on the weekend of April 3-5. Four SAFE members, Maria Jeannette, Chase Ferrario, Amanda DeVilliers, & Heath Lettich, suited up to find out how recycling conscious the students of LVC are. Sorting through trash from the six traditional residence halls, the students pulled out whatever recyclables they could find. Over the course of the weekend, 12 full bags of recyclables were found mixed in with regular garbage.

Facilities Services incorporates many energy management techniques and strategies into daily operations and construction/renovation of College facilities

Heating and cooling

• By far the largest consumer of energy on campus is for heating and cooling buildings.  Therefore, we continually strive to implement building operational improvements that reduce energy consumption, improve building envelopes to reduce heating/cooling requirements, replace inefficient equipment with high efficiency units and design energy efficiency into all new construction and major renovations.
• Large construction projects such as the recent addition/renovation of Neidig-Garber Science Center and Stanson Hall, while not registered under the LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) program, have many sustainable features in design and construction techniques.  Some examples are: energy recovery systems, high efficiency heating/cooling equipment, well insulated walls & roof, low-e insulated glass and sophisticated control systems that allow for reduced run times and better temperature control.
• Replacement of the Mary Green, Funkhouser and Silver roofs, including significant upgrade to roof insulation.
• Replacement of the old drafty windows in Mary Green with tight fitting, low-e insulated units.
• Vickroy windows will be replaced during summer 2009 with high efficiency units, thus greatly reducing the electric space heating load.
• Replacement of through wall heating/cooling units in Silver with high efficiency units.
• Replacement of the chillers that serve NGSC and Bishop Library with state-of-the-art ultra high efficiency units.  These units produce the required cooling for these building using half the electricity consumed by the old units.
• Major upgrades to the Lynch HVAC systems and controls as part of the lower level improvements.
• Upgrades to the control systems at Bishop Library and Heilman.
• Water heating systems installed in recent years as part of construction or renovation have been of the very high efficiency type.
• Numerous water coolers have been replaced in the past three years with units that consume one-third the amount of electricity.

Lighting

• Many exit signs have been replaced with LED type, which consume one-tenth the amount of electricity.  All new exit signs are specified as LED.
• LED lighting was installed in Vickroy and Silver bathrooms as part of renovations over the past two years.
• Indoor lighting is continually being upgraded to higher efficiency sources.  Older fluorescents are being replaced with newer high output units, incandescent is being replaced with fluorescent, metal halide lighting in the athletic center is being replaced with induction units, which are two times more efficient.
• Occupancy sensor lighting controls are being retrofitted and installed in new construction to reduce the on time for room lighting in many campus buildings.
• Many outdoor lights have been converted from metal halide to induction units throughout the campus.

Water conservation

• Low volume toilets and waterless urinals have replaced older high water use units in many campus building and for all new construction.  We estimate that we have reduced water consumption in the past year by over 1.5 million gallons as a result of these changes.
• All shower heads on campus are of the low flow type.
• Many restroom faucets have been replaced with automatic units that only flow while hands are in proximity to the unit.

Grounds & Athletic Fields

• Composting – During the summer of 2008 the grounds staff started composting all yard waste created via our campus landscape maintenance work.  This includes grass and shrub clippings, leaves, branches, spent flowers.  The site is located east of the gold parking lot.  Our goal is to eventually use the finished compost on our landscape beds and turf areas.  If enough compost can be generated we could offer the excess to the college community.
• IPM – Integrated pest management strategies are being used by the grounds staff for pest control on the campus turf, trees, and shrubbery.  This program has been in place for a number of years and we have seen a reduction in the amount of chemicals used for pest control on the landscape.
• Alternative fuels – We are looking at the possibility of using alternative fuel for our power equipment.  Propane and electric powered equipment are two options that are currently being investigated. 

Custodial Cleaning Activities

• Almost all of the cleaning products used by our staff are considered “green”.  Some examples are H2Orange, Alpha PH, and Accumix Stride Cleaner.
• We have recently changed our cleaning cloths to a microfiber type, which has greatly reduced the energy needed for laundering these cloths.
• All of our paper products—paper towels, toilet paper, etc.-  are a very high post-consumer recycle content.
• Trash can liners and door mats are all manufactured from recycled materials.

Laundry

• All replacement washing machines are of the very low water capacity, front loading type.  We anticipate that all older units will be replaced in the next three to four years.

The campus recycling program has been significantly improved in methods and procedures over the past year. Incorporation of the “Single Stream” approach has resulted in LVC sending 34.18 tons to recycling in a 4 month period, compared to 14.93 tons prior to the improvements to the program (a 130% increase).

The attached report outlines the improvements made in LVC's recycling.

RecyleInfo04-09 .pdf (45.32 kb)