CU/Green: Things Cedarville University should consider doing in order to be good stewards of the Earth.

Wind turbines in Italy. Flickr photo from Sebastiano Pitruzzello. CC.

Indoor air quality

• …is notoriously poor. Installing air cleaners may be just too expensive when trying to do the rest of this, especially considering the near-equal benefit of periodically opening windows, using HEPA-filtration vacuums on carpets, and getting plants that filter the air, like daisies and English Ivy. Take this into consideration when picking plants, and maybe switch out those vacuums we can afford to replace, with directions to get HEPA as the old ones wear out. Encourage window-opening for a minimum of 5-10 minutes per week.

Renewable energy

• CU should develop a partnership with the village to get a wind farm for electric power for the both of us. Sound outrageous? Cedarville’s mayor, Dr. James Phipps (a Comm Arts prof), had tried to get wind power for the village a couple years back. It seemed all a go, but it fell through because the company we were working with decided they had bigger fish to fry — as in, they had too many projects going at once to bother working with us. However now, since the recession has hit, renewable energy companies are scrambling for work. Sounds to me like an opportune time to resume the quest.

Energy conservation

• Eliminate incandescent lights on campus. I know they’re mostly gone anyway, but let’s put the nails in the coffin. Buy a few cases of normal-sized ones and donate them to students and profs still using incandescent lamps.
• turn building lights off at night when no one’s using them. This would seem like a no-brainer. What about making the campus look nice? We can show people pictures of lighted buildings at night, with an explanation that “we don’t do this anymore — it’s stupid.” I think everyone’ll respect that.