Michigan State University (MSU) frequently makes national news with headliners like Tom Izzo, the FRIB lab and last season's Heisman trophy contender, Javon Ringer.
But soon MSU will extend its national reputation with its status as one of few
NCAA Division I schools to have a
Surplus Store/Recycling Center.
The “Be Spartan Green” campaign, along with the construction of the
new $13.3 million recycling and reuse facility, is quickly pushing MSU to the top of the list of green universities, creating a positive image for the Lansing area and exciting students about going green.
“Now, with our nation's concept of conservation, I feel strangely empowered working in an environment that values responsible energy consumption,” says Jamie Jolland, MSU student and employee at the university's
T.B. Simon Power Plant.
“The social stigma of being a ‘tree-hugger’ no longer applies. It's not an insult anymore, and I find that very cool.”
Green Foot Forward MSU's new $13.3 million Surplus Store/Recycling Center, which comes online in the summer of 2009, covers nine acres along the west side of Farm Lane. The facility will accommodate three times the amount of materials the current center handles and is expected to divert 28 percent of the five key materials from trash landfills by 2010, which is double the current output.
The facility will house expanded recycling facilities, relocate surplus center activities, and include an education center. The building will be
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified, and will include a 70,000 square-foot building with a truck scale; exterior storage areas for compost, concrete and metal scrap; and space for roll-off and semi-trailer storage containers.
“Dr. Simon is very green," Ruth Daoust, manager of the Surplus Store/Recycling Center says of MSU's president, Lou Ann Simon, "and you can see the university expanding into more green technology with the new classes on sustainability and clubs going green on campus."
Jennifer Sowa, team leader for MSU's Environmental Stewardship Communications team, says that university spent a year and a half researching strategies for sustainability
"The team created 26 recommendations that would help achieve those goals," she says. "Among the recommendations was one to begin the first phase of a comprehensive recycling program at MSU. The MSU Surplus Store and Recycling Center is in direct support of the comprehensive recycling plan."
The university is also on an aggressive schedule to make buildings more energy efficient, with the goal to reduce energy use in all 579 buildings by nine percent.
"It’s not just about recycling," says Daoust, "it’s about energy too. In the end, we hope to get material out of the waste stream and reduce energy consumption, then go on to using durable goods.”
This new facility is going to urge MSU students and staff to get serious about reusing, recycling, and redeploying items (transferring items from one department to another). The center’s processing division will allow the Surplus Store to see a greater return on the material they process, such as white paper.
The center is also making university staff, students and rival schools giddy about green.
Rising to the TopCalifornia, Oregon, and Washington have been leading green initiatives for many years, but MSU has been putting forth immense effort to become more eco-friendly and show the nation exactly what can result when a whole university unites. Now, MSU is catching up quickly and even sparking the leading green universities to take a closer look at MSU’s plans.
“After my presentation on the synergies between our departments at MSU," says Daoust, "the University of Washington started looking at services their departments could explore in supporting each other.”
Daoust has also been asked to speak at the National Recycling Coalition Conference in Portland in 2009.
MSU’s also getting tagged on the Web for its sustainable efforts. The university scored a B average on a
national tracking site of college sustainability.
The
University of Oregon and the U
niversity of Michigan also scored Bs, the
University of California-San Diego scored a B+, and the
University of Washington scored an A-, proving that MSU is not far behind many of the best-known green universities.
“MSU is in the middle of the green chain of universities, but we’re creeping up much faster. We may not be the best, but we will be the best,” says Daoust. “With a new Surplus Store & Recycling facility under construction we are not only doing [the green project] differently but to the point that we could become a national leader!”
Green ExcitementSustainability leaders on-campus have lit a recycling fire under students like Erik Schreefel, who continues to recycle even though he no longer lives on campus.
“Right now my roommates and I recycle cardboard, bottles, cans, milk jugs, and newspapers. We also try to reuse as many things as possible,” says Schreefel, who also works at the Recycling Center.
The dorms keep recycle bins in the lobbies for students to promote the good habit. Now students are continuing to recycle off campus, using the bins on campus as drop-off spots for their collection.
“Campus is geared towards recycling," agrees Jollands. "Before I was an MSU student, I could either take it or leave it when it came to recycling. I didn't even realize my attitude towards recycling changed until I went out of my way to recycle on campus. Soon, I was pilfering through the trash at home, and then I was bringing all of that into work and recycling it."
“I noticed that since I've started working at the plant I am much more aware of being wasteful or careless with energy,” adds Jollands. “It's the simple things, like organized paper recycling bins in the hallway or bright yellow ‘Turn off lights’ stickers in all the bathrooms that make an impact.”
Schreefel sees recycling as his responsibility. “We recycle," he says, "because it's our duty as inhabitants of this planet to take care of it any way we can."
To receive Capital Gains free every week, click
here.
Kelsey Turek writes for the
Spartan Weekly and reads submissions for the literary magazine
The Offbeat. She also redesigned the
Recycling Office Web site.
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.
Photos:
Jennifer Sowa-Environmental Stewardship Communications team leader at the MSU Pavilion's solar panels
Jamie Jolland, MSU student and employee at the university's T.B. Simon Power Plant
MSU Surplus Store
Computers heading to recycling
Aaron Cookingham, Online Sales Specialist at MSU Surplus
Recycling dumpster at the recycling center
Video compliments of MSU Physical Plant
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie