The Benefits of Building a Green House on Western's La Crosse Campus

I have attended the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh for the last two years. I will be entering my junior year pursuing a Bachelor Degree of Science with a major in Environmental Studies. My career interests entail green energy and natural resource management. I was a young child when I started attending a summer camp program that emphasized nature and environmental conservation—ever since I have made outdoor activities into hobbies and continued interest in environmental sustainability. The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh focuses on sustainability through green building, alternative and solar energy, and curbing pollution.

First and foremost, one of the purposes of Live Green is it encourages all ISU students, faculty, and staff to be fully committed. Also, it engages to make our campus to have a “green” environment. It takes some challenges for those who join this program. It leads in sustainability among land-grant institutions. It also recognizes that the involvement and dedication of every member in ISU is necessary to achieve the goal. (About)

Current trends of making houses sustainable and use zero-net energy will take time and research to be implemented most effectively and used on a large scale, but it is the drastic change that is needed to solve the issue. There are many different combinations and approaches to a sustainable zero energy building. In order to describe the current trends I will look at two different buildings, the ZOE building located at Discovery Park and America’s most efficient home built in Salt Lake City, Utah. I will also explain LEED certification, HERS and ENERGY STAR in order to explain how the efficiency of sustainable buildings and appliance are nationally measured.

Global warming, pollution, and dwindling fossil fuels will always be the conservational problems if nobody starts to buy local grown foods. Katherine Spriggs, author of the essay, “On Buying Local,” explains how having a large variety of foods at all times of the year is not worth the negative effects in the communities and their economies (Spriggs 92). As a community, many environmental challenges are being faced; Buying local will help bring advantages to not only the environment, but also the small towns and the

Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) has a gorgeous, nature filled campus. While visiting SFA, students are able to see why lumberjacks are so proud of their campus. Unfortunately, there is one place on campus that is just so grotesque that many avoid it entirely, the Ag pond. The Ag pond has the potential to be a beautiful spectacle to not only students but prospective students. The solution is simple. Create a group of students and faculty under campus sustainability to maintain the Ag pond. To limit the pollution of the Ag pond, the campus sustainability could dredge and clean, then in return make the pond beautiful again.

To conclude, our current way of agricultural life is not sustainable. The article “What’s for supper” has made me realize that if I hope for a better future for generations to come I should support a locally sourced lifestyle. This article is an eye opener to me and proved to me the importance of supporting locally grown produce. Locally grown produce supports the environment as well as jobs for people in the community. The current system takes a toll on every species on the planet. Humans are overproducing on a massive scale and are wasting close to half of our supplies and

Mirroring the strategies being developed in the state of Israel, CYJ Texas has begun making strides to incorporate new conservation techniques and infrastructures that will stimulate environmental wellness, reduce our dependence on energy and water resources, and decrease overall waste production. At this time, CYJ Texas has already implemented a recycling program and recently finished the construction of our new Experiential Learning Center (ELC). This facility operates using a number of sustainable technologies; including solar panels to offset energy use, a butterfly rain-catchment roof system, and rainwater collection cisterns that provide water for the ELC’s living roof to help insulate the building.

Looking around Columbia State Community College with the stunning zinnia gardens throughout the grounds, with ample land space and seeing recycling bins placed around the campus, and non smoking signs on the doors, CSCC is on the right path toward being a green campus; we can do more with a starting a community college garden. Imagine a community garden at CSCC where the students, faculty and the community show off with pride, not only because of its beauty, but because it enables a new set of learning experiences for students and our neighbors. CSCC should be willing to fight for a healthier campus. With CSCC deciding to make a conscious effort to encourage, a healthier way of eating by having a community college garden that will encourage students to make the right food choice.

While part of these school’s successes in the realm of sustainability can be attributed to their location, they also take advantage of new technologies they have invested in.

In recent years, Florida International University has been known to advocate and implement environmentally efficient solutions throughout its numerous campuses. The original home of FIU, the Modesto A. Maidique Campus was initially opened in 1969 with only a few buildings. As was typical of the time, most of the construction and systems in place were not environmentally conscious. Over the years, many buildings were added, and when it came time to create a new academic research building in February 2013, one of the goals was to try and obtain LEED Gold certification from the US Green Building Council by implementing a multitude of environmentally-responsible features.

Source A, an article by Jennifer Maiser, 10 reasons to eat local food, affrims and talks how eating and buying local produce has so many benefits for the people of the community and its environment. Maiser says that “the miles that organic food often travels to our plate creates environmental damage” meaning eating locally is better for you and the environment. Maiser also justified that the locavore movement also helps small businesses in the community by “according to a study by the New Economics Foundation…, a dollar sent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy”. This statistic proves that buying produce locally and supporting the locavore movement helps the community around you.

My proposal to make Blue Valley West a more environmentally conscious school is to end the use of paper towers in the bathrooms and fully replace them hand dryers. This measure would help the environment through helping to reduce paper waste, reduce the germs in bathrooms, as well as saving the school money in the process.

Our project will focus on the athletics department and helping them figure out where they can make adjustments to their building usage. Currently, the university sustainability fee “KRELF” has paid to install 12 new solar panels on our recreation center; which puts out about 2,500 watts of power. In 2009, the athletics department had a basketball game that went “green” in support of UM's sustainability. Each year the sustainability committee holds earth week. These types of activities are effective because it gets student and staff engaged and

Green buildings could become one of the main factors to preserve our rapidly decaying environment. There is no easy way to define a green building, but a green building is essentially a structure that amplifies the positives and mitigates the negatives throughout the entire life cycle of the building (Kriss, 2014). There are many definitions for a green building, but all of them include the planning, designing, constructing, and operating of the building while taking into huge considerations of the energy use, water use, indoor air environment, materials used and the effect it has on the site the green building is being built on. The first green buildings dates back to as far as the 1970’s, when solar panels went from experiments to reality. Green buildings were not as popular as they are today due to their extremely high pricing. With technology rapidly growing, solar panels are becoming cheaper and cheaper, making the transition to creating green buildings more affordable. This is the primary reason for the increased growth of green buildings today. A modern company that is paving the way to the growth of green buildings named LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, focuses primarily on new and effective ideas for environmentally friendly buildings projects. With more than 60,000 commercial projects worldwide and 1.7 million square feet being certified every day, LEED is one of the leading groups for promoting green buildings. LEED has popularized the entire

In order to save money and have control over one’s own food, it would be in one’s best interest to start a garden. Not only is the gardener in control of their garden but they also are in control of their diet. With the produce that was made with hard work so it’s used in order to not go to waste, whether that’s from eating it or sharing it with others.