Ecodemia, the green revolution

By Susan Williams

There is a "greening" of campus afoot.

With the formation of a new Council on Environmental Stewardship, IU Bloomington has joined what David W. Orr, professor and chair of Environmental Studies at Oberlin College, calls a "revolution in education." In the forward of Ecodemia, a book published by the National Wildlife Federation, Orr writes that the movement is led by an "unlikely sort" -- student activists, grounds managers, recycling directors, institutional purchasing agents and food service managers. With their leadership, academic communities have begun to change the ways they think and work in relation to their regional environments and ecologies.

For example, to control weeds and insects, Seattle University uses integrated pest management. This method calls for combining mechanical controls (squashing bugs and pulling weeds), landscaping with native plants, and introducing "good" bugs that thrive on "bad" ones.

A waste reduction plan at Rutgers requires its largest vendors to develop packaging and shipping material that can be recycled. Bates College in Maine supports the regional economy by purchasing pesticide-free produce locally and kitchen scraps are composted. At the University of Washington, a chemical distillation redistribution program collects, distills and returns laboratory solvents to the lab, reducing disposal costs and the need to purchase new solvents.

Orr, who visited IUB last January for the campus environmental stewardship kickoff, also points out that creative ecological problem solving and management pays off in several ways: reducing institutional operating costs, improving the quality of services, reducing waste and ecological impacts, and rejuvenating local economies.

Think green.