Growing up in Syracuse, Kevin Kenyon was interested in sustainability efforts long before he became associate vice president for Facilities Planning and Management at Ball State University.
When Kenyon and his family made the trek from New York to the Midwest 12 years ago when he started the job, he was surprised to see the differences between sustainability efforts here and efforts taking place in the costal regions.
Differences in energy costs, population densities, and diversity have led cities on both coasts to take a much bigger interest in sustainability. However, energy efforts here at BSU are still in full swing.
For Kenyon, sustainability is still a relatively new term for what the university has been attempting to do for years – finding ways to save money and stay green.
“The term sustainability means that you try to use resources at the rate that they can be replenished by natural processes,” he said. “Then you plan for the future so that there are natural resources for future generations to use.”
Since Kenyon took over, Ball State has made major investments in the area of green initiatives.
Starting with the construction of the David Letterman Building and Park Hall in 2007, all new buildings on campus and any building renovations will take place to make the buildings more energy efficient, in accordance with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.
Building trends such as larger windows to promote natural lighting, motion detection lighting for those rooms without windows, and recycled carpeting and other material were used and will continue to be used in order to keep the buildings green. In addiction to that, most rooms on campus now come equipped with both a small trashcan and a larger recycling bin.
All of these things, Kenyon said, are done in an effort to “close the loop”.
“Closing the loop for us means [recycling and] buying material that contains recycled material,” he said. “We buy copy paper that is 30% recycled. We buy paper towels and toilet paper that is partially recycled. The curb bumpers in the parking lots are made out of old plastic that has been recycled. We buy carpet with recycled material or we recycle old carpets.”
Ball State’s biggest sustainability effort to date, the Geothermal project, will complete its first phase this month. The Geothermal initiative, which focuses on taking heat directly from the ground rather than burning fossil fuels, is now connected to 35 buildings on campus. Geothermal also allows for the storage and transportation of heat from one building to another and place the heat back in the ground when it’s not needed.
Even with these big changes, Kenyon said he would still like to see more, especially in the area of student involvement. The Ball State Energy in Action Team, for example, was kick started by Kenyon to get students involved with energy saving.
“It will come here,” he said of student-lead participation, “but in the Midwest, and Ball State in particular, it lacks a little bit in terms of student involvement.”
Facilities and Planning isn’t the only department that has attempted to go green. Ball State Dining has tried a few different initiatives as well.
According to Assistant Director of Dining Operations Elizabeth Poore, in Spring 2011, Ball State Dining tried its hand at composting.
LaFollette Complex collected 12,000 lbs. of pre-consumer waste, such as vegetable clippings from salad preparation, which was then sent to a local farm to be used as compost to grow vegetables and flowers.
“I think it was astounding because we only did it in one unit,” Poore said. “We’ve always been interested in composting, but the biggest challenge is with the delivery of the compost material – having a truck and a crew and a set schedule can all be challenging. The other thing is where to put the stuff that is collected before it is sent out.”
Even with the challenges, Poore said she would like to see composting done on a regular basis in all Dining units.
Dining has all been using more and more biodegradable plastic containers for their grab-and-go food items, in addition to recycling in their eating areas. This was done so that, if the plastic used in Dining did end up in a landfill, it would biodegrade rather than sit there for years.
As for the costs of these sustainability changes, Kenyon said it’s all about trade-offs.
“Take LED lamps [for example], they cost more up front, but you don’t have to change the lamps as often, so you aren’t paying for new lamps,” he said. “They don’t use as much electricity, and you aren’t paying for the labor to replace them. It’s a trade-off.
“Overtime they justify themselves. The question is how long is that time and what is an acceptable amount of time.”
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