Campus to showcase environmental efforts

Long recognized for pioneering programs relating to alternative fuels and sustainability, Northwest Missouri State University will host a Sustainability Showcase beginning at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, on the second level of the J.W. Jones Student Union.

The event is to include displays highlighting campus sustainability practices along with tours of Northwest’s pellet and boiler plants, where wood chips, paper, cardboard and animal wastes are processed and burned to produce thermal energy used to heat and cool university buildings.

Sustainability Coordinator John Viau said the the presentations will largely focus on Northwest's efforts to maximize resources and monitor environmental impacts while reducing costs.

"The importance of the program is operating in a way that presents students with the greatest opportunity to understand and embrace the burgeoning global (sustainability) movement," Viau said. "It is critical in education and industry and government, so we want students to be able to take away that we’re not just green because we’re Bearcats. We’re green because we understand what it means to be environmentally engaged."

Northwest established one of Missouri's first alternative energy programs in 1982 and currently produces between 75 to 85 percent of its thermal energy from recycled materials. University officials estimate the initiative has saved taxpayers more than $13 million in natural gas costs.

More recent campus sustainability efforts have included glass recycling, installation of new drop-off sites for recyclable materials and the "Greeks Go Green" recycling competition, which last year has diverted more than 8,100 pounds of waste that would have been shipped to landfills.

With guidance from its Department of Agricultural Sciences, Northwest in 2011 launched a composting program that so far has collected about 200,000 pounds of organic material used for campus landscaping and by the university's R.T. Wright Farm.

Sustainability efforts at the state-assisted school resulted in its being recognized last year by the Missouri State Recycling Program. In addition, the Sierra Club ranked Northwest No. 74 on its 2011 list of “cool schools,” a survey of environmental programs at four-year institutions nationwide. Northwest was the highest-ranked Missouri university on the list.

"Northwest will continue to seek the most effective ways to prepare our students while working to do so in the most cost-effective and environmentally responsible way," Viau said.