CLC makes strides to reduce carbon footprint
Submitted by the College of Lake County
Continuing its efforts to promote green practices on campus and in the community, the College of Lake County accomplished the following in 2011:
Ÿ Began work on plan to reduce CLC’s carbon footprint. The plan is a result of CLC President Dr. Jerry Weber’s signing the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment in 2009. Scheduled for completion early this year, the plan is designed to lay out short-term, measurable goals for reducing CLC’s greenhouse gas output for the next three years.
Ÿ CLC received the Green Business of the Year Award from the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, recognizing the work of the college’s Sustainability Center and the Green Economy Center.
Ÿ CLC and 16 other partnering Illinois community colleges who are members of the Illinois Green Economy Network, were awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grant in the amount of $19,366,381.
The CLC portion is $5,898,790 over a three-year period. The statewide initiative will expand adult transition services, develop comprehensive training programs in eight green economy industries, and expand delivery via online and hybrid (combining online and classroom).
Ÿ Two sustainability focused certificates were approved by the CLC board of trustees: Residential Energy Auditing (16 credit hours) and Residential Weatherizing (15 credit hours). Both programs are intended to prepare students for entry-level positions in the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration field.
Ÿ A 2011 waste-reduction campaign, known as RecycleMania, revealed that the college’s total waste output for eight weeks was 86 tons, a 1 percent reduction from the same period in 2010, according to the college’s Sustainability Center. For 2012 and beyond, the college plans to continue promoting recycling, composting and reduced paper usage.
Ÿ At the Grayslake campus, 21 of the sodium lights used in parking lots and sidewalks were retrofitted with light-emitting diode fixtures last spring, according to Ted Johnson, director of facilities. Another 11 outdoor lights are slated for retrofits in the spring. The LED lights use only one-fifth as much electricity as the sodium lights. At the Lakeshore Campus in Waukegan, 20 LED light fixtures were added in and around the Student Life Center in mid-February. In late 2011, the fluorescent lighting in eight Grayslake classrooms were changed to the LED variety.
Ÿ CLC completed a third successful season with the college’s community garden on the Grayslake campus, maintaining 50 plots. CLC faculty and staff also mentored community gardens in Avon Township and Antioch. Community gardens offer fresh, pesticide-free vegetables, according to Rory Klick, chair of CLC’s horticulture department.
Ÿ CLC began a dialogue with the Lake County Forest Preserve District and other community groups for a proposed 55-acre teaching and learning farm in Grayslake. The forest preserve property is on the northwest corner of U.S. Highway 45 and Center Street.
Ÿ During the summer, the college installed 21 double-paned windows on the first and second floors of the Grayslake campus’s A wing. The new energy-saving windows replace the 40-year-old, single-pane windows.
Ÿ CLC added geothermal technology to the Technology Building. The technology uses liquid circulating in a loop of pipes buried underground and connected to a heat pump inside a building, according to Scott Allen, heating and air conditioning engineering technology instructor. The system is for demonstration only.
Ÿ A five-week project designed to reduce solid waste, chemical waste and energy consumption was put into place at the college’s dental hygiene program, based at the Lakeshore Campus in Waukegan, by posting more materials online instead of distributing as hard copies and using double-sided printing for materials distributed as hard copies.
Total paper usage declined by nearly 90 percent — from 6,432 pages to 713 pages — and the efforts will be continued for all four clinic courses, according to Sue Nierstheimer, chair of the dental hygiene program.
By using overhead dental treatment lights instead of ceiling lights, when possible, 11,500 hours of light-bulb usage was saved in five weeks. Computer hours of operation and usage of chemicals used in developing X-rays were reduced by 50 percent or more.
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