Check out these recent UNC-related news stories:
Fare-free transit benefits residents, clears traffic, air (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Chapel Hill Herald
Free is all the rage now. Yahoo e-mail comes with infinite disk space. Google searches are free. The hip bands are making their music available online for nothing. It goes on. ...More important, our partnership to provide fare-free transit shows just how seriously the university, Chapel Hill and Carrboro take our commitment to improve the environment. The reduction of vehicles traveling in this area -- particularly those with only one occupant -- because of the availability of fare-free transit has vastly improved our air quality. (Holden Thorp is chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)
http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/opinion/columnists/guests_ch/110-1187000.cfm
New UNC energy policy regulates building temperatures
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Students returning to UNC's campus next month might find temperatures inside classrooms a little warmer than usual or a little cooler than normal during winter months. Under a new "Energy Use Policy" recently adopted, UNC officials want thermostats set no lower than 78 degrees during summer months or higher than 69 degrees during cooler weather.
http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/orange/10-1187209.cfm
Reclaiming the Water
"Green Ideas" Insider Higher Ed
...“We had a drought in this area in 2002," said Raymond E. DuBose, director of energy services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “It was an eye-opener for us all. Our reservoir got very, very low and the entire community, including the university, felt threatened because of that drought. The reality is we could have run out of water.”...The system went into operation in April, and the estimated reduction in use of drinking water is currently about 660,000 gallons per day -- equaling about 30 percent of UNC’s total demand. The university expects that the use of reclaimed water will increase in the future, to 1.5 to 2 million gallons a day, or more. ("Green Ideas" spotlights different strategies, large and small, that colleges are adopting in attempts to reduce their environmental impact.)
http://www.insidehighered.com/layout/set/dialog/news/2009/07/31/greenideas
Green Plus program gets big boost
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The Green Plus program developed at UNC, championed in its early stages by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce and now headquartered in Chapel Hill got a national boost Friday in its mission to help small- and midsize businesses become better environmental stewards. The American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) announced that it will partner with the Institute for Sustainable Development to offer the Green Plus program to chamber members.
http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/orange/10-1189493.cfm
Collegiate altruists to converge on UNC
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Building sustainable gardens in Argentina, constructing chicken coops in Tanzania and building an irrigation system in Bolivia are examples of projects performed by Nourish International, an organization that is hosting its second annual Summer Institute that will take place on the UNC campus from Thursday to Aug. 10. ...Nourish International, also simply referred to as Nourish, is a nonprofit organization based in Chapel Hill. Founded in 2003 by a UNC student, Nourish started as a UNC student group called "Hunger Lunch."
http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/orange/10-1189965.cfm
N.C. should embrace mission to develop alternatives to oil (Editorial)
The Star-News (Wilmington)
North Carolina is at the center of the energy debate – the ongoing tug-of-war between those who insist we must drill wherever we can for whatever oil and natural gas remain and those who would turn out the light on old energy in favor of “clean” energy sources...Even more encouraging, however, was a report from a UNC-Chapel Hill professor who suggested that wind energy is not only feasible for some parts of coastal North Carolina – such as near Morehead City – but also could be produced at a competitive cost.
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20090730/ARTICLES/907309996
Roses and Raspberries (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill News
Raspberries to whoever stole a trailer full of empty oyster shells from behind Squid's Restaurant. UNC microbiologist Chris Elkins collects the spent shells from Squid's for the Coastal Conservation Association. Every three weeks he drives the trailer full down to the coast, where the N.C. Coastal Federation uses them to prevent erosion, protect marshland and preserve fish and wildlife habitat at Jones Island. The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries also uses oyster shells to help promote the formation of oyster reefs.
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/opinion/story/51325.html
Backyard gardeners get serious, reclaim farmland
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Darin Knapp and Jane Saiers are science geeks by profession, gardeners by hobby. But these days their hobby has become a second occupation -- so much so they can now be called farmers. This summer, they started selling blueberries at the Hillsborough Farmers Market. ...Knapp, 45, is a neuroscientist at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Saiers, 44, owns her own medical communications company and works from home.
http://www.newsobserver.com/139/story/65725.html
-Thanks to UNC News Services for finding these great stories AND compiling the summaries! You can find more UNC media coverage and stories online at:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/category/8/34/103/
