Wednesday, October 27, 2010

TODAY: Campus Sustainability Day!

TODAY: Celebrating Campus Sustainability Day with honors!

Today is not just any ordinary day at Carolina! Yesterday, UNC was named the national champion in the EPA's first National Building Competition. You can read more about UNC's victory here.

And just this morning, the Sustainable Endowments Institute announced that UNC received an A- on the 2011 College Green Report Card! Our University also earned the designation of "Overall College Sustainability Leader," which is an accolade reserved schools that earn top marks in all areas of the report card: administration, climate change & energy, food & recycling, green building, student involvement, and transportation. Our score was again the highest in the whole state - besting Duke, NC State, Wake Forest, and others. Read more about the 2011 College Green Report Card here.

Congratulations to everyone all across the campus that works so hard day after day to make UNC Chapel Hill a smarter, healthier, happier, more sustainable university!

Are you Carolina Green? Make the pledge! Get the bottle!

UNC Chapel Hill is celebrating Campus Sustainability Day by launching the first-ever Carolina Green Online Pledge for students, faculty, staff, and alumni! With each pledge, individuals are asked to choose from a range of sustainable everyday actions related to food, energy, transportation, waste, water, and more. You can also let us know what you already do to help make UNC a more sustainable campus.

Submit your pledge online at CarolinaGreen.unc.edu or by visiting pledge tables from 10:30AM - 1:30PM today at:

  • Carrington Hall
  • Davis Library
  • FedEx Global Education Center
  • Hanes Art Center
  • Hooker Research Center
  • Johnston Center
  • Law School
  • Lenoir Dining Hall
  • McColl Building
  • Peabody Hall
  • Polk Place
  • Sitterson Hall
  • Student Recreation Center
  • Student Stores

Students, faculty, staff, and alumni who submit their pledge starting October 27 will be eligible to receive a BPA-free, reusable "Carolina Green" Nalgene water bottle while supplies last! We will be accepting pledges throughout the academic year, but we only have so many water bottles. So don't delay! Make your pledge to be Carolina Green today!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Today: Victory! Tomorrow: Carolina Green water bottles return!

We're counting down the hours until Campus Sustainability Day on Wednesday! What's to celebrate? LOTS!

TODAY: UNC wins EPA's first National Building Competition!

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ENERGY STAR program today announced that Morrison Residence Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has won the first-ever EPA National Building Competition. The competition launched April 27, 2010, challenging teams from 14 buildings across the country (including NC State!) to measure their energy use and work off the waste with help from EPA's ENERGY STAR program.

The Carolina team, the Watt-Busters, reduced energy use at Morrison Residence Hall by 36 percent in just one year, saved more than $250,000 on energy bills, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions equal to the electricity use of nearly 90 homes for a year.

Click here to learn more about this victory!

TOMORROW: Make YOUR pledge to be Carolina Green!

UNC Chapel Hill is celebrating Campus Sustainability Day by launching the first-ever Carolina Green Online Pledge for students, faculty, staff, and alumni! With each pledge, individuals are asked to choose from a range of sustainable everyday actions related to food, energy, transportation, waste, water, and more. You can also let us know what you already do to help make UNC a more sustainable campus.

Members of the campus community can submit their pledges by either:

  • Visiting pledge tables across campus from 10:30AM - 1:30PM tomorrow, OR
  • Pledging online anytime starting tomorrow!

The best part? Students, faculty, staff, and alumni who submit their pledge starting October 27 will be eligible to receive a BPA-free, reusable "Carolina Green" Nalgene water bottle while supplies last! So don't delay! Make your pledge to be Carolina Green today!

Click here to learn more about tomorrow's events!

UNC’s Morrison Residence Hall wins EPA’s first National Building Competition

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ENERGY STAR program today announced that Morrison Residence Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has won the first-ever EPA National Building Competition. The competition launched April 27, 2010, challenging teams from 14 buildings across the country to measure their energy use and work off the waste with help from EPA’s ENERGY STAR program.

The Carolina team, the Watt-Busters, reduced energy use at Morrison Residence Hall by 36 percent in just one year, saved more than $250,000 on energy bills, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions equal to the electricity use of nearly 90 homes for a year.

UNC reduced energy use through a combination of energy efficiency strategies, including improved operations and maintenance as well as outreach to Morrison residents. Improvements to the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, optimizing the solar heating water system and lighting improvements helped to increase the building’s energy efficiency and maximize savings. A computer touch-screen monitor in the lobby helped Morrison residents and the energy team at UNC keep track of energy consumption. Competitions between floors in the dorm to see who could save the most energy encouraged students to turn off lights and computers, and friendly reminders were posted in elevators, bathrooms and common areas.

“We are honored to win EPA’s first National Building Competition,” said UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp. “Carolina is a recognized national leader in sustainability and energy and carbon reduction. At UNC, sustainability is not just an academic topic. It’s part of our culture. It’s reflected in everything from our construction program to how we conduct business every day.”

In the past year alone, UNC reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent, and the UNC Energy Conservation Measure project, which Morrison was part of, resulted in a reduction of nearly $4 million in utility costs.

“The University of North Carolina is committed to energy efficiency, and we received strong support from EPA’s ENERGY STAR program throughout the competition, said Chris Martin, director of Energy Management. “We have expanded our energy efficiency initiatives to the whole campus and are excited to deliver even greater results as a community of students, staff and faculty.”

Together, the 14 competitors reduced their energy use by 44 million kilo British thermal units, saved more than $950,000 in utility bills, and reduced carbon dioxide emissions equal to the electricity use of nearly 600 homes for a year. The National Building Competition measured energy reductions from Sept. 1, 2009, through Aug. 31, 2010. The energy use of each building was monitored through EPA’s ENERGY STAR online energy measurement and tracking tool, Portfolio Manager. The winner is the building with the greatest percentage-based reduction in weather-normalized energy use intensity. Third party utility statements were required at the conclusion of the competition to verify the energy performance of each competitor.

“EPA is pleased to recognize Morrison Residence Hall at the University of North Carolina as the winner of the National Building Competition,” said Maura Beard, communications director for the commercial buildings branch of EPA’s ENERGY STAR program. “The achievements of UNC are a great example of how energy efficiency is good business and helps Americans fight climate change while saving money on their energy bills.”

The final rankings for EPA’s National Building Competition are:
1. Morrison Residence Hall at UNC, Chapel Hill, N.C. (35.7 percent)
2. Sears Glen Burnie, Glen Burnie, Md. (31.7 percent)
3. JCPenney, Orange, Calif. (28.4 percent)
4. 1525 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Va. (28 percent)
5. 522 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. (18.1 percent)
6. Solon Family Health Center, Solon, Ohio (13.9 percent)
7. Crystal River Elementary School, Carbondale, Colo. (12.2 percent)
8. Tucker Residence Hall at N.C. State University, Raleigh, N.C. (10.3 percent)
9. Courtyard by Marriott San Diego Downtown, San Diego, Calif. (8.6 percent)
10. Maplewood Mall, Maplewood, Minn. (6.7 percent)
11. Memorial Arts Building at Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta, Ga. (5.7 percent)
12. Van Holten Primary School, Bridgewater, N.J. (5.3 percent)
13. Sheraton Austin Hotel, Austin, Texas (1.9 percent)
14. Virginia Beach Convention Center, Virginia Beach, Va. (1.5 percent)

Energy use in commercial buildings accounts for nearly 20 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions at a cost of more than $100 billion per year. On average, 30 percent of the energy used in commercial buildings is wasted.

Carolina is a recognized national leader in sustainability and energy and carbon reduction. UNC has committed to becoming carbon-neutral by 2050 and to stop using coal on campus by May 2020.

EPA National Building Competition: http://www.energystar.gov/BuildingContest;
http://www.energystar.gov/BuildingContestReport

UNC Energy Management website: http://www.save-energy.unc.edu/

UNC’s 2009 Climate Action Plan: http://www.climate.unc.edu/CAP/cap2009
UNC’s 2009 Greenhouse Gas Inventory: http://www.climate.unc.edu/GHGInventory/reports/GHGInv2009

News Services contact: Susan Houston

Monday, October 25, 2010

UNC Sustainability - Upcoming Events

Today's UNC Sustainability Update includes the following headlines:
  • Campus Sustainability Day! Pledge to go green!

  • Institute for the Environment's Thailand Study Abroad Program Interest Group Meeting

  • Green Event Certified Trainings

  • Pie Cook-Off and Square Dance

  • And more!

Click here to read the full UNC Sustainability Update.

Click here to join the UNC Sustainability Listserv.

Carolina in the News

Check out the recent media mentions of sustainability-related programs, practices, people at UNC:

UNC Talks Water Resources Issues
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
UNC is bringing representatives and scholars from nearly 50 different countries together to talk about water. The two day symposium titled “Water and Health: Where Science Meets Policy” will take place on October 25 and 26. The representatives will discuss water issues as they relate to engineering and technology, health, community development, public policy and climate change. UNC professor and co-chair for the symposium Dr. Larry Band says one of the key themes of the conference will be collaboration.
Click here to read more.
UNC Release:
Click here to read more.

TOMS Shoes' giveaways helps it stamp towards profit
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)
...But TOMS is steering this concept in a new, and potentially powerful, direction, says Lisa Jones Christensen, a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at The University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School. In a typical "buy one, get one free" arrangement, the benefit accrues only to the buyer, she says. "With the TOMS model, you generate something for someone else while also advancing your own fashion."
Click here to read more.

Legacy loophole (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
There is a good deal of populist rage in the air. Some is, no doubt, misguided. American populism has a checkered history. But some is just good common sense. I know my old man would have thought that bankers who drove the economy over a cliff in a frenzy of dishonesty and greed, and then paid themselves millions in bonuses wrung from the tax dollars of waitresses and construction workers, ought to be horsewhipped. And my old man was often right. (Gene Nichol is director of the UNC Center on Poverty, Work & Opportunity.)
Click here to read more.

College campuses embrace solar for energy, revenue
The Triangle Business Journal
The 850 students living in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Morrison Residence Hall have the sun to thank for their hot showers. A 2007 renovation included the installation of a $300,000 solar thermal system that heats water for the building. And students paid for it by approving a $4 per student fee for each semester that supports a renewable energy fund to pay for projects on campus. “With 28,000 students, it generates a significant amount of revenue,” says Ray DuBose, the university’s director of energy services.
Click here to read more.

UNC Habitat project kicks off
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC Build a Block kicked off the start of a yearlong housing project on Sunday with a celebration at Phoenix Place, located off of Rogers Road, that was attended by Patti Thorp, wife of UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp, and Jonathon Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity. "All I could think about was how proud I am to be at Carolina, to be a Tarheel and to have the opportunity to be a part of this incredible project," Lauren Blanchet, co-director of UNC Build a Block, wrote on her blog after the event.
Click here to read more.

Habitat for Humanity Plans 10 Homes for U. of North Carolina Employees
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Habitat for Humanity chapter, which normally builds one house every semester, plans to build 10 this year—all for university employees who need decent housing. According to The Daily Tar Heel, the project got its start when the organization’s countywide chapter noticed that 14 of the first 18 applications it received this year for homes came from families whose members include employees of the university. Called Build a Block, the project has dual goals—build five houses a semester and at the same time break down barriers among students, administrators, and faculty and staff members.
Click here to read more.

UNC cuts greenhouse gas emissions
The Chapel Hill News
For the first year since a 2007 pledge to achieve climate neutrality by mid-century, UNC has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions in 2009 were 20 percent lower than the previous year, reflecting the compounding effects of internal efficiency programs and external market influences.
Click here to read more.

Good works as good business
The Chapel Hill Herald
Exploring how a safe drinking water program for children is good business will be the subject of a talk on Tuesday at Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC. Greg Allgood, director of Procter & Gamble Co.'s Children's Safe Drinking Water Program, and Lisa Jones Christensen, assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at Kenan-Flagler, will discuss "To Be For-Profit or Not to Be For-Profit: A False Choice: How the Children's Safe Drinking Water Program Builds Shareholder Value for P&G."
Click here to read more.

-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

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Experts from nearly 50 countries gather at UNC to discuss water and health issues

Scholars, water resources executives and policymakers from around the world will gather at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Oct. 25-26 for a symposium, “Water and Health: Where Science Meets Policy.”

The two-day event will examine water-related issues in five areas – engineering and technology, health, community development, policy, and climate change – and highlight international research, education and public outreach in each one.

The conference, one of the largest environmental events in the University’s history, is presented by the UNC Institute for the Environment and the new Water Institute at UNC, based in the Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Participants come from nearly 50 countries, including Australia, Canada, Georgia, Honduras, Kenya, Mexico, Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Thailand, United Kingdom and United States. Attendees represent diverse organizations, such as the Public Authority for Electricity and Water of Oman, Procter & Gamble, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Water for People, AmeriCorps, the University of Surrey (United Kingdom), the Sudan Academy of Sciences, the Ethiopian Civil Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The symposium is open to the public until filled; registration is $135 for students and $295 for the public. It is also preceded by a networking weekend (registration fee $90).

Keynote speakers include:

  • John Borrazzo, chief of the maternal and child health division, bureau for global health, U.S. Agency for International Development.
  • Clarissa Brocklehurst, chief of water and environmental sanitation, UNICEF.
  • Catarina de Albuquerque, independent expert on human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, and senior legal advisor, Office of Documentation and Comparative Law, Portugal.
  • Peter Kolsky, senior water and sanitation specialist, World Bank.

The event is the third in a series at Carolina. It represents an ongoing effort to bring UNC’s water resources expertise to bear on the growing challenges involved with providing safe water and adequate sanitation to the people of North Carolina, the nation and the world.

The symposium also marks the establishment of the new Water Institute at UNC, led by Jamie Bartram, Ph.D., professor of environmental sciences and engineering. Before coming to UNC, Bartram coordinated the World Health Organization’s water, sanitation, hygiene and health unit. The institute’s mission is to bring together individuals and institutions from diverse disciplines and sectors and, through academic leadership, empower them to work together to solve the most critical global issues in water and health.

Chancellor Holden Thorp will preside at the symposium dinner on Oct. 25, where the Water Institute will be formally launched.

“We are excited to host an event with such broad international participation,” Thorp said. “Water-borne diseases claim an estimated 12 million lives every year, and over a billion people lack access to safe water. Our new Water Institute is just one of a number of ways that Carolina is helping address this critical international challenge.”

The conference is co-chaired by Bartram and by Lawrence E. Band, Ph.D., a watershed hydrologist and ecologist. Band is the Voit Gilmore Distinguished Professor of Geography in the  College of Arts and Sciences and heads the UNC Institute for the Environment.

Symposium sponsors from UNC include the Institute for the Environment, the Water Institute and the environmental sciences and engineering department. Other sponsors include the American Water Works Association, Gannett Fleming, the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, NSF International and P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water.

Symposium website: http://www.ie.unc.edu/water2010
Symposium program: http://www.ie.unc.edu/content/news_events/symposia/2010/program.cfm
Networking weekend schedule: http://www.ie.unc.edu/content/news_events/symposia/2010/networking.cfm.

Media note: Conference co-chairs Bartram and Band are available for media interviews. To arrange an interview, contact Josh Meyer

Monday, October 4, 2010

UNC Sustainability - Upcoming Events

Today's UNC Sustainability Update includes the following headlines:
  • UNC's Inaugural Bike to Uganda

  • October Green Drinks

  • Natural Cleaners

  • Rain Garden Certification Workshop

  • Katrina, Haiti, Deepwater Horizon: Building a More Resilient World

  • Energy Sustainability: How Do We Get There?

  • And more!

Click here to read the full UNC Sustainability Update.

Click here to join the UNC Sustainability Listserv.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Carolina in the News

Check out the recent media mentions of sustainability-related programs, practices, people at UNC:

Carolina North is dealt a setback
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The deal to build a technology-transfer incubator that would kick off the Carolina North campus is off. The project would have provided laboratory space for UNC researchers to try to turn their findings into business ventures. Carolina North's executive director, Jack Evans, announced this month, how ever, that the university was unable to negotiate a deal with Alexandria Real Estate Properties, the lab-space developer that had been planning the 80,000-square-foot Innovation Center at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Municipal Drive.
Click here to read more.
Related Links:
Click here to read more.
Click here to read more.

UNC sees less demand for study abroad programs
The Triangle Business Journal
Despite greater emphasis on gaining a global education, it appears fewer students are spending time studying abroad, another likely casualty of the down economy. At UNC-Chapel Hill, the number of students studying abroad has fallen 15.9 percent over the past two years, from 1,307 in the 2007-08 school year to 1,127 during the recently completed year.
Click here to read more.

Homeland security expert Flynn to speak at UNC Wednesday
The Chapel Hill Herald
Homeland security expert Stephen Flynn, president of the Center for National Policy, will speak at UNC at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Flynn will deliver a lecture titled "Katrina, Haiti, Deepwater Horizon: Building a More Resilient World" in the Nelson Mandela Auditorium at the FedEx Global Education Center. A reception will be held in the Global Center's atrium following the event.
Click here to read more.
UNC Release
Click here to read more.

-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

Graduate students receive Department of Energy fellowships

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded fellowships to two graduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Graham Giovanetti, who is studying nuclear physics, and Joseph Falkowski, who is studying inorganic chemistry, were among 150 students nationwide chosen to receive the fellowships, worth $50,500 per year for up to three years. Support for the new fellowships comes in part from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The goal of the new fellowship program is to strengthen the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to young science students during the formative years of their research.

Giovanetti, a native of Harrisonburg, Va., graduated from the College of William and Mary. His research focuses on increasing understanding of the fundamental properties of the neutrino. The neutrino is an elementary particle that plays a crucial role in everything from nuclear decays and the burning of stars to the evolution of the early universe.

Falkowski, a native of Spring Hill, Fla., graduated from the University of Florida. His research focuses on creating new materials containing extremely small pores. These materials can be used as catalysts, which can facilitate and regulate the speed and manner of chemical reactions.

For more information on the winners, visit http://scgf.orau.gov/fy2010-fellowship-awardees.html.

College of Arts and Sciences contact: Kim Spurr, (919) 962-4093

Carolina in the News

Check out the recent media mentions of sustainability-related programs, practices, people at UNC:

To study greenhouse gas, researchers take the ferry
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Clues about how the earth responds to climate change may soon emerge from the lower decks of the Floyd J. Lupton and other ferries sailing along the North Carolina coast. In the ferries' hot, noisy engine rooms, instruments for measuring the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide will join sensors and collection bottles that have been used for years to monitor vital signs of the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound. ...Hans Paerl, a professor at the UNC Institute of Marine Science, is leading an effort to learn the value of the Pamlico Sound and other coastal waters in absorbing greenhouse gases.
Click here to read more.

The Poverty Project
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM
...There’s an effort underway at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to confront the moral challenge of poverty and how it relates to inequality. Can changing the conversation about poverty help poor people? The project is led by Duke Professor Bob Korstad and Jim Leloudis, a professor at UNC. ...Leloudis is UNC’s Associate Dean for Honors, and Director of the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence. ...Also joining the conversation is historian Rachel Siedman, Research and Policy Associate at the Kenan Institute for Ethics and director of the Poverty Project Lab; and Maureen Berner from the UNC School of Government.
Click here to read more.

Economy Affecting Plans For Carolina North
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
The first project to be built at Carolina North was supposed to be the Innovation Center. But the executive director of Carolina North Jack Evans says that won’t be the first thing built at UNC’s 250-acre satellite campus. The Innovation Center was going to be a joint project with a private developer with the goal of attracting some of the world’s best start-up companies, researchers and top minds to Chapel Hill.
Click here to read more.

-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

Carolina in the News

Check out the recent media mentions of sustainability-related programs, practices, people at UNC:

Carolina North Annual Report Up For Discussion
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
An annual report that details the future development of Carolina North will be presented at a public meeting Wednesday evening. Both Town and UNC officials are seeking public comments on the most recent plans for the proposed mixed-use research building site. UNC leaders say the facility will help transform the state’s economy and compete with other such facilities in the nation. Its location is two miles north of the main campus off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and will absorb what is now the Horace Williams Airport.
Click here to read more.

UNC, Durham pleased with meeting on N.C. 54
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
UNC Chapel Hill and Durham officials say their meeting this week to discuss the N.C. 54 corridor's traffic problems went well, in part by clarifying that the school has no short-term plans for any major development there. The discussion underscored that UNC administrators' major interest at this point is seeing that N.C. 54 "continues to serve as the primary corridor for getting employees to work," said Durham City Councilman Mike Woodard.
Click here to read more.

Research campus boosts local rail traffic
The Independent Tribune (Kannapolis)
While the future of light rail is uncertain in the region because of the recession, heavy rail including Amtrak passenger rail has seen big boosts in ridership in Cabarrus County with the opening of the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, city officials said. ...Universities represented at the Research Campus include N.C. State University, Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, N.C. Central, N.C. A&T State, UNC-Greensboro, Appalachian State and UNC Charlotte.
Click here to read more.

-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