Swiped from http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/campus_notices/campusnotice.php?item=1983:
Virginia Tech, Sustainable Blacksburg, and the Town of Blacksburg are partnering for a greener community. Show your support by participating in the Second Annual Sustainability Week, October 20-25.
During the week of October 20, several events including fairs, tours, and workshops will take place on campus and throughout the Town of Blacksburg.
To learn more, please visit our website: www.vt.edu/sustainability.
October 06 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
So I was visiting the Records Management Services folks at VT and on the way out I overheard an orientation that was going on in the parking lot of Transportation & Parking.  They got their first Chevy Malibu Hybrid vehicle. It’s not a Prius (Malibu’s estimated mpg is in the 30s) but a good step in the right direction, given that the State only has contracts with with GM I believe. The Malibu is not in the fleet yet but will be used by VT employees for local trips only for the first year. Three other vehicles will be added later. They already have some GM trucks too.
June 05 2008 | Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
As discussed at the May 5, 2008 Energy and Sustainability Committee Meeting, Professor John Randolph has agreed to serve as Chair of the Subcommittee to develop the Virginia Tech Climate Action Commitment (VTCAC). In order to get a head start on developing a draft plan, John would like to hold a series of four monthly meetings beginning on May 21, 1:00-3:00 pm - President’s Board Room, Burruss Hall.
In other news, Denny and I are working on a post-action summary of Sustainability Week 2007, with listings of all events and associated documents & electronic files generated from the week of 39 activities held in 19 different locations in conjunction with Sustainable Blacksburg, the Town of Blacksburg, and many others. It should be complete later this month. Also Larry and I met earlier this week. The initial recycling walk-throughs (locating bins and potential bin locations) for the 6 VT buildings in the CRC (a pilot project) has been completed. Now we are reviewing inventory and will follow-up with tenants for specific needs. Stay tuned!
May 15 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
Local events this week include a Monday (5/5/08) 2 pm Energy & Sustainability (sub?) Committee meeting to discuss the concept of a customized VT Climate Commitment and a Powershift potluck dinner/planning meeting this Wednesday May 7 starting at 8 PM - RSVP to Jackie or for directions. This week VTR is also hoping to finish its final building walk-through for a pilot project with 6 buildings in the Corporate Research Center (CRC) for a CRC recycling route, to be launched later this month. ALSO Y-TOSS? is going on now until May 8!! See next blog entry for a snippet of info.
May 04 2008 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
The Third Annual Ytoss? Collection will take place at six conveniently located collection points near residence halls, May 3 - May 8, from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
May 3 - 8, 2008 | 10am - 5pm:
- West End Market
- Slusher Beach: between Slusher and Campbell Halls
- Upper Quad: between Monteith and Shanks Hall
- The Prairie (2 locations): between PY, O’Shag, Lee and Pritchard Halls
- President’s Quad: between Johnson, Miles, Barringer, Newman Halls
- Collection boxes will be available at Oak Lane Housing
May 02 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
There will be an EC planning meeting today (Sunday 4/28/08) at 2 pm in the library on the 4th floor near the photocopy desk - to wrap up some last details of the semester. Monday is the 4/28/08, 2 pm - Energy & Sustainability Committee meeting (in the President’s Board Room, Burruss Hall - open for observation) and Tuesday 4/29/08 should be a regular EC meeting at 7:00 pm in Randolph 110. Some activity will still take place over the summer too.
April 27 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
An Environmental Enterprise E2 award was presented to the Montgomery Regional Solid Waste Authority (MRSWA) on Earth Day April 22, accepted by MRSWA Educational Coordinator Teresa Sweeney on behalf of a large team. This is part of the Governor’s Virginia Environmental Excellence Program.  Two VA Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) representatives were present including Steven A. Dietrich, DEQ Regional Director from Roanoke, and Sharon K. Baxter, DEQ Pollution Prevention Director, Office of Pollution Prevention in Richmond. 
Several others were in attendance including Virginia Tech’s John Beach and Denny Cochrane. Lunch and tours of the facility were also provided.
April 23 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
Notes from the talk by M.B. on April 21 at 1 pm: Marilyn Brown from the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech was introduced by Richard Hirsch. She shared the Nobel Peace prize with Al Gore working with the IPCC. She feels Americans must confront energy concerns and sound energy policy and focus on the increased need for more energy efficiency. Dr. Brown reminded us that the focus has changed a lot since the 1st Earth Day in 1970. Then it was a focus on celebrating natural resources and an effort to put corporate America on alert that they need to change.
Now the focus of climate challenge is the concern. She pointed out that we believe in several myths which lead to inaction - This is what her latest book dealt with such as: 1) Dealing with the belief that “this is too expensive”; or that 2) The effort to increase energy efficiency was tapped out in the 1970s when the oil embargo occurred. Now, she believes a combination of policy and technological solutions are needed.
There is currently no market for green house gas reduction. If you reduce emissions you are not rewarded - there is no profit motive. Â Energy companies are rewarded by how much energy is consumed not by how much saved - this is how they make money. But we still need to focus on the question, “How can we produce and use energy more wisely?” Some people think it is just cars and coal - but it’s not that simple.
There is no simple silver bullet out there. We need to look at how we use energy in all areas. We have NOT made a lot of progress. In looking at the 4 areas of Oil Security, Energy Efficiencey, Electricity Reliability, & Environmental Quality - the only good news are in the reductions of sulfer dioxide - the Clean Air Act is working.
We are also using energy more efficiently. From 1970 to 2005 we went from 16,000 Btu per dollar of GNP down to 8,000 Btu per dollar. But CO2 emissions are ramping up steadily. Let’s look at emissions of CO2 vs. the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere…in the year 2050 we will be doubling our CO2 emissions from 7 gigatons to 14 gigatons. We will also go from 380 parts per million up to 650-750 parts per miillion in terms of concentration of CO2. Why do we need to reduce it? If we don’t we will continue to face a 0.2 degree C per decade increase according to the IPCC  - and by the year 2100 - a 2 degree C increase - a modest increase it appears.
But the last time the earth experienced at 2 degree C increase was 180,000 years ago when the sea level rose between 4 to 6 meters, a significant rise. We will not even get into climatic effects of severe storms, etc. - that is another set of problems we don’t have time to talk about now. Over the next 50 years, a 25 GT reduction should cost $1.25 trillion at $50/tC. A $50/tC tax or carbon trading value would raise electricity prices by almost 1 cent per kWh. - of course we need 7Xs that - the world does. Our GDP is $13 trillion. How would we do it? It would take 1,000 coal plants to sequester carbon or 501 nuclear plants or 650,000 wind turbines or other solutions involving ethanol or the idea of reforesting some barren land so that it could offset CO2 production.
So what is the good news? - US Energy Efficiency is improving. Growth of the GDP has been rapid since 1970, when the oil embargo occurred - and the overall energy consumption/GDP has declined. So that means the energy intensity has improved.
Efficiency vs. conservation: Efficiency is doing more with smarter technology with less for longer - we would be using twice as much energy if we had not become more efficienct of the last 35+ years. Energy efficiency has been the largest energy resource - the 5th fuel as coined by Jim Rogers - “it may be 5th on the chart but 1st in our heart. “Energy efficiency has been the biggest and the cheapest and has offset others. Efficiency can be cheap compared to gas combined cycle plants (5.5), coal (5.6), nuke (6.3), wind (6.8) - the avg cost per kw hr is 3.4 cents per KWh for energy efficiency. This is good for employment too.
Let’s look at the refrigerator - in 1970 typical models consumed 1800-1900 kw hrs per year. Today’s frig does not consume more than about 425 kw hrs - this is sort of an invisible tale. From the frigs that require only 425 kw hrs we saved $17 B in energy savings (assuming buyers did not put the old one in the garage and plug it in there) - and this is just one appliance.
With just a 1.1% per year increase, we will need 183% more energy by end of century. We will need 3 Xs as many coal refineries, 3 Xs as many nuclear reactor plants if we cut it in half, we can increase our energy needs by only 68% by 2100. Can we do that? I think we can - we need to focus on investment that pays for itself - insulating buildings, more efficient cars, things you can invest in to reduce utility costs - commercial electronics, better lighting … then we get to active forest management and the need for a portfolio of investments. Here are a few websites to visit (some must not be right, because they are not working - please let me know if you find the working sites!):
How bad are we? The simple act of using a CFL can make it go from 3% to up to 80% efficient. If you do the life cycle calculation comparing your 50 cent incandescent bulb to the $2 CFL, operating the incandescent is $7.70 for the 1st year, whereas the CFL costs only $1.80 - you can do the math. We need a Paradigm Shift - we need to place energy production near where it is used - 60% of energy production is wasted as heat. If that power production was outside of this building you could capture the lost heat for various uses and it could be at a rate of 80-85% efficiency. If we moved to a system of distributed generation we could be twice as efficient. But there is a dis-incentive for companies to do this - to reduce energy use.
What is on the Horizon? Check out the Habitat for Humanity project in Lenoir City, TN using structurally insulated panels; they spend only $0.50 per day. They use heat pumps to move air. Oakridge Labs is developing an integrated system and you can heat the home as well as the water to cut cost by 50%. Or go to an advanced insulation with a parafin that absorbs heat during the day and then as it cools it goes to a solid state and heats the house. We are now getting to plug-in hybrid vehicles where we can use excess capacity to power others.
Several states have shown what can be done - even with population growth their consumption per person has been flat in California. Vermont and New England have done good things too. What about other states? The building codes are key. Virginia for example is using 2003 code or equivalent. TN using 1997 code; GA has an automatic update of their codes but does not enforce them. We hear more and more about LEED buildings and Energy Star homes - this is the right direction but the focus on energy code only keeps the worst offenders from building houses.Â
Question: We are not very progressive; the power companies want to sell their power cheaply - in terms of policy what can we do? Answer: It is a myth that we use a lot of energy because it is cheap - It is also a cultural and educational issue - and a public policy issue - if we had white tags we could unleash the profit motive which would help us along. The building codes only prevent the worst offenders. States need to add state specific compliance codes to go above the federal code.
Question: What will emerge nationally in 1 year? What will the next administration do or change? Answer: They will put a price on carbon with the cap and trade idea - to start with modest changes. Policy makers do not want to prescribe -  we need to look at embodied energy in products. We’ve seen the end of the days of cheap energy… that’s what is different today. We have a propensity to rush along - rush to go back to nuclear power. A push for a new energy policy go with ethenol. How do you get people to slow down and not just jump on the next bandwagon? Corn based ethanol - granted we rushed into it too fast - suddenly billions of gallons are required and there are incentives to pay for production, etc - we should have known better - the only thing is - while we are using a corn-based approach, we are creating an infrastructure that can be used for other biomass-based fuels (e.g., sugar cane). With more cars come more pipelines and more distributions - so when other fules are available we will have the infrastructure built up and ready to use - that is one good thing about the rush into corn.
April 21 2008 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
VT Earth Week 2008 Schedule - See a PDF Schedule too
Sunday April 20th
• 11am: SEEDS’ co-sponsored Stroubles Creek clean up
Monday, April 21st
• 1pm: Marilyn Brown “The Emergence of Energy Efficiency As The Fifth Fuel†in Graduate Life Center Multipurpose Room
• 4pm: Misty Gregg “The Real Dirt On Clean†in Squires 145
Tuesday, April 22nd
• 10am-3pm: Earth Day Fair on drillfield
• 5pm: Green Effect Rally II
• 730pm: Frank Harmon “Green Architecture†in Squires 341/345
Wednesday, April 23rd
• Emerging Green Builders “Car Free Day‖all day
• 8am-5pm: EGB visual of “Car Free Day” on drillfield
• 12-1pm: APO co-sponsored duck pond clean up
• 230pm: Recycled Fort Building Contest on drillfield (rain location Squires 341/345)
• 7pm: Josh Tulkin “Evolution Of The Youth Climate Movement†in Whittemore 300
Thursday, April 24th
• “Conservation Dayâ€: Spend one day consciously reducing your energy use!
• 10am-4pm: MJ tabling with Concerned Citizens of Giles County and Beehive Design Collective in front of Newman Library
• 4pm: Panel Discussion with CCGC in Squires 345
• 7pm: “Friends Of The Mountains†Larry Gibson and Beehive Design Collective in Torg 3100
Friday, April 25th
• 9-11am: Tree Planting on drillfield - Contact mscott22@vt.edu to sign up.
• 1130am: Denny Cochrane “Sustainability at VT: How We Are Inventing The Right Future†in Squires 341/345
• 1-3pm: Tree Planting II
• 4pm: VT Green Team presentation on sustainability and going Green by Jackie Pontious and Angie De Soto - Squires 341/345
April 19 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
Environmental Coalition Earth Week T-SHIRTS can be preordered now! Email Rachel at hami2787@vt.edu.
April 12 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
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