Published: March 26, 2008 09:51 pm            

Eastern Iowa colleges focus on going green

DAVENPORT, Iowa — High energy costs and concerns about global warming have pushed colleges in the Quad Cities to consider going green.

The steps vary in sizes, but colleges are embracing broad goals like reducing their own energy consumption.

Among other efforts:

--Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill. has pledged to reduce its energy consumption by 2 percent per year for 15 years. The goal is that, by 2023, it will be using almost 30 percent less energy than it does now.

--Black Hawk College hopes to build a multimillion-dollar, 2-megawatt wind turbine at its East Campus near Kewanee, Ill., that would provide 100 percent of the electrical needs there, with construction beginning as early as 2010.

--St. Ambrose University, in Davenport, has buried seven 3,000-gallon tanks on its campus that will store rainwater from downspouts on a new hall now under construction.

The captured water will reduce flooding in the Locust Street area and will provide water that can be used later for landscaping.

The colleges say going green is makes good fiscal sense.

"We’re interested in the economics since the cost of energy is skyrocketing," said Patricia Keir, the chancellor of the Eastern Iowa Community College District, or EICCD, that oversees Scott, Muscatine and Clinton community colleges. "We’re trying to reduce our expenses."

Steps on campus have been as simple as switching to more energy-efficient light bulbs and installing variable-frequency drives on pumps and motors.

Such steps have overhead costs, but university officials say its important to take efficiency seriously.

"Wr're doing this in part because there is a global crisis," Augustana President Steven Bahls said of the college's sustainability initiatives. "And this is one of the most important issues for young people. This is the issue of their time."

Keir agreed.

"Human activities are responsible for the problem (global warming) and, working together, humans have the capacity to solve the problem," she said.

        

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