Spring Break
Students look to adopt new green initiatives
Fund would provide for sustainable improvements to Homewood facilities; StuCo to vote on the plan next week
Issue date: 2/14/08
Freshman Dan Teran is pushing the University to adopt a new program that would create a fund for students to help the school go green.
The Sustainable Revolving Loan Fund would provide capital for departments across Homewood to make sustainable improvements to their facilities. In theory, these updates would be more cost-efficient and energy-efficient, and departments would save money in energy costs by implementing them.
The fund would require departments to pay back the money at a low interest rate, but the savings from the projects would easily cover the costs over time.
Hence, the fund is "revolving" since it sustains itself through the savings that it generates.
"This would definitely increase student involvement and put them in charge of a revolving fund and in a position to make executive decisions about projects," Teran said.
Teran sees a place for students to be directly involved in the departmental decisions.
The current proposal is for a $500,000 fund and stipulates that the success of the initiative would be evaluated after two years. This period would give the University time to see the changes and accordingly allocate more or less money toward the effort.
The existing proposal will be brought before Student Council on Tuesday in the hopes that they will vote for a resolution in support of it, and pass it on to the administration.
Then, unidentified members of the administration will vote on the proposal and allocation of funds. Essentially, the administrative board would be directly investing in students and their ideas for a sustainable future, Teran said. He added that alumni donations could also fund the effort.
A similar initiative was brought before the administration two years ago but was rejected. Teran stressed that he thinks the administration has a tendency to reject these types of measures in general, but that having the support of the Student Council should help to push this one through.
Harvard started a Green Campus Initiative in 2000, which has seen significant reductions in its carbon dioxide emissions, total solid waste and usage of water.
Teran said that Hopkins could focus on smaller projects. One of his favorite examples is a project undertaken by the University of California, Berkeley in which students fixed the toilets in one building that was roughly the size of the AMRs and saved $20,000.
- Katlyn Torgerson contributed to this article.
The Sustainable Revolving Loan Fund would provide capital for departments across Homewood to make sustainable improvements to their facilities. In theory, these updates would be more cost-efficient and energy-efficient, and departments would save money in energy costs by implementing them.
The fund would require departments to pay back the money at a low interest rate, but the savings from the projects would easily cover the costs over time.
Hence, the fund is "revolving" since it sustains itself through the savings that it generates.
"This would definitely increase student involvement and put them in charge of a revolving fund and in a position to make executive decisions about projects," Teran said.
Teran sees a place for students to be directly involved in the departmental decisions.
The current proposal is for a $500,000 fund and stipulates that the success of the initiative would be evaluated after two years. This period would give the University time to see the changes and accordingly allocate more or less money toward the effort.
The existing proposal will be brought before Student Council on Tuesday in the hopes that they will vote for a resolution in support of it, and pass it on to the administration.
Then, unidentified members of the administration will vote on the proposal and allocation of funds. Essentially, the administrative board would be directly investing in students and their ideas for a sustainable future, Teran said. He added that alumni donations could also fund the effort.
A similar initiative was brought before the administration two years ago but was rejected. Teran stressed that he thinks the administration has a tendency to reject these types of measures in general, but that having the support of the Student Council should help to push this one through.
Harvard started a Green Campus Initiative in 2000, which has seen significant reductions in its carbon dioxide emissions, total solid waste and usage of water.
Teran said that Hopkins could focus on smaller projects. One of his favorite examples is a project undertaken by the University of California, Berkeley in which students fixed the toilets in one building that was roughly the size of the AMRs and saved $20,000.
- Katlyn Torgerson contributed to this article.
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