Drury tackles environmental issues

The university has undertaken several initiatives in the last two years to make the campus more environmentally friendly.

Efforts began in earnest in the 2005-06 school year, when the school’s convocation speaker series focused on sustainability. Speakers included Emory University anthropology professor Peggy Bartlett and Drury alumnus Phil Page, an attorney with the Environmental Protection Agency.

The work continued in early 2006, when President John Sellars created the President’s Council on Sustainability.

The council’s mission, according to the university Web site, is to identify and prioritize recommendations to the president on campus sustainability issues, including recycling, resource management and sustainable practices in facility renovation and construction.

Sellars also was one of the first 25 university presidents across the country to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, through which school presidents pledge to set a target date for becoming climate neutral. Sellars signed the commitment in January, and under the agreement, Drury has two years to set its date, which has not yet been determined.

In April, Sellars named associate biology professor Wendy Anderson as the school’s first director of campus sustainability.

“John Sellars was really one of the driving forces in the heightened commitment to sustainability on our campus,” Anderson said of the university president, who will resign on May 31. “We want environmental issues to be at the core of who we are academically, so that students, when they graduate here, will have that as one of their values.”

Campuswide effort

Anderson said Drury has expanded its recycling program, due to grants and donations, and is replacing old showerheads, sink faucets and toilets with newer, water-conserving models.

The recycling theme also could extend to Drury’s Central Street neighbors.

Dave Roling, vice president for administration and business at Ozarks Technical Community College, visited Drury’s campus with an idea for a recycling partnership between the two schools, along with other institutions including Central High School, the city of Springfield and City Utilities.

Roling said the effort is still in the “vision” stage; the group is tentatively scheduled to meet May 31 to discuss the idea.

“If all of those stakeholders were interested in a more comprehensive recycling effort, it would benefit all in terms of greater accumulation and possible revenue,” Roling said. “But it also takes on the flavor of a neighborhood association, banding together to do the right thing.”

Roling said the program could eventually create enough revenue from recyclables to bring a recycling coordinator on board.

If you build it …

One major project for Drury students is with Habitat for Humanity of Springfield.

A group of junior architecture students has designed a house for Habitat’s Legacy Trails subdivision.

The idea came from architecture professor Traci Sooter. The effort provides free design work for Habitat and practical design experience for the students.

“It’s also an opportunity to involve the whole campus in what they design,” said Anna Codutti, Habitat development director. “It’s not something they normally get to do, much less with an environmentally friendly theme.”

The home’s design incorporates sustainable materials, such as bamboo flooring, and energy-efficient techniques that capture maximum sunlight during cold months and shade windows during warm months.

The students also worked with vendors to get better prices on reusable materials, such as recycled steel and wood beams for framing, so additional costs would not be passed on to the homeowner.

“The appraised value is the same as any other Habitat house,” Codutti said, noting that an average four-bedroom Habitat house appraises for about $105,000.

“The homeowner’s monthly payment is going to be the same as if she had purchased a regular Habitat home,” she said.

Environmentally friendly techniques from the first home, which Habitat is scheduled to begin building in August, could be implemented in future Legacy Trails homes, Codutti said, adding that she has proposed to the university the idea of making the partnership an annual class, with a new home being designed each year.

Making the grade

To gauge the school’s success in its green efforts, Drury’s Anderson is developing a sustainability report card this summer.

“It’s like taking a pre-test before a class,” Anderson said, noting that water conservation is an increasingly important issue. “If it shows we’re not doing well right now, it can give us a place to improve from – that way we can set some baselines and benchmarks to reach in three or five years.”

While there is still much work to be done, Anderson said her appointment as sustainability director – an appointment to which she said Interim President Todd Parnell has also given his blessing – is an indication of the university’s desire to meet its goal.

“I think it’s a pretty big commitment to sustainability to say you want to have an employee focus on these issues rather than be doing something else,” she said.

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Drury completes molasses cleanup

Drury University’s Tindle Mills facility created a sticky situation on March 30 when contractors on site inadvertently released molasses into Jordan Creek.

Contractors from C.D. Hendricks Scrap Iron were removing the tank from its location on Brower Street between Sherman and Summit streets. Both the contractors and the university had been told that the tank was empty, but there appeared to have been another tank inside containing molasses.

While the university did not estimate how much molasses was spilled, Drury Vice President of Administration Ken Johnson said less than 1,000 gallons ended up in the storm sewer, which in turn feeds into Jordan Creek.

University crews contained the spill, and a crew from Sunbelt Environmental Services pumped and removed the spilled molasses.

“All the cleanup for spilled material outside the containment area was completed within hours of the spill,” Johnson said, adding that cleanup inside the containment area is also complete.

An unknown amount of molasses remains in tanks on the site; Archer Daniels Midland, which donated the land, is helping Drury remove that and should be finished before the end of the summer, Johnson said. [[In-content Ad]]