Stormwater Management (Pond) Repair Project

• Turn off lights in any empty room you are leaving or passing by.
• Lighting accounts for 10 percent to 15 percent of total electricity use; when multiplied by the number of rooms across campus, the potential for savings is enormous.
• Make the most of natural daylight, using more efficient bulbs like CFL and LED and use task rather than general lighting (plus it makes for a nicer work space to have a desk lamp instead of harsh overhead lights).
• Be proactive; turn off lights whenever they are not needed even in common areas (turning a light back on does not use more electricity than leaving it on).

• Turn off computers, monitors, printers and photocopiers when you leave your office for the evening, and unplug if you are heading out for the weekend or break.
• Turn off your computer monitor when you leave your desk for more than a few minutes- and visual screen savers use the same amount of energy as leaving the screen on, so let the screen darken into sleep mode instead.
• If you must leave your computer on for off-campus access, use the power management built in to your operating system (Windows: Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Power Options; Mac: System Preferences > Energy Saver) to automatically reduce energy use.  If each were turned off, or powered down daily, the potential for significant savings exists.
• Or, use a laptop: a typical laptop computer has a power consumption of 30 watts. A typical desktop PC, with conventional display, consumes about 5 times as much.
• Printers are typically left on for extended periods of time but are only printing a small percentage of that time. So, conventional printers can be a major energy hog. Laser printers consume the most energy.
• When purchasing, select a printer with power management capabilities and always look for the EnergyStar label. Printers with automatic "power down" features can reduce electricity use by over 65 percent.

Julie Rosenthal is the Program Management Specialist in the Asian Studies Program but she has also taken the initative to launch a new group, to facilitate the exchange and sharing of office supplies on campus.

In her own words, "This group will be similar to "Freecycle" in that a UMBC office or department can advertise that they have office supplies or items that are no longer of use to them.  The items will only be offered to other UMBC deparment, and will be available free of charge. The idea is to use UMBC's supplies and resources to the maximum extent possible."  

She has created this myUMBC group for offices to communicate about supplies they would like to donate and or receive: http://my.umbc.edu/groups/retriever-exchange

Please let offices and departments across campus know about this new opportunity and help make it a sucess! 

Without a program like this, departments would lose time and money procuring supplies that are already sitting unused in another office. Additionally, offices often are losing storage space with unnecessary clutter that could be put to use elsewhere.  

Julie says "It also promotes a "green" and sustainable environment for our campus, and prevents perfectly good items from going to a landfill."

If you are interested in updating your office to conserve resources from energy to recycling, get Green Office certified with the new program to be launched in Spring 2014: http://sustainability.umbc.edu/staff-green-office-certification/

Contact sustainability@umbc.edu if you are interested in being a part of the new Green Office Program in the spring.

Additionally, Students for Environmental Awareness, the Recycling Promo/Events Team, and other groups on campus are looking to collect reusable items during student move out in May to ensure useful goods are collected and put to use, rather than tossed in the trash. They are looking for ways to raise awareness of their end of year 'free store' event and exchance, and for volunteers to help keep it running smoothly. Contact umbcseaclub@gmail.com to learn more.

The following is a feature article for the Retriever Weekly

UMBC students involved in Powershift

A trip to Pittsburgh that left students inspired and motivated

By Shannon Williams Staff Writer

The UMBC students returned to campus more aware of the environmental issues the world is facing and even more determined to spread the word to other students.

"I realized how many things are against us in the fight for clean power, but it was really inspiring to see so many like-minded people gathering to try and make a change for ourselves and, really when you get down to it, for everyone in our world today," said Virginia Morgan, a sophomore anthropology and sociology double major.

"I was able to learn about issues in my own state, what I could do to help and in turn spread awareness to other students at UMBC,” said Gagan Singh senior English major.

Some of the environmental issues that Powershift addressed were climate change, the keystone XL pipeline and mountaintop removal.

But for this year's event, the main problem Powershift was concerned with was fracking (hydraulic fracturing), a way of extracting oil or gas that is harming the environment. The event was held in Pittsburgh specifically because fracking is being supported in this city.

On the final day of Powershift, a rally took place against fracking. It consisted of a mass march down the streets of Pittsburgh, while people held banners and protested in order to stop fracking from harming the earth further than it already has.

"The sense of rightness and belonging during that march was extremely powerful and exhilarating," said Sarah Bogle, a senior geography major.

AMST 422: Preserving Places, Making Spaces in Baltimoretrains students to complete research in cultural history and develop related public programming working with a community in Baltimore city. For spring 2014, we are working with the historic industrial community of Baybrook, which includes Brooklyn and Curtis Bay and the “lost neighborhoods” of Masonville, Fairfield, Wagner’s Point, and Hawkin’s Point. AMST 422 students have been working with residents of the community since 2009. The course incorporates the skills of social entrepreneurship—using entrepreneurial methods to produce measurable social outcomes. The culmination of the course is a public event in the community. Students complete numerous hours of community service, including attending community meetings, park cleanups, citizens on patrol walks, college fairs, and community gardening events to build relationships with residents. AMST 422 students will work with Professor Steve Bradley and his ART 390: Imaging Research Center (IRC) Fellows students on the final community event and populating the Mapping Baybrook digital exhibition with content: http://mappingbaybrook.org/  

During the semester, Students will research the environmental history of both industry and the green space in the community. We will also work with “green businesses” emerging in the area and with Jason Reed, who runs the Filbert Street Community Garden in Curtis Bay. Reed received an Open Society Institute (OSI) Fellowship in 2011 to continue his work with the garden and connected projects—which he calls the Curtis Bay-Brooklyn Urban-Agriculture and Stewardship Program (CUSP). The project uses urban agriculture to improve the health of residents, foster community pride, and increase awareness of the need for land stewardship and good nutrition: http://www.filbertstreetgarden.blogspot.com/ 

Central questions the spring 2014 classes will explore are: What is environmental justice? What are the parallels between the disciplines of art and history? Can students develop hybrid methods of inquiry? What does true interdisciplinary collaboration look like? How does collaboration complicate and enhance the learning experience? How can art and history be used to enhance justice in urban communities?

Course funded by seed money from a Kauffman Faculty Innovation grant and a Breaking Ground grant.

The bikeshare will be launching tomorrow at the RAC, an opening celebration will take place at noon.

The retriever weekly reported: "Alongside SGA President, Jeffrey Kee, senior information systems major, [David] Murray is working on putting into action a "Bikeshare" program that should be in use within the next couple of weeks. It will allow students to use bicycles for free from the RAC and take them to Arbutus, Catonsville, or wherever else they may want to go. Murray has also been looking into possibly expanding the bus routes available for UMBC students." - http://www.retrieverweekly.com/features/david-murray-presents-new-ideas-as-sga-vp-1.3098952

UMBC Athletics has announced: "You are cordially invited to join us this Friday, October 25th, at noon, for a tour of the newly renovated UMBC Fitness & Wellness Weight Room in the RAC. Not only are we re-opening the weight room, we've added 15 new cardio equipment pieces to the RAC cardio balcony, and a new SGA/Recreation sponsored bike/ride share truss area.
The festivities will include giveaways (water bottles, pedometers, drawstring gym backpacks, and kotex products), along with some cool demonstrations.
I hope you'll join us for the Grand Re-Opening of these areas!"

Congratulations to all those who have worked towards this goal in the past few years- including the Climate Change Task Force Transportation Committee, and the UMBC SGA Department of Environmental Affairs and the Catonsville Hub!

Learn more about bicycling and other sustainable transportation options here: http://sustainability.umbc.edu/transportation/ 

• With bike racks, bike lockers, and even bike racks on the UMBC Transit buses, we have array of options to stay active on two wheels!
• Bicycles should be parked at racks and registered with the campus police.
• The UMBC Cycling club organizes road rides and mountain biking rides, long and short, near and far.
• Patapsco State Park, and the nearby Gwynn’s Falls Trail and Jones Falls Trail in Baltimore also offers scenic and safe routes to access the city. Learn more about biking in Maryland.

Tanvi Gadhia ’09, geography and environmental systems, has the job of assessing UMBC’s progress in making its goal of becoming climate neutral and helping push the university to get there even more quickly.

Gadhia was hired last year as UMBC’s first environmental sustainability coordinator. As a student, she led groups including UMBC Students for Environmental Awareness and the Maryland Student Climate Coalition – raising awareness about the issue of climate change and advocating for change.

In her new job, Gadhia coordinates the sustainability efforts across the entire campus, tracking the university’s movement toward its climate targets and increasing community awareness of those goals.

Coordination is necessary because of the diverse groups working under the umbrella of UMBC’s Climate Change Task Force. Larger initiatives such as reducing energy consumption on campus, providing greener alternatives to single-person commuting and managing the university’s parking resources are being led by various administrative departments at the university.

Yet the push for a greener UMBC isn’t just coming from the top down. “A lot of the progress that we’re seeing is from grassroots initiatives,” Gadhia says. A composting proposal was created and led by UMBC students. And UMBC faculty members are pursuing new research to create a sustainable future as they organize workshops to weave climate issues into the curriculum.

Gadhia was especially inspired by a June workshop specifically designed to brainstorm ways to integrate sustainability into courses across the university. “There was representation across so many different disciplines,” she says. “Having faculty from environmental engineering and political science in the same room, and seeing all these different lenses through which we can view the issue. There was interest in even more collaboration across those boundaries – and a desire to link up research efforts and classroom efforts.”

These combined efforts have already had a tangible effect on UMBC’s push for climate neutrality. “As of the most recent reporting, we have reduced our carbon footprint by 13.3 percent since 2007,” Gadhia says. The university’s goal is to reduce such emissions by 15 percent by 2015 and by 25 percent by 2020.

Other numbers also show progress. The rate at which UMBC recycles has more than doubled since 2008, from 20.1 percent to 40.4 percent. And a $5 million chilled water optimization project across the campus’s heating and cooling systems will reduce UMBC’s climate footprint by another 3.5 percent.

“The percentage of the energy that we purchase from renewable energy sources like solar and wind is now 20 percent,” Gadhia observes.

Ask Gadhia where UMBC struggles most to make positive changes, and she says “transportation definitely moves to the forefront of my mind. Being situated in the suburbs, we exist in a very automobile-dependent culture.”

Gadhia points to carpooling as one area where grassroots momentum toward more sustainable practices is being accelerated with university support – including providing carpoolers with preferential parking spots on campus.

“In recent surveys we started asking how many people are casually carpooling,” Gadhia says. “We found that many, many people have set up their own carpooling systems independently so what we’re doing is we’re strategizing ways to help facilitate and foster that.”

UMBC is making other efforts to reduce single-passenger commuting. “We have new bus stop shelters that are solar powered,” she says, “and the [Maryland Transit Authority] buses are stopping here now. We have improved UMBC Transit in so many ways. We’ve upgraded the shuttle vehicles so that they’re more efficient and more appealing. And we’ve done research to determine where everyone lives and optimal routes that our buses can serve.”

Gadhia is intent on making every member of the UMBC community aware of their ability to help address the climate crisis.

“We have a huge untapped opportunity to raise awareness on simple things each and every one of us can do,” she says. “Creating a culture where we don’t walk around campus and see classrooms, conference rooms and common rooms where lights are left on all night every night. We can make a huge dent doing simple things collectively.”

UMBC’s successes so far – and the collaborative spirit in which they have been achieved – also inspire the woman in charge of guiding the university’s efforts.

“I have been pleasantly surprised at how rapidly things happen,” Gadhia says. “If an idea comes up, how quickly that idea takes root and actually is implemented. A lot of the things that have been really successful have been things that build community and bring people together. We are laying the groundwork for substantial infrastructure changes by creating a strong, vibrant, active, and very engaged community of people who will support making major changes happen.”

– Richard Byrne ’86