St. Olaf's Sustainability Efforts

Hi Oles,

We recently had occasion to report on some aspects of the sustainability program at St. Olaf. Because I know that many students (and parents, and alumni) find our sustainability efforts exciting, I thought you might be interested in what we reported.

1. St. Olaf has written unique Sustainable Design Guidelines and they are
incorporated into our architecture/engineering and our construction contracts, including those governing the current construction of the new Science Complex.

The Science Complex is designed to achieve LEED Gold designation, with the intent of using the project and completed building to teach about sustainable construction, and operations.

2) All st. Olaf diesel powered vehicles have been switched to B20 bio-diesel
fuel.

3) A wind turbine generates about one-third of the campus's
energy. Moreover, 720,000 gross square feet of new and extensively renovated buildings have been designed using our utility's Energy Design Assistance Program.

St. Olaf has completed carbon emissions work for the campus proper, and is
measuring the metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalencies (MTCDE) per
student FTE. Using this measure, along with Total BTUs per Square Foot per
Degree Day (BTU/SF/DD), we are continually evaluating our efforts and
comparing to others to judge the effectiveness of our programs.

As we re-roof older buildings damaged in a recent hail storm, we are bringing these buildings up to the current energy code.

We can measure our progress in this area. In 1988 our peak steam flow on the coldest day was about 75,000 pounds per hour with 1,350,000 gross square feet. In 2007 on the coldest days, peak flow was under 75,000 pounds per hour with 1,820,000 GSF.

4. Our residence hall recycling program is long-standing, and the work is
largely performed by work study students, with a student coordinator for the
entire effort. The custodial staff supplies and supplements the work.

3.5 tons of aggregated food waste is gathered each week for composting. All of the compost is in turn used on the campus in planting beds, on the student run organic vegetable farm that supplies the food service, and as top dressing.

For more information about the programs discussed here, or about sustainability at St. Olaf generally, you can visit the following websites:

http://www.stolaf.edu/green/

http://www.stolaf.edu/green/science.html

http://www.stolaf.edu/green/turbine/index.html

http://www.stolaf.edu/green/report/status/7.html

http://www.stolaf.edu/green/composter/index.html

http://www.stolaf.edu/green/report/index.html

Greetings, Oles

Hi Everybody, and welcome back!

Having a blog is like having a pet: you have to pay it constant attention and treat it well. At least, that the case with our dog, Troy. My goal this year is to treat my Oleville blog as well as we treat Troy by keeping it up to date and relevant to students. I'll try to keep you up to date on issues before the College, the activities of the Board of Regents, and other big news. Your comments are welcome at any time. My email is anderson@stolaf.edu.

The week before new students arrived there was an Opening Banquet for staff and faculty of the college, and it's traditional for the President to make a "State of the College" address at the banquet. I did, and I invite you to read it because it lays out the key planning challenges facing us this year and in the near term. You can read the speech on my website. The URL is http://www.stolaf.edu/president/. When you get there, just click on the picture of a podium and you can read the Opening Banquet speech and any other ones archived there that may interest you.

By clicking on the picture of a suitcase you can see where I am when I'm not on campus. The picture of me with headphones (should have gotten the more expensive Bose ones) shows some of the music on my IPod, and the picture of a bookshelf shows what I've been reading.

I hope you find the speech interesting and that your semester is off to a great start. See you on campus.

David Anderson '74