SC Makes Huge Steps In Going Green

Anthony Cortese To Speak At Southwestern

One of the nation’s top advocates for sustainable lifestyles is coming to Southwestern College. Anthony Cortese will give a public lecture TONIGHT at 7 p.m., in Mossman 101.

Cortese is the co-director of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. Southwestern College President Dick Merriman was an early signer of this compact, and the college now is engaging in progressively green practices.

Academic dean Andy Sheppard says that Cortese will meet with several students, faculty, and administrators around campus and challenge them to think about various ways the college can “go green.”

“I think the thing that is great about having Dr. Cortese here is that he is not coming to give us a top 10 list of things to do in order to reduce our carbon foot-print,” Sheppard says. “Rather, his visit will be spent on helping us to make a culture change in the way we consume our resources.”

Cortese was formerly the commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. and is a founding and current member of the board of directors of The Natural Step US, and a founding member of the Environmental Business Council of New England. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been a consultant to UNEP, a member of the EPA Science Advisory Board and the President's Council on Sustainable Development's Education Task Force. He is also a founding member of the U.S. Board of Councilors for the China – U.S. Center for Sustainable Development.

There is no admission charge. For more information about Cortese’s visit to Southwestern College, contact Jason Speegle, Green Team director, at (620) 229-6311.

And in other Green Team news...

From Winfield Daily Courier: Tuesday, September 30th

Thanks to some hard work and an unusual find by Jason Speegle, almost 30 trees were saved from the paper mill.

Speegle (at left), director of the Green Team at Southwestern College, was walking near campus when he saw numerous boxes filled with old textbooks sitting in a dumpster. As director of the sustainable enviroment group on campus, he was well aware of his chance to make a difference. He recruited Kate Norton, assistant women's soccer coach, along with several of the soccer players and they began the seemingly endless task of preparing all of the thrown out books to be recycled.

Textbook recycling is far from an easy chore, according to Speegle.

"You have to tear off the front and back covers," Speegle said. "Then you have to physically tear the books into several parts in order to satisfy the requirements of the city of Winfield. The books averaged about 175 pages per book."

Slowly, but surely, the small group of students, Speegle, and Norton prepared each of the discarded textbooks to be recycled and a crowd of students began gathering and helping. Eventually 20 students had turned up to help.

"It ended up taking us around three hours to get finished," Speegle reports.

According to Speegle's estimation, they saved just over 26 trees.

As part of the new Southwestern program, Speegle is recruiting and leading students in activities such as recycling, conserving resources on campus and in the community, and pioneering college use of renewable energy sources. The program promotes sustainability education as well as student leadership development.

"I don't want to be the center of attention about environmental issues here," Speegle said. "Everyone on this campus can be an environmentalist. My goal is to increase awareness about recycling and sustainability and to slowly attempt to change the culture of the college toward a greener future."

For more information about the Green Team, contact Speegle at (620)229-6311.