Va. colleges energetic about saving energy

The Year of the Environment begins Thursday at Virginia Commonwealth University with a two-day E-Festival that includes a sustainability symposium and the chance to paint a Dumpster.

At the University of Richmond, students are using pedal power to get around the 350-acre campus, borrowing green bicycles with sturdy tires and big handlebars available for anyone to use.

A lot of energy is going into saving energy at colleges this semester: James Madison University students are generating electricity at the gym as they work out on elliptical machines.

At VCU, fraternity and sorority volunteers helped collect more than 7,000 pounds of cardboard boxes and 3,000 plastic water bottles for recycling as students moved into residence halls last month.

VCU's Year of the Environment officially begins Thursday with a reception at the Rice Center and the E-Festival, a science festival sponsored by the university's Science, Technology and Society Initiative.

The reception is invitation-only, but the E-Festival -- the E stands for energy, environment and engagement -- is free and open to the public.

It's an effort to draw the community into discussions about different ways to think about common problems and how science and technology can be part of the solution, said Karen A. Rader, director of the STS Initiative and an associate professor of history.

"We're hoping to get people talking across divides that often separate," she said.

The events start at 3:30 p.m. Thursday with a screening of the film "The Next Industrial Revolution" at the Grace Street Theatre, followed at 6 p.m. by the painting of the Dumpster at the former Ukrop's store at Grace and Harrison streets.

The container will be filled with construction debris that can be recycled by art students for projects, Rader said.

Friday's events include a daylong symposium at the Student Commons and conclude with a staged reading at 7:30 p.m. at the Grace Street Theatre of "Louis Slotin Sonata," a play about the radioactive poisoning death of a nuclear physicist that explores the responsibilities of science.

The uptick in campus activities comes as schools work to meet pledges to fight global warming, either on their own or through the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment.

VCU, which signed the national pledge, hopes to complete a climate-action plan by May and has a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

The College of William and Mary, which didn't sign but established a sustainability committee, said it has reduced carbon emissions by 16 percent per square foot of building space since 2002.

This month, the State Board for the Virginia Community College System adopted a 12-step plan with the goal that "sustainability will become second-nature to the VCCS," said Wytheville Community College President Charlie White, chairman of the task force that came up with the guidelines.

The plan will establish a scholars program incorporating sustainability into the curriculum.

At JMU, 17 elliptical machines have been retrofitted to recycle energy for the university's electrical grid. The machines use ReCardio technology to capture 97 percent of the energy produced in a workout for the power grid.

According to the manufacturer, ReRev, a 30-minute workout produces 50 watt hours of electricity, about enough to run a laptop for an hour.

Christie-Joy Brodrick Hartman, executive director of JMU's Institute for Stewardship of the Natural World, said JMU is conducting tests to see how much energy is being generated.

Six of the machines are being used in a wellness laboratory, with the others available for workouts at the fitness center.

Hartman described it as a living laboratory that "immerses students in environmental stewardship via everyday experiences."

UR's Green Bike program has made available 35 beach-style cruisers for students, faculty and campus visitors.

The only rules: The bikes can't be locked up or taken off campus, said Tom Roberts, UR director of recreation and wellness.

They're being heavily used, he said. Roberts rides one himself to travel from the Weinstein Center to the student commons, about a mile by car but only one-third that distance by bike.

"It's pretty liberating to jump on that bike and go down that hill," he said.