2008 Woodie Awards
Student projects aim for a greener Homewood
Issue date: 2/28/08
Three Hopkins students received the green light to go ahead with their Green Idea Generator projects as part of an effort to increase student participation in the University's sustainability initiatives.
The Green Idea Generator, started by the Hopkins Sustainability Initiative, birthed on-campus projects designed by students and faculty members that aim to make Hopkins more sustainable.
On Nov. 15 separate groups of students presented their ideas. The three projects that were selected included developing a system to use waste vegetable oil from dining services for heating the Wyman building, designing a test green roof on one of the Mattin Center buildings and undertaking a targeted paper recycling campaign, headed by senior Alex Teran, freshman Becca Love and junior Angela Center buildings and undertaking a targeted paper recycling campaign.
Davis Bookhart, director of Hopkins's Sustainability Initiative, said that the Green Idea Generator was a variation on programs he saw at other universities.
"We tweaked the ideas and created something that was feel-good for Hopkins. We've got a lot of students who are engineers, both biological and chemical, and we said, 'Let's challenge the students to come up with great ideas on how to produce environmental impacts here on campus,'" he said.
Vegetable Oil Project
Senior Alex Teran, president of the Engineers for a Sustainable World, is heading the project that plans to convert vegetable oil from the FFC, Nolan's, Wolman and the library into power. According to Teran, these cafeterias produce 2,500 gallons of vegetable oil a year, which would save the power plant money on raw inputs, as well as saving the dining service the money it spends on oil disposal.
The vegetable oil would be burned in a boiler and could be hooked up to a main power plant and used as a supplementary boiler. According to Teran, the dining services are fully supportive of the project. He noted that the supplementary boiler might be placed in Wyman Park since more expansion into that area is possible within the next 10 years.
The Green Idea Generator, started by the Hopkins Sustainability Initiative, birthed on-campus projects designed by students and faculty members that aim to make Hopkins more sustainable.
On Nov. 15 separate groups of students presented their ideas. The three projects that were selected included developing a system to use waste vegetable oil from dining services for heating the Wyman building, designing a test green roof on one of the Mattin Center buildings and undertaking a targeted paper recycling campaign, headed by senior Alex Teran, freshman Becca Love and junior Angela Center buildings and undertaking a targeted paper recycling campaign.
Davis Bookhart, director of Hopkins's Sustainability Initiative, said that the Green Idea Generator was a variation on programs he saw at other universities.
"We tweaked the ideas and created something that was feel-good for Hopkins. We've got a lot of students who are engineers, both biological and chemical, and we said, 'Let's challenge the students to come up with great ideas on how to produce environmental impacts here on campus,'" he said.
Vegetable Oil Project
Senior Alex Teran, president of the Engineers for a Sustainable World, is heading the project that plans to convert vegetable oil from the FFC, Nolan's, Wolman and the library into power. According to Teran, these cafeterias produce 2,500 gallons of vegetable oil a year, which would save the power plant money on raw inputs, as well as saving the dining service the money it spends on oil disposal.
The vegetable oil would be burned in a boiler and could be hooked up to a main power plant and used as a supplementary boiler. According to Teran, the dining services are fully supportive of the project. He noted that the supplementary boiler might be placed in Wyman Park since more expansion into that area is possible within the next 10 years.
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