Over the past year, "green" initiatives and sustainability movements have grown significantly on the Homewood campus, largely due to the administration's funding of the Sustainable Hopkins Infrastructure Program (SHIP).
SHIP is the brainchild of Daniel Teran, former president of the class of 2011 and SHIP student director. Inspired by the Harvard Green Campus Initiative, a similar program implemented by Harvard University in 2000, Teran and other members of Student Council teamed up last year to submit a proposal to the University.
In early October 2008, the University approved funding for the program. Since then, students and faculty have been able to submit proposals for grants. Proposals must meet three University-mandated conditions: They must not interfere with other proposals, require ongoing maintenance, and they must reduce environmental impacts.
Sophomore Sean Murphy, project manager for SHIP, noted the group's advantageous financial situation.
"We really don't have a limit to funds. As long as we meet the criteria of the seven-year payback, we'll have the funds available. It's very much how much we need, as long as we prove that it's effective," he said.
The seven-year plan stipulates that all proposed projects must generate their initial funding in savings for the school within seven years.
Since its approval, SHIP has had its first Evaluations Committee meeting. All projects that exceed $5,000 must be presented before the Committee to seek approval.
The Committee is composed of SHIP members and heads of campus environmental groups, including Engineers for a Sustainable World, Students for Environmental Action and the Hopkins Energy Action Team. University representatives from Facilities Management, the Environmental Engineering department and the finance deans of Arts and Sciences and Engineering are also members.
Last fall, SHIP completed a project that replaced the library's hand dryers with more efficient models.
Sophomore Michael Rogers, a member of the SHIP Executive Board, described the motivation behind the project.
"Even though some of them are quite new, they are rated for power consumptions that are substantially more than newer models on the market," he said.
According to Rogers, the new hand dryers are up to 80 percent more efficient.
SHIP plans to have another meeting around March to consider additional projects.
Murphy noted that there were some larger projects in the works that would have a more prominent impact on campus. One such project is converting the escort vans into a more efficient form of transportation.
"We want to replace the escort vans because most of the time not all the seats are used, and they use a lot of gas since they are large, inefficient vehicles," he said. "If we can replace them with more efficient vehicles, we can save a lot of money really fast."
Although Murphy emphasized that the project has not yet received University approval, he was optimistic about its success, largely due to the offer of fiscal support from the Maryland government.
"Because of the size of the project and its large-scale impact, we would also be able to get funds from one of the State of Maryland's energy commissions, and that would really help," he said.
Teran pointed out the benefit of the state's support in more expensive projects.
"Due to our new relationship with the state, it looks like we'll be able to extend the payback on certain projects that prove to be more important but don't have the seven-year payback," he said. "Things are looking pretty optimistic in terms of being able to do what we want to do."
The escort van conversion is slated for proposal at SHIP's next Evaluations Committee meeting.
Teran also mentioned plans for the MSE library.
"We're working on a series of retrofits in the MSE library that include the urinals and toilets. We're improving the efficiency exponentially on all those devices," he said. "We're also looking to install dual-flush toilets in the women's bathrooms."
Another potential project would convert garbage that the Homewood campus generates into electricity.
"We're still not through with the numbers on it, but it looks pretty hopeful," Teran noted.
In addition, Teran spoke about plans to improve laboratory sustainability.
"We're also looking to start working on sustainable lab practices. For example, each fume hood draws more energy when it's open, on average, than an American home," he said.
Teran mentioned that previous efforts to reduce energy use in the lab have actually exacerbated the problem.
"When the fume hoods are open, the lights in the room stay on, and that was a way to try to get people to close them," he said. "But now, people just let the lights stay on."
Dean Frederick Puddester, senior associate dean for Finance and Administration for the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and a member of the University's Task Force on Climate Change, spoke positively about the students' efforts.
"I have been very impressed with their professionalism, their hard work, the product they've produced, and we're just happy to help out a little bit," he said. "These kids are serious about it, and they're putting forth some really great ideas."
Puddester noted that despite the financially trying times, Hopkins was still willing to offer its support.
"Certainly we're under some very challenging times financially, but if they meet the criteria which means we get some savings, [if] they remain small, we're committed to continuing to fund these projects," he said.
Dean James Aumiller, associate dean for Finance and Administration for the Whiting School of Engineering, works in concert with Dean Puddester and SHIP. He was also supportive of SHIP's goals.
"We're always looking at those two factors: making the campus green and doing projects that will pay for themselves in the long term. So, it just fit in nicely with that philosophy," he said. "We're really excited about seeing it progress."
SHIP received further recognition when it was adopted as a part of the Community Partnerships Working Groups for the President's Task Force on Climate Change.
According to Davis Bookhart, manager of Energy Management and Environmental Stewardship in the Office of Facilities Management, SHIP acts as a sort of "suggestion box" for students to propose changes they wish to see made.
"The program itself is designed to evaluate the feasibility of projects to see how they stack up in terms of financial and environmental criteria. SHIP really is, more than anything, an evaluation process," he said. "It's a nice way of putting a structure in place to allow people to be creative."
Rogers also emphasized the importance of student involvement in the program.
"It's only as strong as the ideas we get, and we'd like to expand as much as we can," he said. "As committed as the executive board is, we're limited by the number of ideas that all of us can come up with."
According to Teran, student participation in SHIP has been successful thus far.
"In our last round of applications, there were five different student proposals, and now I know that there are several others that are in the works," he said. "We've been approached by the med school in terms of expanding its programs, so it's working in terms of making it something that comes from the students."
Murphy noted that SHIP hopes to create a sense of unity among environmental groups on campus.
Julia Blocher, director of the Hopkins Energy Action Team, felt that SHIP was an asset in unifying environmental groups' efforts.
"Not only does it help us all in various environmental groups to work together on deciding which projects are most worthy of funding, but it is also really helpful for individuals who want to see something done on campus," she said.
"They can get funding for their individual projects without having to go through the environmental groups."
Murphy felt in the past, students had not been complacent about environmental issues but instead lacked avenues for generating the changes they desired.
"I think there was more bureaucracy in the way of their successes," he said. "Through SHIP, these projects that could have been done five years ago weren't able to be done, because administration wasn't as receptive. But now, they are."
