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It's Not Easy Being Green | Alumni Interview | Memory Lane

FEATURE STORY (continued) — November/December 2006

It's Not Easy Being Green ...

By Jim Dey

Recycling

While University researchers pursue big ideas in alternative energy and architects lay the groundwork for future buildings on campus, Tim Hoss '76 LAS presides over what once was an idea of the future that has become as common as an old shoe–recycling.

Hoss graduated from the U of I with a degree in biology and has been employed as the University's recycling coordinator since 1989. His roots in recycling go deep, all the way back to his youth, spent working at his father's auto dealership.

"We recycled everything from motor oil to engine parts," he said. "It wasn't a passion; it was just common sense."

Today, the University's recycling center is a busy place. Hoss and his 18 employees receive 9,000 tons of waste annually from various sites on campus, and they recycle roughly half of it. Two semitrailer trucks haul office paper each week from the center to a Kimberley-Clark facility in Owensboro, Ky., while another two semitrailer trucks haul cardboard to an International Paper outlet in Terre Haute, Ind. The U of I recycles 90,000 pounds of cans through a brokerage arrangement with Anheuser-Busch.

It's a big business that involves other items like wooden pallets, landscape waste, tires, plastic and metals, including scrap iron and copper. Market prices for recyclables vary because of the law of supply and demand, but in addition to the environmental positives, recycling generates substantial income. The University gleans approximately $3.35 million a year from recycled paper, cans and cardboard.

Hoss describes recycling as "the place where you start" in the U of I's sustainable energy campaign. But even though it's hardly a recent idea, new ideas surround recycling and new challenges face recyclers.

Malten, the University's sustainability coordinator, dreams of a day when 100 percent - not 50 percent - of disposed items can be recycled. He acknowledges it's somewhat of a utopian idea, but says "there are people who believe that is possible and are working to make it happen." One method of achieving that goal, which is gaining increased currency, is to design packaging at the front end with the idea of making it easier to recycle at the back end.

That idea is still in its infancy. But in the meantime, Hoss is presiding over a small army of garbage trucks that goes out each day and returns to the recycling center filled to the brim with material that either will be reintroduced to the economy in another form or buried in a landfill.

"It's just a big part of our economy," he said.

"Little by little, we're becoming a much more efficient society."

Sustainability's true color

It probably wouldn't surprise many people that the UI College of Business is going "green" - but it has nothing to do with the color of money. Instead, the college's new $60 million-plus Business Instructional Facility, now under construction at the corner of Sixth and Gregory streets, is specially designed as an environmentally friendly, energy-efficient, people-friendly facility.

The building, which is scheduled to be ready for classes in fall 2008, will be the first University building designed to meet specific environmental standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council. UI officials say the structure will be unique, like Memorial Stadium and the Undergraduate Library, as well as a trendsetter, expected to be 40 percent to 50 percent more energy-efficient than comparable campus buildings.

"I think it will be a terrific building and a very good example of what buildings of the future may be like," said Schejbal. "It's very symbolic. The campus is serious about looking at sustainable design and green technology for its future buildings."

The building, of course, will feature the usual accoutrements of a facility designed for teaching, including 160,000 square feet of space, a 300-seat auditorium and state-of-the-art classrooms. The building also will feature increased insulation, including triple-paned windows to ensure energy efficiency, plantings on portions of the roof to dissipate heat and provide what's described as "visual relief," exterior windows in most rooms and sensors that will dim lights gradually as more daylight enters the room. One key feature is a "photovoltaic array" on the roof of the auditorium to collect solar power.

"We're converting the sun into electricity that will produce 5 to 7 percent of the building's electrical needs," said George Freeman '82 FAA, MBA '84, MARCH '84, director of facilities for the college.

Freeman said the building's architects proposed the environmentally friendly ideas to business college leaders at about the same time as members of Schejbal's committee suggested the same thing.

"Everybody came to the realization that this was a good thing, so let's give it a try," Freeman said.

Proponents of the green design are particularly pleased that the College of Business will be the home of the University's first green building. They say the plan demonstrates that environmentalism and commerce are compatible and that the message won't be lost on future generations of business students.

"The business leaders who are trained in that building are going to be exposed to sustainability in a very real way," said Malten.

Solar shows its power

Jason Wheeler, a graduate student in architecture from Logan, Utah, is spending a lot of time getting ready for the decathlon, but not the one held at the Summer Olympics. It's the Solar Decathlon, a competition involving 20 colleges and universities selected from all over the world to design, build and operate a house powered exclusively by solar power.

"We'll begin construction in December," said Wheeler. "We're hoping to have the home completed in March so that we can begin testing on it."

Competition rules require that the homes, which can range in size from 450 to 800 square feet, must produce enough solar power to heat and cool, provide hot water, cook meals and operate appliances and electronics, with enough power left over to operate an electric car or truck.

The U.S. Department of Energy, which is sponsoring the competition, is encouraging the participants to use commercially transferable technology. The winners will be judged in 10 separate categories, ranging from energy efficiency and production to livability and aesthetic appeal.

A group of UI professors prepared the proposal for entry into the competition, a process that Ty Newell, a UI professor of mechanical engineering, contends is "as difficult as winning it." But Newell said the project is more than an academic competition against students from other schools like MIT, Cornell, Georgia Tech and Penn State. He described the "real goal" as creating an awareness among the citizens of Illinois of the possibilities of solar energy. That's why that solar-powered house will be put on a traveling tour all over Illinois.

University staff and roughly 20 professors are working with 250 students, dividing them into teams responsible for different parts of the project.

Take Wheeler. As an aspiring architect, he said he's "been working on structural analysis to figure out the kind of construction materials we need." But since he has a bachelor's degree in construction management, Wheeler also will be involved in organizing the building schedule.

"One of the best things about the project is that so many people are involved in it," he said. "It sounded like fun, and I'd really like to be involved in something that can make a difference."

While Wheeler and his associates are handling their duties, another student team will build solar-powered appliances, something that would seem to outsiders to be a daunting project. But Newell dismissed that concern.

"We have the capability to build things from the ground up," he said.

After the solar-powered house is completed and taken on tour around the state, the structure will be transported by truck to Washington, D.C. To be built in three modules, the house will be reassembled in September 2007 on the national Mall for three weeks of public display. To pull it off will require a lot of work, but Newell said the project is off to a fast start.

"It's really moving along well, and it's great to see all the students and faculty involved in this," he said.