Land

Big Ten’s Eco Efforts: Purdue University

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In the spirit of our “Green Gridirons” series (but just in case college football wasn’t your thing), the “Big Ten’s Eco Efforts” series highlights creative off-the-field sustainability efforts. In order to create a “living building,” Purdue University needed a small building with an apartment and classroom for an ecologist-in-residence. They wanted to build it to the standards of the Living Building Challenge, said Michael Gulich, director of sustainability at the school. The Living Building Challenge requires 20 prerequisites for certification, said Gulich. The requirements include net zero energy, which means producing as much energy as it consumes; net zero water, which requires a person’s water use to only come from collected precipitation or reused, purified water; an area for agriculture and an education component explaining how the site was built and how it functions.

Echo

Big Ten’s Eco Efforts: Indiana University

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In the spirit of our “Green Gridirons” series (but just in case college football wasn’t your thing), the “Big Ten’s Eco Efforts” series highlights creative off-the-field sustainability efforts. In the market for a karaoke machine or a piñata? What about a tie-dye lawn chair? The Hoosier to Hoosier sale may provide you with exactly what you’re looking for. It is a reuse program established in 2010 to prevent dorm furnishings from being taken to landfills during student move-out.

Waste

Green Gridirons: Indiana University

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A football stadium may have green grass but does it have green habits? Each week, Great Lakes Echo highlights a Big Ten football stadium’s attempts to do the most to impact the environment the least. All schools have information on the stadium’s diversion rate – the amount of waste recycled instead of put in a landfill. Stadium: Memorial Stadium, or “The Rock”

School: Indiana University

Built: 1960

Capacity: 52,929

2012 diversion rate: 54 percent

Scouting report: During the 2012 football season, Indiana University achieved their goal of increasing their 37 percent diversion rate to 54 percent. Volunteers also handed out recycle bags in tailgate areas to keep the waste down.

Waste

Green Gridirons: Purdue University

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A football stadium may have green grass but does it have green habits? Each week, Great Lakes Echo highlights a Big Ten football stadium’s attempts to do the most to impact the environment the least. All schools have information on the stadium’s diversion rate – the amount of waste recycled instead of put in a landfill. Stadium: Ross-Ade Stadium

School: Purdue University

Built: 1924

Capacity: 62,500

2012 diversion rate: 18 percent. Scouting report: The university’s sustainability program received a $120,000 grant in 2012 to focus on tailgate recycling and diverting waste from landfills, said Michael Gulich, director of sustainability at the university.

Echo

Dredging can churn up historical contaminants

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Though low water levels in the Great Lakes make it necessary, dredging can harm the ecosystem by stirring up contaminanted sediment, exposing chemicals such as arsenic and PCBs.

Eating carp and catfish that have been exposed to such toxins puts both humans and predatory fish at risk.

Echo

Hunting this threatened species is not the reason for its decline

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When a species is red listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature it is rare for it to be hunted. But Michigan’s northern bobwhite is an exception.  
The Michigan Audubon Society recently reported the northern bobwhite, commonly known as quail, is Michigan’s only bird that is both hunted and on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list, which identifies species at a high risk of extinction. The quail hunting season in Michigan lasts three weeks from Oct. 20to Nov.