Friday, November 2, 2012

Works Cited

1. Ducsik, Dennis W. Public Involvement in Energy Facility Planning: The Electric

        Utility Experience. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1986. Print.

2. El, Mallakh Ragaei, and Carl McGuire. Energy and Development: Proceedings of the

        International Conference on the Economics of Energy and Development.

        Boulder, CO:

3. McPherson, Hugo, W. Duncan. Wood, and Derek M. Robinson. Emerging Threats to Energy

        Security and Stability. Dordrecht: Springer, 2005. Print.

        International Research Center for Energy and Economic Development, 1974. Print.

4. "Reuse/Recycle: The Monthly Newsletter of Resource Recycling." Reuse/Recycle

        Newsletter 32.9 (2002): 65-72. Print.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Annotation #2: School of Sustainability

[Global Institute of Sustainability. Source: Vimeo]

A new school and major has now seen Arizona State's campus. The School of Sustainability, established in 2007, teaches students how to live in a more sustained world. They offer majors such as Society and Sustainability, Policy and Governance in Sustainable Systems, International Development and Sustainability, and Sustainable Urban Dynamics. Typically, students who are interested in maintaining a healthy environment would be interested in these kinds of majors. Many different larger companies and industries are looking to hire people who graduate with these majors to keep their company's procedures along the 'green' guidelines. Luckily, Arizona State has many students to choose from. It is great that Arizona State has these sustainability programs because the students that get their degree in these fields will be able to educate companies on how to keep up with the new 'green' trends. The graduates from these programs also have the potential of becoming future leaders in society and can help make sure we keep planet earth healthy, and conserve natural resources.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Annotation #4: Barrett, the Honors College

[Barrett, the Honors College front lawn. Source: Hardison/Downey Construction Inc.]
A great attraction in the hot valley of Arizona is Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State. Why is it so nice? The first thing to most likely notice about it is its great, green lawn in the front. Arizona State maintains this lawn in order to keep it healthy. A reason to keep the grass healthy is to keep up a healthier environment for the Arizona State students a better place to live at. Not only is the lawn nice and well kept, but so are many of the other landscaping on campus. Arizona State has native and drought resistant plants. It is great to have these plants on campus to keep a better atmosphere of course, but also because these types of plants reduce water needed for irrigation. There is a Sustainability House at Barret, the Honors College. The Sustainability House features low pressure plumbing, enhanced energy monitoring, and a garden. Barrett, the Honors College gives students options, which is a privilege and also attracts students to want to attend the honors college at Arizona State University. 


Annotation #3: Hassayampa Academic Village

[Hassayampa Academic Village. Source: GreenBuilding Consulting]

Hassayampa Academic Village is a co-ed freshmen community with many different residence halls. Many different students from many different majors can call this place a home, and these include the students from the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, the W.P. Carey School of Business, the University Explorers, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Hassayampa Academic Village has done its part to 'go green' in several ways. Hassayampa's buildings were built to have reflective roofs to keep the indoors cooler in order to reduce the excessive use of air conditioning. Their irrigation has a low-flowing system to reduce the use of water and wasting of it. This system has reduced water use by forty percent. There are large windows in each room starting form the floor and going up until the ceiling to create natural light in the room rather than using electricity to light up the room. Lastly, Hassayampa Academic Village used over fifty percent of recyclable construction, so that the construction's waste could be reused. And because of all these 'green' features at Hassayampa, it received a Silver rating on the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ratings. The fact that Hassayampa has all of this 'green' features is pretty remarkable. Most of the dorms at universities are older and do not have all of the great features that Hassayampa has. 

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Annotation #1: W.P. Carey School of Business

[W.P. Carey School of Business patio. Source: Statepress.com]
A large number of students at Arizona State University are part of the W.P. Carey School of Business. And a very large number of students walk by the Memorial Union on campus everyday. It could be hard to miss the recycle bins and trash bins that are especially located in that area as well as all over campus. It has become more popular now-a-days for establishments to have recycle bins as an option for your discarded items rather than just a trashcan. Arizona State is clever with the fact that their trash bins and recycle bins are placed right next to each other. The recycle bin has the word, "RECYCLE," written right on top of it. While the trash bins don't have the word, "TRASH,"written on them, but they have the word, "LANDFILL" written on them. It gives the students a feeling of guilt when they throw an item in the trash because they now know that their trash will be sitting in a landfill. Arizona State University is a highly populated university which makes it important for their students to be able to recycle. If all of the trash that the students built up on campus would take up miles of land and completely fill our landfills. 

Arizona State Goes Green


View Arizona State Goes Green in a larger map

Industrialization has done a lot of damage to the earth over the past few hundred years. "In the decade of the 1960's world energy demand grew from the equivalent of 62 million barrels per day of crude oil to 99 million barrels per day" (El 191). With populations rising rapidly and technology advancing it causes a lot more waste to be left on earth, and a lot of our natural resources to diminish. A major contribution to the pollution on this earth is our cars. Transportation is the single largest source of our air pollution. It causes a lot of carbon monoxide release and nitrogen oxide release as well. Because of the number of drivers increasing, our air will become a lot more dirty as well. Deforestation also affects the atmosphere and also our land and water. Trees and greenery are important because they can convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. Littering is a very common way that human beings soil our earth, especially when people litter plastics. Plastic does not break down and it just gets thrown into our landfills. If we keep littering and not recycling our plastics then eventually our planet could be covered in trash. Using too much electricity is bad for our environment as well. Electricity is powered through coal. And coal is considered dirty and high in pollutants. People have found better and more efficient alternatives for electricity, and an example would be solar panel roofing. "Energy development and utilization have a significant effect on our society" (Ducsik 180). As we find all of these different ways that we have harmed and can keep harming our environment, we are also finding ways to reverse these harmful acts and also keep acts from happening.  A few years ago we have seen the world start to 'go green.' 'Going green' is changing your lifestyle in order to do your part in making the world a better place. People are buying hybrid cars, switching to solar power, and planting trees and greenery in their yards. People are filling their reusable water bottles rather than buying cases of bottled water, recycling their plastics, and unplugging the appliances that aren't in use at the given moment. Conserving our energy can help save the resources that are considered necessary for living. "The IEA expect a global energy demand to rise by 66 percent by 2030 with 90 percent of the increment supplied by fossil fuels, mainly oil" (McPherson 3). Polluting the earth is now extremely frowned upon. Colleges are now offering majors in sustainability. To be sustainable is to be able to renew and maintain our natural resources. Today, many large companies are looking for sustainability majors to keep their companies 'going green.' Universities also have started to have the 'going green' mentality as well as large industries. Arizona State University are undergoing many different ways of being a 'green' university. The fact that Arizona State is 'going green' is great because it shows how compassionate the university is about the environment, and it creates a better and healthier place for students and faculty to be at all the time. Another reason why it is a good idea for Arizona State to continue to 'go green' is because that could be something that would attract a potential new student. A freshmen student would first notice that they are a 'green' campus because their application for admissions is all done online rather than through mail and wasting paper. Freshmen as Arizona State would secondly notice that the Hassayampa Academic Village residence halls are 'green' in many aspects. Some examples of their 'green' residence halls would be that they have reflective roofs to keep the building cooler, low-flow faucets and toilets to conserve water, large windows to bring in natural light, and many more. Scattered all over campus are trash bins and recycle bins to reduce littering and waste. Arizona State maintains plants and uses special plants that don't need as much water.