Going Green has Never Been Easier!
The Students for Responsible Business (SRB) hosted the first annual "Green by Design" week from March 23-27, 2009. This year’s event concentrated on informing students, faculty and staff about incorporating sustainability into business and personal practices, through a series of professional guest speakers, launching its Green Food Initiative and its eco-friendly laundry dispenser competition.
"Our Green By Design Week is focused on educating students about the opportunities in sustainable building, design and development," commented Todd Oskin, SRB member and this year’s conference coordinator.
The week began with the commencement of SRB’s Green Food Truck Initiative; an effort to make the vending trucks around Temple University's main campus more sustainable through a socially responsible graded ranking system. There are currently nine out of 20 trucks involved in the initiative. "We hope to have 75 percent of vendors involved, as we will be continuing this program throughout the summer and semesters to follow," commented Jordan Salmeron, SRB member. Each truck receives a point for every sustainable action it takes. For example, offering a discount to customers who bring reusable mugs, giving paper/plastic bags only on request or purchasing local or organic eggs can earn a vendor points. Each point is worth one-fourth of a peach (SRB’s point icon), and the number of peaches the business collects will be displayed in SRB’s marketing campaign and on the truck's sign. Therefore, students who support environmentally conscious vendors will be able to easily spot and purchase from these green trucks.
The speaker series showcased companies from diverse fields that offered a wide range of services and products including solar-powered systems, energy-efficient heat pumps and water treatment systems. The series began with SunPower Builders, the leader in southeastern Pennsylvania solar system installations. As made clear in the company’s description on its Web site, SunPower Builders merges "historic building techniques with contemporary technology."
Josh Meyer, Temple University alumnus and key speaker, discussed the efforts of his company, PekaSys, which provides information about the top-performing sustainable products. “In the business model of PekaSys, the core idea is education," explained Meyer. PekaSys currently features a German-imported product called, The Clear Rex Bubbler. According to PekaSys’ product description on their Web site, "The Clear Rex Bubbler is a fully biological on-site sequencing batch reactor (SBR) wastewater treatment system." It transforms almost any septic tank into a wastewater treatment system because it can be retrofitted to an already existing reactor chamber. The system provides on-site wastewater treatment nutrient reduction and ecosystem protection.
Another noted speaker was Mordechai Levi, adjunct assistant professor in management science and operations management at Temple University, who talked about his company, Chi Sage Systems and its innovative green heat pump. The system can use multiple untreated sources such as ocean water, sewage water, lake water, river water and even more common geothermal water. By transferring energy from the source to the building or vice versa, the systems can heat or cool buildings with energy savings reaching 70 to 80 percent. Additionally, Chi Sage Systems offers energy-saving lights based on a new technology. Unlike other energy-efficient lights, its lights do not contain mercury and have a life expectancy of 60,000 hours, compared with 1,000 to 1,500 hours of regular lights. They have a luminosity of 60 lm/w, which is the same as the best fluorescent bulbs, and can go up to the equivalence of 400w, making them the only option for street lights. The lights’ color is similar to that of incandescent bulbs, thus making it comfortable and pleasant. The key to Chi Sage’s success is its ability to offer customers a no-cost installation and guaranteed savings at the same time for a long-term contract.
A two-day expo held in Alter Hall, and a student-designed laundry detergent distribution contest also occurred during the week. Student organizations and sustainable businesses Rho Epsilon, SEA, Green Depot, Big Green Earth Store, PekaSys, SRB and Joe Coffee, took part in the expo and provided information about their business organizations at their tables, while the Big Green Earth Store gave out samples of their Sun and Earth Laundry detergent. The purpose of the detergent distribution contest was for participants to design a system that will reduce or eliminate the waste from current laundry detergent dispensers. The most efficient system will be manufactured and used throughout the city and the winner will receive a cash prize. The week concluded with a “Going Green, Growing Strong” event hosted by the Alumni Association and a student and professional networking social sponsored by SRB at the Draught Horse.
