Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon

Itasca Community College, on U.S. Highway 169 on the eastern edge of Grand Rapids, shares a campus with both the University of Minnesota North Central Research and outreach Center and the North Central Research Station of the USDA Forest Service.
Originally established in 1922, Itasca was regarded as the state’s first comprehensive community college in 1967 when occupational programs offered by the local area vocational school were combined with the college’s transfer and pre-professional programs. Since then, the college has constructed several new buildings, the most recent being a new residence hall in 2005; has completed extensive remodeling projects; and has linked all facilities with enclosed walkways. These enhancements, together with its scenic wooded setting and extensive landscaping for wildlife, make ICC one of the most attractive community college campuses in the state.
Itasca Community College has been a leader in “green” projects for many years, and is continuing to find new innovative ways to reduce our global carbon footprint. Ongoing projects include the following:

Main Project for 2009-2010: ICC has applied for a grant from Schools Cutting Carbon to work on the food service area. The cafeteria at Itasca Community College provides two meals a day for the student body, including the one hundred plus students that live on campus. Our proposal has two objectives: (1) to reduce the amount of waste generated by the cafeteria and (2) reduce the overall carbon footprint of the cafeteria. Currently the cafeteria disposes its organic food waste with the rest of the trash. With this grant the cafeteria will begin to compost its organic food waste, so that it can be used in various ways around campus. Currently the cafeteria uses disposable food containers, trays, cups, bowls and utensils. To achieve the second objective of this grant, we plan to purchase and implement reusable dishes and utensils along with implementing tray less dining.

*There are statistics that say “Americans throw away enough office paper each year to build a 12-foot high wall stretching from New York to San Fransisco—that’s 10,000 or so sheets per person!” (www.reduce.org) In an effort to conserve paper at Itasca Community College, printers have been switched and set to print double sided versus the previous single sided. A small action though it may seem, we would like to promote the wise use of our resources. This effort is also supported by offering recycling and keeping such bins next to printers in the college.
Katrina Groetsch, student reporter

*At Itasca Community College we are very lucky to have faculty that are very environmentally aware and active. They have accomplished many landscape projects around the campus that are beneficial to both the building efficiency and wildlife in the area. One of these projects is an area along a south wall where we have a bunch of nannyberry and highbush cranberry shrubs planted. These shrubs are excellent cover and habitat for birds and other small wildlife that are now more likely to perch around campus. The shrubs are planted in front of a south-facing wall that is covered with windows. The sun beats right through the windows and heats the building for a good part of the day. This is very good for reducing heating costs in the winter, but in the summer it affects cooling costs for the building. When the shrubs are growing in the summer the leaves fill out and shade the south side of the building from the sun which helps keep the building cool. So besides filling an empty space and looking good these plants increase wildlife diversity and lower building energy use. Planting these shrubs is just one of the improvements we have made on the Itasca Community College campus that has benefited the environment.
Steve Merth, ICC student