Winds of Change Newsletter, December 2005     See sidebar for table of contents

Oberlin College “Doing the Right Thing” With Education

by Maria Gunnoe, OVEC Coalfield Organizer

The Adam Joseph Lewis (AJL) Environmental Studies Center was a highlight of my visit to Ohio’s Oberlin College campus. There are still lots of people who care about the important things in life, such as clean air, clean water and sustainable living. David Orr chairs the Environmental Studies Program, teaches and advises students, and oversees the AJL Center. With this amazing building David is creating a new kind of teaching – teaching not only students but also everyone who enters this building.

Oberlin designed the AJL Center for sustainability, keeping in mind energy conservation and water conservation. The 13,600-square-foot building relies heavily on passive solar heating and photovoltaic (PV) power. The result is a building with energy savings of 63 percent over similarly sized “conventional” buildings.

More than 4,000 feet of PV panels cover the roof. The building is grid-connected so that when it isn’t using all the power it creates, the extra electricity goes into the grid. Classrooms, offices, corridors, and restrooms have motion-sensitive lighting that turns on only when the rooms are occupied. South-facing windows allow for natural light. Twenty-four geothermal wells use the constant temperature of the earth to heat and cool this building. During the winter a heat pump warms the atrium by circulating heated water through pipes embedded in the floor.

The building’s wastewater treatment facility is known as the “living machine.” Wastewater runs into a greenhouse where plants suspended in trays grow down into the waste water, creating a habitat for waste-digesting microbes. The water then cycles through three aerobic tanks and a clarifier. It goes through an ultraviolet disinfection unit and is then stored in a pressurized holding tank. The treated water is used for flushing toilets. Students monitor and maintain the system.

All the wood in the building is certified as sustainably-grown and harvested. Upholstery for the office furniture is made of biodegradable, non-toxic materials, while class room furniture is made of recycled metals and plastics. This carpet will never go into a landfill; it was made by Interface and when it lives out its usefulness it will be recycled. The roof and windows are made of recycled aluminum; recycled steel was used for the supports.

The grounds feature hardwood trees native to the Black River watershed. Wetlands retain storm water runoff and provide suitable conditions for indigenous plants as well as insects, birds and other small animals. Most of the plants are native except for the orchard of 50 apple and pear trees, which were fortunately bearing fruit while I was there. The lawn care equipment even ran off electricity created by the building – how cool is that?

This was an awesome experience for me, a person from the southern coalfields of West Virginia, where the coal industry is destroying our land, water, air, homes and health in the name of “cheap energy.”

To see how truly unnecessary this is, is infuriating. To know there are ways of creating energy that are harmless to the environment, which some people are already using, is truly inspirational in our local fight to stop the attack on our land and people. It doesn’t have to be this way – we do not have to be sacrificed for the rest of the world’s comforts and luxuries!