Butler University President Jim Danko has distributed $300,000 to members of the student body and faculty promoting various advancements.

The money was part of Butler’s Innovation Fund, which is money set aside to financially support ideas that have potential positive impact for Butler.

More than 70 proposals were submitted for consideration by the evaluation committee, which consists of selected faculty, staff and external Butler supporters.

Money ranged from amounts of $9,000 to $55,000 and was distributed to 10 separate projects.

Members of the evaluation committee received copies of each project and ranked them on a scale of one to five, five being the highest.

The Committee then further received the proposals that received the highest ratings and selected the finalists for funding. One of the funded projects was a joint effort between senior Jordan Burt and Timothy Carter, director of the Center for Urban Ecology.

Both individuals oversee a lab that converts campus vegetable waste to biodiesel for campus vehicles and equipment.

“This growth opportunity has always been in the back of our minds,” Burt said. “Then the Innovation Fund came out, and it just made sense to apply.”

Burt said they produce a gallon of the fuel for 80 cents, which would cost more than $4 from another source.

“The fuel we are using is obviously serving as a huge economical benefit for the university,” Burt said.

Burt said they hope to use the funds to buy a processor capable of producing 50 gallons a week and 2,000 gallons each year.

“No way I thought a year ago we’d be doing this,” Burt said. “It’s just been amazing to be a part of it.”

Another long-term project that received money was a mobile app idea for education provocation conceived in the College of Education.

Kelli Esteves, assistant education professor; Arthur Hochman, education professor; and student Courtney Boyle envision the app as being a collection of material that teachers submit from across the nation.

Esteves said they wanted a way to share their idea of the perfect teacher and decided on an app because it is non-existent in the marketplace.

They hope teachers will submit their helpful thoughts in the form of videos, lesson plans and quotes.

“The app is aimed for professional development for teachers by teachers,” Esteves said. “It’s a way for teachers to look to each other for advice and learning.”

Esteves said they hope for the app to be launched within a year due to a long development process.

One innovation project that will be put in effect quickly is the inaugural Butler Arts Festival.

Ronald Caltabiano, dean of the Jordan College of the Arts, received $45,000 to support the program, which is happening for eight days at the end of April.

“It is innovative for this campus to bring all the arts together,” Caltabiano said. “We want to grow into a cultural resource for the community.”

Caltabiano said the festival will include about 40 events featuring performances in music, dance and theater, as well as art shows and lectures surrounding the theme of revolution.

“When the application process came out, we jumped right on it,” Caltabiano said. “Without the Innovation Fund, it would be a much smaller production.”

Innovation funds are to be distributed and projects are expected to start next month.

Tree leaves and other plant life on campus may be changing color as summer ends, but departments and organizations around Butler University are continuing to go green.

In addition to being environmentally friendly, Butler is also saving and earning money with its numerous green initiatives.

The two major points in Butler’s quest to become more green are recycling and energy saving.

Dick Hamm, director of housekeeping,  said several positive changes have been made to the school’s recycling program since 2006.

“There’s still a lot of room for improvement, but I think if we look over the course of five or six years, we’ve come a long way,” Hamm said.

Butler’s recent partnership with ABITIBI Bowater and long-standing relationship with Ray’s Trash Service help the university deal with a large amount of its waste.

Green and yellow ABITIBI bins are in six locations on campus and are meant for the paper generated by the university. Hamm said Butler receives approximately $100 from ABITIBI every three months for the paper it recycles.

Two cardboard compactors are also located on campus. The university pays Ray’s Trash $100 to move the bins, but Ray’s then pays Butler between $200 and $300 per pull. This happens as many as three times per year, Hamm said.

Butler also has a scrap metal recycle bin, which Hamm said is pulled by Ray’s four to five times per year and earns the university up to $400 per pull.

“(Ray’s Trash has) been with us a long time, and it has been a good relationship,” Hamm said. “They give us above-and-beyond service.”

Some of the money earned through the recycling program is used to purchase other things for the program.

Concrete pads—each costing $1,200—needed to be placed underneath the cardboard compactors and were paid for with the money earned by the program.

Butler also received a $24,000 grant from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management in 2008 to upgrade recycling stations on campus.

As much money as the university earns from its recycling program, even more money is being saved through Butler’s energy-saving practices.

Jerry Carlson, director of maintenance services, said switching Irwin Library from steam heating to decentralized power heating has saved the university $30,000 per year.

“It’s more about lowering your consumption than lowering your cost,” Carlson said.

Nearly all of Butler’s buildings are now heated by decentralized hot water heating systems instead of steam boilers, with the exception of Schwitzer Hall. Carlson said this prevents the university from having to spend more money on natural gas.

Butler’s two chemistry labs recently received new fume hoods allowing air to be contained within a filter instead of exhausting it outside.

Carlson said the change will save the university about $50,000 per year.

The money Butler saves through changes in energy consumption funds new energy-saving projects. Carlson said Butler officials look to take on projects that can be paid back in 10 years or fewer.

“It just makes sense to try to get those projects done and paid back in a hurry,” Carlson said.

Other energy-saving maneuvers adopted by the university include placing light sensors in rooms and Information Techonology’s changing servers.

The light sensors read the amount of sunlight a room is receiving so light energy is not wasted.

IT’s smaller servers do not require as much energy to run and generate less heat, which ensures less energy is needed to cool the room they are housed in.

Hamm and Carlson said the Environment Concerns Organization, a student-run program, has also worked to push green initiatives on campus.

ECO President Daniel French said that the organization has held water bottle drives (meant to reduce the number of water bottles used by students), had discussions about water conservation with students and cleaned the White River on canoes.

The organization also participates in Recyclemania, an annual spring recycling competition. ECO earned first place in the state in the event last semester.

French said that while faculty and staff may lean toward money concerns when thinking about green initiatives, the university is making smart decisions.

“I think they’re looking in the right direction,” French said. “Butler is really willing to work with students.”

French said President Jim Danko’s signing of the President’s Climate Commitment last April is one sign of this.

According to Butler’s website, the commitment is “a pledge to create a long-range plan to eliminate the campus’ net emissions of greenhouse gases.”

French said the work of Timothy Carter, director of the Center for Urban Ecology, has also been beneficial to green initiatives on campus.

Carter works with Butler’s campus farm and said the farm has saved the university money in multiple ways.

“(The farm) sells produce to people at Butler and local restaurants,” Carter said. “Also, a student recently turned vegetable oil into diesel fuel to run a John Deere vehicle, which costs much less (than gasoline).”

Despite the ongoing improvements to Butler’s green initiatives, Hamm said students need to be more aware of the university’s attempts to go green.

“I think the message needs to come from the students,” Hamm said. “I also think ECO can be instrumental in getting the word out to students.”

Carlson said Butler can and needs to continue down its current green path.

“I’m sure there’s always more that can be done,” Carlson said. “We’ve been on the cutting edge before it was popular to talk about green products.”

Photo by Reid Bruner

The Center for Urban Ecology at Butler University is busy working on initiatives that its staff hopes will benefit the environment and the community.

Tim Carter, director for the center, said the campus farm will expand as a result of a grant from the Nina Mason Charitable Trust.

The added land will help provide room to house chickens on the campus farm.

Travis Ryan, associate professor of biological sciences and a founding member of the center, said acquiring the chickens will help educate the community about how to make food local and teach kids about how they get their food.

“Without an exposure to where food comes from, it leads to some ignorance about food, which leads to making poor food choices,” Ryan said. “This is an educational effort that says…you can do this. You don’t have to depend on stuff in a bag at a convenience store.”

Ryan said the farm has already procured the chicken coop from Andrew Brake of naptownchickens.org but is waiting for someone to sponsor the addition of the chickens, which Carter said would cost $1,500.

After that, Carter said taking care of the chickens will be a “no-brainer.”

“It’s a pretty cut-and-dried system,” Carter said. “Chickens don’t take a lot of management. They go out in the day. The minute [it] starts to get dark, they come inside.”

Another low-maintenance project at the campus farm is the bee colony that was installed last year.

Shelby Johnson, an intern with the center, said she checked on the bees last week with other members of the center and found that the bees didn’t survive the winter.

“It’s the result of global warming,” Johnson said. “All our bees died, so we’re ordering some new bees.”

Ryan said the bees then went through their food supply and died of starvation because they remained active during the warm winter when they usually become inactive.

Understanding why the bees died is another part of what the center does—research.

Ryan said in addition to studying turtles in the canal and squirrels around campus, he is currently working with students on research involving road kill in residential areas.

“By looking at who gets run over, what time of the year and where [they get run over], you can begin to piece together the hidden life of animals in an urban ecosystem by looking at the distribution of dead bodies,” Ryan said.

Ryan said students will monitor the new green roof that was installed atop the Pharmacy Building and he hopes to have students using the campus farm as a laboratory for a physical well-being class in the near future.

Johnson said there is no shortage of ideas among students at the center either.

“It’s kind of cool, because with the CUE, you can have any idea that has to do with urban ecology come to the CUE, and they will fund your project,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the center has plans to use canoes to clean up the area of the White River that runs behind Butler during mid-April.

The sound of rain dripping from the gutter isn’t unfamiliar to residents of the area, which experienced the third wettest June on record. But where does the rain go after it falls?

Butler University’s Center for Urban Ecology (CUE) plans to solve this mystery with the development of its project titled ‘Following the Life of Water’ (FLOW).

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gave a $257,000, three-year grant to CUE.

The grant will allow CUE to develop a smartphone application called “Raindrop” to exhibit the flow of water from the Indianapolis community into the White River.

CUE’s main goal is to show people how water is affected by the actions they take in their own backyards before running into the river.

“We want people to realize that what they do on a house and for their house [wherever they are] connects with the people and the river all the way in downtown Indianapolis,” said Tim Carter, director of CUE.

“Raindrop” will use templates to allow users to see how water flows and track the pollutants water picks up as it travels from their house to two different points on the White River, Carter said.

Users will be able to view three separate conditions—the water’s path in current conditions and weather, the path water has taken historically in the past and how the climate patterns will change with future conditions.

CUE will collaborate with Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) and New York City’s Mary Miss Studio, to pilot the FLOW project within the Indianapolis community.

Carter said artist Mary Miss will create a physical exhibit at the IMA involving “walkable river maps.”

There will be stopping points along the Central Canal Towpath that use mirrors to link visitors with the environment, Carter said.

“Using the mirrors will allow you to see yourself reflected within the river to connect that you are the one who can make a difference,” he said.

Carter said the idea is that the science behind the “Raindrop” application, in combination with the physical artworks, will display the urban ecological effects to a vast and diverse audience from the Indianapolis community.

“[The project uses] affective learning contrasted with cognitive learning so you are not just learning head knowledge, but you are connected with the material through environment, emotions, concerns and people,” Carter said.

IMA Director of Education and Visitor Experience Linda Duke said Mary Miss’ goal is that people will develop a better understanding of the importance of our local waterways in terms of our health and quality of life.

Duke said, “[Miss] seeks to make the river and canal and the whole complex water ecology more visible and to attract people and arouse their wonder and curiosity about these matters scientifically, aesthetically and even to raise an interest in policies and laws that affect the health of the waterways,” said Duke.

Duke said Miss has been talking with the IMA for a number of years to create a project to help raise environmental awareness in the new 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park.

She said Miss’ idea for FLOW seemed like the perfect fit.

“She envisions the FLOW project here in Indianapolis as a kind of model for what other cities could do with public art that increases understanding and awareness of the environment,” Duke said.

The FLOW project will debut in September of 2011 with the opening of the IMA exhibit and the availability of the “Raindrop” application.

Carter said the chance to help pilot this project is a great opportunity for the university.

“For Butler, this is a nationally significant initiative,” Carter said. “We can be very proud to have started this national program here in Indianapolis and at Butler as this is locally, regionally and nationally important.”