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.”

Last Saturday, a group of about 30 Butler University students hit the White River and its shores to clean it up.
The White Rive Cleanup is a service project put on by the Center for Urban Ecology (CUE) and takes place once per year.
Butler has adopted a 1.5 mile stretch of the White River through the Hoosier River Watch Adopt-a-River program.
Sophomore Dan French particpated in the cleanup for his seond year.
“This year, when I arrived, I found out I was in the canoes,” French said. “We all met at the Rocky Ripple Town Center, and they already had all the canoes and everything organized.”
There were two groups at the cleanup. One group was in canoes and the other group was walking along the the toe path and river bank.
French said that as a freshman he was in the group that was on foot along the banks.
He said both experiences were fun, but very different.
“At one point we found a steering helm, like for a boat.,” he said.
In addition to the steering helm, French’s canoe found a 30 foot rope, headlights from a car, big black plastic tubs that would be used for landscaping ponds, metal sheeting that had fallen from a roof, car parts, bottles and cans.
Sophomore Tabatha Ramsey also participated in the White River Cleanup for her second time.
She too was in a canoe and said she witnessed a lot of interesting items being collected during the cleanup.
“[In my canoe] we found a tire,” Ramsey said. “There was one canoe beside us that had a bunch a big stuff, but mostly we found a lot of beer cans, cigarette cases and plastic bags and cups.”
She said she believes that for the most part, Butler is doing a good job of keeping the river clean.
“I’m glad I participated. I think I would do it again,” Ramsey said. “I think it’s a fun thing and it’s a good way to get involved with the sEnvironmental Concerns Organization and CUE because you get to know people and meet people.”
French said he too would participate in the White River Cleanup again.
“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “You’re helping clean up your area and you’re getting stuff out of the river that doesn’t need to be there.”
“If you’re looking for something that’s not a continuous project, but you want to put service on your résumé, or you just want to help out, it’s a good way to do it,” French said. “It’s really a lot of fun, and it’s a good way to meet new people.”

Butler University students will be invading the Indianapolis community next weekend in support of an environmental cause.

The annual White River Cleanup is scheduled for Saturday.

Communities along the White River have formed groups to participate in the cleanup, including groups from Fishers, Noblesville and Carmel.

The cleanup is part of the, Adopt-a-River Program.

Butler has adopted a 1.5-mile stretch of the river that runs from Rocky Ripple to the Michigan Street Bridge.

There will be two crews helping with the river cleanup.

One crew will be picking up trash on the banks, and the other group will consist of 16 students in eight canoes picking trash out of the river.

Senior Kari Maxwell is one of the students from the Center for Urban Ecology (CUE) who is helping to organize the event for students on campus to participate.

Maxwell said that the students involved with the clean will probably find some interesting items in and around the river.

“My freshman year, I was on the land crew and we found a lot of random items,” Maxwell said. “We found bikes, a giant patch of broken glass. And then, of course, there was just basic trash. There were lots of cans and bottles.”

As of press time, there are 30 students signed up to participate in the cleanup.

Students who are looking for some extra volunteer hours, wanting to meet and network with other Butler students or just simply wanting to help out for a great cause still have time to sign up for the river cleanup.

Students will depart from Butler at 9 a.m. and should plan on getting dirty for about three hours while they clean the river.

For more information or to sign up, contact Kari Maxwell at kmaxwell@butler.edu.

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for people between the ages of 15 and 24 years old: an age range that includes college-age students.

On Saturday, Sept. 11,  The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s (AFSP) Indiana Chapter will be just one of the sponsors for the Out of the Darkness Walk in downtown Indianapolis.

Walk Co-Chair Dr. Kimble Richardson has been involved with the walk for five years.

He is the physician and referral liaison at the St. Vincent Stress Center.

“I got involved with the walk when Eli Lilly staff contacted many of the mental health organizations in town to form a committee and bring the walk to Indianapolis,” Richardson said.

He said, there may have been an unofficial Out of the Darkness Walk put on by Indiana University-Bloomington  students, but the official designation of the Out of the Darkness Walk was in 2006.

“It was brought to Indianapolis by Eli Lilly representatives of the Neurosciences division with the help of local health organizations,” Richardson said. “This was done to bring awareness and funding to local suicide prevention efforts.”

The walk is a sort of supplement to the Out of the Darkness Overnight, which is a national walk put on by the AFSP. It is an 18-mile walk through the night and will be in New York.

Richardson said the national walk was so popular that other communities around the country were willing to sponsor daytime walks, such as the one in Indianapolis.

The walk goes along the White River Canal from Celebration Plaza north to the Buggs Temple bend where there is a suicide memorial,   and back to the Celebration Plaza area, he said.

The walk is 3.1 miles long.

Every 16 minutes in the United States, someone dies by suicide, Richardson said.

More than 20 million people suffer from depression each year.

The AFSP’s mission is to understand and prevent suicide through research and advocacy.

“We’re bringing together friends, family members and loved ones whose lives have been touched by suicide or depression,” he said, “[We are] giving a voice to issues that have previously been kept in silence and an opportunity to reflect and share with others touched by this tragedy.”

Richardson said students who want to help the cause can register to walk, start a team, volunteer or decide to participate in the opening ceremony.

To register, go to outofthedarkness.org.