Hybrid cars, an energy bike, organic food, alternative energies ... the Western Illinois University Union's Lamoine Room was transformed into a tree hugger's paradise Tuesday for Western's second annual Environmental Summit.
Western's Horn Field Campus, a division of the recreation, park and tourism administration department, and the Midwest Center for Sustainability Steering Committee, sponsored the event featuring a full day of speakers and demonstrations.
"I think people were interested in what we talked about, whether it was renewable energy, hybrid cars, recycling, composting, whatever the topics were," said Angie Sanders, RPTA graduate student and event co-coordinator.
Students and faculty wandered in throughout the day listening to speakers or perusing the displays put up by environmental organizations and students.
Recycling and landfills were part of the discussion put on by Randy Smith from Western's sustainability committee. Currently Western is charged $30 per ton of waste to dispose of in a landfill, and recycling is charged $37 per ton.
"A lot of people ask why we pay more for recycling than we do for landfill," Smith said. "We feel that we have a little bit of an obligation to promote that, because a lot of students do come from areas that recycle. The offset of the cost hopefully will help us all," he said.
The current cost for trash and recycling is over $200,000 per year, and the contract expires next July.
Western is not only being reactive with its recycling but proactive with the environment and looking into safer chemicals used around campus.
"We are currently product testing green products," Smith said. "We have about three or four chemical companies right now that are really on the push to get us using green products. Thus far the ones we've tried have worked pretty well." Smith added, "The only thing is of course is the cost, the cost is about twice."
State Representative Rich Meyers spoke to a small group on different conservation projects being worked on around Illinois. Meyers was excited about wind energy and the future of its development in Illinois.
"We all know wind energy is growing in acceptance and it certainly has its place in generating electricity," Meyers said. "We see a number of school districts attempting to put up their own generators, we see a number of investors trying to develop wind farms to be able to sell that electricity to the utilities. "
Meyers sees obstacles for new developers of wind farms.
"The problem is going to be getting that wind energy delivered to a utility and sold to a utility," he said.
The transmission lines to a supplier would need tremendous funding according to Meyers, which would need legislation and government oversight.
The Electric Utility Oversight Committee in Springfield, which Meyers is a part of, will be looking into a renewable energy clause or a green energy clause to add into legislation for the utility companies in the future.
Western President Al Goldfarb was on hand to sign the Talloires Declaration, a document pledging support from the university for education and awareness on environmental and sustainability issues on campus.
The document was started more than 10 years ago by a group of university presidents and has been signed by more than 300 university presidents across the globe. Goldfarb was the second university president from Illinois to sign the declaration; Southern Illinois University made the same declaration last year.
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