WKU Launches New 'Green Fund'

"It is necessary to embrace the environment in which we live and work and cause it to harmonize with our work and to nurture its own sustainability."
-Gary A. Ransdell, WKU President, 2006 Faculty-Staff Convocation

WKU is busy truning 'red' into 'green' through a variety of campus and curriculum initiatives designed to create a more sustainable future. Students's educational experiences are also being transformed through a new "living laboratory" model, where students are involved in green campus initiatives, coursework, research, community engagement projects, and international programs that emphasize sustainable development themes and methods. By helping to tackle real-life problems for communities, from local to global, our students are developing the technical, professional, and leadership skills they will need to meet the complex global challenges of this century.

How does 'green' look at WKU?
• A team of Engineering students designed and installed a Biofuel facility that is run 100% on waste oil from campus food services, that   will fuel the Universirty Farm's vehicles.
• The first small commercial, grid-intertied "Generation Partners" solar photovoltaic 2 kw system in Bowling Green was installed at the WKU ALIVE Center for Communtiy Partnerships in 2008. It is used as a community demonstration model and 100% of the electricity generated is purchased by BGMU for its Green Power Switch program.
• The new college of Education and Behavioral Sciences building, scheduled to be completed in December 2010, will be Kentucky's first large-scale LEED-certified building on a university campus.

A WKU Sustainability Report details these and many more projects and initiatives now underway; plans for the future abound. Visit www.wku.edu/sustainability for more information.

The newly formed WKU Green Fund allows you to become a part of this exciting transformation process that is helping to 'green' our campus, curriculum, and communities. Contributions to the fund will provide support in three principle areas:
   (1) Green campus initiatives are physical projects and operational improvements to reduce the ecological footprint on campus. These include lighting efficiency, energy retrofits, renewable energy, recycling, purchasing, transportation and more!
   (2) Curriculum redesign initiatives support course redesign and faculty development programs for 'sustainability across the curriculum', speakers, conferences, international programs, Centers and facilities for teaching new sustainable methods and technologies, and endowed faculty positions.
   (3) Community engagement and research initiatives provide students, faculty, staff and community partners the opportunity to apply sustainable methods and echnologies in real life settings. Examples include developing a green affordable housing complex with Habitat for Humanity; creating a Nature Explore Classroom and Discovery Garden with the WKU Child Care Consortium and community; and implementing a student-initiated Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration/Teaching project at the University Farm.

Only the limits of our imaginations can limit the possibilities of our reach! Create a legacy for yourself and your children. Contribute to the WKU Green Fund today.