WKU News & Events

WKU Launches Green Fund To Support Green Campus And Curriculum Initiatives

March 18, 2009

Bowling Green, Ky. - In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, Western Kentucky University officially launched its new Green Fund at a light breakfast sponsored by the Office of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving.

WKU is busy turning “red” into “green” through a variety of campus and curriculum initiatives designed to create a more sustainable future. The Green Fund was established by the WKU Sustainability Committee for people who want to support WKU’s sustainability efforts. Contributions to the Green Fund may be allocated to a single project or general appropriation. They may also be made as individual donations or through faculty/staff payroll deduction or on WKU’s Online Giving Form; click on “Make a gift” on WKU’s home page.

Sustainability projects at WKU are transforming the campus and curriculum and also the educational experience of students. A “living laboratory” model is being applied to involve students in coursework, research, and community engagement projects that tackle real-life problems related to sustainable development. These projects, and the students’ work, are making a substantial difference to WKU and its various communities, from local to global.

The first contributor to the Fund, Dr. Terry Wilson, Director of the Center for Math, Science and Environmental Education, said, “Of all the things we have an opportunity to support at WKU, I see none that is more important than furthering WKUs leadership role in developing a sustainable future.”

A 2007-2008 WKU Sustainability Report describes many of the recent initiatives undertaken by students, faculty and staff at WKU. Examples include:

A team of engineering students designed and installed a biofuel facility that converts waste oil from campus food services to fuel used in the University Farm’s equipment.
The first small commercial, grid-intertied “Generation Partners” solar photovoltaic 2 kw system in Bowling Green, installed at the WKU ALIVE Center for Community Partnerships in 2008, is used as a community demonstration model and 100 percent 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.

The WKU Sustainability Report details these and many more projects and initiatives now underway; plans for the future abound. View the report online at www.wku.edu/sustainability/WKUSustainabilityReport.pdf.

“We believe people will give generously in this area because this area is so closely tied with the future we are creating for our children,” says Nancy Givens, Sustainability Programs Development Coordinator and Chairperson for the Fundraising Task Force of the WKU Sustainability Committee.

Contributors to the newly created Fund may support projects in three principal areas:

Green campus initiatives, e.g., lighting efficiency, energy retrofits, renewable energy, recycling, purchasing, and transportation, designed to reduce the ecological footprint on campus.
Curriculum redesign initiatives that support teaching sustainability across the curriculum and establish new centers and facilities to teach sustainable methods and technologies.
Community engagement and research initiatives that provide students, faculty, staff and community partners opportunities to apply sustainable methods and technologies in real life settings.

To learn more about the Green Fund, contact Christian Ryan-Downing, WKU Sustainability Coordinator and Chairperson of the WKU Sustainability Committee, at (270) 745-2508, or email sustainability@wku.edu. For more information on the faculty/staff payroll deduction option, contact Amy Hardin, Assistant Director of Annual Giving, at (270) 745-6490 or amy.hardin@wku.edu.

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu and at http://wkunews.wordpress.com/.

For more information, contact Christian Ryan-Downing, Sustainability Coordinator, (270) 745-2508, christian.ryan-downing@wku.edu.

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