This wasn’t an ordinary class. The lights of the small lecture hall were turned off to conserve energy and environmentally friendly aluminum water bottles lined the room’s tables. Students were discouraged from printing e-mails so they wouldn’t waste paper. And instead of homework or exams, there were five-person design teams working toward one goal: developing clean energy products and services for public use.
This was an April lecture in NUvention Energy, a program introduced in Spring Quarter 2010. The course, offered for only the second time ever this winter, brings together graduate students from a variety of backgrounds, namely engineering, business and law, to produce products and services in the sustainable energy industry, according to Dr. Nick Switanek, a program instructor.
“You need people who can bring expertise from a number of different domains together,” Switanek said.
But the program isn’t the only green initiative pushed by the University. Experts like Switanek agree tackling issues of sustainability will require an interdisciplinary approach, and Northwestern is using that to try to keep pace with the rest of the academic world.
NU is currently ranked the second-worst school in the Big Ten in terms of sustainability, according to the Sustainable Endowments Institute’s 2011 report card. The institute grades universities in categories such as clean energy initiatives, recycling and green buildings, among others.
The University has never received a grade higher than a “B-” since the SEI created its rating system in 2007. And it earned the worst grade of any school among the 10 universities with the largest endowments in the country in 2011, according to the SEI.
“Northwestern doesn’t fare as well as I think it ought to,” Switanek said. “The challenges are immense.”
Addressing those challenges are organizations such as the Initiative for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern. The institute was created in 2008 to advance sustainable initiatives through education, research and outreach, ISEN Marketing Manager Jeff Henderson said.
ISEN offers six courses through NU and is seeing huge growth in both its educational and research programs, he added. NUvention Energy, for example, has more than doubled in size since the spring.
“(Energy) used to be a topic of maybe marginal interest for students,” Henderson said. “Now it’s one of the main things you’re seeing the new generation of students talk about.”
And the idea is beginning to spread across campus, literally. All new construction on campus must meet the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, according to NU Facilities Management.
The U.S. Green Building Council provides third-party verification that construction is environmentally responsible, spokesperson Kristin Simmons said.
She added that NU is following the lead of countless other universities that have pledged to build cleaner and smarter.
“Colleges and universities remain on the cutting edge,” Simmons said. “These (buildings) are our living laboratories for sustainability.”
It doesn’t end there. The University offsets 20 percent of its energy use by purchasing renewable energy credits and requires all new appliances be Energy Star approved, according to Facilities Management.
