Going green

A group of Heidelberg students are seeing green and could win big.  A $10,000 grant from the U.S. EPA will allow them to explore ways to help the environment while beautifying the campus. The grant is part of the EPA’s P3 (People, Prosperity and Planet) competition that supports teams of college and university students who compete to design and build sustainable technologies. Anne Stearns is the project coordinator.

For their Paving the Way to a Greener Campus: Alternative Paving Materials for Pollution Control and Aesthetic Appeal,  the ‘Berg student team will study ways to design campus parking areas along Rock Creek using recycled materials to capture polluted runoff water and divert it into low-cost treatment beds containing native plants.

Faculty mentors, along with staff from the National Center for Water Quality Research, are assisting the students with the design process. Three area businesses – M and B Asphalt, Maple Grove Quarry and WSOS Quilter Sign Shop – are providing technical advice and samples of paving and recycled materials for the students to test in the lab. Design software to create the plans is being provided by Individual Software Inc.

The Heidelberg team will present its design at the National Sustainable Design Expo on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., April 20-22. They’ll be joined by teams from 57 other colleges and universities around the country, who’ll be vying for one of six awards of up to $75,000 to help implement their designs or take them to the marketplace. The projects will be judged during the expo and the EPA will choose the award winners, to be announced on Earth Day, April 22.

Posted Nov. 12, 2007