Student newspaper of Illinois Institute of Technology since 1928 technewsiit.com Opi ion 2 Campus 3-4 AErE 5 The Slipstick 6 Sports 2 First Sustainability Week offers activities for everyone By Brock Auerbach-Lynn TECHNEWS WRITER From October 17 to 21, HT celebrate ed its first Sustainability Week with a broad range of activities for students, staff and face ulty that showcased our commitment to envi ronmental sustainability Events got underway a little early on Friday, October 14, when a group of 20 or so students got together to clean up the 31st Street beach, as part of the Engineering Themes: Wae ter eventl Several large bags’ worth of trash was collected as the students were able to substan tially improve this familyeoriented Bronzeville destination with only a few hours of hard work Sustainability Week was officially kicked off on Monday, October 17, by a farm, ers market greeting students on their approach to the MTCCl The student organization Engineers for a Sustainable World (formerly known as ganGreen) organized a collection of vendors, including local farmers, bakers and drink makers to provide locally grown or made food and drink options for HT and the surrounding community Some fierce wind added an unusual challenge to the typically docile activity of food shopping, but the large showing proved the market was a hit with nearly everyone BeTrue Bakery, with their awesome $1 muflins and cookies, was a particularly big hit On Thursday, October 20, Hermann Hall was the place to be, as Engineers for a Susi tainable World and Net Impact hosted the first ever llT Green Resource Opportunity Fairl This event brought local greeneoriented com, panies, clubs and organizations together so that students could browse and talk with green employers and find out what’s going on in the sustainability field in Chicago There was an impressive array of participants including Zipcar, PNC Bank, Ace tive Transport Alliance, Blue Star Energy, the Green Chicago Restaurant Coeop and many .0 . ‘ , others The Fair included several talks on suse tainability including a notable talk on alterna tive energy by llT Prof Hamid Arastoopour, Director of WlSERl However, the spotlight was stolen by the Working Bike Cooperative, whose in, genious bikeepowered appliances allowed the Fair attendees to generate the power to play a record machine and test their strength to light up a series of ever more difiicult light bulbs Both participating organizations and students got a lot out of the fair, so chances are high for a second edition next year Sustainability Week was rounded out with a salute to alternative forms of trans, portation (and its riders) on Friday morning in Hermann Halli Those that take alternative transportation to get to UT (it’s kind of hard not to with all the El, Metra, bus, bike, carpool and walking options available) were treated to a great breakfast and the opp ortunity to mingle with their fellow “environmental doegoodersl” A solid 25 people showed on this cold, early morning to get their welledeserved gold star for being sustainable in their daily commute, but the Sustainability Week festivie ties didn’t end there! Thursday, October 27, saw the Off fice of Campus Energy & Sustainability hold an Electronic Waste Recycling Day In con, junction with local eewaste collector Recycle Tech Solutions, Elizabeth Mauban from OCES braved the early cold and rain to collect over 4 careloads of electronic waste This included students’ cell phones, laptops, cameras, printer cartridges and some old behemoth computers, printers and monie tors from various offices on campus All this electronic waste will be recycled in an environ, mentally responsible manner with none of it going to landfills Due to the success and pop, ularity of the event, Director of Sustainability Joseph Clair has decided to repeat this event on a regular basis A fitting conclusion to llT’s ex, tended Sustainability Week activities was the '1'“ l ' -' ' "V. second Sustainability Forum of the year last Friday, October 281 The topic of this month’s forum, hosted by the Office of Campus Energy & Sustainability, was on how to balance his, toric building preservation with the need for energy efficiency While the topic was geared a bit more toward architects, it is certainly wide, ly applicable, especially in this land of Miesl After a wonderful organic lunch, (with tasty coconut macaroons for dessert) the forum got underway with William Paschal in, troducing the two speakers; Ellen Stoner & Sae chin Ananl Msl Stoner is a Founding Principal at Altus Works, Inc, with a focus on continue ing and expanding the use of existing/historic buildingsl Mrl Anan is a Principal at deMS and an adjunct professor in the College of Are chitecture with an uncompromising approach to quality and a talent for merging efficiency and design Each speaker presented for 1015 minutes, bringing the audience along as they outlined their work and strategies for dealing with existing and par, _ ticularly historic build, ‘ ’ ' ‘ ingsl \— Msl Stoner ex, ‘1 1. plained how sustain, ability and preserva tion are really two sides of the same coin with existing buildings of, ten being built for lone ger life spans and their preservation allowing for resource conserva tion as well as cultural and historic valuel She mentioned the opportunities to restore old buildings to their original grandeur and achieve efficiency while leaving their def fining features intact Several LEED pro, grams can be applied for such buildings Mr Anan de tailed how old build, ings can be maintained with new techniques for sustainable struce turesl He further delved Photo by Christina Noonan into the embodied en, Photo by Christina Noonan ergy of a building (all the energy that goes into the construction and transport of material and people used to build a structure) which gener ally equals about one year’s worth of operating energy He matched this idea with financial sustainability 7 that the costs will determine whether it makes more sense for buildings to be preserved and retrofitted or simply rebuilt completely After both presentations, the audie ence was free to ask questions of both speak, ersl One question dealt with how an architect would approach a situation like llT’s, which is striving for sustainability but partly cone strained by historic Mies buildings 7 or the “Mies Police," as the question’s author put it The answer that came out was that the architect should meet early with the pres, ervation committee to work out their differ, ences and reach a compromise After all, some buildings no longer serve their intended pur pose, regardless of their historical importance Another question pertained to how to manage or change older office buildings in any major metro area dealing with low occue pancy The consensus was that adaptive reuse, such as changing the purpose to mixedeuse residential, may be a preferable strategy The high point, though, was over a question about how to integrate building en, ergy code into historic buildings Msl Stoner passionately supported maintaining the historic structures as is, not, ing that building codes make exceptions for historic structures Mr Anan, though, responded smartly by saying that the technology exists to upgrade historic buildings without damage ing their features, and that historic buildings should not be allowed to take this easy out when a more sustainable option now exists The forum proved interesting and informative from start to finish, with everyone leaving with a more informed perspective on the debate between historic preservation and energy efficiency The next Sustainability F07 rum will be Friday November 18, 20111 Overall, llT’s Sustainability Week had a little something for everyone, from the avid beach cleaner and farmer’s market shop, per to the green entrepreneur and sustain, abilityeminded architect But even though the festivities may be over for now, the work of cree ating a more sustainable world will go on.