Ecologue

Earth Week is halfway done but 14 events still remain, giving you plenty of opportunities to learn about sustainability at OSU and get involved! On Saturday, Campus Recycling had the opportunity to interact with the off campus community at the annual EarthFaire, organized by the Corvallis Environmental Center, distributing Earth Week info and inviting citizens […]

Pull out your calendar, because it’s time to start writing in what events you’ll be attending this year for Earth Week! With a lineup of 32 events, you are sure to find plenty that tickle your fancy and fit your schedule. Especially try not to miss one of the biggest sustainability events of the year […]

I’m always looking for cool examples of how OSU interacts with and supports the Corvallis community on sustainability issues.  One such story, recently detailed in the City of Corvallis newsletter, is a partnership between the School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering and the City to sponsor senior projects at the Corvallis Wastewater Reclamation Plant. […]

Over 40 years ago, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson helped drive communities across the U.S.  to organize teach-ins for the environment on April 22, 1970 – the first Earth Day. Right here on our campus, OSU students put together a series of events, participating in this landmark date. While Earth Day-related festivities have not occurred every […]

While we’d love to think that all of what we do here in the sustainability realm is proactive and earth-shattering, quite a bit of our work is simply maintaining what has been created, or tracking and reporting what is currently happening.  A great example of this is OSU applying for incentive money distributed by the […]

Is your department or local organization involved in sustainability? Are you interested in recruiting participants? Sharing information? Showcasing your eco-accomplishments? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be a good fit for OSU’s annual Earth Week celebration! Please consider signing up for a free booth at the annual OSU Earth Week […]

Incandescent lamps are the poster child of energy waste; their glare disguises the fact that 90% of the energy consumed by an incandescent lamp  is wasted as heat.  With the help of six GEO 300 – Sustainability for the Common Good students, Sustainability Office staff changed over 100 incandescent lamps to energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps […]

Building on the success of the 1st OSU Building Energy Challenge (BEC), which took place in February 2010, the Sustainability Office is actively planning and promoting the 2nd iteration of the event.  The premise of the BEC is to encourage occupants of participating buildings to show measurable energy savings through the cumulative effect of individual’s […]

Today, May 13, marks the middle of a two week OSU test to see how much energy – electricity specifically – can be saved by wider implementation of computer power management settings. While it may seem pretty trivial to look at powering down computers and monitors when not in use, the savings add up.  While […]

With apologies for the gap between blog entries, I thought it might be time to write a little (or a lot) more about the installation of “human power” harvesting at our Dixon Recreation Center. The press coverage OSU received as a result of this innovative installation exceeded even my expectations, and responses have been overwhelmingly […]