Introduction (GK)
Our group, Ben DeForest, John Ludington, Adam Iglehart, and Owen McCann, developed the “Greening Kirby” project to address sustainability issues in the Twenty-first Century. We feel that Lafayette College has a responsibility and opportunity, as a higher-education institution, to serve as a leader in addressing global issues such as over-consumption and sustainability. While Lafayette College has declared sustainability as one of its core values, their efforts have not yet transpired into actual change (Lafayette College, 2015). The “Greening Kirby” project seeks to address this issue by reducing the Kirby Sports Center net electricity usage and emphasizing the over- consumption of electricity at Lafayette College.
RESEARCH QUESTION: Can power generation in the Kirby Sports Center workout facility be used to strengthen discussions at Lafayette College about energy over-consumption in everyday life?
FINAL OUTCOMES:
- Determine the technical feasibility of using regenerative workout machines.
- Serve as a foundation for future sustainability projects at Lafayette College.
“Greening Kirby” is designed to serve as much an educational tool as it is anything else. While regenerative workout equipment has the potential to be cost benefiting in the long term, the motivations for the project originate with the opportunity to strengthen the school’s sustainability effort by raising awareness through student and community engagement. It is our hope that the final design, installation, application, and maintenance of the equipment will incorporate student projects and learning exercises. This directly aligns with the college’s initiative to foster projects that bring students from various academic backgrounds to work on complex issues that fall outside the boundaries of traditional disciplines (Lafayette College, Interdisciplinary, 2015). For more information regarding spreading awareness for sustainability on campus, visit our Social Context page.
For this project, we aim to make the equipment in the Kirby Fitness Center regenerative. This will either involve retrofitting existing machines with energy converters or replacing the machines with ones that have built in energy conversion systems. The technology required for both of these options is already available and we have consulted with several companies that offer these services. For more information about how the energy is converted and what each company offers, visit our Technical Analysis page.
The main challenges our project faces are raising awareness, understanding the technical solution, and navigating through the heavily bureaucratic capital budgeting application process at Lafayette College. This is, in large part, due to the lack of a unified sustainability outlet at Lafayette. In 2007, the college created the Campus Sustainability Committee to devise and implement environmental initiatives. Unfortunately, this committee has been ineffective in facilitating change, as well as educating and engaging the student body (Lafayette College, Climate, 2015). Members of the committee have primary jobs and numerous commitments outside of the committee, which has led to a slow system with little accountability (Last, 2015). Our group has experienced these hurdles first-hand and emphasize that it is a major obstacle in process for student- and faculty-led projects. Fortunately, after adamant lobbying from the Lafayette Environmental Awareness and Protection group (LEAP), the administration has recently recognized the shortcoming of the organizational structure and has decided to hire a sustainability coordinator. This full-time coordinator will work to facilitate communication among clubs, assist in marketing campaigns and events to the entire campus, and increase follow-through on student- and faculty-led projects (Last, 2015). While this outlet will not exist during the scope of our project, it highlights the college’s efforts to bridge the gap between the administration and the campus community. For more information on the application process and administrative feasibility please view our Policy Analysis Page.
Our group recognizes that the final decision for the approval of a project ultimately depends on its economic value. In the case of the “Greening Kirby” project, which has little financial value, this represents a significant obstacle to overcome. However, we feel that the existing environmental social movements and administrative support on Lafayette’s campus can overcome this barrier (Last, 2015). Projects are consistently undertaken at colleges to highlight research or issues that frequently will not have financial kickback, but are still considered excellent uses of resources. Additionally, we advocate that the “Greening Kirby” project has an intrinsic educational value that cannot be accounted for in the economic analysis and will serve as an influential force during the application process. As a private, higher-educational institution, Lafayette College has the ability and experience to incorporate externalities such as education in their analysis. For more information on our plan to finance this project please view our Economic Feasibility Page.
The Kirby Sports Center was chosen because it is one of the focal points of life on Lafayette’s campus. The vast facilities it provides bring together students, faculty members, and community members to engage in activities ranging from dance classes to the infamous Lafayette vs Lehigh rivalry game. Consequently, the facility receives a high volume of people and hosts a wide variety of events on a daily basis. Recently, Lafayette College has renewed their interest in pushing for sustainable solutions on campus, and to bring environmental sustainability to the forefront of campus conversation. Our group feels the regenerative workout equipment and informative dashboard present an opportunity to demonstrate the college’s commitment to their sustainability initiatives. Looking forward, we believe the dashboard can serve as a medium to broadcast the school’s sustainability effort by centralizing all data and information related to energy use and projects directed towards progressing the Lafayette Community.
For a more detailed evaluation of the “Greening Kirby” please visit the following pages: