The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

    Sustaining environment on campus grounds

    The Sustainability Center hosts several ponds. The pond provides greenhouses with water, and the solar panel helps power irrigation systems.

    The Sustainability Center hosts several ponds. The pond provides greenhouses with water, and the solar panel helps power irrigation systems.
    The Lion's Roar/Karson Sharp

    Nestled amongst towering pine trees on North Campus, a secluded building houses one of the university’s most unique initiatives, one to renew the environment. 

    This building is the Sustainability Center. Students can reach it through a gate in the freshman parking lot. Housed in the remaining buildings of Southeastern’s old horticulture program, the Center is like something out of a nature magazine. In a campus filled with concrete, glass and brick and mortar buildings, the Sustainability Center is an oasis of water and greenery. Several small ponds at the Center, as well as greenhouses, solar panels and a windmill are used for power generation. 

    Manager of Grounds, Landscape and Recycling Carlos Doolittle explained these in detail during a meeting of South Tangi Regional Environmental Advisory Council (STREAC). Reports of environmental progress by activists throughout the Tangipahoa area and their work, the efforts of the Sustainability Center and a tour of the facility were all given at the meeting. 

    The first thing the explained at the tour was the remaining function of the old horticulture program. Doolittle explained that while the program is gone, its greenhouses remain to grow and deliver plants for use as campus greenery. 

    Another effort by the Center is the use of solar panels. The panels line the roof of the old horticulture building, as well as the recently completed Outreach Center. They provide all power to the classroom, some power to other systems at the Center and some energy to the grid in Hammond. Ponds are used to irrigate the greenhouses as well as create closed loop geothermal systems. The Center also has a solar thermal system, which heats all water to the Center except during extreme cold weather. Doolittle also noted progress on the Center’s budding biomass electrical generator, which produces electricity by burning wood pellets. 

    “So the biomass electrical generation part of the discussion, there’s fabrication happening right now for small systems that would be part of it,” said Doolittle. “If you stepped to the restroom, you had to pass through an empty workshop space there, and possibly [noticed] a lean-to on the back of the building. [All of this] would possibly be a part of biomass electrical generation. And the biomass wood pellets on the wall of the classroom, that’s also a part of that.”

    Doolittle also explained the presence of a windmill at the Sustainability Center. 

    “On the windmill, we know this is not necessarily a location for legitimate wind power,” said Doolittle. “However, one professor was really requesting we include it as a component. As students look at renewable energy options, there is one.”

    Regarding STREAC, founder and OSH&E Coordinator Lawrence Mauerman shared the purpose of the organization. 

    “The reason STREAC was created was to unite environmental activists around the area,” said Mauerman. “Many activists are doing wonderful work, but STREAC allows us to pool our resources and energy towards common goals. We also just unveiled a new website, so that’s going to be a big help.”

    For more information about STREAC, visit their newly created website at streac.org.  

     
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