Thursday, September 1, 2011
Moved!
Friday, November 5, 2010
Wasted
Published November 5, 2010
Fuqua Student (FS), you know who you are. You stood at the edge of the parking lot during graduate and professional student Campout with the bottom half of the hamburger bun in your hand and asked me, “Which one does it go in?”
Since this column isn’t actually about being wasted, which you may have been, and since this wasn’t your first time through the waste-free lunch sorting station, I challenged you to figure it out. You paused, looking down at the barrels and the signs, and claimed you didn’t know.
“Go with your gut,” I told you, assuming too much.
You threw that little scrap of bread in the trash.
“Wrong!” I told you. “Try the compost.”
FS, you embody a simple truth: Without me standing there waving my hands at the appropriate barrel, most people get equally flustered when confronted with this seemingly simple choice, or ignore it altogether.
Authors Note: Editors at the Chronicle changed the title of this column during final editing for the published edition to Wastful, which, unfortunately, changes the delivery significantly. It has been retitled as intended, here.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Building to LEED II: A higher standard
Published October 22, 2010
In the seven years since the Board of Trustees adopted the current LEED standard to target a level silver certification on all new construction and renovation projects, the University has registered 27 projects with U.S. Green Building Council for certification. Despite the seemingly large number of registered projects, Duke is not yet getting the full benefit of its LEED commitment.
While “generally” resulting in better buildings from a maintenance and utilities perspective, John Noonan, associate vice president for facilities, informed me in an e-mail that “as we audited past LEED projects, we found a lot of emphasis placed on scoring points, and perhaps less so on focusing the points in areas that impact energy.” Specifically, according to a 2009 study of 20 LEED registered projects on campus, conducted by Nicholas School Masters student Amy Dao, Duke was only awarded an average 28 percent of the total number of energy points, while getting over 50 percent of the available LEED points in all other categories.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Building to LEED
Published October 8, 2010
I work in a building on campus. He’s a mean dude. He swallows me whole to a quiet place in his bowels, then hums and belches air in my face all day. He can’t decide if it should be hot or cold, though in the interior, it’s usually cold. Sometimes the heater is on, even though it’s summer.
My building has a neighbor, and she is clean and bright, full of daylight, with signs pointing toward the recycling bins and motion sensors on the lights.
I don’t work in a LEED building. But the building next door is a LEED Silver certified building. It has a plaque.
LEED distinguishes more than just old versus new, plaque versus no plaque. So, what is LEED? And what does a silver building have that mine doesn’t?
Monday, September 27, 2010
Back To Bikes
By Liz Bloomhardt
Published September 24, 2010
Last week the City of Durham issued a press release announcing its recognition as a bicycle friendly community by the League of American Bicyclists. Durham was awarded a bronze-level recognition, the lowest of four levels recognized by LoAB. Chapel Hill also received a bronze-level recognition. Close by Carrboro bested both college towns, achieving a silver rating. Several other North Carolina cities also received awards.
This publication picked up on the story this week, and Tuesday’s edition of Towerview magazine had a one-page spread on just how hip the bicycle commuting trend is for the fall. In true magazine style, the short blurb was accompanied by a shopping list to aid interested trend-followers in getting in on the act.
I hope bicycling is more than a fall trend, but I also applaud all of the publicity this healthy and fun form of transportation is getting!
Authors Note: Friday truly was all about bikes, at least in the backpages of The Chronicle. In addition to the article abstracted above, two additional columnists also addressed the issue of bikes on Duke’s Campus in Friday’s issue. You can link to the editorial board’s comments here and Professor Thomas Sporn’s comments here.
Water World
Published September 10, 2010
Welp, Earl was a dud, but we sure could’ve used the rain.
All that sunshine and hot weather that was inescapable the last two weeks have been hanging around most of the summer while many students were off saving the world and being interns. Too much sunshine hardly seems like a bad thing until a lack of rain equals drought.
And I hate to say it, but we are experiencing a low-level drought.
Surprised? You probably shouldn’t be.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Bull City Connected
By Liz Bloomhardt
Published August 27, 2010
There’s some buzz around a bus. It’s in the newspapers. On TV. Even has a new hit single from ages past:
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
round and round, round and round,
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
All the way downtown!
You think it sounds childish? Already been done? Alright, but before you skip to the next column, let me back up a minute.
There is a new bus, introduced just two weeks ago. It’s yellow, but also orange, and no, it’s not taking you to kindergarten.
Here are the facts: It’s called the Bull City Connector. It has a website: www.bullcityconnector.org. It runs every 15 minutes from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and every 20 minutes from 6 p.m. till midnight during the week (on Saturdays, the bus runs on 20 minute intervals). The route starts at the Duke Hospital then moseys over to Main Street via Erwin Road before continuing all the way to Golden Belt, passing through town favorites like Brightleaf Square, American Tobacco District and City Center.
The best part: it’s free!