By Verena Paepcke
(Originally published on Friday, Jan. 4, 2008 in The Chronicle)
Sustainability and green design are hot topics at the Savannah College of Art and Design and throughout the United States. In fact, the college has a new faculty council — the Sustainability and Eco Practices at SCAD Council — that formed in Fall 2007 to focus on SCAD’s environmental stewardship. The council is made up of faculty and staff from the schools of Building Arts, Communication, Design and Liberal Arts, as well as from the SCAD communications and student media departments. The council’s mission is to support SCAD’s sustainability practices and goals to green the curriculum and the college’s institutional activities by channeling the efforts and expertise of faculty and staff.
Beginning with this issue, The Chronicle will feature a weekly column titled The Green Scene that will inform the SCAD community about activities on and around campus that are focusing on sustainability practices from the micro level to the macro. The column will highlight activities in the classroom, initiatives on campus, projects in Savannah and more. Several groups already exist at SCAD and in Savannah with the same goals, and this column will be one of the platforms where we can combine efforts to inform the community. Student groups already in existence are Project Green, led by Brian Bessenaire; the Student Vegetarian Association; Students for a Better Environment and the student group with the U.S. Green Building Council.
One of the newest initiatives is a “teach-in” that SCAD will host Jan. 31, coordinated by FOCUS THE NATION. For more information, e-mail or check out the Web site. Additionally, the council changed requirements for the campus printing service that made double-sided printing a standard procedure at the college. Also, an interdisciplinary major, design for sustainability, is in the development process.
Council members are open to ideas. Members include School of Building Arts professors LaRaine Montgomery and Deborah Brooks; School of Communication Arts professor Scott Boylston; School of Design professors Robert Fee, Peter Fossick, Christine Miller, Verena Paepcke and Pamela Wiley; Faculty Ombudsman Daniel Levine; Assistant Director of Internal Communications Seth Michalak; and Director of Student Media John Bennett.
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April 18th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Printing double-sided does save paper, how about finding a way to inform students how to print double from lab and school printers. And making sure that paper recycling is done in all campus buildings.
May 10th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Elvira,
Thank you for your comment, you make some really important points! As with all that has to do with sustainability, it needs some people to start and some others to participate. Printing double sided from lab and school printers is an easy fix, if you just turn the page and put it back into the printer. This is not especially user-friendly, but as far as I know, there is still no other way around that. Anybody knows anything better, please let us know! You could draw a diagram as to which side up and which way to turn it for the others to follow your initiative. We were thinking about at least assigning one printer in our office to just re-use paper (that has already printing on one side) for drafts and lower quality prints.
Paper recycling is established in quite a few buildings, but again, it needs people to participate. If the bins are full of paper at all times, the need for more is obvious. If you building does not have paper recycling yet ask your faculty to contact physical resources or SCAD Design Group to provide a paper recycling bin. If you are interested in this topic and not already part of any of these two student groups, I recommend Project Green to find at Eichberg Hall (also see links on right side) or ECOlogic at the Gulfstream Center for Design.