Students promote environmentalism
By: Christine Digangi
Issue date: 9/5/08 Section: News
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified buildings are labeled LEED certified, silver, gold or platinum, the latter being the highest. Indiana has one LEED platinum-certified building, Rieth Village, located at Goshen College. Rieth Village is the only building with a higher LEED certification in the state than DePauw's own Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics, a LEED gold.
"It was inspiring for us to be at such an environmentally friendly building while researching environmental policy," Wright said.
Wright and Baratta researched other green buildings to prepare for discussion with Indiana state legislators. While at the state house, Wright said they found the senator who "pretty much killed" the bill for green buildings.
"She got to see how tenacious DePauw students can be," she said, "and even [when] we might not be successful we don't give up."
Sophomore policy intern Andrew Maddocks, who is also in-depth news editor for The DePauw, touched on a topic that encompasses the environmental hazards of a rural state like Indiana - confined feeding operations and concentrated animal feeding operations, or manure storage. Maddocks defined four major issues with CAFOs, including hazards to public health, the environment, animal welfare and rural America.
While CFOs and CAFOs can be a lot of environmental information to digest, Maddocks said the precise topic was an advantage for the policy project.
"They couldn't ignore us if we found something specific to study," he said.
Sophomore sustainability intern Taylor Cantril concluded the presentation by giving the audience information about DEPP's upcoming events and Winter Term before proceeding to a question and answer session. The conclusion of the evening was a call to the community to raise awareness of the issues.
"There seems to be a lack of common-sense education of how we affect our ecologies around us," Cantril said.
"It was inspiring for us to be at such an environmentally friendly building while researching environmental policy," Wright said.
Wright and Baratta researched other green buildings to prepare for discussion with Indiana state legislators. While at the state house, Wright said they found the senator who "pretty much killed" the bill for green buildings.
"She got to see how tenacious DePauw students can be," she said, "and even [when] we might not be successful we don't give up."
Sophomore policy intern Andrew Maddocks, who is also in-depth news editor for The DePauw, touched on a topic that encompasses the environmental hazards of a rural state like Indiana - confined feeding operations and concentrated animal feeding operations, or manure storage. Maddocks defined four major issues with CAFOs, including hazards to public health, the environment, animal welfare and rural America.
While CFOs and CAFOs can be a lot of environmental information to digest, Maddocks said the precise topic was an advantage for the policy project.
"They couldn't ignore us if we found something specific to study," he said.
Sophomore sustainability intern Taylor Cantril concluded the presentation by giving the audience information about DEPP's upcoming events and Winter Term before proceeding to a question and answer session. The conclusion of the evening was a call to the community to raise awareness of the issues.
"There seems to be a lack of common-sense education of how we affect our ecologies around us," Cantril said.
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