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• Sep 25, 2007 10:04 pm US/Eastern
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  Bay State Colleges Go Green

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Bay State Colleges Go Green

BOSTON (WBZ) ― A new cause is taking center stage on college campuses across the Bay State as they show by example that something can be done about global warming.

Tufts student Liz Lehtola is learning about the connection between what she eats and global warming.

"We're celebrating all this stuff that is fair trade, and local, and organic," she said.

At colleges across the state, students are finding their schools can make a difference.

At Tufts, Sara Hammond Creighton of the Office of Sustainability is helping stock more local produce, which cuts down on the fuel used in shipping.

Almost 200 million tons of waste is now composted each year.

Some dorms now use solar power to heat water.

Tufts is not alone. This past summer about 300 college presidents signed an agreement pledging to make their campuses carbon neutral.

At MIT, an environmental workshop prompted students to build a house completely powered by the sun. Now they're taking it, literally, to Washington for a competition.

"The most important thing is the amount of information that we have already learned by working on this project," said MIT student Corey Fucetola.

With tuition costs soaring, there's an economic motivation as well. At Babson, they estimate that $1,000 of each student's tuition is spent just to cover energy costs.

So nothing goes to waste at Trim Dining Hall. The old frying oil is now converted into biodiesel that powers Babson's lawnmowers and trucks, saving money and the environment at the same time.

"Not only saves us from having to eliminate oil from the dining halls, but it saves us from having to buy diesel for various vehicles," said Shelly Kaplan of Babson College.

Students see this as a real life lesson.

At Babson, they're also trying to make this fun. They held a "dark dorm" challenge to see which dorm could conserve the most energy. They estimate the school saved $30,000 along the way.

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