The Lion's Roar/File Photo
Going green on campus is becoming more efficient with the help of the Southeastern Sustainability Center.
As of 2016, eighty percent of waste is recycled and solar energy is harnessed throughout the university.
The Sustainability Center has greenhouses, a landscaping facility and solar and wind energy. The center is run by Carlos Doolittle, manager of grounds landscape and recycling and Byron Patterson, director of the physical plant.
According to Caprice Lee, a graduate assistant of the center, the Sustainability Center contains the biology department resource projects.
“We have a SEED classroom, which stands for Southeastern Environmental Education Development and a thriving recycling program,” said Lee.
The Sustainability Center has earned the Operational Excellence Champion Award from the Louisiana chapter of U.S. Green Building Council. The award was accepted by Patterson on behalf of the team.
In July 2012, the center was also recognized internationally by the headquarters of TiSun in Austria, a specialist of solar heating systems.
One of Lee’s responsibilities at the Sustainability Center is to schedule tours for junior high and high school students and educate them on alternative and renewable energy. Her personal goal is getting more tours scheduled, to inform students more on recycling and different types of energy and possible career opportunities.
Some of the most beneficial services the Sustainability Center has to offer to the campus includes, but are not limited to reducing the amount of energy used, placing recycling bins on campus and providing solar thermal panels.
There are new blue recycling bins that have been placed throughout the campus as part of a tactic to get students to recycle more of their plastic bottles and metal cans. Items such as paper, flattened cardboard, plastic bottles and aluminum cans may be recycled in any of the properly identified containers. Glass items, styrofoam and plastic film are not accepted in any container.
“My advice to students is to put recycling materials in the correct containers, become more informed on ways to conserve and practice conserving at home,” said Lee, a communication sciences and disorders major. “Students are most involved in the community garden, biology resource projects and recycling on campus.”
For more information about the Sustainability Center call 985-549-3333 or follow them on social media @SoutheasternUniversitySustainabilityCenter.