Introduction to the 2005 Capstone Presentation, Building
on the UW-
Welcome to the Seminar in Environmental Science and Policy presentation Building on the UW-Green Bay Master Plan: Promoting Sustainability project website.
The Seminar in Environmental Science and Policy is a capstone course for the Environmental Science and Policy graduate program. Each year a project is selected that allows all second year students to work together to integrate science and policy on a topic of local concern.
This year, we selected the campus sustainability and master plan project after Dr. Dean Rodeheaver, assistant chancellor for planning and budget, presented the campus master plan to our class and posed various questions about sustainability on campus. We thought this would be a great project for us to undertake since it would permit us to utilize our diverse backgrounds and experience, as well as address issues of sustainable development at a time when the university is planning on growing.
Sustainable development is a widely discussed idea and academic institutions define and approach it in many different ways and offer different definitions,
For this project, we chose to look at it in these terms:
When adopted by higher education institutions, sustainable development means that the necessary activities of the institution are at a minimum ecologically sound, socially just and economically viable, and that they will continue to be so for future generations.
In order to address the issues that we believe are most central to the campus, the Capstone Seminar students divided into five work groups:
Energy
Transportation
Stormwater Management
Cofrin Arboretum
Administrative Organization
An outline of each workgroups topic is listed below. For additional information, please see the written reports.
Energy
Advantages of wind power
- Energy savings
- Educational opportunities
- Environmental benefits
Benefit-cost analyses of two turbines, a 1.5 megawatt (MW) and a 100 kilowatt (kW).
Funding possibilities
Energy bill before the Wisconsin State Legislature: Campus Opportunities
Energy alternatives such as geothermal
Energy education
Transportation
Transportation Demand Management (TDM)
Challenges to sustainable transportation at
GIS analysis and survey findings
TDM strategies for
Stormwater Management
Pertinent federal and state regulations
Current and proposed stormwater management on campus
Recommendations for more sustainable stormwater management practices
- rain gardens/bioretention cells
- treatment trains/stormwater parks
- pervious pavements
The Cofrin Memorial Arboretum
Description of the Cofrin Memorial Arboretum
Uses of the Arboretum
Species within the arboretum
Natural areas within the arboretum
The Mahon Woods management unit study
Major threats to the arboretum
Suggested strategies to protect and preserve the arboretum
Administrative Organization
Options for organization at
- Interviews with campus officials
- Examination of practices at other universities
Recommendation to establish a sustainability committee
The other files included on the project Web site incorporate the individual research papers that each workgroup prepared. In addition, we have included the overall presentation document in a PowerPoint format and we have included files for each of the workgroup posters, which summarize the research and findings.