The Arts & Environment Initiative of CEED uses art to promote regional revitalization and beautification. Staff members work with local community partners to identify environmental problems and implement solutions.
Creek Connections has forged an effective partnership between Allegheny College and regional K-12 schools to turn waterways in northwest Pennsylvania, southwest New York, and the Pittsburgh area into outdoor environmental laboratories. Emphasizing a hands-on, inquiry based investigation of local waterways, this project annually involves more than forty secondary schools and the classes of fifty teachers. Student research culminates in annual symposia at Allegheny College and in Pittsburgh.
A grant by the Henry Luce Foundation in the amount of almost $250,000 helps promote interdisciplinary learning at Allegheny. In one initiative, students in the Arts and the Environment class Envisioning Environmental Futures worked closely with students in Introduction to Managerial
Economics to explore how public arts projects affect local businesses.
In fall 2006 Allegheny opened the North Village, a three-building residential complex of townhouse-style apartments. The North Village has been constructed with environmental sustainability in mind and will be LEED certified. The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. The lead architects for the North Village worked with the thirteen students in Professor Eric Pallant's Junior Seminar on Sustainable Development to explore the most cost-effective, environmentally sound options for building the project. More information about the class's work can be found here.
Of course we recycle, but that's just the beginning. In 2001 Allegheny College became the first college or university in Pennsylvania to install an on-campus composting facility. Funded by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the composting unit is an integral part of a statewide governmental program to raise the effectiveness of Pennsylvania's recycling programs. Designed to compost 1,500 pounds of organic material in only 28 days, the unit completely contains the composting process and creates a soil-like, nutrient-rich material that helps to replenish our campus's lawns, gardens and flowerbeds without using chemical fertilizers. At Allegheny College, the material composted is primarily waste from the College's on-campus cafeterias and other food service facilities.
Based at Allegheny College, the Commonwealth Community Energy Project, a project of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, offers programs to promote energy efficiency, renewable resources, and economic revitalization. The College and the Energy Project have collaborated on various initiatives to improve energy efficiency on the Allegheny campus; the Energy Project also involves Allegheny students in community programs for homeowners, schools, and congregations.
Demonstrating leadership in the environment and clean energy, Allegheny College has made a commitment that 15 percent of its electricity will come from wind power, a percentage higher than any other college or university in the eastern United States has invested thus far. What does Allegheny’s 15 percent commitment mean each year? When compared to the average electricity use in the Mid-Atlantic region, it will:
The College's annual purchase of wind-generated electrical power has qualified it as a Green Power Partner by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Students for Environmental Action and the Environmental Science Club plan activities throughout the year, such as creating educational displays, hosting nationally known speakers, and organizing letter-writing campaigns on critical environmental issues.
