Campus environmental group discusses sustainability with President Geoffroy
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Members of a campus environmental group requested Friday that Iowa State phase out the use of its coal power plant in the next 10 years and become 50 percent sustainable in the next five years.
Graham Jordison, senior in political science and president of the group ActivUs, said three members of the group met with ISU President Geoffroy, Warren Madden, vice president for business and finance, and Tahira Hira, executive assistant to the president, on Friday to deliver petitions and discuss sustainability at the university.
"The meeting went really well," Jordison said. "Our main focus was to create a relationship with the president and his advisers."
He said the group delivered a petition with more than 400 signatures from students advocating for cleaner energy and a petition with more than 100 signatures from people concerned about fly ash from the university's coal plant.
"We asked if they would completely phase out the coal plant in 10 years and have the university become 50 percent sustainable in five years," Jordison said.
He said Geoffroy promised to look into the issue, but a major concern was the cost of a phase out could potentially lead to a tuition increase.
Iowa State's coal plant is the biggest concern ActivUs has, Jordison said, because fly ash from the university is dumped into an unlined quarry in Waterloo.
"Its a huge concern to Iowans and their health," he said.
Though the university still uses the plant, Jordison said steps have been taken in the right direction. He said recently the three Iowa universities started monitoring the water at the quarry for contamination.
Jordison said ActivUs wants to the university to keep its promises on becoming more sustainable, which is why they want a phase out of the coal plant.
"If ISU truely wants to live green, we need to be implementing the newest and best technology we have," he said.
ActivUs plans to continue to work with the university on sustainability and Jordison said the group really appreciated meeting with Geoffroy to discuss the issues.
"We had a very good meeting, with good, frank and informative discussions, and I personally enjoyed meeting and discussing these important issues with our students," Geoffroy wrote in an email. "Sustainability is an extremely important issue for all of us, and it is important that we continually evaluate ways to improve our efforts to protect the environment and reduce our footprint on global climate change. We did commit to investigate a variety of options dealing with the university's need for power, including ways in which we might be able to increase our use of energy generated from wind, along with the current obstacles to doing that. Building a new power plant would be prohibitively expensive at this time, but there may be opportunities for increasing our use of natural gas rather than coal while we evaluate the increased use of wind energy and energy from other renewable resources, although most of those would be longer-term projects."
Graham Jordison, senior in political science and president of the group ActivUs, said three members of the group met with ISU President Geoffroy, Warren Madden, vice president for business and finance, and Tahira Hira, executive assistant to the president, on Friday to deliver petitions and discuss sustainability at the university.
"The meeting went really well," Jordison said. "Our main focus was to create a relationship with the president and his advisers."
He said the group delivered a petition with more than 400 signatures from students advocating for cleaner energy and a petition with more than 100 signatures from people concerned about fly ash from the university's coal plant.
"We asked if they would completely phase out the coal plant in 10 years and have the university become 50 percent sustainable in five years," Jordison said.
He said Geoffroy promised to look into the issue, but a major concern was the cost of a phase out could potentially lead to a tuition increase.
Iowa State's coal plant is the biggest concern ActivUs has, Jordison said, because fly ash from the university is dumped into an unlined quarry in Waterloo.
"Its a huge concern to Iowans and their health," he said.
Though the university still uses the plant, Jordison said steps have been taken in the right direction. He said recently the three Iowa universities started monitoring the water at the quarry for contamination.
Jordison said ActivUs wants to the university to keep its promises on becoming more sustainable, which is why they want a phase out of the coal plant.
"If ISU truely wants to live green, we need to be implementing the newest and best technology we have," he said.
ActivUs plans to continue to work with the university on sustainability and Jordison said the group really appreciated meeting with Geoffroy to discuss the issues.
"We had a very good meeting, with good, frank and informative discussions, and I personally enjoyed meeting and discussing these important issues with our students," Geoffroy wrote in an email. "Sustainability is an extremely important issue for all of us, and it is important that we continually evaluate ways to improve our efforts to protect the environment and reduce our footprint on global climate change. We did commit to investigate a variety of options dealing with the university's need for power, including ways in which we might be able to increase our use of energy generated from wind, along with the current obstacles to doing that. Building a new power plant would be prohibitively expensive at this time, but there may be opportunities for increasing our use of natural gas rather than coal while we evaluate the increased use of wind energy and energy from other renewable resources, although most of those would be longer-term projects."
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