Tomorrow's plan in includes (in addition to the breakfast and lunch keynotes), sessions on Bringing Waste-to-Energy into the Mainstream and The Point of No Return: Examining the True Economic Costs of Sprawl. Tomorrow also includes a tour of the Catfish Creek Water Recovery System (designed to deal with run-off and amend water pollution). This is an additional, two-hour mobile tour of the water recovery center so I'm hoping to have some pictures from my phone to post tomorrow as well.
I already spent the morning making connections with anaerobic biogas folks willing to come to Kirkwood for a free assessment of how waste from various parts of the campus (including Agriculture) could be converted into energy. Turns out federal grants pay for the initial assessment. I've also gathered details on 'living roofs' and spent quite a bit of time talking about the future of solar power. The folks at Eagle Point Solar are doing solar farms in Kalona and relayed that current 'dollar for dollar' trades exist with Alliant and MidAmerican per federal law, but that completely off-grid options are a likely reality in the near future (with 10 year-lasting battery banks soon to be offered at less than $5000 a system).
smART [sustainability+madison+art] wants to create community in the room as well as in the community (by asking us first 'what is your story?'). The presentation reinforces class changes I've made to slow down material and make nametags based on the arguments that it takes time to build trust and relationships. [The latter is their main takeaway.] smART is based on just communities, healthy planets, and healthy societies using individuals as agents of change. This also fits nicely with individual change models. It turns out that only 10% of the population needs to be convinced that a new behavior is good in order to create a societal 'tipping point' in favor of that change. At Sustain Dane, children work together with residents to create art that is positive and builds relationships and trust. Elite artists combined with residents from diverse communities to plan community art projects and all participated in the production to grow community. [Frankly, I think we could try a project like this with diverse student groups at the beginning of a semester to produce art for some area of campus.] Importantly, the organizers have started by asking the community if they have interest and building a coalition (door to door) for community interest. The program can also be done with a medium other than art but following a few helpful tips. Presenters note we need community and social pressure (not just individual 'shoulds') to make real change. We need to be talking with all involved to align goals from the start (ideally making fewer assumptions each time) and be flexible in response to the needs and wants of the community (how can what we want to achieve partner with what the community wants). I think there's also application of this to climate change or industrial agriculture or any other social problem profiled [creating a group mural to depict some element of homophobia might also work for the LGBT Studies class].
Our noon luncheon included a presentation highlighting the demand for walkable communities by Millenials along with the warning that talent will dictate location for businesses in the future. The transportation expert recommends RETURNING TO THE OLD in order to solve today's problems. He suggests walkable, attractive city centers near transportation hubs to attract young folks rather than continuing the suburban sprawl characteristic since the 1920s. (E.g., Dubuque's River Walk below.)
Cost is reduced in all forms (travel time, roadways, etc.) by rebuilding city centers that reflected the 'old time mainstreet' model of mixed use residential and commercial. His presentation was exceptionally sociological in the sense that our suburban sprawl did not arise out of thin air. We began to zone for residential only, create arterial roads, and invest only in transportation related to the automobile. Almost as importantly, I was privileged to spend lunch chatting with President Liang Chee Wee from Northeast Iowa Community College. I was tremendously impressed with his personal and professional philosophies, vision for the college, and caring about the students.
My first afternoon session details floating treatment wetlands and water resource management. From the brochure: "Floating Treatment Wetlands are an innovative environmental solution that "biomimics" nature’s wetlands to pull unwanted nutrients and pollutants from the water. The island matrix and plants provide important surface area for microbes to colonize and help manage phosphorus, nitrogen and total suspended solids in the water. Covered with plants that grow roots down below the islands, the infrastructure helps restore wetland habitat, pollinator plants, and the beauty of native plants."
This reminds me of the larger matrix of wetland and grey water resolution at Oberlin College that is capable of completely converting bathroom waste into water clean enough to be used on edible plants. In this case, floating wetlands are intended to deal with overloads of nitrogen into the watershed. You need not retrofit and can actually add in increments and to scale to remove nitrogen in harmless gas form and to sequester phosphorous. The floating islands are modeled after peat bogs in Wisconsin.
My second afternoon session relates to now having students 'grade' or do 'report cards' on various social issues on campus and in their communities. I would like to have students try the livability index, but also to consider creating one for Kirkwood as an individual project. Students could ask for assessment by peers and then propose solutions to the college.
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