Making OTC More Sustainable For The Environment
• OTC is a good campus for students to go to and it offers many good classes and teachers
• With that said, OTC is missing one big factor that can make it a greater campus
• If OTC would become more environmentally friendly and use these next suggestions, the campus could be better for students and the earth
What You Will Learn
• How to make OTC better for transportation by:
• Bike Racks
• Green Energy Speed Bumps
• How to make OTC save energy with:
• Wind Power- wind turbine
• How to conserve water for OTC by:
• Annually checking leaks
• Buying and using rain barrels
• Stop automatic flush systems
OTC Transportation
• The first topic that will be discussed is transportation
• The next few slides will talk about OTC’s transportation and how it could be better!
Bike Racks
• Many students have bikes and want to ride them to school
• But there aren’t enough bike racks around the campus
• Students don’t ride them because they don’t have enough places to safely leave their bikes
• More bike racks would encourage students to be physically fit and ride their bike
Cost Of Bike Racks
• Depending on the size and where you buy them the prices will look like this:
• A rack with 2 places to hold bikes would cost $170.00
• A rack with 4 places to hold bikes would cost $290.00
• A rack with 9 places to hold bikes would cost $480.00
Uline.com
Bike Racks
• Would:
• Save parking spaces
• Save gas money for students
• Encourage students to be healthy and fit
• Keep less toxins from vehicles in the air
• Keep the traffic in the parking lot low
• Keep bikes from being stolen
Green Energy Speed Bumps
• It’s a speed bump that collects kinetic energy from cars driving over it, and it can be turned into electricity
• The owner of the speed bumps may use the electricity however they choose
• http://youtu.be/QExudqxpKTQ
Cost of Green Energy Speed Bumps
• They would eventually pay off themselves
• It would take about 2 to 3 years
• They cost $1,500-$2,000
Green Energy Speed Bumps
• Will:
• Save Money- depending on what you use the electricity for will determine how much money you will save
• Save Electricity that isn’t being used
• Keep students from speeding
• Save energy
• Make 1 megawatt of electricity per day
Changing to Wind Power
• Using wind power is a reliable and effective way to get the OTC campus to help the environment, cut costs, and bring the community together
• This will assist OTC and its sustainability in the near future
• Transferring the school from electricity to a wind power energy will cut the unhealthy emissions put into the air significantly
Saving Energy: Wind Turbine
• A wind turbine captures the natural wind and coverts it into mechanical energy, then electricity
• When wind blows past the turbine the blades capture the energy and rotate
• the wind speed must be at 2.5 meters per second
• The turbine reaches its max at 31 mph so to avoid damage when the wind is over 36 mph the safety controller slows the propellers
• Wind energy is clean and renewable
Saving Energy: Wind Turbine
• The wind turbine helps avoid environmental impacts due to the zero gas emissions and pollutants
• A wind turbine also consumes no water
• The turbine will provide a 9-10 year payback as well as saving the college $2,347,884
The turbine at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa
• Luther College is a campus that purchased a wind turbine
• The turbine reduced its schools footprint by 14-15% and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 3000 metric tons a year
• The turbine can cost a total of 3.3 million dollars but only cost the school 1,150,000 dollars because of grants given to the school for the project
• When the Luther turbine was built, the schools various programs helped to put the turbine together and eventually put it up
• It could also bring our college community together too
Saving Energy: Making It A Group Effort
• The technology department as well as a welding program and many other people could participate in the building of the turbine as well as helping to erect it
• The turbine would also serve as a great teaching tool for the community
• The turbine could be a community service job in the city or even extra credit for the school
Saving Energy: The Wind Turbine
• Luther is roughly four times the size of the OTC campus and they run off a 80ft. singular wind turbine
• Therefore, one this size would be more than satisfactory for OTC. A 50 acre plot in Republic, 20 minutes from Springfield, would be an ideal place for it
• It will roughly cost 1.2-1.5 million dollars, that’s including the land, and setting it up
• Although it’s a lot of money, in the end it will save so much and offers many great things for OTC
Conserving Water: Checking Leaks
• OTC can help the environment and campus with conserving water by checking leaks
• This can save tons of water per year
• Toilets, sinks, water fountains, and pipes should be checked regularly (Minimum- 1 time per month)
• All fountains outside should also be checked for leaks
Conserving Water: Rain Barrels
• Another idea for conserving water is rain barrels
• Collecting rain water for use is an ancient and traditional practice
• Rainwater was collected in simple clay containers reaching as far back as 2,000 years ago through out the world
• If we use this old practice today, we can store water for anything that we need.
• As drought and aquifer mining begin to call attention to an increasing water crisis, OTC can help change this factor
• By doing this, we can save money, water, and conserve water better
Conserving Water: Rain Barrels
• With a Constant flow 1 inch per day, OTC would be able to hold 600 galloons of water per 1,000 square feet
• That’s about 6,180 galloons a year
• They Cost $135 each X 20= roughly $2,700
• If we had that many we could use our own water from the barrels to work the fountains outside, and other objects
Conserving Water: Automatic Flush Systems
• The automatic Flush systems that OTC installed are nice, but they waste a lot of water
• They go off many times when their not supposed to and even when no one has touched them or gone near them
• To save water, OTC should take out these systems or cover up the sensor and have people manually flush the toilets
Conserving Water: Automatic Flush Systems
• Money could be saved with all the water being saved from the toilets
• Money could be saved by putting stickers or tape paper against the sensors
• It would cost time, and energy of the janitors and other helpers
• In the end, useless flushing would stop, and OTC would be saving money, and also saving water
Conclusion
• OTC is a good campus and has great teachers and classes
• It could be even greater if the campus became more environmental friendly and use these suggestions:
• Make transportation better by adding more bike racks, and adding green energy speed bumps
• Saving energy by using a wind turbine
• Conserve water with rain barrels, checking all leaks, and taking away the automatic flush systems