Energy and Environmental Sustainability Initiative: EESI

The Energy and Environmental Sustainability Initiative (EESI) was announced Spring 2007 under the direction of President Ohle to act as an advisory board on energy and sustainability related issues on the Wartburg campus. Members of EESI voluntarily serve on the committee and commit to attending approximately 10 regular meetings a year and serve on subcommittees to execute tasks throughout the school year.

EESI mission statement
Wartburg College is committed to enhancing development of a community fostering environmental stewardship to ensure local and global sustainability.

Since its inception the committee has been critical in enhancing recycling programs on campus and promoting their usage as well as promoting sustainable efforts and recommending the establishment of the Sustainability Office at Wartburg.

The committee currently holds the following subgroups:
Facilities and Energy Benchmarking
Education
Public Relations
Opportunities and New Initiatives

Serving on EESI are the following people:
Dr. David McCullough, Chair (faculty)
Dr. Kimran Buckholz, Interim Chair (faculty)
Margaret Empie (Director of Dining Service)
Dr. Tammy Faux (faculty)
Dr. Johanna Foster (faculty)
Gary Grace (VP of Administration)
Saul Shapiro (Dept. of Communications & Marketing)
Student Senate representative
John Wuertz (Director of Physical Plant)

If you are a member of the Wartburg community, as Student, faculty, staff or alumni and wish to be involved with EESI please e-mail sustainability@wartburg.edu.

Wartburg Gardens
Wartburg Gardens were envisioned, created, and are currently run by student volunteers. The garden and landscaping projects grow a variety of vegetable and herbs. Produce from the main vegetable garden is used by Wartburg Dining Services and unused produce is donated to a local food bank. The garden serves as an outdoor classroom for students as they learn about local food production, organic gardening, and composting. The Wartburg Garden facilitates sustainability, community and service on the Wartburg campus.

Wartburg Garden
First planted on Earth Day of 2010, the garden produced 1100 pounds of produce in its first year of production. The garden is planted on a plot of land which was purchased through flood buyouts, repurposing a green space, minimizing mowing and maintenance. Hundreds of volunteer hours are put into the planning, planting, and maintenance of the garden each year. Produce from the garden is used by Wartburg Dining Services and produce that Dining Services does not use is donated to a local food bank.

The garden supports local businesses and area organizations. Tools and supplies for the garden are purchased at locally owned hardware stores and seeds are purchased through Seed Savers (www.seedsavers.org) of Decorah Iowa.

The Wartburg Garden is not certified organic but volunteers use organic practices to ensure that the highest quality of food is produced with minimal impact on the environment. Compost collected from the garden and Dining Services is used throughout the garden to provide nutrients to its plants.

Dr. Tammy Faux, Assistant Professor of Social Work and her husband Rob Faux, of Genuine Faux Farms (http://genuinefauxfarm.com) guide students throughout the planning, planting, and harvesting seasons of the garden. They share their expertise and passion for sustainable gardening with the students involved.

Edible Landscaping
In the spring of 2011 the Wartburg Garden expanded its efforts to educate the Wartburg community about local food production. Large planters in front of Vogel library were filled with vegetable and herb plants. The planters are both beautiful and symbolic to show that everyone can grow and produce herbs and vegetables; even in a limited amount of space.

Waverly Community Gardens
The floods of 2008 left many Waverly Resident’s homes in unlivable conditions. A dozen of these homes were bought-out by the city and converted to community gardens in the spring of 2011. Community organizations and groups can adopt a 30 x 30 plot and grow fruits and vegetables on the site. Produce from the gardens benefit area food banks and community meal ministries. Wartburg College is a proud supporter of the city’s efforts and has adopted a plot.

Sustainability Suites

During the 11-12 academic year there are two suites of students involved with recycling on campus. The assignments will be slightly different however students should work cooperatively as they will be working in the same areas.

Throughout the year there needs to be ongoing communication between the members of the suites, residential life and the sustainability office. Students are responsible to keep all party’s informed, complete required paperwork or timesheets and meet the expectations of the suite proposal and service project as agreed upon between the students and the college.

Recycling Suite
These students will collect all recycling materials, excluding redeemables, from containers located in the hallways of the academic and business buildings as well as serve as a support role for office recycling.
Students need to have a regularly planned pick-up schedule that is compatible with the demand for recycling to be removed. This will take some adjustment and the suite needs to work closely with the sustainability coordinator to refine.

Pull Tabs Suite
This suite of students will be working to collect pop can tabs for charity. These students will work on the redemption part of the recycling process as well as event support.

In the academic buildings Cans for Cause collects the redemption as a fundraiser. Students from this suite will be responsible for training for this group on a monthly basis and verifying they have meet expectations.

In the residential buildings this suite will collect the redeemables and sort them at the physical plant. This suite will also deliver all the items to the redemption center.

Finally, this suite will provide recycling collection needs after events in and around the athletics areas.
Through some fine-tuning we will have to work through the process of when and where is the best time and place for you to collect tabs.