Sustainability is a concept that college students near and far are familiar with. “Sustainability means doing something today that does not damage our ability to do it in the future as well,” said Fred Ochs, professor of chemistry and earth sciences at Kirkwood Community College.
It is no news that the abundance of natural resources available centuries ago, is no longer abundant. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, there remains enough coal to maintain worldwide industries for another 130 years.
In 2023, Rystad Energy performed a survey assessing what remains of known oil reserves around the world. Barring the discovery of new deposits, there remains roughly 50 years worth of oil on Earth.
Industry and commerce based on these resources are dwindling in their sustainability. While the sun is slowly setting on these methods of the past, much is being done to forward the discovery and creation of new, more sustainable methods, and Kirkwood has a starring role in this transition.
Kirkwood has engaged in sustainability efforts of its own since 2007. One example of this is the now inactive wind turbine. Kirkwood previously hosted a program focused on educating students as technicians for the growing wind power industry. Though the program is now defunct, and the turbine scheduled to be dismantled, this showcases the sustainability interests fostered at Kirkwood.
Sustainability remains at the very core of the campus, and Kirkwood’s outlying facilities. Much of the campus today is built around sustainable technologies.
Linn Hall, the oldest building on campus, underwent extensive remodeling in 2013. In addition to the complete reworking of the interior, Linn Hall also saw the installation of Kirkwood’s first geothermal heating and cooling system.
At first an experimental project, geothermal now accounts for much of the heating and air conditioning for main campus, including systems installed in Iowa, Cedar and Benton Halls.
“The major idea around geothermal is really to reduce your occupancy on natural gas,” said Troy McQuillen, vice president of Facilities & Public Safety. He stated that nearly half of the square footage of the Cedar Rapids campus, about 900,000 square feet out of a 2 million square foot total utilizes geothermal systems.
As a result, he said that since the introduction of geothermal systems to campus, Kirkwood’s reliance on natural gas has fallen by approximately 60%.
McQuillen offered his definition of sustainability: “I think really my definition is being stewards of sustainability, and initiatives related to our building infrastructure and our lands,” he said.
Kirkwood is gearing up for another leap in its sustainability initiative, and, according to McQuillen, the hope is that it will be realized by 2028.
He said there are also prospects in the area of solar power, as a number of Kirkwood facilities have been surveyed as potential installation sites for solar arrays.
“Sustainability will continue to be important for any business or company or farmer or ‘name the activity’ because quite honestly, we are literally talking about our futures,” said Ochs.
Categories: Feature
