NKU and its alumni are catching the green wave

Story Rob Pasquinucci and Ashley Anglin

The term “eco-entrepreneur” might conjure up images of someone selling sustainable sneakers out of the back of a hybrid car, but the movement represents real opportunities for entrepreneurs who want to make money while preserving the environment.

Perhaps no better example can be found than in Mary Vincent, ’91, who left Sun Microsystems to start Green Star Solution, a business technology strategy and media firm incorporating green lifecycle principles. Vincent also founded a sustainable food website, writes about clean technology, and, last fall, hosted the Green Software Unconference in Silicon Valley. Becoming an eco-entrepreneur was more than a business opportunity for Vincent.

“The UN Climate Change Report was the main spark for me,” Vincent said. “That, personally, was my decision-making strategy. From a moral perspective, I wanted to do my part.”

The move was not without fear for Vincent.

“To take the leap from a very stable role at a very good company was a huge risk,” Vincent said. “The economy was good at that time, but of course the economy tanked.”

Vincent used the down economy to her advantage when starting her business.

“Companies are looking for ways to save money,” Vincent said. “They are seeing that being green can also enable more profit for them. So, in a sense, it’s been a winwin for me.”

Consumers and regulators are putting more pressure on companies to incorporate green principles in their manufacturing processes. In Silicon Valley where Vincent lives, old data centers and old servers waste electricity. Replacing those servers with newer, more energy-efficient models saves money.

“The top two costs for companies in Silicon Valley are electricity and employee salaries,” Vincent said. “If they could install more efficient servers, they could reduce their energy costs.”

This was part of the discussions at the Green Software Unconference Vincent held in August, where information technology leaders collaborated on ways to make IT more green.

Vincent’s green ideas go beyond the digital realm. She blogs about sustainable food at the Gratitude Gourmet™ website. Food production and distribution – particularly livestock production – can contribute to greenhouse gases.

“If we can change a light bulb, we can change our food practices to help our planet and our health today,” Vincent writes on the blog.

Her global perspective on environmental issues was forged during her time with the Peace Corps. Vincent spent two years with the organization in Eastern Europe. She took an ecological mindset to Sun, where she helped encourage employees to stop wasting paper and energy by unnecessarily printing documents.

Vincent acknowledges that there are many who are skeptical of the green movement.

“I think that ‘green’ sometimes turns people away,” Vincent said. “But when you can show the benefits of how businesses can save money while responding to consumer and regulatory pressure [to go green], ‘green’ becomes a win-win for everybody.”

Vincent hopes to continue to ride the green wave, scaling her business along the way.

“I think right now it’s been a process of educating people on what green is,” Vincent said. “In five years, green will be more prevalent and more of a part of business and society.”

Saving Split Rock

Mark Jacobs, ’84, doesn’t call his work at Split Rock Park a “green” job. He prefers the term “conservationist.” But his efforts helped preserve 165 acres of green space in Boone County for the community. Split Rock visitors can hike through lush meadows teeming with wildlife and bright yellow goldenrod flowers and hike on a path through a forest that forms a buffer (riparian zone) along the Ohio River.

Jacobs, who won a distinguished service award from the NKU Alumni Association in 2008, helped save Split Rock from a proposed housing development, preserving an ecologically significant property in Boone County and providing a natural laboratory to explore ecology, archeology, geology and history. He doesn’t receive a salary for his work at the park, using the meager annual budget on outreach programs. He works full time at the Boone County Conservation District.

Jacobs and others got involved with saving Split Rock when developers started planning for boat docks and housing in the area along Woolper Creek in Petersburg. In addition to being home to the glacial formation that gives the park its name, the area provides an essential buffer between the Ohio River and the residential communities that border it.

“You can’t ignore the (natural) system,” Jacobs said, noting that removing natural riparian zones along rivers and creeks often results in flooding, sewer issues and other problems. “You can pay now or pay later. I think it’s easier to protect these natural systems.”

Jacobs points to the large marshy wetland at Split Rock as another example. During the summer, the wetland is relatively dry, which makes it a good filter for water. It also is a great place to let kids see (and hear) the hundreds of frogs that fill the preserve with a chorus of croaks, peeps and ribbits through the spring and summer.

“When it’s full, the kids dig it,” Jacobs said.

Children also like checking for snakes under sheets of tin that Jacobs has scattered around the property. Jacobs estimates the preserve brings in 1,500 visitors a year, from young student groups to Scout troops to college students conducting research. Some of that research includes archeological surveys, revealing that the area has seen visitors for thousands of years, dating back to Native-American times.

Jacobs’ efforts have been recognized by Kentucky leaders – he received the Environmental Quality Award in April 2009 from the Kentucky’s Environmental Quality Commission for his development of Wildlife Conservation Kentucky, Inc. and the management of Split Rock Conservation Park. The park was also honored with a preservation award in 2009 from Boone County. While the recognition is nice, Jacobs’ motivation comes from just being at Split Rock.

“I love coming down here,” Jacobs said. “There’s always something incredible going on.”

Going green at NKU

“Green” is a trendy buzzword today; it seems everyone is talking about being green.  Building on a tradition of being energy and cost conscious, NKU is helping lead the effort to minimize our nation’s reliance on fossil fuels.  In December 2007, President Votruba signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment.  NKU was the first Kentucky state-supported university to join the cause.

Larry Blake, Assistant Vice President for Facilities Management, says, “NKU is committed to reducing carbon emissions, and it has been relatively easy to move the campus to the next level”.  Examples include investments in energy efficiency, such as occupancy sensors, energy efficient lighting, low-pressure faucets and toilets, planting trees, and many other efforts.    

A campus group, the Presidents Climate Commitment Task Force, is leading the campus effort to encourage a more green campus.  Jane Goode, planning coordinator in the office of Campus and Space Planning and co-chair of the Task Force states, “We hope to create a ‘culture of green’ on campus.  Through a variety of events, programs and strategies, the task force seeks to share ‘green’ information with students, faculty and staff, to extend this culture beyond the campus to the community at large.”

From ensuring energy efficiency in new buildings to greening of the campus through increased landscaping, reducing waste and encouraging recycling, NKU is working to establish a culture of ‘green’ on the campus.  

NKU student Jack Williams is the kind of student NKU is hoping to develop. The psychology major conducted research on positive/negative recycling at the Student Union that he presented at the Midwestern Psychological Association Conference.

In December 2007, President Votruba signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. NKU was the first Kentucky state-funded university to join this cause. The commitment will help NKU to exercise leadership in its communities and throughout society by modeling ways to minimize global-warming emissions and by providing knowledge and the educated graduates to achieve climate neutrality.

“Here at NKU, we hope to create a culture of green on campus,” said Goode. “We want to share ‘green’ information with students in hopes that they take it beyond NKU and use it in their everyday lives.”

Hybrid police car
The NKU Department of Public Safety is using a more fuelefficient hybrid vehicle.

Recycling
NKU participated in a national competition among colleges to reduce trash. The campus finished 10th among the 95 schools in the competition.

Public transportation
Using public transportation is one of the easiest ways to be green, and NKU made it even easier by teaming up with Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky in a program called U-PASS. When students ride TANK buses, if they show their NKU All Card they ride free. The bonus for students? No need to hunt for a parking space!

Rain garden
Plantings on campus help prevent rainwater from running off and make green spaces more attractive.

Tray-less dining
You can have fries with your burger in the Student Union, but no tray. Reusable plastic clamshells are available to carry lunch out of the building, saving energy and water and reducing waste.

Take the stairs
It costs approximately 2.5 cents every time an elevator button is pushed. The Big Green Climb program began this year to encourage faculty, staff and students to take the stairs instead of the elevators to save money and to benefit their health. More than 400 students and more than 200 employees made up the participating teams. More than 60 percent of the teams who registered continued climbing each week of the competition for a total of 301,112 flights climbed.

Campus trees
To commemorate the Big Green Climb, NKU planted five silk lilac trees on the NKU plaza. Long-term plans call for more trees and green space throughout campus.

Energy Star
NKU’s new computers will all be Energy Star rated, which means they will be more energy efficient than older models.

Electric eggs
Physical plant employees use small plug-in vehicles instead of gas-powered cars to get around campus, saving money and reducing emissions.

LEED certified new buildings
NKU’s new buildings, including Griffin Hall, will be Leadership in Environmental Energy and Design certified, conforming to a rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council to help reduce a building’s impact on the environment throughout its lifecycle.