WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University Residences is turning greener with its latest efforts to reduce water and energy consumption.

Residents of McCutcheon, Harrison, Earhart and Shreve halls are having a competition to cut down energy and water use, and the winner will be announced on Earth Day (April 22).

“Residents are unplugging appliances not in use, turning off lights when not needed, not using heat and air-conditioning at the same time, shortening showers, and turning off water while brushing their teeth,” said Carmen Martin, a member of Boiler Green Initiative, a club dedicated to conservation measures on campus. “Participants in the contest are being entered in a raffle for prizes, and the floor of the winning building with the highest participation gets a dessert social.”

In another attempt to reduce waste, the new dining court south of Wiley Hall is piloting a program called “Waste Less Wednesdays.” Each Wednesday this month, diners won’t use trays in an effort to save food and the energy used to clean trays.

“There are several colleges and universities around the country that have gone trayless and realized a substantial decrease in food waste,” said Jill Irvin, director of Dining Services for University Residences. “We’ve been discussing this idea for several months and seeing how we might best test it. Some of our staff visited the University of Illinois earlier this spring to observe their trayless operation. It was after this trip that the pilot program was finalized.”

For the most part, students have responded positively to the program, Irvin said.

“It’s a great idea,” said Andy Jones, a junior in the College of Technology. “On Waste Less Wednesdays, students eat all the food they take instead of heaping their trays with items and not eating them.

“The dining court is an all-you-can-eat facility anyway. Without trays, students may have to make an extra trip to get more food, but there’s never any limit to what they can eat.”

Nate Reed, a student supervisor at the dining court, said dishes get cleaned faster and the trash cans look less full on Waste Less Wednesdays.

“Whenever I get a tray, I fill it up and mostly don’t eat half of the things,” he said. “But if it’s plates, I take smaller portions and eat the food. And you can always get more plates if you’re still hungry.”

University Residences is the single biggest recycler on campus, said Barbara Frazee, University Residences executive director.

Last September, University Residences was among the sponsors of the university’s Green Week, which encouraged students to reduce, reuse and recycle resources such as water, electricity, food, paper and aluminum.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A green energy program that will focus on alternative energy technologies and their impact on rural communities will be held March 17 in Covington, Ind.

“This program, designed specifically for farmers, rural landowners and businesses, will help producers understand how they can benefit from renewable energy,” said Chad Martin, Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service renewable energy specialist. “These developments are going to have profound impacts on the community and it’s all about opportunity and taking advantage of it.”

Martin, one of the program speakers, will discuss the importance of improving energy efficiency. He also will highlight a Purdue program designed to help farmers with grain drying and how those systems can be audited on their energy consumption.

“We want participants to walk away knowing the areas of their operation that consume the most energy and how those areas can be improved,” Martin said.

Going Green: Alternative & Renewable Resources for Farm, Business and Home will be 5 p.m.-8 p.m., with registration beginning at 4:30 p.m., at the Beef House Restaurant. Registration is $20 per person, which includes dinner and program materials, and is due by March 12. To register, contact Kelly Pearson at 765-762-3231, kppearson@purdue.edu or visit https://webs.extension.uiuc.edu/registration/?RegistrationID=2527.

Topics and speakers include:

• An overview of what’s happening with wind energy and implications for farms and rural landowners, Martin.
• Current solar energy technology and implications for farms and rural landowners, Ted Funk, University of Illinois Extension specialist of bioenvironmental engineering.
• Dinner discussion highlighting what farmers, rural landowners and businesses need to know about energy.
• Nuts and bolts of farm energy audits and renewable energy grants for farm improvements and upgrades, Martin.

For more information, contact Pearson at 765-762-3231, kppearson@purdue.edu, or Mark Spelbring at 765-569-3176, spelbrin@purdue.edu. The Beef House Restaurant is located at 16501 N. State Road 63 in Covington.

Purdue Extension and the University of Illinois Extension sponsor the green energy program.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — BoilerRide, Purdue’s Web-based carpool and rideshare program, is now available for students, faculty and staff with valid Purdue career accounts.

From the BoilerRide Web site, http://www.purdue.edu/transportation/boilerride.htm, users can log in to the GreenRide application and create a profile. GreenRide suggests carpooling partners such as other faculty, staff and students who live close by or along the same commuting route and who have similar work or class schedules.

In addition to carpooling for daily commutes, GreenRide provides an event/trip matching feature that allows users to match up for one-time rides such as going to an off-campus event, sharing a ride home on weekends or traveling to the airport for school breaks.

“Carpooling offers many benefits, including saving money, which is important to everyone in today’s challenging economic environment,” said Mike Utermark, manager of Transportation Services at Purdue. “The GreenRide site provides a convenient savings calculator for carpoolers to calculate their own savings based on where they live. Carpooling also helps Purdue’s carbon footprint by decreasing the number of vehicles traveling to and from campus each day.”

Using BoilerRide involves the following steps:

1. Go to the BoilerRide Web site at http://www.purdue.edu/transportation/boilerride.htm
2. Click on the “Sign Up Today” link on the left side of the page.
3. Log in with a Purdue career account and password. That will take the user to Purdue’s GreenRide application site.

Clicking on the accept button puts the entered name, Purdue University identification information, e-mail address, gender, and faculty/staff or student designation into the system.

Establishing an account profile customizes individual preferences and schedules and finds a carpool or rideshare match.

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Lafayette based MJV Group, Inc. has been awarded certification under GS-42, Green Seal, Inc.’s environmental standard for green cleaning services that help protect human health and the environment. After a stringent application process and an on-site audit, MJV Group, Inc. is the only Indiana based commercial janitorial service licensed to provide a Green Seal-certified service to their customers.

The GS-42 standard establishes requirements for both in-house and contract cleaning services. Green cleaning encompasses all indoor activities typically required to clean commercial, public, and industrial buildings.

“Certification under GS-42 demonstrates our utilization of products and equipment that have less impact on the environment, and that we embrace processes and procedures that help protect the health of our team members as well as the building occupants,” said James Heck, President of MJV Group, Inc.

Heck added, “Green Cleaning — high performance healthy cleaning that helps protect health and the environment — is in high demand. Many contractors are claiming to offer ‘green’ service. Now, with GS-42 Green Seal certification, building and facility managers can be assured that they are hiring a service that is truly green in every key aspect of its operation.”

MJJ Group, Inc. is a professional building service contractor based in Lafayette, Indiana since 1992, and focuses on providing high performance, healthy cleaning services that protect people and the environment from toxic chemicals, noxious fumes and wasted resources.

MJV offers the Healthy Solutions Green Seal-certified janitorial service 24 hours a day and has more than 400 team members in more than 300 facilities. They are the first building service contractor in the state of Indiana to receive the GS-42 certification.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University will sponsor Green Week on Sept. 15-19 to raise environmental awareness on campus and in the Greater Lafayette community.

Each day will focus on one aspect of preserving the environment and practicing conservation. There will be opportunities for students, faculty and staff, and community members to participate throughout the week.

“We need to all start talking about what we do every day,” said Robin Ridgway, Purdue’s environmental regulatory consultant and chair of the Purdue Sustainability Council.

“The value of Green Week is in encouraging conversation about sustainability and what it means for Purdue and the broader community. We need to move together as a group.”

Sustainability is defined as meeting current needs in ways that won’t compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Purdue has launched a green Web site at http://www.purdue.edu/green. It offers information on Purdue’s green initiatives, tips on conservation and an interactive portion where people can write about their environmental successes.

The Web site will be ongoing, but it also is serving as a clearinghouse for information about Green Week, including constantly updated lists of activities.

Each day of Green Week will have a theme: Monday, sustainability; Tuesday, reduce, reuse, recycle; Wednesday, energy; Thursday, research; and Friday, water. Events are still being developed but are likely to include activities such as clean-up efforts, recycling opportunities and incentives for trying alternative transportation.

Green Week will culminate with a full day of programs Friday, Sept. 19, and a speech that night by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and author Thomas Friedman.

Discovery Park’s Energy Center, Center for the Environment and Purdue Climate Change Research Center plan a morning of lectures by outside experts on the environment, conservation and energy, and an afternoon town hall forum, all free and open to the public.

“The centers are collaborating on these Green Week activities to spark a lively discussion of research and reality at the intersection of climate, environment, energy technology alternatives and policy,” said Jay Gore, the Reilly Professor in Engineering and Energy Center director. “As a community, we will explore the new paths we must take to determine how we can live and grow our global community.”

A cleanup along the banks of the Wabash River is planned for late afternoon, with volunteers from both the campus and community pitching in to collect trash.

Friedman, foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, will speak at 7:30 p.m. in Elliott Hall of Music about his latest book, “Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How It Can Renew America.” He will sign books after the talk.

The speech is free and open to the public, but reserved tickets are required. Tickets can be picked at the Hall of Music box office between 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets also can be reserved by calling the box office at (765) 494-3933.

“The impetus for Green Week was Tom Friedman’s visit,” Ridgway said. “Friedman’s writings focus on the importance of having a very serious conversation about what’s happening now and what we can do in the future.”