Golden Hour: Campus Sustainability

On Tuesday, March 24 2015 a campus-wide Golden Hour presentation about campus sustainability was presented to an audience of about a dozen faculty, staff, and students.  The presentation can be seen here: https://drive.google.com/a/ripon.edu/file/d/0B93nLXEjf3D1enJkanN4OVFOMGc/view?usp=sharing

Energy Conservation Policy Adopted

Ripon College Administrative Council recently adopted the college's first Energy Conservation Policy. An implementation plan is being worked out. Meanwhile, the student newspaper, Ripon College Days, has written an article about it.

Read what students have to say here: https://medium.com/college-days/ripon-college-energy-policy-3e17e738c30c

College Days reports on proper use of TerraCycle bins

Ripon College continues to be one of the leading college campuses for up-cycling beauty and hygiene product containers. The post-consumer collection of the containers is coordinated and executed by students of the Environmental Group of Ripon (EGOR) and the reuse of the containers is managed through TerraCycle.

Earlier in the fall semester there had been misuse of collection bins placed by EGOR members in each of the residence hall bathrooms.  An article explaining the TerraCycle program and correct use of the collection containers was then published by the campus newspaper, College Days.

Click here for College Days TerraCycle article
(you'll need to scroll down a bit to get to the content of the article...)

Carpool, Shuttle, and RideShare opportunities

Ripon College offers members of the campus community a RideBoard.  Anyone with access to the Portal (my.Ripon.edu) can access this service once logged on.

In the tab at the top of the page, select "Campus Life".  From the Campus Life page, select "Ride Board".  From there you can see rides offered and rides needed.

In addition to the personal offers for rides, the College offers shuttle service to airports in Milwaukee and Chicago at the beginning and end of each semester.  This service is coordinated through the Office of Student Activities and Orientation.. More information about the shuttles can be found at http://www.ripon.edu/campuslife/transportation/

Finally, if the ride you need still can't be found, or you regularly commute to Ripon College from a neighboring community, you might find a ride the through the WI Department of Transportation RideShare program. Information about that statewide service can be found at http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/travel/commuter/index.htm

Ripon College Takes 3rd in Nation Among Colleges & Universities Helping Wisconsin achieve 1st Place in National Bike Challenge

The National Bike Challenge has just finished  and Ripon College achieved itshighest national rankings in the “School” categories:  10th among all schools (out of 147 K-Higher Educational Institutions) and 3rd among all colleges and universities in the nation (out of 109)!

In terms of local pride, we were 1st among all colleges and universities in the state of Wisconsin. Yes, we even ranked better than UW-Madison.

We also had teams in two other categories.  In the “Workplace” category, we came in 309th out of 1101 participating workplaces.  This was the only category Lawrence University was also in, who came in at #413.  Our Ripon College Redhawk “Team” came in 258th out of almost 1300 other teams.  All in all, this was a very good showing.

Our totals for this year were solid.  We had 28 people signed up and 20 who logged miles during the Challenge period of May 1st through September 30th.  We logged 9,554 miles and earned 25,515 Challenge points.  While these totals are not quite on par with our record-setting pace of last year, they still kept us very competitive in the NBC rankings.

In terms of the national totals, there were 47,082 riders who logged a total of 23,309,210 miles during the NBC.  Wisconsin was the #1 ranked state this year, finally knocking off our past rivals, Nebraska and Vermont.  The top individual rider nationally, Eric Nordgren of Topeka, Kansas, logged 18,152 miles over 153 days for 21,212 NBC points.  Yes, he averaged over 100 miles a day!

For more results from the National Bike Challenge, visit their website:  http://bikeleague.org/content/challenge-47000-riders-23m-miles#anchor

Thank you and kudos to all the Ripon NBC riders for helping Ripon College maintain its strong cycling tradition and standings in the NBC.  We hope this will help cycling advocates across the country make the case for cycling and cyclists in the many venues—public policy, economic development, environment—where we need to make a difference.  And those of you who weren’t able to join us this year, there is always the 2015 Challenge starting next May!

Contributed by Paul Jeffries (jeffriesp@ripon.edu)

Use your Common Sense

After a beautiful, cool summer warm weather is finally here and so are the students!  We are delighted to have everyone back on campus.  However, we all share many common resources, so let's use our Common Sense.

When it is hottest outside (1 PM - 4 PM), be vigilant about turning off lights, fans, and all electronics.  If you are lucky and have an air-conditioned space, please close the door to your room and, of course, be sure the windows are also shut.

That's it... Let's power down to Beat the Peak.

WHEN IT'S NOT IN USE, WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE?

Ripon Magazine focuses on Sustainability

The most recent issue of Ripon College's magazine, Ripon Magazine, focuses on campus sustainability as well as the impact our alumni are having in the environmental science fields.


In addition,  many updates have recently been added to this blog.  Check out RecycleMania results,  what's happening in the campus garden, and what's blooming in the Ceresco Prairie.