Editor’s Note: This is the fifth article in a five-part series looking at local initiatives to become more environmentally-friendly.

When friends and family call Wayne Todd ‘windy,’ they’re really paying him a compliment.

That’s because the Union Township resident constructed a personal wind turbine over 10 years ago.

“It is my goal in life to be totally self-sufficient, to be in the middle of my 40 acres with no power lines coming in,” Todd said.

With interest in harvesting wind power spreading across the state, personal wind turbine development is now possible locally.

A wind ordinance has recently been adopted to make it possible to construct personal and commercial wind turbines for alternative energy production, said Isabella County Planner and Zoning Administrator Mike Zalewski.

“Wind turbines are starting to come to Michigan,” Zalewski said. “We wanted to have something on the books.”

There are no specific plans at this time for wind turbine construction in Isabella County, but Zalewski predicts that personal wind turbines may start popping up in the future.

“Everyone is looking for alternative energy options right now,” he said.

Todd is still on his way to being totally self-sufficient, but has taken a big step toward sustainable living by using his wind turbine and solar panels to generate electricity.

“The wind is better in the winter time and the sun is stronger in the summer time, so they offset themselves,” he said.

Todd’s alternative energy sources power his barn and three light circuits in the house, including the kitchen, the dinning room, the utility room and the bathrooms.

For those considering personal wind turbines to power their households, good conditions include at least an acre of land, wind speeds of 6 mph or more and flat, treeless land.

Or, a wind turbine that reaches at least 30 feet above the trees, Todd said.

The ordinance for Isabella County has been constructed specifically to fit the needs of the Isabella County area and community, Zalewski said.

“We adopted an ordinance for a wind energy conversion system and made some modifications to address our needs locally,” he said.

Before the ordinance was finalized, Zalewski was able to travel to the thumb area of Michigan to observe a large wind farm in action.

“They’re truly amazing structures,” he said. “It’s almost like they fit.”

With Central Michigan University continuing to look into various alternative energy possibilities, Zalewski believes the university could consider wind energy in the future.

Zalewski said the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe is currently measuring wind speeds using an anemometer to see whether the area will be sufficient for future wind energy harvesting.

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CMU is taking sustainability seriously by examining and modifying every aspect of the university.

“We’re making some progress, but CMU still has a ways to go,” said Steve Lawrence, associate vice president of Facilities Management.

Future major renovations and the new Education Building will follow the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified standards, Lawrence said.

The U.S. Green Building Council Web site defines LEED certification as providing verification that a building project is environmentally responsible, profitable and a healthy place to live and work.

Lawrence also said all new appliance purchases will be Energy Star rated and the university’s cleaning products are beginning to convert to green-certified products made of hydrogen peroxide and citrus.

“The green-certified cleaning products are actually cheaper,” he said.

As environmentally friendly ideals spread throughout campus, Lawrence said more university employees are jumping on the bandwagon.

“More buildings are asking for a recycling bin,” he said. “It’s been a really positive change.”

Current and future sustainable projects listed by Lawrence include motion sensors for lights, hand dryers instead of paper towels, computer automatic shut off and increased recycling, including a project in progress to recycle all of CMU’s fluorescent bulbs.

“For $10,000 a year we can keep the bulbs out of the trash,” he said.

Lawrence said one of the most effective ways for CMU to be more sustainable is to improve on how it produce and uses it energy.

“If we would make all our own electricity, we could eliminate a large part of our carbon footprint,” Lawrence said.

Recently the Powerhouse restarted a steam absorber in order to produce more electricity internally. This will save the university $600,000 per year, Lawrence said.

To continue sustainable efforts on campus, University President Michael Rao has organized a Campus Sustainable Advisory Committee to develop an Institution Action Plan for Campus Sustainability, said Thomas K. Rohrer, professor and director of the environmental science program.

“One of the goals of that plan is to reduce the university’s carbon footprint by a certain percentage each year,” Rohrer said.

Simple changes of lifestyle by riding a bike or walking, along with turning off computers that are not in use and buying more fuel efficient vehicles, are ways people can make a difference, Rohrer said.

“Reducing our carbon footprint may require a lot of changes by students and faculty in terms of how they use energy,” he said.

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Editor’s Note: This is the second article in a five-part series looking at local initiatives to become more environmentally-friendly.

Living green is a state of mind and the lifestyle for student environmentalist Audrie Thelen.

“My passion is sustainability,” the Grand Ledge senior said. “Being a part of the Student Environmental Alliance has helped me raise awareness to the student body in general.”

This is Thelen’s second year as president of SEA, and she said her involvement in the student group has been the catalyst for her participation in many other environmental programs and jobs.

She does her part by riding her bike to campus, recycling all that she can and owning a worm bin for composting.

Along with heading SEA, Thelen also is the Sustainability Coordinator Education Specialist for CMU. She works as a Student Recycling Coordinator, increasing recycling efforts across campus, and is the undergraduate representative for the Campus Sustainability Advisory Committee. As a member of the Energy Optimizing Committee, Thelen finds ways to save the university money through energy conservation.

Recently, Thelen was given the responsibility of finding Facilities Management an electric car as a trial-run vehicle for possible large-scale use. After research, she was able to purchase the Miles Electric truck for the university to test in various job niches.

“Someday when I see that electric car fleet at CMU, I can say I helped get the first one,” she said.

Thelen also has been involved with finding a program to allow CMU to recycle all of the fluorescent light bulbs on campus.

“I did the research to consider which type of program works best for CMU,” she said.

Thelen also works for Environmental Quality in Alma at an old refinery where the soil is contaminated.

“I do a lot of system checks and well gauging,” she said. “When I find there is a contaminated area, I pump out the contaminants.”

When considering community efforts toward a more sustainable society, Thelen said becoming “green” starts with being educated and changing the way a person thinks about his or her everyday activities.

“I’d like to see a reworking of everything we know,” she said. “The way we build our houses, the ways we produce energy – so many things are connected.”

Through advocacy and lobbying events such as Powershift in Washington, D.C., Thelen has been able to make her voice heard along with thousands of others concerned about the environment. At Powershift, Thelen was part of a student environmental movement at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., and had the chance to speak with Michigan representatives about environmental issues.

“It was really phenomenal to be there with 6,000 people all for the same reason,” she said. “I’m amazed at how easy it was to go talk with my representatives.”

The issues with climate change are not only an American issue but an international problem, Thelen said.

“It’s irresponsible for us to have high environmental standards when we buy from countries that don’t,” she said.

Thelen believes the reality of climate change is becoming more accepted by everyone and sustainable efforts are increasing.

“I think our generation is the one that’s going to make the most progress,” she said. “Our generation is more aware of what we can do.”

SEA member Jessica Gibbons believes Thelen has been an excellent president for the past two years.

“She basically planned Earth Day last year,” the Potterville senior said. “She’s very enthusiastic and passionate about SEA and the things that we do.”

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Many people know recycling can make a positive impact on the environment, but it is not always clear what, where and when to recycle.

When approaching a recycling bin, most students understand that paper, plastic, glass and metal can be separated and recycled. Confusion emerges in understanding what types of these products do not qualify.

Nichole Crosson, CMU student recycling coordinator, has some tips to help the community understand what can be successfully recycled.

“For cardboard, if you can tear it you can recycle it,” the Metamora senior said. “For plastic, the rule is bottle or jug only.”

Crosson also highlighted the “big no’s” of recycling: no pizza boxes, no waxy cardboard, no take-out drink cups, no green glass and no plastic bags.

“Any paper that’s glossy goes in with newspapers and magazines, including brochures and flyers,” she said.

Metal containers that can be recycled must be aluminum or tin, such as soup containers, aluminum foil, cans and empty aerosol containers.

Residence halls provide containers at the front desk for miscellaneous recycling items such as batteries, ink cartridges, cell phones, hard- and soft-cover books, phone books and small electronic appliances, Crosson said.

Crosson has made an impact on the recycling program at CMU and continues to encourage and promote recycling.

“I’m trying get outdoor recycling bins here at CMU,” she said.

Isabella County Recycling Center, 4208 E. River Rd., provides household hazardous waste disposal in addition to regular recycling options.

Amy Shindorf, resource recovery director for Isabella County, said household hazardous waste dropoff days occur six times a year.

Instead of sending hazardous materials to landfills, students can dispose of old electronics, paint, fertilizers, various cleaners and many other household products at the Isabella County Recycling Center.

“General household recycling has increased,” Shindorf said. “More families are becoming more environmentally aware of the positives recycling has on our carbon footprint and saving in energy.”

CMU continues to take recycling efforts seriously with the addition of hundreds of new recycling bins located all over campus, making recycling more convenient and available for students and faculty.

A complete recycling guide may be found at fmgt.cmich.edu/recycling/ or isabellacounty.org/recycles/index.html.

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Editor’s note: This is the first article in a five-part series looking at local initiatives to become more environmentally-friendly.

Calculating Central Michigan University’s carbon footprint is the first step in deciding where to concentrate efforts to increase campus sustainability.

That is exactly what Goodrich senior Sean Trowbridge had in mind this summer when he calculated the campus’ footprint by collecting data on sources of emissions at the university.

A carbon footprint is a measurement of greenhouse gases produced by humans and indicates the impact human activities have on the environment.

During the 2007 fiscal year, CMU produced 81,938 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, according to Trowbridge’s research. That’s about 4.12 metric tons per student, with 19,876 full-time students enrolled.

A metric ton is approximately equal to 2,204.62 pounds. According to Trowbridge’s research, each student produces 4.2 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, equaling about 9,083 pounds per student, and a total of 81,939, which calculates to more than 180 million pounds of carbon dioxide.

Trowbridge, an environmental studies and biology student, was able to calculate CMU’s carbon footprint by using the Campus Carbon Calculator from the Clean Air Cool Planet, an organization that finds and promotes solutions to global warming.

Trowbridge said their calculation program is being used by about 800 universities nationwide.

According to his research, 80 percent of CMU’s carbon footprint is a result of energy emissions. Transportation follows second, totaling 14 percent of CMU’s footprint.

Steve Lawrence, associate vice president of Facilities Management, said he was pleased to see how low CMU’s carbon footprint was.

“We’re doing well comparatively. Very few universities have calculated their carbon footprint.”

Facilities Management is continuing to explore ways to reduce electricity use and increase recycling efforts, Lawrence said.

“We actually saw a decrease in campus electricity consumption last year,” he said.

The efforts toward a sustainable campus begin at the Power House, CMU’s energy producer. The Powerhouse uses woodchips as an energy generator and is completely carbon neutral.

“Woodchips drastically decrease our carbon footprint,” Trowbridge said.

Trowbridge documented that a tree uses sequestered carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during the photosynthesis process, and when burned, essentially releases the same carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.

Part of Trowbridge’s research involved a tour of inner workings of the Powerhouse. Without woodchips as a source of energy production, the metric tonnage of CMU’s carbon footprint from 2007 would have been increased to 95,193 total metric tons, Trowbridge said.

“The utilization of woodchips has given CMU the upper hand in Michigan in regards to carbon dioxide emissions,” he wrote in the report. “This allows for a much smaller carbon footprint than most universities of comparable size.”

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Thomas Howard, program director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, conversed Monday night with a group of 50 students about the realities of hate crimes and hate incidents that occur on a national level and within the campus community.

“None of us have the right to make another person feel less about themselves,” Howard said. “Something shouldn’t come out of our mouth unless it’s true, kind and necessary.”

The Matthew Shepard Foundation was founded by Dennis and Judy Shepard in memory of their 21-year-old son, Matthew, who was murdered in an anti-gay hate crime in Wyoming in October 1998, according to the foundation’s Web site.

Howard presented poignant facts and information about the fears and pain experienced by the victims of hate crimes and how the thoughts of the persecutors are often a reflection of the environment they live in.

“Different isn’t wrong until we’re told it’s wrong,” he said. “We walk around so blind to other people’s experiences.”

Samantha Underwood, co-president of the Gay-Straight Alliance, said CMU has been involved with National Coming Out Week since 2003. She said the discussion opened her eyes to the issues of hate all around her.

“He shed a lot of light on hate and all of its facets,” the New Baltimore senior said. “Everybody is affected by hate.”

Video clips and discussion brought out stories from the audience. Many students felt comfortable sharing their personal stories of being on the receiving end of hate incidents because of their sexual orientation, race, gender and weight.

Howard has experienced first-hand the torment of persecutors because of his sexual orientation. The breaking moment in his life was when he was kicked out of college for the suspicion that he was homosexual.

“I went to bed every night for 21 years praying to Jesus that he would change me,” Howard said.

Howard said teaching people to be comfortable with their own differences and the differences of others can bring us closer to a world of acceptance.

“It’s your generation that is changing things,” he said. “We can only claim ignorance until we’ve been educated.”

With education and experience, Howard said, a person’s worldview can change. He said hate incidents still occur every day and everyone has the power to make a difference.

“The universe brings these little lessons to us until we chose to hear them,” he said.

Howard said there are 30 states in the U.S. that can fire a person based solely on his or her sexual orientation, and Michigan is one of them. Howard had the audience consider how hate manifests itself at CMU.

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The significant decline in the housing market and the downfall of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac troubles the panelists that spoke at the second annual Central Michigan University Real Estate Conference Friday.

“This is by far the worst I’ve ever seen this industry,” said William Pulte of Pulte Homes. “We have to restore confidence in the consumer.”

A group of 18 distinguished real estate professionals spoke to an audience of about 60 real estate employees and CMU students.

Samantha Schneider is majoring in Real Estate Development and Finance at CMU and is worried about the current state of the housing market. The panelists gave her some hope that the market will improve in the future.

“The market is the worst it’s been in a long time, but it will rebound,” the Pewamo sophomore said.

One of the catalysts to the housing market downfall was people buying homes they could not afford, Pulte said.

Pulte also said lenders were allowing young people to buy big houses they did not have the money for.

“The lesson to be learned is, don’t buy anything you can’t afford. There’s no other way to lose it faster than that,” he said.

Robert Vrchota of Fitch Ratings said they didn’t have the historic data to predict this kind of disaster.

“The risk was higher than we anticipated. These are difficult things to predict,” he said. “You do your best on the information you have.”

Vrchota added a side note to all of the worried real estate students in the audience, saying this is a very good time to be in school because students will get to learn about everything that went wrong.

“You’re going to see what not to do,” he said.

With the housing prices so low, currently there is a buyer demand, Pulte said. He believes time will bring improvements to the housing market once buyers feel more confident in purchasing, and banks are more comfortable with lending.

“It’ll come back, it always does,” Pulte said. “A lot of buyers are being pent up.”

Karl Chew, a developer from Brookstone Capital, believes apartment living is a good place for recent college graduates to start. More apartments are acting and feeling like homes, he said.

Student Jazell Gorman attended the conference to see what solutions the professionals had for the unsteady housing market.

“It’s good to learn what people are doing about the housing crisis,” the Frankenmuth senior said.

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Steve Thompson said stalking has always been an issue at CMU.

“(Stalking has) been a problem and is now becoming recognized,” the director of Sexual Aggression Services said.

He said Sexual Aggression Services is now more aware of the signs and circumstances involved.

Becky Sides, clerk for Isabella County Sheriff’s Department, said the office receives about four requests for Personal Protection Orders every week for Isabella County.

Police will send an officer to make the suspect aware of the personal protection order made against him or her.

“In our county, PPOs usually last about two years, but it could be any length of time,” she said.

Sexual Aggression Services defines stalking as any behavior involving the repeated or continuous and unconsented harassment of another individual that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed or molested.

“They don’t happen often, but we do have them on occasion,” said CMU Police Chief Stan Dinius. “It could be anything, student (harassing an) instructor, instructor (stalking a) student, wife (stalking her) husband – there’s a lot of different scenarios.”

Michigan State Police Sgt. Del Putnam said a victim can also go directly to circuit court in downtown Mount Pleasant to file for a PPO that goes straight to a judge.

The circumstances of the crime must be written down or recorded by the victim before the situation can be considered as a threat to a victim’s safety. The police department gives the victim the option of immediate help from central dispatch or the option to file a PPO.

“Most people don’t understand what stalking is,” Thompson said. “Sometimes stalking can be very subtle.”

Thompson said stalking can be obvious, through actions such as continuous unwanted phone calls or constant uninvited encounters. In some cases, however, stalking can be less obvious, through actions such as strange, repeated incidences such as a bumped rear-view mirror on the victim’s car or a small change to something in the victim’s apartment.

“The person is letting you know subtly, ‘I’m here, I’m watching you,’” Thompson said.

Once stalking is apparent, the victim should first let the offender know he or she is feeling harassed, he said. If the offender does not comply with the victim’s request, the victim can then call the police for assistance.

Sides said the PPO cannot be enforced unless the suspect is aware of the charges made by the victim.

“Our department serves personal protection orders for free,” Sides said.

Thompson said police have been helpful in stalking cases.

“Our campus is on the cutting edge of response and education,” Thompson said.

Stalking can also be a dangerous problem online, Thompson said.

He said there are two forms: cyber harassment and cyber stalking, both with different levels of danger.

An offender who practices cyber harassment disrupts the life of the victim by bugging or scaring them, Thompson said. This form of stalking is less dangerous because the offender’s goal is not to meet the victim face-to-face, only to bother him or her.

Cyber stalking is much more dangerous because the offender’s goal is to meet the victim face-to-face.

“Don’t ignore it,” Thompson said. “Stalking generally does not go away on its own.”

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“Politicians give us manipulative emotional messages,” said Merlyn Mowrey, Speak Up, Speak Out committee chairwoman. “Students need to learn how to identify red flags.”

The forum “Un-spin that Sound Bite! Let’s Analyze the Campaign Talk” will be from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Bovee University Center Auditorium.

Panelists are Clio senior Gary Ridley, Lincoln Park sophomore and College Republicans representative Nathan Inks, Lowell senior and College Democrats representative Karl Bouwhuis, English language and literature associate professor Bill Spruiell, political science assistant professor Cherie Strachan and communication and dramatic arts faculty member Jeff Drury.

Mowrey said every student should be able to have his or her say about election issues along with the opportunity to benefit from hearing the opposing ideas of peers.

“We like to have a wide range of different views,” Mowrey said. “We want to have students analyze where they’re getting their information from.”

Topics that will be discussed at the forum include the symbols and images used by political parties, the qualities of an effective presidential candidate and the messages the candidates are trying to convey to the public.

During the forum, clips of the candidates’ advertisements and political speeches will be shown to give the audience a chance to analyze exactly what they are seeing and hearing throughout the election process.

Mowrey said Speak Up, Speak Out forms usually draw a crowd of 120 to 150 students, but she is expecting more at Tuesday’s forum.

“Usually during presidential election years (participation) is higher,” she said.

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