http://www.chrisbolgiano.com/

James Madison University - Index

James Madison University - Madison Magazine - Summer 2009 - Index

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 33
‘It doesn’t matter if you
can create the most efficient
vehicle on the road
if people won’t drive it.’
CHRIS BACHMANN, director of the
Alternative Fuel Program
petitioning SAE to change the parameters
of the competition to include an environmental
plank.
If they succeed, JMU will have substantially
shifted the entire nation’s collegiate
emphasis on alternative transportation to
environmental sustainability and changed
the dialogue to include environmental
impact in vehicle construction.
Still, the greatest challenge looms —
changing the behavior of the American
consumer. Much of the technology
research done on campus is done in light
of this dilemma. No matter how successful
a program is, Bachmann says, “none can
meet current consumption. We have to
use less energy. We have to shift our thinking.”
And that is perhaps the most challenging
aspect of alternative fuel research
— and the one where JMU is clearly taking
a leading role.
“We’re not like R1 schools,” Bachmann
says. Plenty of schools and companies can
create the technology, but JMU is working
hard to change the perception and the
acceptability of environmentally responsible
vehicles. “It doesn’t matter if you can create
the most efficient vehicle on the road if
people won’t drive it.” That’s JMU’s challenge
and where AFP is making its mark.
“We need to reach a new audience,” Bachmann
says, and education and outreach are
huge components of AFP. Engineering professor
Rob Prins agrees. He is developing a
bicycle competition for high school students.
While most high-school students don’t have
the funds to re-engineer cars, they can attack
the problem of creating an electric bicycle.
Prins hopes that students will build their bikes
and bring them to JMU to compete with
other high-school students. (See Page 64.)
Strictly separating one program from
the next, one department from another, is
impossible at JMU because of the dynamic
exchange and generation of innovative ideas.
There are no ivory towers here, no sanctuaries
of knowledge untouched by students. It
is an unfettered and unmatched collaboration
of professors, students, staff members,
alumni and community members — all
working toward a sustainable world. M
HARTMAN: The institute is coordinating
that effort with strong support from facilities
management. We have brought in external
expertise, that of O’Brien and Gere consultants,
to help guide us through the process
of measuring our baseline greenhouse
gas emissions. We anticipate a report this
summer. The point of the emissions inventory
is benchmarking — we will have quantitative
data, so we will know where to focus
our energies.
BOLGIANO: What kind of measurements
will the institute use to mark progress
toward sustainability?
HARTMAN: Benchmarking, which
includes measurement, involves all natural
systems, not just emissions. Benchmarking
campus water consumption, water quality,
materials use, waste minimization and
attitudes of citizens is something the ISNW
committee members are working on.
THOMAS: Our campus accessibility committee
is looking at a bicycle compatibility
index, because to ride a bicycle safely you
have to have bike paths, locks and easy
access to buildings.
BOLGIANO: “Sustainability” is a complex
issue, and determining what is truly green can
be a challenge in itself — witness the current
controversy over corn ethanol versus nonfood
biofuel. How will the institute approach conflicts
over what is or isn’t truly “sustainable?”
HARTMAN: First, through dialogue. We
purposefully recruited people for our committees
who may be on the end of the spectrum
that says, “Global warming is highly
exaggerated,” because we want everybody’s
voice included. Of the 100 people on the five
committees there are professors, students
and staff members from a variety of jobs.
In terms of the ethanol, these are complex
problems that require analysis to understand
the environmental economic-social
repercussions. One of the common tools
is cradle-to-grave analysis, where the full
product cycle is accounted for. We try to put
together scientific, peer-reviewed research
Q&A
papers that use such techniques and represent
different ends of the spectrum.
JMU also has rich course offerings related
to sustainability across a variety of majors,
minors and graduate programs. Students
can immerse themselves in these issues in
the Madison Eco-Community in Hoffman
Hall. Students living there focus on the environment,
and the residence hall itself is a
model of green living. [See Page 34]
BOLGIANO: Reaching sustainability is so
challenging that it surely will take many years.
What is your long-term vision for the institute?
HARTMAN: I want JMU to be Virginia’s
model of community metamorphosis into
a healthy human-ecological system. JMU
citizens will be environmentally literate, and
an ethic of conservation will be a JMU community
member’s hallmark. The campus will
be a low-impact, living laboratory developed
through cross-divisional collaboration.
Environmental stewardship will be integrated
into the institutional and individual
decision-making process as a core value.
JMU will offer environmental courses and
programs to underserved groups, and the
campus’ environmental stewardship efforts
will grow together with other JMU initiatives
to address the two other dimensions of the
triple-bottom line of sustainability: economics
and equity.
BOLGIANO: Emily, you’ll soon be entering
the world of work. What do you hope to do?
THOMAS: I’d like to work with alternative
fuels, either in research and development or
in education and outreach. I’d really like to
work with a city government and do a lot of
the same outreach efforts that we’ve done
here. And I’d like to go to graduate school.
JMU has set me on the right path toward
what I want to do. It’s taught me how to
learn, and I’ve been exposed to a bunch of
ideas I didn’t know about and experienced a
lot of things, not just going to conferences
or classes, but also working with a group. It’s
made me see the cradle to grave, or cradleto-cradle
way of thinking, and that’s very
much how I think about things now. M
About the Interviewer Chris Bolgiano, faculty member emerita, worked for 31 years at Carrier
Library while homesteading in the Appalachian Mountains and learning to write about it. As a freelance
writer she has written travel and nature articles for the New York Times, Washington Post, Sierra Magazine,
Wilderness, Audubon, American Forests, and many other publications. Three of her five books have won
awards, and she describes a sixth book as “a community service project that documents a short history of a
small place, namely my own rural neighborhood.” Her occasional op-eds are syndicated by the Bay Journal
News Service, and she appeared as a talking head in all four episodes of the recent PBS documentary special,
Appalachia, A History of Mountains and People. Learn more about Bolgiano at www.chrisbolgiano.com.
About the Experts Christie-Joy “C.J.” Brodrick Hartman is executive director of JMU’s Institute
for Stewardship of the Natural World. Since coming to JMU in 2002, the integrated science and technology
professor has helped write grants which landed some $2 million for transportation and air pollution
research. Read more about her in the Bright Lights section on Page 20.
Emily Thomas (’09) is the student representative to the ISNW Campus Accessibility Committee. The integrated
science and technology major has helped further campus environmental efforts. She coordinated
JMU’s first No Drive Day during her freshman year, and the event has become an annual effort. An Earth
Club member, Thomas also attended Yale University’s climate conference. Read more on Page 30.
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