[And_over]

Having surveyed the peak oil field, I've decided to take action. I've decided to start an energy awareness club at my school

The purpose of this club will be to:
1. Raise energy awareness on and around campus
2. Impliment measures to improve energy efficency and conservation measures on campus
3. To affect change in energy policy on the state and local level.

Here's what I'm dealing with:
Right now I'm attending a boarding school in Massachusetts. We have about 1100 students and about 400 faculty and staff members. The school is large and spread over an expansive area, similar to a small college. The school is interested in my effort and wants to help me. They have an incredible endowment so money isn't really an issue.

Here are a few of my ideas:
1. Switch from conventional lightbulbs to LEDs or CF bulbs.
Problem: I'm not sure where to get these
2. Install modern insulation such as argon gas containing double windows.
Problem: Don't know everything that's out there, don't know where to get the materials.
3. The school cafeteria produces a massive amount of waste, including vegetable oil. Maybe we could convert this waste to biodfuel to sell or power the school's cars.
Problem: Where do I get the equipment for this?
4. Attend local city counsil meetings and address local solutions to the energy problem
Problem: I wouldn't have any concrete examples to present to a hypothetical counsil
5. Weekly meetings to address energy concerns
Problem: I have a lot of information, but I need to make the club fun and interactive
6. Contacting energy providers (BP, Exxon, electric company) to find new ways to implement change.

These are a few ideas I have. ANY ideas ANYONE has would be immensely appreciated. My main areas are concern are:
1. Practical measures to reduce school energy consumption
2. How to make an impact in the community
3. How to expand beyond the school and town
4. Making contact with corporations and people able to assist
5. Possible ways to get my efforts recognized
6. How to get people involved; not be a one man crusade
7. Whatever you can think of

[Texas_T]

Whereabouts are you in MA? I can point you in the direction of some utility rebate programs and other resources.

[And_over]

umm... Andover. It's about half an hour north of Boston.

[Texas_T]

umm... Andover. It's about half an hour north of Boston.

National Grid is the local utility and they have some great conservation rebate and incentive programs for electrical savings projects. They are one of the few utilities that does currently offer a good program.

[Texas_T]

umm... Andover. It's about half an hour north of Boston.

National Grid is the local utility and they have some great conservation rebate and incentive programs for electrical savings projects. They are one of the few utilities that does currently offer a good program.

And the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative in Westborough is the state agency responsible for distributing funds for alternative energy projects and "green" buildings.

[pea-jay]

Great work! Much better than the other school aged idiots running around this forum talking about nerds and chodes and what not.

Now as to your school, if you have open school yards and flat roofs, look into roof top and campus cultivation of food for local consumption.

I have always advocated a system that is holistic/integrated where nutrients, resources, energy cycles in as close of loop as possible, where one system's waste is another's fuel. No waste, only minor leakage. Your food system is the ideal starting ground. Institutional cafeterias exemplify linear production and consumption of resources, scaled upward. They also are great opportunities. The extra energy invested to cook and refrigerate food is marginal to the AMOUNT of food cooked or stored. Fewer consuming units means getting at "waste" is easier.

But thats only a start. Look at synergies. Food waste, separated by type could go into compost directly or indirectly (feeding small livestock, fish then eaten) while fatty animal products go into a biogas generator (along with your guys poop) and gasified. The gas is harvested and used for cooking. Waste heat from various institutional processes could be conserved and/or reused for other purposes.

That's a start. There is no magic bullet for this problem. In fact there isnt even a singular problem. Just a mass of seemingly unrelated problems crying out for a comprehensive solution.

If your school is receptive as you say, but needs some buzzword to package the deal in, use SUSTAINABILITY. I made more inroads here in my community with that term than making energy crisis preparations. It's stupid I know, but if it sells, run with it.

[And_over]

Texas T: Thanks a lot! I'm looking both up on the web right now.

peajay: Thanks. Sadly, all the roofs are slanted and it would be impossible to grow anything on them. However, we have a massive amount of lawn space. I don't know how I could get the school to tear up the grass to plant corn though. They are attached to their "classic" image, but with a few buzzwords, I could probably get some of the land cultivated. I am also looking into using locally grown crops. A problem with growing or own crops is who would grow them. We do have a large student population and raising the plants could be a workduty, but all the students will be gone over the summer. They could hire some workers, but at that point they would want some cost benefits. They won't want to tear up the lawn and lose money doing it.

[quote=peajay]
But thats only a start. Look at synergies. Food waste, separated by type could go into compost directly or indirectly (feeding small livestock, fish then eaten) while fatty animal products go into a biogas generator (along with your guys poop) and gasified. The gas is harvested and used for cooking. Waste heat from various institutional processes could be conserved and/or reused for other purposes. [/quote]
I like this idea, but I don't know where to get the requisite material. Could food waste be used to power a car though? That's probably the schools biggest waste. They own a lot of buses and cars. If I could get those off of fossil fuels, then I think that would be a big step forward. Again though, I have no idea where to get the materials for this.

I've also heard of suprisingly simple things like using the waste refrigerator heat to power the water heater as well.

[And_over]

Texas T:
I'm looking at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative website. It's incredible.

[Frank]

You could do work at several levels with several interested people:

Do an energy analysis: you can take meter readings, use a device like "Kill-A-Watt" to measure electric consumption of specific devices, find out how much of which type of fuels the school uses, etc. etc. Publicize findings and relate to amt. of CO2 released, etc.

Analyze course offerings: do they offer anything on sustainable future? Does the engineering dept. offer anything on LCA (life cycle analysis)? You'll develop a list of what you think is important.

Where does the cafeteria (assuming you have one) get its food? Who makes purchase decisions? Do they buy local (in-state or whatever)? Where is your food dollar going?

I'm sure you could brainstorm and come up with a bunch of fun and useful things to do. Good luck!

[pea-jay]

Apparently your's isn't the only school contemplating these things. Sustainability is on the minds of another private school, over in Portland OR. This school is only a day school, but one of the city's oldest apparently.

ANyway they've been doing this visioning process, trying to look at life in 2020. While they don't hit the oil/energy issue directly, there is concensus that things do need to change in a more sustainable direction.

One goal outlined was cutting their energy consumption in half.
ANother was integrating the subject itself into the curriculum.

Check them out if you like
http://www.catlin.edu/page/1035
Like I said, there isnt too much detail posted though.

As for cultivation, try not to picture conventional farming with long rows of monoculture.

Instead, picture tight clusters of raised beds growing a diverse collection of foods, small animal husbandry consuming inedible plant matter and turning that energy lost to us into food and manure. Imagine ponds that actually serve as fish farms, with the fish "waste" feeding artificial wetlands and nourishing crops. Thats what I see anyway. Lots of little processes going on in concert with eachother and not independent or in competition with.

Below are two good links that discuss the complex but very neat process of aquaculture driven agriculture.

http://www.growseed.org/growingpower.html
http://www.bioshelters.com/

Imagine the integrated learning opportunities for that.
As for the summer problem, that is tougher, but not impossible. If full time, integrated food production were attempted at your school, I could imagine it being sustained full time this way:
Hire the adult teachers and/or facilities operators on a year basis (for full year coverage, perhaps granting them a month or two off int the winter) Integrate students for spring and fall duties, but then put on a summer program for other youth or adults even, that wish to learn about sustainable systems. Such a program could be held, utilizing all the same facilities that would go empty in the summer while providing the requisite labor to run the farms. Plus, the school could charge for these seminars, which would provide extra income.

I'd love to see some school, somewhere "get it".

As for the vehicles, simply switching a few for battery powered vehicles (assuming you have small cars for local travel) for intown use while trying some biodiesel set up for trucks/busses. Cutting down on their use also would be pretty simple to do as well.

I'd love to hear what they think.

[And_over]

Okay here is my list:
1. Switch from conventional lightbulbs to LEDs or CF bulbs.
Problem: I'm not sure where to get these
2. Install modern insulation such as argon gas containing double windows.
Problem: Don't know everything that's out there, don't know where to get the materials.
3. The school cafeteria produces a massive amount of waste, including vegetable oil. Maybe we could convert this waste to biodfuel to sell or power the school's cars.
Problem: Where do I get the equipment for this?
4. Attend local city counsil meetings and address local solutions to the energy problem
Problem: I wouldn't have any concrete examples to present to a hypothetical counsil
5. Weekly meetings to address energy concerns
Problem: I have a lot of information, but I need to make the club fun and interactive
6. Contacting energy providers (BP, Exxon, electric company) to find new ways to implement change.

New ideas I've com up with:
1. Energy Star products Does anyone know about that new Samsung washing machine that uses silver? Does it use less energy?
2. Use rainwater from roofs for drinking, washing bathing. But how to purify...
3. Solar panels- I know its Massachusetts, but in the summer its sunny.
Newfrom the board:
7. Buy local food
8. Grow food on campus (Greenhouse?)
9. Summer program on sustainability

I've gotten a lot of great help from you guys, and I really appreciate it, but there has been a bit of an overfocus on growing food on campus. The school is open to a lot of things, but I don't think I can convince them to sacrifice their "New England Prep" image and start growing soybeans. I could make some inroads on a sustainable agriculture greenhouse near the science center that would be pretty large, but that's about it. While I look into this doing this, and I definitly want to, I would like to refocus the discussion on energy conservation and efficency as well as agricultural practices because that is where I can make the most headway initially. Does anyone have any ideas or answers to the questions I've posted?

pea-jay: I like what you are proposing, but that sounds very expensive. The school does have a 700 million dollar endowment, but they're still stingy. I'd either have to shown some extensive cost benefits or some extreme educational value to the project, and I don't think I can do either of those on such a large scale. The main problem is land. The school has a lot of empty land, but it is interspersed with academic buildings and dorms. Plus the weather is awful for about 4-6 months of the year. I could convince them to build a pretty good sized greenhouse next to the science building. That would be a few thousand square feet, but not enough for all that. I could do a scaled down version of what you propose. It wouldn't supplement all of our food needs, but it would at least inspire the students.

As for vehicles, they have a couple of buses. I'm not sure if they run on diesel, but I'll find out. The school also maintains a few vehicles for the the public safety department. I could do batteries, but wouldn't using biodiesel from the cafeteria be as good or better?

I'm just sent an email to the head of that school in Oregon.

As for the administration here, the school is pretty focused on getting through graduation day, but the dean of students and the head of campus planning really liked my ideas. They're going to want me to show some concrete stuff before really getting the ball rolling though. There are too many people here with good ideas they never follow through on so I have to show them that I am not one of those people.
Frank:
An energy analysis would be good I guess, but I don't see how it could help to reduce energy usage.

The school has no engineering department. They have mostly just the traditional departments and courses you find at most high schools, although you can go through the second to third year of college in any particular field. A couple of courses touch on LCA, but their are no courses dedicated to it. I could talk to the bio department, but I'd need more info about what to do in such a course...

Locally produced food is one the list of things to do now. Thanks

Everyone: I had another idea, what about using rainwater for the showers, sinks, washing machines, and what not? I'm sure it's possible to do that. Does anyone have any idea who I could contact about this or how such a system would work. The water would have to be purified, is this a possibility?

I REALLY appreciate any comments, thoughts, suggestions advice, or anything. In many ways I'm over my head here so any answer to any of the questions I've raised or any new ideas is needed.

[And_over]

New idea:
The school has a weekly paper and a bunch of magazines. Anyone have any thoughts on how to reduce the enrgy/resources this requires without stamping out the papers.

[pea-jay]

Okay, I'll reduce my food/ag related discussion. I think it is important for reasons I'll briefly discuss below, but as to your questions:

1. Unless you get a good deal on LED's your best bang for the buck is the CFL route. These can be picked up just about anywhere, but your institution is large and probably could leverage a discount. The person responsible for physical plant infrastructure (aka building engineer) probably has an idea where to put these orders in to. Two of the places I used to work at used GRAINGERS.

Here is another idea: light pipes. For single story buildings and the top floor of every building could daylight their floors and not use any day lighting whatsover.




2. Building supply firms. They are your best bet.

3. Start at Biodiesel Warehouse for ideas. A DIY solution probably could be done for under 2K, a fully operational unit that automates things for substantially more. I remember a few months back seeing a bit on CBS about a HS school's autobody shop building one of those, so we are not talking rocket science here. I also heard about some unit that will go on sale in the next few months that is marketed directly for resturaunts and convert the oil automatically. I dont know anything more about this though.

4. Dont worry, this will happen in due course. You have your work cut out for you already.

6. Not sure if contacting big oil will be of any use. Utilities can be just as clueless as the average system. When I was a planner in Central CA, I found myself explaining the energy problems to the power firm. That's not a good sign.

YOUR IDEAS:

1. Not sure about this one
2. Rainwater needs no purification. It's pretty pure (acid rain notwithstanding) already. Rainwater harvesting requires some mechanism to flush the first tenth of an inch of rain which contains the settled dust off the roofs.
3. Good Idea. Dont forget Solar Heat capture. Its close to 70-80% efficient and on sunny spells, can eliminate the need for domestic hot water heating. A spot water heater is still required for less sunny periods.

I don't know what your school is like, its geographical setting (urban/rural), size, layout so anything I say is speculation. But I do know not everything needs to be accomplished on campus. Many schools have off-campus partnerships with various businesses, farms, and other non-conventional educational settings. Some are formally owned by the school, some by the partner entity and still others, a joint venture. So when I suggested ag stuff, it doesnot all have to happen on campus; off site farming partners play their role too. It's the same example as a highschool that has a program with a high-tech employer in their town to provide hands-on learning experiences to their students whether the kids are on campus using equipment donated by the firm or at the company's facilities using specialized equipment.

Electricity powered motors are significantly more efficient than liquid fueled I.C. engines. Replacing/transitioning to electric vehicles makes more sense. Save the biodiesel for the busses.

MY VIEW:
Okay, here is my personal take on all of this. Sustainability, whether you look at it as a buzzword or not, is a good way of encapsulating everything from energy conservation to sound managerial practices. Yes, watching kilowatts used and gallons burned is important. So is being concerned about where your food comes from. But to really make a difference and go deeper is to approach the "problem" not from where we are currently experiencing difficulties like paying for fuel or where we are likely to see them in the future like procuring food supplies. Instead look at your entire existance (thinking school at the moment, but you can expand this metaphorically...) and think about it this way:

What can I do to:

1. Minimize our impact on the local environment

2. Minimize our exposure to regional, national or global crises.

3. Provide a way for the local community to sustain itself

This is how I framed "sustainability" to the mayor and council of my city I live in. And to my surprise, that is the exact wording the concil adopted at their meeting. At the moment, most of us here at PO.com are focused on number 2. But you dont solve the picture if you dont answer the other two.

You are a citizen of what is essentially a small community. (your school). And since your school is a boarding school, it is responsible for providing to you food and shelter. Now we already know, that it is not possible to expect to keep doing what we have been doing for the past century. Times are going to change. To prepare for this event, your community needs to take steps to sustain itself over the long haul. (i am assuming there is every intention of doing so...). So this means examining how your community will:
1. Provide food and water
2. Provide adaquate shelter
3. Provide a relevent education
In that order. And of course pay for it as well. Planning for FOOD SECURITY makes economic sense for a school that is responsible for feeding its students. Making sure its buildings can be kept warm, cool and lit AFFORDABLY is prudent to the bottom line. Teaching the challenges of tomorrow just makes sense.

Failure to consider any of these items (and comprehensively) can leave your community vulnerable to outside problems and tie your future and fate to the rest of your region (which I might note, is not too bad off, as opposed to a counterpart school out in Phoenix)

Anyway, that's where I am coming from on this. If you have any more info about your location, just drop us here a link. And just so you know, my former job experiences have been as a county planner responsible for natural resource issues, an energy company employee in the techical sector and before that, a school teacher and administrator. Given that weird and seemingly unrelated background, I can appreciate the challenges that preparing for the future might bring to a private school, having seen different pieces of the puzzle at different times.

Good luck. Hopefully you don't run into the brickwall when presenting anything. Check out my (old) blog on some of these topics, especially this one. It's a classic.

[And_over]

Saw the post, have to go to dinner in a second so I can't fully reply, but I'm including a link to the school and a map so everyone can see what the place is like.

www.andover.edu

http://www.andover.edu/about_andover/map.htm

I'll respond fully later.

[And_over]

1. I just sent an email to the head of the physical plant about LEDs or CFL bulbs. I'm going to look online to find a major suppliler and see if I can get a discount for a large order.

I think we could do a few lightpipes. The problem is that a lot of the buildings are really old (nearly 200 years) and many have attics, so lighting the top floor is pointless. There are a few newer buildings on campus that I could do something with. I asked the head of the physical plant in my email about this, but I'm not too hopeful except for maybe one or two buildings.

2. Getting to it

3. I'm about to give the guy a call. The cafeteria has to feed approx. 1500 three times a day, so they produce a lot of waste. An automated kit would probably be better, but hopefully their is a regular one that cost less and can do a lare volume of biofuel a day.

2. It doesn't need purifying, but people are people and I bet they'd freak out if it wasn't. I've got an idea in my head about how to design such a system, but the internet already seems to have a wealth of info on this topic.

3. The thing I'm worried about is that during the summer almost all the buildings are empty and all the solar heat would be going to waste. With solar electric, the school could at least sell any spare capacity to the energy company. But tthis is debatable.

One note about the map, the entire campus is surronded by houses.

I like your idea about off campus stuff. I think a combination of that and a greenhouse (for the bio department) would work beautifully. I contacted my bio teacher, and he was very open to the idea.

I'll propose electric cars.

[And_over]

That school is Portland still hasn't responded...

[And_over]

One other thing, out off all the hundreds of people on peakoil.com, why have only three had anything to say?

I'm really open to any suggestion and this is a big chance to really create some change, but all of a sudden the board seems to have gone mute.

I'm just trying to get a discussion going.

[pea-jay]

One other thing, out off all the hundreds of people on peakoil.com, why have only three had anything to say?

I'm really open to any suggestion and this is a big chance to really create some change, but all of a sudden the board seems to have gone mute.

I'm just trying to get a discussion going.

Many times you'll find that apathy makes its way in here too. Many people come in here charged up to do something before burning out when they run smack into serious resistance. Some become doomerist, some fatalist and others just go away. A few become irrational optimists, hyper fixating on false solutions like biofuels. None of these behaviors are particularly helpful for your situation.

I know, I have been peak aware for over 2 years and have been through them all. I am not a fatalist or doomer so I dont think we are condemned to a miserable energy-driven collapse. An integrated approach and whole sale restructure of how we do things should be enough to get us through this period. The realist (negative) in me thinks, while yeah its possible in theory, we have idiots in charge and then we will really truly blow it. Who knows. I hope for the best AND prepare for the worst.

You'll undoubtly find the approach that brings you the most inner comfort as time goes on.

Now before I go on to your other message points, I am going to go offer a general comment first. When developing this club (or better yet call it a committee-they seem get better results) in the attempt to accomplish a plan, a real good idea would be to develop that comprehensive plan first.

I speak from experience on this. I am a planner by profession, working on sustainability projects, before that resource issues, information technology, energy issues and educational matters. Any major change needed to have a "plan" to follow. I'll give you a sanitized process how that may work for you:

1. Have a visioning/motivating call for action that will guide participants. Or put more simply, tell people WHY your group is doing this, WHY it is important to act, WHAT the over-arching goals are to be and WHAT areas need the most focus. Hash that out in a few meetings, get feed back and move on. The more people that participate, the more likely people will take ownership in part or all of the final plan. It's harder to get mad a plan that you developed.

2. Identify the key areas needing attention and brainstorm solutions. This is what you are doing right now. You are doing a good job of it too, I might add. But do that without #1 and you run the risk of apathy and or hostility by those not involved, while lacking a "reason" for doing it in the first place. When brainstorming, defer to those that know--and get them to do some of the heavy lifting. If you find out a new technology, (think CFLs) go ahead and discuss that with the physical plant folks. But let THEM actually take responsibility of researching the total costs and other information pertaining to it...after all, they do know this best. That's why having a plan/framework ahead of time is so crucial. The same lesson is true later when it comes time to implement. In my line of work, we call this "Technical Advisory Committee meetings." Again, to prevent this from becoming a chatfest, identify all ideas, develop a spreadsheet/matrix to pick the best bang for the buck ideas and develop up a theoretical timeline.

3. Pull all of the information together and draft a COMPREHENSIVE plan. This is where all of the good ideas picked out go. By doing this you will be able to identify synergies that reduce costs, resources or overall impacts on the evironment. Since some of this WILL cost money, identify new revenue streams possible as well as how existing costs could be lowered. Once you develop a formal plan you MUST get proper buy in from where it really counts: those that hold the purse strings. I don't see any other way around it. Get a plan together that scares the bejezuz out of them, but then offers a plan on how to avoid dire ruin, complete with timelines, estimated budgets, and trigger points (like we will purchase an electric vehicle when Car A reaches the end of its service life). In my profession, we also have to present alternatives. I think you may just be better served by fleshing out the ideas and only briefly discuss alternatives to rule them out. Get official buy-in and you no longer have just a plan, you have a coordinated series of policies and actions to implement.

4. IMPLEMENT and monitor. Initiate actions (responsible people will do this) and watch the results. Be prepared when a "solution" fails to live up to promise and fix as needed. Offer refinements. And oh yeah, keep the management informed.

5. Integrate the why's and how's into the curriculum. The most obvious tie-ins are in the sciences but I could see social science implications as well.

I'm sure this outline seems daunting. It is. I won't lie. Every step of the way, there will be people that will refuse to acknowledge the problem or atleast deny it's urgency if they do accept its presence. But do it all in an integrated comprehensive approach and you (your community really) will be able to prepare a plan that ensures the continued viability of your school and sustainability during a period of what should be best called "challenges." Given that your school dates back to 1788, whatever you can do to shape this plan as being a natural part of your institution's venerable history may give this process an extra chance at sucess.

And finally, don't be limited to what you think is possible. If everyone throws out all sorts of ideas, the plan may accomplish more than you ever dreamed it could, just because you alone wouldnt be able to think of everything.

So to conclude here, I encourage you to get a plan going before any actions gets underway. It's only through prudent planning can all of tomorrows challenges get adressed. You may get other opinions advocating quick and decisive actions. That's fine too, but unless you consider the complete picture, its highly unlikely that most actions that you would have undertaken would accomplish everything you'd hope for, create new synergies with other processes or prevent some future event from occuring.

[pea-jay]

Oh yeah, I was going to comment on your other message

1. I just sent an email to the head of the physical plant about LEDs or CFL bulbs. I'm going to look online to find a major suppliler and see if I can get a discount for a large order.

Sounds good, but see my message above about delegation of duties.

I think we could do a few lightpipes. The problem is that a lot of the buildings are really old (nearly 200 years) and many have attics, so lighting the top floor is pointless. There are a few newer buildings on campus that I could do something with. I asked the head of the physical plant in my email about this, but I'm not too hopeful except for maybe one or two buildings.

Not to worry. These things are flexibly used. Check this pick out:

It's possible to put the collectors on the roof and travel through an unused attic or floor to the next one down.

3. I'm about to give the guy a call. The cafeteria has to feed approx. 1500 three times a day, so they produce a lot of waste. An automated kit would probably be better, but hopefully their is a regular one that cost less and can do a lare volume of biofuel a day.

Dont forget about the simple compost value of dinner scraps and spoilage. For $50-200 you could make a scrub station where students clean their plate by food scrap types (some foods compost better than others, while others have higher biogas production figures. Don't let this "waste" go into landfills.

2. It doesn't need purifying, but people are people and I bet they'd freak out if it wasn't. I've got an idea in my head about how to design such a system, but the internet already seems to have a wealth of info on this topic.

Internet's great for that. You probably still wont need processing if you simply harvest rainwater for cistern storage for non-potable uses like garden water, toilet flushing or dishes.

3. The thing I'm worried about is that during the summer almost all the buildings are empty and all the solar heat would be going to waste. With solar electric, the school could at least sell any spare capacity to the energy company. But tthis is debatable.

They wont be empty (as empty anyway) if summer programs are held. And sunny school days in the winter still provide sufficient heat energy to eliminate spot hot water usage.

I guess thats enough for now. Hope I havent dumped too much on ya at once

[And_over]

1. Have a visioning/motivating call for action that will guide participants.
I kind of have this. I'm mostly going to use buzzwords like green, sustainability, conservation, etc. The school is going to do this for two reasons.
1. Because it might save money
2. Because it will distinguish them from other high end boarding schools.
It's the second thing that will really get them going (Imagine, a whole new section for the admissions brochure!!!) But there are also a few people on campus who already now something about energy issues, and we have an indefatigable supply of college whores who'll show up at the weekly meetings so that they can put it on their college application.

2. Identify the key areas needing attention and brainstorm solutions.
This is what I'm trying to do now. I can't really begin to address the student body till the new school year starts, so I want to come up with as any ideas as possible, and then present them at the beginning of the year.
3. I'll probably start doing this in a month or two. And then introduce it here and later to the club for changes and suggestions
4. This is next school year.
5. Same

From your second post
1. I got a reply, but they are closing up for the year. So I'll have to wait before any actual installation occurs for another 2 months.

2 Lightpipes The big issue here is cost. The physical plant people said they would be open to this a reasonable (ie. cost-benefiting) price, and only in nonresidential buildings. That's understandable. A lto of students go back to their dorms during the day to take naps, and thats problematic is you a lightpipe. Plus, no one is in the dorms during the day anyway, so they really wouldn't save any energy. Academic and office buildings are open though.
3. We already have a cafeteria staff that does something similar, it would just be a matter of getting a few different bags, and the generator and what not, but this is pretty much guaranteed to happen. I've just got to figure out the details
4. I talked to a guy who installs water cisterns, and he says that we might not get enough rain to justify putting these in, but it's a somewhat humid climate and the snow does melt, so we'll see. But this is starting to look unlikely
5. They do run a summer program for about 200 students already, but the vast majority of the dorms and buildings are left completely unutilized during the summer. Plus the panels are expensive.

So right now, I have about 7 udea to implement. Here they are in order of likelyness of occuring:
1. CFL bulbs campuswide
2. Biodiesel and fertililzer from the cafeteria
3. Improved insulation
4. General conservation efforts (ie, better thermostats, insulated doors, etc)
Those WILL happen, I just need figure out all the details and make a presentation for the physical plant people, the board of trustees, the head of school, and the club.
This are likely to happen, but need a lot more research, are more expensive, more time, or will be less accepted etc.:
1. Greenhouse
2. Electric cars
3. Buying locally grown produce

this are good ideas, but face inherent problems, are extremely expensive, or are really difficult to sell:
1. Solar panels
2. Water cisterns
3. Summer program
4. Lightpipes

This is a good list, but I want to expand it,