The construction of the new Hoover Dining Hall offers DePauw a rare opportunity to lead liberal arts colleges in the field of sustainability. As plans for this new building come together, the University should strongly consider installing a geothermal heating system, which is the most efficient and environmentally friendly of all heating and cooling systems.
Doing so would help us to honor the President's Climate Commitment, which President Casey signed as one of his first actions at DePauw. This pledge requires all new construction to be Silver LEED certified. Installing geothermal systems will pave the way for future climate initiatives, making us an innovator amongst other small schools.
Unlike traditional heating and cooling mechanisms, geothermal systems transfer already-existing heat from beneath the ground's surface into a building.
In Indiana, five feet below the ground, the Earth remains a constant 55 degrees year round. In a geothermal heating system, a solution of antifreeze and water circulates through a system of tubes underground. This solution warms to the ground temperature and transfers this heat into a home or building through a heat exchanger. The solution warms the air in a heat pump, which runs through the ductwork in walls to heat a room. A geothermal heating system raises the air temperature within a building to 55 degrees Fahrenheit, and from that point, a boiler system heats the house to the desired temperature.
In the summer, this system works in reverse to achieve the same effects as an air conditioner. The system absorbs the heat within a building and transfers it underground through the piping, where the it cools to the constant 55 F temperature.
In May 2009, Ball State University broke ground on a $50 million campus retrofit to a geothermal heat system covering 45 buildings. The New York Times has described this project as "pioneering," and their transition to geothermal has returned huge dividends. Annually, the university reports a savings of $2 million in operating costs from the old, coal-fired boiler system. Additionally, Ball State has also cut their carbon footprint in half, making it a more environmentally friendly campus. These savings are in line with other national statistics on geothermal heat loops.
The Indiana Geological Survey at Indiana University reports that this system is 25-50 percentmore energy efficient than a traditional heating and cooling system, and the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that a full return on the initial investment of a geothermal system will be experienced within five to ten years.
Given these success stories, it seems fitting that DePauw should follow suit.
With the 2020 plan underway, now is the ideal time to discuss the switch to geothermal, aiding the university's compliance with LEED standards offered by the U.S. Green Building Council. It may have steep initial costs, but in the long run DePauw will experience large net savings on the investment as a result of lowered utility and operation costs and a significantly reduced carbon footprint.
The first place to install this system is obvious: the Hoover Dining Hall.
My fellow members of the DePauw Environmental Policy Project and I challenge the university to further improve its sustainability program and honor the commitment it has already made by beginning the switch to geothermal heating and cooling, improving our economic stability and making us an environmentally-progressive university that other schools would strive to imitate.
- Anderson is a sophomore from Sycamore, Ill. majoring in political science.
