Randolph professor explains environmental impact of local train derailment and oil spill

On Wednesday, a train derailed several miles from Randolph College, sending three cars carrying crude oil into the James River. When local media began reporting on the environmental impacts of the resulting oil spill, they asked Sarah Lawson, a Randolph environmental studies and physics professor, to explain what could happen.

On Thursday, Lawson appeared on a live WSET noon newscast to talk about how the spilled oil could affect the waterways and wildlife. Later, she helped reporters at the News & Advance explain the potential long-lasting consequences of the oil spill. Her comments are included in the sidebar on this article.

Spring semester 2014 sustainability speaker series

Throughout the spring 2014 semester, Randolph College will host speakers addressing topics on sustainability, ranging from environmentally conscious parenting to launching a career in sustainability.

Six speakers, including two of the College’s alumnae, will participate in the new sustainability speaker series.

“We hear from so many students who have an interest in sustainability, and we thought this would be an opportunity to let them know about it from all different angles,” said Sarah Lawson, a Randolph professor of environmental studies and physics.

The series kicks off on Monday, January 27, with Keye Chatterjee, the director for renewable energy and footprint outreach at the World Wildlife Fund. Chatterjee recently published the book The Zero Footprint Baby: How to Save the Planet While Raising a Healthy Baby.

Lawson said that Chatterjee, a friend she met in graduate school, wrote the book after becoming a mother and exploring sustainable parenting herself. “It’s about making good decisions as a parent,” Lawson said. “Saving the planet is a great gift you can give to your children.”

Other events in the series include:

Sustainability @ Randolph

Learn more about Randolph College's commitment to sustainability.

Randolph switches to renewable energy
It's Not Easy Being Green
Saving Space
Green Thumb

February 17: Green Architecture
John Quale, a professor at the University of Virginia, will discuss the university’s ecoMOD / eco REMOD project, which works on developing economically-friendly and affordable modular homes.

February 24: Sustainable Communities
Kent White, director of community development for the City of Lynchburg, will discuss city planning and sustainability.

March 17: Corporate Sustainability
Megan Arnold ’06, process engineer and operations sustainability lead for Jacobs Engineering, will discuss how her employer embraces environmentally friendly practices.

March 31: Moving Sustainability from the Trash Room to the Corner Office
Megan Bloomer ’06 will share her experiences as director of sustainability for DaVita, Inc., as well as explain what practices are truly sustainable, contrasted with steps some companies take to appear more sustainable than they really are.

April 21: Careers in Sustainability
Corey Barnes, a senior consultant with Deloitte Consulting, will discuss career options for those who specialize in sustainability and environmental studies. He is the son of Rick Barnes, a Randolph psychology and environmental studies professor, and Tina Barnes, Randolph’s coordinator of disability services and the Learning Strategies Program.

Each event in the series will take place at 7 p.m. in Nichols Theatre on the third floor of the Randolph College Student Center.

Lawson said the topics will highlight ways that sustainability leads to a better life. “The biggest thing I hope people get out of this is an understanding of the way their activities impact the planet, and other people,” she said. “It’s really about the livelihood and well-being of people.

“People, planet, and profit all work together,” she added. “Hopefully, people will see the way in which their choices and their lifestyle will play into a more sustainable future.”

Summer Research student examines Blackwater Creek health

For 10 years, Randolph College students have been testing the health of Blackwater Creek, a tributary of the James River flowing through Lynchburg. This summer, Kavya Pradhan ’14 will analyze all of the test results and decipher what that data says about the waterway.

“We have 10 years’ worth of data, but we didn’t have anyone analyzing it,” Pradhan said. “I want to know whether we have recorded any trends.”

Kavya Pradhan ’14, right, and Galen Shen, a high school student assisting
with the project, take water samples from Blackwater Creek in Lynchburg.

Karin Warren, the Herzog Family Chair of Environmental Studies, began teaching her students how to test water quality in 2003, shortly after she began her position at the College. She still assigns students in her beginning environmental studies classes to take water samples each fall, with more advanced students serving as project leaders. They examine the stream’s physical and chemical characteristics, as well as the volume of insects, worms, and other small organisms that can be found in samples. “We’ve had well over 300 students who have worked on this project over the last decade,” Warren said.

A few years after Warren’s students began testing the waters, Lynchburg began efforts aimed at improving Blackwater Creek. Those efforts have included sewer system upgrades designed to stop sewer lines from overflowing into the creek during storms, as well as erosion control programs. By analyzing test results from before the work began to more recent data, Pradhan hopes to measure the impact that the improvement efforts have had.

“It’s really essential to see whether or not a type of remedial action is having an effect,” Pradhan said. “You might be spending millions of dollars on it without improving it.”

Ludovic Lemaitre ’11, sustainability coordinator, Sarah Lawson, an  environmental science
and physics professor, Karin Warren, the Herzog Family Chair of Environmental Studies,
 and Mimansha Joshi ’14 look for tiny organisms in leaves pulled from Blackwater Creek.

In addition to analyzing test results from previous years, Pradhan is collecting new information. On Monday, she led a group on a testing expedition on a section of the creek not far from the College. They spent a few hours collecting water samples, counting creatures found in the mud, and running other tests. It was a welcome break from more mundane data analysis.

“That’s what’s great about this project. I can stay inside and work on the computer going over the data sheets. But I can also go out and get into the stream,” Pradhan said. “It might be frustrating to get down the steep bank to the creek, but when you get down there you can look around and it’s really pretty.”

The project was featured in a story by a local television station on Monday. Read the WDBJ-7 story here.

Grant will support Lynchburg edible landscaping nursery at Randolph's organic garden

The Randolph College Organic Garden will become a local source for plants that beautify yards and produce food, too, with the help of a grant from the National Wildlife Federation (NWF).

Ludovic Lemaitre ’11, Randolph’ s sustainability coordinator, has received an Emerging Leader Fellowship from NWF, which will provide training and $2,000 to help Lemaitre develop an edible landscaping nursery in the Organic Garden.

Edible landscaping is the practice of landscaping an outdoor area using fruit trees, bushes, herbs, and other food-producing plants instead of plants that do not produce food. For example, you could plant an actual pear tree instead of a Bradford pear tree, which grows flowers but not fruit.

“The propagation and distribution on edible perennials (fruit trees, nut trees, shrubs, herbs, etc.) will allow the re-planting of species that are beneficial to both humans and wildlife,” Lemaitre said. “The species will help reforest our region with useful species as opposed to the pretty, but ecologically sterile species that are planted in our landscapes today.”

Ludovic Lemaitre ’11 helps plant a fig tree on back campus
at  Randolph College, one example of edible landscaping.

Lemaitre studied edible landscaping during the Summer Research program two years ago, just after he graduated from Randolph College. He created an instructional guide for edible landscaping, expanded the Organic Garden, and began developing a plan for the garden to help local residents adopt edible landscaping by getting the plants started in a nursery. The NWF grant, along with funds from the College’s Organic Garden budget, will make that a reality.

Lemaitre will plan the details of the nursery this summer. Later in the year, he will work with Randolph students to start planting the nursery. They will host workshops about edible landscaping in late winter, and some plants might be available for transplanting to homes and businesses in the spring of 2014.

Randolph College’s Organic Garden was created 10 years ago by students. It is home to chickens, honeybees, an orchard, and a vegetable and herb garden. Students, faculty, and staff often work in the community garden to enjoy time outdoors and learn about raising natural food.

The Emerging Leader Fellowship is a new program that NWF created in 2013 to provide training and seed money for young professionals pursuing ecological projects. It is an extension of the federation’s Campus Ecology program, which has provided fellowships to college students since 2000.

2013 Heritage Tree is historic cedar at Randolph College

A large tree that has graced front campus more more than 100 years was honored as Lynchburg’s Heritage Tree of 2013 today.

The award was announced in an Arbor Day ceremony at Lynchburg’s Sandusky Middle School. Mark Gilbert, Randolph’s grounds supervisor, accepted the award on behalf of the College.

Marge Denham speaks about the deodar cedar tree at Randolph College,
named the 2013 Heritage Tree, as Mark Gilbert shows a photo of the tree.

The honored tree is a deodar cedar that stands in front of Main Hall. A few massive branches sweep close to the ground, but there is enough room for a bench just under the tree to provide a great spot to relax, read, and enjoy the beauty of front campus. Gilbert and a forester from the city estimate that the tree is 120 to 140 years old—possibly older than the College.

“You cannot miss it—it is an absolutely gorgeous tree,” said Marge Denham, past president of the Lynchburg Tree Stewards, who presented the award to Gilbert.

Denham said the tree was nominated for the annual award last year. It was selected as Heritage Tree for its beauty and its size. “So many of the deodar cedars in our area are large, but we had a frost a number of years ago and it broke the tops off many of them. But yours was not injured,” she said.

After the Arbor Day ceremony, sixth graders at Sandusky Middle School helped plant trees around their campus.

The Cedar on front campus is just one of many trees that help beautify Randolph College. This afternoon, Randolph students in an organic gardening class planted fig trees on a hill overlooking the College’s tennis courts. Ludovic Lemaitre ’11, Randolph's sustainability coordinator, said the fig trees should bear fruit within two years.

Randolph students present at energy and sustainability conference

A recent statewide energy and sustainability conference included presentations by Randolph students that gave insight into ways to save energy.

Karin Warren, environmental studies professor and the Herzog Family Chair of Environmental Studies, took a group of students to the Virginia Commonwealth University Energy and Sustainability Conference. More than 600 students and professionals in fields related to energy, sustainability, and the environment were present. Randolph was the only liberal arts college with students giving presentations, Warren said.

Adam Eller ’13 presented the results of a research project he conducted with Brooke Edwards ’13 and Lauren Dees ’13. Their project, “Thermal Mass Artwork,” examined the possibility of using a sculpture to absorb heat from the sun. This helps to cool a home during a summer day or release heat to warm a home on a winter night.

Eller demonstrated this concept with a clay sculpture he made. The sculpture features the face of a native American and a village with homes and walls made of clay, honoring the fact that some native American villages made use of had a similar cooling and heating effect.

Ire Adeleye ’14 and Luisa Poveda ’13 presented a video about The Red Door, a student-run coffee shop that uses sustainable practices, serving fair-trade coffee and hot chocolate and encouraging customers to bring their own mugs.

Internship in the Alaskan wilderness

Imagine taking care of a vast Alaskan wilderness for an entire summer. It is about the farthest you can get from a paper-pushing desk job, which makes it perfect for Nick Cornell ’14.

Cornell is participating in a summer internship program in Alaska’s Kachemak Bay State Park. His summer “office” consists of 400,000 acres of mountains, valleys, streams, and lakes. “I wanted to be outside,” said Cornell, a native of Front Royal, Virginia, who is majoring in environmental studies. “I didn’t want to be bored in an office.”

Two years ago, Cornell and his family vacationed in Alaska and visited numerous tourist attractions. That experience made him think about returning to take in more of the wilderness areas.

Cornell’s trail maintenance crew camps in the park for about 10 to 12 days at a time. They hike to various areas to remove trees from trails, cut weeds, and build bridges. Some parts of the park are only accessible by boat, so they spend some time on the water as well.

“This internship has definitely sparked my interest in working with a parks system in a state or at the national level,” he said. “It has taught me how much work you need to put in to make a state park accessible to the public.”

Working in an internship far from home was perfect  “It’s always good to try something, go somewhere, get out of your comfort zone, and explore the country,” Cornell said. “You never know what might spark your interest.”

Rick Barnes blogs from Semester at Sea

Rick Barnes, professor of psychology and environmental studies, is spending
the fall 2010 semester teaching aboard a ship as it cruises around the world.

Barnes is teaching two courses, Environmental Psychology and Sustainable Communities, with Semester at Sea. Special guest on the Fall 2010 voyage is Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The ship visits 11 ports in Africa and Asia...

• Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Cadiz, Spain
• Casablanca, Morocco
• Takoradi, Ghana
• Cape Town, South Africa
• Port Louis, Mauritius
• Chennai, India
• Singapore
• Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
• Hong Kong / Shanghai, China
• Yokohama / Kobe, Japan
• Honolulu / Hilo, Hawaii, USA
• San Diego, California, USA

Follow Professor Barnes' journey on his blog...
http://ricksemsea.blogspot.com/

About Semester at Sea
Semester at Sea (SAS) is a study abroad program founded in 1963, now managed by the Institute for Shipboard Education in Charlottesville, Virginia. The University of Virginia's the current academic sponsor for the program while the program, itself, is run on a cruise ship called the MV Explorer. Throughout the history of the program, nearly 50,000 undergraduate students from more than one thousand colleges and universities have participated in Semester at Sea.

Green Businessman Ray Anderson to Visit Randolph

Radical industrialist Ray Anderson will speak at Randolph College on Monday, February 1, 2010 in Smith Hall Auditorium. A book signing follows in the Ribble Lounge of Smith Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

During his visit, he will also meet privately with environmental studies majors, student leaders and faculty to discuss environmental issues and his quest to create a sustainable manufacturing company.

Anderson is the founder and chairman of Interface, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of modular carpet for commercial and residential applications and a leading producer of commercial broadloom and commercial fabrics. He is “known in environmental circles for his advanced and progressive stance on industrial ecology and sustainability. Since 1995, he has reduced Interface’s waste by a third, and he plans to make the company sustainable by 2020.”

Anderson is also one of Time Magazine’s Heroes of the Environment. Anderson is a sought-after speaker for most large environmental forums and conferences. He has also helped put together a "100-Day Action Plan for the Environment" for President Obama.

Anderson is featured in the documentaries The Corporation and Leonardo DiCaprio’s The 11th Hour. He is also the author of Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model.

Sustainable Living at Randolph College

Anderson's visit is part of a year-long celebration of environmental sustainability and a college-wide effort to reduce the carbon footprint of the entire Randolph community.

Learn more at Sustainable Living @ Randolph College > > >