AMES, Iowa - It's cardinal and gold…and green.
Visitors to Iowa State University's state fair exhibit will see how students, faculty and staff are using less energy, reducing waste, saving millions of dollars, and creating a more sustainable future.
"Iowa State is Living Green!" is the theme of this year's Iowa State Fair exhibit, says University Marketing Director Carole Custer. Custer says she and the dozens of Iowa Staters staffing the exhibit are eager to share success stories of the university's Live Green! initiative with fairgoers.
"I think Iowans are going to be surprised at the variety of individual and collective action happening all over campus, and the creativity of those efforts," Custer said.
Merry Rankin, ISU's director of sustainability programs, is a partner in the exhibit. Rankin added, "As Iowa State strives to become a national leader in sustainability, we're discovering that little changes can make a big difference in reducing our global footprint. We're proud of what has already been accomplished, and excited about how much more we can achieve."
Walk through this year's display, and you'll see a visual potpourri of those efforts: A live tree. Stacks of now-obsolete dining hall trays. (Not using them has already saved the equivalent of 50,000 meals.) Clothes and other good stuff recycled by students living in campus housing. (They diverted 18.5 tons of material in six months.) And look for the giant "I" "S" and "U" letters, repurposed after they were removed from Jack Trice Stadium.
Informational towers in the exhibit will tout the green momentum building on ISU's campus -- from composting to green cleaning, and environmental design to wind energy to local foods. Fairgoers can share their ideas and post ways they are "living green" for all to see.
Iowa State's BigBelly solar trash compactor - the state's first - also will be on display. It has reduced trash pick-up at its central campus location from two to three times per day to just once a week. That's brought down collection costs by 90 percent.
Team PrISUm's 2010 solar car, Anthelion, will be on display, too - as well as one of Iowa State's four electric vehicles regularly used to move people and supplies on campus.
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Creature comforts
Iowa State veterinarians are serving in important roles at the state fair, College of Veterinary Medicine Communications Specialist Tracy Raef reports. Dr. Bruce Leuschen, university veterinarian, will be caring for animals in the Paul R. Knapp Animal Learning Center. He and four, fourth-year veterinary medicine students will work a 24/7 rotation, providing healthcare and watching the animals closely for any heat-related ailments.
Dr. Ken Waller, adjunct instructor in veterinary clinical sciences, will use ultrasound to examine udders of the fair's top-placing lactating dairy cows to detect violations and validate the judging. He's done udder ultrasound at shows in the U.S. and Canada since 1999.
And Iowa State's VSMART chapter - the Veterinary Student Mixed Animal Recruitment Team - will assist with the fair's popular Vet Camp program. The program encourages children to learn about animal health and welfare, and gives them an idea of what it's like to be a veterinarian. That meshes well with the VSMART students' goals, which are to address the rural veterinarian shortage and encourage students to consider mixed animal veterinary practice.
