CHALLENGE FROM AU’S LIBERAL ARTS DEAN RESULTS IN GREEN ROOF PROJECT
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When Dean Anna Gramberg of the College of Liberal Arts was recently approached with a request to fund a speaker on the environment, she countered with a call for action instead of talk. The result was the student-led Auburn Sustainability Action Project which gave Auburn University’s Haley Center an environmentally-friendly cover of potted plants. The area is now known as the Green Roof.
Gramberg approached Lindy Biggs, AU professor of history and director of the Auburn Sustainability Initiative, with an offer to fund a project that students could get involved in and would improve the environment.
Biggs’s idea was a sustainability class for a small group of students chosen through an application process who would receive internship credit for the class. Gramberg approved the proposal and out of the 40 students who applied, 14 were accepted.
A team of students in the sustainability class designed the Green Roof, which is made up of rows of specially potted native plants that will provide environmental benefits such as reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide and controlling stormwater runoff and sewage.
“I met the selected students and knew they were up to the task of a project like this, and I was right.” Gramberg said. “I am truly impressed by the students involved with this initiative. They are outstanding, interesting, creative, forward-thinking and bright.”
“I thank Biggs for her leadership and for her incredible dedication to sustainability,” said Gramberg. “She and her students designed and implemented something the College of Liberal Arts can be proud of. What they have accomplished will benefit our environment and everyone who comes to Haley Center. Instead of a slab of concrete, students and visitors to the Haley Center now have a beautiful green arrangement to look at and admire.”
According to Biggs, the green roof makes fiscal sense as well as being environmentally friendly and attractive. The plants will slow the roof’s deterioration and extend its life by blocking out harmful ultraviolet rays.
“The average roof reaches temperatures of more than 120 degrees, while plants never become warmer than 80 degrees. So by insulating the roof with plants, you are effectively cutting down on energy costs,” said Biggs.
“The plants will absorb significant amounts of water and prevent polluted runoff from going into the drains and sewage systems,” said Valerie Grupp, a political science major who worked as an intern with the Auburn Sustainability Initiative.
Biggs and her group continue to explore new initiatives such as a student bike repair shop, a network of bicycle paths on campus and an energy use study of the library.
For more information about the Auburn Sustainability Initiative, visit their Web site: http://www.auburn.edu/projects/sustainability/.
