Features
More about the College's footprint
How much is 20,562 metric tons of CO2e?
Gettysburg's annual emissions equal the amount of CO2 emitted by driving a car more than 41 million miles, which is like circling the planet 1,654 times or 85 round trips to the moon.
• The biggest source of CO2e for both FY 2007 and 2008 was electricity, comprising 48 percent of emissions for both years.
• In FY 2008, 21 percent of emissions were from on-campus heating.
• Emissions for on-campus heating rose 43 percent the year after the Science Building opened in 2003.
• Other major contributors to carbon emissions included study-abroad travel (12 percent of the total for FY 2008), funded air travel to conferences (6 percent), faculty and staff commuting (6 percent).
Data for other College operations were not available to the students, including refrigerants and commuting emissions associated with students living off campus. Neither is considered major, however, especially the latter as most off-campus students walk or bike.
Gettysburg College is committed to sustainability
Making The Center green
The Center for Athletics, Recreation, & Fitness was designed to use at least 27.8 percent less energy than one built with conventional materials and methods. That energy-conscious design reduces the College's carbon footprint by an estimated 2,445,119 lbs of CO2 emissions every year.
The Center will also use about half the water that a building equipped with standard fixtures would use. In addition, an innovative pool filtration system will reduce water use further, saving more than 3,350,000 gallons annually.
Other "green" initiatives include recycling more than 90 percent of construction waste and planting drought-resistant landscaping materials. To encourage alternative methods of transportation, bike racks have been installed for 78 bicycles, along with a shower/changing room to accommodate those who bike to work or class. The College has also agreed to set aside 100,938 square feet of land adjacent to the building as protected space, not to be developed for the lifetime of the building.
20,562 metric tons-the amount of greenhouse emissions generated at Gettysburg College is equal to 45,331,450 pounds or 9,066,290 five pound bags of sugar. That is enough sugar to make 2,686,308 Krispy Kreme Donuts.
Marathon winner
Jennifer Lazuta '07 never expected to become a media star. She simply thought it would be "cool to run a marathon in Africa."
Lazuta is a Peace Corps volunteer in Burkina Faso, a landlocked country on the cusp of the Sahara that is one of the poorest in the world. It's also culturally conservative and maintains extremely traditional gender roles - which meant that when Lazuta heard about the 2009 Ouaga-Laye Marathon and went to sign up, she was at first told she couldn't participate.
"The reason: I was white. I was American. I was a girl," Lazuta said. Only after much checking around did the officials decide she could compete.
Although Lazuta had never run a race longer than 10 km, she managed the first half without too much difficulty. "But then the heat and the fatigue and the pain started to kick in," she said.
Lazuta persevered, however, inspired by the enthusiastic calls of "nasara" ("white girl") and a running buddy she picked up along the way who urged her to cross the finish line together with him - which they did, after four hours.
The finish was a "bit hazy" for Lazuta. "I remember lots of cheering," she said, "and I know some army guys escorted me through the crowd since I could barely stand. Then all of the sudden there were microphones and cameras in my face. I thought all the hype was because I was the white girl, but then I realized they were asking what it was like to be the 2009 female champion."
That night Lazuta was featured as headline news on multiple TV stations, and on Monday morning she was on the front page of all the local papers.
Lazuta can be reached at jen131485@yahoo.com.
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