Did you know that all dining halls on campus compost most of their food waste? How about that Carmichael Gymnasium’s roof now has solar panels to heat the water for their pool? Many students don’t. Actually, even I was unaware of a lot of the sustainable initiatives that are happening right here at N.C. State. Many students agree that even though our University is making an effort to become greener, many people have no idea. On my daily walk to campus, I see a lot of these changes every morning. However, if I didn’t know where to look or what to look for, I would never know they were there.
Luckily, this week, the University Office of Sustainability published a comprehensive list of sustainable projects on campus and has incorporated it into a walking or biking tour. Students no longer have to guess where all the cool sustainable stuff is; they have a map to tell them exactly where it is. Available on Sustainability’s website, www.ncsu.edu/sustainability, the campus sustainability tour is a colorful map of our campus. It contains knowledge in a well organized format and presents it in a way that makes it easy to understand.
The map is broken down into two loops: one on Main Campus and one on Centennial Campus. The Main Campus loop is two miles long and has nine stops. It incorporates places such as the Solar House, eco-friendly Bragaw Hall and the Rocky Branch trail. The Centennial Campus loop is 2.9 miles and has five stops. The stops include the new Governor Hunt Library, the Lake Raleigh greenway and the Wildlife Resources building.
The map itself also contains a lot of facts about the locations, which enhance any walking or biking experience on campus. Now as students walk around campus, they can regale their friends with some of the trivia they learned from the tour. Just the other day, my friend and I were walking by North Creek on Centennial Campus and I got the opportunity to drop some knowledge.
By looking at the map and taking the tour, students can learn a lot of information about campus. Students should relish any opportunity to get outside and walk around, while looking at stuff they haven’t seen before. By compiling a map like this, the Office of Sustainability has given everyone a chance to see new things while getting good exercise. It doesn’t take much time to do — both loops average less than an hour on foot. So take a break from all the studying you’re doing and go take a walk. Not only will you learn something, but also you will get to enjoy the beautiful North Carolina autumn.
