AUDIO: How Georgia Universities are Making Efforts Towards Sustainability

AUDIO: Forestry and Land Conversion Affects in Statesboro

NEWS: GSU Coverts to LEDs

By Cabri Gordon, Michaela O'Larry, Blakeley Bartee, and Jorden Allen

Statesboro- Georgia Southern University is gradually converting its lighting to LED products to reduce energy costs.

Stephen Frawley, mechanical maintenance superintendent, said the process started in 2014, and most of the exterior lighting has already been converted.

The university has been taking into consideration how they can lead campus to be more sustainable with food waste, recycling and energy efficiency.

Founded in 2008, the Center for Sustainability (CFS) at GS has been promoting energy efficiency by implementing various events on campus like Greenfest, No Impact Week and the Sustainability Seminar Series.

Why Georgia Southern Uses LEDs

Lissa Leege, director of the CFS, said the CFS has funded several projects that have switched the kind of lighting used throughout campus to the cheapest, most energy efficient option which are LEDs. 

“Any time we’re using that electrical energy its releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, adding to the greenhouse effect and climate change,” Leege said. “If we can use one-tenth the energy by using LED bulbs, then we are going to emit one-tenth the CO2 that we would have been emitting with the incandescent bulbs.

The CFS has been able to implement lighting changes to the pedestrian and on various parking lots throughout campus. In partnership with Facilities Services, exterior lighting has been completely replaced. 

The next goal is converting the interior lights which has previously been using T8 fluorescent lamp lights, said Frawley.  

Cost of Lighting at Georgia Southern

In 2018, GS spent $401,701.02 buying lighting supplies, according to information from a FOIA request.

Frawley said Facilities Services automatically replaces old bulbs with LED products when they receive a replacement request. 

“If we could just wipe the older fixtures and replace them with LED lights, we would,” Frawley said. “We are operating on a budget though, so as we see fit, and as we get the funding and the sustainability grants, we are trying to get the most LED fixtures that our finances allow.”

Sustainability fee grants are awarded annually to proposed sustainability projects. In fiscal year 2020, a $24,832 grant will fund a pedestrian walkway LED lighting upgrade, according to the GS website.

Frawley said because the cost of LED lighting has gone down over time, it is often cheaper to replace entire lighting fixtures than attempt to retro-fit lighting kits to old fixtures.

Will the Trump Administrations’ rollbacks affect Georgia Southern?

In early September, the Trump administration announced that they would reverse Obama-era standards for energy-efficient lightbulbs.

The standards, which were intended to gradually phase out incandescent and halogen bulbs in favor of LED versions, were set to go into effect in 2020, according to NPR.

"The bulb that we're being forced to use — No. 1, to me, most importantly, the light's no good. I always look orange," President Donald Trump said during a speech at a House Republican retreat dinner, according to NBC News.

Frawley states, “We also think about our returnal investment though, and just because something costs a little more upfront, in one to two years, it can already pay for itself, since there is less energy output.”

The cost of the bulbs does play a big part in the decision, but when the Facility Services makes the order they try to also think about what the energy usage will be and how it will affect the campus.

“I personally only use LED lighting throughout my apartment,” said Naya Wilson, GS IT major. “I was raised by parents who taught the importance of saving the environment, and I think it's great to know GS has been taking the necessary steps to do this.”

https://soundcloud.com/anthony-belinfante/redteam

NEWS: The Tegu Lizard Invasion

By: Joiya Reid, Akira Stewart, Kamala Jannell, Justin Bowles, and Ryan Kostensky

The popularity of exotic pet trading could very well add to the fragility of Georgia’s ecosystem.

According to Big Think, between the years of 2000 and 2015, about 79,000 live tegu lizards were possibly imported into the U.S. The lizard has been successful in invading the ecosystem in Florida and now shows an increasing risk of possibly invading the entire southern U.S. and Mexico.

Dr. Lance McBrayer with the Tegu lizards

The black and white tegu lizard, which is native to South America, has been spotted in the counties of Toombs and Tattnall. The reason for their appearance is believed to be a result of exotic pet owners releasing them into the wild.

The lizard can easily adapt to the climate in the southern part of the U.S. because it is so similar to their native country. They also have no threat of a natural predator, which makes it even more difficult to eradicate them.

The invasion of the lizard has led the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to take direct action in dealing with the species. Partnering with a professor in the biology department, Dr. Lance McBrayer, and students of Georgia Southern, they formed a program that would assist in the trapping of the tegus.

McBrayer emphasized the importance of educating pet owners because of the increasing amount of invasive species in the U.S.

“We need people to understand that even though their pets might be dear to them, when released into the wild it can lead to big problems,” said McBrayer.

One of the biggest problems is the tegu's diet. These lizards have a generalist diet meaning they eat plants and mammals.

A close up on the lizard

There are several endangered reptiles in Georgia, including the state reptile, the gopher tourist and indigo snakes. The lizard’s fondness of eggs poses a threat to the reproductivity of these animals.

There is a similar problem with Quail and Turkeys which are popular hunting birds. The hunting of these game birds brings in over $1 billion to federal income taxes. If the lizards continue to feast on eggs, the government stands to lose a substantial amount income.

Tegus diet also poses a potential threat to agriculture. With their diverse diet, they will eat both crops and small mammals on the farmland.

Georgia Southern student and owner of a black and white tegu lizard, Micheal Brennan, warns against people taking the lizards as pets that do not have experience with reptiles.

“I would never ever recommend this to somebody as a pet unless you’re like me and have well over 5 to 10 years in experience with other reptiles,” said Brennan.

He believes that a huge part of them being released into the wild is that people take them in and don’t understand the proper way to raise them.

NEWS: How Georgia Universities are Making Efforts Towards Sustainability

By: Megan Leben, Ashley Jones, Elijah Jackson, Savannah King, and Bethany-Grace Bowers

It’s no secret that current college students are one of, if not the most, passionate groups when it comes to the environment, so it should come as no surprise that many college campuses have implemented extensive recycling programs.

Georgia Southern University (home of The Ecology Beat) and other universities in Georgia have established a sustainability center to house programs and efforts of staff and students trying to help the environment. While all of the centers have similar program goals, the details of implementation and effectiveness of each center vary.

A review of four Georgia colleges and universities that vary in size and location highlights both the similarities and differences in the efforts of colleges in the state. Georgia Southern University has three campuses located in Statesboro, Savannah and Hinesville and a student population of about 26,000. For the purposes of this article, we will focus on the Statesboro campus with a student population of 18,000. The University of Georgia is located in Athens and has a student population of about 38,000. Georgia Tech is located in Atlanta with a student population of 27,000. The fourth college we will look at is Emory University also located in Atlanta with a population of 15,000. It is important to keep in mind the size and the location of each school when looking at the programs available and how much the school recycles. Cami Sockow, Georgia Southern’s Center for Sustainability Progam Coordinator, Says, “location plays a huge role in how much a university can recycle, because of the services around them willing to take our goods.” Also keep in mind that while the sustainability centers on these campuses may have a few full-time employees, the majority of the efforts are led by students.

In 2015, Georgia Tech recycled 1,190.34 tons of waste, according to their sustainability website. That waste included aluminum, cardboard, clothing and household goods, compost, shredded documents, electronics, glass, hardback books, mixed metal, mixed office paper, non-perishable foods, pallets, plastic, and mixed recyclables. Of that total number of recyclables, cardboard was the main contributor bringing in 399.82 tons. The amount the school has recycled has steadily increased since then with 2,368.47 tons being recycled in 2018.

In 2013, Georgia Southern’s latest recorded recycling statistics, the university recycled 282.6 tons according to the Center of Sustainability on campus. Cardboard was another main contributor to that total number recycled, making up 134.2 tons.

Emory University recycled nearly 4.7 tons of waste which were 70% of the waste produced on campus. Emory has also made a huge contribution to recycling by recycling 240 million gallons of water.

Several Georgia schools have competed in Recyclemania, a national eight-week competition between colleges and universities to see who can recycle the most overall and the most per capita. They release the finishing order on their website after the competition ends and schools report their numbers. Out of the 251 schools across the nation that competed in Spring 2019, six were Georgia schools. The University of Georgia finished at No. 55 in the nation with 324,820 pounds of recycled material. Georgia State finished No. 78 with 235,837 total pounds of recycled material. Georgia Southern came in at No. 241 with 113,830 pounds of recyclables. West Georgia recycled 40,878 pounds of waste putting them at No. 183. Georgia Gwinnett College finished at No. 191 with 36,380 pounds of recycled material and Georgia College and State University (GCSU) rounded out the Georgia school with 24,326 pounds of waste recycled coming in No. 208.

While GCSU has one of the smaller student bodies of the Georgia schools, one student thinks that recycling numbers could be higher if students were more educated about the programs available to them on campus.“They just put the recycling bins out without any notice as to what you can and can’t put in them,” says Georgia College junior, Alex Bradley. “If you genuinely want to know what to put in the bins, you have to do the research for yourself. I think the sustainability office needs to be more diligent about letting the student body know, ‘Hey, this is what you can and can’t put in these bins, recycling goes in there not trash.’ The bins are just there, never talked about.”

Georgia Southern, UGA, Emory and Georgia Tech all have basic recycling programs that provide opportunities for people on campus can recycle things like cardboard, bottles, aluminum cans and paper. Three of the schools also have gameday recycling programs for football gamedays. Georgia Southern, UGA and Georgia Tech all have similar programs that enlist volunteers to hand out trash bags to tailgaters around campus encourage them to recycle. UGA and Georgia Tech have seen tremendous success through their gameday recycling programs.

Georgia Tech diverted 16.9 tons of waste from landfills in 2018 solely from recycling on game days, according to their sustainability website. UGA first started its program in 2008 and diverted nearly 5.2 tons in their first year according to their gameday recycling website. After almost 10 years, that number has increased tremendously to 59.1 tons during the 2017 football season. The 59.1 tons amounted to a little over 23% of gameday waste on the UGA campus.

The students and staff behind these efforts are passionate about making a difference in the world by localizing it to their own schools.

Georgia southern senior Cara Rhoad thinks recycling on college campuses is essential to big-picture sustainability.

“It is important for college campuses to recycle because they have such a large influx of people who care about the efforts,” Rhoad said. “Young minds are great places to start with lifestyle habits, so maybe a college recycling program in the dorm might make a student completely change their outlook on recycling.”

She encourages her fellow students at Georgia Southern and throughout Georgia to recycle every water bottle and avoid using plastic straws. She even said to wear outfits because “it’s okay for Instagram to see it twice.”


Cami Sockhow said it's the little things like wearing outfits twice that spark the start of the change to become more sustainable.Sockhow says " We have to realize now as students before it's too late that sustainability is more than just recycling. We need to reduce, reuse, and then recycle."

Rhoad said “College kids need to realize that every little effort they make has a positive effect on the ecosystem and the economy around them.”




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NEWS: The Biggest Threat to Georgia's Trees is Population Growth

By: Samuel Rivers, Leslie Daniels, Zachary Ivey, Amber Houston, and Khiyah Griffin
According to the Georgia Forestry Commission's Sustainability Report for January 2019, Georgia’s population is growing at record rates, which is leading to land conversion as cities urbanize and make more room for people to live, a process that the report states is a threat to forest sustainability.

Michael Hinson, the management forester of the Georgia Forestry Commission's Statesboro District Office, provided the report to the Ecology Beat.

According to Hinson, land conversion is “going to be taking trees that are currently growing or have been growing and turning that into stuff like apartment buildings, shopping centers; that’s what most of your deforestation is going as, and you’re mainly going to see that in your city areas.”

Jim Daniel, COO of American Forest Management, said “Everytime you see a new mall or apartment, guess where the trees are going?” He agreed that land conversion is the biggest threat that trees in Georgia are currently facing as the population grows.

An additional issue that trees may face is a species’ usefulness and ease of growing for companies trying to turn a profit with them. While this is not so much a threat to forests as a whole, being more difficult or more expensive to grow has largely resulted in the endangerment of the longleaf pine tree.

“Before the United States became the United States… This whole area, South Georgia, particularly, there was a lot more longleafs growing than there is now,” said Hinson, “...people cut it down and used it and then naturally, people were gonna generate towards whatever tree is gonna make them the most money.”

According to Randy Tate, a partnership coordinator for the Longleaf Alliance (an organization dedicated to managing and restoring the longleaf pine population), land conversion also complicates the growing of longleafs as they need fire every few years in order to stay healthy, coming from what he described as a fire-based ecosystem. This is naturally much more difficult to provide in the typical urban ecosystem that most land conversion occurs in.

There is good news in the report, as well. Outside of the threat that land conversion presents, Georgia’s forests have been stable at around 24 million acres of forested land for the past 50 years, and overall tree growth still outpaces tree removal.

But if current trends continue and urban areas continue to grow through land conversion, sustainability and stability may become more difficult to maintain.

Welcome to The Ecology Beat

By: Jeffrey Riley

Hello there, 

My name is Dr. Jeff Riley. I'm the professor for this class, MMJ4336 Digital Journalism, part of the Multimedia Journalism curriculum here at Georgia Southern University. The purpose of this course is twofold. One, students are taught how to create and manage a media product of their own design. Two, students are taught how to cover a specific topic. Now, normally we use this course to teach election coverage, but seeing as how this is an off year, we decided to make it all about covering the environment. From air to water, from suburban sprawl to energy, from agriculture to sustainability, the southeast Georgia region has a lot of environmental issues going on, and the students of this class will report on them as active journalists. 

Also, the students will be maintaining a social media presence. You can find them on Twitter @EcologyBeat, on Instagram @The_Ecology_Beat, or find us on our Facebook page called The Ecology Beat. 

If you have any questions about the course, please email me: jriley@georgiasouthern.edu 

This is also probably the last time you hear from me. From this point forward, it's going to be a student-run online publication.