Go green or go home
In Anderson Commons, Concordia’s new dining center, the color green is becoming the new black. Dining services is doing a significant amount of different things in order to do and promote environmental friendly ways of living.
It was a departmental decision to start this new “green” initiative. With this initiative, the Korn Krib is now going plastic bag free and are offering a new way of carrying your groceries: Chico Bags. Chico Bags are rolled up into a bag that can fit into the palm of your hand that makes them easy to bring them with you wherever you go. They are a reusable bag that the freshman received during Hands for Change, and are being sold at the Korn Krib at a discounted price of $1.90 for the first couple weeks of school.
"All the coffee being served at Anderson, The Maize and the new coffee shop is fair trade coffee," said Sabrina Whiting, the Marketing Supervisor at Concordia.
“This means that the coffee farmers are making a decent wage. This allows millions of people to stay on their land and support their families,” said Whiting.
According to a news release entitled “Eat, Drink, and Be Green at Concordia College,” Dining Services is doing a lot of things to help our environment that we can all be proud to be involved in. Anderson is becoming energy efficient by having a special light setting which allows them to save energy by taking advantage of the sun. In the kitchen there are special stove hoods that were installed that improve indoor air quality and efficiency up to 50%. Freezers have curtains on them to stop cold air from escaping. Compact fluorescent light bulbs became equipped with motion sensors so electricity is only used when needed.
All of these new changes are not going unnoticed, especially by the student body. Junior Anna Grimm is impressed with the positive influence these changes will make on the students.
“I think its really cool that they are using their abilities so that our campus can become more eco friendly because our student body is becoming more apt to changing their lifestyles. They are enhancing the way that we now live,” said Grimm.
The ways in which Dining services used their cleaning methods have also changed with this new movement. According to the article previously mentioned, over half of all cleaning chemicals used in Dining Services are green friendly. In the main dish room, water is filtered and recycled, saving hundreds of gallons of water a year. The dish machine is also energy efficient, capturing steam and using the energy to heat water through a heat waste recovery system, a system that is required in Europe due to energy savings. Energy savings in this machine are 50% a year.
With all of these new environmental movements that are being done, Concordia would like to send a message.
“Dining Services would like the Concordia community to recognize that each individual can make a difference. It is our responsibility to preserve and protect the environment,” said Whiting.
