Sustainability Workshops at Eden Hall Campus
With the opening of the new Field Lab at the Richland campus this past July, Eden Hall Campus offered this summer’s first-ever sustainability workshop series. The workshops were designed to share sustainability principles with quick payoffs that participants could easily incorporate into their homes and lives.
First up was Roof Runoff: Rainwater Harvest and Usage led by Tony Miga, a recent graduate of the Master of Sustainability program. This past year, Miga received funding to install three underground rainwater catchment tanks that drain the roof of the Eden Hall storage shed. These tanks can fill their 50,000-gallon capacity with only a few inches of rainfall. The workshop began with a tour of Eden Hall, including a stop to examine these 50,000-gallon cisterns.
Then, attendees were led to the lab where they were able to make low-cost, high quality rain barrels. Power drills in hand, attendees bore holes for spigots and hoses in basic blue buckets, creating home approved rain barrels that act as a perfect local water conservation method. Think of these rain barrels as a way to lower your water bill while watering your garden, and an eye-catching conversation starter for your neighbors and friends.
On August 14th, our Field Lab served as the stage for a workshop again, this time for a compost tutorial. Chatham University and Nancy Martin of Pennsylvania Resources Council (PRC) delivered a presentation on the basics of starting your own composting operation. Martin is the Environmental Educator at PRC, and hosts a number of basic composting and vermiculture (composting with worms) workshops around the city each year. She shared information about what can and can’t be composted, how to prevent rodents and bugs from getting into your handiwork, how to maintain your bin, and how to use your compost most effectively.
Following a full campus tour, the composting students settled into an evening of “How-To’s” to make their composting efforts a success. In order to provide them with the tools to successfully compost, students purchased an Earth Machine composting bin, which can hold up to 80 gallons of compost, as part of their admission. The true takeaway from this event is that composting gives new value to scrap materials that would otherwise go to waste in the garbage. Soil made from composting is more nutritious, can be used as mulch, and overall is the economical choice for a healthy yard.
The concluding workshop for our Summer Series at Eden Hall was entitled Harness the Sun: Home Projects and Energy Saving Tips. The solar workshop centered around how homeowners can determine whether their houses are ready for solar panel installation, how it works, and policies in Pennsylvania that support solar technologies on homes. Dr. Mary Whitney, Sustainability Coordinator at Chatham, and Phil Long, a Burns & Scalo sales professional, delivered a presentation that highlighted important facts to consider about solar home energy, as well as taking note of small energy “zappers” around your home that use up more electricity than you might think.
Dr. Whitney provided participants with worksheets that calculate how much energy is consumed by household activities. She then brought out a Kill-A-Watt meter, a small instrument that plugs into electrical devices to show the real-time usage. Attendees were amazed by just how much energy devices consume, even to make something as simple as a cup of coffee. Dr. Whitney then offered tips on how to adapt solar energy to a personal home.
We are looking forward to hosting more lifelong learning workshops at Eden Hall this year, so stay tuned in and we’ll see you in Richland!