Cream and Crimson + Black and Gold = Green?

Back on June 9, the Associated Press noted a new trend among colleges: rivalry-fueled conservation efforts. According to the AP, "hundreds of colleges and universities across the country (are) trying to be more self-sustaining to stretch budgets and conserve energy," and this is translating into competition between historical rivals over who can come up with the most innovative programs, who can use resources the most efficiently and so on.\nReading this, the editorial board immediately thought of those black-and-gold-wearing villains from West Lafayette, and started thinking wistfully about reducing them to tears with our mad green skills.\nBut there was one problem: geeks though they may be, their sci-fi technology would totally kick our butts. At IU, we'd be telling RAs to encourage people to ride bikes to class -- meanwhile, Purdue would be producing solar-powered robot buses or compost-accelerating lasers or some such thing. No fair.\nSo, we had a better idea: why not look for ways to (cough, cough) team up?\nNot that IU doesn't have its own local efforts underway. In April, for example, we celebrated the Environmental Protection Agency's 35th anniversary by planting a carbon grove -- that is, a patch of vegetation that captures and stores carbon dioxide emissions -- at the IU Research and Teaching Preserve just north of Bloomington. In May, the IDS reported that we are starting a carpool program for campus employees. And as part of our life sciences drive, we've started a Center for Environmental Health at the IU School of Medicine. But, with all this, couldn't we still do more?\nPurdue has so many programs that could contribute meaningfully to the practical, application-oriented side of conservation: the Schools of Engineering, Agriculture, Technology; the Centers for the Environment and for Energy at Discovery Park and so on. We're a bit more theory-oriented here at IU, but we have tremendous resources in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, the Kelley School of Business, the School for Informatics and departments of the College of Arts and Sciences and, of course, our aforementioned life sciences focus.\nAnd, who's to say the whole effort might not only be good for Mother Earth, but for the Indiana economy as well. A variety of green industries have experienced, or are predicted to experience, substantial growth in coming years. Citing the 2006 Clean Energy Trends Report published by Clean Edge (a clean-technology consulting group), BusinessWeek writes that clean energy "is projected to grow from an $11.2 billion business in 2005 to a $51.1 billion business by 2015." Likewise upward trends are expected in organic foods and the green building industry (BusinessWeek, June 20). With the state of Indiana continually looking to establish a technology-oriented engine for economic development, spillover from an IU-PU collaboration could provide just the spark to ignite a new explosion of entrepreneurship.\nBesides, the cleaner the environment, the healthier the crowd, thus the better we can cheer at Assembly Hall when the Hoosiers totally stomp those Boilermaker nerds.