Sustainability at ICC Part 2 of 3: Shrinking the Footprint

EAST PEORIA — Every now and then, a large project at Illinois Central College attracts attention and gains notoriety as something sustainable, but it may just be the small things the College does on a daily basis that makes a larger contribution to ICC’s efforts towards sustainability.

Facilities Services contributes a lot to the daily sustainability efforts of the College. Facilities Services is the department tasked with keeping ICC’s environment clean and healthy. Every day, this department physically cleans the College as well as empties all trash and recycling cans in building interiors.

This recycling aspect of Facilities Services operation might be one of the most utilized sustainability efforts that ICC has. According to department records, 40,000 pounds of recyclables, 85 percent of which was paper and cardboard, were collected from the East Peoria Campus in January through June.

With time, John Vogelsang, director of facilities services, hopes to see the volume of recycling go down to indicate that the college is producing less waste materials.

Since Facilities Services also cleans, one might wonder if they “clean green.” Well, they have a machine called an Orbio 5000-sc that turns water into a mild cleaner for the cleaning staff to use. Vogelsang’s point was “How can you get any greener than water?”

Facilities Operations, a division of Facilities Services, has a similarly important role both inside and outside. Facilities Operations maintains the ICC’s land and buildings, and they have a few sustainability practices of their own.

Whenever they do building updates or construction, they recycle any waste metal that is produced in the process–17,500 pounds so far this year.

They also recycle in their outdoor operations, as well. Each year, community Christmas trees are ground and reused as wood chips for landscaping. And old asphalt millings are saved to be reused as material to build access roads and trails on campus.

Other departments with sustainable practices include Food Services with their use of compostable dinnerware, energy-efficient appliances and locally sourced food products and Document Services with their upgrades to less hazardous and more efficient printing equipment and their dedication to buying paper stock only from US companies that use sustainable forestry practices.

To ensure that ICC continues to improve its sustainability practices, the ICC Sustainability Committee is in the process of forming a climate action plan that would send the College on a path to being “carbon neutral” in the years to come.

ICC is hosting a series of small group meetings this week where students, staff, and members of the community can share ideas regarding the formation of an ICC climate action plan. There are twelve meetings, and individuals can learn more at www.icc.edu/green.