Engineers for a Sustainable World

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The student chapter of ESW at RPI is the organization on campus dedicated to promoting sustainability both at home and abroad. Currently, ESW at RPI (ESW-RPI) has about 10-15 active members, including 7 officers, and is working with the Student Sustainability Task Force (SSTF) to implement sustainable change on RPI's campus as well as contributing to an international project called the Ecological House for the Andes in conjunction with the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Lima.

RPI Chapter Logo
RPI Chapter Logo

Contents

[edit] About ESW-RPI

ESW-RPI was founded in May 2005 by a group of 5 students interested in bringing the increasingly important issue of sustainability to the forefront of change at RPI, and has been working hard to accomplish this ever since. ESW-RPI currently has a mailing list of about 60 individuals (ESW-L@lists.rpi.edu), of which about 10-15 are active members who are taking on RPI's challenge, "Why Not Change The World," starting with sustainability.

If you would like to learn more about who we are and what we do, please join our mailing list! Send an email to ESWOFFICERS-L@lists.rpi.edu and we'll gladly add you to the list; you can add yourself by going to [1], logging in with your RCS username and password, and then clicking on ESW-L > Subscribe.

[edit] Our Vision and Mission Statement

ESW-RPI's vision is twofold:

  1. To make RPI known for sustainability - both in campus operation and in the educational curriculum, especially the engineering program;
  2. To promote sustainable development in small towns and villages in third world nations by partnering with local communities and applying sustainable, design-based solutions to help meet that community's specific needs, whatever they may be. This is essentially the mission of the National ESW organization with which we are affiliated.

Our Mission Statement is "to pool the knowledge, skills, and experience of RPI and the surrounding community to discover and solve environmental, social, and economic problems, recognizing the importance of sustainability."[1]

[edit] Come join us! Meeting times for the Spring 2008 Semester

Our meetings and projects are open to all majors and all levels of study! We are currently deciding on the best time to host meetings and project days for the Spring semester, so post your feedback below. So far we have 3 proposed meeting times - check your schedule and see when you are free, then vote on whichever times you can make it by entering your name below (click edit page and type your name in, then save). If you can't make any of these times, enter a new day/time below.

You can leave notes about which days are better than others. If more than one day works for you, then be sure to add your name to multiple slots. See below for examples.

  • Tuesdays, 5-6:30pm ?
Frank has class from 4-6pm
Sam
dalibel
  • Wednesdays, 4-5:30pm ?
David (Jendrd)
Brandon
Heidi
Frank
AK
Saadia (though 3:30 to 5:00pm would work better)
dalibel,but have an extracurricular activity and occasionally would be late.
  • Fridays, 3-4:30pm ?
Frank is generally free at this time but thinks Friday afternoon is a lame time for meetings
AK
Saadia

[edit] ESW Calendar of Events

Click here for a Google Calendar

(If anyone knows how to embed a Google Calendar into this webpage, please contact David (Jendrd))

General Schedule for February 2008
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Sunday
3 4 5 6

ESW General Body
Meeting 4-5pm

7 8 9
10 11 12 13

(tentative)
ESW General Body
Meeting 4-5pm

14 15 16

[edit] ESW Officers for 2007

For a list of past officers, see the ESW Alumni page.

[edit] ESW Projects and Collaborations

ESW has a number of ongoing projects, both locally (on campus) and internationally.

[edit] ESW Meeting Minutes

Each meeting (hopefully) somebody will be taking minutes. The main reason for this is so that those who didn't attend the meeting can then overview the main points of the meeting at a later time. Also, having a running history of what was discussed and when may be used for reference in future ESW projects and meetings.

[edit] ESW Budget

  • See ESW Budget 2008-9 page to see what plans and programs we're working on for next year!

[edit] History, Membership, Attendance, Past Projects, Traditions, etc.

Since its founding in May 2005, ESW-RPI has hosted a number of projects with varying degrees of success. In cases where a project was unsuccessful, it was mostly due to a shortage of members since the club was relatively new on campus. Historically, attendance at meetings has also been low, but the start of the Fall 2007 semester saw a record high of 20 or so in attendance... which means... people have been getting the word out! Good work everybody and keep talking about ESW! Invite your friends too!

A possible reason for low attendance at meetings may be the fact that meetings tend to center around a lot of "talking" and not a lot of "doing," which sometimes leads members to stop coming because they feel they aren't doing anything. Also, an overemphasis on fundraising in past years has lowered interest in club participation. As a result, ESW-RPI is now Union funded as of Fall 2007 and looks forward to changing its focus toward making RPI sustainable rather than placing most of the emphasis on raising money to send overseas. If all goes well, the first full-year budget will be approved for the 2008-2009 school year, with big plans for interactive workshops, public awareness campaigns, and speaker forums.

Some of ESW-RPI's past projects have included:

  • Co-sponsoring the showing of "An Inconvenient Truth" with Ecologic in Fall 2006
  • Hosting a campus wide workshop on the benefits of biodiesel
  • Designing a sustainable water pumping/filtration system for the village of Umuluwe, Nigeria
  • Helping facilitate Earth Day activities on campus in the spring of 2005, 2006, & 2007

There is also an annual tradition called "the Transfer of Knowledge BBQ," which generally takes place at a local park in Troy each May. Its purpose is to allow the current officers to pass down their experiences and what they learned about ESW to the incoming officers for the upcoming year so they can move forward in their goals rather than reinvent the wheel by starting from square one. Elections are typically held at the last/second-to-last meeting in late April ~ early May.

[edit] Student Sustainability Task Force (SSTF)

See main page: Student Sustainability Task Force

In order jump start the migration toward sustainability at RPI, concerned students, faculty, and staff members across campus formed a Task Force as an official arm of the Student Senate to discuss the status of sustainability at RPI and what can be done to improve it. Those involved in this push for sustainability at Rensselaer are: Michael Jensen (Professor of Mechanical Engineering), Sarah Parks (Ecological Economics), Frank Tobia, Libby Stehr, David Jendras, Aaron 'AK' Kendall, Anna Josephson, Ben Cohen, Audrey Newcomb, Zanetta Collins, Heidi Embrechts, Lupita Montoya, Claude Rounds, Rebekka Henriksen, Steve Breyman, Bruce Watson, Mark Mistur, and Susan Sanderson (Professor of Management).

[edit] Who We Are Affiliated With: ESW International

Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) is an international organization that contributes to sustainable development measures and practices in developed and developing localities around the world. There are 19 official chapters at colleges and universities (as well as about a dozen professional chapters) across the United States. There are also about 10 more unofficial chapters that are not nationally recognized yet at more colleges and universities across the US due to lack of sufficient members. A chapter must have 5 members to be recognized.

[edit] All This Talk About "Sustainability"... What is it Anyway?

Sustainability is a buzzword of sorts that appeared about 20-25 years ago and has been floating around in green and related circles ever since. Due to the fact that it is a relatively new term, its formal definition lies in a fog of ambiguity. There are several definitions that have been proposed by various sources, including Newsweek, various nonprofit organizations, state and local municipalities, universities, and thinktanks. At times, it almost seems as though the definition depends on who is speaking. In general, however, one of the more widely accepted definitions states that the concept of sustainability is defined as:

"the ability of the present generation to meet the current need without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

[edit] Sustainability 101

For a more comprehensive connotation and the various schools of thought on the matter, see Sustainability 101.

[edit] Sustainability Resources and External Links

See main page: Sustainability Resources

ESW-RPI has acquired a fairly large digital collection of resources available for anyone to use. We have book lists, e-books, e-zines (electronic magazines), peer reviewed journal articles, PDF documents, short courses, videos, presentation material, sustainability facts, real figures (including electricity, gas, and water usage data for the whole campus since 2003!), and more. If you have questions about sustainability - chances are we have what you are looking for! (and if not we can tell you where to look). Email us or post your questions here and we'll get back to you.

The Folsom and Architecture libraries on campus also have many hard copy resources about sustainability, as does the Environmental Education Center (EEC) which is hosted by Ecologic and located in Sage 2410.

[edit] References

  1. ↑ ESW Mission Statement
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