County Executive Ike Leggett recently awarded Montgomery College the Early Bird Benchmarker Award for reporting energy use on the campus. MCTV’s John Watson has more.
The first Montgomery County GreenFest took place this past Saturday on the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus of Montgomery College. We had a great time. Below you will find some photos and information about the event. We will look forward to doing this again next year.
Montgomery County Media article
WTOP article
This video produced by Citizens for Transit gives you an idea of the value the planned Bus Rapid Transit System will provide to the community and how it will function. The value the BRT provides the college is enhanced by the one-college restructuring of athletic and academic programs and the shared governance system the college is in the process of implementing. These initiatives multiply the number of meetings college employees must attend at different campuses.
The rough draft of the proposed BRT system right now has a stop for all campuses of Montgomery College. However, the Rockville campus does not have a stop on the Rockville Pike according to the most recent rough draft of the BRT proposal. This could add a number of minutes to the time it takes to get to the Germantown Campus from the Rockville Campus. The BRT will go right down the Pike and not stop at the college.
Rough Draft of Proposed BRT Proposal
The Rockefeller Foundation is recommending that New York City implement a BRT system. The president of the foundation, Dr. Judith Rodin, explains why in the video below.
This article puts present day discussions of climate change in context. It points out that science has struggled to explain fully why an ice age occurs every 100,000 years. As researchers now demonstrate based on a computer simulation, not only do variations in insolation play a key role, but also the mutual influence of glaciated continents and climate. The model the researchers created explains why the periodic ice ages begin slowly and end abruptly.
Science Daily, August 7, 2013
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130807134127.htm
The winners of Montgomery College’s first Efficiency Contest were announced last Wednesday. They are listed below. The MC Green Team wants to thank all the students, faculty, and staff that submitted proposals. We were impressed with the quality of many of these proposals. The MC Green Team will explore how the college can begin to implement these proposals as well as other related projects.
The MC Green Team wants to thank the Montgomery College Foundation for funding the awards for this contest. None of this would have been possible without their support.
Contest Finalists 2014
1. Lori Kelman, Professor, Germantown–A clearer recycling policy
2. Tie: Sarah “Katie” Herrington, Student, Rockville–Sustainable restrooms/
John Phillips & Shorieh Talaat, Professors, Rockville–Rooftop solar farm
4. Kimberly Ventura, Student, TP/SS–Recycling food waste
5. Filseta Ameha, Student, Rockville–Reusable containers in the cafeteria
MC Efficiency Contest
Montgomery College is holding a college-wide efficiency contest this year. We received over 25 proposals from 21 students, staff and faculty members from all three campuses in the fall. There were many promising proposals. We really appreciate all the work that went into them.
Our panel of experts selected the top five proposals. The authors and their proposals are provided below. These winners of the first round will receive 200$. These proposals will be developed further during the spring semester working with college personnel. The winner of the second round will receive $2,500, second place $1,000, third place $500.
Check out the proposals. They are impressive. Approximately two pages a piece. Interesting ideas.
Who do you think should win? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
First Round Winners
Lori Kelman, Professor, Germantown–A clearer recycling policy
Filseta Ameha, Student, Rockville–Reusable containers in the cafeteria
John Phillips & Shorieh Talaat, Professors, Rockville–Rooftop solar farm
Sarah “Katie” Herrington, Student, Rockville–Sustainable restrooms
Kimberly Ventura, Student, TP/SS–Recycling food waste
The challenge, run by run by the Commission’s Education Workgroup, invited planning students to identify and solve community land use issues throughout the state. From a pool of 12 academic teams, six teams presented panels and narrated PowerPoint presentations before a jury of selected commission members and state agency officials in December in Annapolis. This was the first year of the student challenge.
The Sustainable Growth Challenge, a collegiate competition engaging students from across the state in planning and sustainability issues, attracted a dozen submissions in 2013. Student teams conducted community planning exercises, analyzing economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainable growth and developing creative solutions for actual communities.
Winning presentations covered:
*planning for sea-level rise
*adapting the community of Burtonsville to mixed-use development
*improving access to the Patapsco Valley Heritage Greenway
The winning teams were a team of graduate students from UMCP Graduate School of Landscape Architecture and two teams of community college architecture students from Montgomery College.
First prize went to a team of a six-student team from University of Maryland Graduate School of Landscape Architecture, who presented “Design and Planning for Sea Level Change and Storm water Issues on Maryland’s Eastern Shore,” a comprehensive approach to address the challenges faced by Oxford.
Second prize was a tie that went to the nine students who represented two teams from Montgomery College’s Architecture program.
Both teams studied ways to improve the community of Burtonsville, which lacks good transportation connections, open space and complementary land uses. The teams presented solutions such as housing options like live-work units, redesigning the community’s two major roads, and reducing pavement with pervious bicycling and walking paths. A commuter parking lot would be revamped to further encourage walking and transit use.
The Sustainable Growth Commission recognized winners of the 2013 competition at an awards ceremony on February 5 in Annapolis.
Second Prize (Tie) Montgomery College, Department of Applied Technology
Burtonsville Crossing
Team 1:
Shorieh Talaat, faculty adviser
Biniyam Bezabih
Renzo Carranza
Johan Lahore
Tyler Scott
Team 2:
Shorieh Talaat, faculty adviser
Ingrid Argueta
Jill Carrington
Christopher Estrada
John Fernando
Shorieh Talaat, faculty adviser
Ingrid Argueta
Jill Carrington
Christopher Estrada
John Fernando
William Titsamp
Learn more about the Sustainable Growth Challenge at
http://planning.maryland.gov/YourPart/773/SGChallenge.shtml
http://planning.maryland.gov/YourPart/773/SGChallenge.shtml
From MC Online
This was produced by Francine Wyron and Marcus Rosano.
Send contest proposals to MCGreen@montgomerycollege.edu by December 1st, 2013. This video is the work of John Watson, Producer and Director for MCTV and the department of Advancement & Community Engagement. Great work John!
Sustainability at Montgomery College 