Stevens recently announced that beginning in Fall 2021, renewable energy sources will be used to power all campus energy. At this point in time, very few universities in the U.S. have stuck to this commitment.
Motivated by environmental concerns, Ada Heinze, an undergraduate student, and Viravid Na Nagara, a doctoral candidate, have contributed to the sustainability cause here at Stevens. Both students were led under the direction of Dr. Dibyendu Sarkar, the coordinator for sustainability academic programs here at Stevens. Just recently in 2020, Stevens was promoted from a Silver to a Gold STAR (Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment, and Ranking System) ranking in terms of its environmental initiatives and curriculum.
The Stute contacted Dr. Sarkar for comments regarding his extensive sustainability initiatives. Sarkar mentioned that, “One newsworthy item that was not covered by the most recent piece is our new partnership with International Society of Sustainability Professionals, which is one of the premier professional societies in the sustainability space. This partnership will offer our Sustainability Management MS students free membership in the organization, and 10 of them will be offered study guides to prepare for the SEA (Sustainability Excellence Associate) credentialing exam.”
Ada Heinze, an undergraduate student studying chemical engineering, worked on a project with her team presenting the environmental impact of oil spills, the effect of copper pollution in the Great Lakes region, and potential green infrastructure design for a coastal town in New Jersey using ECOncrete sand walls. Heinze plans on pursuing her Master’s degree at Stevens in sustainability.
The Stute has reached out to Heinze relating to any additional information she may want to add regarding her efforts towards sustainability.
Q: During your projects (like the oil spills, copper pollution), what were some general takeaways you observed that you feel other people should note when it comes to withholding the significance of sustainability?
A: I think it’s important for people to realize just how detrimental events like oil spills or pollution (such as copper pollution via mining), etc can be to ecosystems. Fortunately, I believe a majority of people understand that these are serious events with serious consequences, but what people don’t realize is how little it takes to cause damage. For example, copper concentrations can become toxic to aquatic life at mere concentrations > 20 µg/g. To put that in perspective human blood copper concentration is about 120-140 µg/g. So even the smallest amount of pollution can affect growth, reproduction, brain function, metabolism, or even cause death. However, there is some great technology to help remediate these events like planting specific vegetation on shorelines to absorb some of the pollution or utilizing Green Infrastructure.
Q: How/Why did chemical engineering make you become more interested in sustainability?
A: I’ve always had a passion for the environment and sustainability, even before I knew I wanted to be a chemical engineer. However, I think engineering in general broadens peoples` perspective on important topics like sustainability. For example, a good amount of my courses have placed an emphasis on either discussing sustainability, decreasing the carbon footprint of a product, or utilizing Green Infrastructure (like oyster reefs or ECOncrete to prevent flooding in shoreline areas). Also, opportunities at Stevens including my most recent co-op at Bayshore Recycling Corporation (where we remediated and ultimately recycled petroleum contaminated soil/material) have provided me some great insight into a future career with sustainability. Lastly, my introduction to Professor Sarkar and the Sustainability Management master’s program has helped me pursue a sustainability pathway.
Q: How would you use your background as a chemical engineer to prevent soil contamination/environmental pollution?
A: I’m honestly not really sure yet. Obviously the chemical engineering program at Stevens prepares you with the intellectual skills but, I hope to bring a creative and enthusiastic mindset to wherever I end up working along with a specific focus on sustainability. I hope to learn more once I complete the Sustainability Master program here at stevens.
Viravid Na Nagara, a doctoral student pursuing Environmental Engineering, worked on developing a green mulch filter in Mill Creek Point Park located in Secaucus, NJ. The mulch was constructed in order to filter out pollutants generated by vehicles and urban runoff, which are toxic to nearby water sources as the pollutants get washed off into these streams.
To learn more about Nagara’s project and efforts, The Stute reached out to him directly with additional questions.
Q: Can you describe the process it took to install the mulch filter in Secaucus? How long did it take?
A: The green engineered mulch that our research group developed can be implemented in the same way as regular mulch. We developed it to be a green technology that is effective, economical, and simple. So that everyone can use it without special training or tools required. So, the implementation is easy by just applying it on the surface of rain gardens or vegetation areas that receive stormwater runoff.
Q: With your educational experience, how would you prevent toxic runoff from entering water sources in the future on a larger scale?
A: To address this problem, we can look at it from two angles: 1) reducing water runoff so the pollutants will not be carried to our water resources and 2) reducing pollutants so there is a low level of pollutants to impair our water bodies.
One way to reduce stormwater runoff is to reduce impervious surfaces and connections between them. So that stormwater can infiltrate into the ground and be evapotranspiration instead of accumulating on surfaces and become runoff. In other words, we restore the natural water cycle. This can be done by implementing green infrastructures such as porous pavement and rain gardens.
However, pollutant reduction is crucial and needed to be done parallelly as well. Although, from a hydrological perspective, we are restoring the system to the natural setting, what are contained in the stormwater in urban areas are different from natural areas. That is why people sometimes call stormwater runoff “a cocktail of pollutants.” From a technical approach, our green-engineered mulch can provide a layer of protection to prevent stormwater pollutants from contaminating our water sources. Since stormwater pollutants are typically generated by our daily activities, we all also can help to alleviate this problem by being more mindful about our activities that contribute to generating pollutants. We can help to prevent the problem in many simple ways, such as pick up pet waste, do not over-fertilize our lawn, avoid washing cars in the areas that drain into the storm drains.
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