RAD Sustainability

By Joe Anderson, RAD Sustainability Lead Predecessor.

RAD Sustainability worked on inoculating cardboard with oyster mushroom spawn. Cardboard is a great medium to establish a mushroom colony with because it’s flat and easy to transport. Once it’s completely covered with mycelium, you just slap it down where you want mushrooms to grow, give them some substrate to digest, and they are ready to go.

We used pearl oyster sawdust spawn from Fungi Perfecti to make our cardboard colonies. First, we soaked our cardboard overnight to make it soft and moist, just how our mushrooms like it. Then we mixed up the sawdust spawn with water and shredded it up by hand as much as possible.

We laid down a piece of cardboard and peeled off the first layer and set it aside, revealing the corrugations. Next, we threw on a few heaping handfuls of oyster spawn and worked it into the grooves. Finally, we placed the first cardboard layer back over the inoculated cardboard and repeated the process, stacking up the cardboard spawn layer by layer.

And that’s all there is to it! It takes about three weeks for oysters to colonize the cardboard. When they’re ready, we’re going to sandwich them in towers of straw which they’ll consume in a few months before fruiting. Until then, we have to keep them moist and watch out for mold or any other contamination. I’ve been checking on our cardboard spawn each morning, and I can already see them starting to take hold!

Have an instagram account?   Follow us at RADsustainability!  We’ll be posting photos every Tuesday of all the unique and incredible projects that are integrated into Evergreen’s lower campus.

Want to help us run the RAD Sustainability instagram?  Feel free to send us your photos at radsustainability@evergreen.edu or if you are looking to volunteer and help with our social media feel free to contact us about that as well.

By Rhianna Hruska, RAD Sustainability Outreach and Chair of the Clean Energy Committee.

Did you know that students can take any of the fruits, vegetables, and flowers in the Evergreen housing community gardens?  These gardens are a convenient way for students to have access to fresh ingredients right outside their apartments/dorms.  RAD Sustainability builds and maintains these gardens for students to enjoy.

Summer Resident Planting Vegetable Seeds

On Friday August 12th at Noon, RAD Sustainability and three summer residents had a garden work party in the courtyard and in the Mod Gardens.  During the work party, residents had the opportunity to plant vegetable and fruit seeds for the new raised garden beds in the courtyard.  The residents also watered the row of lavenders next to the garden beds.  Gardening was a fun and productive way for everyone to get to know each other and take a break from academic studies.  The residents also learned a lot about gardening in the Pacific Northwest as well as the ways that these gardens will be helpful for their fellow students.

If you are interested in helping RAD Sustainability with the gardens in housing, email radsustainability@evergreen.edu.  If you are interested in interning for RAD Sustainability and working in our gardens and food forest for academic credit, feel free to email us and inquire about potential opportunities!

By Alana Mousseau, Sustainability House Resident.

The Sustainability circus for the Sustainability house was a huge success!  The event was collaborated between RAD Facilities, RAs and the community, and held on the soccer fields just outside of the HCC. On April 20th from 1pm to 5:30, there were games, events guest speakers, and even a raffle drawing for participants. 
For the sustainability house specifically, between the five of us, we worked with two different booths. Jenna ran the mushroom log inoculation booth, alongside the Olympia Mycelia Network while Cassandra, Ashley and Alana taught people about pollinator flowers and helped people make seed bombs. There was a variety of people set up with stands and booths teaching about Shellfish Club, Clean Energy Committee, Yoga, WASHPIRG Solar Campaign, DIY cleaning supplies and soaps, and more. People were encouraged to learn about products and supplies all while having the experience to do hands on work, and keep the projects they made.

By Rhianna Hruska, 2nd Year Master of Environmental Studies candidate, Secretary/Treasurer of the Clean Energy Committee, and Sustainability Resident Assistant for the Mods.

Sustainability House after a Successful Work Party

Have you walked through the edible mushroom path between A building and the apartments?  It’s one of the many amazing housing projects created by RAD Sustainability!  For four hours on the morning of Sunday February 28th, the Sustainability house participated in a work party led by Joe Anderson, who is RAD’s Sustainability Crew Lead.  Sustainability residents learned how to inoculate logs with three different types of mushrooms: Lion’s Mane, Oyster, and Chicken of the Woods.  The logs would be drilled with holes in a diamond pattern a few inches apart and the holes would be filled with mushroom plugs.  Once the plugs were hammered into the drilled holes, they were sealed in with wax and set aside to dry.  Once they were finished, the logs were placed in the edible mushroom path.

Edible Mushroom Path

As a part of the sustainability housing theme, residents are expected to complete ten sustainability volunteer hours.  Work parties are a great way to complete those hours while building community with others and learning from each other.  The sustainability house has beginning and end of quarter meetings to discuss potential projects that the residents could work on either together or individually.  This allows everyone to pursue their own sustainability interests.  If you could see yourself participating in these kinds of events, apply for Sustainability housing next year! Applications are currently open.  The application can be found at: http://evergreen.edu/housing/themes/sustainability.htm

By Rhianna Hruska, 2nd Year Master of Environmental Studies candidate, Secretary/Treasurer of the Clean Energy Committee, and Sustainability Resident Assistant for the Mods.

Sustainability House at Taylor Shellfish

On the bright and beautiful morning of February 22nd, the Sustainability Residents took a tour of Taylor Shellfish Farms in Shelton, Washington.  Taylor Shellfish is one of the largest shellfish farms in the United States and their headquarters in Shelton is about fifteen minutes away from Evergreen.  Our tour was led by an Evergreen Master of Environmental Studies (MES) alum, who studied and wrote an MES thesis on shellfish.  The tour took us through two buildings where the shellfish get brought and processed after harvest.  We also got to step inside a below zero degree freezer where the shellfish are stored before being shipped out to their respective locations.

Along with showing us the infrastructure needed to run a family-owned company that sells its shellfish products both nationally and internationally, our tour guide also described the importance of clean water in the Puget Sound in order to maintain safe and productive shellfish farms.  Taylor Shellfish is conscious of its water usage, especially during drought, and waters a poplar plantation to allow the water that is used on site to be returned to the aquifer that it was drawn from.  Ocean acidification, the decrease in pH in the ocean due to the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, is a pressing issue that the shellfish industry has been paying attention to since it effects the success of their shellfish farms.  Sustainable practices help the company prepare for the long-term effects of climate change.

Geoducks at Taylor Shellfish

The tour ended at Taylor Shellfish’s store that sells a variety of shellfish items, including smoked oysters and geoduck clam chowder!  Taylor Shellfish also has internships available, so if any Greeners are interested it could be a great opportunity to learn more about the shellfish industry.

Part of the sustainability theme is to attend a half day retreat.  So if this type of event looks like something you would want to be a part of, then definitely apply for sustainability themed housing for next year!  Applications are currently open.  The application can be found at: http://evergreen.edu/housing/themes/sustainability.htm

By Rhianna Hruska, 2nd Year Master of Environmental Studies candidate, Secretary/Treasurer of the Clean Energy Committee, and Sustainability Resident Assistant for the Mods.

There’s an exciting update in the world of RAD aquaponics!  Tilapia will be put into the system soon and RAD staff wanted to have the proper equipment to make sure the quality of the tilapia’s habitat can be measured as accurately as possible.  Monitoring the local environment that the tilapia live in allows RAD staff to make any necessary adjustments so the tilapia can continue to thrive in the RAD aquaponic greenhouse media-bed system.  For those who have not been in the greenhouse before, the pond for fish (which currently has goldfish in it), is built into the ground, so staff and visitors in the greenhouse walk on a platform above the pond.  This design saves room so the rest of the greenhouse can be utilized for other additions, like the barrels filled with water that passively help to heat and cool the greenhouse.

Funding for the pH data logger was awarded to RAD Sustainability by Evergreen’s Clean Energy Committee (CEC).  The Clean Energy Committee has hearings twice a quarter, where students, staff, and faculty can apply for funding for sustainability projects on campus.  An example of other RAD projects that CEC has funded include: the solar panels on top of Mod 302 and the compost heat recovery system.  Click on the flyer in this blog post to learn more!  Or email cleanenergy@evergreen.edu with any inquiries or questions.

By Rhianna Hruska, 2nd Year Master of Environmental Studies candidate, Secretary/Treasurer of the Clean Energy Committee, and Sustainability Resident Assistant for the Mods

Did you know Evergreen housing offers a sustainability theme?  Mod 303 is a place for residents interested in living an environmentally conscious lifestyle.  There are two rooms open in the theme for this year!  Current on campus residents interested in the sustainability theme can apply and live in one of the Mod 303 rooms for the remainder of this academic year.   Applications for the theme open on February 1, 2016.  The application can be accessed at this link: http://evergreen.edu/housing/themes/sustainability.htm.  Residents interested in sustainability-themed housing next year can also apply.

What does the sustainability theme entail?  Residents will attend a half day retreat at the beginning of fall quarter and will volunteer for ten hours a quarter in sustainability projects of their interest.  The sustainability housing community will meet together twice a quarter with the Sustainability Resident Director and the RAD Sustainability Crew Lead to brainstorm sustainability projects/ideas for the quarter.  For example, last year the sustainability community helped build a spiral herb garden in front of Mod 303.  I spent my volunteer hours in the RAD Aquaponic Greenhouse.  I did water testing, harvested plants, and fed the fish in the system.  The theme provides an opportunity for residents to get involved and contribute to campus sustainability projects!

If you have any questions about sustainability themed housing, RAD can be contacted at: rad@evergreen.edu, (360) 867-6132, or by stopping by the RAD Front Office on the third floor of A Building (Room 301).  If you have any questions about RAD Facilities’ sustainability projects or want to hear about ways to get involved, reach out to RAD Sustainability at radsustainability@evergreen.edu.

Beside the aquaponics greenhouse there is a small shed with a solar tube penetrating the southernmost wall. This solar tube has a dome on the end of the tube outside of the shed. This dome takes in light from all directions and pushes it down the tube. Right below the dome, the inside of the tube is coated with panda film and below the panda film is a six inch aluminum tube. We are collecting data on the light intensity that it being reflected out of the end of the solar tube using a Hobo Pendant that captures light intensity in footcandles. We are also collecting light intensity data outside of the shed just above the solar tube’s dome. Our aim for this solar tube is to find the best way to direct sunlight, so we can give the bottom bed of plants in the aquaponics greenhouse access to more solar radiation. The alternative to this method is buying grow lights and setting them up above the plants. The solar tube method ultimately saves energy as the solar tube requires no energy and just redirects sunlight, but the grow lights require energy to run.

When we first installed the tube, we were getting very low readings for light intensity. We fashioned a twelve inch tube that was coated with panda film. We attached this new tube to the end of the solar tube inside of the shed and, for a while, our readings for light intensity were much greater than without this tube extension. On the 17th of April 2015, our light intensity readings decreased significantly after the twelve inch tube extension was applied. You can see this trend in the graph below. 

This is light and temperature data collected from the end of the solar tube, where we’re hoping to push all the solar radiation.

In this graph, the blue line represent light intensity, which is calculated in footcandles (luminosity / feet^2). The black line is temperature. (Later in this blog post you’ll see we stopped recording temperature for the sake of using less space on our hobomonitor device. ) In an attempt to fix the drop in production and to increase the projected luminosity altogether, on May 6th we fashioned a six inch tube out of aluminum with no panda film lining. We’d learned about the fact that telescope mirrors are made of aluminum, so we wanted to see if it would reflect more solar radiation than the panda film. The graph below shows the light intensity at the end of the solar tube before and after attaching the new aluminum tube extension. 

You can see that on May 6th, our light intensity readings increase drastically. May 6th was the day that we installed the new six inch aluminum extension to the tube, we can see that it seems to have increased our light intensity readings on both the 6th and the 7th. The plants we intend to grow in the bottom part of the greenhouse bed need a luminosity of about 1,000 footcandles, but our solar tube was giving us an average of about two-hundred. We uninstalled the solar tube and replaced it with a professionally made solar tube in hopes of increasing our luminosity readings. After collecting data on this new tube for two weeks, we’re seeing a small increase in luminosity. We’re hitting our mark of 1,000 footcandles, but only on some very sunny days and we only hit this mark for about 10 minutes each of these days. Although showing improvement, these readings are still too low to be usable for a growing space. The below graph shows the data we collected over the past two weeks. 

From this graph you can see that our luminosity spikes at about 1,000, but it only does so for a few minutes at a time. The rest of the time the luminosity readings range between zero and 350.  The grow bed we’re trying to illuminate only has luminosity problems during the spring and summer seasons. During these seasons the sun is much higher than fall and winter and the top bed is shading the entirety of the bottom bed. During the fall and winter seasons, the sun is much lower in the sky and generates a good amount of light in the bottom bed, ranging between about 1,000 to 2,000. Since most of our dips in production are on cloudy days and on really sunny days we’re getting a decent amount of solar radiation, the new solar tube should be able to provide us with the luminosity we need during the summer and spring, but during the winter and fall the sun’s angle will provide the luminosity for us. 

Our next step is to install our solar tube into the side of the greenhouse and then plant some plants and see how well they grow. If these plants grow well, we’ll install a few more solar tubes to illuminate the remaining dark parts of the bed and increase our greenhouse’s food production.

As you may know from our earlier posts, we’re generating electricity for mod 302 using eighteen 275W solar panels. After noticing significant production dips in our solar panels we did some investigation and learned some interesting information about maintaining solar panels, when they’re ideal for electricity generation, and where they stand in regards to other resources. This is the report on these production dips.

Abstract:

The Solar panels on Mod 302 were experiencing dips in production every day from around 10:45am to 11:30am and 12:45pm to 2:00pm. We believe these production dips were being caused by two tall trees to the south of the building. At the before mentioned times, the sun was hiding behind these trees, thus shading the solar panels and reducing their electricity production.

Analysis:

These dips in production were caused by two different trees. One of these trees was almost directly south of the solar panels and the other tree is generally south east of the solar panels. The sun dips behind the southeastern tree at 10:45am and is fully visible again by 11:45am, the sun then dipped behind the southern tree at about 12:45pm and was fully visible again by 2:00pm. In January of 2014 the 302 solar panels showed an average energy production level of 1.28 kWh. During the dips in production we saw power production decrease to as low as .003 kWh (3 Wh) with a high of about .133 kWh (133 Wh). In February, the 302 solar panels showed an average production level of 1.29 kWh. During the dips in February, we saw a low of about .013 kWh (13 Wh) and a high of about .116 kWh (116 Wh). In February the lowest dip is not as drastic as the lowest dip in January, with a small difference of .01 kWh (10 Wh).

Something important to note about this is the fact that the sun’s altitude angle changes drastically as the seasons change. In the winter you may find the sun at an angle of 20 degrees, but during the spring and summer the sun can reach a maximum of 90. So these production dips are only taking affect in the fall and winter, but during the spring and summer the sun rises high above both trees.

Relevance:

With the growing threats that are being caused by climate change, there is an also growing need for renewable resources that emit low amounts of carbon. Solar panels are one of many ways to attempt to satisfy this need for renewables. Solar panels emit significantly less carbon per kWh than electricity pulled from the grid, exactly how much depends on where you are and the systems used to generate grid electricity. When planning urban environments, if you’re going to use solar radiation as a primary resource, you need to design the urban system to have access to this radiation. This may mean slanted roofs facing the incoming solar radiation, placing windows specifically to capture passive solar heat, or removing trees to make way for incoming solar radiation. Planning urban environments, or altering established ones, to be geared towards using solar radiation is known as “solar zoning.” If we want to build communities that are environmentally friendly and sustainable, we need to plan these communities and their locations to have maximum access to the sun’s incoming energy.

I will make another blog post soon explaining how we dealt with this problem.

This is the link to access the data being collected on the PV solar panels on Mod 302:

https://enlighten.enphaseenergy.com/pv/public_systems/ggfa523388?preview=1

TL;DR

Our solar panels were producing little to no electricity at certain times while the sun was out, we realized it was due to two different trees shading them.