Executive Summary and Key Plan Details

Sustainability is defined as the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting the natural resources, but by supporting long-term ecological balance. In Norfolk we use a number of Sustainable efforts around the city, for an example, water towers and waste facilities. But in addition to that, we could use so much more in other places around the city. One being Old Dominion, the University could use Alternative energy, waste water treatment facilities, and a recycle compost center. As you can see Earth’s population is increasing at a rapid pace annually, and in addition to that, there is only a certain number of people this Earth can sustain. As you can see if we keep consuming at the rate we are going now, then the positive future of Norfolk is looking rather slim. Therefore these facilities will help the city in the future because it will help not limit the next generation from their needs such as food and other resources.  With these Sustainable efforts the city could even make a difference economic wise. If we are able to get these facilities and alternatives this will benefit the University and the city itself. We chose as a group to specifically focus on two areas of the Norfolk area. First is at Old Dominion University. We chose this location because we will relate to many students ideas and hopes for this campus. We spend the more time here at school than we do in our own homes. Second we chose to focus on downton Norfolk. This location was chosen because when someone visits Norfolk they tend to focus on two attractions, Old Dominion University and downtown Norfolk. Students and locals find both of these areas to be large attractions to the city and all agree it could be more sustainable.


What does it mean to be sustainable at Old Dominion University? A college campus that is sustainable is a college that has more potential to thrive, grow and evolve. At Old Dominion University we believe in becoming a bigger but better university and campus. One area to focus on is the idea of Old Dominion having a “sustainable” campus. There are many ways we can improve, first let’s start off with improving the use of alternative energy. Alternative energy is the next era of money saving and eco-friendly power. There are many empty roof tops here on campus that would greatly benefit from solar panels. Solar panels on the roofs of many buildings would be quite expensive to put in at first but over a short period of time we could save thousands of dollars annually. Also another area of sustainability that the campus could benefit from is the institution of our own waste water treatment facility. It would eliminate a lot of the usage of water yearly if we were able to treat our very own waste water and after it has been cleaned reuse it as our very own supply. The third focus area of sustainability comes from our very own cafeterias. What this campus needs is its very own recycling and compost center. With the amount of plastics and papers thrown into the garbage each day the school could then recycle these products and save the school thousands. Also all of the extra food waste is just thrown into the garbage and taken to Norfolk waste facilities. With this we could create compost gardens that could evolve into a new or improved study on campus. These gardens would also grow some of the materials that our cafeterias need to create our wonderfully delicious meals. The idea of a sustainable campus is to remove itself from the grid of a city. For instance WHEN Old Dominion becomes a sustainable campus it will eliminate majority of our impact on the city of Norfolk and helping Norfolk focus on its own sustainability.

Being a Norfolk native, I’ve grown up with the city. I’ve seen it change and grow, some changes being better than others. With this project, certain things about Norfolk have been brought to the attention of our group. Could Norfolk be better? What if it was more sustainable, efficient, and people oriented? We have a lot of tall, broad buildings in Norfolk; surely most of the rooftops are unoccupied, why not utilize their space and place special photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roofs. Photovoltaic cells turn sunlight directly into electricity, this would be a great way to save energy and power the building during the day. Another great sustainability project for the rooftops of Norfolk could be to start rooftop gardens. There are many restaurants downtown, imagine growing the vegetables for their business right over head; and then going even further by watering the gardens with rain water collected through rain barrel systems. The conservation of water is imperative; reducing the amount of runoff in the city saves the waterway from harmful pollutants washed off the streets. Norfolk has the potential to be better than it is, through well thought planning, this city could grown into something beautiful. 

 

 

Key Highlights

•  Solar Energy- Rooftop PV solar panels
•  Water Conservation- Rain catching systems 
•  Rooftop Gardens- Reduces outsourcing, improves air quality
•  Natural, Self Sustainability at ODU
•   Efficiency   
• Waste Water Treatment

These two pictures are of the photovoltaic solar panels, these would be the types of solar panels to go on cityscape buildings. They are quite obtrusive, meaning they would not be suited for urban dwellings.  

Searching through the TED Talks we came across a video expressing a fascinating alternative energy source that utilizes solar energy controlled by window panes.