‘We’ll be doing this for a long time’

Mary Beth Breckenridge, the Akron Beacon Journal’s totally excellent garden writer, wrote last week about an Ohio couple’s battle with invasive plants, such as the garlic-mustard shown here. Their son, a recent graduate of our college, and their daughter-in-law, an educator with our outreach arm, OSU Extension, play a big part in the story, whose bottom line is this: A hands-off approach to managing a woods can let invasive plants take over. And that can put natives at risk. Read the story.

Students to present research projects on campus sustainability, Olentangy restoration

Students in our “Communicating Environmental and Natural Resources Information” course (ENV 2367) will be presenting their research projects next week and continuing through Monday, Nov. 5. The projects focus on restoration of the Olentangy River corridor and on campus sustainability. You’re welcome to attend and give feedback.

From “snakes on the trail” to a better campus biking culture to biophilic design at the Wexner Medical Center, check out the lineup of topics.

Bioenergy leader, OARDC partner to speak at Advanced Energy B2B Expo

Mel Kurtz, shown here, president of quasar energy group, which we mentioned two posts down, will speak at next week’s Advanced Energy B2B Conference & Expo in Columbus, Ohio. His topic: “Ohio’s Significant Advanced Energy Deployment Projects.”

Kurtz’s company has partnered with OARDC, which is CFAES’s research arm, on the development of bioenergy-producing anaerobic waste digesters (video, 2:10).

‘Probably the most underappreciated critical resource that we have’

The 6,000-square-foot pilot plant in Wooster, Ohio, makes gloves and a variety of other latex and rubber products. This is nothing new in a town and region historically known for rubber manufacturing.

What’s different about the facility is the source of its natural rubber: plants grown in the U.S. rather than the Southeast Asian trees that currently provide all of the world’s supply of natural rubber.

Read more …

OARDC partner quasar announces expansion: More digesters, CNG stations

The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s John Funk reports on quasar energy group’s latest plans: building more bioenergy-producing waste “digesters” in Ohio and beyond; and adding compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations to its locations. The stations will dispense CNG produced by the digesters for use as car and truck fuel.

quasar has partnered with OARDC scientists to develop these digesters and has a lab, digester (shown here), and fueling station on OARDC’s Wooster campus. OARDC is the research arm of our college.

‘Sustainability is becoming more and more needed in the workforce’

“There aren’t a lot of sustainability programs out there,” says junior Alexandra Kueller of Crystal Lake, Ill., shown here, who is majoring in our new Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainability program. “To have this program sets Ohio State apart from other universities and colleges.”

Toledo, Ohio, native David Perzynski, a senior and mentor with the program, says few schools “can devote resources toward new fledgling subjects such as sustainability. Few other schools would have given me such an opportunity …”

They talk about studying sustainability here in a recent story.