Making Headlines

The following articles reflect our commitment to share sustainability-related accomplishments across the university — representing its colleges, departments, institutes, centers and other units — in the areas of research, student engagement, campus stewardship and collaborations with the public and private sectors.

Cleveland.com, 1-Mar-18

Spring is ahead of schedule this year in the Buckeye State, a pattern Ohioans are likely to see continue because of climate change. While an early end to the snow and cold sounds ideal, a premature spring season is not necessarily a good thing, according to Jeff Rogers, state climatologist emeritus at Ohio State University. ...

Columbus Dispatch, 24-Feb-18

After 30 years of working in wastewater management, Steve Carathers knows the importance of providing clean water to the community. He also knows that more people with his expertise are needed in the industry. That’s what excites him about the Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute’s new Associate of Applied Science program in bioenergy and biological waste management that prepares students for high-demand careers such as wastewater and drinking-water treatment plant operators. ...

WSYX-TV, 21-Feb-18

You can think of Doctors Lonnie and Ellen Thompson as librarians of a sort. Instead of books, their library is filled with ice core samples from across the planet that tell the story of earth's climate history, "They're just a treasure trove of information. The cores give us a glimpse of the past. They tell us how the system works today and allows us to make projections for the future." ...

WOSU, 19-Feb-18

Researchers from The Ohio State University’s Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center formed a task force to draft an action plan for Central Ohio’s handling of climate change. The report, which is the result of a two-year collaboration effort with the City of Columbus, outlines necessary and aspirational steps for the city to tackle climate change. ...

Bloomberg, 9-Feb-18

Storage is becoming attractive to utilities because it has uses beyond integrating renewables, including helping power companies overcome voltage and power distribution challenges, Ramteen Sioshansi, an associate engineering professor at Ohio State University and associate fellow at the Center for Automotive Research, told Bloomberg Environment. “A lot of the driver is not 100 percent having to do with renewables,” he said. “The big thing is a lot of people think that storage and renewables are two things that go hand in hand, but I think there are a lot more things you can do with storage than charging a battery with a wind turbine or a solar panel.” ...

The Columbus Dispatch – opinion by David B. Williams, executive dean of the professional colleges and dean of the College of Engineering, 8-Feb-18

On any given day, a major company will consider our city — smart Columbus — as the location for a manufacturing plant, an R&D center, a logistics hub and, yes, its headquarters. It makes sense. Columbus is a thriving, multicultural city with infrastructure and geographic advantages that, more often than not, qualify for site-selector short lists. ...

Cleveland.com, 6-Feb-18

The Ohio State University has joined the newly launched University Climate Change Coalition, an alliance of 13 leading research universities that will create a collaborative model to help local communities achieve climate goals. The initial group of universities from the United States, Canada and Mexico has committed to mobilize resources and expertise to accelerate local and regional climate action in partnership with businesses, cities and states, Ohio State said in a news release. ALSO: Politico: University presidents unveil global warming coalitionhttps://www.politicopro.com/agriculture/article/2018/02/university-pres… ALSO: Grist: 13 universities band together to fight climate change.https://grist.org/briefly/13-universities-band-together-to-fight-climat… ...

The Columbus Dispatch, 2-Feb-18

An Ohio State University trustees committee has put on hold several proposals to create endowments using funds from its $1.1-billion energy deal approved last spring. Before the board of trustees this week were proposals to create four endowments totaling about $775 million. On Thursday, the board’s finance committee decided to table the matter pending further discussion about how and why the funds were prioritized and divided. ...

Big Ten Network, 31-Jan-18

Ah, the sights and sounds of a college football game: the roar of cheering fans, the quarterback’s calls, the precision formation of that big brass band, the face paint, the foam fingers, the… garbage. But this common scenario could soon be a thing of the past thanks to a nationwide initiative called the GameDay Recycling Challenge. The program pits colleges and universities across the US against each other in an effort to see which school can reduce, recycle or otherwise divert the largest amount of their stadium waste away from landfills. For the sixth consecutive year, The Ohio State University has led the Big Ten in the competition, diverting the largest single-game amount of waste in 2017 with 94.2 percent of stadium refuse kept out of the dump. ...

The Columbus Dispatch, 30-Jan-18

Ohio State University is about to begin its first round of capital utility improvements since the university entered into a $1.1 billion energy privatization deal last year. Ohio State Energy Partners has six utility projects ready to go, pending Ohio State Board of Trustees’ approval later this week. ALSO: The Lantern: Ohio State Energy Partners to begin first round of energy conservation efforts, pending Board of Trustees approval ...