Portobelo, Panama

Chagres, Panama

Ho, Ghana

Waste Vegetable Oil Project

Shuttle Stop Project

Middle School Curriculum

Everyday Actions Video

Campus and Community Involvement

Energy Day

 

PROJECT ARCHIVE

 

PROJECT OVERVIEWS

INTERNATIONAL I LOCAL I EDUCATION & OUTREACH I ENERGY DAY

INTERNATIONAL

ESW-NU has three active international projects, two in Panama and one in Ghana. In Panama, ESW is working to provide energy to the remote village of Santo Domingo, and recently other villages in the Chagres River Basin, via solar power, and wastewater treatment in the coastal town of Portobelo. Students have been working on these projects since spring 2005, and teams have made three visits to these sites so far. ESW is also teaming up with GlobeMed Northwestern on a project to provide sustainable and reliable energy for a recently opened health center in Ho, Ghana.

Portobelo, Panama Project:

The aim of this project is to improve wastewater treatment in the 1200 person town of Portobelo, located on the Caribbean coast of Panama. Working with the NGO:Foundation for the Support of Social Development (FADE), the project focuses on a 10,000 gallon septic tank in the Guinea Creek neighborhood. Only 10% of the town currently has wastewater treatment.
The septic tank that serves the population of the Guinea Creek neighborhood is currently full of solids. The waste that flows in is therefore discharged into the creek with either minimal or no treatment. This location is particularly important because the creek flows past the towns historic district and into the bay, impeding tourism and threatening public health and the environment. The town currently has no means to maintain its septic tanks and the cost to bring in a standard pumping truck from a Colon is very high.

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Chagres, Panama Project:

ESW has been involved in an ongoing effort to provide solar electricity to Santo Domingo, a small village in the Chagres River Basin lacking access to electricity. In the past several years, ESW teams have successfully installed several solar panel systems, offering much needed power for a variety of applications in the town. The most recent project included installation of a computer system for the school in Santo Domingo, and the implementation of the solar powered freezer and lighting system in the community of Santa Librada.

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Ho, Ghana Project:

ESW is teaming up with GlobeMed Northwestern to provide sustainable and reliable energy for a recently opened health center in Ho, Ghana. ESW is currently working on designing a solar system for the vaccine fridge, and may possibly even design a mobile solar station that can help carry out vaccines to the residents in the area.

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LOCAL

Local projects occur right here on campus with the hope of turning Northwestern into a more sustainable community.

Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) Project:

We are currently developing a local project involving the use of waste vegetable oil (WVO) for fueling on-campus shuttles. By collecting otherwise wasted WVO from the Northwestern’s dining halls and using it to help fuel a campus shuttle, we hope to set up a locally sustainable system that creates less pollution and that can serve as a model for sustainability. In the winter and spring quarter of 2007, an IDEA design class is helping to turn this project into reality.

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Sustainable Shuttle Stop Project:

The idea behind the Sustainable Shuttle Stop was to design a shelter to be built at the Norris University shuttle stop that incorporated various environmentally benign building materials into an aesthetically appealing structure. An initial shelter design was submitted at the end of the 05/06 academic year. Following recommendations from the Facilities Management staff (FM) a second design was developed by a group of independent study students during the 2006 fall quarter. This design has been submitted to the FM and is awaiting approval from the committee.

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EDUCATION & OUTREACH

The Education and Outreach Group is responsible for creating awareness of sustainability on and off campus, facilitating educational activities, and coordinating an ESW course on sustainability. In the past year we have worked on several projects to attain these goals.

Middle School Curriculum:

We developed and piloted a two-day program for a sixth grade science classroom. It was implemented at Chute Middle School in Evanston this spring by 6 ESW members. The aim of the curriculum was to expose middle school students to the basic concepts of sustainability. The program was developed to present this information in an interesting and engaging manner.
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Everyday Actions Video:

We filmed a short 5-7 minute video to educate the Northwestern community on everyday actions they can take to reduce their environmental impact. The film will be debuted at Energy Day on May 19th and made available on the website soon afterwards.
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Campus and Community Involvement:

This winter, ESW presented a lunch talk on sustainability at the Society of Women Engineers’ Career Day for Girls. In the spring, several members represented ESW at the Network for Evanston’s Future conference on global warming.
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