Student Work
Meredith College's Carbon Footprint
Meredith students are already contributing to the College’s sustainability efforts. Students in the Geology 326: Environmental Resources course taught by Assistant Professor of Geoscience Matthew Stutz spent the fall semester calculating Meredith’s carbon footprint.
The students shared their findings with the campus community on December 1. The presentation included the objectives of their research, background on climate change, methodology of the research and their findings.
Using the Clean Air-Cool Planet Campus Carbon Calculator, the students determined the College is responsible for 16,003 metric tons of carbon emissions. The majority of these emissions come from the College’s energy use. Other areas of concern were emissions caused by commuter travel and use of Meredith-owned vehicles.
Some of the students’ recommendations will be supported through the duPont Grant, including better monitoring of energy use and better building efficiency. The students also recommended incentives and educational efforts to encourage carpooling and use of public transportation and renewing the College’s vehicle fleet with hybrids as their leases expire.
The Environmental Resources course was offered for the first time this semester.The students of GEO326, Environmental Resources, invite you to view the summary of the project.
Meredith Student Wins Earth Day Fashion Show, April 18, 2009 
Meredith College junior Brie Sherman won the “Bag-Out in Style” fashion show held as part of the Planet Earth ’09 Celebration.
Sherman’s design was a long evening rosette dress made from Target plastic bags. She made each rosette with the white part of recycled Target bags and laced them with rhinestone decorations.
Four of Meredith fashion design students participated in the event, which was held April 18 in honor of Earth Day.
Senior Salma Salem and juniors Meredith Busey and Lindsay Kay participated along with Sherman.
“The fashion show was a big hit with the crowd gathered for the Earth Day,” said Eunyoung Yang, faculty member in Meredith’s fashion merchandising and design program. “It was fun and meaningful project for our students.”
The Planet Earth ’09 Celebration was sponsored by Burt’s Bees and the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.
Interior Design Thesis 2008-2009
Claire Keane '09
Green Gadgets: Investigating the Current and Future Trends of Electronic Devices
Introduction to Computer Studies Research, Spring 2009
Chelsea McLaughlin '10
Beta-Carotene Contents of Organic and Conventionally Grown Spinach
Undergraduate Research, Department of Biological Sciences and Foods and Nutrition, Spring 2009
Haylie Hoffman '11
Children's Play: The Day the Trash Talked Back
Theatre for Youth Production with Catherine Rodgers, Fall 2008
Sustainability at Meredith College
Environmental Politics and Policy with Dr. Barbara True-Weber, Spring 2008
Brittni Walker '08 and Crystal Sumner '09
Green Logo and Tagline Advertising Campaign,
Marketing Research with Dr. Carolyn Nye, Fall 2008
Stephanie Mack '10, Amber Morris-Carr, Meredith Wynn '09, and Nancy Senter '09
Residence Hall Recycling
Marketing Research with Dr. Carolyn Nye, Fall 2008
"My group is working on a project to find out about recycling in the Meredith dorms. We will be surveying two different groups about their recycling habits. After that we are going to provide the two groups with different information [positive and negative] about recycling, [and measure change affected]." -Kelly Murphy
Analysis of the composition and ecosystem effects of trees in parking lots in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Evan Keto, Masters Student in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, College of Natural Resources, North Carolina State University with data collection help from Joan Louie, Jasmine Shaw, and Megan Shaw.
"Data will be sent to the [United States Forest Service] to calculate how much carbon is being sequestered and air pollution removed" by Meredith parking lot trees. -Evan Keto
