Every new building project, every renovation, at Indiana University East comes with one thing in mind.

Sustainability. It’s right for the environment. It’s right for education. And it’s right for economics.

IU East faculty and staff plant new trees on campus as part of the Arbor Day celebration and Tree Campus USA project.

“It’s at the forefront of our mind in whatever we do,” said Gail Smoker, director of operations and physical facilities. “I started here when there was one building. I could not have imagined then what would be happening now.”

For example, the university is making updates whenever possible with LED lighting.

“We’ve always wanted to,” Smoker said. “The costs have come down pretty drastically. Technology is getting better, too.”

The LED updating can’t be done all it once. For one thing, buildings date back more than 40 years, but most became occupied in the 1990s. “We chisel away at it as best we can,” Smoker said, who has been working on campus for 32 years.

The physical plant now has 23 employees. “When I started (in 1985), the first building was just about 11 years old. There were only about seven people then.”

The university is working to replace controls for heating and cooling in all of its buildings, he said.

A project is going on to replace the controls on mechanical systems. “That’s being staged out over a few years,” Smoker said.

Sustainability also includes something as simple as the continued push for recycling.

Several sustainability projects can be going on at once. For example, LED lighting was put in along the sidewalks and in the patio area in the recently completed quad at the center of campus.

Rain gardens were built to capture rain and snow melts. As the water flow comes off, they help to filter out sediments before they get into the storm water system.

The new Student Events and Activities Center has all LED lighting. The high bay lighting in the gym area is run through settings on a controller.

“We can do quite a bit of different lighting in the gym,” Smoker said.

The standard fixtures in the classrooms and locker rooms are either on or off. “We have a master timer that will shut them all off (when not in use),” he said. Motion sensors can quickly turn the lights back on.

Prices have come down on a lot of products in recent years. That leads to a quicker payback on initial costs and also allows for “projects to mesh a lot better together.”

Sustainability projects are a common goal across all generations.

“That makes it much easier,” Smoker said. “People are more conscientious about sustainability. A lot of students have grown up with it. It’s second nature.”

Smoker also runs a sixth-generation farm of beans, corn and cattle in southern Wayne County, so sustainability and cost controls always have been second nature for him.

Results of the campus-wide efforts may not always be seen. But they are there.

For example, IU East sends basically the same amount of garbage to landfills now as it did when there were far fewer buildings.

April brings a focus on environmental efforts with Arbor Day and Earth Week activities that will take place on campus the week of April 23-27.

“I look forward to it,” Smoker said. “I think participation grows every year. We only have one earth. We have to take care of it.”

IU East senior Chelsea Dugger agrees.

“I think more students, faculty, and staff will become more involved each and every year, especially as environmental issues get more publicity,” Dugger said. “I really hope that our events on campus … will engage conversations and open up everyone’s eyes on these important issues.”

The official Arbor Day program at IU East is from 11 a.m. to noon on Friday, April 27, and will include planting instructions with the opportunity to practice planting trees, and a giveaway of nearly 300 trees.

Steve Hayes Jr., of Hayes Arboretum in Richmond, will be the guest speaker and will instruct volunteers the proper method for planting saplings. Twenty-five trees will be planted by volunteers during the event.

Linda Melody-Cottongim, senior administrative secretary to the School of Social Work, organizes the Arbor Day program. She coordinated the first event three years ago as part of a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Tree Stewart project and “it has all snowballed,” she said. “The cool thing is that it involves students.”

“The program helps colleges and universities around the country establish and sustain healthy community forests,” according to the Arbor Day Foundation website.

Students can earn extra credit for the projects they do. Volunteers and students donate the in-kind hourly work done toward the Tree Campus USA project to benefit DNR grants.

The Student Government Association (SGA) is organizing and promoting activities that encompass Earth Day by offering campus activates being Monday April 23 and ending with the Arbor Day celebration on Friday April 27th in conjunction with of the Tree Campus USA project. The SGA is coordinating a social media blitz and events such as Meatless Monday with The Den, IU East’s restaurant in Whitewater Hall.

“Each day we are going to be talking about different topics in support of Earth Week,” Dugger said of the SGA. She is a member of the SGA.

Other designated days are Technology Tuesday (encourages everyone to unplug when not in use); Wildlife Wednesday includes film documentaries and popcorn in the Graf Recreation Center; Threatened Thursday (with talks about how our actions are jeopardizing our planet); and Fun Friday (facts about Earth Week and how to help the environment).

Dugger said the SGA’s publicity efforts are environmentally conscious.

“We are doing this all on social media because that is where the majority of students are these days, plus it cuts down on using flyers, posters and anything with paper,” Dugger said.

The focus of Earth Day this year is an end to plastic pollution, Melody-Cottongim said. A fun activity sponsored by the IU East Staff Council as part of the week long events is the Plastic Hat-tastic Challenge. Participants will create hats made from used plastic to be displayed in the Meijer Artway glass case after the competition.

“This celebration is taking off. There is so much synergy in this,” she said. “We had 200 trees last year and all got adopted. People love to get trees and plant them.”