Features

Bubbling bliss delights and conserves

September 17, 2014

Has anyone noticed our new thirst quenchers? West Allis, Oak Creek, Downtown, and the Education Center at Walker’s Square have had some Earth-friendly drinking fountains with Elkay EZH2O bottle filling sations installed.
Walker’s Square had these units installed during the 2013 summer construction. West Allis campus joined this last April. The Oak Creek campus addition was completed on Friday, Aug. 8. Downtown campus Main building installation was completed on Friday, Aug. 22.
“In two weeks since the completion of the units,” Kelly Cech, facility designer of Construction Services, said, “the new bottle fillers have saved at each location an average of 350 bottles.”
“Total bottles saved, 3,515. Not bad for under two weeks since the job was completed.”
“I do think it certainly fits in with our sustainability efforts,” Dr. Mark Felsheim, vice president at the MATC Oak Creek campus, added, “and that’s in a continuous effort to provide students with convenience and also to show our commitment to recycling.”
Cech, like Felsheim, is also passionate about sustainability.
“It takes roughly 83,698,560 disposable water bottles to circle the earth,”Cech stated, “but our generation does not want to fulfill this. We are on our way to assist in reversing that endeavor.”
“MATC is dedicated to providing a healthy and sustainable environment for our students and employees,” Cech added. “The MATC Sustainability Committee came up with the bottle filling drinking fountain initiative and proposed this great fixture for the entire district. According to Elkay’s specifications, the unit’s energy efficiency performance exceeds the average market performance by 35 percent.”
It is agreed that the committee is doing its part by providing the students and employees with an opportunity to use the bottle fillers and drinking fountains instead of purchasing bottles of water.