A panel spoke Wednesday on the issue of sustainability at Iowa State and surrounding Iowa communities.

Merry Rankin, director of sustainability, touched on various ways Iowa State and ISU students are getting involved in sustainability initiatives.

She spoke about the Live Green! initiative implemented in 2008 by  Gregory Geoffroy, ISU president. Rankin said sustainability as a whole is a team effort and requires an effort from everyone.

A few ways Iowa State has incorporated sustainability on campus is the Cybrid, and by using electric cars for some campus transportation. The university has also replaced some of its trash cans with solar compactors, which produce less waste.

Students last year also started recycling after Veishea, which led to the recycling of more than 3,000 containers.

Kevin Nordmeyer, director of the Iowa Energy Center, discussed how building in a sustainable way can reduce humans’ impact on the environment.

Nordmeyer also spoke about how human consumption of natural resources has grown over time due to the invention of indoor lighting and industrialization. Before air conditioning people used natural ventilation in the architecture of homes and schools, but since air-conditioning was industrialized more energy goes into keeping a room cool than simply opening a window.

Lee Burras, professor in agronomy, geology and environmental science, spoke about the sustainability of food resources in the world. Burras said soil and water degradation is going down and soon 50 percent of the food we eat will be grown using irrigation. He also anticipated that the demand for water will skyrocket due to increasing populations around the world.

Burras spoke about ISU Dining’s goal, Farm to ISU, which is a challenge for dining services to make 35 percent of its food purchases sustainable and organic by the 2011–2012 school year. The goal is being headed by Nancy Levandowski, director of campus dining services.

“ISU Dining is a leader [in food sustainability in Iowa],” Burras said.