Northern Illinois University received four benches for free from a solar charging company. They’ve got eight charging spots and a shady overhang where the solar panel is installed.
Matt Deitch is the program director with Northern Illinois Sustainability Center. He said that small changes like this around campus can have a big impact.
“And it seems like something that that's so simple, right?" he said, "but at the same time, it's this really innovative thing. Why don't we have these all over? Why do we not have these at every college campus or every place where people are meeting? As we see what they can do, people will be more interested in having them around.”
The Center connects research and innovation to advance sustainability in communities, including at the university. Deitch said projects like these can be used to advance sustainability elsewhere.
“We're doing a lot of things here on campus that are innovative and interesting," he said. "I think they have a lot of applications to communities around NIU and across Northern Illinois. As these projects develop, it will be really useful to see how they can be applied to other regions, and to other, to other places in our community.”
The installation is part of NIU’s overall energy conservation mission. The school is conducting efficiency upgrades around campus. The efforts are equal in terms of carbon savings to planting a campus-sized forest of trees every year.
