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May's Sustainability Champion: Fred Hagemeister

This month's Sustainability Champion is Fred Hagemeister, a Research Analyst in Information Services and an adjunct professor in Chemistry. Read about how Fred supports sustainability research on campus and renewable energy at home in our full interview with him below.

How did you get to your current job and what does being a research analyst entail?

Before I came to University of Richmond, I was working at Grinnell College in Iowa. Grinell is like a smaller version of UR, it's a selective, progressive liberal arts college. While I was there, I was working on a consortium project that University of Richmond was also participating in. When a job opening came up here at the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology, I applied for it. Now I'm a Research Analyst in Information Services, so I assist in the development of resources for computing-intensive academic research. Often, faculty will approach us with a specific research project and we help them develop the resources they need to make it happen. I have a PhD in physical chemistry, so I hope I understand both the faculty perspective and the Information Services perspective in each project.

What role does sustainability play in your job?

It's more of an indirect connection, but when people acquire resources from us to conduct research, we want to make sure they're using those resources efficiently. For example, when maintaining and running servers for research, we try to make sure people know how to best utilize those to avoid wasting energy. In addition to that, I help faculty who are doing sustainability research. Stephanie Spera in Geography and the Environment works on research that involves atmospheric modeling, and we have set up computing resources to help her to do that.

Does sustainability tie into the chemistry courses you teach?

I teach an introductory chemistry course with a lab. Two of the labs, which are chosen by our department, touch on sustainability. For one lab, students synthesize biodiesel and compare its efficiency to commercial biodiesels. That allows us to have a conversation about different fuels and their efficiency. Another experiment, created by Ryan Coppage, involves extracting caffeine from coffee. In order to extract the caffeine, you have to use an organic solvent. The most effective solvent in this case, dichloromethane, is the worst for the environment. So we offer students an alternative solvent, ethyl acetate. Then we talk about why we do that and we have a chance to bring the environment into it. We also start each class with a half hour pre-lab lecture, so that gives me a chance to share a little more about my interest in sustainability.  

How have you been able to engage with sustainability at University of Richmond?

I've attended a lot of sustainability event and talks on campus, and I've volunteered at things like the waste audit after the RecycleMania basketball game a couple years ago and cleanup after the Big Yard Sale this month. I was also part of the Information Services team during the South Africa Sustainability Challenge. One solar event a couple years probably had the most overall impact, though. It was a talk by Aaron Sutch from Solar United Neighbors of Virginia. If I hadn't gone to that event and learned about solar co-ops, and connected with Carrie and Eugene Wu in Biology who had recently gone solar, I wouldn't have known all the options for putting solar on my house.

What steps have you taken to be more sustainable outside the workplace?

I was involved in Boy Scouts growing up, so from the earliest times I remember trying to leave a place better than we found it and doing things like litter cleanups. When I lived in Iowa, my daughter and I did an energy audit of our house, made some changes to save energy, and then did another energy audit to see what kind of wind turbine we would need if we wanted to get all of our electricity from renewable energy. Before we could install anything, though, we moved to Richmond.

Wind isn't as prevalent in Virginia, but solar is. So I really started to think seriously about it after attending that solar talk here on campus. We joined a solar co-op with a few dozen other families, the co-op put out a request for proposals to get bids from solar installers, and we were able to get a lower rate for solar on our houses through the co-op than if we had approached installers as individuals. Now our whole roof is covered in solar panels and they're supplying all of our electricity. We did have to prune some trees before the panels were installed, which concerned us, but we calculated how much CO2 would have been respirated and sequestered by the trees and compared it to how much the solar production would increase if the trees were pruned to make sure we were being responsible. Now I attend solar events and talk to others about it when I can. Some of our neighbors have noticed our solar panels and I've used that as an entry point to help anyone else who's interested in learning more about going solar.

Beyond that, we don't chemically fertilize our lawn at home and we don't actively water our yard. We watch what goes in the trash and what goes in the recycling very carefully. The church I attend has a sister church in El Salvador that we helped build, and I've talked with them about whether it would be beneficial to install solar there. I try to do what I can where I can, especially walking the walk at home with my kids. As a parent, it would be hard to look in their faces and say, "We're doing what we can, but we're not going to do more."

What advice would you give to a UR employee interested in engaging with sustainability?

Watch out for sustainability events. When you see one and you go to one, you might get hooked. That's a good thing.
Thank you, Fred, for all you do to support sustainability! If you know someone who you think should be featured as a Sustainability Champion, please let us know at sustainability@richmond.edu. 
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