Middle Georgia colleges taking initiatives to go green.

Byline: Jennifer Burk

Sep. 25--Although it's not an official color of most Middle Georgia colleges, many campuses are looking at going green.

Across campuses, faculty and students are buzzing with talk of recycling programs and energy-efficient buildings, anything that will make their footprints on the earth a little less deep.

"People are just waking up to the reality (that) you can't just spray water on the lawn on a hot summer afternoon and can't have buildings that aren't insulated," said Randy Harshbarger, an assistant professor of interdisciplinary studies at Mercer University.

Reasons for going green include an increased awareness about global warming, a sense of duty and a way to save money.

At Mercer, faculty members are working on developing a proposal to bring before President Bill Underwood about ways the university could conserve energy. These could include installing solar panels, starting a recycling program and turning off the lights when buildings aren't in use, said David Nelson, a Mercer associate professor of mathematics.

"We're a faith-based institution, and we feel we should be good stewards of the resources God gave us," Nelson said. "As an institution of higher learning, we should be teaching our students to be good citizens."