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Lights went out. Subway trains stopped in their tracks. Cell phones were silent in purses and pockets as exhausted
workers maneuvered their way home, without the benefit of traffic lights, to check on their families. It was August 14,
2003, and in just nine seconds, one of the largest electricity blackouts in North American history had wiped out power
across the northestern United States and Ontario, Canada, leaving some in the dark for more than a week.
But long after the lights were shining again, the subways were humming, and cell phones were ringing in every office
and on every street corner, the more profound implications of this historic failure began to sink in as officials
looked at the upgrades and new technologies that would be needed to offset an increasingly overburdened electrical
energy system.
The threat of future blackouts has not diminished as electricity demands continue to rise. And this year, another hot
energy issue has affected vacation plans and pocketbooks across the nation. As gasoline prices have risen to an all-time
high?spurring political debates from the office watercooler to the floor of Congress?a growing number of Americans are
paying more attention to the economic, environmental, and political dangers of dependency on fossil fuels.
LAYING THE GROUNDWORK
These concerns have led policymakers to look more closely at sustainable energy sources?energy that can be produced
economically and without adversely affecting the environment or well-being of future generations?as an alternative to
fossil fuels. Sustainable energy advocates emphasize the need to limit the use of non-renewable sources of energy and
use more renewable sources, such as the sun, wind, and waves.
IIT?s research leadership in the field of sustainable energy dates back three decades.
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At that time, IIT was already an
established national center of energy and power research, a field it entered in the 1950s after the university became
affiliated with the Institute of Gas Technology (IGT, today known as the Gas Technology Institute after its merger with
the Gas Research Institute in 2000). This allowed students and employees with IGT scholarships to complete degrees at IIT
and connected IIT to cutting-edge energy research. Over the following decades, IIT developed additional energy research
partnerships with organizations such as Argonne National Laboratory, the Department of Energy, and the National Science
Foundation.
Many of IIT?s energy-related efforts have been led by Henry Linden, Max McGraw Professor of Energy and Power Engineering
and Management. Linden has worn many professional hats?ranging from president of several energy research organizations
to advisor to the Kennedy and Ford administrations on energy issues to distinguished professor to interim IIT president.
Linden has developed a reputation over the past six decades as a leader in the global scientific community for his work
in sustainable global energy systems, climate change, and industrial ecology.
Linden believes in the potential of energy to affect positive global change. ?All advances in human, social well-being
since the Industrial Revolution are a result of the substitution of commercial energy forms for human and animal labor,?
Linden says. ?This has led to the abolition of serfdom, slavery, child labor, and the subjugation of women.? He adds,
?You can see how the cultural and social effects of energy abundance have benefited the human race.?
This quest to help ensure that the energy supply remains abundant?and environmentally friendly?led Linden to develop a
sustainable energy paradigm based on the interdependent relationships between energy, the environment, and economics.
This ?E3? paradigm has laid the groundwork for IIT?s most recent research efforts.
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DESIGNS FOR A
GREEN COMMUNITY
IIT?s College of Architecture faculty continue to pursue cutting-edge green design. For example, Adjunct Associate
Professor Jeanne Gang and Visiting Assistant Professor Mark Schendel won the Ford Calumet Environmental Center
design competition held in 2004 by Chicago?s Department of Environment. Architecture faculty have also served as
consultants, including Architecture Professor Mahjoub Elnimeiri and a group of doctoral students who executed a
post-occupancy evaluation of several City of Chicago buildings?such as the Department of Energy?s Center for Green
Technology?to evaluate their energy strategies. The college is also encouraging international dialogue on the topic
of sustainable energy design through conferences, such as last fall?s successful symposium, ?2004 Sustainable
Communities: Learning from the Dutch Experience.?
Stuart?s Environmental Management Program is also helping to build a greener community through the Center for
Sustainable Enterprise. Co-founded by Program Director George Nassos and Adjunct Professor John Paul Kusz in 2000,
this resource center provides business, academic, and both governmental and non-governmental agencies with
opportunities to collaborate on business strategies to advance the ecological and economic sustainability of the
greater Chicago area.
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