North Central College, Sustainably

It’s spring, so it’s as good a time as any to explore all the places near North Central that you can comfortably get to by bike.

In particular, Herrick Lake Forest Preserve, three miles (about a 15-minute bike ride [Google Map]) north of campus, is a local bike hub of sorts that you can travel onward from to get almost anywhere to the north, east, and west:

• Map of Herrick Lake Forest Preserve (PDF, 200KB) and its many trails — a nice destination in its own right. Danada Forest Preserve, also great, is to its east.

• Herrick is right next to the Illinois Prairie Path (IPP) network, which you can take all over west suburban Chicagoland, including Wheaton, St. Charles, Batavia, Aurora, Elgin, Glen Ellyn, Lombard, and Elmhurst. To get on the Prairie Path, leave Herrick Lake out of its northwest corner (intersection of Herrick/Butterfield/Wiesbrook Rds) and bike half a mile north along Wiesbrook Road until you reach Durfee Road (Google map). Wiesbrook Rd meets the Prairie Path just north of Durfee. From there, just follow the Prairie Path signs to get to your destination. You can even bike the Prairie Path as far as Forest Park, where you can get on the ‘L’ and go into Chicago.
• The Prairie Path isn’t the only bike path around, it intersects many other Chicagoland trails, including the Grand Western Trail and several local Forest Preserve trails. DuPage County publishes a detailed Bikeways Map (PDF, 2.3MB) with more information on these.

For a bike map of Chicagoland beyond DuPage County: Chicagoland Bicycle Federation publishes the Chicagoland Bicycle Map ($6.95; free to members), which rates local roads for their suitability to biking.

With so many great places to bike and so many easy ways to find out about them, check out local biking today!

Need to get rid of used batteries, old paint, or other hazardous wastes? Naperville Fire Station #4, just off of Route 59 between Diehl and N. Aurora Roads (Google Map), will accept many toxic materials.

Using both sides of paper trumps printing on one side, but don’t forget that the greenest thing you can do with paper is to try using none at all. Don’t hesitate to speak up in your class or office and ask whether you can share your documents online instead of in print!

Did you know that the printers in the computer labs on the second floor of Carnegie Hall will print on both sides of paper (“duplex”) for you by default? Even better, the College’s print-credit system charges per piece of paper (5¢) instead of per printed side, so, while being green, you can also cut your printing costs in half!

Printing in Carnegie is way cheaper than printing in your Res Hall or at home, too; c|net’s most recent Printer Buying Guide estimates that a typical home inkjet uses 7¢ of ink per single-side page, which is to say 14¢ for both sides — and that’s before you’ve paid for the paper.

Carnegie Hall is at 10 N Brainard St, just east of WAC.