AASHE Blog: Campus Sustainability Perspectives

New Resource: Teaching the Concepts of Sustainable Building to All Students

Submitted by Niles Barnes on September 3, 2010 - 9:44am
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A new joint publication between Second Nature and the U.S. Green Building Council was recently released that readers of our campus sustainability perspectives blog may be interested in. The publication, “Advancing Education for Sustainability: Teaching the Concepts of Sustainable Building to All Students”  is intended to “explore the critical role of the built environment in educating all students about sustainability”. To that end, the document “provides a set of core sustainable building concepts, examples of institutions that are successfully teaching their students about sustainability, and recommends steps that higher education institutions could take to provide all students with the knowledge and skills to create a just and sustainable future”.


New Resource: A Look at the Growing Trend of Green Building in Higher Education

Submitted by Margo Whitmire on September 1, 2010 - 1:07pm
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As editor of the AASHE Bulletin, I am lucky to be able to highlight the positive steps toward sustainability that campuses make each week. The number of Bulletin submissions that detail higher education sustainability efforts is encouraging, in particular the steadily growing number of green building stories.


Computer Power Management – Another No Cost Operational Energy Saver

Submitted by Niles Barnes on August 25, 2010 - 1:39pm
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I wanted to pass on the following tip from Emily Norton who works as an ENERGY STAR Technical Support Contractor helping promote the US EPA ENERGY STAR Program.

"For those campuses looking for an additional energy saving initiative to implement, the US EPA ENERGY STAR program offers free software and free technical assistance to help college and university network administrators activate power management features.

Computer Power Management (CPM) simply means placing monitors and computers into a low-power "sleep mode" after a period of inactivity. Moving the mouse or tapping the keyboard "wakes" the computer and monitor in seconds. While CPM features are built into almost every modern operating system, they must be activated.

Activating power management on computers and monitors saves up to $75 per year per machine, which when multiplied by hundreds or thousands of computers can mean serious savings".

In addition, colleges and universities that pledge to activate power management features and to purchase ENERGY STAR computers can be listed as participants in the ENERGY STAR Low Carbon IT Campaign. Over 40 colleges and universities are currently signed up.

For more information, please visit www.energystar.gov/lowcarbonit or contact Emily Norton.

 


New Research: Can Urban University Expansion and Sustainable Development Co-Exist?

Submitted by Niles Barnes on July 28, 2010 - 10:36am
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As campuses work on developing climate action plans and long term sustainability projects, a challenge that many face is how to balance the need (or desire) to grow in a way that won’t detract from the determined path toward sustainability.

Simply put, how does a campus adequately serve growing populations of students, increase the campus footprint, and add more facilities while also reducing their emissions and ensuring that the growth is sustainable? Who defines what “sustainable growth” even looks like on a campus? What are some of the unique challenges facing different types of institutions? How do goals of expansion differ at urban schools versus rural?

Keith H. Hirokawa, Assistant Professor of Law, and Patricia E. Salkin, Professor and Associate Dean of Law, at Albany Law School, sought to answer those questions and more in their recent publication, “Can Urban University Expansion and Sustainable Development Co-Exist?: A Case Study in Progress on Columbia University”(click title to download the full paper).


Campus Gardens: A “Growing” Trend in Campus Sustainability

Submitted by Vinodh Valluri on July 20, 2010 - 2:31pm
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Food is a basic necessity of life and so it should come as no surprise that a large number of colleges and universities across North America have begun to recognize food as an important component in campus sustainability as well. More than 100 higher education institutions have established community gardens on campus. With names ranging from SLUG (Student Led Unity Garden at The University of Portland) and VEGI (Vanderbilt Educational Garden Initiative, Vanderbilt University) to "The Burning Kumquat" at the Washington University in St. Louis and "The Forge Garden" at Santa Clara University, these gardens invite many and varied participants, and develop communities that cultivate knowledge of place, along with numerous bushels of tomatoes, snap peas, corn, beets, carrots and other delectable veggies.


2010 California Sustainability Best Practice Awards Winners

Submitted by Niles Barnes on July 15, 2010 - 11:50am
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I had the honor to serve as a judge once again in this year’s Best Practice Awards for the 2010 California Higher Education Sustainability Conference organized by the sustainability office in the University of California's Office of the President. With deadlines approaching for AASHE’s own awards program I neglected to help publicize the California winners, who are all deserving of recognition.

These best practices awards are intended to highlight the achievements that the California State University, University of California, and California Community College campuses have made through innovative and effective energy efficiency projects and sustainable operations. It is the goal that these projects will serve as showcases to other campuses and will assist campus staff with resources and ideas that they may be able transfer to their own campus.

The 2010 Best Practice Award Winners included many different categories. I have include the winners along with links to brief descriptions of their projects. More information is available on the Best Practice Awards website.


Universities in US and Australia Research Sustainable Aviation Fuel

Submitted by Niles Barnes on July 13, 2010 - 2:47pm
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Washington State University is working to research the viability and impacts of growing, refining, transporting and using plant based aircraft fuel in the Pacific Northwest through a new partnership called the "Sustainable Aviation Fuels Northwest" project. The six-month project is intended to address issues related to commercial viability and the full environmental impacts involved with using biomass sources indigenous to the Pacific Northwest. Joining WSU in the project is Alaska Airlines, Boeing, Portland International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and Spokane International Airport.

In a similar announcement, The University of Queensland in Australia is also working with Boeing and other companies to develop a major aviation biofuel project in Brisbane. The project is also called the “Sustainable Aviation Fuel Initiative” and includes over 2 million in funding.

Do you think this research will lead to breakthroughs that will help reduce those elusive scope 3 emissions from air travel or, will it only lessen the ultimate impacts of flying marginally? Will this help to strengthen local communities and agriculture? I am interested to hear what you think! Do you know of any other relevant initiatives and research happening in this area? Post up!


Call for Articles for AASHE Bulletin: Global Edition

Submitted by Margo Whitmire on July 9, 2010 - 3:23pm
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AASHE is preparing to publish the third edition of its semi-annual Global Edition. From harvesting rainwater in India to the development of a sustainability office in Switzerland, the AASHE Bulletin: Global Edition covers the continued strides made by college and university campuses around the globe toward sustainability.


AASHE Interview Series: Maggie Souder, Sustainability Coordinator, University of California, San Diego

Submitted by Niles Barnes on July 1, 2010 - 11:22am
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This week’s interview is with Maggie Souder who works as the Sustainability Coordinator at the University of California, San Diego. Continue reading to learn more about Maggie's work promoting sustainability at UCSD, the advice she has for others in her position who are just getting started, and the different ways she is incorporating the social dimensions of sustainability into her work.

If you are interested in participating in the AASHE Interview Series or wish to nominate someone to participate please email me (niles@aashe.org). To read past interviews, click here.


New Study: Students More Concerned with Sustainability than CEOs, yet Education Lags

Submitted by Niles Barnes on June 21, 2010 - 4:55pm
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Beginning in 2004, IBM has published a Global CEO Study to “understand and articulate the goals of leaders worldwide”. This year, IBM also published a companion piece, the Global Student Study which asks students the same questions given to CEO’s in an attempt to discover differences in opinions and commonalities.

According to the study, more than 3,600 students worldwide filled out the online survey from over 40 different countries, representing both undergraduate and graduate students. The most defining differences between the results from the CEO survey and the student survey were in student’s beliefs concerning globalization and sustainability. The report states that, “students were much more concerned with these issues than CEOs, and most importantly, saw them as inherently connected”.