AASHE Blog: Campus Sustainability Perspectives

AASHE Interview Series: JR Fulton, Capital Planning and Sustainability Manager for Housing & Food Services, University of Washington

Submitted by Niles Barnes on March 12, 2010 - 11:09am
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This week’s interview is with JR Fulton, who works as the Capital Planning and Sustainability Manager for Housing & Food Services (HFS), at the University of Washington. Continue reading to learn more about JR's work promoting sustainability, the many ways HFS at UW works with students and the advice he has for other campus sustainability professionals. Also, be sure not to miss his ideas on the need to make campus sustainability "go viral"!

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.


STARS as a Master's Thesis Topic - Participant Experiences

Submitted by Laura Matson on March 10, 2010 - 11:39am
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STARS can be a powerful tool for student learning. AASHE asked two students whose master’s theses are about STARS to share highlights from their research experience, including “aha!” moments and lessons learned.

Kevin GKevin Gilford PhotoilfKyle Murphy photoord (left photo), an MA candidate in Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and Kyle Murphy (right photo), who completed his Masters of Environmental Studies degree at The Evergreen State College in 2009, shared their experiences.

 


AASHE Bulletin: Global Edition - Key Stories

Submitted by Andrea Webster on March 2, 2010 - 6:45pm
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AASHE recently published its second issue of its AASHE Bulletin: Global Edition, and I wanted to take a moment to note a few that were particularly interesting to me. 

First, a story from an Australian AASHE member -


AASHE 2010 Awards Program Accepting Applications

Submitted by Niles Barnes on February 25, 2010 - 10:55am
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AASHE invites applications for our 2010 AASHE Awards. All winners will be announced at the AASHE 2010 conference in October, and will be featured in Sustainability: The Journal of Record. The deadline to apply is July 1. Nominations are not required for any award, but certainly are encouraged. Send any nominations to awards@aashe.org. 

The award categories are:

For more information please contact me at niles@aashe.org.


Laundry and Printing Quotas Save Both Resources and Money at Dickinson College

Submitted by Niles Barnes on February 17, 2010 - 11:07am
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The below article was authored by Kristen C. Williams, Financial Analyst for Facilities Managment at Dickinson College. Re-posted with permission from Dickinson College Facilities Management News & Events web page.

Laundry and Printing Quotas--Fall 2008 versus Fall 2009:

Despite some initial road bumps as we implemented the printing and laundry quotas, data from the Fall 2009 semester very clearly shows that both programs were not only successful, but that the vast majority of the student body was able to fulfill their printing and laundry needs well within the confines of the quotas.

For printing, a staggering 92% of students stayed within the 600 page limit for the semester. Of the mere 170 students who did exceed the quota, more than half exceeded it by 200 or fewer pages which represents a total cost to the student of only $20. The below chart gives a clearer picture of the total usage:


Tips for Collecting STARS Data -- Participant Experiences

Submitted by Laura Matson on February 10, 2010 - 12:00pm
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A number of STARS Charter Participants have asked for advice on how to approach the data collection process. We asked four STARS Liaisons, whose institutions participated in the STARS Pilot Project in 2008 and are now registered as STARS Charter Participants, for lessons learned and tips to share. Read on for sage advice from:


Results from Winter Shutdown at Williams College

Submitted by Niles Barnes on February 9, 2010 - 10:10am
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Authored by Stephanie Boyd, Director of the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives at Williams College. Re-posted with permission from the Sustainability at Williams blog. 

For the second year in the college’s experiment, we closed our doors on December 24th, shuttered up buildings, turned down the heat, turned off computers, refrigerators, photocopiers, and all sorts of other electrical equipment in an effort to save energy, minimize spending on utilities, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions during a relatively slow period in the academic calendar. When the doors to the campus opened again on January 4th, the college had succeeded in saving $100,000 in avoided utility costs; 430,000 kilowatt hours of electricity; and 4,840 million British Thermal Units of heating energy. To give an understanding of scale, about 2600 houses would use this amount of electricity in a 10 day period.

This avoided energy use represents 528 metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), a 26% increase in emissions savings compared to last year, and 2.7% of FY09 total annual emissions of 19,600 tonnes.


Greening Collegiate Athletics: Green Athletic Centers Resource

Submitted by David Abell on February 8, 2010 - 5:15pm
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When it comes to campus sustainability, athletic departments often are not at the top of the list for being the greenest department. There are a number of factors that attribute to this, including teams traveling around the country to play their opponents, the vast number of resources used to maintain athletic fields and facilities, and the impact of fans tailgating before football games.


AASHE Launches STARS 1.0!

Submitted by Laura Matson on February 2, 2010 - 10:44am
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After three ySTARS Logoears of widespread collaboration with the higher education sustainability community, AASHE launched STARS 1.0 on January 19.


Surplus Property Recycling

Submitted by Justin Mullikin on January 29, 2010 - 1:57pm
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One of my favorite movies growing up was The Brave Little Toaster. There’s a particularly memorable scene in which the Brave Little Toaster and his appliance friends, while searching for the owner who abandoned them, are taken to the back room of a pawn shop.