Hi Victoria,

One suggestion that has worked well for students in the past is to simply share with your administration how many other colleges and universities are engaged in sustainability initiatives.  Have a look at AASHE's Resource Center for some great examples of what other campuses and students are doing.  AASHE has almost 800 campus members listed here along with our other members.  A little peer pressure can do wonders!  Also have a look at the American College and University President Climate Commitment and Second Nature websites for more info on sustainability and higher education. 

Best of luck!

Justin

Often times it's the faculty that appoints committees.   You'll want to check around to see what the protocol is in your institution. You might approach the administration to have the President appoint an advisory committee to weigh the benefits of establishing a permanent committee (that's what we did).  You also should form a relationship with the facilities managers.  Facilities and maintenance managers are often handed a whole bunch of paper work to make sustainable efforts work.  Getting their buy-in is key to the success of your committee.  Without them on your side it's a tough row to hoe.

Hi Victoria,

So glad to hear you are working to get a sustainability committee started on your campus! I can provide some perspective based on my experience as a former student representative on the UC San Diego (UCSD) campus Advisory Committee on Sustainability (ACS). ACS was convened by the Chancellor of UCSD and chaired by a faculty member. Between 2-3 faculty (appointed by the Faculty Senate) served on the committee, along with 2 staff representatives, 2 undergraduate and 2 graduate student representatives (all appointed - by the Staff Association, Undergraduate and Graduate Student government). We also had ex-officio members who were key sustainability staff members on campus (representing facilities management, housing and dining services, environmental health and safety, etc.). ACS met about once a month for a 1 hour, although eventually this was increased to 1.5 hours and we were able to get a lot more accomplished with this longer meeting format. Unlike committees at some other schools, ACS did not have a budget or funding, so this limited our ability to take on particular projects. The main focus of ACS was reviewing and providing comments on the campus sustainability assessment and climate action plan, and handing sustainability awards to members of our campus community that were nominated and selected by ACS.

My advice to you (if you are still in the process of forming the committee) is to get administrative buy-in and endorsement early on in the process. If the committee isn't recognized or endorsed by the university administration, it may be more difficult trying to get faculty members and staff to participate, and I think it's critical for all groups (students, faculty, staff) to be represented in an ongoing discussion about campus sustainability. Contacting your president or chancellor's office and working with your sustainability coordinator to set up meetings with campus administration would be a great way to move forward. Writing a formal proposal of your ideas about the mission and structure of the committee, and stakeholders involved would allow you to hand something concrete to the staff, faculty, and students you are meeting with to make the committee a reality. If you haven't already, check out UC Berkeley's committee website (http://sustainability.berkeley.edu/cacs/) - they have a lot of great information about the committee itself, as well as their mission and activities.

Once the committee begins to take shape, I would encourage you to begin a committee discussion about focusing on one or two specific projects (i.e. getting green policies in place, setting up a sustainability awards program, holding a monthly, surveying the campus about - there are a million possibilities). One trap that you don't want to fall into is endlessly discussing a wide variety of ideas, but failing to get things done. Your sustainability coordinator may have thoughts about a good starting point and I'm sure the monthly "open" meetings you propose would give you a good idea of what people on campus want to see happen related to sustainability.

Best of luck in your effort and please feel free to follow up with other questions or comments you might have.

Sincerely,
Erika Kociolek