Furman University
Contact Information
Education and Research:
Furman has created a new Center for Sustainability (CFS) and has promoted campus sustainability education and research on campus and in the greater community.
* Our university-wide curriculum requires all students to take a "Humans and the Natural Environment" course.
* The CFS coordinated a June 2009 Faculty Workshop for Infusing Sustainability into the Existing Curriculum. Seventeen professors representing 15 departments participated in this ongoing peer-to-peer collaboration that is connected with a simultaneous faculty workshop at Middlebury College.
*Please see our new website www.furman.edu/sustain for an overview of several of our efforts, including connection to all of our sustainability living learning laboratories.
* A significant number of environmental studies and sustainability related courses were offered in 2009-2010 ; we have an environmental concentration (please see http://www.furman.edu/catalog/).
*A replica of Henry David Thoreau’s cabin on Walden Pond (our newest sustainability living learning laboratory) was constructed by May experience course students.
* Furman University established a formal partnership with The Nature Conservancy to the Blue Wall Preserve.
* Student and faculty research teams have conducted applied research on the campus sustainability efforts 2008-9 and a new project called The Conservation Culture Research Initiative started summer 2009.
* The Furman University River Basins Research Initiative is a decade-long multi-disciplinary research project .
*Furman had the largest contingent in the country to attend the 2008 AASHE meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina (n=26), including both its president and provost. Eleven research papers/posters were presented.
* This past spring, students created Sustainable Connections—a new organization dedicated to promoting cooperation among all student-led campaigns and initiatives related to sustainability.
* Another new student organization, Conserve Furman, focuses on peer-to-peer efforts to promote the wiser use of natural resources, on and off campus.
* During the past year, we have also developed a student volunteer network for the Sustainability Living Learning Laboratories.
* This past spring the CFS, in collaboration with Apple Inc., recruited five students to produce a short documentary to be posted on The Chronicle of Higher Education website.
* For the first time, Furman will be including a dedicated portion of its First-Year-Student Orientation program in August to sustainability/climate action.
* A highly successful facilities appreciation day brought students, staff, and faculty together within a circle of sustainability. Hundreds of donated clothes drying racks were distributed to students, and food from the Furman Farm was shared at a Campus Sustainability Fair.
*ARAMARK and Furman entered the National Recyclemania contest for the Food Waste category and finished 5th in the nation.
*The Environmental Action Group successfully completed its third year of coordinating the Kill-A-Watt Challenge, an energy saving competition among upper class dorms.
*The first year student Environmental Community of Students (ECOS, n=15) continues to be involved in advancing sustainability on campus.
*An on-line student “Green Guide to Sustainable Living” was completed and is now accessible from Furman’s main webpage.
*A second Bank of America Sustainability Fellow has been recruited and selected for 2009-10. These students will coordinate a campus sustainability help desk starting in August 2009.
*The Environmental Action Group and the ECOS Engaged Living programs had a number of initiatives.
Campus Operations:
Furman continues to be a leader in promoting energy conservation and environmental stewardship at the operations level.
* Campus construction and renovation continues to meet and exceed LEED standards. Since 1997 Furman has required that all new and renovated buildings gain LEED certification. Furman requires third-party verification of our sustainability efforts.
* Furman is one of twelve institutions collaborating with the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) to work on “breakthrough” projects on campus to help mitigate the effects of global climate change.
* The Southern Living Showcase home (Cliffs Cottage) opened to the campus and public tours in June 2008. Approximately 25,000 people will have toured the home before it is retrofitted to become the CFS in the fall 2009. <furmancliffscottage.com>
* Furman received $1.5 million from Duke Energy, our public utility, to create solar and geothermal energy systems on campus.
* Organically-grown herbs and vegetables from the new Furman Farm are being sold each week at the new Randy Blackwell Farm Stand, and some of this food will be on the student dining hall tables this fall.
* Furman manifests its strategic commitment to sustainability through a variety of other campus-wide programs: green purchasing guidelines, “green” event guidelines, and public policies.
* Efforts by our department of Computing and Information Services to power down computer stations and non-critical servers are dramatically reducing energy usage. Furman was fourth in the national collegiate Power Down Challenge.
* The restoration of the 40-acre Furman Lake at the center of campus remains a high priority. Native plantings on the shoreline and public relations efforts (“Don’t Feed the Geese!”) are helping to reduce the waterfowl population and the resultant nutrient and bacteria loading. Numerous rain gardens now help protect the lake from stormwater runoff and are used by Furman and other local nonprofits for education and outreach. A third rain garden was constructed by student and community volunteers in June 2009.
* Extensive renovation of the four lakeside student cottages has produced unprecedented interest in living there. The 26 students who lived there in 2008-09 and those who will live there in 2009-10 are exceptionally committed to sustainable living. Calling themselves residents of the Greenbelt Community, these students provide a model of civic and environmental residential responsibility.
* Continued refinements in campus energy policy and conservation efficiency upgrades (VFDs, CFLs, LEDs, roofing upgrades, insulation, CO2 sensors, more efficient appliances, water flow restrictors, direct digital control systems, and refined building automated systems) are steadily reducing campus energy usage.
* Furman continues to garner public recognition of its sustainability efforts. For example, the university received Johnson Diversity’s national award for our wholesale use of Butcher’s cleaning products (Green Seal Certified), and the custodial staff completed training with the new products. The Environmental Educators of South Carolina designated President Shi as the recipient of its annual leadership award.
* Furman was designated among the charter campus members of the National Arbor Day Foundation campus tree program, and the university has received numerous awards from South Carolina state agencies for its energy conservation, recycling, green building, and outdoor recreation initiatives.
Administration and Finance:
Over the past fifteen years Furman University has enjoyed extraordinary support for a wide array of initiatives related to sustainability and climate action. The theme of Furman’s sustainability efforts has been holistic and systemic. We have steadfastly sought to translate a strong institutional commitment into a widespread institutional culture--to integrate sustainability into every facet of university life, not just campus operations and construction practices, but also the curriculum, co-curriculum, and creative opportunities for collaborative projects in the greater community, including social justice issues related to the equitable access to and respect for natural resources.
* President David Shi, a charter signatory of the ACUPCC, a member of the ACUPCC steering committee, and a board member of Second Nature.
* Our Board of Trustees approved environmental sustainability as one of five university strategic goals over a decade ago. The current chair of our Board of Trustees, Kathy McKinney, has encouraged other university boards to embrace sustainability through her work with the Association of Governing Boards.
* Furman’s Center for Sustainability (CFS) opened in the fall of 2008. One of the Center’s primary goals is to continue integrating sustainability themes and topics into the curriculum and co-curriculum. The Center has selected four Mellon Sustainability Fellows.
* In 2008-2009 Furman hired a CFS full-time director who also is an associate professor, assistant director, post-doctoral sustainability scholar, and administrative associate to join the Center’s faculty liaison.
* Furman has initiated a sustainability federal work-study program through which 14 students assist with various sustainability efforts on campus throughout the year.
* In October 2008, we expanded the university’s original Sustainability Planning Group, consisting of 24 members since its inception in 2005, into the Sustainability Planning Council (SPC), comprised of 124 faculty, staff and students. Students are on each SPC committee, and the co-chairs (Provost, Chair of Department, and Director of CFS) all have administrative and faculty status.
* Furman’s Chief Investment Officer has recently created a website to increase transparency regarding the corporate investments in our $500 million endowment.
* Since 1997, Furman has played a sustainability leadership role with the Associated Colleges of the South.
* In January 2009, the CFS and SPC worked with The Duke Endowment (a $3 billion foundation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina) to provide a Climate Action Planning Workshop at Furman.
* Furman is collaborating to convert the abandoned "Swamp Rabbit" rail line into a public recreational trail.
* The SC Solar Council founded on the Furman Campus in 2004.
* President David Shi chaired Greenville's Vision 2025.
* Furman has provided multiple community workshops to promote energy auditing, organic gardening, rain gardens, and sustainability.
* Second Nature, the national organization responsible for administering the ACUPCC, will hold its Spring Board meeting on Furman’s campus.
*At the AASHE/Greening the Campus 2009, eight Furman students will be presenting applied campus research about our sustainability efforts. In addition, Dr. Angela Halfacre, the Director of the CFS, in collaboration with Middlebury College, will be conducting a workshop on Climate Action Planning for representatives from other campuses. Furman’s President, David Shi, will also be in attendance.
AASHE Bulletin
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