Northland College 2008 Campus Sustainability Leadership Award Application

Category

Four-year and Graduate Institutions Under 1,000 Student FTE

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students are central to sustainability efforts at Northland
Photographer: Bob Gross

Contact

Clare M. Hintz
Campus Sustainability Coordinator
SOEI
Northland College
Ashland, WI
(715) 682-1492
chintz@northland.edu

Governance & Administration

For over thirty-five years, Northland College has striven to be the leading environmental liberal arts college. 

  • § In 1970, the Northland College Board of Trustees initiated the development of the college's long-standing Environmental Studies program.
  • § In 1972, the college founded the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute and its advisory board and designated its charter for environmental outreach.
  • § In the early 1980s, Northland created its Peace Studies program as a focused problem-based but forward thinking outgrowth of the Environmental Studies program.
  • § 1997 Northland Student Senate, the faculty, the administration and the board of trustees signed a self-designed Sustainability Charter and the college president, Robert Parsonage, signed the Talloires Declaration.
  • § In the college's 2005 Strategic Plan, Northland's President Karen Halbersleben reaffirmed the institution's vision to be the nation's leading environmental liberal arts college: "Northland College aims, by academic excellence and sustainable practice, to lead the way to a world where human and other biological communities can thrive together indefinitely."
  • § In 2006 Northland officially adopted the Natural Step Framework as its definition of sustainability.
  • § In 2007 Northland became a member of the leadership circle of signatories of the American Colleges and Universities Presidents' Climate Commitment. Northland also has affiliations with the Upper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability, National Wildlife Federation's Campus Ecology Program, Campus Consortium for Environmental Excellence, Chequamegon Bay Green Team, and the Ecoleague, among others.
  • § Environmental Council - a team of faculty, staff, and students- has coordinated environmental sustainability efforts for over twenty years. The Council tracks issues of transportation, food systems and composting, landscaping, waste and recycling, and energy. The Council reports directly to the President and is led by the Campus Sustainability Coordinator.
  • § The Northland College Student Association (NCSA) also takes a leadership role in helping the college walk its talk, funding a yearly twenty-thousand dollar campus sustainability project out of student fees since 2000. Many of the current renewable energy systems on the campus have received financial backing from NCSA. The association has also used funding to purchase a hybrid car for the Admissions office, worked with the local bus company to expand its service and provide free rides to Northland students (a model that the college used to purchase bus passes for its faculty and staff a year later), and to create a web-based monitoring system for the campus's photovoltaic arrays and wind towers.
  • § The full-time Campus Sustainability Coordinator reports directly to the President and Provost, in addition to reporting to the Director of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, the college's outreach arm.
  • § Northland's Landscaping Policy emphasizes the use of native plantings in stormwater management and to minimize mown areas.
  • § In 2000, Northland adopted a green building policy for all new construction or major renovations, and in 2007, with the signing of the ACUPCC, the college committed to a standard of LEED Silver on all new construction and substantial renovation. Dexter Library, renovated in the summer of 2008, will be Northland's first certified building.

 

Operations

Operations

General

The college department of Facilities and Maintenance is a proactive leader in Northland's ability to walk its talk.  The college has a performance contract to improve efficiency under a campaign to "re-green" the campus.  Twenty work-study students are responsible for areas of operational sustainability and report to the Campus Sustainability Coordinator.

Bike Program

  • In 1995 students began the Sunshine Community Bike program providing free bikes to any campus member

Composting

  • Since 1994 college composts cafeteria scraps
  • '06 and ‘08 collections added in residence halls and offices
  • Two composting toilets

Buildings and Energy

  • 1980 - constructed first building to incorporate green features - The Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute
  • 1996 - McLean Environmental Living and Learning Center opened -- a residence hall serving as a model in the developing national LEED standards and the R.D. & Linda Peters Field Station incorporating passive solar and in-floor heating elements.
  • 1999 Straw Bale Energy Lab, Northland's first off-grid building
  • 2001 - completion of the Ponzio Campus Center featuring geothermal heating and cooling and other green features.
  • 2008 Second geothermal system for the renovated Dexter Library.
  • Two wind turbines, four hot-water solar arrays, and three PV arrays
  • Exploring biomass heating and cooling for the entire campus
  • Nearly all cleaning products Green Seal certified.

Food Systems

  • vegetarian entrees since 1975 and vegan entrees since 1995 made with a majority of organic ingredients
  • 100% sustainably harvested seafood
  • cage-free eggs
  • fair-trade coffee.
  • Provide reusable mugs or a canvas bag at the beginning of school year, and discounts on drinks in the snack bar if the mugs are used. Washable cutlery and dishes in the food service
  • eliminating the use of the trays for one day out of the week to pilot full removal
  • Buy about 20% of fresh produce regionally
  • Campus garden produce used in many community events and for the Outdoor Orientation trips.

Landscaping

  • Since 2000, emphasized native plants

Waste Reduction, Reuse, and Recycling

  • 2008 - Campus store will no longer use plastic bags.
  • Recycling since 1973; participated in RecycleMania in 2008
  • 2008 - students assessed barriers to improved recycling behaviors and began to implement changes based on recommendations
  • Campus union collection point to recycle batteries, phones, & cartridges.
  • Old computers are sold off or sent to a reputable recycler
  • 2008 - Reuse Center opens. Students collected 36 cubic yards of reusable goods as students moved out
  • First school in Wisconsin to sign up for an EPA Region Five pilot assessment on toxics handling
  • Drafting 1st Dark Skies policy
  • Recycled two complete houses
  • Purchase recycled content furniture for residence halls and offices

Transportation

  • In 2007, students surveyed employees & students to construct carbon footprint from travel, classes and college business resulting in the creation of an electronic ride-share board and free public transit passes for all.
  • In 2008, the college piloted carbon-neutral graduation ceremony

 

Curriculum & Research

In 2009, Northland will launch an ambitious new curriculum designed to refocus and reinvigorate an environmental liberal arts mission that has driven the college's work for over thirty-five years.

Curriculum

  • New Majors. In 2009 Northland will inaugurate new interstitial majors; highlights are:
  • § Humanity and Nature Studies, with emphases in Environmental Humanities, Native Cultures, and Ecopsychology.
  • § A Social Justice emphasis in the Sociology and Social Justice major
  • § A Sustainable Community Development major
  • Ongoing sustainability-related majors.
  • § Our Natural Resources major has been one of our leading majors for at least a decade.
  • § We will also continue our thirty-six-year-old Native American Studies major, which features Native American environmental perspectives.
  • § Our thirty-two-year-old Outdoor Education major now focuses on redefining the role of outdoor education in environmental and social sustainability.
  • o General education at Northland. General education will be integrated in blocks of courses during students' first two years of college. We will award any student who chooses it an Environmental Studies minor at the completion of our new "Connections" liberal education program.
  • o The "Foundations in Nature" block will group four of the nine required courses around a single theme and will require first-year students and faculty to integrate natural science, social science, and humanities perspectives in a single set of courses.
  • o Two cohort-based nine-course sequences focus on issues in the Lake Superior watershed and sustainable agriculture respectively.

Research

  • § Cynthia Belmont, English,conducts research in Ecofeminism.
  • § Paul Bogard, English, is the editor of a collection titled Let There be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark.
  • § Jorge Conessa-Sevilla, Psychology, has been very active in the development of new field of Ecopsychology, exploring and writing about the affects of nature estrangement on human well-being.
  • § Scott Grinnell, Physics, has trained extensively in the areas of alternative energy and green building. This past spring he and his students installed solar array at the President's home.
  • § Lorraine Fish, rising faculty member in Ecopsychology, successfully defended her dissertation on the relationship between nature estrangement and the prevalence of addictive disorders in Western societies.
  • § Tony Kern, Biology, has developed a molecular approach to the genetics of wild rice that holds promise for diagnosing problems endemic to isolated stands of Lake Superior wild rice and for guiding informed attempts to restore rice beds to wetland plant communities.
  • § Jim Meeker, Biology, Natural Resources, researches and publishes on coastal wetlands communities, monitoring their health, measuring affects of human interventions (e.g, dams), and assessing possibilities for restoration.
  • § Rajat Panwa, rising faculty member in Business, successfully defended his dissertation on social responsibility in the wood products industry.
  • § Clayton Russell, Outdoor Education, has written extensively on aspects of wilderness, including wilderness preservation, spiritual aspects of wilderness, and Sigurd Olson's argument for the necessity of wilderness to human well-being.
  • § Paul Van Horn, Outdoor Education, is developing with students a description of a sustainable approach to outdoor education and recreation, following the Natural Step definition of sustainability.

Campus Culture

  • § Students are attracted to Northland for the way in which sustainability is woven throughout the school: from operations to coursework. Northland challenges prospective students to pledge environmental leadership through its Ecovisionary program. In addition to a new grant available for sustainability projects at high schools, the college awards two categories of scholarship to support committed new students:
  • Eco-Visionary Leadership & Service Scholarship $5,000
    Designed to recognize the contributions made to the community through leadership and service.
  • Sigurd Olson Environmental Scholarship $5,000
    Awarded to students who have made a commitment to the environment.
  • New employees and new students receive a brochure detailing ways to behave sustainably through recycling, composting, reusing goods, minimizing water and energy use, and choosing transportation methods that are easier on the planet. Environmental Council conducts campaigns on recycling and energy and water use minimization.
  • As part of their annual review, staff are evaluated on how their actions "demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to Northland's environmental mission and to achieving sustainability."
  • It is common practice to shut off lights in offices and classrooms unless they are absolutely needed.
  • First year students are welcomed to campus through the Outdoor Orientation program: 5 to 12 day camping trips for a variety of interests and abilities. Upper-class students lead the trips and focus on building community and the connections between nature and human development.
  • All first year students learn about campus sustainability during Stewardship Week and participate in a hands-on activity to get them acquainted with some aspect of our mission.
  • In addition to our "green dorm", the Wendy and Malcolm McLean Environmental Learning and Living Center, we have several theme houses devoted to aspects of sustainability; students generate programming for the campus on those themes funded by the student association.
  • Innovations in campus sustainability often arise as class projects or student activities that then become incorporated into campus operations. A current example of this is two class projects in an Introduction to Sustainable Business and an Environmental Ethics course led to the development of a new work-study position devoted to transportation issues and the development of a biodiesel production system.
  • In 1993 the college received a Renew America award: national recognition for environmental achievement.

Community Service and Outreach

The Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute has been Northland College's outreach arm on environmental sustainability for thirty-seven years.

  • Northland College is one of sixteen organizations, tribes, and towns in the Chequamegon Bay Region that have adopted the Natural Step Framework of Sustainability and are developing ways to implement it. The College has been a model for other organizations on administration and green features.
  • Students maintain the "Environmental Commitment" section of the College's website, ongoing sustainability news and tips in the campus's electronic newsletter, and a MySpace page for Environmental Council.
  • Northland has hosted many guest lecturers on sustainability topics during its regular academic year and as commencement speakers, including Ray Anderson, Robert Bullard, Pliny Fisk, Amy Goodman, Paul Hawken, Winona LaDuke, Orvol Looking-Horse, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins, Bill McKibben, Gary Paul Nabhan, Vandana Shiva, Karl Henrick Robert, Gary Snyder, Terry Tempest Williams, and many others.
  • The Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute and City of Ashland were awarded the Project Partnership Award in 2005 from the Wisconsin Urban Forestry Council for their work in obtaining Tree City USA status in 2003, with the distinguished Growth Award in 2004 and their collaborative efforts with stormwater control. The award recognizes outstanding projects that have developed new partnerships in urban forestry.
  • Northland College and the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute have hosted the Binational Forum for seventeen years, a joint U.S. and Canadian effort to provide input and analysis to basin governments about critical issues relating to Lake Superior such as discharge of toxic substances, pollution prevention, and restoration efforts.
  • Through the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, Northland students are involved in a diversity of projects in the community, most recently restoration efforts and stormwater management for a variety of homeowners associations and businesses.
  • Through the Pathfinders program, middle and high school students have an opportunity to develop leadership skills connected with environmental sustainability and social justice. Northland students act as group leaders in the program.
  • LoonWatch, a program of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute,works to protect common loons and their aquatic habitats through education, monitoring, and research. LoonWatch andeight other organizationshave partnered to educate anglers in Wisconsin about the benefits of using non-lead fishing tackle and the impacts of lead fishing tackle on waterbirds.