College of the Atlantic 2008 Campus Sustainability Leadership Award Application

Category

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

College of the Atlantic Photographer: courtesy COA

Contact

Donna Lauren Gold
Director of Public Relations
Public Relations
College of the Atlantic
Bar Harbor, Maine
(207) 288-5015
dgold@coa.edu

Governance & Administration

College of the Atlantic became NetZero for carbon emissions in December 2007, fulfilling a pledge by COA President David Hales and the COA board of trustees upon his inauguration in the fall of 2006. The implementation of this pledge was researched by four offset groups, each of which included faculty, staff and students.

The most important aspect of this achievement is the direct reduction of emissions from college activities; since October 2006, College of the Atlantic has reduced its own emissions by 47%. Even more challenging is the college's commitment to achieve 100% reliance on renewable energy by 2015. Our electricity is already 100% renewable, from low-flow hydro projects in Maine. We are well along in shifting to renewable sources for heating. Transportation will be our major challenge in reaching this goal.

Community consultation and inclusiveness is a common practice for COA, especially for decisions that have an impact upon all sectors of the college. COA's governance structure is centered upon a weekly All College Meeting, known as ACM, attended by faculty, staff and students. Numerous committees report to the ACM, and many essential decisions cannot be taken until the ACM is consulted. Not only are job descriptions for new faculty positions are discussed and ratified, but impressions of the applicants brought to campus for these jobs are aired at the meetings. Also discussed are broad questions about food in the dining hall, sustainable building materials for housing and renovations, landscape plans and energy audit reports-all of which create real changes around campus. 

The ACM enables students to take a large role in creating policy. Among the committees that report to ACM are the socially responsible investment group that advises trustees on COA investments, the Campus Committee for Sustainability and Campus Planning and Building Committee. The ACM also allows all parts of the campus community to participate in the development of the college's annual operating budget.

Operations

College of the Atlantic's daily operations incorporate systems geared to a sustainable life developed over the college's 36 years. Recycling and the use of local, organic foods have always been part of the campus ethic. The campus' community garden, open to the wider community, began during the college's first year. It's still in use, now augmented by the college's own organic Beech Hill Farm. Students in the first years of the college not only began recycling on campus, they also were instrumental getting Maine to pass its innovative returnable bottle bill, and getting a recycling center launched in Bar Harbor, where COA resides.

Currently, there are recycling bins for paper in every office. Every floor with a classroom also has recycling bins for cans, glass, returnable bottles, cardboard and paper. All kitchen waste is composted, including waste from dorm kitchens and disposable plates and utensils. While COA tries not to use disposable items, for large gatherings COA staff, students and faculty are asked to use goods that are compostable. Collecting and organizing the recycling and compost is handled through work-study positions. The college does not purchase individual containers of bottled water.

All office paper used at COA has 100% recycled content, a policy in place for years. Cleaning products are predominantly environmentally and personally safe; a member of the janitorial staff continually researches and upgrades the standards; many are "Green Seal." Cleaning paper products are 100% recyclable; more than 50% contain post consumer recycled material.  Paint has low or no volatile organic compounds and low silica amounts.
 
The campus transportation design currently has all parking and heavy traffic situated along a main road on the west side of campus away from the ocean, so as to not create polluted runoff, disrupt classes, which are mostly on the water side, or impede the natural beauty of the landscape. 

COA's newest housing, the Katherine W. Davis Residence Village is built to some of the highest standards in college housing, beyond LEED standards,. Heated water is circulated throughout the building as hydronic forced on upper floors and radiant floor heating on the ground floor. The heat source for the new housing and the newly created nearby Deering Common Community Center is renewable wood pellets. On the second and third floors, composting toilets reduce water consumption as well as the energy which would otherwise be necessary for water treatment; low-flow toilets are placed on the first floor.

Deering Common creatively re-uses an historic summer mansion that had been scheduled for demolition into an energy-efficient building heated by wood pellets, with composting toilets and waterless urinals-still preserving the aura of the past. All furniture in the student center and the new residences is built from sustainable wood products with non-emitting fabrics that can be cleaned with water.

COA's big-picture efforts toward a NetZero campus are underlain by constant vigilance on the part of staff, faculty and students, and such systemic efforts as a comprehensive energy audit to make the entire plant more sustainable.

Curriculum & Research

College of the Atlantic has one degree: human ecology, the study of humans and their relationship to the natural, social and built environment. Having one major leads to a focus on interdisciplinary approach to all subjects-an understanding of the inter-relatedness of all systems. It also grants students a flexibility to build their own course of study. Requirements include an internship that allows students to work in a chosen field within the real world and academic diversity expectations that challenge COA students to vary their intellectual interests and piece the world together from their many different perspectives.

Beginning in fall 2008 COA will have a full time program in Green and Socially Responsible Business, expanding the breadth of sustainability study at COA. According to AASHE, there are only six comparable programs in the United States, and College of the Atlantic's is the only comprehensive program on the east coast.

The availability of independent studies, group studies and "monster courses"-an entire term focused on one subject via three separate courses or independent studies, offers a more direct study of sustainability. One recent monster course allowed a group of nine students to focus on the Nairobi meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. These students studied climate change, climate chemistry and the policies of the UNFCCC, resulting in deep familiarity with the issues of the convention, and thus the ability to carefully focus the international group of students toward effective action. A comparable effort is underway to prepare students and faculty to participate effectively in the critically important Conference of Parties of the Framework Convention on Climate Change in December 2009.

Another recent independent study looked into the impact of "big box" stores on the local environment and was directly responsible for Maine's first-in-the-nation legislation requiring a local economic impact study to be conducted as part of such a store's building application.

Other independent studies and monster courses have prepared students to attend international conferences related to their particular focus. As such, students have participated in United Nations conferences dealing with sustainable development and genetic modification of seeds.

Campus Culture

College of the Atlantic instills ideas of sustainability into students as soon as they arrive on campus. For those who participate, COA offers Outdoor Orientation Programs to first-year and transfer students, taking small groups into Maine's wilderness areas for an extended trip, connecting students to the region where they will be continuing their education. These OOPS trips offer strong community connections in a rapid and immediate way. Typical orientation sessions at COA pull ideas of sustainability into not only talk but practice. For orientation for fall 2008, for instance, COA will host the "Sustainability Olympics" consisting of four different activities including: a life-size sustainability question game board, an organic/local food sculpture competition, a recycling relay and a contest in charging batteries by bike power.

COA's open governance system ensures that students, staff and faculty are aware of policies and information that are key to the functioning of the college. All College Meetings, for instance, include updates from the accomplishments of the Director of Sustainability, as well as the recommendations of Campus Planning and Building.

Community Service and Outreach

College of the Atlantic has many graduation requirements that connect students with different aspects of the world and themselves. The most direct connection is the community service requirement. Despite the many options for service on campus, COA recommends that students do at least part of their service outside the immediate college. Students may volunteer at Beech Hill Farm, an organic farm owned by COA, the Union River Watershed run by COA faculty and staff, or create their own projects, involving them with the local community. During early 2008, students partnered with the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce inviting businesses to exchange incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs. College of the Atlantic and its students are members of several local organizations, including the Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortion. Students, faculty and staff have attended their annual conferences. COA is also a member of Maine Campus Climate Change Summit, and hosted a recent annual conference. COA students are also very active in SustainUS.