Ithaca College 2008 Campus Sustainability Leadership Award Application

Category

Four-year and Graduate Institutions 1,000 - 7,500 Student FTE

President Williams signs the ACU Presidents Climate Commitment Photographer: David Maley

Contact

Marian M. Brown
Special Assistant to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Office of the Provost/VPAA
Ithaca College
Ithaca, NY
(607) 274-3787
mbrown@ithaca.edu

Governance & Administration

Ithaca College (IC) signed the Talloires Declaration in 2006 and the ACU Presidents Climate Commitment in 2007. Our Comprehensive Environmental Policy, first adopted in 2001, was amended in 2008 to include three new key requirements for Energy Star and other third-party certified, environmentally preferred procurement as well as a policy for new construction and major renovation projects to achieve LEED Silver or higher standards. Our climate committee, chaired by the Vice President for Finance and Administration, has completed greenhouse gas emissions inventories for years 2000-2007 and is actively working on climate action planning.

Our institutional self-study process in advance of our 10-year Middle States reaccreditation in 2008 cited sustainability as a core value. The Middle States review team's final report granting reaccreditation noted the College's commitment to sustainability infused in our educational mission and planning at all levels.

Our Institutional Plan was updated in spring 2008 with a two-year "Bridge Plan" which reaffirmed the original institutional priorities: academic program development, quality of student life and campus experience, facilities, technology, marketing and enrollment planning, resource development, and quality of work life. The Bridge Plan also identified sustainability as a priority extending across all of these areas. The Bridge Plan acknowledged Middle States recommendations to continue efforts to promote learning about sustainability through our courses, operating practices, and outreach, and added directives to explore ways to promote links between sustainability, good citizenship, and community service.

The Planning and Priorities Committee, which is responsible for implementing the Institutional Plan and the Bridge Plan, provides guidance to the special assistant to the Provost for the sustainability initiative. In 2007, a separate operational budget was established for Sustainability.

IC has two full-time permanent staffers with assigned responsibilities for campus sustainability activities. The Special Assistant to the Provost is assigned 60% of job duties to coordinate Ithaca's campus sustainability initiative, including working with faculty to develop academic programming, collaborating with campus operational managers, and providing community outreach and communication about our campus efforts. The Special Assistant writes progress reports and newsletters, maintains the sustainability program website, and supervises one student sustainability intern. The Recycling and Resource Management supervisor in Facilities has responsibility for campus recycling, composting, and waste management programs, and additionally supervises 14 Resource and Environmental Management Program (REMP) interns and Resource REPs.

Faculty and Staff for Sustainability formed in Spring 2008 to provide additional input to campus sustainability.

The Center for Natural Sciences Sustainability Group actively integrate sustainability content into science curricula and offer research projects and internships related to campus sustainability.

Nationally, Ithaca College is an active member of AASHE, APPA, SCUP, NACUBO, NAEP, and other professional organizations offering strong campus sustainability programming support.  Locally, Ithaca College is highly involved in regional sustainability efforts. IC is a key advisor to the Mayor of the City of Ithaca's Local Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and is a participating member of the Sustainable Tompkins, Finger Lakes Environmentally Preferred Procurement Consortium, the Tompkins Renewable Energy Education Alliance, and the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative.

Operations

The Dorothy D. and Roy H. Park Center for Business and Sustainable Enterprise opened in Spring 2008. This new home for our School of Business was designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects to achieve LEED Platinum certification. The Gateway Building project, currently under construction, is also tracking to achieve LEED Platinum certification. That project is our first to integrate ground-source heat pump technology - thirty-six 500' deep geothermal wells have been sunk around the building in preparation for this high-performance sustainable energy system.

IC continues to utilize Energy Star Portfolio Manager to track submeter energy data. We are actively partnering with Energy Star to improve the database of comparable building types for higher education clients.  Major relamping projects, upgrades to variable speed motors across campus, and other infrastructure upgrades enabled us to realize a 3% reduction in purchased electricity in 2007, saving over $100,000.

All campus catered events are now "zero waste", using either reusable items or compostable materials. All retail food operations on campus (small coffee kiosks) have now converted to serving food on compostable materials (plates, cups, napkins, straws, eating utensils). ICSquare, our largest retail food operation, installed compost collection stations with special informational signage that show which service items are compostable to improve post-consumer separation of compostable food waste and serviceware.  The Sustainable Café in the School of Business offers organic and local foods and is the second retail operation offering post-consumer compost collection stations.

IC's Purchasing group is participating in the Finger Lakes Environmentally Preferred Procurement Consortium, a regional multisector partnership focused on combining purchasing volume to support greater procurement of "green" products by all the participants. Our Facilities Maintenance group has converted almost entirely to Green Seal© certified cleaning products and bathroom papers.

Over the ten-week RecycleMania competition, IC achieved an average recycling rate of 30.82%. Our overall solid waste program achieves an overall 45% waste diversion.  Because of increased use of compostable materials in addition to collections of dining hall food waste, in 2007, we closed our onsite composting program and contracted with a local contractor for collection and processing of compostables. Our total waste stream declined by 8% in 2008, of which 265 tons were compostable materials.

Facilities Grounds have added two GEM cars and several flex-fuel vehicles to our maintenance fleet. Public Safety's patrol officers acquired a T3Motion rechargeable electric personal mobility vehicle. Transportation managers are actively "right-sizing" the internal maintenance fleet, purchasing smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, including smaller mini-packers, as well as a Toyota Prius in our campus rental fleet. 

As of 2008, part-time faculty and staff (including contract dining workers) are eligible to utilize public transit at no cost; full-time staff have been eligible since 2002. The College negotiates special student bus pass rates with our transit service provider and additionally underwrites those passes by 30%.

Ithaca College collaborated with Cornell University and the City of Ithaca to develop Ithaca Carshare, and is underwriting College community participation in that program. Permanent reserved parking for the Ithaca Carshare vehicle has been authorized.

Curriculum & Research

The Spring 2008 Finger Lakes Project, our sustainability curriculum development program for faculty, partnered with the Center for Faculty Excellence to incorporate effective teaching concepts, including learning assessment and backward course design.

Partnerships in Sustainability Education, the collaboration between Environmental Studies and EcoVillage at Ithaca, awarded sixteen minigrants between 2007 and 2008.  Over a five-year period, close to sixty $1,000 grants have been awarded to IC faculty and staff, and EcoVillage residents for the development of curricular materials related to sustainability across disciplines, including poetry, politics, permaculture, teaching pedagogy, evolutionary biology, and anthropology.

In Fall 2007, all first-year students participating in the Ithaca Seminar attended a mandatory educational program on sustainability, featuring a presentation on climate change and interactive learning activities related to campus sustainability. An Ithaca Seminar offered by the Women's Studies department explored the connections between gender and the environment, from the symbolic association of women and nature to the ways that global warming impacts the lives of women in developing countries.

The Sustainability Curriculum Committee in the School of Business is working to develop methods to increase the level and depth of coverage of sustainability content in business courses.

In Spring 2008, the Environmental Studies Capstone course focused on strategies to help the College become "carbon neutral." The students presented their "One Degree Closer" final project to the Presidents Climate Commitment committee with their recommendation that energy savings realized from a one-degree thermostat set-point change enacted in the residence halls be used to fund sustainability projects and programming.

Students in "History of American Environmental Thought" explored complex environmental history subjects within the city of Ithaca and Tompkins County area using of the archives of The History Center of Tompkins County. Researched topics have included sustainable farming and conservation, roadway system development, salt mining, shoreline changes of Cayuga Lake, history of regional hunting, and the development of area canals.

A math professor incorporates statistical data from official government sources to teach standard techniques like curve-fitting and regression analysis, but he additionally requires his students to interpret the sustainability challenges represented by those datasets.

"Exploring A Global Challenge", the Ithaca Seminar team-taught by faculty from Business, Biology, and Sociology, used the "Low Carbon Diet" to encourage the students to reduce their own climate impacts. The students' final poster presentations on "carbon wedges" were used as an instructional tool for the Climate Commitment committee to guide climate action plan strategies.

A Chemistry professor continues her funded research on solar-powered production of hydrogen for fuel cell applications. Students in Physics classes researched renewable energy strategies for the College, including the potential for rooftop solar photovoltaic installations, and purchasing energy "hedges" and offsets. As a continuing research project, a third consecutive Environmental Studies student collected and tabulated the source data to complete the 2007 update of the College's greenhouse gas emissions inventory using the Cool Air Clean Planet tool.

During the all-college Whalen Academic Symposium in Spring 2008, nearly 30 student research presentations featured sustainability themes.

Campus Culture

Campus Sustainability Day 2007 featured demonstrations and displays of campus sustainability activities. IC Environmental Society organized a highly diverse Earth Week 2008 which included: a presentation by the deputy director of Greenpeace; the Sustainable Menstruation Red Tent Event to discuss the environmental and personal health costs of commercial menstrual products; a speaker on Native Environmentalism;  a screening of "The 11th Hour"; a Vegetarian Teach-in , a native speaker discussing finding common ground between scientific and traditional ecological knowledge;  the Natural Beauty Campaign promoting healthier, eco-friendly cosmetics and personal care products; and a talk by the author of "The Price of Fire: Resource Wars in Bolivia."

ICare - a steering committee of campus organizations related to sustainability - includes representation from Student Government Association's Sustainability Committee, Residence Hall Association, Students for Sustainability, the Ithaca College Environmental Society, Business Sustainability Ambassadors, SafeWater, Students for Fair Trade, Green Investing Club, Students for Social Justice, Students for Fair Trade, IC Feminists, and others.  ICare offers educational media and programming to foster campus sustainability, institutional pride, and personal responsibility.  ICare events included fundraising concerts and the ICan recyclable can collection effort.

The Sustainability Subcommittee of Student Government Association was successful in proposing legislation to enact the Sustainability Rewards program. SGA voted to approve $800/year to be set aside for campus organizations which incorporate sustainability into their operations or activities.

The Residence Hall Association has conducted two years of Energy Challenges, pitting residence halls against one another in friendly competitions to reduce energy use. The winning residence hall in each challenge round receives a free dinner, sponsored by Papa John's Pizza. The Lord Poole Juice Cup, "loving cup" trophy created from recycled materials is awarded to the overall winner at the end of the year.

The Sustainably Conscious Learning Community offers students, with the support of faculty fellows, an affinity housing option focused on learning how to live more sustainably - residents prepare communal meals, hold learning events and take field trips, including visiting EcoVillage at Ithaca. Resident interest in this sustainability community option necessitated a move to a larger residence hall; expressed interest in the Sustainably Conscious Learning Community for Fall 2008 far exceeded capacity.  Development of a second Sustainability Learning Community is being considered by the Office of Residential Life for 2009.

The Resource and Environmental Management Program student REPS maintain an on-going program within the residence halls of peer-to-peer education to reduce energy and resource waste.  REPS assist residents with proper recycling techniques, conduct floor programs, and place educational media in the halls, including "Installments," informational placards placed on the inside of bathroom stall doors to discuss personal consumption and resource management practices.

Sustainability at Ithaca and the Resource and Environmental Management Program provide information to faculty and staff on recycling and energy conservation, including plug load impacts and engaging computer energy-saving settings. Student REMP reps and Sustainability Interns have produced guidebooks for the campus community, including the Green Office Guide, and the Transportation Options guide for first year students.

Community Service and Outreach

Along with our Sustainability website and sustainability listserve, we issue a quarterly newsletter called "Collective Impacts" to keep our community abreast of events and activities.  The "Green Thumbs-up" program acknowledges departments and individuals who demonstrate more sustainability decision-making.

Our Sustainability Café series taps experts to present on a wide variety of topics, including: ecocities, climate change impacts, recycling, permaculture, peak oil, and pollution. A February 2008 café featured a debriefing by our representatives to the United Nations Climate Change Convention in Bali.

In Fall 2007, we hosted the Northeast Affiliation of College and University Residence Halls regional conference. The conference theme, "Getting Our Region Geared toward Environmental Sustainability", focused on sustainability, leadership, and residence hall programming. In Summer 2008, our Office of Career Services hosted their peers for an ESCAPE workshop that included green collar job opportunities as a workshop.

In January, Ithaca College Dining Services hosted the Sodexho Managers Regional Conference which focused on sustainability. The opening plenary session included a sustainability presentation by members of IC dining, natural sciences, recycling, and academic affairs. An Ithaca alumnus who is now a major northeast food distributor organized a food showcase of local and organic food products.

The "Your Impact" radio show took to the airwaves of our campus radio station, WICB. The brainchild of a recent graduate who married his passions for sustainability and radio broadcasting, the semi-monthly program offers sustainability issues and success stories broadcast within the regional community as well as streamed to the web.

The annual Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival is a weeklong multimedia interarts extravaganza that expands the discussion of sustainability, embracing issues ranging from wars, health, diseases, music, digital arts, cinemas, popular cultures, fine arts, experimental media, literature, economics, archives, AIDS, women's rights, and human rights.

In January 2008, Dr. Sandra Steingraber, scholar-in-residence and author of "Living Downstream," presented briefings to both houses of the U.S. Congress on the connections between childhood exposures to chemical contaminants, early puberty and later life breast cancer.

"Exploring Positive Growth: The Sustainability Initiative" was on display as a special 10-poster session at the "Greening of the Campus VII" conference at Ball State University in Muncie IN in September 2007. College dining representatives presented "Sustainability in Dining Services" at the SCUP-North Atlantic conference in New Haven. Rick Couture, associate vice president for Facilities, co-presented with the architects for our two respective LEED Platinum construction projects to deliver "A Tale of Two Buildings" at the Smart and Sustainable Campuses conference in Spring 2008.

The School of Health Sciences and Human Performance teamed with Sustainable Tompkins to deliver a Health and Sustainability conference in September, informing our health care community about the important linkages between individual and public health and sustainable practice.

Ithaca College hosted a regional conference on renewable energy technology in November 2007, co-sponsored by the Tompkins Renewable Energy Education Alliance, of which several Ithaca College faculty and staff are active members.