Furman University 2008 Campus Sustainability Leadership Award Application
Category
Four-year and Graduate Institutions 1,000 - 7,500 Student FTE
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| 2007 Campus Sustainability Day |
Contact
Angela C. Halfacre
Director of Sustainability and Environmental Education, Associate Professor of Political Science
Office of Sustainability and Environmental Education
Furman University
Greenville, SC
(864) 294-3670
angela.halfacre@furman.edu
Governance & Administration
*Furman President David Shi is among the first signatories of the American College and University President's Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) Leadership Circle. In June, he served as one of three spokespeople for the ACUPCC in Washington, DC.
* The university formed a Sustainability Planning Group composed of faculty, staff, administrators, and students to develop a master plan to meet Furman's agreement to the President's Climate Commitment.
* The university recently hired a Director of Sustainability and Environmental Education (Dr. Angela Halfacre) to lead Sustainability initiatives and coordinate the newly constructed Campus Sustainability Center.
* An endowment investment specialist has recently been hired to better manage and increase transparency, from an environmental perspective, our $500 million endowment.
* Since 1997, Furman has been involved with the Associated Colleges of the South's Environmental Initiative (ACSEI), with Faculty Fellows and Student Interns. Each year the fellow and interns support the ACSEI objectives and programming hosting and attending workshops and conferences and supporting ACSEI alliances (http://www.colleges.org/enviro/index.html).
Operations
* New construction and renovations continue to be committed to sustainable and energy-efficient design and LEED practices. The new $63 million Charles H. Townes Center for Science is scheduled for completion in August 2008 and will be a "living building and laboratory" featuring a solar aquatic treatment facility, solar thermal panels, rainwater collection and day-lighting systems. The James B. Duke Library (renovation and expansion completed in 2004) has been granted Gold LEED certification. The library also received 2006 Sustainable Design Award from the Carolinas Chapter of the International Interior Designers Association.
* The Southern Living Showcase home (Cliffs Cottage) was opened to the campus and public on June 14th, 2008. The first environmentally sustainable Southern Living Showcase Home, it will be open for public tours for one year, then revert to Furman and be retrofitted as the Center for Sustainability (which will provide space for a growing array of sustainability initiatives). Features include a geothermal ground source heat pump, photovoltaic and solar thermal systems (30 kW; 8 panels) organic vegetable garden, rainwater collection for irrigation, Energy Star-rated appliances, low VOC paints, sustainable flooring and other green products.
* ARAMARK and the Dining Hall have incorporated increasingly more foods from local farmers into their menus this year.
* Purchasing Department implemented campus Green Purchasing Guidelines.
* Computing and Information Services implemented a new energy saving plan for all campus wide public computers whereby computers are powered down during the early morning hours.
* The university continued with its restoration of the lake in an effort to restore the lake to a more natural, healthy environment. A professional landscape architect specializing in native plants was hired and developed a complete restoration master plan for the revegetation and redesign of the lake's borders. Phase I which covers roughly ¼ of the lake shoreline was completed in June. Student and faculty efforts to reduce the wildfowl population have been extremely successful in reducing the nutrient and bacteria loading to the lake.
* The Eco-Cottage, an eco-friendly on campus house in which students practice sustainable living, will quadruple in size this coming year. Three more houses have been refitted with green features including solar tubes and geothermal systems this summer. Collectively these will be referred to as the Village Green (housing 28 students). The Village Green will provide a model of civic and environmental residential responsibility.
*A campus energy policy includes suggestions for conserving energy, such as shutting off lights and other equipment when not in use and replacing light bulbs with CFLs. Other improvements include: lighting retrofits, HVAC system replacements, use of Variable Frequency Drives (VFD's), upgrades to HVAC Control systems, temperature set points, and the use of occupancy sensors.
*For renovations, building systems and controls are replaced with direct digital control (DDC) systems that are connected to a central front-end computer. This computer controls building temperature set points and occupied/unoccupied space conditions.
*Furman's Janitorial Services has switched to Butcher's products (Green Seal Certified). Custodial staff completed training with the new products and are now certified by Johnson Diversity (through its Healthy High Performance Cleaning Program).
Curriculum & Research
*The faculty has approved a revised curriculum, which includes the following:
All undergraduates will be required to take two courses in "Global Awareness". One will focus on the relationship between "Humans and the Natural Environment", and one will focus on "World Cultures." Although Furman has long had a requirement that exposes students to cultural diversity, the "Humans and the Natural Environment" requirement marks an important step in the evolution of Furman's curriculum which recognizes:
- Human cultures evolved within an environmental context, and remain dependent on the environment for resources and irreplaceable ecosystem services
- Understanding how the world operates as an environmental system that supports life is fundamental, required knowledge for an educated person in our modern society
- Environmental issues are often moral issues that force us to consider how our behaviors (including resource use and waste production patterns) directly and indirectly affect the lives of other people and organisms on this planet.
*Compton Fellowships - Two students (Colin Hagan and Kartikeya Singh) completed environmental fellowships this year and two additional students (Elizabeth Cooke and Angel Cruz) were selected for next year.
*A formal partnership was established with The Nature Conservancy to conduct research on a piece of property known as the Blue Wall Preserve.
*Furman received a $100,000 Bank of America gift to establish an Environmental Fellows program. The first of these Fellows, who will lead student-based sustainability initiatives, has been selected for four years of support.
*The freshmen ECOS engaged living program entered two films in the SCA-Mazda Multimedia Environmental competition and one of the films "The Lifestyle Project" won the national grand prize of $15,000.
*The Internship Office has improved visibility of sustainability-oriented internships and increased its efforts to find internships for students interested in various aspects of sustainability.
*34 courses were offered in the environmental studies major/concentration in 2007-2008.
*Nine departments in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities contribute to a Concentration in Environmental Studies. Students in the capstone course for the concentration are involved in service learning projects in the community.
*Chemistry department has added a certified track in Environmental Chemistry, as well as new courses to the curriculum such as Environmental Ethics
*Environmental research has grown dramatically. The River Basins Research Initiative is a project piloted by the EES Department and supported by nearly $2 million in grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, the Associated Colleges of the South, the Saluda-Reedy Watershed consortium and South Carolina DHEC. The research program, which began in 1997, has involved as many as 11 faculty from seven departments (Biology, Chemistry, EES, Sociology, Economics, Political Science, and Philosophy). Over 140 students supported by these grants have conducted research on the effect of land use on water quality in major upstate river systems. This is the largest single research initiative in Furman's history, and it provides our undergraduates with an unparalleled interdisciplinary experience in engaged learning.
Campus Culture
*A student Eco-Pledge and Senior Green Graduation Pledge was implemented in which students agreed to lead a green lifestyle while on campus and beyond graduation. Students who sign the pledge receive monthly green tips via email.
*Elizabeth Cooke '08 received a National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology grant to install a rain garden as part of the Furman Lake restoration project (installed Fall 2007).
*Furman's organic garden expanded to 1/4 acre in conjunction with the Cliffs Cottage (www.furmancliffscottage.com). Managed by students and the sustainability coordinator, the garden provides a place for students, faculty and staff to learn about small scale food production and sustainable agriculture and food systems.
*ARAMARK and Furman entered the National Recyclemania contest for the Food Waste category and finished 5th in the nation. Vegetable wastes from dining hall, primarily the salad bar, were collected and composted on campus. The compost is currently being utilized in the organic garden.
* Roughly 25 Furman faculty and hundreds of students participated in the national "Focus the Nation" teach in and hosted the Backporch Energy Initiative which provided a series of environmental workshops.
*The Environmental Action Group successfully completed its third year of coordinating the Kill A Watt challenge, an energy saving competition among upper class dorms.
*An on line student "Green Guide to Sustainable Living" was completed and is now accessible from Furman's main webpage.
* The second year of the Environmental Community of Students (ECOS) residential living program was successfully completed. This year 13 incoming freshmen who had expressed an interest in the environment lived together in a residence hall and took two classes together (EES 21 Environmental Science and BIO 16 Introductory Biology) in the fall. As part of this program, students were required to perform three hours of environmental community service each week. Many of these students have already emerged as leaders in the sustainability efforts on campus; in fact four of these students will be leading the student Environmental Action Group next year as sophomores.
*Furman received a $100,000 Bank of America gift to establish an Environmental Fellows program.
*The Environmental Action Group, the IDS 55 Environment and Society class, and the ECOS Engaged Living programs had a number of initiatives including:
- cardboard recycling efforts during student move in days
- distribution on an environmental bookmark through library and campus bookstore
- sale of reusable organic cotton grocery bags to faculty, staff, and students
- a coal dump energy display that contained information about Furman's energy use
- a tire pressure check that checked vehicle tire pressure levels and adjusted them
- a paper free day at the Library for Earth Day
- an educational food waste program in which students weighed food wastes generated at the dining hall on a weekly basis to educate students on wastefulness and ways to reduce food waste
- a roadside clean up day picking up trash on campus and along the roads that border campus 3/29/07
- an environmental display at the College Bookstore (May 2008)
Community Service and Outreach
*Provision of ‘Flicks at Furman' - a collaborative 6 part film series among Furman, Upstate Forever, and the Greenville Organic Foods Organization that focused on organic and local foods (Saturday Evenings in Sept / Oct 2007)
*Participation in the Powershift Conference (Washington DC) 11/2 - 11/5/07 (5 students)
*SCA Environmental Earth Vision Summit (Washington DC) (4/24 - 4/27) (5 students)
*A Sustainability Dinner at the President's house to celebrate all that efforts of the faculty, staff, and students that have been instrumental in Furman's environmental efforts was held 5/1/08.
*Furman has continued a close partnership that includes numerous collaborations with Upstate Forever, a local non profit organization devoted to smart growth.
*A formal partnership was established with The Nature Conservancy to conduct research on a piece of property known as the Blue Wall Preserve (Committee of eight faculty).
*Furman is collaborating with community members and public and private groups in a grassroots effort to convert the abandoned "Swamp Rabbit" rail line into a trail for hikers, runners, and cyclists. The 13-mile railroad line, with nearly two miles through the Furman campus, extends from downtown Greenville to Traveler's Rest, SC.
*The SC Solar Council founded on the Furman Campus in 2004, continues to hold at least one of its quarterly meetings on campus.
*Furman is a project partner in the Saluda-Reedy Watershed Consortium, a group of organizations and individuals concerned about the impacts of development and changing land use on waterways and lakes in the Saluda-Reedy River basin.
*President David Shi is chair of Greenville's Vision 2025, a visioning process designed to create a sustainable Greenville by the year 2025, when the city's population is estimated to reach 1.3 million.
*The Southern Living Showcase home (Cliffs Cottage) was opened to the campus and public on June 14th, 2008. The first environmentally sustainable Southern Living Showcase Home, it will be open for public tours and outreach for one year (approximately 350 visitors per week have toured the home since it's opening).
