	Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education
	Serving the Campus Sustainability Community

The Evergreen State College 2007 Campus Sustainability Leadership Award Application

Contact

Nancy A. Parkes
Sustainability Task Force Co-Chair, member of the Faculty
Seminar II, B 3106, 2700 Evergreen Parkway NW
Olympia, WA
360-866-7171
parkesn@evergreen.edu

Governance & Administration

The Evergreen State College has undertaken a comprehensive approach to sustainability throughout its governance and administration which actively engages all members of its community, including Trustees, senior staff, faculty members, staff members, and most importantly, students.

In September 2006, the Board of Trustees adopted and embraced a new sustainability section to the college's strategic plan with the active support of President Les Purce and college vice presidents. This calls for carbon neutrality and zero waste by 2020, and makes permanent the Sustainability Task Force. In keeping with its sustainability initiative, Evergreen will be hiring a director of Sustainability in the President's office, and will also be establishing several graduate fellowships for MES and MPA students which link theory to practice through sustainability initiatives on campus.

The sustainability plan is the result of an extensive, interactive engagement with all segments of the community that can provide a template for other colleges and organizations. We have defined our sustainability mission as follows:

“The Evergreen State College will be a laboratory for sustainability as demonstrated in its operations, curriculum, and quality of life for employees and students. We will nurture values and practical skills that motivate a lifetime commitment to a sustainable, intergenerationally just, way of living on a healthy planet.”

Other items of note include:

President Les Purce is part of the Leadership Circle of the Presidents Climate Commitment; Evergreen has assisted ASHEE with development of indicators for colleges; Evergreen has signed the Talloires Declaration; Evergreen students have funded 100 percent green-tag energy and have a Clean Energy Committee to spend ten percent of their funds on renewable energy; Evergreen students serve on key governmental boards, including the Sustainability Task Force, Focus the Nation Committee, and Clean Energy Committee; through the Washington Center, Evergreen is assisting many Washington State colleges with knowledge on sustainability curriculum and practices, and Evergreen has gathered together a consortium of colleges, governmental leaders, and non- profit agencies to have an interactive Focus the Nation year and culminating events related to climate change.

To assist sovereign Pacific Rim Indigenous nations, the Northwest Indian Applied Research Institute at Evergreen has completed a comprehensive report on the impacts of climate change on indigenous peoples, and is taking leadership in recommending strategies, including use of the Treaty of Indigenous Nations process, to build political alliances and practical programs.

Evergreen views its governmental responsibilities as extending beyond the college boundaries. The institution assists with a regional Community Sustainable Roundtable; has solicited mutual participation with local community colleges, engages in numerous sustainability related community projects through its Center for Community Based Learning and Action (including the placement of sustainability interns throughout state and local government), and is forming a working alliance with the Governor’s Office to assist with Gov. Gregoire’s priority goals for sustainability.

Finally, President Purce will make use of fall 2007 Convocation to challenge all community members to reduce their ecological footprints with a community and citizen-based challenge.

Operations

Undergraduates in Introduction to Environmental Studies undertook an analysis of energy used and carbon dioxide produced. MES student John Pumilio completed his thesis as a comprehensive carbon budget based upon the Clean Air-Cool Planet protocol, and presented recommendations to the President and Vice Presidents to significantly move up our 2020 target for neutrality. This is under active consideration as part our newly adopted Strategic Plan.
By student action and vote, we now offset 100 percent of our electricity with purchases of green and renewable energy. Ten percent of the funds voted by students will go to clean and renewable energy production on campus, as determined by the Clean Energy Committee with full participation by students.
Evergreen’s food service has met its goal of purchasing 40 percent of its food from local, organic or local organic sources. About 80 percent of these purchases are local. Evergreen’s sustainable agriculture programs are actively working with local farmers to increase their ability to provide food to the college. Students actively campaigned and voted for a redesign of the Campus Activities Building that will allow for better storage of local food, and sustainable kitchen facilities. The building redesign, voted and funded by current students for future students, will have several sustainable features.
Evergreen has significantly increased its “green purchasing,” and now buys 100 percent local and recycled paper. Staff and students have worked to increase acquisition of recycled content products; bio-based products; energy and water efficient products, alternatives to hazardous or toxic chemicals as well as non-ozone depleting substances, and products containing alternatives to harmful chemicals. Purchasing Director Kathleen Haskett serves on the Sustainability Task Force, and has worked comprehensively with our community on reducing overall use of materials.
Evergreen is working with ZGF on an update of its Campus Master plan, to be completed in 2007-08, that will include a multitude of sustainable features such as a core area in the campus square for Sustainability activities; a comprehensive network of trails for pedestrians and bicycles; plans for green student and faculty housing, and a plan for the college to collaborate with Intercity Transit to drastically reduce single occupancy vehicle traffic. Evergreen has an active program to support Commute Trip Reduction.
Campus Housing is increasing the availability of units devoted to Sustainability theme dorm housing. Housing has now completed two Sustainable Checkouts for students and has donated goods to a dozen community organizations. Students continue to work as interns for Housing to order sustainable renovation materials, and to assist with sustainable student life.
Evergreen completed its renovation of the Campus Parkway, which connects two major areas of Olympia, and succeeded in working with neighboring community members to accept elimination of a vehicle traffic lane in favor of a safe and pleasant bicycle/pedestrian lane removed from vehicle traffic.
Evergreen has completed its interpretation and signage for its LEED Gold seminar building that makes the structure itself a “teacher” to all who use it. This was a joint effort among faculty, staff and students.

Curriculum & Research

Evergreen’s highly interdisciplinary model sets the stage for its continuing successful curricular work in sustainability. Our learning communities use whole systems thinking to approach the social and environmental/energy aspects of sustainability.

Several learning centers strengthen our ability to help students link theory to practice. These include the Center for Community Based Learning and Action, which links students to sustainability related service learning in the community; the Washington Center, which has directed a collaborative learning project among many regional colleges called Curriculum for the Bioregion; the Northwest Indian Applied Research Institute at Evergreen, which has completed a comprehensive report on the impacts of climate change on indigenous peoples; and The Labor Education and Research Center, which provides a place to think about what a movement for positive change in society should or could look like.

Faculty will continue their focus in building a strong and coherent sustainability curriculum through two institutes in Summer 2007: one based on sharing methods for teaching about climate change among Evergreen faculty and local community college faculty; and the “Sustainability and Justice Faculty Development Institute.” These programs are funded by the Administration with faculty development dollars, and also invite staff to participate. This second institute will focus on building cross program interaction, skill building in societal sustainability, and a concerted effort to take on the challenge of societal sustainability. The idea among faculty is to help deepen the student experience in studying and practicing sustainability through conscious building of skills and knowledge over more than a one-year time frame. Already, Evergreen has succeeded in adopting these practices in its Ecological Design and Ecological Agriculture programs. In the coming years, faculty will focus on adding to its cohort model a more conscious addition of social sciences, community development, Native American studies, and arts/media around the topic of engaged citizenship.

Among the highlights of Evergreen’s student-produced initiatives that have emerged through the curriculum over the last two years are:

Numerous citizen engagement projects in the greater community. The Suburban Studies Program “American Dream” produced a public hearing on affordable housing, which is increasingly unavailable. The Local Knowledge program has continued to focus on arsenic and health problems in the Tacoma area.
Faculty have designed and produced sustainable teaching gardens both on and off campus.
Sustainable design programs have assisted with architectural design and planning for renovation of the Campus Activities Building to include a multitude of sustainable features
Ecological agriculture programs have increased campus food production and partnered with local farmers to bring more local food to the community, as well as worked with the larger community to value local food
The Introduction to Environmental Studies Program has evaluated energy use and carbon dioxide production on campus
MES students have produced theses related to campus sustainability that have broader application
Native American Studies programs are focusing on survival/sustainability in place-locked communities and evaluating ways to increase and share knowledge in the growing challenge of climate change
Science and policy programs continue to focus extensively on climate change

Campus Culture

At Convocation 2007, President Les Purse will challenge students, faculty and staff to consciously reduce their ecological footprint and to engage in sustainability citizenship. The Sustainability Task Force will provide information and tools to assist in this challenge. Our broader challenge is for our graduates to take their collegiate experience in sustainability into all communities that they participate in throughout their lives.

President Purce and the college Vice Presidents collectively decided to add two new sections to the college’s guiding document, the Strategic Plan—one on Sustainability, and the other complementary section on Diversity.

In fall 2006, the President and Board of Trustees adopted the work of the Sustainability Task Force.

Our working goal, which as a community we all work together to achieve, is:

In addition to being a signatory to the Talloires Declaration, Evergreen’s President, Les Purce, is part of the Leadership Circle of the Presidents Climate Commitment and participated in the formative meetings in Washington, D.C.

Other items of note include:

Evergreen has hosted ASHEE and assisted ASHEE in producing sustainability assessment tools for all campuses
Through the Washington Center, Evergreen has mentored the sustainability practice and curriculum efforts of many regional colleges and universities
Students conduct a major, regional sustainability conference each year known as Synergy, which brings sustainability experts to campus. Administration and faculty support this effort and weave it into the curriculum.
Our sustainability engagement model is inclusive. We have conducted staff institutes on sustainability to gather ideas from workers at all levels, and have conducted workshops in many classes to gather student ideas.
Our Sustainability Task Force model is co-chaired by faculty and staff, and works closely with students at both the graduate and undergraduate level
We are working closely with local colleges on the Focus the Nation event, and are including their faculty members in our education and planning efforts
Housing is increasing its themed Sustainability dorm slots, and expanding its program to include more activities for sustainability oriented students
We are dedicated to increasing the visibility of sustainability—and to emphasizing the social justice and health implications, as well as the environmental implications.
Our students develop and practice leadership skills. In the past two years, they have voted to become 100 percent green-tag, and to fund a campus activities building for future students that will be sustainable.

Community Service & Outreach

The foci of Evergreen’s interdisciplinary structure create an arena in which students, faculty, and staff seek to serve a far larger community. These include tackling real world issues in all their complexity; developing knowledge and skills through shared learning, and respecting and bridging differences in an increasingly diverse world.

Through both research and service/practice, our students take a hands-on approach in their education and in their communities.

Our students take what they learn into the community and engage in reciprocal learning. We work consistently with a broad array of local non-profits, such as Garden Raised Bounty, which increase sustainability efforts in surrounding communities.
We work with several sustainability-related community organizations to strengthen their missions and assist their staff and volunteers, including the South Sound Community Roundtable.
Both our Reservation Based Program and our Tacoma program focus extensively on the unique needs of the communities that they serve. They work with these particular communities to define sustainability goals and strategies for achieving them. The Tacoma Program motto, where its building is perched in the impoverished inner city Hilltop area, is “Enter to Learn, Depart to Serve.” Adult students in our Tacoma program learn and teach about sustainability through mentoring inner city high school students.
The Northwest Indian Applied Research Institute at Evergreen has completed a comprehensive report on the impacts of climate change on indigenous peoples, and is taking leadership in recommending strategies, including use of the Treaty of Indigenous Nations process, to build political alliances and practical programs. This work is truly international in scope. Indigenous peoples will be first and most deeply affected by climate change. In many cases, they are rooted to particular land, and cannot move.
The culture at Evergreen prizes the community efforts of its faculty and staff, as well as its students. Community service is both expected and valued. The Sustainability Task Force serves as a resource for local governments and non-profit organizations, as well as segments of state government.
Our curricular model highly prizes student community internships and partnerships. We created our Center for Community Based Learning to foster and strengthen these partnerships. Sustainability is a key theme of this work, and the Center will work closely with the new Director for Sustainability and Sustainability Task Force.
Members of the Evergreen Community highly value our participation in AASHE, and have worked collaboratively with other institutions and AASHE staff to help the organization to thrive.

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