AASHE Blog: Campus Sustainability Perspectives

Results from Winter Shutdown at Williams College

Submitted by Niles Barnes on February 9, 2010 - 9:10am
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Authored by Stephanie Boyd, Director of the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives at Williams College. Re-posted with permission from the Sustainability at Williams blog. 

For the second year in the college’s experiment, we closed our doors on December 24th, shuttered up buildings, turned down the heat, turned off computers, refrigerators, photocopiers, and all sorts of other electrical equipment in an effort to save energy, minimize spending on utilities, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions during a relatively slow period in the academic calendar. When the doors to the campus opened again on January 4th, the college had succeeded in saving $100,000 in avoided utility costs; 430,000 kilowatt hours of electricity; and 4,840 million British Thermal Units of heating energy. To give an understanding of scale, about 2600 houses would use this amount of electricity in a 10 day period.

This avoided energy use represents 528 metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), a 26% increase in emissions savings compared to last year, and 2.7% of FY09 total annual emissions of 19,600 tonnes.


Greening Collegiate Athletics: Green Athletic Centers Resource

Submitted by David Abell on February 8, 2010 - 4:15pm
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When it comes to campus sustainability, athletic departments often are not at the top of the list for being the greenest department. There are a number of factors that attribute to this, including teams traveling around the country to play their opponents, the vast number of resources used to maintain athletic fields and facilities, and the impact of fans tailgating before football games.


AASHE Launches STARS 1.0!

Submitted by Laura Matson on February 2, 2010 - 9:44am
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After three ySTARS Logoears of widespread collaboration with the higher education sustainability community, AASHE launched STARS 1.0 on January 19.


Surplus Property Recycling

Submitted by Justin Mullikin on January 29, 2010 - 12:57pm
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One of my favorite movies growing up was The Brave Little Toaster. There’s a particularly memorable scene in which the Brave Little Toaster and his appliance friends, while searching for the owner who abandoned them, are taken to the back room of a pawn shop.


Greening of the Campus VIII Proceedings and Keynote Videos

Submitted by Niles Barnes on January 14, 2010 - 3:56pm
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The Greening of the Campus VIII conference has officially come and gone, but it lives on in virtual space.  Below I've compiled links to articles, videos of keynotes and awards, and photos from the conference for those who were not able to attend - and for those who were! 


AASHE Interview Series: Angela Halfacre, Director of the David E. Shi Center for Sustainability and Professor of Political Science, Furman University

Submitted by Niles Barnes on January 14, 2010 - 3:35pm
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This week’s interview is with Angela Halfacre, Director of the David E. Shi Center for Sustainability and Professor of Political Science at Furman University. At Furman, Dr. Halfacre teaches environmental policy and sustainability courses and directs the Shi Center for Sustainability, especially its curricular programs and community based research efforts. In her interview, Dr. Halfacre discusses the many ways she is involved in advancing sustainability on Furman’s campus and surrounding community, advice she has for others in similar positions, and the area she views as having the largest potential for growth in the field.

If you are interested in participating in the AASHE Interview Series or wish to nominate someone to participate please email me. To read past interviews, click here.


Final Live from Copenhagen Q & A call recording and highlights

Submitted by Justin Mullikin on January 8, 2010 - 3:46pm
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The Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education at Dickinson College in conjunction with the Office of Global Education recently lead a delegation of 15 students to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 15th Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen, Denmark as part of a year-long intensive course on policy development, climate change, and public communication. AAHSE conducted three question and answer conference calls with the students while they were in Copenhagen.  Below are some highlights from the calls followed by the third "Live from Copenhagen Q & A call" available for listening and download. The previous two call recordings are available here.

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Third Live from Copenhagen Q & A Call

Call for Articles for AASHE Bulletin: Global Edition

Submitted by David Abell on January 8, 2010 - 11:50am
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College and university campuses around the world are making strides towards sustainability, the evidence of which was in the first AASHE Bulletin: Global Edition, published in August 2009. Institutions from over 10 countries and 4 continents were represented in the inaugural publication.


AASHE Launches STARS 1.0 -- Don't Miss the Webinar!

Submitted by Jillian Buckholz on January 7, 2010 - 2:39pm
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The full, formal launch of STARS 1.0 (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System) will take place on Tuesday, January 19th. Already over 100 institutions have registered as STARS Charter Participants.


Models for Success and Lessons for the Future: COP15 Analysis

Submitted by Rima Mulla on January 5, 2010 - 12:40pm
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by Sarah Brylinsky, Sustainability Education Coordinator, Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education, Dickinson College

Should we be disappointed, or hopeful?

It was the question on everyone’s mind as the professors, administrators, and students who had spent two weeks in Copenhagen learning from and influencing the negotiations of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) flew home to celebrate the holidays, reflect on the outcome and process, and prepare for work ahead in 2010.

From a political perspective, there is much work yet to be done. The intent of the conference was to complete legally binding negotiations on a new international agreement as the Kyoto Protocol winds to a close in 2012. The aim was lofty -- to create a new agreement be reached, one which surmounts the difficulty of balancing cost-effectiveness with equitable policy architecture and generates enough consensus to come into effect as a long-term solution to mitigating and adapting to climate change.