Seattle Pacific U Opens Campus to Homeless
(U.S.): For three months, the university will house about 80 homeless people in a tent city. The university has added educational and service programs so that students can learn about the issue of homelessness and provide direct help to those who are living on campus.
St. Lawrence U Receives $5K to Combat Hunger
(U.S.): The university's Campus Kitchen Project, a student-led effort to combat food waste and hunger by collecting surplus food from on-campus dining halls, community gardens, restaurants and grocery stores and transforming it into meals, recently received $5,000 from CoBank for program development.
U Arizona Publishes Student Sustainability Report
(U.S.): The recently released polling report illustrates important aspects of students and their engagement in sustainability through four main themes: sustainability issues of concern, preferred ways to learn about sustainability, student support for university sustainability initiatives, and students’ sustainability-focused behavior. The university polled a representative sample of the entire student body to gauge behaviors and perceptions as they relate to sustainability.
U Asia and the Pacific Installs 300KW Solar System
(Philippines): Helping to reduce energy costs and its carbon footprint, the university's new 300-kilowatt photovoltaic system is supplying electricity to its parking and sports building, and feeding electricity onto the electrical grid.
U California Berkeley Establishes Chair in Sustainability
(U.S.): The recently established James and Katherine Lau Distinguished Chair in Sustainability will support work that spans the areas of environment and climate, energy supply and demand, and policy and markets. It will be held by the director of the Berkeley Energy and Climate Institute and will advance development of scalable solutions for our planet.
U California Merced Receives $103K Gift for Ecosystem Research
(U.S.): A new $103,000 gift from the Mitsubishi Corporation Foundation for the Americas allows the university's naturalist courses to expand by adding two part-time coordinators for the Central Valley courses, and buying equipment like field notebooks, binoculars and other supplies.
U California Santa Cruz Expands Campus Farm
(U.S.): The new site adds approximately three more acres of growing space to the campus' farm for growing food, offering students a place for hands-on farming experiences, and adds additional research acreage for those interested in studying organic production practices.
U Cincinnati Opens Bike Workstation
(U.S.): The university's new Bike Kitchen gives students a place to come learn how to work on their own bikes for free, and offers bikes for free rental for three days at a time.
U Iowa Begins Growing Energy With Biofuels
(U.S.): With the goal of achieving 40 percent renewable energy consumption by 2020, the university will soon be growing a variety of grass that will be harvested and used to supply power, steam and chilled water to the main campus as part of its Biomass Fuel Project, designed to reduce the use of fossil fuels by substituting locally available renewable materials in the main power plant.
U North Carolina Charlotte Aims for More Unisex Restrooms
(U.S.): The university's Campus Accessibility Advisory Committee and the Trans Committee have recently partnered to identify the most used buildings on campus not near gender-neutral restrooms. In an effort to become more inclusive of all students, identified buildings will have gender-neutral bathrooms built in them.
USA Today: Campus Bike Reuse Programs
(U.S.): The recently released article points out some universities and colleges that are collecting unwanted bikes, repairing them to working order, and lending them to students who might not otherwise be able to afford a bicycle.
U Sydney Announces Fossil Fuel Investment Reduction
(Australia): After a recent review of global trends in green energy movement and a student referendum that resulted in 80 percent of students favoring fossil fuel divestment, the university recently stated that it will reduce its carbon footprint by 20 percent through divesting from fossil fuel investments over the next three years.
Western Michigan U Receives 'Green Seal' Certification
(U.S.): The university's Office of Facilities Management certification process involved documentation, an on-site audit by Green Seal, developing a green cleaning policy, implementing standard operating procedures, and creating ongoing training practices for new and existing team members. Green Seal is a nonprofit in Washington, D.C. that uses science-based programs to encourage organizations and consumers to develop sustainable practices and offers third-party certification to organizations.
Bakersfield College Holds Campus Sustainability Symposium
In conjunction with a local recycling company, the symposium discussed current sustainability efforts underway and proposed ones, including a non-smoking campus designation, infrastructure improvements, and a new co-mingled recycling program.
Five Schools Receive Grant to Bolster Sustainability Initiative
Albion College, Antioch College, DePauw University, Hope College and Oberlin College have received funding from the Great Lakes College Association for a collaborative project, Expanding Collaboration Initiative, that fosters programs of teaching, research and outreach across college campuses to heighten awareness of how human behaviors affect the well-being of the natural environment.
Florida A&M U Opens Recycling Center
The university's new recycling center will manage and encourage the collection, sorting and processing of recyclables, such as paper, cardboard, plastic bottles and aluminum cans. The new center will also house a cardboard bailer and provide workspace for student interns and volunteers to assist with the recycling program.
Lehigh U Adopts Ride Sharing Platform
The university's new contract with Zimride allows the campus community to set up carpools with others at the university, saving money from fuel purchases and in some instances, campus parking permits.
U California Merced Tests Plug That Tracks Electricity Source
The new plug called WattTime, developed through the university's technology research institute, might carry the ability to allow universities to reduce their carbon footprint by tracking the fuel source of the energy being used to charge the carts, solar, natural gas, coal, geothermal or hydroelectric, and determine the cheapest and least environmentally impactful time to charge. WattTime plugs will gather data for a couple of months in the pilot program, and communicate a charging strategy for university facilities to most efficiently charge its electric cart fleet.
U Florida Commences Workspace Sustainability Assistance
Called Green Recognition for Office and Workspaces (GROW), the new program is designed to help offices, labs and other facilities improve energy use, water use, transportation and waste to create more sustainable practices.
U Maine Presque Isle Completes Fossil Fuel Divestiture
As a result of the university's work on its new strategic plan and update of its statement of institutional values, the university's Foundation Board directed its investment managers to divest from all fossil fuel holdings.
U Maryland Offers Free Sustainability Classes to Students
Called Sustainable Tuesdays, the series combines a pre-existing class with weekly guest speakers from the architecture, planning and preservation school that students can attend. The two semester-long classes about sustainable living can be attended without adding extra credits to their course load.
U Maryland Students Take Action for Clean Water
Protecting the Chesapeake Bay is a main priority of university students in the Maryland Public Interest Research Group as they raise awareness of the Clean Water Act to other students by holding a photo petition.
U North Carolina Charlotte Receives $64K Electric Vehicle Funding
One Clean Fuel Advanced Technology Project grant for $12,000 enabled the university to purchase a vehicle battery monitoring system that checks, measures and calculates certain battery parameters to determine the health of the battery in order to save money on battery purchases. A second grant for $52,000 will fund the purchase of 20 on-campus charging stations for electric vehicles. Electric vehicle owners will be able to charge for free during the two-year grant period.
U Utah Joins Real Food Commitment
Thanks to members of the campus community, the recently signed commitment means that University Dining Services will spend at least 20 percent of their total food purchases on real food, defined as local, nutritional, ecologically sound, humane and/or fair, by 2020, nearly doubling its current level.
Wesleyan U Students to Build Living Wall
The university’s Wild Walls student group recently announced its plans to build a vertical plant wall on campus this semester focusing on redesigning conventional campus landscaping while promoting self-sustaining ecosystems.
392 Colleges Compete in RecycleMania Tournament
This year's competition to encourage waste reduction and recycling on higher education campuses features participation from 48 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. New this year, students can post digital messages and selfies that document their reduction efforts in order to earn points.
Antioch U New England Announces Peace Corps Partnership
Following a model of engaged scholarship, the recently launched program allows students conducting Department of Environmental Studies doctoral work to complete advanced graduate work during their Peace Corps service. The program consists of two years of doctoral courses and 27 months in the Peace Corps while students conduct doctoral research.
Colorado Mountain College Holds Art Exhibit
In an effort to raise awareness for sustainability, the inaugural college-wide art exhibit showcased work that was either created with sustainable materials or with content reflecting the theme of sustainability.
Cornell U Shaves 15 Years from Carbon Neutral Goal
A new report detailing how the university can reach carbon neutrality by 2035, including fees on carbon, was recently released by the Climate Action Acceleration Working Group with 16 recommendations and specific milestones targeting campus utility bills and university-funded travel among others.
Georgetown U Announces New Committee on Diversity
The establishment of the Provost's Committee for Diversity, birthed from a proposed, student project, will be comprised of different subcommittees and expects participants to engage in an ongoing investigation of racial and social justice, intersectionality, and awareness of marginalized groups on campus.
Georgia Tech Receives $5M From Ray C. Anderson Foundation
Building on an initial three-year seed funding of $750,000 that established the Center for Business Strategies for Sustainability, the university's College of Business will now be known as the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business after the foundation committed $5 million.
Loyola U Chicago Student Extends Growing Season on Campus Grounds
A now senior student enrolled in the university's Solutions to Environmental Problems class uses the campus' outdoor urban agricultural spaces to research ways to extend the growing season into winter in hopes of providing easy and affordable methods people can use to grow fresh produce at home.
MacEwan U Students to Promote Carbon Footprint Awareness
Student members plan to launch the Carbon Cloud Initiative by walking around with eight balloons that visually represents the amount of carbon emissions an average Canadian generates per minute. Students will deliver a one-minute presentation to the students in their classes about the balloons.
Millersville U Expands Bikeability
Spurred by the support of the president, a biking enthusiast, the university now has additional bike racks and two new bike repair stations, and has plans to install bike lockers in new resident halls.
Northwestern U to Release Strategic Sustainability Plan
Currently under development, five working groups from the university's Sustainability Council are evaluating areas of focus, assessing and prioritizing various initiatives within those areas, and establishing clear goals and metrics to evaluate progress. Their recommendations will inform the council who will, in partnership with university leadership, publish the Sustainability Strategic Plan in summer of 2015.
Rice U Eco Rep Program Expands Sustainable Living Awareness
The university Eco Rep Green Dorm Initiative now includes education about environmentally sustainable living through a contest designed to increase interactivity. This year's focus on energy and water, well-being, and waste asks participates to engage with the theme through daily tasks.
Rice U Signs Agreement to Purchase Solar Electricity for One Year
In an effort to better manage energy consumption and spending, a recent one-year agreement with a power company was enacted that allows the university to purchase approximately seven percent of the university's purchased electricity from clean energy at the same rate as fossil fuel-powered electricity.
