EAUC Announces 2014 Green Gown Award Winners
(U.K.): The Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges recently recognized 15 campuses in aspects of institutional activities including their teaching and research, leadership, buildings, food, and how students can benefit from the quality of life in the communities around them. As a benefit of AASHE membership, members have access to the member-only resources the United Kingdom's Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges.
EPA Announces $207K for Pollution Prevention
(U.S.): The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded Rutgers University $117,000 to develop an online tool to help communities and government agencies identify industrial facilities that may be especially vulnerable to releases and discharges of hazardous materials due to climate change impacts, such as storm surges. With the help of a $90,000 EPA grant, Rowan University will assist the specialty chemical industry in reducing the toxic chemicals they use by using green engineering.
Georgia State U Hosts Bike Conference with City
(U.S.): The inaugural bike conference forged discussions, interactive roundtables and new partnerships between the city and the university that will amplify the university's efforts to create a new bicycle plan proposal.
Grand Valley State U Serves Up Campus Grown Food
(U.S.): The university announced a new partnership between the Office of Sustainability Practices and Campus Dining to bring produce from its two-acre Sustainable Agriculture Project to the tables of a restaurant in its dining facility.
Inside Higher Ed: Trashing Morale?
(U.S.): West Virginia University recently switched to single stream recycling. Along with this change, the institution recently announced that faculty members must begin taking out their own garbage and recyclables to central collection stations in order to encourage recycling. Custodial staff will no longer empty individual office trash and recycling bins, which creates higher efficiencies. Overall the change has been received well, but there are some faculty who object to the manner in which the university carried out the change.
Knox College Approves Funding for Additional Recycling Bins
(U.S.): With funding from the university's Sustainability Fund, five new bins, carrying a combined $6,800 price tag, will be permanently placed various sporting venues across campus after having been recently approved by the Student Senate.
Lakehead U Establishes New Research Center
(Canada): The newly created Research Center for Sustainable Communities is focused on interdisciplinary research in the areas of social justice, political economy and environmental sustainability.
Rice U to Add Solar Power System
(U.S.): The rooftop photovoltaic installation is part of the university's effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent over the next ten years and achieve climate neutrality by 2038 as specified in its Integrated Climate and Energy Master Plan.
San Diego State U Pairs Trash and Recycling Bins
(U.S.): In an effort to make recycling easier on campus, the recycling department is co-locating trash and recycling bins around campus and re-labeling all the bins to create consistent messaging.
U Albany Recognizes Importance of Local Food
(U.S.): The university showcased its commitment to locally sourced foods through its participation in the inaugural Campus Crunch in which students, faculty and staff joined colleagues at 17 other schools and colleges across New York State to emphasize how universities can work with regional farms to promote sustainable food production.
U California Santa Cruz Converts to Staff Served Plates
(U.S.): Shifting from self-service, the new dining service was recently introduced in an attempt to minimize uneaten food scraps being sent to the university's compost facility. Preliminary measurements indicate a reduction of leftover food on plates.
U California Santa Cruz Educates with Virtual Dorm Room
(U.S.): The new interactive page on the university's Housing website is an easy-to-use tool for students to become more educated about living sustainably by identifying methods for using less energy and water, using more environmentally friendly products and bicycling more.
U Haifa Prohibits Food Containing Trans Fat
(Israel): The university, which hosts a school of public health, recently eliminated the sale of foods containing trans fats, a type of artificially created unsaturated fat that has been found to raise the risk of coronary heart disease. During the past year, the university has been checking nutritional values of food sold at campus restaurants and cafeterias and held seminars on health.
U Illinois Proposes Bike Fee
(U.S.): A recent referendum proposed a $1 student-initiated bike fee that would be slated for creating better bike infrastructure, safety courses and education.
Union College to Complete Rain Garden
(U.S.): Spearheaded by a student who spent a recent summer installing rainwater capture systems, the college's green fee selected the rain garden as one of 15 funded projects. The system will be designed to bio-filter roadway runoff water from a residence hall currently under construction.
U Southern California Student Petitions for Solar Energy
(U.S.): The university's Environmental Affairs Organization is aiming to bring solar panels to campus through their new initiative called the Go Solar Campaign. The organization, which cites other schools' solar success with smaller budgets, is drawing up a proposal for the administration that seeks to mitigate the financial burdens of solar power, such as a donor-based system or third-party power purchasing agreements.
U Wisconsin Oshkosh Implements Green Fund
(U.S.): After passing a student referendum in 2013, the university's sustainability fund committee, comprised of eight students, is now accepting proposals for projects that cost up to $60,000.
Wake Forest U Students Add Greenhouse to Campus Garden
(U.S.): Two students recently erected the hoop house to extend the growing season of vegetables in the Campus Garden, which supports local farmers, decreases the carbon footprint, and supports the community with localized food through Campus Kitchen program.
Weston College Offers Educational Eco House
(U.K.): The custom-made house is used to train construction workers in sustainable building techniques and features solar panels and a rainwater capture system for flushing toilets.
Amherst College Hires First Sustainability Director
Laura Draucker started work as the college’s first director of environmental sustainability this month, leading the recently founded Office of Environmental Sustainability (OES). Draucker wants to help establish the OES as an office that actively incorporates environmental sustainability into the daily lives of members of the college community. Prior to her acceptance of this position, she worked for five years at the World Resources Institute and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Auburn U SGA Passes Unisex Restroom Bill
Tabled at an earlier meeting, the bill, which calls for the implementation of unisex restrooms in future buildings, passed favorably through the Student Government Association recently and will benefit a variety of people including families and transgender people.
Bakersfield College Asks Campus to Help Reduce Water Consumption
With California's current water shortage situation, the college is calling on the campus community to report leaks and be more mindful of water use while it will be working on replacing 50-year-old water lines and installing more efficient sprinkler heads.
California Polytechnic State U Receives $2.5M Water Grant
The university's College of Engineering was awarded a $2.5-million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to promote graduate education for underrepresented minority students interested in water conservation and sustainability. The grant is dubbed MENTORES (Mentoring, Educating, Networking, and Thematic Opportunities for Research in Engineering and Science), and aims to encourage underrepresented minority students to pursue master’s and doctoral degrees by providing additional resources, such as tutoring, stipends and paid internships, as well as developing a pipeline with universities that have doctoral programs.
Clarkson U to Complete a 2MW Solar Install
In an effort to stabilize the rising cost of electricity, the university will purchase electricity back from the 2-megawatt system currently under construction consuming 12-acres of land. The project is projected to avoid 2,100 tons carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere annually.
Elizabethtown College Awarded $500K for 2MW Solar System
The college was recently awarded a $500,000 Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority (PEDA) grant to install a 2-megawatt ground-mounted solar photovoltaic system and create opportunities for students and faculty members to study various aspects of solar energy.
Georgia Tech Manages Invasive Species with Sheep
During the month of November, the university will be using sheep to control kudzu rather and chemical herbicides, which can produce toxic runoff and leave behind tender leading to a potential fire hazard. The university plans to bring the sheep back in spring for a second grazing period.
Hartwick College Becomes Fair Trade Certified
The new recognition comes after years of work by a community-based service learning class on Human Rights. The college now offers two Fair Trade products in all retail and food outlets, and all Aramark catering coffees and teas are certified products.
Huston-Tillotson U Charges with Solar
The new solar charging station was retrofitted from a 1950s gas pump with solar panels for the campus community to use clean energy to recharge portable electronic devices.
Indiana State U Celebrates First Campus Sustainability Day
The event, organized by a graduate student, included several environmentally engaging activities for the campus community: a sustainability careers workshop, the Second Nature broadcast, a sustainability campus tour, and a community garden open house.
Indiana U South Bend Incorporates Sustainability Studies Degree
The university is now offering a Bachelor of Art degree in Sustainability Studies, designed to introduce students to the basic concepts of sustainability, offer a wide variety of ways to practice sustainability, and give them hands-on experience that will prepare them for jobs in the emerging green economy. The curriculum includes internships, opportunities for research, and a seamless transition from the classroom to the workplace or graduate school.
Merced College Los Banos to Build Produce Forest
Two university professors received $50,000 from Wells Fargo to repurpose a biologically inactive one-acre plot adjacent to Los Banos Creek into a sustainable woodland ecosystem. The project will provide organic produce to students at the Los Banos campus and the surrounding community.
Texas State U Partners on Resource Efficiency
Under a recent memorandum with a private company, the partnership will collaborate to improve operation and management of social infrastructure such as water conservation and preservation.
Triple Pundit Covers AASHE 2014 Conference & Expo
The article recaps Annie Leonard's recent remarks at the conference in October held in Portland. Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace and co-author of the Story of Stuff, reminds stakeholders in higher education campus sustainability to commit to renewable energy, divest from fossil fuel investment, leverage purchasing, encourage student engagement and stay inspired.
U California Irvine to Add 3.2MW of Solar
Currently under construction, the 3.2-megawatt solar electric system atop three parking structures is part of a 25-year power purchase agreement allowing the university to pay a price below what would normally be paid to a utility. The project is expected to reduce campus carbon emissions by 1,500 metric tons per year.
U Maryland Establishes Sustainability Pledge
The university's new Small Footprint Pledge is a way for all students, faculty and staff to make a commitment to minimize their environmental impact by adopting new green living habits from a suggest list of items from the pledge action list. Participants are invited to adopt that action for a week, a semester or a whole year.
U Minnesota Morris Announces Fellows Program
The university's new Sustainability Leadership for the Future (SLF) program includes faculty, staff and student fellows that will be developing a sustainability leadership strategic plan and shaping the campus’ institutional approach to sustainability leadership by identifying and supporting promising curricular and program developments, create guidebooks and workshops, and develop infrastructure, practices and policies that promote coordination across offices.
U South Alabama Breaks Ground on Community Garden
Through a student initiative focused on recycling, the new community garden will help reduce the amount of food waste in the community, provide fresh, locally grown food, and raise community awareness about the values of sustainable living.
U Tennessee Spurs Plastic Water Bottle Reduction Initiative
The new Take Back the Tap campaign is part of a national initiative aimed at reducing the consumption of single-use plastic water bottles on college campuses. Food and Water Watch, an organization that primarily provides resources for campus coordinators as they work to debunk myths about tap and bottled water, is currently working with over 60 colleges across the United States to encourage students to make a habit of choosing tap water over bottled water.
Arizona State U Student Government Passes Diversity Act
In an effort to change the culture on the subject of diversity, the Tempe Undergraduate Student Government passed the Diversity On Campus Act, which calls for the formation of a volunteer committee that will try to expand the curriculum of university 101 classes to include the subject of diversity.
Carnegie Mellon U Students to Urge for Fossil Fuel Divestment
Inspired by the AASHE 2014 Conference & Expo, student attendees from the university's environmental organization Sustainable Earth are launching the divestment initiative, which will call for the university to freeze any investments into fossil fuel companies and to completely divest from the industry within five years.
