Portland State U Earns Tree Campus USA Designation
Its 49-acre urban campus recently earned the designation for meeting Arbor Day's Tree Campus USA standards, which include maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures for its campus tree program, an Arbor Day observance, and student service-learning project.
Stanford U Students Petition for Drought-Tolerant Landscaping
The recently presented petition with over 800 signatures asks the university to replace non-signature Stanford grassy areas with native landscaping in order to reduce water consumption. According to the petition, watering plants makes up 40 percent of the university's annual water use.
St. Olaf College Acquire Solar Power for Carbon Neutrality
The college recently announced plans to lease 90 acres of land for the development of 15 one-megawatt solar electric arrays. The college will acquire 40 percent of the project's output. This along with 10 percent from another project enables the college to achieve 100 percent carbon-free electrical power.
U California Merced Hires First Sustainability Director
Colleen McCormick will preside over the university's first sustainability office. McCormick comes from Indiana University-Purdue University's office of sustainability where she served as director for 3-1/2 years. Her position's role includes developing communications and building collaborations among faculty, students, staff and community members in an effort to engage and advance campus and community sustainability initiatives.
U California Santa Cruz Honors People of Color Environmental Work
The university's Ethnic Resource Center recently hosted its first world cafe style discussion aiming to showcase the contributions that people of color have made to the environmental movement and to have a critical dialogue about the current state of the campus environmental movement.
U California System Approves Carbon Neutrality Projects
As part of its efforts to accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions across the school system, the university recently approved 20 research and outreach projects that focus on leveraging faculty expertise and student creativity to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and develop carbon neutral energy supplies. Some areas that the projects touch on are deep energy efficiency, a research summit, faculty climate action awards, student fellowships, and green labs certifications.
U Hawai'i Adopts Sustainability Policy
At the recent systemwide, annual summit on sustainability, the new executive policy on sustainability includes setting specific targets for reducing energy consumption and increasing utilization of renewable energy in 5-year increments, with a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, energy management systems, water conservation, transportation changes, and calls for an increase in local food products.
U Northern British Columbia Reduces Food Waste
Since October 2014, more than 1,000 pounds of food have been provided to local charities from the university's Food Recovery Project that collects and redistributes the surplus food from a new dining hall.
U South Carolina Panhellenic Takes Green Living Strides
One of the university's EcoReps programs, the Green House Certification, was awarded to a Greek house for their implementation of sustainable living practices and is based off of the university's similar certification for dorm rooms. Greek life also initiated Green Greeks, a weekly meeting where attendees learn and discuss one topic within sustainability for representatives to take back to their chapter.
Utah State U Pilots Employee Bike Program
The university is going to conduct a pilot program later this year that allows employees who bike to work to be reimbursed up to $240 a year for commuting costs. It's part of federal legislation enacted in 2009 under the Renewable Energy Tax Credit that adds bicycle commuting to the list of qualified transportation fringe benefits covered in the IRS code.
Florida State U Begins Food Recovery Network Chapter
The new student chapter recovers leftover pre-made food from various locations across campus, including home football games and soon, baseball games, and delivers it to various partner agencies around the city, where it is later distributed to people living in shelters or those who are in need.
Georgia Tech Selects Sustainability-Centered Undergraduate Focus
As part of the university's accreditation process, Serve, Learn, Sustain has been chosen as its newest Quality Enhancement Plan, which seeks to improve undergraduate education by developing academic courses and experiences that combine community involvement with sustainability, and by focusing on global challenges in critical areas of energy, environment, water resources, food security and global health.
Hendrix College Approves Sustainability Fund
The newly approved fund, approved by 80 percent of the 600 students who voted on the initiative, will be created by a dedicated $20 per student per semester fee and will be allocated on a competitive basis to large sustainability projects designed by students, faculty and staff.
Lehigh U to Host Equality-Themed Basketball Game
Sponsored by the university's athletic department and the Pride Center, an upcoming men's game will be themed LGBTQ Equality Game to provide a means for athletes, coaches and fans to stand up and create an atmosphere of inclusion, recognizing the courage and openness of athletes at all levels who have come out as LGBTQ.
North Central College Invests in LED Lighting
A $200,000 investment allowed the university to recently complete the light-emitting diode (LED) retrofit in three buildings, avoiding $35,000 annually in electricity costs. The new lighting includes occupancy sensors and dimming features.
Portland State U Launches Graduate Certificate in Public Design
The university's School of Architecture's new certificate in Public Interest Design aims to prepare students in sustainability, community development and architecture to aid underserved populations through sustainable, human-centered design methods via in-classroom studies and hands-on field experience, working directly with communities in need.
Stanford U to Begin Educational Farm
The new, six-acre farm, opening spring 2015, will be a working farm dedicated to teaching, researching and learning about small-scale agriculture.
Texas A&M U Kingsville Initiates EcoRep Program
The new learning experience developed by students for freshman students focuses on energy, water conservation and waste minimization as principal ways to promote improved campus sustainability.
Texas Christian U Students Increase Campus Sustainability Efforts
At a recent Student Government Association meeting, representatives passed a resolution to create an ad hoc committee to advance student sustainability efforts on campus that includes eliminating paper meeting agendas, offer a paper bag option at campus shopping locations, introduce biodegradable food containers, and create a sustainability education program.
Texas State U Creates Bike-Sharing Program
Abandoned and unclaimed bikes on campus get a second life through the recently launched bike-sharing program that allows the campus community to experience cycling without the cost.
U California System Signs Montreal Carbon Pledge
In an effort to fully implement an environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment strategy, the pledge commits the university to measuring and annually disclosing the carbon footprint of its investments with the goal of using this information to inform carbon asset risk and management strategies. The university also recently joined two other sustainable investment efforts: the Investor Network on Climate Risk and the Carbon Disclosure Project.
U Virginia Begins Employee Sustainability Program
Seeking to reduce its environmental impact by building more efficient spaces, the university's sustainability committee has started its new, self-reporting Green Workplace Program, which uses a checklist of 60 actions that workplaces can implement to improve operations and reduce cost, and includes eight categories: energy, transportation, purchasing, zero waste, community, health, food and bonus credits.
Western Michigan U Recognized by USGBC
The Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council recently recognized the university for energy conservation efforts, recycling and waste reduction programs, and for facilitating cooperative research into green manufacturing practices.
ACUPCC Highlights Progress Reports
(U.S.): The American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment spotlights noteworthy accomplishments from recent progress report submissions that are inspiring and progressive in their goal of attaining carbon neutrality. The highlights include projects from Creighton University, Salisbury University and University of California at Los Angeles.
Cornell U Installs LED Lights in Athletic Centers
(U.S.): Contributing to the school's climate sustaining efforts, the Department of Athletics and Physical Education have begun installing light-emitting diode (LED) lightbulbs in all campus athletic facilities. The project is estimated to save more than 1.7 million-kilowatt hours of electricity and preventing about 450 tons of carbon dioxide annually, avoiding nearly $136,000 in utility bills.
Eight U California System Schools Collaborate to Research Climate
(U.S.): The state's university system has allocated $1.9 million in funding over four years to Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego and Santa Barbara for a coordinated approach to studying climate impacts in diverse natural and human-dominated ecosystems. Scientists from the nine campuses will form an institute, develop a strategy to synthesize climate research in a common framework, assess climate change models for California, and extend collaborative research across the school system.
Energy Dept Reveals 2016 Collegiate Wind Competition Participants
(U.S.): The U.S. Department of Energy's 2016 Collegiate Wind Competition challenges teams of undergraduate students to design and build a model wind turbine based on market research and siting considerations, develop a business plan to market their products, and test their turbines against a set of rigorous performance criteria. The twelve teams participating in the competition are Boise State University, The California Maritime Academy, California State University, Chico, Kansas State University, Northern Arizona University, The Pennsylvania State University, Universidad del Turabo (Puerto Rico), University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Maryland, University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Massachusetts Lowell and University of Wisconsin Madison.
Five Universities Participate in 'Solarize U' Program
(U.S.): Eastern Connecticut State University, Southern Connecticut State University, University of New Haven, University of Connecticut, Wesleyan University and Yale University are now participating in the State of Connecticut program to offer faculty, staff and students' families the opportunity to compare online competitive bids from pre-screened installers of solar energy systems.
Northern Arizona U Helps Feed Food Insecure Population
(U.S.): University students recently had the opportunity to collaborate with Campus Dining and the campus' Food Recovery Network chapter to make sandwiches that were delivered to a local food center whose mission is to feed those who face food insecurity.
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.
