Best Practices Guide: Laboratory Resilience
This guide was created by volunteer members of the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL) to help labs better prepare for future uncertainties, including pandemics or the impacts of climate change. I2SL is hosting a webinar on this guide on June 17 (see the events section below for more details).
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Calculation Tool
The World Resource Institute and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol are seeking beta testers for a free, Excel-based tool, the GHG Emissions Calculation Tool, that estimates greenhouse gas emissions.
#RealCollege 2021: Basic Needs Insecurity During the Ongoing Pandemic
This report examines the pandemic’s impact on the college students who were able to continue their education in this challenging environment. Released by The Hope Center, this report analyzes results from the 2020 #RealCollege Survey, completed by more than 195,000 students attending 202 colleges and universities in 42 states.
Educating the Next Generation of Sustainable Investment Leaders Report
This report from the Intentional Endowments Network compiles information on the 40 sustainably invested student-managed investment funds (SMIFs) engaged in The SIILK Network (IEN's student and faculty facing work), and highlights the assets under management, fund structure, and sustainable investing strategies used by student-managed investment funds.
Restore Our Earth Climate Education Week Toolkit
Earthday.org acknowledges Climate Education Week from April 19-23 with Earth Day on Thursday, April 22. This toolkit provides a daily focus for Climate Education Week related to the 2021 theme of Restore Our Earth. It is designed for educators, parents or motivated students who want to explore ways to learn more about the local impacts of climate change and how people can work together to restore our earth through individual and community civic action.
Environmental Justice Timeline & Teaching Resources
The environmental justice timeline, compiled by Earthday.org, spans over 200 years from 1720 to 2020 and features major scientific achievements, environmental policy, heroes, contamination and extinction setbacks, and other events that were cemented into history. While not exhaustive, the timeline serves as a starting point for students to explore the history, understand the connections, and start a conversation on environmental and climate justice. There are activity instructions, and a PDF and slide deck of the timeline.
Examination of US University Sustainability & Recovery Activities
Released by the Resource Recycling Systems, the new report provides an overview of recycling, organics recovery and sustainability activities on U.S. university and college campuses. Key findings include 63 percent of schools sampled (312) have an established recycling program on campus; 33 percent of schools sampled have some type of composting available on campus, however, programs vary in type of accepted materials; and of the schools sampled, the average recycling rate was 24 percent, and the diversion rate, including recycling and composting, was approximately 45 percent.
Basic Needs Insecurity in the Higher Education Instructional Workforce
A new report from the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice analyzed the rates of basic needs insecurity among faculty and staff from almost 550 instructional staff from four community colleges and one university. According to the report, 38 percent of respondents surveyed experienced some form of basic needs insecurity in 2019.
GRITS 4.0: GRITS Goals
Users of GRITS (Green Revolving Investment Tracking System) are now able to develop detailed climate action plan models or track an existing plan's impacts by assembling their projects into resource reduction scenarios at the institution-wide, campus/site, or building scale. GRITS Goals combines the platform’s business case analysis with customizable project timelines and dynamic charting to map out pathways from business-as-usual to aggressive energy, carbon and other resource reduction targets. GRITS is a platform designed by Sustainable Endowments Institute to help institutions analyze, track and share the energy, financial and carbon-saving impacts of their sustainability projects.
University Air Travel Offset Policy: A Case Study
This case study looks at California State University East Bay's new policy to offset greenhouse gas emissions from university-funded air travel by charging a carbon fee. The monies from the initiative are invested in on-campus projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Evolution of Proxy Carbon Pricing Implementation at Princeton University: A Case Study
Released by Second Nature, this case study discusses Princeton University's process of implementing a proxy carbon price to evaluate physical infrastructure decisions for both capital planning and energy conservation projects on its campus. It uses the proxy carbon price as a strategy to bias cost study evaluations toward more energy efficient systems in order to advance carbon reduction goals.
New Issue: Sustainability: The Journal of Record
The latest issue includes research on sustainability reporting platforms and the degree to which they capture virtual learning, and achieving renewable energy solutions through community engagement. Also, this issue features a review of a book, "Greenovation: Urban Leadership on Climate Change", and sustainability resources.
I2SL Operational Practices Module
The International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL) added a new module to its Laboratory Benchmarking Tool, the Operational Practices module. This module allows users to compare policies and practices, such as lab ventilation management plans, occupant engagement activities, high-performance fume hoods, and other technologies used in similar lab types.
Active Ownership in the Endowment: Warren Wilson College Case Study
The Intentional Endowment Network's case study, "Warren Wilson College: Active Ownership in the Endowment", describes a path endowments can follow using ownership stake to ensure that companies are adequately addressing environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities.
USGBC Integrative Process Curriculum Toolkit
The toolkit, curated by the U.S. Green Building Council, provides higher education faculty with resources and processes organized to aid in teaching about and engaging students in the concepts of applying the integrative process to green building design, construction, and operations.
NWF Career Services Toolkit
Published by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), this toolkit is designed for career services professionals, guidance counselors, teachers and other educational professionals to provide a framework and process for utilizing the NWF's EcoCareers resources in their classes, on their campuses, and in coordination with other academic and career development programming.
Roadmap for Change: Reimagining US Higher Education as a Public Good
Released by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, the "Roadmap for Change: Reimagining U.S. Higher Education as a Public Good" report lists six ways to fundamentally change the educational system with the goal of providing equal opportunity for all students to achieve an education beyond high school.
Get the Vote Out On Your Campus Resource
The National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) has compiled a state-by-state resource with voting information for the November 2020 elections that colleges and universities can share broadly with their campus communities. Each state-specific one-pager details how, when and where to vote in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
New Issue: International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
The new issue of the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education includes research about sustainability literacy through sport organizations, students' knowledge and expectations about sustainability food systems, students' perception of environmental concern entering and leaving college, sustainability in engineering curriculum, and city-university partnerships.
College Campus Vote By Mail Playbook
The College Playbook to Drive Voter Turnout is a resource from the Vote By Mail Information Center aimed at helping groups run email campaigns encouraging students to register to vote and to vote by mail. The playbook includes five steps to increase voter turnout in November and keep students safe by using digital tools to register and vote.
Energy Star Portfolio Manager Report
Using data from the Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool, this paper includes data on buildings that report on-site generation of renewable energy, including their type, location and Energy Star scores. It also details current trends in energy metering and the challenges of properly tracking onsite renewable energy use to understand the energy efficiency of buildings.
The Little Book of Green Nudges
The Little Book of Green Nudges, released by the U.N. Environment Program, is a guide to reducing the campus environmental impact through behavioral change. It summarizes the evidence around what nudges work best while seeking to encourage more sustainable practices among students and staff across several behavioral categories. It also provides simple guidance on how to implement and evaluate behavioral interventions in a variety of contexts.
Report on Supporting Vulnerable Campus Populations During the Pandemic
Published by the American College Health Association, this document names African American, Black, Asian American, first generation/low income, international, Latinx, LGBTQ+, Native American, and undocumented students, as well as students with disabilities as groups that have not only experienced the pandemic's disproportionate impact, but the economic fallout, racism and health disparities that have been at the intersection of the public health crisis. It also provides considerations for higher education institutions to support the populations who are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and the ensuing economic downturn.
New Issue: Sustainability: The Journal of Record
The latest issue of Sustainability: The Journal of Record features an open access article about a campus solid waste move-out program at Eckerd College, and a case study about high-impact sustainability practices at Chandler-Gilbert Community College.
Investing in Racial Equity: A Primer for College & University Endowments
Released by Intentional Endowments Institute, this primer is intended to be a catalyst for conversation and action on racial equity for fiduciaries of university endowments. The resource discusses the current state of racial inequity in the U.S. as it relates to the long-term sustainability of the economy; the unique, underappreciated opportunity available to college and university endowments in racial equity investing; and the variety of tools, products, partners and best practices available.
Smart Labs Toolkit
The Smart Labs Toolkit describes a systematic process that helps laboratory owners and operators plan and cost-effectively achieve safe, efficient and sustainable laboratories. The toolkit includes results of best practices and lessons learned from the Better Buildings Smart Labs Accelerator. It helps organizations implement a Smart Labs program by following distinct phases that include specific tasks and resources proven to deliver high performance labs, support efforts of key stakeholders, and maximize benefits for the organization.
Carbon Pricing Approaches for Climate Decisions in U.S. Higher Education
This open access article, "Carbon pricing approaches for climate decisions in U.S. higher education: Proxy carbon prices for deep decarbonization", analyzes a range of internal carbon price tools in use by 11 higher education institutions in the U.S. and discusses tradeoffs. It also discusses how schools can collaborate and experiment with these tools to help drive good climate decision-making and inform climate policy at larger scales.
Advancing University Engagement Report
The University of Melbourne, in collaboration with King’s College London and the University of Chicago, released a new report, "Advancing University Engagement: University engagement and global league tables", that proposes a way to measure and recognize university engagement. The engagement indicators of the proposed framework are university commitment to engagement, community opinion of the university, student access, volunteering, research reach outside academic journals, community engaged learning within curriculum, socially-responsible purchasing, and carbon footprint.
AASHE 2020 Higher Education Staffing Report
Using data provided by AASHE's Higher Education Staffing Survey, the 2020 Salaries & Status of Sustainability Professionals in Higher Education report examines the nature of sustainability positions at colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada and other countries. The report provides insights into salaries, funding, supervision, job satisfaction and challenges, as well as graphical comparisons between this year and previous years.
Survey on HEI Presidents’ Responses to COVID-19 and Racial Justice
“Responding to the Ongoing COVID-19 Crisis and to Calls for Racial Justice”, released by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, summarizes findings from a survey of college and university presidents who weighed in on how their institution is responding to racial justice, anti-Black racism, and the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Report on Underrepresentation of Black and Latino Students at Public Institutions
'Segregation Forever'?: The Continued Underrepresentation of Black and Latino Undergraduates at the Nation's 101 Most Selective Public Colleges and Universities examines how access for Black and Latino students at the nation’s 101 most selective public colleges and universities has changed since 2000, and whether these institutions are serving an undergraduate student body that represents the racial and ethnic diversity of their particular state’s population.
Power Dialog Webinar Discussion Templates
These discussion templates are from Bard College's Solve Climate By 2030 Power Dialog webinars discussion series. Discussion templates are designed for 60-minute classes and cover wide-ranging topics including statistics, Spanish, psychology, physics, music, literature, engineering, art and more.
COVID-19 Planning & Self-Assessment Guide for Higher Education
The COVID-19 Planning Guide and Self-Assessment for Higher Education is designed to be a practical planning tool to help institutions in two ways. First, the guide poses four central questions to determine if your institution is prepared to reopen for each of the major COVID-19 phases. Second, the guide is organized into leadership, cross-functional and functional workgroups to support comprehensive planning efforts across various institutional groups. The guide also contains links to guidelines, resources and media reports to further supplement institutional planning.
Police Free Campus Toolkit
The Campus Divestment From Police College and University Toolkit, curated by UnKoch My Campus, is intended to help students create targeted letter-writing campaigns to call on their respective institutions to cut ties with police, envision a future without police presence on campus, and use public records requests to better understand their school’s relationship with the police.
Post-Landfill Action Network "Reusables and Sanitation Toolkit"
To help campuses navigate the complexities of opening amidst the coronavirus pandemic, the Post-Landfill Action Network (PLAN) created the Reusables and Sanitation Toolkit, which contains references to 14 key resources, including guidance from the FDA, the CDC, the National Restaurant Association, ServSafe, EcoLab and a handful of scientific journals. The toolkit provides guidance to dining facilities that are considering switching to disposable (instead of reusable) dishes and take out containers, as well as reuse programs for items like furniture and electronics.
'Sustainable Futures – Communities in Action' Documentary & Educator's Guide
The Community Conservation Research Network released the documentary Sustainable Futures - Communities in Action covering food security, sustainable livelihoods, community-based conservation, fishery/coastal management, Indigenous rights and more, along with an education guide. The guide provides information and resource material to facilitate discussion and action with students and community groups.
'The Wild Hometown Toolkit: A Toolkit for Student Leaders'
The Wild Hometown Toolkit aims to help students start and build a Wild Hometown chapter in their community, build a campus organization, and connect with other youth and local partners involved in land conservation, environmental education and biodiversity. The toolkit was developed through a collaboration between the Wild Hometown Movement and the Academics for Land Protection in New England (ALPINE).
AASHE Report: STARS Aligned: Using STARS to Report on Contributions to the SDGs
“STARS Aligned: Using the Sustainability Tracking Assessment & Rating System to Report on Contributions to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals” documents the alignment between the Sustainability Tracking Assessment & Rating System (STARS) and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Tips and strategies to assist institutions with reporting on contributions to the SDGs through the STARS framework are included.
