Springfield College Students Clean Local Zoo
As part of a 735-acre city park, the zoo recently hosted students from the college's Project for Sustainability club to volunteer their time with clean-up to prepare it for its opening.
U Maryland Procures Solar Panels Jointly
Partnering with a local renewable energy-based nonprofit, seventeen university faculty and staff have recently signed up for a bulk purchase of photovoltaic panels.
U Maryland to Help Community Overcome Challenges
A new university program to begin in fall of 2014 called Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability will offer students the opportunity to engage with specific sustainability-related community challenges with coursework tailored to reflect those challenges.
Syracuse U Holds Green Chemistry Workshop for Teachers
The recent teacher workshop with labs and hands-on activities targeted 24 area high schools to inspire students to pursue scientific careers and to encourage teachers to purchase more environmentally benign chemicals.
U Maryland Partners for Expansion of Regional Public Transit
The university has partnered with local groups to create the Purple Line Corridor Coalition to tackle the economic and community development challenges and benefits of the first light rail line. The goal of the group is to guide expertise in active planning to ensure that the investment creates vibrant neighborhoods while preserving existing community assets.
Portland State U Tackles Urban Environmental Issues
(U.S.): Now in partnership with The Intertwine Alliance, the university has a paid student internship and a seat at the table with other organizations working together to secure funding, leverage existing investments and engage residents with the outdoors and nature. The Intertwine Alliance is a coalition of more than 100 organizations working to protect and improve the Portland region’s network of outdoor places and trails.
Portland State U Stages Climate Change Storytelling
In an attempt to reach people in a new way on the topic of climate change, the university, along with five community partners, put a human face on climate change by bringing average people to the stage to tell the story about how they became engaged on the topic.
Memorial U Educates Public on Local Food Options
(Canada): The event, Food for Thought, in partnership with the corner grocery store, explored connections between the community and university by focusing on educating shoppers toward sustainable and local food and the university-community connection.
Arizona State U Hosts Emirati Engineers for Solar Program
In an effort to help Dubai meet their 2030 energy strategy, the university will host 15 engineers for a 15-day workshop focused on enhancing their solar energy skills. Three engineers will be shortlisted to attend a six-month academic intensive.
U Utah Exhibits Environmental Art Installation
The soon-to-begin living art gallery about air pollution will feature three artists from Beijing, China who will install the pieces over a three week period encouraging visitors to engage in dialogue and contribute to the art stations.
Green Mountain College Announces Results of Alumni Survey
As a baseline for measuring future progress, preliminary data from 12 questions on a 2012 class survey indicate that 43 percent of graduates spend more than 10 hours per week deliberately enhancing the social fabric of their communities and 72 percent report that their lives reflect the college's environmental mission.
Middlebury College & Orion Magazine Partner for Conference
(U.S.): Growing the college's own environmental writing conference, the college and the magazine are collaborating for The Bread Loaf Orion Environmental Writers' Conference taking place at Middlebury College from June 9 through 15.
U Vermont Partners on Climate Education
The university's recent memorandum of understanding with the local power utility indicates that the university will have a presence in the power company's Energy Innovation Center and will work collaboratively to advance climate science and understanding of how weather affects energy use.
Portland State U Defends Nature to Washington D.C.
A coalition of partners led by the university conducted briefings about a new set of principles designed to guide more comprehensive assessments of ecosystem services, such as natural watershed management and the multiple benefits of healthy forests and wildlife habitats.
Skidmore College to Begin New Clean Tech Program
(U.S.): In a recent release, the university will soon offer the New York Executive Clean Energy Leadership Institute, which intends to teach business professionals about renewable energy and opportunities for new ventures.
Denison U Addresses Modern-Day Slavery
The goal of the initial Fair Food Festival was to increase awareness about modern day slavery as well as the role of corporate sustainability in creating better working conditions for farmworkers.
Clarkson U Hosts Community Farmers' Market
The university's recent decision to host the winter market allows campus and community members to procure locally grown and processed goods. The markets' new location is near the all-local dining concept, which will allow dining services to source food directly from the market.
Furman U Partners for Community Weatherization Program
(U.S.): The university's Community Conservation Corps program recently partnered with Habitat for Humanity to continue its efforts to reduce energy consumption and promote financial stability of homeowners through weatherization, energy conservation and education in the community.
U California Santa Barbara Opens First Farmers' Market
(U.S.): In an effort to promote eating local and providing a place for community to exist and grow, the Gaucho Certified Farmers' Market will allow any farmers within the three- county area to sell fresh produce to students and the community.
College of the Canyons Holds Inaugural Sustainability Event
(U.S.): Dedicated to promoting sustainability awareness and practices within the student body and community, the event, in concert with the Santa Clarita Environmental Consortium, will focus on environmental issues and is open to the public.
Indiana State U Builds Greenhouses
(U.S.): Drawing on its agricultural history, the university’s greenhouse project includes seven passive solar greenhouses which will aid in student and community learning. Made possible by a $100,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment, food grown in the structures will be sold at the farmers’ market and donated to local food banks and charities. Other schools involved include Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Ivy Tech Community College and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.
U Idaho Professor Recognized by National Conservation Award
Professor Dennis Scarnecchia will be awarded the Fisheries Management Sections Award of Excellence from the American Fisheries Societies this month for his research and commitment to the sustainable management of fish resources. Professor Scarnecchia has worked for the conservation of some of the world’s oldest fish for over 20 years and includes study of the Missouri, Yellowstone and Columbia river systems. Most recently, Scarnecchia has served on the Independent Scientific Advisory Board, an independent scientific panel recommended by the National Academy of Sciences, which provides input to fish conservation, management and research in the Pacific Northwest.
Virginia Tech Offers Global Resilience Assistance
Birthed from the university’s most recent strategic plan calling for the expansion of interdisciplinary research and dissemination, the Global Forum on Urban and Regional Resilience will provide information to organizations around the globe looking at disaster response and recovery, critical infrastructure and urbanization.
Harvard Allston Farmers Market Hosts Composting Program
(U.S.): The first of its kind for the City of Boston, the university’s market will pilot a compostable food scraps drop-off location for city residents. Food scraps collected during the pilot program will be hauled off-site for composting.
Lehigh U Embarks on Community Native Planting Project
The latest project to come from the South Side Initiative, a group of university and surrounding community members that aims to foster democracy and improve quality of life, includes the transformation of a former railroad bed into a scenic meadow of native vegetation.
Wilfrid Laurier U Celebrates Aboriginal Day with Teaching Garden
The Mino-kummik Aboriginal Community Garden, named after the Ojibwa word for "good, bountiful earth," features a vegetable and fruit garden, aboriginal medicinal garden, ceremony space and rain-harvesting cistern for irrigation. A local nonprofit will hold workshops with local residents to illustrate sustainable practices of saving rainwater for later use.
Exeter U Students Propose Local Renewable Energy Solutions
(U.K.): After working on cost-effective renewable energy systems for the coastal Sidmouth area in Devon for the past year, four students recently presented their ideas to the Sid Valley Energy Action Group. Ideas included an anaerobic digestion feasibility study using geographic information systems.
UC Berkeley to Oversee Public Utility Green Job Training
(U.S.): Under a $500,000 contract that runs through spring 2014, the university's Donald Vial Center for Employment in the Green Economy will coordinate green training for future workers at state utilities with a focus on installing energy-efficient materials and technology.
U West Indies Introduces At-risk Youth to Alternative Energy
(Jamaica): A team from the university and Youth Crime Watch Jamaica have partnered to introduce at-risk youth to alternative energy by showing them how to turn waste vegetable oil into biodiesel. Through a $50,000 Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme grant, the project will train 30 youth in the conversion process and introduce ways to transfer the knowledge into entrepreneurial ventures.
Community Protests Closure of U Windsor Social Justice Center
A rally was held last week on campus to urge university administrators to reconsider their decision to close the Centre for Studies in Social Justice in July for financial reasons. Created in 2002, the center provides a forum for information and exchange of research on social justice issues including racism, poverty, gender inequality, sexuality, literacy, cultural challenges and the global economy.
U California Santa Barbara Community Goes on 'Justice Fast'
A recent 24-hour fast involving students, faculty and staff sought to highlight campus-based, domestic and international social justice issues including suicide prevention, mental care, health care, immigration, gun violence, university divestment, environmentalism, sweat shop brutality and Black Student Union demands.
U Buffalo Hosts Community Environmental Justice Forum
The university recently hosted "An Environmental Justice Forum for Buffalo Homes and Neighborhoods" to bring local activists, academics, community organizers and federal experts together to address aging and deteriorating housing stock, environmentally unhealthy conditions in many neighborhoods, and high poverty and unemployment rates. Students participating in the Law School practicum are providing legal support to the National Green and Healthy Homes Initiative, which has chosen Buffalo as one of 17 pilot cities for its work in promoting safer housing.
Washington U St. Louis Announces Land Lab Winners
The Sustainable Land Lab is a joint program between the city and the university’s Office of Sustainability to turn vacant land into innovate public competition that will give teams the opportunity to demonstrate their ideas through tangible projects at the scale of a single vacant lot. Winners of the inaugural competition include a franchise-model urban farm, a bistro built out of re-used shipping containers, and a sunflower lab piloting efficiency of plant-based soil remediation.
Cuesta College to Open Sustainability Resource Center
The college has announced plans to open a Sustainability Resource Center that will focus on alternative energies in the San Luis Obispo County school systems and the local community. The center will provide resources and training for teachers at all grade levels and delivery of sustainability learning modules to students both at Cuesta College and local schools. MidAmerican Solar, SunPower and NRG Energy provided financing for the project.
U Minnesota Expands Resilient Communities Project
The university’s Resilient Communities Project (RCP) has selected North St. Paul as its partner community for the 2013-2014 academic year. Each year, RCP chooses a city partner, helps identify potential projects, and matches the city’s project needs with University of Minnesota courses. The partnership will bring the expertise of hundreds of graduate students and the university to sustainability-related projects identified by North St. Paul.
Portland State U, UC Berkeley Students Spend Spring Break Farming
As part of an alternative spring break program, 24 students from Portland State University and the University of California, Berkeley partnered with Petaluma Bounty, a nonprofit educational farm, to learn about food justice. The students planted vegetables, spread compost and helped with other labor-intensive projects on the farm.
Cuesta College to Establish Sustainability Resource Center
The college has announced plans to open a Sustainability Resource Center this year. The center will provide resources and training for teachers at all grade levels and delivery of sustainability learning modules to students both at the college and local schools. MidAmerican Solar, SunPower power plant solar solutions and NRG Energy financed the project.
U Iowa Expands Initiative for Sustainable Communities
(U.S.): The university has expanded its Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities to become a campus-wide and statewide project. The initiative was created to enhance the capacity of Iowa's communities to address the economic, environmental, and social-cultural issues they face today and build a more sustainable future. With its expansion, more departments across campus will partake in future projects.
Indiana U Purdue U Indianapolis Conducts Sustainability Survey
The university has conducted a survey asking businesses, health care organizations, churches, nonprofits, higher education institutions, and other groups and residents in Indianapolis how they view sustainability. The survey’s purpose is to examine the sustainability practices of those in the Indianapolis community and use the data to determine possible improvements to current and future sustainability practices.
