Share Your Stories

In celebration of Campus Sustainability Day we invite you to share your responses to our event  - Campus Conversations - by posting your feedback, comments, stories, and ideas on the conversation topic – sustainability in admissions, retention, and educational value.

Watch the Campus Sustainability Day Webcast
A Useful Education: Sustainability in Admissions, Retention, and Educational Value 

Participate in an interactive video conversation
Ask a question of one of our Campus Sustainability Day participants

Share Your Thoughts and Stories
In a time of increasing focus on the value and use of a college education, how are sustainability and climate programs offering prospective students and their families, as well as enrolled students, the opportunity to engage in a useful, innovative, and valued educational experience? Sustainability programs, and curricular opportunities, offer a variety of ways for students to engage in transforming their campus and learning about their world, society, and place in it.

Do these opportunities make for a more engaged student body?  Do they attract students to a university?

Below is a powerful tribute to the late Ray Anderson, created and shared with Ray before his death.  As you can tell from the words of so many people directly impacted by Ray’s leadership, and the stories of the millions of others indirectly impacted, sustainability leadership can be a powerful motivator, providing meaning to our work and lives.

Keep an eye out for Second Nature president Tony Cortese around minute 6:00.

Thank you Ray and the people of Interface!

By Todd Cohen, Director, SEED Initiative, American Association of Community Colleges

(This article appears in the October, 2011 issue of The ACUPCC Implementer)

Engaging with the community to build sustainable and thriving regional economies is an important pursuit for higher education. For community colleges, in particular, this quest is also a fundamental part of what they are and who they serve.

Community colleges were founded on the principle of service to the community. Most community college students are local residents who stay in the region. Sustainability practices learned at the college, therefore, are likely to be applied locally as those students become part of the fabric of that community. Colleges also serve thousands of local residents and businesses through continuing education, small business support services, and workforce programs. These are critical vehicles that colleges are using to inform the public (i.e. local consumers) about the importance of environmental stewardship and how to take advantage of green technologies like solar panels or sustainable building products. In addition, outside the campus, colleges are key stakeholders in a growing number of regional climate and energy partnership initiatives to reduce community energy consumption or advocate for revised local environmental policies.

By Peter Bardaglio, Senior Fellow, Second Nature

(This article appears in the October, 2011 issue of The ACUPCC Implementer)

TCCPI, a project of Second Nature, is generously supported by the Park Foundation

Embedded in the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) is the notion of leadership by example. By committing their institutions to the goal of carbon neutrality, the presidents who are signatories to the ACUPCC underscore the critical role of higher education in meeting the challenge of climate change and building a more sustainable future.

Universities and colleges in the United States have historically been crucibles of social change and laboratories for new ideas and creative solutions to some of society’s toughest problems. In this sense, the ACUPCC is part of a long tradition in our country. What is new, however, is the scale of the problem and the threat it poses to human civilization. Simply providing a model of sustainability will not suffice this time around. Campuses can only truly become sustainable if the communities around them are sustainable. In this sense, implicit in the ACUPCC is the commitment to not only dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of the university or college, but also collaborate with the larger community in doing so.