By Judith Groleau, Vice President of Development, Second Nature

(This article appears in the December, 2010 issue of The ACUPCC Implementer)

A highly visible undertaking such as the ACUPCC must demonstrate the commitment of its members through their participation in fundraising efforts, as this is an important tool for encouraging donors to invest in new programs and special projects that help to achieve the goals of the ACUPCC.  Just as each college and university works hard to achieve that level of participation from its alumni and board for a giving program, we too seek to have that level of participation from ACUPCC signatories through our membership dues program.

Institutions that step up to pay Leadership Level dues make a vote of confidence in the initiative that not only supports program management efforts but also brings a host of other benefits.  In October, during the 2010 Climate Leadership Summit, I learned that Pomona College made a Leadership Level dues contribution to the ACUPCC to acknowledge the high profile work done by their Implementation Liaison, Bowen Close, on behalf of the ACUPCC.   This is an extraordinary way for an institution to acknowledge the accomplishments of one of its own on campus.

While attending the 2010 Greenbuild Conference in Chicago, IL, Second Nature’s Ashka Naik brought together the eleven 2010 Kresge Fellows who attended this year’s GreenBuild thanks to the funding they received through their fellowships. The group shared their experiences as campus sustainability champions over a meal and had the opportunity to discuss their challenges with content experts in the field of green building. Read more on the Campus Green Builder blog.

Recently Cornell announced that alum David Atkinson ’60 and his wife Patricia are giving $80 million to fund the Center for a Sustainable Future.  It is the largest gift the Ithaca campus has ever received from an individual.

It shows that a strong commitment to education for sustainability — often mis-percieved as necessarily increasing costs — can open up new and significant opportunities for funding.  The Center, which was established with a $3 million gift from Atkinson three years ago, had already attracted over $55 million in funding from other sources.

The Center’s director, Frank DiSalvo, has a tremendous opportunity to help

Patricia and David Atkinson | credit: Jason Koski/University Photography

higher education lead the way in creating a sustainable society. In his post about the gift, the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Scott Carlson quotes DiSalvo as saying:

“My view of universities in the last century is that we focused on developing really strong disciplines, and that much of the focus has been disciplinary,” Mr. DiSalvo said. “The problems of this century are going to require that we cut across disciplines to bring together teams with a variety of expertise to address these problems.”

By Steve Muzzy, Senior Associate, Second Nature

(This article appears in the November, 2010 issue of The ACUPCC Implementer)

The 4th Annual American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) Climate Leadership Summit met October 12-13 in Denver, CO. The nearly 200 participants got right to work sharing challenges and best practices and outlining the future direction of the commitment. Highlights from the Summit follow.

James Woolsey, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President Bill Clinton, provided the opening keynote address. Mr. Woolsey’s presentation focused on the impending threats to national security that are being posed by an increasingly unstable climate. His perspective creatively threaded the current and future social and environmental implications of our reigning energy policy as well as provided some promising existing mechanisms to scale renewable energy production. Note: Mr. Woolsey’s presentation and all Summit presentations will be available on the ACUPCC website soon.