August 4, 2010

By Julie Lawrence, National Events Marketing Manager, Sodexo and Rachel Sylvan, Director, Engagement- Corporate Citizenship, Sodexo 

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

Above - 350.org International Day of Climate Action 10/24/09 during Campus Sustainability Week 135 Paul Smith’s College students, staff, and faculty participated along with community members from the Adirondacks (includes forestry students in orange hardhats and culinary arts students in chef whites) on the Great Lawn at Paul Smith’s College on the shore of Lower St. Regis. 350.org is leading a push to reduce carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million in the atmosphere.

Collaboration is at the heart of any successful sustainability program.  At Paul Smith’s College, a deep commitment to achieving carbon neutrality has led to opportunities for collaboration across the campus.  President John W. Mills was one of the first to sign the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment to neutralize carbon emissions and lead the way on teaching students to improve society. Today the importance of sustainability and carbon neutrality is stressed at all levels of the organization.  As a central touch point for all segments of the campus community, campus dining has become a center for promoting the culture change that is driving their success.

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July 12, 2010
Posted in: Partnerships

The Energy Action Coalition is back in… action.   Check out this video launching the Power Vote 2010 campaign aimed at getting dirty energy out of politics, so that energy efficiency and clean energy solutions can power green jobs and economic recovery:

College and university students are leading the youth climate movement to create a safer future for all of us.  They have opened applications for political campaign training courses this fall; they are working internationally through theGreat Power Race; they are creating visions of the future they want throughDefine Our Decade; and  they are getting to work on 10/10/10 to show politicians how we can reduce atmospheric concentrations of CO2 to 350 parts per million.

As the July issue of the ACUPCC Implementer focused on – addressing the climate crisis requires great leadership at all levels.  The youth of our country are certainly among the most important and effective actors in ensuring we make this great transition successfully, peacefully, and quickly.

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July 6, 2010

By Glenn Cummings, Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Education

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

“Education is not widely regarded as a problem, although the lack of it is.  The conventional wisdom holds that all education is good, and the more of it one has, the better…. The truth is that without significant precautions, education can equip people merely to be more effective vandals of the Earth.” – David Orr (1994)

If, in fact, the survival of the earth hinges on a race between disaster and education, then certainly American higher education holds a key to that outcome. As the Union of Concerned Scientists underscores, few issues signal potential disaster more pointedly than rapidly accumulating carbon emissions (and its multiple impacts).

As colleges and universities throughout the country accept their collective responsibility for educating the next generation in an idea loosely called “sustainability,” the mission of becoming better stewards of the earth has expanded on American college campuses. In recent years, top-level officials at these institutions have called for institution-wide commitments to a more “sustainable” relationship with our natural environment.

Nevertheless, the implementation methods used within institutions remain complicated, strewn with obstacles and weighted with risks. Leadership faces complex political, structural and personal barriers to significant change in the pursuit of sustainability.

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July 6, 2010

By Dan Worth, Executive Director, National Association of Environmental Law Societies

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

What would it cost to get an entire campus to run on power from renewable sources? How do you sell expensive sustainability measures to a community still skeptical about global warming? What steps can a campus community take to get a diverse community of students, faculty, administrators, and staff out of their comfortable, convenient cars?

Over the past eight months, close to 100 students, 20 administrators, and 15 professors on 10 campuses across the country worked hard, with support from the National Association of Environmental Law Societies (NAELS), to answer these and other tough sustainability questions.

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July 6, 2010

by Wendell Brase, Vice Chancellor, University of California, Irvine and Chair, University of California Climate Solutions Steering Group

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

During the past three years I have served in the roles of both Chief Business Officer (CBO) and ACUPCC Implementation Liaison at the University of California, Irvine.  In this dual role I have recognized certain factors critical for attaining success in implementing climate action plans.  In this first of four articles to be published over the next twelve months, I will describe two basic tools that can determine whether your organization and key stakeholders are adequately prepared to move forward in implementing solutions to the complex problem of attaining institutional climate-neutrality.

The following 10 factors are strong predictors of an organization’s success in addressing any large, complex problem including climate change solutions.  That is, these essential ingredients predict a high-performance organization’s success path:

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July 6, 2010

by Steve Sonka, Interim Vice Chancellor for Public Engagement, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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

As we undertook to develop an ambitious, yet realistic action plan, theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign faced a dilemma common to many universities: how to commit to goals based on predictions of conditions 20, 30 or even 40 years in the future. Further complicating efforts, our proposal dealt with issues involving building efficiency, renewable energy sources, and technologies that haven’t been invented yet, all while bearing in mind public sector budget deficits and the current reality of financial stress across campus. Our careful planning also had to take into consideration the size and diversity of our Big Ten campus, comprising some 41,000 students, 3,000 faculty, and more than 700 buildings. Acknowledging these challenges, the project team of students, staff and faculty working on the climate action plan also had to accept the certainty that new research on environmental issues will surely mean future adaptations to an already complicated plan.

Strategic Intent

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June 29, 2010

By Van Du, Advancing Green Building Intern, Second Nature

Second Nature’s Advancing Green Building in Higher Educationteam participated this month in the third and final UNCF Building Green Learning Institute. Hosted in San Antonio, Texas, from June 10-12, 2010, the institute once again brought together faculty, staff, and students from colleges and universities across the country to continue the discussion on sustainability efforts in higher education.

As with the previous institutes, this was a great forum for colleges and universities to learn from one another about the different sustainability and building green initiatives that each school is implementing.  In addition to showcasing schools and their ‘greening’ efforts, conversations and remarks at the institute underscored the importance of dedicating time and effort to this journey.  Many schools began by making a commitment to change. For example, Elizabeth City State University just recently became a signatory of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment—the first UNCF Building Green Learning Institute participant school to do so.   However, it was clear that the real challenge for many schools is the transformation from commitment to action.

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June 15, 2010

I recently had the privilege of participating in The New Prosperity Initiative(NPi) Community Dialogue Series. NPi, was founded by Jeanne Dasaro andAlexis Schroeder with the goal to publicize the efforts of individuals and organizations working to build social and economic prosperity. NPi brought together four Boston based non-profits with missions focused on food systems and environmental sustainability.

We heard inspiring stories from:

Matthew Kochka, Farm Manager, “Victory Programs” ReVision Urban Farm, working to increase access to affordable, nutritious, culturally appropriate food for shelter residents and community members through community-supported farming.

Gene Benson, Services Program Director, Alternatives for Community and Environment, building the power of communities of color and lower income communities in New England to eradicate environmental racism and classism and achieve environmental justice.

Kimberly Guerra, Lead Teacher with “e” Inc. providing science education with community action in order to improve environmental health in urban communities.

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June 14, 2010
Posted in: ACUPCC, News

In addition to their innovative campus green building, renewable energy projects, and sustainable agricultural practices, all 10 colleges named in US News & World Report’s list of Eco Friendly College Campuses have something in common: they’re all signatories of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC).

10 Eco Friendly College Campuses - US News & World Report
click to view the US News & World Report slideshow

View these signatory schools’ ACUPCC profiles by visiting the ACUPCC Reporting System:

  1. Warren Wilson College
  2. University of Colorado at Boulder
  3. Ithaca College
  4. The Evergreen State College
  5. University of New Hampshire, Durham
  6. University of California, Santa Barbara
  7. College of the Atlantic
  8. Arizona State University
  9. University of California, Santa Cruz
  10. Middlebury College
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June 3, 2010

by Tim Stumhofer, Program Associate, Greenhouse Gas Management Institute

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

At face value, the question of which environmental commodity to use in support of voluntary climate objectives (e.g., “carbon neutrality”) may read as a simple preference of taste. Tasked with parsing vague marketing claims and often-inaccessible acronym-laden jargon, the average consumer should not be faulted in assuming that choice in these instruments is little more than a matter of “mixing-and-matching” project attributes. Indeed the diversity of project geography, technology, vintage (i.e., year), and ancillary benefits (e.g., local vs. global economic development) on offer can prove alternately dizzying and empowering. While this shopping experience permits consumers the leeway to pair project traits to personal or organizational preferences transcending pure climate goals, the freedom of choice permitted in this open and incompletely defined marketplace does not come without expense.

There are many evaluative steps you should take to make an informed environmental commodity purchase. Yet, in this marketplace it may be very difficult to assess even the most fundamental of these steps: the definition of the very product being sold. By definition, a commodity is an “undifferentiated product,” meaning it should be uniform in quality and quantity in every example. However, in voluntary carbon markets, “environmental commodity” is often used as a blanket term to refer to two very different commodities: greenhouse gas (GHG) offsets (representing emission reductions) and renewable energy certificates (RECs) (which codify renewable energy generation).

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