ACUPCC

By Mitchell Thomashow, President Emeritus, Unity College and Second Nature Presidential Fellow

Five years ago a small group of visionary college and university presidents gathered to initiate the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). They were motivated by their conviction that higher education had the capacity and responsibility to make a significant commitment to climate and sustainability action for the sake of their students and society.

As we prepare for the 5th Anniversary ACUPCC summit, it’s important to celebrate our accomplishments, especially at a time when higher education’s public image could benefit from some good news. In just five years, 675  colleges and universities have signed the ACUPCC, representing 35% of the national student body. We’ve seen hundreds of institutions implement remarkably innovative sustainability initiatives. We’ve seen the sprouting of hundreds of new sustainability related academic programs, in every conceivable subject, at every educational level.

Yet higher education is also in a crisis. Challenges of accountability, affordability, workforce preparation, and relevance are sweeping the sector. The volatile global economy remains unpredictable, with ramifications impacting every campus. Meanwhile despite our best efforts, the climate issue becomes more daunting daily.

This is an important challenge for the ACUPCC. What should our priorities be over the next five years. How can we build on our accomplishments, broaden our constituencies, and sharpen our impact?

By John W. Strybos, Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities at Alamo Colleges

(This article appears in the February, 2012 issue of The ACUPCC Implementer)

In August 2008, the Chancellor of the Alamo Colleges Bruce H. Leslie Ph.D. signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, as an effort to promote and transform the colleges into a climate neutral organization.  Each of the five campus Presidents has embraced the Chancellor’s commitment and begun integrating sustainability processes into the academic curriculum.  In addition to promoting educational processes that impact the environment, the Colleges have invested in numerous capital improvement projects that focus on energy efficiency, energy reduction, and sustainability.

As each campus grows, additional and alternative energy programs for power generation sources are being installed.  For example, St. Philip’s College (SPC) Southwest Campus (SWC) and Palo Alto College (PAC) each have a 1kW wind turbine generator in operation. Instructors are using these devices in their course curricula.  To educate and train students in green jobs, Alamo Colleges created the Center for Excellence at the St Philip’s College Southwest Campus location with a 400kW solar panel constructed on the roof of the main facility.  This solar panel array, shown in Figures 1 and 2, is used to provide power to the facility and instruct students.  Additional test facilities have been added such as simulated roof tops that are placed low to the ground for safety during instructional periods.

By Toni Nelson, ACUPCC Program Director, Second Nature

On January 20, 2012, the University of Louisville hosted the Farm to Campus Conference: Exploring the farm-to-food service connection, along with Louisville Farm to Table and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.

The University of Louisville’s efforts to bring locally sourced food to campus have been featured in both The ACUPCC Implementer newsletter and in last year’s webinar presented with their food service provider Sodexo: “Farm to Campus: The Successes and Challenges of Sourcing Local and Sustainable Food.” Mitchell Payne, Associate Vice President Business Affairs, spearheaded these activities and was instrumental in organizing the Farm to Campus Conference and obtaining a grant to fund it, so that not only was registration for the approximately 100 attendees free, but we were also treated to a locally sourced luncheon with speaker Mary Berry Smith, Executive Director of The Berry Center and daughter of Kentucky writer and activist Wendell Berry.

2012 marks the 5 Year Anniversary of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), and with it a growing collection of successful leadership stories and innovative projects from over 670 signatory institutions. The first submission of Progress Reports for institutions that have completed a Climate Action Plan show remarkable progress in climate mitigation and education for sustainability.

In just five years, campuses across the nation have pioneered innovative approaches to finance climate mitigation, pursue climate and sustainability related research, reorient curriculum to address climate and sustainability issues, and most importantly engage their student’s and local community’s to address climate disruption.

The paths to climate neutrality and education for sustainability are as diverse as they are inspiring. Here are just a few of the tremendous successes in the first five years of the initiative:

Progress Reports on the Climate Action Plan

Below are just a few examples of recently submitted Progress Reports on institutions’ Climate Action Plans:

The EPA Green Power Partnership recognized the following ACUPCC signatory institutions with 2011 Green Power Leadership Awards:

Allegheny College
Franklin & Marshall College
Mercyhurst College
Santa Clara University
University of Central Oklahoma

Five of the ten Green Power Purchasing awards went to colleges and universities – all of which are part of the ACUPCC network.

Learn more about these institutions’ efforts to measure and manage their greenhouse gas emissions, and integrate climate and sustainability into their education, research, and community engagement efforts by looking them up in the ACUPCC Reporting System.

Read more about Allegheny’s recognition here.

Read more about Mercyhurst’s recognition here.

Read more about Franklin & Marshall’s recognition here.

By Sophie Waskow, Sustainability Project Facilitator and Meghan Chapple-Brown, Director, The George Washington University Office of Sustainability

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

Like many ACUPCC signatories, GW has committed to carbon neutrality and has created a climate action plan outlining carbon reduction strategies. But climate is not the only risk universities must manage and mitigate. By 2030, demand for water globally is projected to exceed supply by 40 percent. Climate change has a number of implications on the water cycle, creating disruptions in water supply worldwide.

Higher-education institutions have the unique opportunity to not only integrate sustainability into their operational practices, but also into their academic and curricular programs. GW has committed to writing three strategies to reduce our resource system impacts: aclimate action plan, a water action plan and an ecosystem enhancement plan. While these three issues are cross-cutting and interconnected, GW chose to set strategies focused on each resource impact area individually to set discrete targets, goals and indicators for reduction and enhancement.

By David A. Caruso, President, Antioch University New England and Member, Higher Education Climate Adaption Committee and Abigail Abrash Walton, Assistant to the President for Sustainability and Social Justice, Antioch University New England

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

As we sat down to write this article, we reflected on the climate change indicators we have witnessed right here in Keene, NH, where Antioch University New England (AUNE) is located.  The most noticeable of these is increased intensity and frequency of storm events.  Indeed, of the 15 largest flood events recorded in New Hampshire since 1934, eight have occurred in just the last five years.  These changes pose compelling challenges for our campus and surrounding communities and have motivated our faculty, students, staff, and community partners to begin to prepare for the risks of climate disruption and to pioneer new models of resiliency.

Second Nature is partnering in the coming months with the American Meteorological Society (AMS) on a 4-year project to promote the importance of basic climate science education at all colleges and universities, particularly those that are minority-serving and signatories of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC).

This national network involves more than 670 colleges and universities who are committed to eliminating net greenhouse gas emissions from campus operations by promoting the education and research needed for the rest of society to do the same,” explains Jim Brey, director of the AMS Education Program. “AMS and Second Nature will work together to demonstrate to current and potential MSI signatories how AMS Climate Studies introduces or enhances sustainability-focused curricula.”

The partnership will result in the implementation of the AMS Climate Studies course at 100 minority-serving institutions in the US at no cost to the institutions.

Read AMS’s blog post about the partnership and Climate Studies course, and Second Nature’s news release.

For more information about the AMS Climate Studies course, FREE licensing, and faculty workshops, contact:

By Adrienne LaBranche Tucker, Ph.D., Associate Director of The Green Institute @ Heartland Community College

On October 28^th, Heartland Community College in Normal, IL hosted the 6^thannual Governor Quinn’s Green Government Coordinating Council Sustainable Universities and Colleges Symposium. Around 350 attendees from all across Illinois joined in a day of higher education sustainability best practice sharing.  The day’s activities started with presentations from Heartland Community College’s President, Dr. Alan Goben, the Town of Normal Mayor, Chris Koos, the Executive Director of the Illinois Green Economy Network, Julie Elzanati, and of course Governor Pat Quinn.

Speakers, workshops, and panel discussions covered topics such as sustainable renovation and construction, energy efficiency, renewable energy, conservation, environmental education and service learning, water and waste reduction, student engagement in greening the campus, applications of benchmarking and reporting tools like the Illinois Campus Sustainability Compact, STARS, ACUPCC and more.