Advancing Green Building in Higher Education

Last week, we released a new video that answers the two questions most frequently put to us since Second Nature was founded in 1993:

Why is Education for Sustainability so important?

Why focus on the higher education sector?

Heres’s our answer:

Watch the video on YouTube and Vimeo.

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By Ashka Naik, Director of Capacity Building, Second Nature
(This article appears in the January, 2011 issue of The ACUPCC Implementer)

Two years ago Second Nature undertook an extensive research project to understand the needs and challenges faced by the U.S. higher education institutions that were disenfranchised from the mainstream “Green Building” movement for a myriad of reasons.  This inquiry, funded by the The Kresge Foundation, offered an in-depth look into the unique demographic, physical and economic as well as knowledge-based hurdles confronted by these institutions while pursuing sustainable building practices on their campuses.

By Anthony Cortese, President, Second Nature

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

As you know, Second Nature is a non-profit organization whose mission is to transform the education, research, practice and community engagement of higher education in order to foster a healthy, just and sustainable society for all now and in the future. Senator John Kerry, Teresa Heinz and I founded Second Nature in 1993 to help lead this transformation.  Our view of “sustainability” includes and goes well beyond the environmental dimension to embrace the bigger questions of how we create a world in which all current and futurehumans are healthy, live in secure, thriving communities and have economic opportunity on a finite planet whose capacity to support life becomes more precarious daily.

We did this because of three beliefs.  First, despite heroic efforts on public health and environmental protection in the last 40 years, society was and continues to be on an unhealthy, inequitable and unsustainable path that threatens the viability of a complex modern civilization.  Secondly, we need transformative change in the mindset and actions of individuals and institutions that must be led by higher education.  And thirdly, the current structure and direction of higher education is largely (though unintentionally) reinforcing the unhealthy, inequitable and unsustainable path that society is pursuing.

By Felicia Davis, Director, Facilities & Infrastructure Enhancement, Institute for Capacity Building, UNCF and Ashka Naik, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Second Nature

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

By Vanessa Santos, Advancing Green Building Intern, Second Nature

Last Tuesday evening at Old South Church in Boston, MA, you couldn’t turn around without seeing bright white signs that read “Put Solar on the White House!”

This is Bill McKibben’s clear and simple message. Mr. McKibben, with the support of 350.org, the students of Unity College, as well as many local and national environmental groups, has successfully brought this message from Maine to Boston, judging by the crowd of people that was present at the church to support the movement on September 7, 2010. The team then continued this ”Solar Road Trip” to disseminate this same message to New York City and eventually to Washington D.C. Hopefully this message will prompt President Obama to take action on 10/10/10, the day when organizations, politicians and people around the world will get to work to mitigate climate change.

Traveling with one of the very solar panels that President Carter put on the White House in 1979 (which Reagan removed during his presidency), Bill McKibben and some Unity College students made their first stop in Boston, as they rallied to get President Barack Obama to return this solar panel, and other donated solar panels, to the roof of the White House.

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.

“Let us put our minds together and see what life we will make for our children”
– Sitting Bull

The second of three Green Building Learning Institutes is being held in Minneapolis, MN with strong representation from tribal colleges in the region.

The highlight of the opening reception last night was an incredible dance performance from Larry Yazzie of Native Pride Dancers and his eleven-year-old son and three-year-old daughter.  Learning about their work of preserving these cultural traditions and passing them on to the next generation was a powerful reminder of the importance preserving a suitable habitat for humans on this planet and a global society that fosters, not destroys, a diversity of human cultures.

We also heard from Dr. Karl Reid who head Academic Programs and Strategic Initiatives for UNCF and Minneapolis City Councillor, Robert Lilligren, who talked about a host of exciting sustainability initiatives, including installing the largest green roof in the state and being recognized as the country’s number one biking city last year.

So far the event promises to be an excellent venue for networking and accelerating the great work that is being done in tribal communities and communities of color – and particularly the institutions of higher education that serve those communities – to create a healthy, just, and sustainable society.

by Georges Dyer, Second Nature

On Thursday, April 7^th, 2010, an historic event took place in Atlanta, GA – Spelman College, on their Founders Day, unveiled the first LEED certified building for new construction on an historically black college, achieving a LEED Silver rating.

Dr. Beverly Tatum (President), Art Fraiser (Director of Facilities Management), and David Freidman (US Green Building Council representative) spoke about the efficient features of the building, such as non-toxic and repurposed materials, efficient HVAC systems, a white roof (to reduce heat gain), and efficient lighting.

The Spelman ceremony (and student-guided tours of the building) also served as the kick-off for first of three Building Green Learning Institutes in 2010 developed by the UNCF Institute for Capacity Building and made possible by theKresge Foundation.

by Rima Mulla, Communications Associate, Second Nature

Second Nature President Anthony Cortese and Senior Fellow Georges Dyerdiscuss “The Campus as Living Laboratory” in their latest web article for Fast Company’s Inspired Ethonomics series. They cite examples of institutions already benefiting from having adopted sustainable practices in their operations, and point to resources developed by Second Nature to move the higher education sector in this direction. Two of the resources highlighted were the Case for Investing in Improved Energy Performance on Campus document, developed in conjunction with the Clinton Climate Initiative, and theCampusGreenBuilder.com web portal, produced by our Advancing Green Building in Higher Education team, which helps under-resourced and minority-serving institutions build green.