Campus Green Builder

A Small Deed with Big Impact: Vote for Second Nature

July 19, 2012

by Rima Mulla, Communications Manager, Second Nature

If I had a wishlist of things I’d like to accomplish in my role at Second Nature, an update of the organization’s website would be # 1 on that list. The ACUPCC’s website is in pretty good shape — always room for improvement, of course, but the mission of the initiative is clear and resources for signatories are well-organized and accessible. We even do a pretty good job of keeping information up-to-date onCampus Green Builder, a web portal aimed at under-resourced schools for which the initial funding ended over a year ago.

But when it comes to Second Nature’s website, it’s a classic case of the cobbler’s children having no shoes.

Vote for Second Nature - Carrots for a CauseThat’s why we entered this year’s Carrots for a Cause website redesign contest by local Boston design firm, Jackrabbit(Voting has begun and continues through August 12. Votesmay be cast once a day, every day!)

New UNCF Publication Showcases MSI Efforts and Progress on Campus Sustainability

May 10, 2012

By Van H. Du, Program Associate, Second Nature

Sustainable CampusesThe United Negro College Fund (UNCF) recently published Sustainable Campuses: Building Green at Minority-Serving Institutions to showcase the outstanding leadership and accomplishments achieved by many minority-serving colleges and universities in their efforts towards campus sustainability and climate neutrality.

Sustainable Campuses is a collection of discussions and case studies, written by educational and environmental representatives from both public and private sectors, focusing on the topics of campus leadership, funding opportunities for campus sustainability initiatives, and the greening of campus facilities and operations. Developed and compiled by the Building Green project of UNCF Institute for Capacity Building, the articles in Sustainable Campuses also highlight the many challenges and opportunities, which MSIs have experienced in their journey towards engaging, planning and implementing sustainability initiatives across their campuses.

Through the stories on innovative ideas, experiences, lesson learned, as well as best practices shared in this publication, it is clear that sustainability efforts and progress made by MSIs are tremendous. And as UNCF President Dr. Michael Lomax expresses in his introduction, “By reading this book, by thinking about how you and your institution might benefit from the projects these articles describes, and by acting on your convictions, you become part of the solution.”

Butte College Becomes First in US to Go Grid Positive

August 29, 2011

Above - Butte College Solar Panels - courtesy Butte College

Second Nature intern Anne Sjolander writes about this tremendous achievement over on the the Campus Green Builder blog:

With the installment of 25,000 photovoltaic panels on campus, Butte College has eliminated the need for outside energy sources and is capable of sending clean energy back to the grid.

Anne’s post in its entirety is here, read the official Butte College news release here, and find out more about Butte College’s sustainability efforts on their sustainability webpage.

We Have 100% of the Student Footprint

April 11, 2011

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.

The Second Nature YouTube Channel
View this and other Education for Sustainability videos on our YouTube channel. While you’re there, become a subscriber!

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Share Your Sustainability Videos With Us
Has your school or organization produced video content about its sustainability initiatives? Share them with us by leaving a comment below or on our YouTube channel page.

Celebrating the Advancing Green Building in Higher Education Initiative

January 7, 2011

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

The ACUPCC

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.

Stepping Up for Sustainability: Second Nature’s Kresge Fellows Get Going When the Going Gets Tough

December 15, 2010

By Vanessa Santos, Advancing Green Building Intern, Second Nature

When the economy takes a turn for the worse, all organizations, especially those within the education sector, suffer. However, under-resourced and minority-serving colleges and universities are stepping up to prove that ambition, useful information and timely opportunities can overcome the financial concerns that are often associated with pursuing a sustainability agenda on campus.

Second Nature’s Kresge Fellowship Program – as part of its Advancing Green Building Initiative –awarded 40 fellowships total in 2009 and 2010 to senior-level executives at under-resourced colleges and universities. With these fellowships, the 40 executives attended a green building conference where they were able to network with each other and professionals in their field as well as to learn more about sustainability and green building on college and university campuses.

Second Nature's Ashka Naik with the 2010 Kresge Fellows at this year's AASHE Summit

The ACUPCC and Second Nature: Accelerating Education for Sustainability

December 7, 2010

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.

Kresge Fellows at 2010 Greenbuild

November 23, 2010

 

Advancing Green Building in Higher Education

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.

Second Nature Kresge Fellows at 2010 Greenbuild

More information about the Advancing Green Building in Higher Education Kresge Fellowship Program.
More information about the Campus Green Builder web portal.

 

Transitions

October 6, 2010

By Michelle Dyer,  Chief Operating Officer, Second Nature

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

After the ACUPCC Climate Leadership Summit in Denver I will be stepping out of my role as Chief Operating Officer of Second Nature, to join Intersection Partners, a private equity investment firm that builds sustainable businesses, as Principal.  I joined Second Nature to support Tony Cortese and the Second Nature team through a time of significant growth and to build the organizational capacity to advance its mission.  With the excellent team now have in place, and the phenomenal success of the ACUPCC and the Advancing Green Building in Higher Education Initiative, the time has come for me to move forward.

This opportunity came quite unexpectedly as I was conducting early research into potential next steps in my career path.  I knew it would be rare to find an investment company with the supportive atmosphere and committed team I have enjoyed during my tenure at Second Nature, not to mention difficult to make a transition given the current state of the economy.  I was blessed to connect with my new partners, who understand sustainability deeply and feel a vocation to create meaningful, positive businesses.

Unity College Joins Bill McKibben in a Road Trip to Put Solar Panels on the White House!

September 21, 2010

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.

Building Capacity to Make Sustainability ‘Second Nature’ For All!

September 7, 2010

By Ashka Naik, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Second Nature

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

Within the Advancing Green Building in Higher Education Program, a capacity-building initiative funded by The Kresge Foundation, Second Nature has been building the sustainability capacity of many under-resourced institutions for the past two years.  As Second Nature continues to work on this initiative, we thought of taking this opportunity to share with you some of the highlights and success stories of this program.

This initiative has a two-fold mission. The first one is to level the playing field and offer access to all under-resourced higher education institutions to embrace institutional sustainability.  And, another long-term mission is to assist these institutions in committing to climate neutrality by enabling them to sign and implement the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment(ACUPCC).  Second Nature is directly working with more than 50 under-resourced institutions through this initiative.

And the Award Goes to ... Campus Green Builder!

August 30, 2010

By Vanessa Santos, Advancing Green Building Intern, and Ashka Naik, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Second Nature

Campus Green Builder

The Campus Green Builder web portal has recently been awarded with an Outstanding Achievement by the Interactive Media Awards. The web portal also received an Honorable Mention by the Creativity International Awards under its “Public Sector/Non-profit” category.

The Interactive Media Awards (IMA) “recognize the highest standards of excellence in web site design and development and honor individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievement,” according to its web site. Entries for the Interactive Media Awards are judged on several criteria, such as the design, content, features, functionality, usability and standard compliance/cross-browser capability.

Campus Green Builder also received an Honorable Mention by the Creativity International Awards. This award recognizes outstanding creativity and design in media and interactive formats, as well as print and packaging formats. Campus Green Builder was one of eight web sites that were chosen for the award among hundreds of applicants.

Read more about the awards received by the Campus Green Builder web portal on the Campus Green Builder blog.

2nd UNCF Green Building Learning Institute - Part I

May 7, 2010

“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.

Second Nature at Thurgood Marshall's Member University Professional Institute

March 22, 2010

by Ashka Naik, Program Manager, Advancing Green Building in Higher Education, Second Nature

Earlier this month, I traveled to Nashville, TN, where I attended the Thurgood Marshall College Fund’s (TMCF)Member University Professional Institute, “2010 HBCUs* and Beyond.” Felicia Davis, Director of UNCF‘s Facilities and Infrastructure Enhancement program invited me to join her at this event.

We had a two-fold mission in attending this meeting, one part of which was to make new connections. Public HBCUs (around 50 member schools of TMCF) often remain severely under-represented in Second Nature’s programs; only 9 of these 50 institutions are ACUPCC signatories. Therefore, we wanted to seize the opportunity to engage this group of higher education institutions and share details about our activities. With the help of two enthusiastic attendees, I made the acquaintance of several interesting individuals. Renford Brevett, Director of Title III Programs at Lincoln University, introduced me to more than 20 leaders including presidents, provosts, deans, CFOs, and faculty members. Felicia Davis and I also presented at one of the panels, “Building Green at HBCUs,” during which we discussed the challenges HBCUs face while building green and how Second Nature’s capacity-building programs could help them overcome these barriers.

Fast Company Publishes Third in Series of Articles by Second Nature

March 5, 2010

by Rima Mulla, Communications Associate, Second Nature

Image courtesy of Fast Company

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.

Campus Green Builder Launches

November 4, 2009

by Dan Abrams, Second Nature Intern

CampusGreenBuilder.org officially went live on Nov 2!

From the CGB (that's Second Nature shorthand for "Campus Green Builder") website:

The Campus Green Builder web portal provides a one-stop online resource on campus green building that is free and accessible to all higher education institutions. Though the information provided is relevant to all higher education institutions, the CGB is particularly geared towards under-resourced colleges and universities. It aims to level the playing field for all institutions of higher education to gain access to funding and technical resources for green building.

Check out the "News and Events" section on the homepage, the Green Building Case Studies, and of course the Advancing Green Building blog. Don't forget to sign up for an account and start contributing to this interactive portal!

For more information on the Campus Green Builder, click here.

 

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