Conference Session Abstracts

"Big Ideas" and Faculty Learning Communities: A Strategy for Integrating Sustainability across the Curriculum

If sustainability perspectives and practices are to become part of college graduates' thinking, they must start appearing "across the curriculum" in ways that are meaningful for students. In the Puget Sound region, the Curriculum for the Bioregion initiative is engaging disciplinary groups of faculty in sustainability curriculum development for use in introductory or general education classes. These "faculty learning communities" are designing, sharing, and web-publishing activities that integrate sustainability student learning outcomes with disciplinary "big ideas." Ideally, "big ideas" are core concepts that not only matter to individual faculty in their disciplines, they are so important and compelling that our students will remember them years into the future. Currently, the Curriculum for the Bioregion initiative is working with faculty members in the disciplines of biology, English composition, chemistry, sociology, and philosophy/religious studies to develop teaching-and-learning activities with this "big ideas" approach. Also, on several individual campuses in the Puget Sound region, disciplinary faculty teams are using this approach.

The Curriculum for the Bioregion project director and several faculty leaders will engage participants in this "big ideas" curriculum design strategy to demonstrate a model workshop that can be adapted for use on any campus. The presenters will share the teaching-and-learning activities they have developed, their work with faculty colleagues, student responses, and the challenges that have emerged. They also will reflect on the "faculty learning community" strategy as a generative way to support one another's new teaching moves.

600,000 Plastic Bags/year, No More: Leveraging the Classroom Experience for On-Campus Sustainability Initiatives.

The students of ENVS 3001 and Dining Services staff worked together to implement a shift from single-use plastic bags to reusable nylon at Grab-n-Go venues and convenience stores on campus. This shift touches the daily actions of over 5000 first year students at the University of Colorado at Boulder. This presentation follows the evolution of the project from its initial concept through evaluation of the first months of implementation. Students developed skills in collaborating with stakeholders, grant writing, assessing behavioral barriers and benefits through observation, focus groups and surveys, managing a pilot study, and in other ways applying techniques of Community Based Social Marketing. Students presented their findings, with attention to Sustainability's triple bottom line, and made recommendations for implementation. This single shift touches the behavioral norm of nearly the entire first year class of over 5000 students. It presents a great opportunity for education and outreach on the environmental impacts of plastic bags, on single-use-to-throw-away behaviors in general, on recycling behavior, and on social aspects of sustainability. For projects like this, ensuring an outcome that provides a challenging and empowering student learning experience with results that will be used by real world stakeholders requires diligent planning by the instructor. The presentation not only offers a model for other institutions of higher education interested in reduction of plastic bag use on their own campuses, but also addresses the role that faculty can play in advancing on-campus sustainability initiatives.

A Campus Wide Academic Sustainability Initiative at Dalhousie University

Global concern for environment and sustainability is growing and new ways of thinking are needed to create solutions to the challenges we face. The Dalhousie University College of Sustainability is an academic initiative developed through a university wide, consultative, visioning process which will transform the way researchers, students and graduates take on these challenges. An innovative curriculum model will provide an interdisciplinary, student-focused forum for collaborative teaching and learning. Problem-based classes and community-based experiential learning will be integrated with existing undergraduate and graduate degrees and programs, providing a rigorous disciplinary basis for responsive, issues-oriented study. The flow of students, teachers and community leaders through the College will create an ongoing exchange of ideas, expertise and passions, and put environment, sustainability and society in a common place at the centre of the Dalhousie community. The undergraduate Major offered across several faculties is a first step, with an anticipated enrolment of 600 students; this will be followed by graduate programs. The College will facilitate community involvement in university teaching, university involvement in public education, and shared efforts in scholarship and projects. Graduates will combine the strength of disciplinary learning in their chosen Faculty with understanding of the multi-faceted challenges concerning environment, sustainability and society and be qualified to make unique and substantial contributions in any field and well prepared for future professional or graduate training.

A Carbon Footprint Calculator for On-campus Students: Development and Education

Online carbon footprint calculators lack the specificity to allow students living on a university campus to estimate their personal carbon footprint. Because on-campus students do not receive residential energy bills, are often served by district energy systems, and frequently use common areas beyond their living spaces (such as cafeterias and commons), online carbon calculators, which rely on home energy bills, are of little use. We developed a carbon footprint calculator that allows on-campus students at Rice University to calculate their own carbon footprint.

Our calculator accounts for the mix of natural gas powered cogeneration and grid-purchased electricity that provides the inputs to Rice's chilled water, steam, and electrical services. Within the calculator, students enter data on appliance use (for TVs, blow-dryers, lamps, refrigerators, computers, and microwaves), individual room temperature settings, automobile usage, and air travel. The calculator allocates utility usage in student common areas and cafeterias on a per-capita basis. CO2 emissions are calculated for each entry and scaled to project total student annual emissions.

The calculator provides on-campus students with a useful educational tool to help them understand the impact of their daily activities and compare their emissions to the average Rice student, the average American, and the global per-capita average. Additionally, the calculator augments university-wide carbon footprint analyses by identifying trends and choices among students that raise or lower their carbon footprint. The calculator is easily adaptable to other universities, requiring only information on the university's power source and the percentage of power used by dorms and cafeterias.

A Case Study in Partnership and Collaboration: The Home Depot Smart Home at Duke University

The presentation will focus on the Home Depot Smart Home as a case study of the integration and collaboration of an Institution's administration, faculty, students, and the design team in the conception, delivery and implementation of a building project and education program.

The Home Depot Smart Home at Duke University, a "live-in laboratory", is a testing ground for smart and sustainable technologies developed by residents and students of Duke's Smart Home Program. The project, currently pursuing LEED Platinum rating, integrates many sustainable systems. Alongside these systems, innovative technologies developed by the students are integrated into the home including voice recognition systems, photovoltaic charging stations, and water usage monitoring systems.

Undergraduate and graduate students apply to live in the house and are selected based on the quality of their proposed research project.

Speakers will discuss the following:

-Developing, coordinating, managing and delivering the vision, including complex sustainable building technologies and a diverse stakeholders group

-Mobilizing students to engage in entrepreneurial, collaborative efforts to implement sustainable strategies and technologies

-Linking sustainably designed and built environments with hands on learning opportunities

-Integrating approaches, technology transfer, and community involvement

-Recognizing opportunities for and realizing innovation for every decision and stakeholder

-Impact and responsibility of the Institution to the process and enhancement potential

Questions raised will include:

-How can interdisciplinary study facilitate sustainability education?

-How can the design team and students' dialogue, collaboration, and interaction advance the goal of creating a sustainable community?

A Case Study: Engaging Pomona College Students in an ACUPCC Climate Action Plan

As colleges and universities embark on a comprehensive inventory of greenhouse gas emissions for the ACUPCC, they are faced with creating a process that will accurately assess the campus' energy consumption in a timely, economical, and informative manner. Building on its history of student-led initiatives toward campus climate neutrality, Pomona College chose to issue an RFP to qualified consultants who would lead the audit process and the development of mitigation strategies, while engaging students in meaningful, education-based roles. The investment in student participation is substantial. The auditor, CTG Energetics, provides training for student workers, and involves them significantly in auditing and analysis. Pomona College is funding internships for the students involved.

This proposal is for a case study of the Pomona audit process, from the development of the RFP, through the GHG inventory, to the identification of carbon reduction strategies and goals. The case study will inform participants of various means for the development of the audit, then describe the Pomona College process; its benefits and shortcomings; the role of the consultant; student and faculty engagement; the development of a climate action plan; and recommendations for institutions getting started.

A Comprehensive Case Study of Sustainable Dining Facilities Across Three Campuses:

This presentation will explore in detail the sustainable and environmental dining hall and food service measures and techniques of: - the new LEED Gold certified Commons Center at Vanderbilt University; - the LEED Silver registered addition and renovation of Wells Commons at the University of Maine; - the LEED Silver registered new Class of 1953 Dining Commons at Dartmouth College

Each of these projects addresses various trends in sustainable campus dining facilities. Key factors include: social and student expectations; institutional and campus planning; dining operations and technologies; sustainable design; and sustainable eating.

Sustainable measures and techniques you will learn about include: water efficiency, energy efficiency, resource management, indoor environment, food production, servery equipment and design

A Deliberative Poll on Climate Change

For climate policy decisions to be accepted at any institutional level, it is critically important to gain public support. Unfortunately for issues with important scientific and technical details such as climate change, the public is often ill informed as to both the work of the scientific community and the details of policy options. Added to this lack of education is the lack of time that citizens have to review such details and the choices and trade-offs involved. Traditional polls designed to inform decision makers about public opinion only mirror this situation; there is no charter to improve the opinions of those polled, thereby leaving decision makers with the impression that only limited political capital for such issues exists. One way out of this dilemma is to utilize what James Fishkin of Stanford University has called a Deliberative Poll®. The protocols of this process, which have been honed in a university setting at Carnegie Mellon over the past 5 years, can create the conditions for a representative sample of a community to not only become well informed about an issue, but also to exercise influence beyond the particular polling event and impact actual policy decisions on or off campus. In this presentation, the protocol will be introduced and the results of a recent Deliberative Poll on climate change conducted at Carnegie Mellon will be described.

A Field Report for the Nelson Insitute for Environmental Studies Carbon Footprint Project

This project examines the carbon footprint of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies (NI) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The goal of the NI Carbon Footprint Project is to provide a baseline study of current energy use for the 2006-2007 school year. Because the NI is a leading environmental research institution, performing a carbon footprint and baseline study is a necessary endeavor to align its values and missions with action. While many greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint analyses are performed for an entire organization, the NI provides a unique platform to develop a carbon measurement plan for a complex institute. The energy requirements of buildings are one of the most important factors in GHG footprints of most colleges. This project moves beyond building energy use to incorporate transportation and individuals' energy use. Our preliminary results have analyzed electrical energy and steam-heat/chilled-water from combined heat and power and co-generation plants, and core-faculty personal emissions. We calculate that the NI produces over 1000 metric tonnes of eCO2; 66% of this is derived from steam heat production, 30% from electricity production and 4% from travel. Due to uncertainties in the steam condensate measurements, the potential error of this number should be taken into strong consideration, although this error is out of the realm of NI control. The project presents options for the NI to reduce or offset its GHG emissions so that it can be a leader for the UW-Madison campus in a concerted effort to address and implement carbon reductions measures.

A Framework for Academic Institutions Decision-Making on Climate Change and Sustainability Issues

As interest in climate change has increased, academic institutions have been actively engaged in discussing climate change mitigation measures. Among other things, schools have signed commitments like the Presidents' Climate Commitment. However, such pledges generally ask for the following order of actions: sign the commitment, create institutional structures to guide the development and implementation of goals, complete an inventory of emissions and finally to set a target date and interim milestones for becoming climate neutral. Furthermore, pledges often state non-binding goals. We propose a different framework for academic institutions to explore decision-making on climate change and sustainability issues, with the goal of increasing the number of school pursuing mitigation.

We suggest that institutions should start the climate decision-making process by benchmarking their current carbon and other environmental impacts. Simultaneously, academic institutions should devote resources towards better understanding the campus community's preferences and perceptions towards climate change and other environmental issues. Collected data needs to be made public and other institutions need to be benchmarked to establish a peer group for assessment. Furthermore, peers should be encouraged to review the collected data and institutional benchmarks. Finally, a strategic action plan together with defined, achievable goals needs to be established. Such plans need to include specific mitigation strategies and timetables. Lastly, cost-effective reductions strategies need to be implemented, and decisions need to be made on whether to make a public commitment. Any commitment undertaken by the university should be binding, and based on the feasibility of achieving the goals.

A Framework for Evaluation: Determining Criteria and Indicators for Effective Higher Education Programs Focused on Environmental Sustainability

An increasing number of colleges and universities in the United States are restructuring courses and research programs to focus on long-term use and maintenance of resources and protecting these resources for future generations. It is important that students be given the resources and tools necessary to create positive change for the pressing issues facing our local, regional, and global environments. A framework for evaluation is necessary if academic programs focused on the issue of environmental sustainability are to remain viable into the next century. Previous research and assessment on environmental sustainability and higher education has focused on the role of the university in sustainable development, improving environmental track records of institutions, and environmental conservation and sustainability on campus. The purpose of this study was to develop a framework for evaluation for academic programs using criteria and indicators. This study demonstrated that educational stakeholders are aware of the need and interested in evaluating efficacy of academic programs aimed at addressing the issue of environmental sustainability. Five criteria and their associated indicators were determined for the evaluation framework. These criteria and indicators serve a number of purposes by providing a set of key terms that can be used in future educational program evaluation or assessment, a framework against which programs can evaluate their effectiveness, and a means for making changes and adapting, or to resolving areas of weakness.

A Model Transportation Behavior Program

The crucial issue in TDM programs is marketing. Most American faculty, staff and students have come of age in an era where "getting a driver's license" and "first car" are rights of passage and consequently transportation behavior is habitual at the time when American universities are attempting to address the negative effects of America's "love affair with the automobile."

Based upon successful "social marketing" concepts and the "individualized marketing" projects presently changing Australian transportation behavior, the Darden Business School at the University of Virginia will present a model program for promoting change from single-occupancy-vehicle driving toward carpooling, muscle-powered, and transit transportation.

This innovative, practical approach draws upon world research in communications and marketing, behavioral and attitudinal change, transportation, leadership, consumer behavior and autonomous decision-making to illuminate the forest for change – rather than working to analyze any specific tree in that ecosystem.

The home-based Australian program indicates that a well-conceived program can change behavior in a car-culture in a cost-effective manner (67:1 benefit-cost ratio) but also indicates that site-based, change – a university – is more difficult to achieve. Darden's social marketing concept overcomes that weakness by utilizing 40 years of marketing, leadership, attitudinal and behavioral change models to move faculty and staff up the seven-step change ladder over a year-long project reinforcing drivers who step out of automobiles.

Furthermore, the project illustrates to faculty, staff and students that the university's commitment to reducing its carbon footprint is honestly "green" while helping each campus member see him or herself as part of the solution.

A Partnership Model: Emergent Properties of Learning and Leadership for Sustainability

The most fertile field of sustainability and sustainability education is caught in a tension between those who seek nature-based designs and solutions to human predicament and those who seek human-based solutions in order to achieve ecological health. This tension is justified and is rooted in a deep historical legacy. While both capitalist and socialist thoughts evolved by taking nature for granted, as if it did not really matter, the ecological discourse is in danger of committing the mirror mistake of proposing ecological solutions as if humans do not matter.

Through a partnership model for sustainability, a synthesis is proposed between the two. Addressing issues of economy and ecology on the one hand and equity and bio-cultural diversity on the other, this model offers analysis for a graduate curriculum development around the following four partnerships.

Intra and Inter-generational partnership:

Explores social classes, gender, caste, race, ethnicity and other human created institutions and practices of social inequities and cleavages.

Inter-species Partnership: Addresses ecological, philosophical and ethical aspects of human's relationship with the more than human worlds.

Inter-cultural Partnership: Examines the interlinked fields of biological, cultural, and linguistic diversity, or the ethnosphere.

Inter-economic Partnership: Includes mapping of the global North and South as well as trade and exchanges of energy between rural and urban, agriculture and industry, raw and processed materials, and producers and consumers.

The presentation offers examples of how earning sustainability is about connecting people to people, communities to communities as much as it is about connecting people with the earth.

A Small-Scale Approach to Campus Climate Neutrality: Existing Buildings

One of the most provocative environmental initiatives to arise in recent years is the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, through which over 500 university presidents have agreed to seek climate neutrality on their campuses. While several universities published studies for reaching climate neutrality campus-wide, none have presented a framework applicable to a variety of organizational settings, nor have they provided an in-depth inventory of GHG reductions targeted to the scope of individual buildings. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of climate neutrality within existing buildings by creating a new business approach called the CO2OL Building model, using two Harvard University buildings as case studies. This 8-step process offers the flexibility to model alternate implementation scenarios, and it incorporates life cycle costing techniques. For both cases, the CO2OL Building strategies were composed of front-loaded investments in energy conservation, renewable energy, behavioral change, and fuel switching, which reduced emissions by 21-42% and yielded cost savings sufficient to either fully or nearly cover the capital investments and carbon offset purchases required to achieve climate neutrality by 2020. The CO2OL Building model provides a novel approach toward climate mitigation and reveals insights regarding the resources which will be needed to manage a GHG reduction strategy.

A Sustainable Process for Sustainability Curriculum Development

Development of interdisciplinary curricula is always a complicated process, both conceptually and bureaucratically. Doing this work in a new field in a new School is particularly challenging. This presentation traces the Arizona State University School of Sustainability's approach to working with faculty across disciplines to develop meaningful graduate, undergraduate and professional programs. The overarching goal of the School is to prepare students to work in interdisciplinary teams to solve complex, real world problems. While our faculty all share that vision, there is sometimes disagreement about how to translate the vision into concrete outcomes, courses, and curricula. This presentation will discuss the difficulty of reconciling traditional notions of faculty autonomy in regard to both content and method in teaching with the need to offer a coherent, tightly articulated curriculum. We will outline our process for development of learning outcomes, both global outcomes that cross-cut all courses and specific outcomes for particular courses. We will address the challenges in team teaching, such as bridging disciplinary assumptions, reconciling different styles of teaching, assessing effectiveness, and balancing workloads. We will also discuss our curriculum within the broader context of defining, or not defining, this new field of sustainability. Finally, we address how the lessons we have learned might inform others who are developing or plan to develop sustainability curricula

A Tale of Two Sustainability Coordinators: Two Models at One College

Berea College hired a campus-wide Sustainability Coordinator in 2005. In response to its ongoing work with the Berea College Local Food Initiative, Sodexo hired a Sustainability Coordinator for Berea Dining Services in 2007. While somewhat different in scope and emphasis, these two positions have successfully collaborated on several initiatives related to the promotion and implementation of sustainable practices in campus dining, catering, and event planning/operation. This poster summarizes the process for creating each of these coordinator positions and illustrates some of the results of their individual and collaborative work.

A Thoroughly Sustainable Sport for the 21st Century: Disc Golf

Disc Golf, otherwise known as Frisbee Golf, is a form of all-ages recreation that presents a more sustainable alternative for campus recreation than traditional "ball golf." It is also the most popular, little-known sport, having experienced 15%-per-year growth over the last two decades.

Disc golf has a much smaller space need than ball golf, and also does not require extensive moderation of terrain and flora. It does not require the use of chemical fertilizers or power-operated carts since players walk.

One disc golf course can serve many more rounds of golf in a day or week than one ball golf course, thus offering more opportunities for social interaction. The disc golf ethos is one of inclusivity, bringing together people from all walks of life, without regard to economic or educational status. Courses are shared by the entire surrounding community, off- and on-campus alike.

The cost to build and maintain a disc golf course is less than that of a single tennis court. Fees to play, where they exist at all, are very low and provide essentially no barrier based on ability pay. Yet all of the elements that ball golfers find entertaining and enjoyable are present, plus more.

This presentation will outline a season of surveying the use and value of disc golf courses to communities, including campus communities, as well as disc golfer demographics. The presentation will demonstrate that disc golf is a sport that fits better than any other into the environmental, social, and economic realms of sustainability.

Academic Staff to the Rescue; Zero Waste Campaign

The Ellison Hall Sustainability Committee (EHSC), a 15-member group of faculty, staff and students representing six departments in University of California Santa Barbara's Ellison Hall, recently implemented the "Zero Waste: One Step Ahead of the Game" program. The University of California system seeks to achieve 50% diversion by 2008, 75% by 2012, and go zero-waste by 2020 (UC Policy on Sustainable Practices, March 2007). A group of interns and motivated business officers of academic departments got together to say that as a building, we can move even faster than the UC system as a whole. Ellison Hall set a goal of 75% diversion by the end of this school year and we achieved an 88.76% diversion rate in Feb 2008. We have introduced a comprehensive volunteer-based, building-wide recycling program which allows occupants to recycle plastics #1-7, aluminum, glass, film plastic, glossy paper, textbooks, newspaper, copier toner and electronic waste. We also established a vermicomposting program which processes 15-20lbs of food scraps per week. We are now focusing our attention on waste minimization initiatives to address the remaining percentage of "non-recyclable" trash. We are promoting reusable mugs by integrating them into the gift program during staff appreciation week. The final phase of the program began 4 months ago where we flipped the scale of recycling and trash bins and replaced trash bins with a 6 inch high and 4 inch diameter bin and enlarged the recycling bins. In May 2008, we will be expanding this program across six floors.

Academics in Action: Bridging the Gap Between the Classroom and the Community

In his 1949 polemic, "The Land Ethic," Aldo Leopold notes that the conventional answer to the question of how to develop an environmental conscience/consciousness is "more education"; however, he also points out that if more education were the answer, things would have changed by now. This assessment still stands true: the answer does not lie in the quantity of education, but in the kind of education being provided.

It is our belief that the integration of the civic learning pedagogy with environmental education is not only beneficial in terms of the individual student, but also absolutely necessary for the success of the environmental movement as a whole. As members of Grand Valley State University's course, "Ecological Literacy and Sustainability", we immersed ourselves in the community surrounding our university's downtown campus. Working in concert with our city's Streets and Sanitation Department, we approached residents in the neighborhoods surrounding GVSU in order to both inform people about their waste alternatives and to distribute recycling bins. Direct engagement with our fellow citizens enabled us to realize the substantive difference in potential effect between dialogue with people in their communities and the prescriptive rhetoric typically handed down by academics in the environmental field. Not only did we create an effective link between city waste management and residents, but we also bridged the gap between campus and city cultures. In a matter of two months we were able to recruit 80 new households to the Grand Rapids curbside recycling program.

Activating Student Involvement: One Student's Journey from Bystander to Sustainability Leader

As a student, finding a niche on a commuter campus with an enrollment of over 27,000 is no easy task. It is easier to simply blend in and follow the well-beaten path to graduation. Many, however, are unwilling to settle for an existence of seeming anonymity and are eager to be engaged. So why do students become actively engaged in promoting sustainability at some campuses but not others? What factors conspire to foster student involvement? Students from the University of Utah reflect on their own experiences in student government, group leadership, and project planning to explain how they were drawn into the campus sustainability movement. Key factors in play at the University of Utah include: a strong undergraduate Environmental Studies degree program; a highly regarded and student-centered community service center; staff, faculty, and peer mentoring to recruit and develop motivated and capable student leaders; a student-oriented Office of Sustainability that aids continuity in student leadership; a cohort of student-friendly campus operations staff; and key campus administrators who are both creative and supportive. Because there is no one secret for successfully engaging students, a mix of factors is needed to create an environment where student initiatives can grow and campus members feel inspired to work for change. The cohesive and collaborative environment fostered at the University of Utah is building an effective sustainability network that allows students to link curricular and co-curricular work on substantive projects in a highly supportive context.

Advancing the Sustainability of Complex Institutions: The University of British Columbia Food System Project

This presentation describes a multi-stakeholder, community based action research project - the University of British Columbia Food System Project (UBCFSP). This project was initiated by the UBC's Faculty of Land and Food Systems and the UBC Sustainability Office and is aimed at the transition to a campus wide sustainable food system. Over the last seven years, our campus food providers, producers, waste managers, planners, and others have worked towards this goal in partnership with academics and students. The project has involved over 1200 students working on interdisciplinary case studies which address themes ranging from food policy, sustainable food procurement, and waste management to climate change. The project emerged from the recognition that our food system faces increasing threats to its sustainability, at global, national and local levels. A fundamental assumption of the project is that universities play a significant role in perpetuating these problems and at the same time can mobilize to address them. Findings indicate that the investigation into our university's food system sustainability through this project's participatory methodology have contributed to the creation of consensually-agreed upon principles of a sustainable food system and the design and implementation of targets, strategies and action plans which have increased the sustainability of our campus food system. We will describe the process that led to the emergence of the UBCFSP, key findings, challenges, accomplishments, future plans and will engage participants in activities related to the project.

After the Election -Making Policies That Sustain Us

As we fret over the best approaches to the unraveling of our ecosystems and communities, we often fall back to what we can do as individuals. With the current rise of interest in "greening" the workplace and community we are awash in the lists of "ten simple things" we can do. Using a spheres of influence model, I will address considerations to heighten those individual options and turning them into a collective one. Despite the failure of the federal government to address climate change, declining biodiversity, and a host of other challenges mounting on the horizon, state and local efforts have continued to move forward.

Citizens have often neglected the power of local action to act as a catalyst for national or global action. This paper presents the case for bridging the individual desire for change with collective action for local by looking at how a wide variety of cities, towns, and counties have embarked on checking climate change. Approaches to implement sustainable policies at the local level will be shared.

Against the Wind: How to Fan the Flames of Institutional Transformation.

Despite the fact that the UN's vision for sustainable development calls for an integration of competing social, economic and ecological interests, the practice in higher education has focused primarily on environmental aspects of sustainability. In 2002, Sharp urged the analysis of "progress made to date in the field of greening campuses to start revealing how they may inform us to move into the realm of widespread institutional transformation". The goal of this presentation is to advance the U.S. practice of sustainability in higher education by specifically asking: How does campus greening lead to institutional transformation? A process/outcome matrix sheds light on the link between the decision-making process and the outcome of transformation of institutional decision-making. Case studies of three sequential stream restoration projects provide evidence of social learning in the evolving nature of urban stormwater management. Findings reveal that increased competition between perspectives during all stages of decision processes improved ecological conditions on the ground but did not result in long term social learning. This presentation will conclude with recommendations for how sustainability coordinators can fan the flames of institutional learning ignited by greening despite the presence of a reluctant administrative headwind.

Agenda 21 at Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil

Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) is the largest university in Minas Gerais State, Brazil, with more than 30.000 students, and 3000 professors. In the last two years it is been implemented a Sustainable Production Center (CPS-UFMG) at a 400 ha farm near the main campus. This center will target 13 projects,among green buidings, agroecology and sustainable urban and periurban agriculture. In the moment we have envolved professors and students from the Schools of Engineering, Architecture, Veterinary Medicine, and Biological Sciences. The Periurban and Urban Agriculture Center is part of a National Network supported by the Ministry of Social Development and Hunger Fight (MDS), envolving,in it's management, besides UFMG, the State Government by it's land reform sector, NGOs and regional social movements, like the MST (Landless Workers Movement). This is a unique design of a research and extension center which will target food security issues, from production till comercialization, in 48 municipalities around the State Capital, Belo Horizonte.

Alternative Work Site (AWS) Pilot - A Transportation Demand Management, TDM, Project to Implement Flex Schedules to Reduce GHG Emissions and Parking Demand

In fulfillment of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, the State of Colorado's Climate Action Plan, and the 2007 UCCS Sustainability Strategic Plan, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs has been searching for ways to lessen its impact from transportation. Currently an estimated 87% of our students, faculty, and staff commute to the campus in single occupancy vehicles. Barriers to decreasing this number have included minimal transit service to the campus, geographic location accessible mainly by vehicles, and location on top of a steep hill. This 3-month multi-employee group pilot TDM program, July 1-October 1, will be extended to a select number of professional exempt and classified staff. For classified staff, the program will explore the benefits of a four-day compressed work week in high demand, public sector service positions. For professional exempt staff, the program will explore the feasibility of working at home one day per week. Measurements will be taken to assess greenhouse gas emissions reductions and the reduced impact on parking on peak days. If successful, this program will be considered for implementation across the campus. This presentation will focus on a description of the pilot program, the measured greenhouse gas emissions reduction, the impact on peak demand for parking, and a discussion of barriers, strengths and difficulties to establishing this program at a public university.

An Innovative Strategy for the Deployment of Solar Power Equipment

The extent to which sustainability programs are communicated across a campus community can impact perceptions of institutional commitment; therefore, programs with high visibility and transparency are critical.

Though solar power panels have become recognized markers of sustainability, they remain effectively hidden from view on rooftops. Furthermore, despite good radiance, roof areas pose logistical problems for solar power.

Site Integrated Photovoltaics (SIPV) was developed by architects to consider form, function, and experience in the placement and design of solar equipment, without sacrificing electrical performance or increasing cost.

SIPV employs the use of a modular, bio-identical "tree" structure to promote the notion of planting a solar tree, thereby attaching campus sustainability measures to a viable communications touch-point in the form of an iconic site feature. Site integrated structures add value to the campus experience by providing shade, visual appeal, and activation of concrete "deadscape" areas including the top decks of parking garages, surface parking lots, walkways, seating areas, and plazas.

SIPV modular structures are available in a variety of sizes and arrive in a kit for local assembly, including the photovoltaic panels. One SIPV solar tree model is priced for student or alumni groups to fund-raise to plant solar power shade trees in groves on campus, or throughout the community as an interactive educational or endowment activity.

Procurement strategies for SIPV include those methods currently employed for rooftop arrays; however, SIPV installations can include additional parking fee, sponsorship or endowment revenue to improve return calculations beyond energy savings.

Appalachian State University Renewable Energy Initiative (ASU REI)

Appalachian State University's Renewable Energy Initiative is an organization funded by student fees that seeks to reduce the environmental impact of Appalachian State University by replacing the

University's existing sources of energy with cleaner forms of renewable energy technology. The ASU REI committee consists of students, faculty and staff with the students serving as project managers for the various projects and the group, consisting mostly of students, votes on which project should receive funding and at what level. The ASU REI has funded projects such as a new biodiesel tank that serves ASU diesel vehicles and Appalcart, our local public transit system. Completed projects include a solar PV system to help power a small biodiesel research facility and another solar PV demonstration facility on top of the Technology building. Designs have been completed on an artistic solar PV installation and a large solar thermal project to provide hot water for our Student Union building. Both of these projects should be completed by fall of 2008. The students are also pursuing the installation of a 100 KW wind generator to be located on the highest spot on our main campus. This wind generator will be the largest wind generator installation in the state and will help identify ASU as being a leader in renewable energy use and research. The students voted to fund this initiative with student fees and continue to support the initiative that is funded at approximately $130,000 per year - $5 per student per semester.

Appalachian State University- Working Toward a Zero Waste Event

The purpose of this presentation is to outline the zero waste event for home town football games. ASU Brewer Kidd stadium will often have overcapacity at home games. This presentation will cover the planning and execution of a "zero waste" event. Dr. Martin did his dissertation research on analyzing waste streams for reuse, recycle and composting. He did early waste reduction (>60%) at West Virginia football games. The Sustainable Resource Management class has worked several small "zero waste" events. The University Environmental and Recycling staff leads the way aided by sustainability groups to develop the equipment, policies and procedures for ASU football games. This presentation is about that work.

Applied Psychology: Service Learning to Address Campus Sustainability

In an upper-level psychology class titled, "Environmental Problems and Human Behavior," service learning was incorporated to address sustainability issues on the Wells College campus. Working in groups, students chose three projects that resulted in positive outcomes for the campus and for their own learning in psychology. The students presented their work-in-progress at a campus symposium in March, 2008, and their completed work was exhibited to the campus in late April. This presentation will discuss the learning objectives, course goals, and the broader implications of conducting service learning for sustainability.

Applying Environmentally Preferable Purchasing to a Community Library System.

Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) came about in the 1990's to improve the purchasing habits of the federal government. Since that time, requirements for incorporating EPP at the federal level have been implemented through statute and executive orders. Some states and local governments have also set policies advocating EPP programs. The Daniel Boone Regional Library System encompasses two counties in central Missouri, serving a population of nearly 190,000 people with a budget for CY 2008 of over $7,000,000.

The administration of the library system was not sure that the managers making and authorizing purchases were selecting the most environmentally preferable products or even considering the environmental impact of the products. Through the use of interviews with managers, the ability of the purchasers to asses the impact of products was evaluated. Additionally, data was collected on the availability of information regarding the environmental impact of the products purchased through their respective vendors.

The administration of the library system was presented with a report detailing the findings of the interviews. Additionally, the report included information regarding the ability for the library to directly increase the purchase of preferable products. Further discussions with the library administration were held, and, finally, the library was presented with a plan for formally adopting an EPP policy and given possible methods for evaluating the success of the policy in meeting its goals.

Appropedia and Sustainable Development for Improved Service Learning

By labeling this the "Decade of Education for Sustainable Development" (2005-2014), the United Nations, representing the global community, has emphasized both the urgent need to promote sustainable development and the crucial role of education in furthering this practice. Teaching sustainability has become the most important educational goal in this century; yet despite progress global education in sustainability has not met global needs of applied sustainability. Appropedia.org, the site for collaborative solutions in sustainability, poverty reduction and international development provides an enormous opportunity to meet sustainable development goals while improving service learning. This paper reports on several pedagogical experiments that integrated service learning into both technical science courses and language courses. This study found that Appropedia.org, could be used to provide a rich service learning experience for students. Students not only made concrete contributions to a just sustainable world and improved their knowledge of sustainable development, but they also improved their course-related skills compared to control projects and assignments.

Assessing Environmental Roles and Responsibilities in a Climate of Change: What's Changed and What Hasn't Changed?

This presentation explores the changing roles of "traditional" environmental staff on campus – the EH&S professionals and facilities personnel – in helping campuses meet sustainability goals. The presentation examines opportunities for EH&S staff, facilities managers and sustainability professionals to partner and collaborate with respect to campus sustainability initiatives. The presentation will use "Environmental Roles and Responsibilities in a Climate of Change: What's Changed? What Hasn't Changed? Campus EH&S at a Crossroads" as a framework to guide our discussion. This document, published in May 2008, was developed by the Campus Consortium for Environmental Excellence (C2E2), brings to the fore issues, trends and opportunities for campus environmental professionals. Following a facilitated group dialogue and roles/responsibilities assessment, attendees will participate in a variety of small group exercises and role play. These exercises will examine strategic and operational issues involving scenarios where there might be: (1) potential contradictions between sustainability goals and health/safety issues; (2) challenges associated with project management and communications; (3) unintended consequences of initiatives due to insufficient planning or follow-up. These exercises will be used to better understand the roles and responsibilities of key environmental players on campus, identify skills necessary to implement effective programs, and develop operational strategies to effectively achieve sustainability goals.

Assessing Solid Waste Management at the University of Northern British Columbia: A Major Step in Becoming Canada's Green University

In the summer of 2007 the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) trademarked itself as 'Canada's Green University,' launching a sustainability initiative encompassing all aspects of its teaching, research and campus operations. Located in northern British Columbia, UNBC leads Canadian universities in the proportion of students enrolled in environmental programs. In a recent report of public engagement on greening the campus UNBC staff, faculty and students identified waste management, recycling, and compost programs as a major concern (Booth, 2007). Waste production is a visible and tangible sign of consumption. Waste management was the first step towards achieving greater campus sustainability. Since its establishment in 1994, UNBC has never formally assessed solid waste management. The first solid waste audit was conducted at UNBC in March 2008. Preliminary results revealed that over 70 % of the UNBC waste stream could have been diverted through recycling and/or composting. The case study of UNBC highlights the potential barriers to successful waste management within a northern and rural environment. A report of recommended improvements is being prepared as a result of this research. Two additional waste, recycling and compost audits are scheduled for September 2008 and January 2009 to monitor progress towards recommendations and identify further opportunities for improving solid waste management at UNBC. This project was initiated through the AASHE Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS) pilot project and represents the primary aspect of the lead author's ongoing master's research in solid waste generation and composition at Canada's Green University.

Assessing Sustainability in the University of Chicago Dining Halls: Food, Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Sustainability proponents are increasingly calling on academic institutions to render their food procurement practices more sustainable. "Locally produced" and "organic" are currently the only two available sustainable options, with availability widely variable in space and time. However, as we show, no universally applicable generalization exists regarding which of those two models is more "sustainable." Here, we use the University of Chicago dining services and a single environmental metric, carbon dioxide emissions, as a case study quantitatively comparing the above competing "sustainability" models.

We estimate the emissions of local and organic options for 54 produce items served in the University of Chicago dining halls. Our estimates of emission savings associated with organic versus conventional production are narrowly defined as carbon emissions associated with manufacturing fertilizers and pesticides customarily used in conventional production for each item. Similarly, we define averted emissions associated with local food as emissions that can be reasonably attributed to transportation of the food item from its origin to Chicago, accounting for both mode and distance. For each produce item, emissions savings are compared between local and organic production.

Based on this comparison, incurring larger transportation distances to source organically results in emissions savings for some items (e.g. tomatoes, summer squash) but not for others (e.g. carrots, potatoes) and suggests that purchasing changes at the University would lead to reduced emissions. We present an equation for calculating emissions savings per dollar per kg to evaluate tradeoffs between cost and reduced carbon impact, allowing administrators to make informed policy decisions.

Assessing the Eco-Cottage Legacy at Furman University

Since 2001, Furman University's 8-person Eco-Cottage has provided students the opportunity to measure their environmental impact and learn ways to minimize it. Started experimentally, the cottage has become a model for other environmental residences on campus. In reflecting on the Cottage's history, this poster attempts to quantify its long term success by surveying past residents and by analyzing energy and water consumption patterns from the last three academic years.

Of ~60 alumni, 21 responded to an online survey 85% adopted and changed their habits to varying degrees to reduce waste production and energy and water consumption. Today, 92% of those surveyed have maintained or increased the "green" habits they developed while in the Cottage. Additionally, 66% said that today's environmental awareness was very much influenced by living in the cottage. Students have also made improvements to the cottage by adding clotheslines, an organic garden, a solar oven, low flow shower heads as well as improving insulation.

A detailed record of electricity, gas and water consumption illustrates a general decrease in electricity and gas consumption. Over the last three years, average monthly electricity consumption dropped by over 450 kwh and monthly gas use dropped more than 20%. The Cottage's water consumption during this time, however, increased due to the addition of organic garden plots (2006-7) and the nearby construction of Furman's future sustainability center. A nine-month sustainable, college living experience can impressively contribute to lowering ecological footprint. Furman's Eco-Cottage has served as an excellent model for both constituents and the public.

Being Spartan Green at MSU

Want to mobilize a sustainable movement on your campus? We invite you to participate in a presentation that can help you get your campus moving onward or take your current efforts to a new level. MSU has launched a multi-pronged approach to this challenge and Housing & Food Services staff have played an integral role in successfully managing sustainability.

The focus will be on the program coordination, roles and expectations that operators face when launching new initiatives that affect hundreds of employees and thousands of students. We will share practical tools, information and the pros and cons of our approach. Our challenge was to create and sustain a movement that has long lasting impact on the university. Challenges included securing resources, tools, communication, education, data collection, competing influences, connecting the programs together and change management. After all, it is not easy to change a campus of thousands into a sustainable culture, establish new habits and engage staff and customers. Persistence pays off and our results are positive and measurable, it is always an uphill battle.

We will share how we educated, communicated, tracked and coordinated the launching of an ambitious and complex Environmental Stewardship Initiative led by MSU (successes and challenges). Additionally, we will lead a brainstorming session on how to launch a sustainable initiative in your area, provide tools to use and allow time for people to share their stories regarding Sustainable practices and working with people to achieve desired outcomes.

Beyond Campus: Down on the Farm, Opportunities & Challenges for a University Permaculture Project

Pacific University's B Street Permaculture Project is an emerging grassroots organization and demonstration site whose mission is to provide inspiration and information about environmentally sensitive, sustainable living practices for Pacific University students, city residents, local schools and other community members. The project is interdisciplinary and co-curricular, engaging participants in community building, research, and demonstration of sustainable practices. The project holds public outreach and education at its core, operating on a foundation of permaculture principles and ethics. This presentation will review campus permaculture projects, including sustainable gardens, animal husbandry and ecological restoration focusing on student work, resource use, curriculum integration and community collaboration. We will also address the opportunities and challenges of a campus permaculture project including: How does the project fit into the university's ten year strategic plan? How do we teach climate change while milking goats every morning? What is student leadership on the farm and how does it develop and grow? Where does the permaculture project position Pacific University in our greater community? In addressing these questions and more, the presentation covers marketing opportunities and funding and liability challenges.

Beyond Disposables: A Reusable To-go System

Each year millions of clamshell disposable containers end up in the landfill. This issue can be solved by implementing a reusable to-go system. The reusable to-go system consists of a durable, dishwasher safe, hinged lid container called the "EcoClamshell." Students check out the container using their student ID. Upon returning to the cafeteria students check the container in where it is then sanitized and put back out for reuse.

The reusable to-go system is a new model for waste reduction. This closed loop system minimizes the production of to-go containers, uses a product that can be recycled at the end of its lifespan, and cuts down on the amount of plastic material entering the landfill. The "EcoClamshell" was created with all of these points in mind.

The system is also an opportunity to incorporate recycling education into daily life. It is a creative sustainable solution that targets the most important of the three R's: reuse. As individuals use these containers in place of the disposable alternative, they will learn that sustainable solutions do not necessarily entail inconvenience. The system works in exactly the same fashion as its disposable counterpart.

One of the first steps towards achieving a sustainable world is reducing point sources of waste. Conference attendees will learn how to do this by implementing a reusable to-go program at their own institution.

Beyond Recycling: Oureach and Education Across Campus

At Eastern Connecticut State University, we are committed to developing a culture of awareness with regard to recycling and environmental ethics. The Center for Sustainable Energy Studies works closely with the Institute for Sustainable Energy, the administration, facilities department, the office of housing and residential life, and all academic departments to promote the existing recycling program and to spearhead new initiatives to involve students in projects that help instill and build on a sense of environmental responsibility. Outreach begins when a newly accepted freshmen class participates in a two day group orientation program called SOAR, (Student Orientation Advising and Registration). Students receive a half hour presentation and discussion about the University recycling program and the importance of environmental responsibility. In addition to this presentation, students may also participate in classes that invite other members of the faculty and staff to discuss particular issues regarding sustainable campus operations and environmental ethics. The University supports the Sustainable Energy Studies Department as it integrates Earth Day into the curriculum throughout the entire spring semester. It involves the whole campus and surrounding community. Students are engaged as problem solvers both in the classroom and as part of the Green Campus Committee. Eastern seeks to be a liberal arts university of first choice by living up to our reputation as place where a sense of environmental responsibility is an exit standard.

Big Red Goes Green! Indiana University's Emerging Sustainability Initiative

Indiana University has been engaged in an ambitious effort to develop a comprehensive, campus-wide program of sustainability for its Bloomington campus. The work is the product of a broad-based effort by over 100 Indiana University faculty, staff, and students, under the leadership of a Task Force on Campus Sustainability, which examined sustainability issues across a broad swath of academic, administrative, and operational programs. The Task Force organized seven Working Groups to focus its efforts on critical areas of campus sustainability: Academic Initiatives; Energy; Environmental Quality/Land Use; Resource Use/Recycling; Transportation; Built Environment; and Food. The primary product of our nine-month effort was the creation of a 120-page Campus Sustainability Report, which provides an assessment of the current state of campus sustainability, a series of metrics with which to measure progress, and a set of specific proposals to move the campus toward sustainability. While the recommendations remain under review by the IU administration, the Task Force continues to work on a large number of practical implementation projects. Among the highlights of the program are: (1) the creation of a high-profile internship program, which has included nearly 50 undergraduate and graduate student interns working on a broad array of sustainability-related projects; (2) a student-based "Volunteers in Sustainability" effort, which encourages student engagement in sustainability-related issues; and (3) the "IU Energy Challenge" competition, which uses web-based technology to bring visibility to campus energy conservation issues.

Blueprint for University Campuses as Living Learning Laboratories of Sustainability

What role should higher education institutions play in implementing campus sustainability? Is it transforming campus facilities to become more sustainable or is it transforming the curriculum to incorporate sustainability principles in courses across disciplines? Our answer to this dilemma is: it is both and more. In this paper we present a blueprint for campus sustainability that integrates facilities management with academic curriculum development and takes a holistic approach that also includes innovative ways of promoting awareness, creating iconic examples, developing grassroots organizations and activities, and reforming institutional policy. Beginning with top-level leadership, the blueprint incorporates a step-wise process of transforming the built facilities and natural landscape and facilitating targeted curriculum development. It is a plan that cuts across institutional hierarchies and creates new forums and places for dialogue, innovation, and learning on sustainability on campus. We also present relevant examples from Oberlin College and the University of Illinois.

Boldly Sustainable: Developing a Town-Gown Climate Action Plan in Ithaca, NY

The success of the ACUPCC depends to a large extent on whether higher education institutions can not only move forward on their own campuses, but also build support for greenhouse gas reductions in the communities where they are located. Colleges and universities need to reach out and build ties with local business, political, religious, and philanthropic leaders who are also committed to meeting the challenge of global climate change.

Recognizing the importance of collaboration, colleges and universities are beginning to develop partnerships with their local governments and business communities. This panel will discuss one such effort that has just been launched, the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative (TCCPI), in the Finger Lakes region of New York. With the support of the Park Foundation, TCCPI has brought together Cornell, Ithaca College, Tompkins Cortland Community College, Cayuga Medical Center, and the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Tompkins County, City of Ithaca, and Town of Ithaca governments to develop and implement a communitywide climate action plan over the next two years.

The panel will discuss goals of this collaborative effort, its challenges and opportunities, and the roles that the three higher education institutions involved – Ithaca College, Cornell University, and Tompkins Cortland Community College – have played in getting it underway. This session will allow participants to share their experiences with similar efforts in their own communities, to learn what has worked well and not so well, and to establish a support network that will be a valuable resource after the conference.

Breaking Sustainability Ground in Art and Design

What has an Art and Design College to do with sustainability?

The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) currently offers 32 Majors ranging from Advertising Design, Architecture, Fibers, Historic Preservation, Sequential Art, Graphic Design, Liberal Arts, Interior and Industrial Design. Within these different programs of studies a variety of courses geared towards sustainability already exist in the fields of architecture and solar energy, graphic design and packaging, design management and sustainable business structures, industrial design and sustainable product development. In the Fall of 2007 the Sustainability Practices and Eco-Council at SCAD was founded, which hosted the National Teach-In event in January 2008 facilitated by Focus the Nation. The council and its very passionate members is actively involved in pursuing the colleges pursuits to green the campus and the curriculum.

Recently a new interdisciplinary program with emphasis on the graduate level integrating the sustainability expertise across the disciplines has been proposed to the college. This new program will allow students to choose their focus of study while creating structured relationships with diverse disciplines creating a highly interdisciplinary environment.

This presentation will discuss the existing structures at the college, how the new program will integrate and merge the current courses and expand implementing the new; and the importance and advantage of integrating education in art and design into the discourse of sustainable economical growth, equality development and ecological stewardship.

Bridging the Disciplinary Divide: Tackling the Challenge of Educating for Sustainability at the University of MN

A major challenge facing the world is sustaining people's productive and meaningful livelihoods and the natural ecosystems on which they depend. Universities have a unique capacity, and an important responsibility, to address this challenge by equipping the next generation of citizens and leaders with the skills necessary to approach sustainability issues more systemically. Institutions around the world are responding with an array of curricular innovations and new programs, all intended to better prepare students for the complexities of our time. In this panel, a diverse group of faculty, students and staff will reflect on the development of a new Sustainability Studies Minor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, U.S.A. We will describe the collaborative and interdisciplinary process used to develop this program, reflect upon the overall curricular goal of complementing traditional disciplinary training, and discuss the content and pedagogical approaches of the two new core courses required for the minor. We will share initial reflections following the first two years of the Sustainability Studies Minor and contemplate the challenges of curricular innovation across multiple academic programs at large educational institutions. Insights from our presentations will serve to initiate a broader discussion about opportunities to transform higher education to better address sustainability.

Bridging the Gap: Finding Common Ground for Sustainability with EH&S and Facilities

"Greening" campus operations requires development of a partnership among sustainability, facilities, and EHS compliance professionals. To be effective, this partnership must bridge a significant culture gap.

On one side of this gap, facilities and EHS tend to be technically oriented individuals whose priority is assuring reliability while controlling operational costs and understanding liability risks. These professionals approach change conservatively and rely on detailed documentation, reports and permit applications to organize their work. These priorities can result in interactions that can seem adversarial toward regulators and impervious to student and faculty suggestions.

On the other side of the gap, sustainability professionals, who often lack significant operational experience, tend to align with faculty and students. This culture can lead to an idealistic and philosophical approach to campus greening questions, oriented more toward the academic mission than operational practicality. Their justification for "green" approaches to operational issues often relies less on cost analysis than on the principles of social and institutional leadership. This group tends to view regulators as allies, and faculty and students as champions and change agents.

Given this culture gap, how can both sides pursue effective greening work? Can compliance and facilities professionals set aside their conservatism and play a meaningful role in campus sustainability? How can sustainability professionals best channel their ideas into existing campus systems in a way that allows operational professionals a partnership role? And are there occasions when we simply agree to disagree without burning bridges that will be needed in the future? 

Bringing Biophilia to Life - Connecting Living Systems to the Built Environment

Originally crafted by German social psychologist Erich Fromm around 1965, the term Biophilia means "love of life or living systems." The philosophy of Biophilia pairs well with the current flurry of activity in the world of sustainability. Although much of today's mention of sustainability is aimed at things such as recycling, reducing carbon emissions, and saving energy and water, there is a human element beneath these messages.

Researchers are now studying the value of nature in the built environment. The idea is that people are more engaged and thrive in environments that connect us with nature and resemble the natural world, instead of our typical academic and working environments. Biophilia supports the notion that patients recover more quickly, productivity increases, and students learn better in places offering this connection.

Institutions of higher education have an enormous opportunity to incorporate elements of the natural environment and Biophilia into their sustainable strategies. It is no longer simply about creating sustainable buildings and campus systems; it is about thoughtfully incorporating planning and design strategies that will create performance enhancing environments in these academic spaces.

Building A Campus Sustainability Effort at a Regional Public University: A Five Year Retrospective

While student leadership on campus sustainability issues is the norm on many campuses, attention to sustainability at Western Illinois University has been driven by faculty and staff. Until recently, student involvement on the sustainability committee was minimal. Physical plant staff were increasing efforts toward recycling, energy efficiency, and native landscaping, and some faculty occasionally offered a course addressing environmental sustainability, but no concerted sustainability efforts were taken until 2003. While numerous obstacles still remain, sustainability efforts at WIU are expanding and bearing results. This presentation describes these efforts and outcomes and explores lessons that can be applied to other campuses with low initial student interest and little budget for sustainability initiatives. The efforts and outcomes include developing and implementing a strategic plan that includes sustainability goals, creating a sustainability committee open to interested faculty, staff, and students, planning campus events to raise sustainability awareness, encouraging administration to formalize campus commitments by signing documents like the Talloires Declaration, and integrating sustainability into curricula and academic and residential student life. At Western in 2007-08, the university theme focused on environmental sustainability, not only allowing event and speaker funds to be directed toward these initiatives, but also raising awareness across the university and greater community. As this presentation demonstrates, one of the most valuable outcomes of these often voluntary commitments has been the pooling of our community resources—creative thinking, time, varied perspectives, and financial support—resulting in innovative initiatives that attract the attention of the entire campus community and neighboring institutions.

Building A MASS Movement: the Masters of Arts in Sustainability Studies at Ramapo College of NJ

As Sustainability moves from a meandering stream to a roaring movement, it is important that we develop graduate programs that push development of the field and prepare leaders to implement it.

Ramapo College of New Jersey was founded as an interdisciplinary college. Begun in 1974, the pioneer Environmental Studies program has long focused on sustainability, as have numerous campus programs and initiatives. Ramapo added sustainability to its mission statement in 2000. Sustainability has been the subject of active and healthy discourse.

Recently, the Board of Trustees approved a Masters of Arts in Sustainability Studies (MASS) to begin in fall 2009. After a 14-year limbo, the MASS proposal has advanced rapidly with strong administrative and faculty support. State approval is required.

But the challenge of MASS is not only to get it approved. It is to craft a program that will advance the field conceptually, through field application and experimentation and by training leaders in the field, not merely practitioners. A new sustainable paradigm must be defined and implemented.

The nature of sustainability has demanded that we enlist involvement by faculty from across the curriculum. Reflecting a new era, this initiative has yielded strong interest and commitment by a diverse faculty from across the college.

In this presentation, two of the core faculty describe the evolution of the proposed program, targeting for exploration issues that deserve debate and discussion, testing the potential for the development of broad consensus about the field.

Building a Vision and Culture for Safety and Sustainability

The University of California, Riverside (UCR) has a vision to achieve outstanding health, safety, environmental, and sustainability performance as the foundation for integrating excellent sustainability, risk management, environmental, health, and safety (SREHS) practices into campus culture and activities. Achieving this goal is the responsibility of every member of the University community.

As infrastructure, research activities, and student enrollment expand, the EH&S department intends to use a proactive approach to manage the increasing SREHS activities and needs of the campus. To mitigate the costs and risks associated with addressing SREHS issues, UCR recognizes that installing a strong SREHS-oriented foundation and culture is vital.

Despite identifying the procedures required to oversee SREHS issues, a lack of awareness about the value of SREHS activities, the potential risks to UCR students and staff, and the role of key stakeholders in mitigating these risks still exists. Developing a strategic communications, implementation, and performance metrics plan that incorporates the primary elements of change management – people, processes, and tools – is critical to achieving these EH&S objectives.

This presentation addresses how UCR is creating greater responsibility and accountability for implementing SREHS practices to instill a culture of safety and sustainability through three basic steps:

1)crystallize the definition/planning elements of UCR SREHS practices

2)outline specific processes, owners, and participants relevant to SREHS practices

3)identify tools required to successfully implement/measure SREHS practices.

The presentation will illustrate UCR's use of this new approach and process to effectively integrate safety into the workplace for students, staff, faculty, and visitors.

Building Collaborations Leading to Campus Sustainability: Bridgewater State College Center for Sustainability

The Center for Sustainability at Bridgewater State College (BSC) fosters the study and application of sustainable practices both on campus and throughout the region. The Center was developed as a joint effort involving faculty, librarians, staff and administrators from across campus. This presentation will discuss the process of developing the Center, and the evolution of cross-campus sustainability discussions. The Center's administrative structure involves a project-based advisory board, with team leaders coordinating projects related to food, recycling, social justice, community outreach, faculty development, education, and campus operations. In collaboration with the advisory board, the Center has conducted an inventory of sustainability initiatives at BSC, and launched a teaching module project that encourages faculty to disseminate curriculum materials for incorporating sustainability into teaching, research and outreach. The presentation will share challenges and triumphs in the Center's efforts to support the sustainability teaching and learning needs of faculty, staff and students, and also describe future goals and new initiatives.

Building Sustainability & Community in a Student-Led, Service-Learning Environment

Often, there is a perceived divide between a campus and the greater community and an actual divide between university practices and sustainable ones. We seek to break down both barriers through the service-learning class, Grassroots Environmentalism. Here, students identify and examine a community need with environmental implications, address the need by designing a project founded on environmentally sound practices, and implement the project through collaboration. The course was student-initiated, and is student-led.

Whenever people ask about the course – about the meaningful projects bridging the gap between town and gown – they instead dwell on the fact that the class is peer taught. A new idea? No. A novel approach? Yes. In a college community, peer-to-peer education occurs all the time, whether it's through a mentor or student organization. There is an opportunity to learn more from peers and capitalize on experiences more directly than in a typical faculty-led classroom. In student-precepted courses, faculty can still be an integral component, because their relationships with preceptors promote creative development over the course's longevity and provide valuable insights about becoming effective educators. In Grassroots Environmentalism, a self-culturing, student-led initiative, the class will change our university's culture from the inside out – by erasing misconceptions about who can be the educators within the institution and by reaching beyond traditional institutional boundaries with service-learning and sustainability.

This presentation will describe completed projects and insights as a student preceptor and the institutional framework for guiding a student-led course from idea to implementation.

Building Sustainable Local and World Community: Vision for the 21st Century Community College

Recognizing the evolution of the junior college in the latter half of the 20th Century, the Commission on the Future of Community Colleges proposed in their 1988 publication, Building Communities, that “building communities” be the rallying point for community and technical colleges in addressing their inherent double mission—economic development and social equity and justice. Climate change now makes a third element imperative: environmental stewardship. The Sustainability Vision Implementation Project (SVIP) resulted from this awareness. Originated by the Continuous Quality Improvement Network and now partnering with the League for Innovation in the Community College and the American Association of Community Colleges, SVIP was created to urge these organizations’ constituent institutions to deepen, broaden, and complete their traditional mission through essential teaching-learning in environmental stewardship. This urgency, as well as the increasingly clear interconnectedness of a “flattening world,” the growing diversity of student populations, and the opportunity to apply long-held mission-vision strengths in focusing student learning outcomes, SVIP encourages implementation of an expanded 21st Century community college vision: “Building Sustainable Local and World Community.” This SVIP panel presentation will share ideas individual institutions are using to frame and fulfill this imperative vision in tangible, meaningful, measurable ways and will invite questions as to how the project can energize and focus community and technical college student learning at your institution and nationwide.

Campus Carbon Neutrality as a Pedagogical Tool

We asked our students a simple question, "What would it take to make our campus carbon neutral?" They discovered that on-campus sequestration potential is minimal, despite a 90-acre campus forest. They then prepared a college-wide plan for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

Campus Habitats: Conserving Energy, Sequestering Carbon, and Providing Homes for Wildlife

This presentation will feature the different kinds of habitats found on college and university campuses including forests, prairies, wetlands, gardens, and green roofs and highlight, through case studies, the benefits of each - energy conservation, reducing the campus' carbon footprint, providing homes for wildlife, and outdoor laboratories and classrooms.

Campus Metabolism - A Visual Education and Awareness Tool Supporting Conservation

Arizona State University recognizes the importance of providing relevant information to engage their community as agents of change in its sustainability mission. The Campus Metabolism project is an effort to build a visualization tool that will eventually display a building's TOTAL resource consumption (energy, water, and waste) in real-time on a public portal. ASU will share its experiences, lessons learned, and impact of building the beta-test site for the first building and the eventual build out to 50 metered buildings.

Campus Planning for Sustainability and Education

The Evergreen State College, located on 1,000 forested acres in Olympia, Washington, is a unique, small, public, Liberal Arts College with the aggressive strategic objective of pursuing a 'net-zero' carbon and waste footprint by the year 2020. As part of this ambitious goal, the master plan (completed in 2007) established a comprehensive, long-term sustainable development plan and course of action for the campus.

The presentation will focus on the planning tools and processes that were utilized to translate the College's existing sustainability initiatives into a physical plan and establish procedures for implementing the vision. Intensive on-campus open houses aimed at engaging students, faculty, staff, and community members in an open and interactive process resulted in a plan that quickly achieved broad based support. Presenters will also address how educational opportunities were integrated with the campus sustainable initiatives.

The following strategies will be discussed in detail:

• Preserving and restoring natural resources including forest and wildlife habitats
• Energy saving strategies for the central plant, campus buildings and fleet vehicles
• Establishing visible storm and waste water management systems
• Defining alternative transportation programs and projects that focus on reducing vehicle trips and encourage pedestrian and bicycle use
• Increasing the number of students living on campus through creation of on-campus communities
• Supporting campus and community partnerships to support ecosystem restoration projects

Campus Sustainability Films in a General Education Science Course

Making students aware of and peaking their interests in campus environmental and sustainability initiatives can be difficult, given students wide range of interests and competing demands for their time. I have recently added a sustainability film project to my general education science courses in an effort to get students, who are not necessarily environmentally minded, more vested in the campus sustainability movement. Each class is broken into groups of 4 to 5 students, and each group is tasked with producing a short (8 to 12 minute) film that either showcases an existing sustainable initiative on campus or proposes a new sustainable initiative that the group would like the university to pursue given its campus commitment to sustainability.

In an effort to foster student creativity, few guidelines or restrictions are placed on the film project except for the length of the film and its focus on campus sustainability. Access to the video equipment, as well as technical and logistical support for the editing and construction of the films, is provided by Furman's Collaboratory for Creative Learning and Communication (CCLC) center.

The film project culminates in a public film festival at the end of the course in the campus movie theater, and the films are also posted on You Tube for more general viewing. The students have been very receptive to the project, and, in fact, one of the class films was selected as the Grand Prize winner for the Student Conservation Association (SCA) / Mazda National Multimedia contest.

Campus Sustainability Participation and Policies by Operational Units

The focus of this research is the impact of mid-level operational decision makers and research faculty (MLD-RF) on campus sustainability initiatives. MLD-RF have technical expertise and a leadership role in operational implementation of new programs. This group may have a sizeable impact on the success of sustainability initiatives.

In order to address whether this is the case, an analysis of web-based information was performed, identifying policies and initiatives at institutions of higher education. This web-based information serves as the first stage in a larger study evaluating the impact of individual decision makers on campus sustainability initiatives. There was a particular focus on those policies and initiatives over which MLD-RF have decision authority. The sampling was designed to ensure representation of a range of types of IHEs, including public and private institutions, and institutions of varying size, endowment, age, and research / teaching emphases.

The presentation will detail the proportion of institutions of various types that have policies and activities related to campus sustainability on their website, whether MLD-RF participate in the campus sustainability initiatives and/or have a designated role in the campus sustainability policy, and, whether MLD-RF have policies and initiatives in their own departments. This research provides information about a critical population of faculty and staff in academia that has previously not been evaluated in the context of sustainability.

Campus Sustainability Planning: Perceptions and Priorities

Planning for campus sustainability is often initiated by facilities and services, environment-related departments, or directly by the administration. The impetus for these entities is often serving vested interests, putting out fires, or some broader vision for a sustainable campus. However, some questions remain: To what extent is the entire institutional community – faculty, staff and students – on board in this drive towards sustainability? What is the level of awareness on campus? How do the different communities of people on campus prioritize sustainability initiatives? To explore these questions, we conducted a questionnaire survey of a completely random sample of faculty, staff and students of Oberlin College. We asked a series of questions on behavior, awareness, perception, potential solutions, and barriers to campus sustainability. We analyzed the overall results and also investigated how they vary between the different groups surveyed. In this presentation, we present our findings, share experiences of specific programs and initiatives from the Oberlin College campus, and highlight some of the opportunities and challenges of sustainability planning in college and university campuses in the US based on the findings of our survey.

Campus Transportation Plans: Sustainable, Smart and Strategic

Making campus transportation more sustainable will not only gain points on sustainability checklists, but will also contribute to an institution’s other strategic goals: accommodating growth, maintaining competitiveness, saving money and increasing resilience. It can also alleviate some perennial problems: how to balance increasing parking demands against a shrinking supply, and community concerns over traffic impacts on surrounding neighborhoods. Yet, it also requires going beyond a few simple gestures: it requires smart planning and analysis too. This in turn has required transportation planners to develop sophisticated planning tools that help both the planners and the university itself understand the current issues, future demands, people’s needs and aspirations, and the best way to meet them.

This poster presentation gives an overview of how to plan for more sustainable transportation. It will include:

• understanding the different roles of operational and strategic decisions; approaching the strategic problem by setting out scenarios;
• the importance of parking supply and pricing;
• using smart tools and techniques (including address-geocoding and attitudinal surveys);
• developing a plan that works with the institution's character, not against it;
• involving the University/College community to best effect; and
• the town-gown relationship, including development procedures that allow the institution to manage its transportation impacts holistically instead of piecemeal.

These will be illustrated with examples from campuses, including "dos and don'ts" from practical experience in developing sustainable transportation plans.

Campus-wide Sustainability Principles for Planning, Design, and Operations

This presentation is a collaborative effort between Mansoura University in Egypt and East Carolina University. A post doctoral study on ECU campus sustainability principles was implemented. It has brought together the efforts of several groups both across and off campus into a coherent product and a coherent message for the entire city of Greenville. The problem was identified by the growing concern about global stability if issues of sustainability are not successfully addressed and that concern will have a direct influence on the world's future generations. The study aims at exploring and testing various methods to direct compass development projects to make significant contributions to sustainability, quality, and character of their localities. It was hypothesized that green development programs would bring short- to long-term benefits in terms of money saving and resource preservation, environmental protection, and social welfare. Those benefits complement the mounting evidence in support of attaining sustainability through all ongoing activities and improvements on campus planning and design. To implement the aims of the study, numerous initiatives were undertaken, including raising awareness though posters, surveys, and presentations; developing collaborative educational programs on sustainability in both academic institutions; and interlinking with the ongoing development for the City of Greenville Climate Protection Program. A conceptual framework of relationships and transactions towards sustainable campuses has been developed. It has been found that a change in the institutional culture is required so that all campus stakeholders will eventually have better opportunities to understand the significance of their roles in working toward sustainability.

Can Higher Education Change Regional Culture? How Pittsburgh's Universities are Leading a Transition Toward Sustainability

This presentation looks to (1) juxtapose potential approaches to engaging in university sustainability planning and implementation in two local urban case studies, (2) describe emerging opportunities for increased inter-university best practice sharing and communication, and (3) describe the emerging role of Universities as city-wide resources, leaders, and centers for outreach.

(1) Juxtaposing top down commitments and grassroots efforts: Why both are needed to change university culture. Early examples of campus sustainability have typically resulted from bottom up initiatives—grass roots efforts where multiple parties have led disparate initiatives toward successful convergence; more recently, we've seen an emergence of top down commitments and more comprehensive master planning of sustainable efforts. Each approach, standing alone, cannot change university culture effectively—integrative and iterative processes, working from both directions, make sustainable visions a reality.

(2) Broader engagement: opportunities for best practice sharing and inter-university communication. Inter-university collaboration is gaining traction, as collaboration is at the heart of academia. While still in early stages, Pittsburgh's universities are beginning to do just that. Two unique collaborative efforts are emerging in Pittsburgh: a grant-funded curricular project involving Carnegie Mellon University, Duquesne University, and the University of Pittsburgh, and the development of the higher education subcommittee serving Pittsburgh's Green Government Task Force.

(3)Synthesis for regional cultural change: higher education's role. Making an authentic regional commitment to sustainability will require leaders to re-think traditional practice. In turn, our universities must be ready to offer leadership and guidance. How can Pittsburgh's universities further respond to this challenge?

Can Real-Time Dashboard Displays of Resource Use in Buildings and across campus facilities be used to build a community and a culture of stewardship?

In recent years many colleges and universities have undertaken comprehensive technological and management initiatives to improve campus energy and material use efficiency. At the same many schools have also undertaken educational programs designed to foster the development of a campus culture that values, exhibits and promotes environmental stewardship. Although the educational value of "green" technologies is often recognized and exploited, untapped opportunities exist for integrating technological and cultural changes in ways that benefit the environment. This session will explore ways in which visual "dashboards" that display the resource use of buildings and whole campuses in real time can be used to engage, educate, motivate and empower community members to become better environmental stewards.

Carbon Budgets as a Teachable Moment

The calculation of a college's carbon budget one of the most important steps toward assessing an institution's sustainability and creating a plan to improve operations. Calculating carbon budgets also integrates many of the issues involved in efforts to become more sustainable including technology, public attitudes towards the environment, economic trade-offs, and institutional bureaucracy. For these reasons, the estimation of an institution's carbon budget can be an effective way to teach principles of environmental studies.

A class of students at Union College was divided into six groups, each of which calculated the emissions associated with a different component of the College's activities: Energy, Student Transportation, Faculty Transportation, Dining, Waste, and Purchasing. Each group was given substantial leeway in the exact method that they used to calculate carbon emissions, though resources such as the tools offered by Clean-Air-Cool-Planet were made available. In most cases, the students settled on a hybrid of existing calculators.

This assignment was successful in giving students experience integrating the various components that can influence a College's carbon emissions. It also gave the students the satisfaction of making a significant contribution to efforts to make our institution more sustainable.

Carbon Footprint and Campus Context: The Ramapo College Experience

At the fall 2007 conference and expo "Green Meets Green: The Climate for Change," Ramapo President Peter Mercer underscored his seriousness about the topic by signing the College Presidents' Climate Commitment during his welcome address. Shortly thereafter, he named a Climate Taskforce to conduct the required institutional greenhouse gas (GHG) study.

The Climate Taskforce asked the Spring 2008 Environmental Assessment class to calculate a baseline Ramapo carbon footprint for transportation and waste/recycling using the Cool Planet model. Organized as the Ramapo Environmental Assessment Firm, the class also studied the impacts of two possible policy responses for reducing GHG: eliminating residential freshmen parking permits on campus and making Ramapo "paperless."

Methodological innovations included use of the ecological psychological concept of "behavior setting" to capture the necessary confluence of setting and behaviors and circumventing limitations of the Cool Planet model and incomplete campus records using a survey of students, faculty and staff. A method for "superficial" waste characterization and volume estimation was developed and implemented. GHG policy assessment was piloted.

This poster will review the study and its implications, underscoring the need to ground number-crunching within an understanding of context and the larger umbrella of sustainability.

Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free by 2050

Sustainability can only come if we can bring the CO2 content of our atmosphere back within safe limits. This will require large reduction in CO2 emissions from the industrialized nations of the world. As the most energy-intensive nation on the planet, it is incumbent upon the United States to demonstrate to the world that a clean, sustainable economy can be created without the use of fossil fuels or nuclear energy. This presentation will outline a plan to achieve zero CO2 emissions by 2050 without the necessity of increasing the use of dangerous nuclear power to produce the energy we need in the modern world. This can be achieved through the steady phasing in of increased utilization of efficient means of producing and using energy, electrifying the transportation sector of our economy, and replacing coal and nuclear power as the plants presently using those sources age out and are shut down by wind and solar generated electricity. Phasing out of the use of fossil fuels is to be encouraged through the use of a carbon cap-and-trade system (without offsets or international trading of credits), or a carbon-tax, the receipts from which would be used to partly offset the increased cost of energy due to the resulting increase in the cost of carbon fuels, and to ease the transition of workers in the industries being phased out into comparable occupations in more environmentally friendly sectors.

Careers in Sustainability

Sustainability education options increase each year. Colleges and universities offer courses, concentrations, certificates, minors, and now even full degree programs. Still, questions remain as to where students will use their new knowledge. From the perspective of the new degree programs being offered through the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, this presentation provides an overview of careers in sustainability by exploring the following three questions:

-What trends, statistics, and future outlook data are available in support of this new career field?

-What career options exist for students studying in the broad new field of sustainability (i.e., through what types of organizations, what are the job titles, and what skills are they looking for)?

-What resources exist for students interested in a career in sustainability (e.g., career guides, Web sites, search engines)?

The presentation also highlights approaches that can be used to prepare students for real-world experiences in the field (e.g., through curriculum structure, academic advising, and capstone experiences).

From this presentation, audience members gain a better understanding of career opportunities in the field of sustainability. It is intended to provide insight to both students who would like to work in this field and to faculty/staff that have or are developing a program in this field.

Case Study in Water Management at Georgia Tech

Georgia's drought brought Atlanta's 5 million population, and Georgia Tech's 23, 500 daily population within 30-60 days of running out of water. The Governor mandated we stop all outdoor watering and cut water usage by 10-15%. What did Georgia Tech do to reduce its water use by nearly 30%?

Find out how our water conservation over the last 10 years positioned us to meet these aggressive goals on top of the 23% reduction of water use per square foot between 2001 and 2007. Hear our strategic directions for water conservation on campus.

Over 600 stream miles are listed as impaired in the Atlanta region, mainly due to impacts of pollution associated with stormwater runoff. Learn how Georgia Tech has been reducing the run off from our campus in downtown Atlanta and our plans for the next milestones in reducing stormwater runoff.

Center for Research and Sustainable Living, Yucatan, Mexico

The Helen Moyers Biocultural Reserve, located in Yucatan, Mexico ranks in the top third of privately held reserves by size in Latin America. The 1600 hectare tropical deciduous forest tract is operated by Kaxil Kiuic, A.C., a non-profit organization created and supported by Millsaps College, Jackson, MS. Preservation of this endangered ecosystem in the heart of the Northern Maya Lowlands through education and research is the primary mission of the Reserve. In addition to the ruins of Kiuic, an ancient Maya center with a history ranging from 600 BC until 1000 AD, the Reserve also contains ruins of San Sebastian which was occupied from the late 1700s until the 1950s. Fifty hectares in the heart of the property have been donated to the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) to facilitate the excavation of the ruins. An off the grid research facility was constructed to provide on-site accommodations for scientists working on the archaeology, geology, hydrology and ecology of the Reserve. The facility accommodates 38 people and consists of 13 buildings constructed using traditional Mayan architectural style. Although some modern materials were used, local materials and traditional construction techniques were utilized whenever possible. The facility is powered by a 10,000 W photovoltaic system. Water is currently pumped from the sole source karst aquifer; however, future plans call for rainwater harvesting to supplement water use. All non-compostable material is recycled; blackwater is processed in three 27 m2 wastewater treatment gardens and one 4 m2 garden prior to discharge.

Chandler Gilbert Community College - Sustainability as a Campus Wide Strategy

This presentation will demonstrate how to integrate sustainability into institutional effectiveness. Chandler Gilbert Community College has embedded a commitment to sustainability into its strategic plan for 2007-2012. The strategic plan attempts to coordinate the goals of students, faculty and administration in order to create a process of collaborative and interconnected learning, reflecting social, economic and environmental values dedicated towards a sustainable future. The strategic goals focusing on sustainability serve as a catalyst to facilitate a variety of college wide initiatives through the "SEE Your World" theme. Faculty from different disciplines created lesson plans in an interdisciplinary manner on the theme 'SEE your world' where the S stands for social, E for environment and E for economics. During the Focus the Nation event, 30 faculty participated in a massive teach-in impacting 635 students. This was followed by a series of co-curricular activities throughout the semester which culminated in the Maricopa Sustainability Day where students showcased their sustainability projects.

All members of the CGCC community are asked to examine current practices, as well as opportunities, to move the college toward a highly sustainable, carbon neutral mode of operation and work with stakeholders and vendors aligned with principles of sustainability. This goal is being achieved through various initiatives such as the articulation of an academic certificate in environmental sustainability, the infusion of co-curricular events, service learning projects, and facilities assessment, including a construction of a new educational technology center designed for experiential learning.

Chico and Butte: Working Together for Sustainability On Campus and Beyond

Butte Community College and California State University, Chico have embraced the concept of sustainable development as part of their individual strategic plans, and as a way of connecting to and serving identified needs in our local community. What began as a student effort on separate campuses has blossomed and expanded into a regional endeavor. Both campuses have been recognized by the National Wildlife Federation for their efforts to address climate change (Grand Prize in the "Chill Out" contest the past two years), and both are acknowledged leaders within their respective systems in terms of sustainability. The presentation will explore the many collaborations between the two campuses, including two annual conferences on sustainability, and the ways in which the efforts on one campus have been replicated and amplified effort on the other. The many partnerships to be discussed include efforts of students and faculty to help business and community leadership understand what it means to be "green," and how to develop practical solutions to the problems we face. We will also show a video that will include examples from all of the major partners, focusing on community-university collaborations, including a greenhouse gas inventory for both campuses, and for the City of Chico, and a solar training workshop for local tradesmen, organized by students on one campus, hosted in the facilities of the other, and taught by employers from the community.

Choosing the Right Metrics and Measuring the ROI of Sustainability Strategies

Proving financial value and profitability of sustainability is fast becoming a key performance indicator for the higher education sector; however, these outcomes are not often measured for lack of an appropriate mindset and measurement toolset. With the increasing changes in the global marketplace towards more environmentally sustainable models for higher education, administrative leaders are eyeing the opportunities for redefining their strategies for long-term, sustainable growth. Many higher education administrators are interested in a strategic, sustainable model that demonstrates a return on their investment, not just cost savings to mitigate their risk. This can be accomplished through choosing the correct metrics and an analytics approach for measurement of outcomes. While there is an increasing interest in sustainability in the higher education sector, there are also few resources available that provide a practical guide and examples of sustainability and business success—a desirable service among forward-thinking leaders who require less theory and more action. The core value propositions from the workshop include merging the current concepts of sustainability models with entrepreneurial approaches; provide a guide for new and current institutions to explore sustainability issues while phasing in and innovating for maximizing cost savings and profitability; and utilization of business intelligence and analytics to minimize risk. This presentation will illustrate through case studies and metric examples on how to integrate leadership development, measurement, and guidance for proving the ROI of environmental sustainability decisions and developing a provable business case for higher education institutions inspired to become more sustainable.

Clean & Green - Green Cleaning Custodial Program

Early in 2007, Delta College Facilities Management embraced the transition toward greater environmental awareness by launching EverGreen. The goal of the program is to systematically incorporate sustainable practices and decision processes throughout our operations and serve as a catalyst for awareness and education throughout the College community.

Understanding that a healthy environment is essential in attracting visitors and retaining students, Delta College has adopted a green cleaning program. Maintenance has eliminated many traditional cleaning products and processes and replaced them with environmentally-conscious alternatives. Cleaner facilities promote healthier and safer environments; and, therefore, provide greater capacity for learning among our students. By incorporating green cleaning, our aim is to protect our health without harming the environment. We also strive to maintain the same quality performance as traditional, chemical-intensive methods. Improved air quality, recyclable packaging, decreased water use, and the elimination of hazardous disposal costs are all benefits of cleaning green.

In December 2007, the custodial team received the American Schools & Universities Green Cleaning Award. Delta College is the first community college in the nation to receive this honor. A key component of a successful program is teamwork, and the Maintenance team is enthusiastic about investing in environmental sustainability. Understanding that green solutions benefit not only the customer but the worker, the custodial staff continuously seeks new solutions and readily accepts changes in maintenance processes.

This poster presentation illustrates procedures, products, equipment, policy, and general health impacts.

Community Energy Connection

CU Community Energy Connections (CEC) is a collaboration between the CU Environmental Center's Energy Program and the CU Environmental Justice Steering Committee. The CEC focuses on social justice and diversity issues related to energy and works with disadvantaged and marginalized populations to increase the efficiency of their homes. Student involvement and service learning are key aspects of the CEC.

CEC works with established grassroots and human needs organizations involved with low-income and Latino communities in neighboring Longmont, Colorado to help them fulfill their mission of fostering self-sufficiency in their client populations. The program works to empower community members, reduce their energy costs, and create awareness of and access to everyday solutions to our climate crisis. We provide to those we reach the knowledge and tools necessary to conserve energy around their homes and save money.

To members of this target community at various events, students involved with CEC have distributed more than 1,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs, 40 water heater blankets, 60 low-flow showerheads and information on additional low-cost energy-saving actions they can take.

This summer CEC will be rolling out a home energy visit program with 3 teams of 2 student auditors going into 50 low-income homes in Longmont. Student auditors will install compact fluorescent light bulbs, low-flow shower heads, power strips, clothes drying-racks, check appliances and furnaces, among other energy conservation measures while educating residents about how they can control their own energy use.

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb Exchange Programs as a Potentially Cost Effective and Socially Beneficial Approach to Offsetting Carbon Emissions Locally

To achieve carbon neutrality, organizations can balance unavoidable emissions by purchasing "carbon offsets" that provide credit for emissions captured or reduced elsewhere. Locally managed and implemented offset programs can provide additional social and economic benefits. We examine the efficacy of using a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) exchange program to offset carbon emissions of Oberlin College. Students developed free exchanges of CFLs for incandescent bulbs separately targeted at students, college employees and low income town residents. Using the USEPA/DOE "Energy Star" calculator (adjusted for local utility rates and emissions intensities) we estimate that the 9,500 bulbs exchanged off campus will prevent approximately 8,000 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. Given wholesale prices paid for the CFLs this equates to an offset cost of approximately $2.10/ton CO2, which is far less than the typical market prices of $10-15/ton. The nearly $1,000,000 worth of energy savings that will accrue to community members over the lives of the CFLs can be considered a donation by Oberlin College that will result in a variety of local benefits. There are, however, a range of assumptions in the Energy Star calculations. We have therefore undertaken and will report on the results of a study in which utility bills are used to assess actual energy savings resulting from Oberlin's program. Although CFLs contain mercury and are largely imported from China, we conclude that CFL exchange programs are a potentially cost effective approach to local offsets that can benefit low income communities and stimulate the local economy.

Comparison of How Colleges Promote Greenhouse Gas Inventory Strategies

Ideally, everyone should care the environment because a clean planet is a necessity for the survival of the human race. The problem is however, not all students or college campuses care about being environmentally friendly or helping to protect the planet. We think that one solution is better communication; simply, to get as many college communities and volunteers involved and interested in learning about why they should protect the planet, and the different strategies that exist that can help them in doing so. One way to do this is by comparing and sharing different strategies being used by colleges to involve their students in the process of becoming a "green campus" By comparing campuses to one another, as well as their results of their degree of success, it will allow for the most successful plans to be shared and enforced through multiple campuses resulting with one common goal: becoming green. The results of this study will help separate the plans with the most efficiency for the college involving students in their "going green" campaigns, as well as eliminate those strategies that are not successfully reaching the target audience. Specifically, this comparison discusses how 14 different colleges and universities promote sustainability issues, including special events, media tools, and other strategies.

Comparison of Third Party Forest Certification Systems for their Impact on University Environmental Footprints

Forest certification systems are meant to guarantee responsible harvesting and manufacturing practices of forest products. Certified products are now common in the market place and may represent an opportunity for Universities to reduce environmental footprints. However, there is confusion as to whether the impacts these certification systems alleviate are equivalent. As part of a larger project assessing the potential gains in University sustainable performance, we reviewed current certification systems. We compared the sustainable performance of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI), and Canadian Standards Association - Sustainable Forest Management (CSA-SFM) by contrasting official documents and analyzing 8 literature reviews. The comparisons fall into three temporal categories, corresponding to system revisions: pre-1994, 1994-2001, and 2001-2008. Literature comparisons were based on: baseline principles, certification granting and maintained, policy creation stakeholder involvement, chain-of-custody existence, and external performance evaluations. FSC was the original, and most comprehensive of all three systems. FSC is characterized by comprehensive stakeholder involvement, most stringent mandatory principles, transparency, and applies to all forests sizes globally. It is the only system requiring absolute repudiation of monoculture planting, maximum biodiversity conservation, and respect for human rights and local laws. CSA and SFI have increased forest stewardship requirements through each revision, but not yet to the level of FSC. By 2008 CSA and SFI had chain-of-custody and improved stakeholder inclusion protocols, but no improvements to biodiversity or monoculture protocols. This suggests that the benefits to sustainable performance of purchasing certified papers are greatly dependent on the certification.

Conceptualizing a Cutting Edge Sustainability Program

Since sustainability programs are still relatively new, there is considerable debate on what are the most salient factors that contribute to an effective campus sustainability program. It is clear that the school’s institutional structure shapes the multiple and complex strands of policy, institutional knowledge, and imbedded interests that effect the ability to create cutting edge sustainability actions. Further, a sustainability program that incorporates a conceptual foundation in [though not limited to] sustainable development, institutional and organizational theory, related policy from municipal, state and federal frameworks, an awareness of emerging technology, and an understanding of best practices may have a better chance of successfully negotiating the complex work of higher education.

In a panel presentation, experts from Johns Hopkins, Harvard and Yale will compare and contrast the underlying principles and institutional models upon which their sustainability programs have been built. The knowledge and experience of each of these professionals will demonstrate the unique nature of establishing a campus based program.

Presentations will provide participants with an in-depth perspective into how these experts built their programs from the ground-up. Discussion will span from the development of entrepreneurial business models, the challenges associated with centralized/decentralized university systems, and administrative placement to the development of strategic plans, institutional targets and staffing models.

Conserving Potable Water through Stormwater Irrigation

As the demand for potable water increases and supply remains constant or diminishes, the need to conserve water is more evident than ever. Elon University is responding to this need in a number of ways but most notably through its irrigation system, which is supplied nearly 100% with reclaimed stormwater. This presentation will provide an overview of Elon University's irrigation system, which began using reclaimed stormwater about twenty years ago. We will discuss the steps taken to put the system in place, its key components, and benefits – both on and off campus. The presentation will conclude with lessons learned that may prove helpful to other institutions interested in building a similar system.

Corporate Sustainability Reports: How to Perform a Basic Analysis to Understand a Company's Sustainability Efforts

Corporate Sustainability Reports are heavily criticized for portraying more marketing and public relations material than quantitative accounts of the company's commitment to sustainability. Corporate Sustainability Reports can contain mountains of information making the task of being an informed stakeholder daunting. This presentation will provide participants with fundamental skills to conduct a basic review of a company's corporate sustainability report.

Individuals will be taught how to review and evaluate the reports and rate them according to:

(1) the quality of information. [How free is the information from bias? Is the company's information reported so it can be compared from year to year or to a competitor? Is it understandable? Does the company use recognized standards in preparing its report, such as those promoted by the Global Reporting Initiative?]

(2) trends in sustainability efforts. [What areas are they making progress? What areas are they lacking in initiatives and effort? Are they a sustainability leader in their industry?]

Worksheets will help participants apply their newly learned knowledge to conduct a basic analysis of a corporate sustainability report. Once a basic analysis had been performed, participants will discuss the information. Once individuals have a better understanding of the company's sustainability efforts those efforts can be appreciated, and it helps stakeholders facilitate stronger communications between themselves and the company.

Creating a Green Purchasing Policy Roadmap

The National Association of Educational Procurement (NAEP) fashioned a process to harvest the knowledge and expertise of its members to create a green purchasing policy roadmap. The process has concluded and the roadmap exists.

Recognizing that a green purchasing policy is a critical foundational component of the ACUPCC process, NAEP proposes to utilize this workshop opportunity to disemminate the roadmap to AASHE members as an act of collaboration and partnership.

This workshop will elaborate on the processes employed and the tools involved in the formulation of the roadmap. The process description will explore the technology and the methodology as much as it will deliver the roadmap itself.

The objective of the workshop will be to share the tactics and techniques such that others might avail themselves to similiar activities or that they may simply extend the roadmap utilizing a similiar process to derive a green purchasing policy for their individual campuses.

Creating a Research Agenda in Sustainability for Emerging Research Institutions

Many colleges and universities find creating on-campus sustainable initiatives, such as recycling and reducing energy usage, to be a good starting contribution to change how these institutions effect the environment. Many more have begun adding coursework, degree programs, and now schools in sustainable practices. However, developing a strong research agenda in areas of sustainability might feel beyond the reach of smaller institutions that have emerging areas of research and have just begun the search for external funds.

This paper will examine the process of developing a research agenda for these smaller schools, including identifying areas of expertise, encouraging collaborations, developing student researchers, finding sources of funding, and preparing proposals. This proposal is appropriate for faculty involved in research in a variety of disciplines including sciences, humanities, and architecture, as well as administrators looking to create, modify, or enhance their institution's external funding program.

Creating Sustainable Colleges: Environmental Audits as Course Projects

In Fall 2007, as a course project, students taking the Sustainable Development course from the Department of Environmental Studies conducted an environmental audit for the operation of the College of Public Affairs & Administration (CPAA) at the University of Illinois at Springfield. This environmental audit focused on purchasing, electricity use, and recycling. As part of the project, students were asked to develop a green purchasing guide that is workable for CPAA and hence can help the college adopt a green purchasing policy easily. Specifically, a project plan was developed for the environmental audit with three components: 1) Interviews with department secretaries regarding purchasing (face-to-face interviews); 2) Survey on the knowledge and behavior of CPAA faculty and staff toward paper consumption, recycling, and electricity use (online survey via SurveyMonkey.com); and 3) Development of a "green" purchasing guide. The project plan was subsequently adopted by two other faculty members from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) for their Research Methods course, in which students conducted an environmental audit for the operation of CLAS during Spring 2008. This presentation will share the findings from these two environmental audit projects, institutional support (or barriers), and student engagement for this type of project.

Crystallized Pedagogy: Designing Green Buildings to Teach

Education is a key component in the success of the green building movement, and what better teaching tool than green buildings themselves?

This poster presentation highlights the executive director of the LEED Gold Certified Gwinnett Environment and Heritage Center and a team of nationally-recognized green building designers while exploring the potential of green building to foster meaningful connections between visitors and the environment, accelerating the transition to a greener society.

Drawing from lessons learned and strategies employed in facilities designed explicitly to showcase green building, the poster will explore how tactile, visual, and experiential green building solutions can provide meaningful metaphors, helping communities connect to their local environments.

The poster presentation will draw from a wide variety of case studies that approached the idea of “Teaching Buildings” in various ways, including:

* Gwinnett Environment and Heritage Center; Buford, Georgia; LEED Gold Certified

* The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University; Tempe Arizona; LEED Platinum Certified

* Denali National Park Visitors Center; Alaska; LEED Silver Certified

* The Desert Living Center; Las Vegas, Nevada; LEED Platinum Certified

* Southface Energy Institute Eco Office; Atlanta, Georgia; targeting LEED Platinum

* Blue Ridge Parkway Destination Center; Asheville, North Carolina; targeting LEED Gold

Current State of Sustainability in Business Education

While evaluating our current undergraduate Marketing curriculum and considering the addition of courses or modules on sustainability, it was important to determine what other business schools were offering in their programs. Since BeyondGreyPinstripes.com only collects self-reported data from MBA programs with sustainability curriculum, little information has been collected on the current offerings at the undergraduate level. A study of the offerings from AACSB accredited programs is being conducted along with information about university-level initiatives. In addition to collecting ideas of what to add to our business-education program, correlations (or lack of correlations) will show the business schools' connections to these initiatives. It is hypothesized that there will be little correlation between university level initiatives and undergraduate course offerings in the business schools. For example, at Arizona State University, in 2006, my colleagues in the W. P. Carey School of Business did not even know about the AASHE conference on campus or understand the purpose.

Curriculum and Sustainability

This presentation explores how to create an educational experience for undergraduates and graduate students that explore firm-level strategy through the lens of sustainability. The core question addressed is "how do firms adopt sustainability principles and practices within their core strategies?"

The importance of this type of educational experience is to help students find ways to increase their impact on society.

This presentation will be useful to faculty, administrators responsible for curriculum design and reform, and even university administrators looking for insights into how to create a strategic focus on sustainability at the campus level.

This presentation includes research on the topic that informs the curriculum design and sample syllabi on the topic.

Delta College EverGreen: Sustainability Program Implementation

This presentation will demonstrate the implementation of Delta College's sustainability program--a unique venture that found its roots through Facilities Management.

Long before greening and sustainability were buzzwords, conservation, efficiency of operations, growth by substitution, and recycling were employed as routine Facilities Management measures. Early in 2007, EverGreen was formalized as the department's environmental sustainability program. Our goal is to systematically incorporate sustainable practices and decision processes throughout our operations and to serve as a catalyst for awareness and education throughout the College community.

The College has an impressive record of responsible environmental compliance and safety regulations, academic work toward in the classroom, promotion of environmental practices, renovations that address energy conservation, a "best practices" recycling program, and a nationally recognized Green Cleaning Program.

Academic initiatives and joint endeavors with the community and other educational organizations include ice-age groundwater technology studies, solar array demonstrations, a collaborative hybrid technology program with the National Science Foundation, and low impact architectural technology, and community property restoration.

On an institutional level, the College has established an Environmental Sustainability Task Force, signed the ACUPCC, and is a STARS pilot college.

The presentation will outline the process by which Facilities Management was able to apply its past initiatives and current environmentally-conscious ventures into a full fledged sustainability program that has since gained momentum as a college-wide priority. It will focus on program development including marketing materials, website development, branding recognition, and harnessing momentum.

Demand Response: Going Green and Making "Green" in the Process

Colleges and universities are proving that electricity generated from renewable resources can be a meaningful part of the supply mix. Nevertheless, as renewables go through inevitable growing pains, and "traditional" sources of electricity generation become scarce, even the most well-intentioned end-users remain challenged to meet their base load demands in an environmentally sound and economically feasible manner.

With that in mind, many educational institutions committed to going "green" are now turning their attention to demand-side management techniques to augment what is already being done on the supply-side. Chief amongst these strategies is Demand Response, which is one of the few "technologies" available that can address energy and environmental issues positively while generating payoffs not just in the long-term, but the short-term as well.

As demand response markets continue to evolve, consumers now have a plethora of choices to become more efficient, use less energy, and create a general culture of conservation. How, though, do consumers make informed decisions about how to actually benefit from these opportunities?

To better serve the public and create educated consumers who are prepared to make better decisions, the key to meeting electricity challenges is to adopt quality driven, cost effective and realistic business practices regarding energy curtailment and conservation. Demand response impacts the end-user, providing education, technology and resource management, lower costs and additional revenue. By their participation in DR programs, participants also positively impact their communities and the environment directly by limiting the need for "peak" generation supply (which is often highly polluting) and creating an overall conservation mentality.

Designing and Developing Service Learning Pedagogy in Support of Sustainability

Service learning has become a recognized form of pedagogy in University graduate and undergraduate education. The term takes a variety of forms including structured internships, design and policy studios, law clinics, experiential learning courses, applied independent study and practica. Interdisciplinary service learning presents special challenges but can yield great rewards. The inherent interdisciplinary of sustainability makes it an appropriate framework for service learning pedagogy, while contributing to campus, community and societal goals.

In the Spring of 2008 the University of Florida created an interdisciplinary undergraduate minor in sustainability. In addition to a gateway theory course and required course selections from sustainability themed clusters the minor includes a capstone service learning course. The capstone is formally linked to the University Office of Sustainability, which designs and develops projects to implement sustainability on campus. This course will be offered for the first time in the Spring of 2009.

This presentation seeks to bring together service learning practitioners and those with experience in, or an interest in, sustainability service learning pedagogy. The presentation will be structured around methods, curricula, project design and development and approaches to student evaluation.

Designing Green

An annual competition of design students from Industrial Design that collaborate on designing a more sustainable world of products. By looking at past competitions and using methods of design, This presentation will explore a method to increase the effectiveness of Designing Green as a way of teaching students about sustainable product design while bringing positive focus to the college of architecture, design, and construction.

Developing a Climate Action Plan with the Campus Carbon Calculator

Hundreds of schools across the US and Canada have relied upon the Clean Air-Cool Planet Campus Carbon Calculator to measure their baseline GHG emissions and to track their progress in emissions reductions; since August they have also been able to use the Calculator to develop their Climate Action Plans, taking advantage of a new module designed to help campuses evaluate and strategically bundle their emissions reductions options based on quantitative analyses of the financial and emissions-related impact of potential policies and projects.

The planning module of the Calculator was based on the pioneering work done at schools like Duke University, UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley, and especially, Middlebury College. Middshift students at Middlebury, working closely with staff and faculty during the winter/spring of 2007, developed a climate neutrality plan subsequently adopted by their trustees; two of these students later helped CA-CP integrate their model into the Campus Carbon Calculator. It has now being used by leading schools like the University of New Hampshire (UNH)-- a long-time partner with CA-CP in the creation and development of the Campus Carbon Calculator--which is moving aggressively to reach its goal of climate neutrality in a way that integrates the notion of sustainability through every facet of the campus.

This panel will look at the processes for successful carbon neutrality planning at Middlebury College and the UNH, and participants will learn how to use the new planning module of the Campus Carbon Calculator to compile their own climate action plans in a structured, rigorous way that ties back seamlessly to their GHG inventories.

Developing a Sustainable Campus: A Tale of Two Buildings

This presentation will discuss how the design and construction of two new buildings – each tracking to achieve LEED Platinum certification – are proving to be transformative for college curriculum, campus operations, and community outreach at Ithaca College.

In 2005, Robert A.M. Stern Architects were selected to design Ithaca's School of Business. This LEED Platinum-registered building now houses an educational program that identifies sustainability as a core value for future business professionals. Traditional business curriculum is being adapted to incorporate sustainability principles and practice and faculty are devising ways to use the new building itself as a "teaching tool."

In 2006, HOLT Architects was selected to create the Gateway Building to house senior administration, Human Resources, and the range of student services, including student Admissions, thus serving as the "gateway" for visitors into the campus. HOLT has also undertaken the challenge to design and construct this LEED Platinum-registered project, slated to open in Fall 2008. Upon completion of this building and successful certification of both projects, Ithaca College will be the first institution to have two Platinum-rated facilities on its campus. Together, these two companion buildings will create a striking new "front door" to the campus and each facility will tangibly reinforce Ithaca College's commitment to sustainability.

Developing Integrated Research, Education, and Outreach Programs in Sustainable Agriculture at NC State University: A Model for Land Grant Universities

Land grant universities (LGUs) play a vital role in educating students and training extension agents in organic and sustainable agriculture. Incorporating research, education and extension outreach into their missions, LGUs are uniquely qualified to educate at multi-levels and train the nation's agricultural scientists, natural resource managers, farmers, and agribusiness leaders. Faculty from North Carolina State University (NCSU) have been leaders in developing agroecology and sustainable agriculture programs, collaborating across departmental lines to conduct the systems-level research needed to understand the complexity of interactions among the ecological, social and economic factors in agricultural systems. In this presentation we describe multidisciplinary approach to research, education and outreach at NCSU that integrates undergraduate, graduate student and extension agent instruction and training in sustainable agriculture. We present highlights of this approach focusing on the description of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS), one of the nation's largest facilities dedicated to sustainable and organic agriculture research, education and outreach. We will also describe the interdisciplinary faculty team that have developed these programs, the sustainable agriculture and agroecology curriculum programs and the outreach and extension training programs in organic and sustainable agriculture at NCSU. As we face the challenges of the 21st century there will be a tremendous demand and need for integrated and interdisciplinary sustainability related programs at all higher education institutions, and especially at LGUs. We believe the NCSU programs described here may offer insights for other LGUs considering institutional level sustainable agriculture research, education, and outreach programs.

Development of Carbon Mitigation Tools and Benchmarks for Universities in the U.S.

A large share of U.S. universities is currently implementing campus green and sustainable initiatives. "Green" and "sustainable" initiatives can include a broad set of issues. For example, climate mitigation strategies, waste or water management, and public transit are green initiatives often undertaken by academic institutions. This makes program comparisons across universities challenging. Furthermore, given the different characteristics of academic institutions, comparisons across universities become extremely difficult.

We have developed a tool that determines the appropriate peer academic institutions that should be considered as the basis for any sustainability benchmark across universities. The resulting peer group can be used to further evaluate the success of green initiatives between peer academic institutions.

This tool was developed to identify peer institutions for sustainability comparison purposes for more than 6,000 institutions. In order to provide the peers of each institution, several filters were considered, using publicly available data. Some of the features accounted for are enrollment, 4- versus 2-year institutions, urban or rural location, the existence of campus housing, private versus public institutions, PhDs awarded, school endowments, total estimated student expenses before aid, number of full-time and part-time undergraduates, and availability of sustainability websites. Finally, the tool also accounts for climate zones.

Once the peer group is defined, this tool could be linked with existing databases such as STARS to quickly compare the programs being undertaken (and the success) using the established peer group and identify best practices and leading institutions.

Dialogs in Green: Creating a Climate of Sustainability, Community, and Diversity at Colorado State University.

What is a climate of sustainability for a land grant institution's campus? Colorado State University is a land grant institution of 24,000 students located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. To create a sustainable climate at a campus in a landscape of mountains, plains, and urban corridors, we must incorporate the role of natural resources as a way of life for its inhabitants as recreation, social outings, and community outreach are combined with environmental justice, ecological health, and economic stability. This region is also reflective of the rapidly changing demography typical of many western states and thus would be reflective of the global classroom our students will need to excel in. Dialogs in Green is a new initiative within the Warner College of Natural Resources that incorporates students, communities, stakeholders, faculty, federal researchers, and staff in every aspect of collaborative conservation and sustainability. We define community as inclusive of minority and other cultures with differing relationships with the environment. Yet these same communities are disproportionately impacted by environmental degradation. We explore sustainability as including collaboration within and among those communities. Our goal is establish internships, community action teams, and research agendas that bring leading researchers in climate change, ecosystem modeling, and international ecology together with the rapidly changing Colorado communities to train the next generation of land stewards. Here we describe our first steps in changing the culture of Warner to become a leader in sustainability among diverse communities in Colorado, the US and the world.

District Approach to Campus Stormwater Management

As part of a precinct master plan commissioned by Virginia Tech, SmithGroup/JJR developed a district storm water management plan utilizing principles of sustainable design to maintain, or reduce, current levels of discharge into existing storm water systems. In an attempt to mimic pre-development conditions, this integrated approach utilized existing topography and vegetation to connect a series of bio-retention cells rendered as rain gardens. These cells have the capacity to manage the predicted storm water run-off from approximately 600k sf of proposed campus development, and ultimately discharge into in a restored wetland. Additional design complexity resulted from campus geology, water soluble karst limestone, which prevents substantial discharge of water to grade. As a result, the cells require impermeable liners, and achieve bio-retention and water quality improvements through extensive evapotranspiration.

SmithGroup/JJR are also planning the first building in the newly designated research precinct, and the adjacent rain gardens have become an opportunity for technology transfer: filter fabrics developed by engineers at the University will be incorporated into swale and cell construction, showcasing institutional commitment to sustainability.

The presentation will address the operational and environmental benefits of integrated storm water management using the Virginia Tech effort as a case study.

Doing Local Environmental History: Developing a Sense of Place and Ecological Citizenship

Since the fall of 2005 a special partnership has been nurtured between the History of American Environmental Thought course and The History Center in Tompkins County (NY). Working in teams the students in this course develop a research question about local environmental history and then use the archives of the History Center to refine and answer that question. The students are participating in a service-learning partnership with this important community institution by helping the History Center identify elements of their collection for a future exhibit on local environmental history. At the same time they are not only learning research skills and reinforcing the broader themes of U.S. environmental history we explore in class but also developing genuine new affinities for the community they call home for four years. The project has led to more enduring learning and has helped the students locate themselves on a temporal and spatial landscape of environmental change. This presentation will both elaborate on the design of this learning experience and reflect on the learning outcomes using evidence from student papers. Students will briefly explain their own projects and the impact the experience had on their ideas about sustainability. Experience demonstrates the power of student research in a humanities course to promote sustainability in higher education, to expand the reach of colleges and universities into the community, and to help both students and community members put environmental change in historical context.

Double Dipping: Combining Research and Outreach in a Sustainability Service Learning Project

Students in an introductory environmental science course for non-majors participated in a service learning project for Earth Day 2008 that combined outreach to fellow students and data collection for research projects. For example, in one research project the students set up a booth to determine if people could taste the difference between tap and bottled water; at the conclusion of the taste test, study participants were given a reusable water bottle stuffed with an informational flyer on the environmental impact of bottled water. Other studies involved determining the turnover time and method of disposal of cell phones and calculating the greenhouse gas emissions from commutes to campus. The activity exposed students to experimental design, data analysis, computer graphing, and other aspects of quantitative literacy, while also teaching them about the environmental issues and giving them experience in peer education and public speaking. Students evaluated the activity positively; it is presented here as an example of a sustainability service learning project.

EcoBox - Think Outside it - then Build Inside it, Next to it, and On Top of it.

Many of the technologies needed to create sustainable environments are neither new nor difficult, but you just have to use them. This presentation will start with the premise of having a small single-room structure (i.e. a 40' cargo container) with the goal of modifying it to be a livable workable space incorporating the best and easiest elements of sustainable design. This presentation will begin with an explanation of the ecobox project under development at Central Piedmont Community College, and then proceed to explore how to turn this space into an integrated sustainable system.  

Ecocritical Praxis: Re-establishing the "Principle of Relevance"

The term "ecocriticism" was coined by William Reuckert, who proposed, in 1976, that literary criticism shift its locus to "a principle of relevance": he suggested that critics "experiment with the application of ecology and ecological concepts to the study of literature, because ecology [...] has the greatest relevance to the present and the future of the world we all live in." Thus, what is crucial as we consider questions of ecocritical theory is that we examine what we are reading or what we are writing with respect to what should be our overriding concern—To whom are we speaking? If, in fact, we are speaking only to each other, then we are failing in the critical impulse to which we have dedicated ourselves.

I am not arguing against a more sophisticated theoretical focus for ecocriticism; rather, I would simply like to suggest that any attempt to construct an ecocritical theoretical perspective should be undertaken in the context of our larger goal: "relevance" from the perspective of the desert or the ocean rather than the ivory tower. I will consider some pertinent questions: (How) Are we sharing what we are learning with those outside of academia, particularly our students? What would a "sustainable" pedagogy look like?

As a partial response, I will suggest some specific, positive outcomes of teaching and researching women's literatures of sustainability. I will also provide points of entry into an exemplary text, Toni Morrison's Beloved, by contextualizing its pedagogical possibilities for multiple disciplines.

Economics and Sustainability: Using the Campus and Community as a Laboratory

Economics is not always at the center of sustainability discussions, but it is an essential consideration as universities and communities transition from discussion to policy formation. The answers to questions about the economics of sustainability on the Furman campus and in the Greenville Community are seldom simple, often elusive, and sometimes unpopular, but through various curricular and co-curricular opportunities, Furman students have been able to provide important supporting evidence that can inform sustainability policy. At the university level, students have studied the costs and benefits of distributing dryer racks and compact florescent bulbs to fellow students, automobile restrictions for first year students, campus enviro-bike programs, and the conversion of campus vehicles to alternative fuels. At the community level students conducted a fiscal impact analysis of a new housing development to see whether a local environmental advocacy group could use the fiscal evidence to oppose a development that they believed to be environmentally unsound. They conducted studies to determine the extent to which area residents value cleaner water in local rivers and streams. Through these and other activities, students learn about the challenges associated with conducting real-world economic analyses in a complex environment, the importance of understanding the research question from political, scientific, and economic perspectives, the ways in which the purpose of the research can affect the questions that are asked and the manner in which the answers are communicated, and the exhilaration that derives from conducting research that may influence local policies.

Ecosystem Restoration on a Suburban Campus

The University of Toronto Mississauga is bound by three sides with the Credit River and a residential area bounds the forth side. In 2003 the campus committed to doubling its undergraduate enrollment over five years to 11,000 students. By expanding a population so close to an ecologically sensitive area it was essential that future development tread lightly on natural land. In 2003 a partnership was struck with a Canadian non-profit, Evergreen, who's mandate is to 'Bring Nature to Cities'. The campus governing council approves projects brought forward by the naturalization and stewardship committee and work is undertaken by community members and volunteers. Since 2003 close to two thousand trees have been planted each year, species at risk have been identified and are protected with academic and grant support, and an oak savanna site has undergone a prescribed burn. Over the last five years the campus population doubled, and one parking lot was replaced with a wetland. 14,000 square meters of the campus was reclaimed to serve as renaturalized research space from former turf cover. Now with the campus booming with a population that has doubled the ecosystem has never been healthier. This presentation will discuss some of the academic research that has contributed to in situ campus restoration projects.

Ecotrail Design: Integrating Art, Nature and Sustainability

In an interdisciplinary collaboration between a biologist and artist/designer at Daemen College, we have initiated a multi-year project to engage students in environmental science through the creation of a campus outdoor education area. Our goals for the Ecotrail are to educate students on ecological design through its creation, but also create a space where the campus community can appreciate art, environmental issues and natural history. The Ecotrail has been designed to include interpretative signage, but also demonstrate sustainable principles such as through its use of recycled materials and creation of a living roof on the storage shed. The ongoing project involves students in creative problem-solving as they research effective practices at other sites and modify them to fit our needs and budget. Students have learned about decomposers and composting, native and invasive species, utilization of brush piles by birds and other wildlife, issues of soil compaction and stream flow dynamics and erosion. Two pre-post assessments have been utilized to measure changes in students' environmental impact behaviors and their perceived comfort in different environments. Student responses suggested significant changes in reducing their personal environmental impact (p<0.001, n=63). Reflective essays written by the students have provided insight into connections that students made between hands-on activities, their impact in their daily life and their appreciation of their natural environment. As faculty, we have had to adjust our teaching to allow for the less structured format of this learning experience; however, we have been rewarded by student engagement in the project.

Ecovillages and Campuses: The Potential of Collaboration for Sustainability Research and Education

Universities are increasingly looked to as centers of research on and education about sustainable solutions to socio-environmental challenges. However, theoretical and experimental approaches to sustainability do not easily translate from desk or laboratory to real world contexts. At the same time, it is difficult to translate holistic solutions from abstract concepts presented in the classroom into the practical activities of daily living. This presentation will explore the potential for establishing collaborative relationships between universities and the growing, global movement of ecovillages and sustainability-oriented intentional communities in order to make this process of translation more feasible and real. Ecovillages and sustainability-oriented intentional communities have grown increasingly ubiquitous since the mid-1990s with hundreds listed in movement-based databases. Because many of these communities are located near college campuses and because they often portray themselves as natural laboratories and demonstration centers within which various experiments in sustainable living take place, they present unique opportunities to conduct research on sustainable lifestyles and to expose students to the promises and pitfalls of community organizing for sustainable living. This presentation will provide an overview of the movement and of the kinds of ecovillage initiatives that present research and educational opportunities. It will also consider some existing ecovillage-campus collaborations that can serve as learning models for creating future collaborations. The perspective provided is based on the author's ongoing research program, his anticipated Fellowship with the Research Group on Lifestyles, Values and Environment at the University of Surrey during summer 2008, and his fall 2008 freshmen seminar on ecovillages.

Educating the Building Technician Workforce for Sustainability

The lack of qualified HVAC technicians and building operators trained in energy efficient installation and maintenance practices currently presents one of the greatest barriers to meeting campus, local, State, and regional climate change policies. Supported by a National Science Foundation Grant, Laney College's Environmental Control Technology program has deepened and broadened its HVAC curriculum to integrate essential knowledge and skills in best energy management practices, HVAC troubleshooting and commissioning for energy efficiency, and optimizing building automation systems. Graduates have the opportunity to succeed in a rapidly changing high-wage, high-growth sector. An inner-city community college, Laney is actively participating in the regional green-collar jobs network and partnering with both two-year and four-year institutions for program dissemination and development. Presenters will share student, faculty, and industry stories and explore opportunities for national collaboration.

Education for Ecocultural Sustainability: ENVS 410 The Campus as a Living, Learning Laboratory

This paper reports on the details of a remarkable, seven-year curriculum experiment directed at learning how to see and understand our campus as an ecocultural system. Taking a systems-oriented, action research case study approach, and drawing on the social learning for sustainability literature, we use the campus and its environmental/sustainability management systems as a living, learning laboratory. The course goals are threefold. We employ an open-minded, co-learning strategy to identify: (1) significant "problems"—campus practices and policies that are currently unsustainable (2) opportunities for improvement, and (3) strategies for change—collaborative research, reports, analyses, surveys, media events, teach-ins, dialogue, presentations, etc. Our "end-goal" is to create highly professional reports that can both be delivered to the appropriate campus decision maker(s) and be used to craft new and improved campus policies and practices (or facilitate the implementation of existing, more sustainable policies and practices). At the end of the semester, students present their findings to the WMU President, which characteristically leads to lively and dynamic conversation, and, quite frequently, has set the stage for import changes in campus practice and policy. In this paper we report on the results one large scale, multi-year, multi-team project to reduce campus food waste, which involves a comprehensive campus food waste audit, a trayless elimination pilot, a strategy to cost-efficiently remove food waste from the campus's wastewater stream (that also results in a significant reduction in campus ghg emissions), and a comprehensive, nationwide review and assessment of the full range of campus composting project options.

Education for Sustainability and Designing for Significant Learning

Sustainability education and the design of significant learning experiences share fundamental principles of course design. Our presentation describes an integrated faculty workshop that is part of the Finger Lakes Project and the Center for Faculty Development at Ithaca College. The workshop provides resources on course design and enables participants to begin to frame their own designs.

Faculty support for design of learning objectives, assessments, and activities is generally provided by institutional centers for teaching and learning whereas sustainability education has often been content-driven, helping faculty members integrate new concepts and information into their courses. Models for designing courses in higher education (e.g. Fink, 2003) employ principles of backward course design, beginning with objectives for long-term learning and activities that prepare students for assessments. Models for education in sustainability (e.g. The Cloud Institute) are primarily oriented to the K-12 context.

We aim to integrate these approaches such that sustainability education involves not only new content, but also incorporates models of effective pedagogy that reflect sustainability as a process and way of thinking. The presentation is designed for faculty planning to integrate sustainability issues into courses and also faculty generally interested in course design. The context is our mid-size, undergraduate-oriented, comprehensive college; and we are a faculty development professional and a sustainability education specialist. Our presentation will include our design and resources, and will involve participants in a very brief interactive exercise.

Education Revolution: Empowering the Next Generation of Sustainable Designers

Across the country, our nation's colleges and universities are leading the charge for sustainability - but are we really training the next generation of architects to be sustainable designers? How are our nation's architecture schools approaching a broad based curriculum for sustainable design? Is there a common approach to teaching sustainable design principles? And what is the best way for students to address sustainable issues in professional practice?

Through a survey of, and discussion with, some of the top architecture programs in the country including Syracuse University, Columbia University, Princeton University, Harvard University, Philadelphia University, New York Institute of Technology and New Jersey Institute of Technology, presenters will share their findings and address these issues.

Preliminary results show that U.S. schools employ a variety of approaches, some based on a lecture format and some through a studio format or through a series of design exercises. In addition, we will explore potential lessons to be learned from other architecture schools in the U.K. and the Far East, and discuss how an integrated design approach, which implies a high level of teamwork and collaboration, requires new teaching methods beyond the classical architectural model of the individual working alone on a design problem. The presentation will detail findings and ideas for both architecture and education professionals to be most effective.

Educators as Architects of Living Systems

Imagine a learning community as a wetland or a forest. Imagine a group of learners as a highly interdependent community, a vibrant living system not unlike an ecosystem in nature. What gives a learning community a quality of a living experience? How can educators become facilitators for this vital quality?

This presentation will introduce an educational framework of designing and facilitating learning experiences (courses, workshops, conferences) as an organic whole, a living system that mimics patterns and processes of nature. The framework integrates expressive and relational ways of knowing that awaken vitality in learner-participants and the group as a whole. Learning content, process, and environment reinforce each other and deepen learners' understanding of sustainability principles and practices. This learning experience design helps develop capacities in learner-participants to nurture a felt sensation of engagement, which is essential for sustaining change-makers in difficult times.

Research presented here draws from ecology, living systems theory, transformative learning pedagogy, and the presenter's own experience teaching and participating in holistic learning experiences for sustainability.

Effects of Education and Program Improvements on Garbage Disposal and Recycling Quantities

The project involved year long monitoring of dumpsters and recycling stations on the Lenoir-Rhyne College campus. A scale was drawn on each of these stations denoting measurements of height which were then used in conjunction with the known measurements of width and depth, resulting in an accumulated volume (cm3) of garbage or recyclables. The volume was then used to estimate the total pounds of garbage or recycling generated per day. Dumpsters and recycling centers were monitored daily for total accumulation of materials; these figures were then used to make the aforementioned calculations. After six months of monitoring, improvements were made to the on campus recycling program; garbage and recycling monitoring continued as before. A recycling campaign began at the start of the Fall 2008 semester, attempting to raise awareness and participation in the on campus recycling program. After the improvements and campaign were implemented, data was analyzed for changes in the patterns in garbage and recycling accumulation.

Embracing Sustainability in the Campus Planning Process

American colleges and universities have grown significantly over the past 50 years and analysis of current data and trends suggests this pattern will continue for some time in the future. Institutions of higher education often own substantial land areas and have discretionary control to determine how their land is developed. Most often these institutions are also charged with the operation and maintenance of this property. Simply put, this sector has the potential and the responsibility to manage the environmental impact of its growth.

Over the past decade, our society has become more aware of environmental issues associated with the design and subsequent operation of buildings. Colleges and universities are increasingly interested in socially responsible institutional behavior, including the use of smart growth principles to guide expansion and development. Today sustainable planning concepts are often the foundation for a campus plan. However, it has become increasingly important to integrate specific design elements into the process.

This interactive workshop session will focus on three campus master plans – Emory University, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and University of Rochester - exploring specific measures to mitigate the impact of growth by addressing such issues as:

• optimal land use patterns
• respect of natural landscape features
• compact and walkable campuses
• infill versus sprawl
• adaptive reuse of buildings
• transportation demand management initiatives
• water conservation and stormwater management
• collaboration with neighboring communities

Empowering Students to Create a Sustainable Future: The Role of Higher Education.

If colleges and universities are serious about empowering students to tackle the greatest challenges of our time, we must promote environmental literacy and responsibility and provide frequent opportunities for students to participate in sustainability initiatives. Successful efforts will extend to students in all fields and remain a priority from freshman orientation through commencement. We invite participants to share their experiences with formal and informal strategies for engaging students in campus and community sustainability work. Specific strategies may include research and internships, service-learning projects, student pledges, eco-reps, eco-housing, and support for political activism.

Enacting Sustainable Initiatives on Campus

Environmental responsibility is embedded in our way of life and work – come find out how! Join us for an indepth look at sustainability through the lens of four issues: (1) industry response: what national organizations and initiatives are doing, (2) case studies: proven examples to reduce the bottom line, (3) green operations: take home strategies to make an immediate impact, and (4) sustainability retrofit: a look at the Appalachian State University's sustainability program.

Energy Efficiency by Design in Parking on Campus at University of Colorado Boulder

When considering ways to save energy on campus, parking structures are an excellent place to start. Parking garages are a necessary evil. Although creative transportation options are emerging, there continues to be a need to design, build, and operate parking facilities. In a campus environment this means assuring that they are well maintained, well lit (typically 24/7), and secure. University of Colorado at Boulder addresses these issues in a sustainable way and is leading the way to maximizing energy efficiency, reducing operating costs, and enhancing security all with improved lighting design and simple lighting upgrades.

This presentation will provide an overview of University of Colorado's project, how their energy bills have dropped by almost 50% and how many carbon emissions they are now offsetting.

Energy Future Game

This poster will present the Energy Future Game. This game is a simple spreadsheet where the student's goal is to fill in the energy future of the United States.* Students fill out the amount of energy and the specific sources that the US will use in the next 100 years. As they complete the worksheet they need to answer such questions as:

What are the minimum and maximum energy per capita and how does that affect the standard of living?

What is the cost of increasing the use of renewable energy as a source?

Should we drill for more oil and gas in the US (offshore, wildlife refuges, etc.)?

What are the consciences of increased use of coal?

How does population growth affect your results?

How much dependence on foreign supplies of crude oil and natural gas will be used?

The spreadsheet shows both numeric and graphical representation of the energy future that the students develop. This activity lends itself nicely into class discussions, group work, writing assignments, and civic engagement exercises.

*Game originally designed by Pat Keef, Clatsop Community College and Gregory Mulder, Linn-Benton Community College.

Energy Independence/ Carbon Neutral

The Los Angeles Community College District's $2.2 billion program for new construction and modernization incorporates a plan to enhance existing non-fossil fuel self-generation resources and building new green, renewable energy products on all nine campuses. This includes installation of solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, hydrogen fuel and storage technologies.  The District is working toward providing enough energy to meet day and evening needs of the colleges in order to become "climate neutral" and "energy independent." Join this workshop to learn how to incorporate these concepts within your campus.

Energy Markets 101: Everything a Sustainability Officer Needs to Know

Energy market costs and volatility pose both a threat and an opportunity for advancing sustainability initiatives in the higher education market. Reducing energy consumption has the greatest immediate and long-term impact on an institution's carbon footprint. This presentation will provide sustainability officers the necessary understanding of how rate structures and the dynamic nature of energy prices affects sustainability budgets and will offer different strategies to manage associated risks. Topics will include demand vs consumption, price volatility, utility rates, savings vs avoided costs, purchasing green power, and understanding the emerging carbon market.

Attendees will leave this presentation with a solid understanding of energy market fundamentals and their effects on the feasibility of energy efficiency projects. This will enable sustainability officers to develop strategies to advance their institution's sustainability initiatives even with the uncertainties of the energy market.

Energy Master Plans - From Here to a Zero Carbon Footprint

The ACUPCC has generated a keen interest in colleges and universities to move toward a zero carbon footprint. An Energy Master Plan (EMP) is essential to facilitate a successful carbon commitment.

EMPs are comprehensive plans for whole facilities. Typical EMP end goals are net zero energy use, a 65% maintenance reduction and return to preventive maintenance, while dramatically improving occupant comfort and productivity. EMPs also form a pre-design document for future new building and remodeling projects, facilitating design charrettes by providing sustainable goals, objectives and the integrated strategies to achieve them. When an EMP is dovetailed with a Facility Master Plan it provides a comprehensive sustainability plan for a facility.

This presentation will develop procedures and strategies for planning, developing and sustaining a net zero carbon footprint for whole facilities. We will define parameters that a sustainable, high performance facility should attain, and explain how to achieve them through comprehensive design strategies.

Sustaining the results is imperative, so whole life cycle performance and maintainability is a constant theme throughout. Strategies include developing adaptable and expandable systems to double system life cycle and reduce remodeling costs by over 50%. Energy strategies involve drastically reducing energy use, and adaptability to renewable energy systems. Planning can move facilities to net zero energy use within 20 years. High performance strategies will optimize comfort conditions to maximize productivity. Integration design strategies, computer simulation and information modeling strategies will be discussed as an essential part of design and operation solutions.

Engaging Staff in Campus Sustainability

Traditionally, students have been the advocates for and initiators of environmental actions on college and university campuses. Increasingly however, staff members are engaging in the challenge of reducing the environmental impact of the institution. Whether it is participating in established and structured programs, contributing via a sustainability committee or by initiating grassroots action, college and university staff are seeking ways to contribute to campus sustainability.

This presentation will explore, compare and contrast the varying levels of, and opportunities for, staff participation in campus sustainability initiatives.

Engaging Students in Campus Sustainability Initiatives through Innovative Courses

Universities that strive to make their campuses more sustainable face challenges of curriculum reform and engaging their students in sustainability initiatives. At Loyola University Chicago (LUC), we are meeting both challenges through the Solutions to Environmental Problems (STEP) courses. STEP courses explore environmental issues from a variety of perspectives and give students from across disciplines opportunities to address these issues. For example, in fall 2007 and spring 2008, STEP: Biodiesel students learned about global climate change through lectures by faculty representing twelve departments across campus. The students addressed this problem by building and staffing the LUC Biodiesel Laboratory, a facility that produces biodiesel, a low-emissions and renewable fuel, from waste vegetable oil generated by LUC cafeterias. STEP courses are student led; students determine how they will address their problem through group projects and suggest sustainability initiatives for future STEP courses to address. The course appears to be successful. STEP: Biodiesel students produced nearly 500 gallons of biodiesel. Their group projects have included conducting scientific research aiming to improve our biodiesel production process, analyzing the feasibility of distributing LUC biodiesel locally to families needing home heating oil, and bringing biodiesel education to local high schools. Ninety percent of our evaluations were positive and students often mention engagement in an authentic environmental problem as improving their dedication to the course. We are currently designing our next STEP courses, which will focus on sustainable agriculture and improving campus food purchasing, while working to ensure that STEP becomes part of LUCs core curriculum.

Engaging Students in Sustainable Design Through Community-Based Learning

The preparation of students for advanced design of high performance buildings through an integrative interdisciplinary approach should allow them to ground theory and principles in applied projects. New and existing buildings on campus and in the nearby community provide excellent learning opportunities. This presentation will engage participants in a discussion of classroom interactions and projects that can be most effective in advancing the skills and capacities of students.

Successful courses require teaching some theory, a systems approach and the use of tools that require students to be rigorous and analytical and understand how to change mindsets in firms and clients.

This presentation will review the resources and case studies that are available to promote the understanding of technology, design processes, and the construction and commissioning processes in building.

Environmental Sustainability Cluster Course: Initiating Multidisciplinary Perspectives, Engaging Community, and Supporting Facilities Management

In the spring of 2008, the first environmental sustainability course offered at the University of Missouri Kansas City was a cluster course. Cluster courses are upper level, interdisciplinary, general education courses required for all Arts and Science majors. The courses require at least two faculty from different departments or fields providing differing perspectives on a topic. The course was designed to present and challenge students on the meaning and application of sustainability on multiple scales and across multiple communities. The course received double the normal enrollment (80 students), and included a broad spectrum of majors. To live up to its sustainability objectives, the course was paperless. An E-Portfolio system allowed students and faculty to exchange weekly written products and receive feedback without printing paper copies. Students were exposed to broad range of speakers and academic readings around ecology, urban planning, health impacts, environmental justice, and water issues. A major course component was developing and completing a community engagement project. Projects ranged from engagement through public art, assessment and education for several area schools, recycling in prison, engaging local businesses, and analysis of electric rail for the city. In addition, students also engaged university sustainability by assisting the facilities management office with several campus assessments of energy use and carbon footprint. The course held an Environmental Sustainability Forum at the end of the semester, on Earth Day, which further engaged university faculty and administrators on the topic, and initiated a campus wide discussion of sustainability.

Envisioning Ecologically Sustainable Universities: A Holistic View

The campus sustainability movement has made remarkable progress in bringing sustainability to the forefront of university agendas, with respect to both campus operations and curricula. These efforts are now extending beyond the campus. We believe that universities are perhaps uniquely positioned to facilitate sustainability in the broader society. Doing so can be advanced if we take a holistic perspective of what it means for a university to become an ecologically sustainable organization (ESO).

We have developed a framework – which has primarily been applied to business organizations – that suggests how organizations can become ESOs. We believe it has significant utility for both grounding and broadening the vision of what universities need to do to become sustainable, and how they can contribute to the creation of more sustainable societies.

The framework suggests that to become and remain sustainable organizations must interact with entities at five different levels of analysis: ecological, individual, organizational, political-economic, and social-cultural. Most organizations have focused on the ecological and organizational levels, with some attention to the individual level; far less attention has been given to the political-economic and social-cultural. Yet attention to these levels is also critical to create the conditions that facilitate rather than hinder sustainable activity. Our presentation will explain this framework and its implications for universities and colleges, including future directions it suggests for the campus sustainability movement.

Establishing a Bike Co-op: Case Study

This presentation will give a detailed account about a two and a half year struggle with the University Administration to create an institutional space on Truman's campus to devote to a community bike shop. The presentation will discuss the strategies, lessons learned, and collaboration that made this student-led initiative become a reality.

Truman is located in rural Missouri, in a town with few resources to support cycling, though the potential for a cycling community is huge. With no bike shop within 75-90 miles, few racks outside of the college campus, and many of the racks exposed to the elements, there were plenty of opportunities to damage and neglect bikes, but few to restore them. In addition to a large college population, there are also staggering numbers of people living below the poverty line, 30.6% in 1999, almost double the state's average. From these needs, the project was envisioned, developed, and established. Within the first month of operation, over 100 members joined the co-op. We hope to train as many mechanics as possible to ensure ample open hours and smooth operations for the community in Fall 2008.

The mission of the Bike Co-op reads: The Kirksville Bike Co-op is a service and educational organization committed to community involvement through cultivating the development, use, and promotion of sustainable transportation. The keystone of our service hinges on providing a space where bike culture and knowledge is facilitated through both independent experimentation and collaborative hands-on discovery in a safe, supportive learning environment.

Establishing Carbon Offsets for Univerities through Tree Planting in Rural Africa

In February of 2008, a representative of The International Small Group & Tree Planting Program (TIST), gave a presentation at Northern Arizona University outlining the function and methods used by his organization to aid corporations in attaining carbon offsets by planting trees in Africa. This unique program pays farmers to plant trees on degraded land, map their mini-plantations using GPS readings from palm-pilots, and receive payments accordingly. By empowering rural communities, small groups of farmers have found a new source of income and an effective way to combat desertification while institutions have found an ethical way to mitigate carbon pollution.

The goal of this sustainability project is to use TIST as a model to initiate a similar program run by NAU for the purpose of helping the university meet its American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment goal of being carbon neural by 2020.

The School of Forestry already has extensive tree planting projects established in Ghana, West Africa. NAU will expand the function of this research operation to also provide the university with ethical carbon sequestration offsets.

By enhancing an existing School of Forestry program, NAU has the opportunity to help meet its commitment to carbon neutrality at the same time that it aids impoverished African citizens. If this example proves successful, NAU could serve as a model for universities across the U.S. as they consider their own carbon footprint.

This presentation will focus on how the university is creating this program and where we are with the project.

Evaluating Fieldwork for Undergraduate Sustainability Education

Many undergraduate instructors consider fieldwork as central to courses in sustainability and environmental studies. Common goals of fieldwork include the development of general and subject-specific skills, opportunity for experiential and community service learning, development of concern for the local environment, clarification of textbook knowledge, integration of compartmentalized knowledge, and the development of tacit or intuitive knowledge.

Nevertheless, the amount of fieldwork in teaching in North America has declined steadily. There are many reasons for this reduction, including increased travel costs, reduced funding, larger class sizes, reduced interest of teaching faculty, loss of field skills, increased availability of indoor lab experiments, heightened safety concerns, lengthy approval requirements, and growing concerns about the value of fieldwork experiences.

Even if these constraints are overcome, effective learning cannot be expected just because we take students into the field. The value of fieldwork is largely assumed and poorly evaluated. There are many dynamics of fieldwork to consider, such as instructors' and students' perceptions, comparative teaching approaches, and pre- and post-trip supporting activities. Attempts to re-design fieldwork in courses should consider current theory, research evidence, benefits and costs of various options, and each institution's milieu. Finally, fieldwork evaluation should be ongoing, building on past research. The goal of this presentation is to explore the role, value, and possibilities of fieldwork teaching in environmental studies in the context of a liberal arts and sciences institution that stresses interdisciplinarity.

Evaluation of Campus Commitments in DOE Humid Zones

Rising energy prices emphasize the need for campuses to address sustainable practices. This study evaluated colleges and universities with over 10,000 students in the Department of Energy (DOE) "Hot and Humid" and "Mixed Humid" climate zones, covering approximately 21 states and two hundred and thirty-six universities. Each university was assessed based on development of a 1) master plan, 2) transit plan, and 3) greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction plan. Transit plans and GHG reduction plans are critical components in developing a strategic sustainability plan. Campuses were also evaluated as to their participation in AASHE and ACUPCC.

Of the 105 universities in the "Hot and Humid" climate zone, only 5 had developed a master plan, transit plan, and a GHG plan. Of the three categories, campuses are more likely to have developed a master plan, and the least likely to have developed a GHG reduction plan. 43 of the Hot and Humid universities have not developed any of the three plans. 25 of these universities are members of AASHE, and 18 are signatories of ACUPCC, while analysis of the remaining 133 universities is on-going.

The university community is arguably the most up-to-date on the studies looking at climate change. Classes, discussions, and presentations about climate change can be found at virtually all of these universities. This poster overviews the results from this study and indicates that opportunities exist for further integration of sustainability concepts into campus operations in the southeast United States.

Everybody Counts! Students as Citizen Scientists: Teaching Sustainability at Seneca College, King Campus, Ontario, Canada

Today's environmental issues are more complex than ever before. The need to contribute to global solutions has empowered the individual in every home and in every community. Citizen Science celebrates the idea that this planet belongs to all of us, and that everyone counts towards its recovery. Volunteers with no specific scientific training are out there right now observing, measuring, and counting everything from birds to frogs, creating an army of Citizen Scientists who aid research in the pursuit of environmental solutions.

Seneca College, King Campus is a northern polytechnic campus that sits on 700 acres of provincially significant land known as the Oak Ridges Moraine. It's an immense outdoor classroom providing natural science students with endless opportunities to study flora, fauna and watershed science. In the fall of 2007, a pilot project began that asked the question – why only natural science students? The project challenged students in all diploma areas to step outside their programs (and their physical classroom), to learn about the natural environment of their campus and help contribute to campus monitoring programs as Citizen Scientists through General Education course offerings.

Together, we'll look at the results of case studies conducted over the last year, which indicate a surprising shift in personal values and mindset among students, and the development of a new appreciation for the challenges facing the natural environment (loss of biodiversity and failing ecosystems).

Everyone Eats at This Table: Explorations of Ecoliteracy and Environmental Justice at the University of North Carolina, Pembroke

Taking the necessity of developing sustainability curriculum at North American educational institutions as a given, how do faculty who have never taught this curriculum go about creating meaningful courses? How do faculty work toward "sustainability" not only as academic content, but as a feature of their professional relationships with colleagues from who they require support? And how do students who have never taken such courses, many of whom are new to the language and concepts of sustainability, respond to this curriculum? Are students receiving the messages that enthusiastic faculty intend to deliver?

This presentation will discuss the undergraduate course "Literatures of Ecoliteracy and Environmental Justice," the first course to explicitly address issues of ecoliteracy, environmental justice, and sustainability in the history of The University of North Carolina at Pembroke. UNCP student participants will discuss their reasons for taking the course; their interest in sustainability curriculum and issues of environmental justice both before the course and currently; and their perceptions of how the course is delivering meaningful learning outcomes that will allow them to expand their knowledge into particular major, career, and life choices. All participants in this presentation will offer their ideas about how they believe UNCP can become a regional partner with the local community and the larger Southeast region to develop increased sustainability projects and ecological literacy awareness.

Experiential Learning: UNC's Business Accelerator for Sustainable Entrepreneurship (BASE)

The new Business Accelerator for Sustainable Entrepreneurship (BASE) at the University of North Carolina provides an innovative experiential learning opportunity for students to work directly with sustainably-oriented businesses. BASE is the first North Carolina accelerator designed specifically to support businesses that address the triple bottom line—financial profitability, social equity and environmental sustainability—and gives students a unique opportunity to see firsthand how environmental and social considerations can be integrated into business operations. Over time, BASE will also serve as a living laboratory for faculty and students to research topics like sustainability metrics and measurement, supply chain management, and product development/marketing with BASE entrepreneurs.

This presentation will examine the UNC BASE program as an experiential learning model for other universities. Audience members will hear from program staff, faculty, and entrepreneurs who have participated in the program to date. Key questions will focus on the operational model for BASE, desired learning and research outcomes, success metrics, and administration of this interdisciplinary university program.

Exploring New Terrain in Business Education: Bringing Sustainability to Ground Level

Sustainable business, as an emerging field of study, explores new approaches to commerce and business practices. Its focus on commerce departs from the linear "heat, beat, and treat" structure of the current industrial system toward a logic which recognizes the ecological value of natural resources while reassessing social meanings of (and how we value) "prosperity."

One of the key questions for the developing field of business/management education and scholarship is how to effectively "teach" the thinking and develop the skills that will transform our current system of commerce toward models which restore ecosystems, build healthy communities and assure prosperity--the "triple top line" as described by McDonough and Braungart in Cradle to Cradle. This presentation explores some of the questions posed by the business sector's embrace of sustainability and looks at the strengths and weaknesses of emerging "sustainable business" models, theories and pedagogy. It also examines how these models align with changing demands on higher education as we prepare a new generation of business professionals grounded in sustainability. The presentation will incorporate experiences teaching in the country's first Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Business program at Aquinas College, which is both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary in its approach.

Expressions of an Environmental Framework: Campus as an Arboretum

As universities and colleges expand at a record pace, they are also increasingly expected to be models of sustainable development. Henceforth, the expression of a tangible campus environmental framework and a "green" ground plane becomes ever more pertinent.

The formal designation of such an environmental framework recognizes the ecological, natural and cultural resource values contributed by the lands owned or managed by the institution. It re-affirms the institution's commitment to protecting and restoring the healthy functioning of its natural systems. It provides guidance for long-term future land uses and offers the mechanism to evaluate and balance divergent priorities. Designation of an environmental framework also draws attention to resource constraints and enables the development of shared principles to address complex environmental choices.

Select institutions nationally have advanced this complex but critical exercise. While the nomenclature and articulation on the campus landscape has varied, the general theme of conscientiously preserving natural assets on campus lands has stayed consistent. A range of examples from different institutions the presenters have worked at are explored, followed by a detailed discussion of the University of Georgia's (UGA) approach to designating its entire campus as an arboretum.

At UGA, rather than designating a specific area to be the campus arboretum, the entire campus, encompassing all of its three distinct areas was declared an arboretum. This not only insures sustained, energetic tree planting and maintenance, but also presents opportunities for studying trees campus-wide as an integral part of the academic experience and reinforces institutional commitment to environmental stewardship.

Field Documentation and Survey of Bamboo Structures

Development of sustainable construction materials is growing, with research and construction being initiated worldwide. Structural applications of indigenous material resources such as bamboo are an integral part of sustainable development. The use of natural materials for construction, however, is limited to cultural-based traditions with little or no standardization. To develop sustainable construction materials, in both an engineering and cultural sense, one must evaluate the traditional building techniques in terms of engineering standards and develop equivalent design methods to assess and improve structural performance.

This paper reports interdisciplinary research, as well as international collaboration and opportunities for students and academic professionals in the hill regions of northeast India. The project contains multiple opportunities to advance the field of sustainability. The research team collaborated with Sustainable Hill Environment Design (SHED), an NGO, to explore issues of sustainability and hazard mitigation in the hill region surrounding Darjeeling, India. The research concentrates on the vulnerability assessment of existing bamboo structures, as well as the development of international collaboration and future service learning opportunities focused on sustainable design and technology transfer in the engineering field. The interdisciplinary research team collected data by surveying existing bamboo structures and observing demonstrations of traditional building methods. Further experience was gained through workshops on bamboo construction and sustainable development. The research will be reported to the EERI World Housing Encyclopedia which presently lacks information on marginally and non-engineered structures of this type.

Field Report on The University of Oklahoma Sustainability and Green Initiatives and Actions

"Green" activity at OU has increased significantly over the past two years. A great deal of this is due to the structure that AASHE has provided as well as recent initiatives in which AASHE has partnered. OU has participated in the Campus Climate Challenge and Focus the Nation and President Boren has signed the ACUPCC. As a result of these activities, OU's Food Services is expanding organic, vegetarian and local food options, begun using biodegradable plateware and utensils; Information Technology has launched a Greening Initiative that includes setting all computer lab printers to double-sided printing as a default; OU Printing Services also has a Greening Initiative focusing on recycled paper and environmentalaly friently inks; the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is going for LEED certification for an existing building; other initiatives are in formative stages.

In addition, the Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Environment Program (IPE) has a standing offer to send the first facaulty member from any department to the Leadership Training workshops for Infusing Sustainability Across the Curriculum. To Date three faculty have attended.

While this amount of change is exciting, we still have a long way to go. The presentation will provide an update on where OU is, how far it has come and where it needs to go.

Fiscal Year 2008 Greenhouse Gas Inventory for Cornell University

Cornell University has been reporting GHG emissions associated with Central Utilities for the past decade. However, FY 2008 marks the first year of reporting GHG emissions associated with commuting and air travel. In addition, our 2008 reporting effort will evaluate the potential carbon sequestration of the numerous forested lands owned by the University. This presentation will present the findings of our 2008 inventory effort, including discussion of the methodology; associated challenges, and recommendations for future years; and how this effort is being integrated into the climate action plan initiative.

Flying Under the Radar: Quietly Transforming a Conservative Campus

In 2004 Auburn University's sustainability task force received one-time funding for a demonstration sustainability initiative. Since then we have received year-to-year support for a "temporary" office. This presentation will discuss the challenges, strategies, successes, and failures of a sustainability office on a conservative Deep South campus. The moral of our story is: "if we can do it, anyone can."

The challenges have been resistance to change within the entire campus population, basic conservative political philosophy, lack of environmental literacy, lack of willingness to fund projects and programs.

Key strategies have included: finding the engaged students in a conservative student body which we have done in several ways, "flying under the radar" administratively, high-profile low-cost projects, creating success which the administration could take credit for, and finding allies among student, faculty, and operations staff.

Successes have come from gathering the low-hanging fruit and also by reaching high. We have encouraged the university administration to claim our success and ignore our flops. This presentation will discuss in greater detail the challenges, strategies, successes, and failures.

Focusing Again: The National Teach-in on Global Warming Solutions

February 2009 will be a watershed for the United States, and indeed, the planet. Decisions made in the first hundred days of the new congress will determine whether serious action is taken in the next few years, or whether the global warming target of stabilization at 3-4 degrees still barely open will close for our children, forever.

This workshop will help you plan for Focus the Nation 2009: a second national teach-in slated for February 5th, that will create the largest campus-to-congress dialogue in history. From our base of 1900 institutions, we will include thousands more high schools, middle schools, community colleges, and faith and civic organizations. And in 2009, we will increase from seventy-nine to over three-hundred US representatives, senators and governors engaged in non-partisan campus dialogue. With your help, half of the nation's top political leaders will talk with young people about their future and clean energy solutions to global warming.

Workshop topics include: the PCAP (Presidential Climate Action Project) policy recommendations at the core of the 2009 teach-in; building campus-wide involvement; cultivating students leadership; strategies for engaging local, state and federal political and business leaders in your campus conversation.

Food Waste Tracking: The First Step Toward Food Waste Minimization

Food waste minimization is a key element of any portfolio of campus dining sustainability strategies. Food waste tracking is the first step toward minimization. This presentation will feature college and university foodservice operators discussing their efforts to audit and/or track pre-consumer and post-consumer food waste. Beginning with the principal that "we manage the things we measure", these foodservice leaders and a representative of LeanPath will discuss operational, technical, and staff aspects of running a successful food waste tracking program. The presentation will also review the process of using tracking data to drive waste reduction, food cost reduction and foodservice employee engagement.

Framing Sustainability using a Range of "Traditionally Conservative" approaches

Given the relatively short time frame needed to gather support for sustainability and pressing concerns such as climate change, rapid buy-in from many sectors of society is needed, not just those who respond to environmental appeals. As an example, among Auburn University's student body there is a distinct aversion to being identified as "an environmentalist", regardless of whether the student has a existing conservation ethic. The national experience with climate change and other science-based issues also reveals that even the most robust empirical data can be ignored if the audience doesn't find a "reason to agree" that aligns with their personal philosophy. Methods of framing sustainability that connect to an increasingly wider variety of political philosophies can convert opposition groups into "low hanging fruit."

The conditions at Auburn are far from unique, and many programs already successfully promote the business case for sustainability. However, there are a variety of other, "traditionally conservative" topics that allow our office to connect sustainability to a wide range of students and campus staff who don't respond or even backlash against environmental appeals.

This presentation will discuss specific messages and resources available that relate to: economics, patriotism, national security, military operations, support for rural economies and regional job creation, faith, traditional consumptive conservation ethics (e.g. hunting and family farming), culturally instilled respect for elders, personal responsibility for actions, anti-tax sympathies, regional and cultural pride, traditional conservative political ideals, and civic responsibility.

From Creating a Carbon Footprint Baseline to Achieving Climate Neutrality: A Structured Approach to Meeting your ACUPCC Goals

Panelists will discuss how their ACUPCC activities have been couched within a broader master planning context, an energy management program context, and a dedicated process focused on meeting the terms of the ACUPCC:

The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Seattle University, the University of Central Oklahoma will outline the process they followed to manage and achieve this commitment, including

(1) How their ACUPCC activities have been integrated within a broader sustainability master planning process

(2) The overall process necessary to go carbon neutral, from developing a greenhouse gas inventory to tracking emissions to analysis of mitigation options to implementation and monitoring of results

(3) Integration of ACUPCC activities into an existing multi-phase energy management program that is designed to minimize carbon emissions of existing infrastructure and physical plant operations

Finally, the fourth panel participant, Econergy, will discuss a simple approach that Johnson Controls and Econergy have developed to facilitate a business and higher education partnership approach to meeting ACUPCC goals.

All panelists will discuss how one or both of these companies have helped them achieve real progress toward meeting the requirements of the ACUPCC and their own institutions' broad sustainability goals.

From Exceptional Drought to Long-term Water Efficiency

During the record-breaking drought of 2007, three universities rose to the challenge. UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, and NC State – the largest water consumers in their markets – improved their water infrastructure, encouraged behavioral changes, and partnered with local communities, governments, and water utilities. Growing populations and a changing climate continue to strain regional water supplies. During this workshop, learn how your campus can implement cost-effective water management.

Carolina

Despite a 14% increase in campus population and three million square feet of new buildings, Carolina uses less water than in 2001. Captured stormwater is widely used for irrigation and flushes toilets in the new Global Education Center. In partnership with the local water utility, UNC will bring a reclaimed wastewater system online in 2009. Using reclaimed water in the campus cooling towers will reduce the total potable water demand on the local utility by 10 percent.

Duke

With 19 LEED buildings and many water-intensive laboratories, Duke has pioneered the use of many water-efficient technologies. Unleashing the creativity of maintenance crews resulted in a home grown solution to reducing the amount of water used by autoclave sterilizers. Through community partnerships, Duke also helped its neighbors conserve water.

NC State

Through aggressive conservation efforts, NC State has reduced water consumption per square foot by 29 percent since 2002. Recovered condensate from air handling systems irrigates grounds and provides cooling tower makeup water. Process chilled water loops were installed to cool lab equipment. And the Extension Service is taking water saving strategies to farmers, businesses and municipalities.

From Here to There: Transportation Demand Strategies to support The Grounds Plan at the University of Virginia

The University of Virginia recently completed an update of its Grounds Plan, a plan that establishes a framework for future growth of the campus. As part of the Grounds Plan update, a transportation assessment was undertaken in the context of expected institutional growth over the next 20 years. A Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Plan was created that proposes transportation infrastructure improvements, alternative commuter programs and related transportation polices/programs designed to reduce the overall demand on transportation systems. Weighing the implications of collected data with the concerns of various stakeholders within the University community, the process led to critical thinking as to how to best fit the University's trip/GHG reduction goals within the existing campus "mobility lifestyle".

Data was collected to establish current transportation conditions on campus to include programs and policies for pedestrians, bicycles, parking, traffic, and transit. Focus groups representing a diverse mix of individuals from the University community provided important input and feedback on perceived transportation challenges. Transportation demand management alternatives and computational models were developed to provide a rational decision-making framework for transportation choices, with a key goal being to induce a dramatic decrease in commuting trip demand.

The presntation will present the TDM portion of the Grounds Plan as a case study. The presenters will outline the programmatic and technical aspects of the TDM plan and discuss its ongoing implementation including marketing strategies and progress/benchmarks.

From Operations to Mission: Finding Points of Pedagogical Leverage in Campus Sustainability Initiatives

Drawing on case studies and research conducted at the University of California Santa Cruz, this paper discusses the integration of campus sustainability initiatives and academic curriculum in universities. It explores benefits, barriers, and opportunities relevant for faculty, staff/administrators, and students in using the greening of campus operations as an effective learning tool and utilizing the classroom as a means for more effective institutional change. It emphasizes a collaborative approach to environmental problem solving. Sustainability is best accomplished when the diverse constituents on campus work together to benefit from the various skills, knowledge and motivation that can be found in a complex community.

It is imperative that academia embraces its obligations to run sustainable institutions, act as role models for greater society, and prepare the next generation of leaders to address the real and urgent problems facing our planet. The campus is a crucial place to engage in meaningful teaching, learning, and research. Current scholarly traditions and organizational structures inherent in academia and in perceptions of both faculty and staff are often not conducive to integrating campus sustainability operations and course curriculum. Nonetheless, successful examples of such integration do exist. This presentation is meant to advance understanding of the importance of developing such opportunities and to provide a more thorough understanding of the barriers to such integration.

From Zero to 240 in 5 years: The Presidio MBA Approach to Curriculum Design for Sustainable Business Education

The Presidio School of Management is in its 5th year of operation having launched an innovative MBA program in Sustainable Management in 2003. As a pioneer in this field, Presidio is now the 12th largest MBA program in the Bay Area and one of the largest "Sustainable MBA" programs in the world - having grown from 22 students in 2003 to more than 240 this year. As a rapidly growing institution, the Presidio experience offers insight into the opportunities and challenges in designing and delivering sustainable management business education programs.

This presentation reflects on Presidio's early experience and presents lessons learned in curriculum design and teaching innovation. Having been designed as an integrated curriculum, the program has undergone numerous refinements over the last 5 years. A central factor that has shaped the program is a strong collaborative approach to curriculum design based on principles of stakeholder engagement.

This governance model has facilitated rapid introduction of developments including vertical and horizontal course integration; academic-practitioner teaching partnerships; an integrative capstone course; curriculum-based, project-oriented learning; teaching simulations; inquiry-based reflective learning practices; and the use of innovative virtual learning systems technology. The presentation will conclude with a reflection on how all of these program developments have been informed by the three tenants of the School's educational philosophy: systems thinking; learning from active experience and the integration and communication of knowledge.

Function, Damn It! A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Teaching Sustainability

In 2007, several faculty and staff members from UNO and the University of Nebraska Medical Center created and team-taught a class called "Sustainable Omaha?" The special offerings graduate and undergraduate class was designed to broadly examine sustainability in the context of our city and its policies, to promote discussion within community groups and to report at a public meeting a summary of those discussions. All instructors were volunteers and represented eight Departments and six Colleges. The students who enrolled in this course expected to learn more about some aspect of sustainability that interested them, but few were prepared for the breadth of material presented. Presenting real-world problems in context–difficult to say the least. The value of knowledge and application of information shared in this way–priceless. All of this, however, required the coordination and cooperation of unlikely partnerships. This presentation will focus on what went well, lessons learned, and how we hope to help this offering evolve.

Furman University's Environmental Community of Students (ECOS)

In 2006 Furman University began its Environmental Community of Students (ECOS) Engaged Living program in which incoming, environmentally minded, first year students choose to live together and take two introductory environmental classes as a cohort (An Introduction to Environmental Science course in the fall term and a First Year Seminar "Sustainability of Natural Resources" in the spring term). In addition to the coursework and community living arrangement, students in the program receive a $1,000 stipend to spend 3 – 4 hours a week on environmental initiatives on and/or off campus. As designed, the program is intended to foster interest and get students actively involved with campus sustainability efforts early in their collegiate careers.

The program, now in its third year, has been very successful, academically, socially, and environmentally. The engaged living and teaching model is very conducive to collaborative, team based learning opportunities both in and out of the classroom as the students quickly get to know each other well through living together and taking classes together. Students in the program have been integral to the sustainability efforts on campus and have been actively involved in work with the campus organic garden, coordination of dorm recycling efforts, installation of rain gardens as part of the restoration of the campus lake, and development of a campus environmental film series, to name just a few. Many of the current student campus environmental leaders are former ECOS program participants.

Furman University's Lake Restoration Project

Created in the 1950's, Furman Lake is the visual centerpiece of Furman University. It is a 28 acre impoundment originally used for swimming, boating and fishing. By the 1990's, water quality had deteriorated so much that recreational use was prohibited. Recent studies found bacteria concentrations that were occasionally 50 times higher than the EPA and SCDHEC limits for recreational waters. In summer 2006, the lake was home to 250 Canada geese and 150 ducks; 8 times the recommended population density for waterfowl. There were blooms of matting algae at the surface, and the banks around the lake were eroding. As part of Furman's "Year of the Environment" celebration, a plan was approved to restore the ecological integrity of the lake by removing waterfowl and revegetating the perimeter of the lake and feeder creeks. Waterfowl populations are now 90% below 2006 levels, and E. coli concentrations have declined significantly. A master plan for lake restoration was constructed, and Furman has completed the first phase by revegetating the northern shore of the lake. Subsequent stages include dredging the shallows and creating wetland islands to foster the growth of semi-aquatic plants. The lake restoration is also being used as a pedagogical tool for relevant environmental classes and independent student projects. In this presentation, the history and problems of the lake are described, and the steps Furman has made to improve the quality of the lake environment are highlighted.

Generating Campus-Wide Sustainability Innovation through Multiple Course Collaboration

While campus sustainability initiatives are often motivated by students, these efforts can also begin as top-down strategic plans. In the latter case, how do post-secondary institutions engage their communities—including students—in creating a sustainable campus that reflects the values of that community? This presentation addresses the genesis, development, implementation, outcomes, and lessons learned from a cross-disciplinary service learning project. The project was designed to facilitate participation of the university community in prioritizing possible sustainability initiatives. It aimed to educate students, faculty, and staff about sustainability, evaluate feasible sustainability practices, solicit public comment, and recommend best practices to the university sustainability committee for use in long-term planning. The project involved students in three courses taught by faculty from different disciplines (management, anthropology, and English). At our annual Environmental Summit, eleven student teams addressed different sustainability topics using posters that provided background on each topic, explained what our university has already done, and identified potential future actions based upon practices employed at other institutions. For each topic, Summit attendees ranked their top five preferred actions for the university to undertake. Teams presented quantitative and qualitative analyses of public feedback and their own research, along with their recommendations, in group reports. The faculty analyzed the different group reports and presented a synthesized report to the sustainability committee, who then considered the recommendations. This project provides an innovative approach to engaging the administration, students, staff, and larger community in long-term sustainability planning tailored to a campus's specific needs and values.

GHG External Reporting: Collaborate, Collect, Report

Sustainability coordinators have limited time and resources to commit to greenhouse data collection and reporting, and the growing number of climate registries, tools and initiatives can be daunting to navigate without support and networking. This presenation will bring together sustainability professionals to discuss how and where it might make sense for institutions to report their greenhouse gas emissions data.

A group of four professionals will first describe their collaborative project during spring and summer 2008 to assess the feasibility and usefulness of institutions working together to collect and report greenhouse gas data. The project’s primary goals were to determine what data these institutions are already collecting, to assess the resources required to collect reliable, repeatable data, and to examine comparability of data across institutions. A dozen or so institutions from the Northeast were invited to participate in the project.

We hope this presentation and the qualitative data gathered from institutions participating in the project will shed light on the feasibility of standardizing data collection procedures across universities. Attendees will become better prepared to make an informed decision about whether or not to report greenhouse gas emissions to a centralized registry.

Global Perspectives for a Sustainable Campus Master Plan

The growth in sustainable initiatives on campuses has focused on the physical environment with an emphasis on green buildings. As the President's Climate Commitment collects a growing list of signatories, the issues must be seen as increasingly comprehensive and pressing. How is the campus as a whole impacting greenhouse gases? What are the overall impacts on water and energy? How is the physical campus supporting local ecological systems?

The Seattle University Sustainable Master Plan builds upon an existing campus plan that identifies significant development over the next 20+ years. Much of this plan already supports smart growth strategies such as dedicated open space, a strengthened pedestrian environment and increased density. The sustainable plan takes the campus to the next level by considering the university area as a 48-acre ecosystem.

An ecosystem is defined as an ecological community that, together with its environment, functions as one unit. The overall flow of natural resources within the ecosystem typically remains in balance. The existing and potential resource flows for Seattle University's urban campus were studied in terms of water, energy, carbon, ecological systems and human wellbeing. This approach helps establish important metrics to understand what it will take to be carbon neutral, to achieve energy and water use reduction goals, as well as why and how to support the natural ecology and people. The plan provides vision, goals, and specific strategies that establish a sustainable framework. Within this framework an implementation plan outlines the steps and timing required to reach specific goals.

Go Big or Go Home: Branding Canada's Green University

In 2007, the University of Northern British Columbia trademarked the phrase, "Canada's Green University." In many ways, it's a perfect brand for UNBC: the proportion of environmental teaching and research is tops in Canada, the campus is a showpiece for energy-efficiency and connection to nature, the University attracts students and employees who value outdoor recreation, and the northern BC region is perhaps Canada's richest in terms of natural resources. In addition, the number of universities in British Columbia (Canada's western province) has been growing and the Green initiative is seen as a vital element in distinguishing UNBC in an increasingly competitive marketplace. To trademark Canada's Green University has caught the attention of governments and companies that are eager to be associated with an environmental leader.

At the same time, strengthening this new brand has proven to be incredibly challenging. There are some within the university community and outside who see the initiative as simply a marketing ploy without any real substance. Part of the problem exists when a university self-identifies that it is green; it provides an opportunity for others to show how it is not.

Colleges and universities are strengthening their connection with the environment and this will naturally lead to greater efforts aimed at linking this activity to institutional branding. This presentation – using UNBC as a case study – will foster discussion about how this can best be achieved.

Going Beyond the Classroom to Study Sustainability: How to Design Community-based Experiential Learning Courses

Education about sustainability should incorporate not just new ideas, but also innovative approaches to teaching. This presentation focuses on one such method-lessons learned and how to design experiential community-based courses. The emphasis will be on practical suggestions for faculty and students interested in going beyond the classroom in their teaching about sustainability and ecology. ISDSI courses link culture and ecology in a unique program in Thailand for American college and university students on study-abroad. The core of the program are "Expedition Field Courses" where students learn from local people while working together with them and traveling through the local environment. Each course is designed in collaboration with local communities, and learning about the sustainability from villagers and others is a key component of the program. Community-based education is especially important when teaching about sustainability. Teaching in the context of a local community that depends on its local ecosystem is an especially powerful way of connecting students to the natural world, as students see directly how cultural choices and values both shape and are shaped by the local ecosystem and resource base. Using examples from ISDSI courses, this presentation will focus on the process of designing community based experiential courses. The goal of the presentation will be to give educators and students practical ideas for incorporating experiential learning about sustainability in their own courses on-campus or off.

Going Green with TDM: Developing, Marketing and Evaluating a Transportation Demand Management Program

To meet the university's goal of no net new peak hour commute trips over the course of the next 15 years and as part of an over campus effort to move the campus to a more sustainable state, the university has developed and implemented a wide variety of Transportation Demand Management (TDM) measures and marketing efforts since 2001. These efforts have proven effective in getting more commuters using alternative transportation and dramatically reducing the single occupant vehicle (SOV) commute levels within the university community in spite of the significant growth in campus population. This presentation identifies the TDM program elements and how they are marketed, the incentives offered, and how program success is measured.

Regular program evaluation helps to determine if program elements are contributing to the success of the TDM effort and to justify expenses. Since Stanford University started expanding its TDM efforts in 2002, it has seen a 20% drop in the university employee drive alone rate (from 72% to 52%), an increase in Commute Club (those who commit to not driving alone) participation of 80% (current membership over 6,700), a decrease in commuter parking permit sales, significant increases in the use of the university shuttle system for commute purposes, and significant reductions in the amount of green house gas generated by the commuters. In addition, the university has, to date, met its goal of no net new peak hour commute trips.

Green and Sustainable Campus Operations

Grand Valley State University has been implementing sustainability using an interdisciplinary integrated systems approach in administration, facilities services, and campus dining; education and curriculum development; student involvement and community engagement and leadership. Sustainability guiding principles of environmental stewardship, economic prosperity, and social responsibility are used in all the above areas.

This presentation will provide a brief overview of project approaches and case studies in a number of selected campus operations areas. In many instances students provided assistance with these projects and activities:

• Waste and recycling including Recyclemania competition, electronic waste, "Project Donation"
• Campus Dining including biodegradable serviceware, going "trayless", farmers markets, and local food purchasing
• Energy and climate including LEED building practices, resident hall energy competitions, and energy conservation
• Green purchasing including office supplies
• Transportation including bus ridership

In most instances, decisions are reached based on a cost/benefit analysis. Using these selected campus operations areas, a value creation analysis will be provided wherever possible to develop an improved and a more informed decision making process.

Green Building Maintenance and Management: A New Degree Program at Sullivan County Community College (SCCC)

In Fall 2008, SCCC will offer a new AAS in Green Building Maintenance and Management.  One of the first programs, if not the first, of its kind in the country to meet growing needs, including:

-Major employers in the region are investing in green building technologies.           -The College, County and the Partnership for Economic Development have proposed a green technology park, including research, development, and manufacture of green building products.

-Recent legislation in New York City requires the use of green building technologies in new construction providing an array of new green collar employment opportunities.

Students will learn theory and techniques to manage and maintain high-performance commercial buildings, including Principles of Green Building; Energy Management; Green Building Materials; Renewable Energy Systems; Care of Green Spaces; Environmental Economics; and Green HVAC systems.

The campus' existing geothermal system and planned wind turbines; photovoltaic cells; green roofs; and Center for Advanced Science and Technology within the green technology park will be used for instruction.

Our presentation will focus on the development and implementation of the GBMM program; and lessons learned from the first semester of courses. Specifically, instructor Helena le Roux will discuss the advertising and recruitment process; curricula for the Fall 2008 offerings (Introduction to Green Building and Introduction to Renewable Energy Systems); the challenges and successes of these two courses; and considerations for the future of the program, including additional courses and programs to be offered.

Green Campus 101: Harnessing Energy for Change

Universities represent a unique testing ground to address energy issues, as demonstrated by the Alliance to Save Energy’s Green Campus Program. This presentation will showcase transferable best practices of a student-driven campaign to foster diverse partnerships, perform effective community outreach, and pilot emerging technologies for measurable energy savings.

The presentation will begin with an overview of the program's 13-campus network in California, including how each student team operates in conjunction with their counterparts at other schools. This will segue into an overview of the energy-related projects designed, performed, and marketed by the students. These include energy efficient technology pilots like bi-level lighting, dorm energy competitions, student fee referendums, office energy assessments, network based power management installation and CFL exchanges. In-depth campus case studies will be provided for several examples to outline the specific parternships leveraged (i.e. between students, faculty, staff and administrators) that serve to result in real energy and cost savings.

Finally, members of the Green Campus Program will be on-hand to answer questions and address concerns unique to specific regions.

Green Demonstrations Transform Higher Education and Beyond

Drawing on 5 years of experience designing and promoting college and university green residential demonstrations, session presenter from Strategic Energy innovations will illustrate how a modest project can facilitate a larger move towards campus sustainability – and in so doing become a potent model for change within surrounding communities. Students and staff have successfully collaborated on sustainable, green living demonstrations on both public and private campuses across California, that include: UC Berkeley, CSU Chico, San Francisco State, and University of the Redlands. In reviewing these case studies, the session leader will attempt to engage the audience in a broader discussion about successful ways to engage students on campus-based sustainability efforts, focusing on the following three learning outcomes:

1.) Identify and discuss successful approaches to bringing students and staff together to envision, install and promote green demonstration spaces on campus.

2.) Differentiate between green products/technologies and behavior-based approaches that encourage green design, energy conservation and sustainable lifestyle practices.

3.) Translate how discreet student-staff led campus greening initiatives can positively impact broader awareness and sustainability efforts on campus and in the surrounding community.

Green Honchos: How Allegheny College's Taskforce for Environmental Responsibility Created Eco-minded Administrators

Allegheny College has a long history of environmental initiatives on campus and within the community. For instance for the past decade CEED (Center for Economic and Environmental Development) has supported college-community collaborations to increase sustainability in the local area. On campus, greening efforts have included purchases of wind power since 2002 and the recent addition of LEED-certified residence halls. Despite this record, there has been no institution-wide policy on sustainability.

In August, 2006 Allegheny College President Richard Cook formed the Task Force for Environmental Responsibility to evaluate the campus status on sustainability and to make recommendations for future actions. This group was comprised of students, administration, staff and faculty. This group convened bi-monthly for two years and have recently released a set of recommendations to the campus community.

The Task Force represents the first extensive, multi-stakeholder discussions about sustainability on campus. While the written report and recommendations was the primary outcome of the TER, a somewhat surprising result has been the increased understanding among the administration about the need for sustainability. The Task Force "process" has increased knowledge, understanding and buy-in among the leadership and administrative personnel on campus. This paper will discuss in greater detail the TER process and results.

Green Power: An Environmental Choice for Leading Colleges & Universities

This presentation will provide an overview of the green power market, the benefits of a green power purchase, and three case studies of specific green power initiatives. The presentation will examine:

-Procurement options (utility products, renewable energy certificates, onsite)

-Innovative financing methods -Onsite generation, including the emergence of the solar services model

-The ability of green power to reduce emissions and how to calculate reductions

-Green power as a teaching tool and integration into curriculums

-Leveraging a green power purchase to attract prospective students and position your institution as a community leader.

-Case studies from various institutions

Green Research for Incorporating Data into the Classroom (GRIDc)

North Carolina State University (NCSU), NCSU Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and the Department of Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education, the North Carolina Solar Center, and Pitt Community College are working as a collaborative group on the Green Research for Incorporating Data into the Classroom (GRIDc) project to develop curriculum to teach science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in undergraduate courses at NCSU and Pitt Community College. A unique feature of this project is that data from multiple renewable energy systems (photovoltaics, passive solar, wind turbine, solar thermal, etc.) will be collected and stored at a single location, the NCSU Solar Center, enabling faculty and students to analyze, synthesize and evaluate data in a variety of contexts. Curriculum and activities will be developed in Technology Education, Science Education, Mechanical Engineering, and Construction Technology that use the Solar Center as a means of using real world data to enhance the learning of the students. These curriculum materials will have broad application in undergraduate STEM education.

Green, Across the Campus and Across the Curriculum

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) supports the integration of green building and sustainability projects across higher education campuses and curriculum. With students and educators now living and working in green buildings, campus communities are looking for tools and resources to further integrate these topics in their curriculum, research, and daily lives. In response, USGBC has initiated several projects to support these efforts. These include the Portfolio Program and the Excellence in Green Building Curriculum Recognition Awards and Incentive Grants Programs.

The Portfolio Program, in pilot on 8 college campuses, is designed to streamline LEED certification for campus buildings. The goal of the program is to meet the mutual interests of managing the costs of certification and retaining the credibility and integrity of the LEED program.

The Awards and Grants Programs identified twelve education programs as outstanding models of integrating sustainability into K-12 and higher education curricula. Award winners exemplify the following best practices in educating for sustainability: interdisciplinary, building knowledge and understanding through hands-on applications, and tackling real-world, community-based issues.

This presentation will highlight successful efforts to integrate green building into design and construction, facilities management, curriculum and daily, campus life. The Portfolio Program will be discussed, utilizing examples from pilot campuses. Two award winning education programs will be highlighted, with representatives reflecting on their campus’s efforts to bring green and sustainability to the forefront through curriculum application and community initiatives. These model efforts illustrate the success achieved and challenges faced as higher education institutions commit to going green.

Greener by Design; Pratt Institute's Implementation of the FIPSE Grant

Pratt Institute, a leading school of art, architecture and design in Brooklyn, New York has been awarded a FIPSE grant to implement an innovative educational initiative that addresses one of the preeminent issues of our time. We are seeking to catalyze new ways of educating the future architects, artists, industrial designers, urban planners and other design professionals so that they have the skills and sensibilities to creatively and successfully meet the immediate challenge of global warming.

Design schools already have significant resources on hand. Pratt Institute offers numerous courses that address the issue of environmental sustainability. We have expert faculty, a committed administration and the facilities with which to experiment and innovate. But it is no longer enough to bring sustainability into temporary focus through stand-alone courses or special events. Pratt's approach will harness our resources to systematically educate design students about the ecological impacts of their professional choices and their creative opportunities for designing our future.

Pratt's Greener by Design Initiative will: 1) Establish academic vehicles for new curriculum development and interdisciplinary research and teaching on sustainability including a Center for Sustainable Design Studies, interdisciplinary workshops and research stipends; 2) Employ the college campus as a living lab for innovation, providing students with applied experiences in sustainable practice; and, 3) Document, disseminate and exchange information among schools of art and design. With FIPSE support, design education will take a leap forward and the earth will be a step closer to being a place where future generations can thrive.

Greening a College Vehicle Fleet

While wind turbines and co-generation heating plants easily capture the attention of college and university sustainability coordinators and facilities managers, often college vehicle fleets aren't sufficiently considered as candidates for greenhouse gas reductions.

We would like to present Luther College as a case study, representing a small liberal arts college with a typical vehicle fleet. Luther has been committed to seeking out sustainable transportation alternatives; from maintenance and grounds vehicles to recycling, composting, catering and security, Luther is finding fuels and vehicles that meet our needs while cutting our environmental and financial costs.

1. Our seven all-electric vehicles save 76% on greenhouse gas pollution and 84% on vehicle costs.

2. Luther recycles all of the cafeteria's used vegetable oil into biodiesel, which is used in campus diesel vehicles. This constitutes 56% of our diesel usage.

3. Our recycling and composting program uses a compressed natural gas pickup.

4. The vehicle fleet has been supplemented with 7 hybrid vehicles, which can be checked out for trips by students, faculty and staff.

In this presentation, we will discuss the issues around converting to a more sustainable college fleet: financing struggles and benefits, greenhouse gas emissions reductions, psychological battles with staff that need to learn to use something "new and different", educational opportunities, and the high-visibility symbols of these vehicles that make great promotional tools.

Sustainable transportation alternatives for colleges aren't a thing of the future- they are here now. We can provide insight into the best ways to bring them to any campus.

Greening from the Bottom Up - Grassroots Organizing Successes at Northern Arizona University

This presentation explores how grassroots organizing at the Northern Arizona University (NAU) mountain campus has led to successful efforts advancing campus sustainability. Many faculty, staff, and students have taken on the responsibility of initiating and implementing sustainability projects without direct support or mandate from the administrative leadership on campus. This grassroots organization model, a bottom-up approach to implementation, has proven extremely successful at NAU and offers insight into how campus sustainability can be supported and perpetuated through the enthusiasm and efforts of staff and students.

The discussion will include insights from leading organizational thinkers who explore why and how grassroots organizing leads to success. These ideas are applied to examples of staff or student led initiatives such as the Herbicide Elimination Committee, the Yellow Bike Program, the Campus Green Purchasing initiative, Departmental "Green Teams,"� Campus Dining, and the Campus Ambassador Network.

Greening Operations & Maintenance: Implementing LEED for Existing Buildings in a Campus Setting

While many campuses cite new LEED certified buildings as evidence of their commitment to sustainability, the higher education sector has been slow to adopt the US Green Building Council's LEED for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) rating system.

LEED-EB provides a framework for systemically evaluating campus operations and maintenance practices. Though less glamorous than new green buildings, LEED-EB projects generate significant cost savings and bring attention and support to often-ignored facilities departments.

Recognizing the potential of the LEED-EB rating system, the University of California committed to certifying at least one LEED-EB project on each of its ten campuses.

This presentation will provide a brief overview of the LEED-EB rating system. Case-studies from UC Santa Cruz and UC Santa Barbara will illustrate the unique challenges and opportunities associated with LEED-EB in a campus setting.

Presenters will include staff members and a student and will address topics including:

- The benefits of implementing LEED-EB and the likely costs associated with the process.

-Potential funding sources for LEED-EB projects.

-Who belongs on a project team and how to engage these stakeholders.

-Obtaining building occupant buy-in and support.

-How to scale LEED-EB beyond individual building projects and apply it to the entire campus through the USGBC's Portfolio Program.

-Opportunities to engage students through LEED-EB projects.

-How to choose a building for your first LEED-EB certification.

-Commonly attained credits from LEED-EB projects throughout the University of California.

Greening Pest Management on Campus - Demonstrating Termite Management using Low-Insecticide Input Application Strategies

Termites are the most economically important pest of structures in the United States resulting in an estimated annual cost to US consumers of over $2.5 billion. A typical whole-house termite treatment involves placing 200 - 300 liters of termiticide solution into the soil. This presentation will describe a program at the University of Georgia initiated in 2002 that employed an integrated pest management approach to removing termite infestations. Building occupants or physical plant staff identified termite infestations which initiated a process of inspection, action plan formulation, treatment, and verification of success based on occupant call-backs. Action plans, aimed at sustainable termite control, included landscape and construction alteration and termiticide applications that averaged 10.4 liters per treatment. Success was achieved in all but two cases indicating the effectiveness of a program based on inspection and spot treatment of termite entry points for controlling subterranean termites.

Greening the Supply and Purchasing Chain

This presentation will address the need for third party accountability in the process of greening the supply chain. It will describe reliable information sources that are used in setting standards and parameters by the Chlorine-Free Products Association. The presentation will also address practical actions that campus administrators can take to implement and support a sustainable future.

Greening the University in the Heartland

Oklahoma City University has undergone systematic organizational change to move the campus in a more sustainable direction. Students, staff, and faculty have been involved with several projects to change the face of the campus. Our presentation will consist of two students, the chief financial officer, the associate provost, and the dean of the school of religion, who serves as the chair of the university's sustainability council.

The associate provost and dean of religion have been involved in the strategic planning process. As part of that process, sustainability objectives have been developed and are ready to be presented to the planning committee. Students took the initiative and started a recycling program on campus. They worked with the dean of religion, who also is the director of the Vivian Wimberly Center for Ethics and Servant Leadership. The CFO has worked with facilities to change the light bulbs on campus to compact fluorescent bulbs. In addition to saving energy, the campus will save more than $70,000/year in energy costs. The CFO has directed the process whereby native plants are now incorporated into landscape design features of the campus. Several entities worked with an architecture professor, who had his class develop plans for a field lab station for the biology department that would be LEED certified and wholly sustainable.

Our presentation will present the processes that have led to these cultural shifts and changes and discuss interactions with other institutions such as LaGrange College and the University of Oklahoma.

GreenRichland: Building Sustainable Local and World Community

As the threat of global warming and natural resource shortages becomes more of a reality, Richland College is among the first community colleges in the U.S. to participate in the campaign for sustainability, making it a part of its curriculum and other educational experiences for students, along with developing plans to achieve climate neutrality.

Richland's president, Dr. Steve Mittelstet, recently signed the American College and University President's Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), but the college had already made considerable efforts prior to the signing of this agreement. The Richland College Urban Tree Farm—a joint effort by the college, the Dallas Parks Foundation, TXU and the Sierra Club was established on the college's campus in 2003. In the fall of 2005, GREENRichland was formed to better align the college efforts, community programs, and to promote sustainability.

Even bigger plans are in the works, as Richland constructs a $40 million, 141,167-square-foot science building. College administrators are striving for platinum status under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. In addition, a gold LEED designation is sought for Richland's new Garland Campus, which focuses on the "economic development" leg of the sustainability triple bottom line.

Richland's Dean of Academic Enrichment, the Director of Facilities Services, and Sustainability Director will share their experiences and the lessons learned from the GREENRichland Program, curriculum development and other approaches to sustainability. These programs directly support the college's vision to be the best place to learn, teach, and build sustainable local and world community.

Growing Relationships Through Composting: A University Case Study

The University of Washington is a public, four-year institution with a 40,000 student enrollment. The campus population also includes more than 30,000 staff. In an effort to reduce the amount of waste materials going to landfills and the associated costs, Recycling and Solid Waste is continually making service improvements by working closely with departments and the campus community.

Several years ago, students began advocating for increased recycling and composting within the residence halls. At the time, Housing and Food Services (HFS) was interested in moving forward but did not have the systems, equipment or a Department-wide consciousness about recycling. Students wanted action; HFS needed time to organize. Through meetings, planning and with the assistance of Recycling and Solid Waste, staff and the students took the first steps to make increased recycling and composting within HFS facilities a reality.

Recycling and Solid Waste has been putting a great deal of effort into growing the University's composting program, including assisting HFS with the procurement of biodegradable service items. This collaborative effort involved students, Cedar Grove Composting (the University's commercial composting vendor), product vendors (Food Services of America), and manufacturers (Cereplast and International Paper).

For several years, HFS had been composting kitchen scraps, but in 2007 decided that its new credo, "striving for zero waste," required more action. Assisted by Recycling and Solid Waste and the residence hall student organization SEED (Students Expressing Environmental Dedication), HFS began creating a program for post-consumer composting in dining halls and other HFS food outlets.

Higher Education Partnerships for Sustainability: Building Collaborative Networks

Many of the challenges campuses face in becoming more sustainable are systemic - the ability to purchase renewable energy, opportunities to finance major infrastructure upgrades, and mandatory construction and purchasing policies specified by boards of regents. While these may present barriers to individual campuses, the power to act collectively - with other colleges as well as non-profits, business partners, and government agencies - can create major shifts in operations, education, and community outreach. Participants in this presentation will learn best practices from existing networks and discuss next steps for creating successful partnerships in their own states.

Hocking College Energy Institute

Construction of the Hocking College Energy Institute will commence in the summer of 2008. Hocking College was recently awarded a $1.6 million grant from the Economic Development Administration for the construction of an innovative learning facility near the Logan-Hocking Industrial Park in Hocking County. The Energy Institute will feature green building design aspects and hands-on learning labs for students studying in the college's energy programs such as alternative energy, fuel cells, and vehicular hybrids. Anticipated opening date is Fall 2009 and the project is pursuing LEED Certification at the Platinum level.

While industry strives to find an alternative energy solution to depleting fossil fuels, alternative energy technologies represent prime venture capital investment potential, creating unprecedented business opportunities for startups and established companies alike.

Clean energy alternatives will account for more than half of the energy produced around the world by 2020, dramatically altering the global economic balance of power. Today's alternative energy startups will be tomorrow's worldwide power brokers, as conventional fuel companies and utilities form alliances to ensure the continuous uninterruptable generation of electricity. The renewable energy industry will be a major creator of jobs over the next ten years; production of photo voltaic cells and inverters in Ohio will more than triple in the next several years. Demand for technicians trained to construct, install, troubleshoot, modify and test multiple types of alternative energy equipment is on the rise and Hocking College is a forerunner in that educational delivery.

How a Large Institution of Higher Learning can Impact Regional Growth on Sustainability Practices: Commercial Composting in the Pacific Northwest

The University of Washington is a public, four-year institution with a 40,000 student enrollment. The campus population also includes more than 30,000 faculty and staff. The Department of Housing and Food Services (HFS) is responsible for housing and feeding more than 5,000 students and for operating 22 food service operations across campus. During the academic year, on a typical weekday, we serve 28,000 customers.

In 2004, the University began a compost pilot program by collecting coffee grounds and pre consumer vegetative food scraps. In February, 2007, HFS began collecting front-of-the-house food waste and compostable service ware.

The collaborative effort involved students, HFS general staff, UW Recycling, Cedar Grove (our commercial composter), vendors (Food Service of America), and manufacturers (Cereplast and International Paper). The result is one of the largest restaurant compost programs in the Northwest.

Outreach and education have been a major factor in our success. Cedar Grove Composting looks at our program as a role model and refers commercial clients to our commitment to doing it right. The University of Washington/HFS has received the 2008 Washington State Recycling Association Recycler of the Year Award in the category of Institution of Higher Learning.

Our program can and has impacted our region of the country by providing a commercial food service model where customer food and service ware waste is captured. Our goal is to divert 100% of what was formerly considered garbage into recycling and composting alternatives

Ibero Campus Verde

The intention of the poster is to show the commitment of Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, through the very forceful coming together of a group of full-time teachers, staff and students in working on a Diagnostics and Action Plan for the campus, based on the AASHE Sustainability in Higher Education Assessment Framework (AASHE SIHEAF).

The poster includes the "Ibero Campus Verde" corporate logo, resulting from a university contest designed to show the project and to involve the community in it.

The "Ibero Campus Verde" team worked on the 15 Aspects of Sustainability of the AASHE SIHEAF adapting the methodology and distilling it to 10 Aspects of Sustainability, adding Community Wellbeing and proposing an administrative and academic structure, to fulfill the objectives of a green campus as we defined it. This structure will begin work on the "Ibero Campus Verde" Strategic Plan. The poster will show this message with diagrams, texts, graphic symbols, images, photomontages, in a well-balanced, colorful composition.

A university is a natural promoter and teaches with its own example.

Identifying Barriers to Reaching Sustainability Goals: a Case Study of "Green" Paper Purchasing and Commercial Printing

Combing conservation with the use of 'green' products reduces the environmental impact of any institutional administrative unit or department more than one or the other. To prevent greenwashing, thus providing quality assurance of product social and environmental claims, third-party certification (3PC) has emerged as an international force in many industries. Forestry certification is a prime example. However 3PC paper printing and purchasing is underused within many institutions. Given the merits of 3PC papers, we conducted a study to determine the barriers preventing their wide-spread adoption at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada). We surveyed 477 Advanced Professional Officers and 80 members of the School of Public Health. Respondents were asked about conservation habits, 3PC knowledge, and adoption barriers. Respondents fell into two classes of paper conservation: high conservers and low conservers. However, neither was there a relationship between conservation level and the amount of 3PC knowledge, nor the rank with which respondents gave their offices in terms of sustainable paper use. For staff and faculty alike, personal knowledge about sustainable paper does not translate into more sustainable office paper use. Indeed, the three common barriers to adoption of new 'green' paper products were: lack of information, technology, and the difficulty of changing the status quo. Conservation does not equal knowledge. Conventional attitudes of co-workers are as important a barrier to overcome when improving office sustainable performance as information and technology changes. To effectively meet sustainability goals, universities must include changing social norms to ensure all community members work together.

Impacting Campus & Community Sustainablility Initiatives Through the Scholarship of Engagement

Higher education plays a pivotal role to ensure the world in which we exist is sustainable. We nurture individuals who will live their personal and professional lives based, largely, on values learned while attending college.

An ever-increasing number of FSU faculty, staff, students, and community-based agencies desire to work collaboratively to expand opportunities for community-based scholarship and enhance campus-community partnerships that address the need of a sustainable campus and community.

Through a grant awarded by Florida Campus Compact, the FSU Service Learning Program designed a program to foster service and research on sustainable campus and community issues and supported the establishment of four interdisciplinary teams of faculty, students, and community agencies to implement sustainability-related projects. Learning objectives of this program included expanding the skills of students and faculty who seek to address social justice issues and publicizing the application and usability of the campus-community sustainability concept.

Working together since the fall 2007 semester, interdisciplinary teams have developed and implemented the following projects:

-Putting eco-effectiveness into practice: sustainable and regenerative fashion design—students deconstructed unwanted clothing and reconstructed new outfits for their community-member models.

-Sustainable campus PSAs—public service announcements reinforcing positive environmental behaviors that will be distributed through WFSU, SC&CC website, and YouTube.

-More green than Landis—a detailed comparison of both hard and soft costs associated with constructing green and conventional campus buildings.

Reducing energy consumption through education—comprehensive energy conservation program for the faculty and staff at National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.

Impacting Ecological Attitudes and Material Values through Practical Reasoning: Fostering Sustainability Learning in Professional Programs

A singular focus on advancing sustainability through science and technology is inadequate to the enterprise of creating a sustainable society. To achieve sustainability, it will be necessary to transform culture by fostering individual and collective actions that reflect a holistic way of thinking and approaching problems. As academics in interior design and apparel marketing, we aspire to develop agents of change working toward a sustainable future. Interior design and apparel marketing are disciplines thought to attract materialistic individuals unconcerned with long term environmental consequences. However, our observation has been that students in these programs are ecologically minded and that there is significant potential for transformation of these disciplines through sustainability learning. Significant change in these consumption-driven disciplines could have a broad impact on the dominant social paradigm and societal attitudes toward consumption. The authors will present, as a field report, a new research study measuring sustainability learning in interior design and apparel marketing. The study explores whether our students are developing stronger ecological attitudes while lessening their materialism through exposure to and critical examination of curricular content related to sustainability. This study will measure ecological attitudes, materials values, and intellectual/ethical development, to determine whether there is a significant change as students progress through interior design and apparel marketing undergraduate academic programs.

Implementing Sustainability at Liberal Arts Colleges

As they develop their vision and agenda for their campus, sustainability leaders face important, strategic choices regarding the most efficient, effective ways to structure their work to embed sustainability more deeply into the culture of their institutions. Common questions emerge: How do we create meaningful ways for faculty, staff, and students to participate? When, at a small college, there are high expectations of participatory governance, how do we keep everyone involved and included? How do we bridge academics and college operations and help prepare students for the emerging green economy? How do we help coordinate and support the bubbling-up energy for new sustainability projects? How do we create a sense of personal responsibility for sustainability and make sustainable practices a meaningful part of everyone's daily experience? The three panelists are sustainability leaders at liberal arts colleges in the Northwest, New England, upper Midwest, and southern Appalachians, all of which have had sustainability initiatives under way for several years. While all four have small-campus cultures and a shared commitment to liberal arts learning, they have unique institutional missions, histories, practices, and town-gown relationships. And, they have taken somewhat different approaches to organizing their sustainability work both on campus and in their surrounding communities. The panel will briefly recount the history of their campus sustainability initiatives, their organizational structures for moving more deeply into sustainability on campus, their outreach efforts, and key lessons learned. There will be ample opportunity in this session for discussion and Q-and-A.

Inclusion from Conception - A Presidential Perspective

Embracing sustainability in every facet of higher education is to crystallize and practice it in every decision and motion made. At Hadassah College Jerusalem we conducted thorough research based on application of the 'constructivist model of learning' combined with 'systems theory' models.

We surveyed students, faculty and staff to gage their comprehension of sustainability from their various perspectives. Research also included content analysis of our curricula in subjects ranging from communications and design, to environmental health and computer sciences. The results served as a basis for the college's system-wide reform; we created an Interdisciplinary Sustainability Center (ISC) to be operated based on indicators of success in the adaptation of sustainability measures.

The center focuses on inclusion, because of the need to examine everything as a whole from the beginning – both proactively and critically, taking needs from different perspectives into consideration. Heading the ISC is a senior faculty who is a universal designer. He has been appointed to the position because of his expertise in combining knowledge of environments, artifacts and infrastructure.

Dealing with sustainability in a systemic approach is central to our overall mission. The key to success is to involve as many people as possible - starting with the faculty and permeating throughout the campus. Our process is natural and fluid - flowing from all directions including bottom up and top down. Based on our research, we also have developed measuring tools for the center vis-Ã-vis behavioral, cognitive and affective indicators for success.

Incorporating Native Systems into the Academic Campus Landscape

Much of the modern campus has been encroached upon by ornamental landscaping, and native plants have been replaced by a small number of non-native species such as turf grass and ornamental plants. This process has created an unsustainable situation that requires highly wasteful support in the form of irrigation, mowing, and chemical treatment. Native plant species, on the other hand have evolved and adapted over millennia to local conditions and therefore thrive without human intervention, even during stressful periods such as drought. Restoring native eco-systems on academic campuses can offer a means to improve the quality of the air, soil and water, help to prevent flooding, control erosion, enhance biodiversity, and increase cost savings.

Restoring a native ecosystem is more challenging than simply planting seed and expecting it to survive. The natural selection process for native areas occurred over many millennia, and requires a very sensitive balance. A thorough understanding of site conditions must be matched with a strong knowledge of botanical and biological science to build the foundation of a successful restoration.

Public acceptance is equally as important as ecological function for a native landscape to deliver its intended environmental benefits. Acceptance of native systems requires public education in regards to the ecological benefits and long term maintenance. A challenge of implementing a native landscaping project is shifting the aesthetic preference from traditional landscape design. Given the environmental benefits, local and state government cost-share grant funds are available for projects, which can provide financial incentives to implement the plan.

Incorporating Sustainability into a College Course: Measuring the Impact of One Assignment on Sustainability-related Attitudes of the Students.

This presentation reports on a four year project measuring student attitudes about sustainability issues, and the impact of one assignment that focuses on related issues. A survey of sustainability-related attitudes was administered a month before and six weeks after an assignment about the role of human behavior in environmental problems in one community college's General Psychology classes each quarter from Spring 2004 through Fall 2008.

In summary it was found that:

1. The assignment reliably causes statistically significant movement in attitude ratings toward the sustainability pole. The change persists to the 6th week after the assignment.

2. No differences were found in student environmental attitudes in the pre-test between Spring 2004 – Spring 2008. Apparently student attitudes were not changing over that time span from other influences

3. Females score higher than males toward the sustainability pole.

4. Optimism-pessimism about the future was not related to the sustainability attitudes expressed by the students.

5. Attitudes in the pre-test are not related to the number of college credits completed before the quarter began.

6. Students who either do not submit both pre- and post- surveys, or do not follow instructions, are lower in sustainability attitudes than those who do submit both surveys with the requested ID that enables matching their pre-post surveys.

It is concluded that faculty can impact student attitudes by integrating sustainability-related issues into existing courses with even one assignment. That change persists at least through the 6th week after the assignment.

Incorporating Sustainability Into General Plans: An Experiential Learning Case Study

Increasing concerns regarding the impact of humans on the natural environment, coupled with the realization that how we build and plan our cities is going to largely determine the level of progress we make towards achieving sustainability, has led many cities to focus on incorporating sustainability into their general or comprehensive planning activities. This paper focuses on how to design and lead a successful experiential learning course that provides students with the opportunity to work on a real-world planning problem that leads to practical policy recommendations for the 10th largest city in the United States to grow and develop more sustainably.

A key component of the mission for the Department of Urban & Regional Planning at San Jose State University is to prepare a "diverse student population to become leaders in rapidly-changing urban environments." In order to provide students with a well-rounded educational environment that incorporates theory and practice, providing opportunities for students to work on real-world planning problems is essential. In this experiential learning project-based course, students from the Department of Urban & Regional Planning at San Jose State University, in cooperation with the City of San Jose conducted research on sustainable city policies, developed three "visions" to transform an existing suburban neighborhood in San Jose into a "sustainable neighborhood village" and provided policy recommendations regarding how the City could incorporate sustainability into its current General Plan update.

Innovative Methods in Renewable Energy Education and Training and the Integration of Campus Sustainability at Cape Cod Community College

Cape Cod Community College (CCCC) has a dynamic and vibrant environmental program that includes two degree and multiple certificate options, including three certificates in Clean Energy Technologies: Photovoltaic, Solar Thermal and Small Wind. The renewable energy curricula were developed through a National Science Foundation Advanced Technical Education grant. Through hands-on courses, we have installed residential-scale photovoltaic and solar thermal systems on campus. The renewable energy programs and installations are one component of a broader campus sustainability effort. CCCC has been nationally recognized for its sustainability efforts. We have the first Massachusetts State funded LEED building, upcoming utility scale wind turbine, and committed faculty, staff, and students. Through this presentation, we would like to share our success stories in reaching across campus and working together to implement sustainability at CCCC.

Innovative Programs from UNC's Center for Sustainable Enterprise

UNC's Center for Sustainable Enterprise at the Kenan-Flagler School of Business has developed two innovative sustainability programs:

1) CSE Consulting is a one of a kind, award-winning program that leverages the expertise of Kenan-Flagler MBA students, staff, and faculty to offer world-class sustainability consulting services. CSE Consulting provides business-specific, actionable recommendations that address the triple bottom line: financial profitability, social equity, and ecological integrity. Summer associates are hand-picked from Kenan-Flagler's most promising first-year MBA students and benefit from supplemental training workshops. The consulting services include, broadly: social/environmental impact assessment; Sustainability benchmarking; sustainability reporting; business case for sustainability; and sustainable business planning.

2) BASE, the Business Accelerator for Sustainable Entrepreneurship, is the first accelerator designed specifically to support early stage businesses that address the triple bottom line: financial profitability, social equity and environmental sustainability. BASE is currently in its pilot phase where it acts as a virtual business accelerator, developing 5-7 businesses by providing them with: mentorship by BASE advisory board members; networking events, training and workshop opportunities; access to funding, service providers and BASE resource network; and an opportunity to join a network of innovative sustainable entrepreneurs. During the full-scale phase, launching in the fall of 2008, BASE will act as a resident and virtual business accelerator, providing businesses with all of the pilot resources as well as office space and access to students and faculty for consulting projects and internships.

Institutionalizing Sustainability Across Your Campus

Across the nation, in many institutions, sustainability directorships are being created but the path to developing a truly sustainable campus is unclear. Without direct reporting lines to many of the campuses academic and operating departments, the challenges to changing culture and work processes to reduce the environmental footprint are great. The Williams College Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives has been successful in reaching across departmental boundaries, to change the way our community thinks about building construction and maintenance, paper use, and creating and disposing of waste. This presentation will discuss the barriers to change, and ways to achieve sustainable operations with real examples of success. Participants will discover how to find 'sustainability champions' on campus and how to empower them to act, how to use metrics, ways to build support, how to engage trustees and senior levels of administration, how to leverage campus initiatives to include issues related to sustainability, and the role of students. In the past year, the Zilkha Center has worked with several departments and offices on campus dealing with issues related to paper consumption, energy conservation, local foods, building improvements, policies, a year end collection drive, water consumption and trayless dining, building operating hours. At times we have been surprised at the ease of success, and at other times, surprised at the resistance to change. Participants will learn tools that will help them successfully take on new challenges.

Integrating Farm to College Efforts: Education, Policy, & Research

At present, we stand at a critical moment as sustainable food system initiatives spread on colleges and universities across the country. From farm to college programs, fair trade & farm worker rights advocates, local food activists, student farms and gardens, to sustainable agriculture curricula and courses. This session will: • Explore the dynamics of student led farms and gardens and their impact on sustainable agriculture education in the United States • Share research findings on farm to institution programs, examining perspectives from buyers, directors, students, and farmers to learn how to set up successful programs • Provide a space to learn about the Real Food Challenge and dialogue across current issues, explore ways to reach our collective goals, and share strategies to make our collective efforts a monumental success. Come prepared to participate in an interactive meeting design that allows you to learn a sampling of the presenters' insights and experiences and move beyond them. Participants will step into dynamic break-out groups to provide a space for more thorough examination and questioning of the issues presented to better inform the work on your campus.

Integrating Sustainability and Science in an Urban Infrastructure Course - Experience and Learning Outcomes

In the fall of 2007, a course was developed on sustainable infrastructure in urban environments, and the course was taught in the following spring semester. Aimed mainly at undergraduate students in non-science fields, the course covered three urban infrastructure systems – the built environment; water and wastewater supply; and power supply. For each of the three systems, the course followed a similar sequence of classes - units introducing the infrastructure system; units on underlying science and engineering basics; and units on sustainability aspects, with a focus on environmental impacts. Each sequence included a field trip to a local site. The course was bracketed by an introductory block that discussed the concept of urban infrastructure, and a concluding unit on the concept of sustainability in an urban context. The presentation will describe the curricular environment of the course, student participation, and some learning outcomes, as well as student feedback and lessons learned.

Integrating Sustainability with Facilities Master Planning at Randolph College

Many colleges and universities are in the process of "greening" their campuses to achieve more sustainable use of energy and resources and reduce their contribution to climate disruption. This process can be piecemeal and inefficient without effective and comprehensive planning. Randolph College is a signatory to the American College and University President's Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) and also is participating in the AASHE pilot program for the Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS). At the same time, the College is developing an overall Facilities Master Plan. We have combined efforts on several fronts under the umbrella of an overall "Sustainability Plan". The Sustainability Plan includes objectives and strategies to achieve our goals for the STARS, the ACUPCC, and our college's Campus Facilities Master Plan. In our poster, we will describe the development of the Sustainability Plan, the research underlying our objectives and strategies, and our process for bringing the college administration and community on board to ensure successful implementation. We have also designed the Plan for periodic assessment of our progress towards our sustainability goals.

Integration of Community and College: Farmers Market at Paul Smiths College

June 30th, 2008 marks the second season of the Adirondack Farmers' Market Cooperative at the Paul Smiths College's campus, a small, rural college in upstate New York. This year, the market will host not only vendors, but a student intern, special events sponsored by both the college and the cooperative, and as always, a market of locally grown produce by the area's farmers.

While the local summer tourists enjoy the opportunity to shop this farmers' market, both the college and the farmers are investigating its viability and sustainability.

Paul Smith has invested site availability, signage opportunity, marketing, a cooperative manager's fee, and academic liaison time. From the college's perspective, the following issues will be investigated:

- Is there a return on investment that is measurable:

o Increased enrollment?

o Increased brand awareness (college name/programs)?

o Curriculum development opportunities?

This presentation will look at the above questions through two instruments: the use of self-reported data by consumers and farmers; analysis of student enrollment inquiries based solely on a visit to the Adirondack Farmer's Market at Paul Smith College. The data will collected by a student intern under the guidance of Dr. Diane Litynski, with planned larger scope farmers' market/community/college integration research to follow.

Integration of Sustainability Education into Pre-service Teacher Preparation

In Washington state, beginning Fall, 2009, all new teacher candidates will need to provide student-based and teacher-based evidence demonstrating they are able to prepare effective citizens for an environmentally sustainable, globally interconnected and diverse society. This is part of the Standard V requirements for teacher education program approval by the state and is the country's first law to include education for sustainability in the initial license for teachers. Two teacher candidates enrolled in Woodring College of Education at Western Washington University are involved with projects funded by a grant from The Russell Family Foundation to develop strategies for infusing education for sustainability into pre-service preparation of teachers. This session will present an overview of the projects and how they are modeling strategies for implementing Standard V.

One project pairs pre-service education students with Native Alaskan children through email and activities centered around increasing literacy, discussing prospects of higher education, raising sustainability awareness and collecting direct evidence of climate change. The other venture involves a service-learning school garden partnership. Third grade classes raise food on University land for the local food bank while a pre-service teacher plans and implements lessons addressing required science curriculum that is taught through the lens of sustainability. Each project is based on economic equity, environmental stewardship and social justice, which are the three legs of sustainability. These projects address the sustainability literacy themes of intergenerational perspective, stewardship, social justice and fair distribution, systems thinking and interdependence, importance of local place, nature as a model and teacher and global citizenship.

Ithaca College's Finger Lakes Project

Ithaca College's Finger Lakes Project (FLP) is a sustainability curricular education workshop inspired by AASHE's Sustainability Across the Curriculum Leadership workshops. The FLP, which began in 2006, has grown into a regional workshop attracting educators from a variety of institutions of higher education in addition to K-12 teachers. Unique and successful aspects of the FLP that could be models for other institutions include: partnering with the college's Center for Faculty Excellence for logistical, financial, and learning-design support, encouraging broad participation through our active internal grant program, demonstrating cross-curricular sustainability education with place-based sustainability walks, building a sustainability teaching community by encouraging participation and presentations by participants from previous years, and the integration of scholarship of teaching into the project. Participants will receive materials describing the features of the Finger Lakes Project and resources for adapting them.

Ithaca College's Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Ithaca College has estimated its greenhouse gas inventory for the last seven years using the Clean-Air Cool-Planet excel-based calculator. The emissions inventory has been accomplished each year by an undergraduate student, in consultation with a faculty supervisor. Students receive credit equivalent to one course for this work which typically requires a full semester. This presentation highlights the challenges of attaining the information used in making this calculation and highlights some possible solutions for future calculations. The completed inventory for 2007 is presented along with a comparison among years and other similarly-sized institutions.

Ithaca College's New Commit-to-Change Initiative

Ithaca College's leadership in environmental and sustainability education and operations just got a significant boost with the assistance of a three-year, $500,000 grant from the HSBC in the Community (USA) Inc. Foundation. Awarded to the Environmental Studies Program, the grant will fund a number of noteworthy initiatives. The foundation is the philanthropic arm of HSBC Bank USA, N.A., part of one of the world's largest banking and financial services organizations with an excellent track record in sustainability and climate neutrality. Programs funded by the grant will include scholarships to attract incoming students with a passion for social and environmental change, a fellowship program to reward students engaged in exemplary environmental or sustainability projects, an internship and research fund, a Scholar-In-Residence Program bringing in a series of exceptional speakers for two-day to two-week visits, a program that uses Ithaca College natural lands (500 acres) as the focal resource for education, research and experimentation, the development of a new sustainability major and minor, expansion of local, regional and national outreach efforts through workshops, and development of an online certification program for sustainability coordinators in higher education as well as in the government, nonprofit, and private industry sectors.

Keeping Track of Progress Towards Sustainability at UC Irvine

Involving students and faculty in the process of campus greening is essential. At UC Irvine, the sustainability report written last year is being updated to reflect new developments. The UCI administration holds quarterly "green" meetings to which students and faculty are invited to hear and give any updates from their "sector", yet there does not seem to be much involvement from students or faculty in the policy-setting done by the administration. There has been collaboration on energy-efficiency projects and Focus the Nation, but when it comes to figuring out how to go carbon neutral, administrators aren't asking many questions yet.

Launching SAC: A Colloquia Model

In a recent article, Daniel Sherman asserted that for campus sustainability to really take hold, it must become a "pedagogical big idea" and not just a focus of campus operations. Our poster, "Launching S.A.C.: A Colloquia Model," illustrates how Central Washington University, a medium-sized, Master's-granting institution, has begun transitioning from operational sustainability, to this pedagogical "big idea."

CWU's pursuit of sustainable practices in operations and academics, has included signing the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment. Committed to creating a repository of best practices that balance national curricular initiatives with our local and regional context, the "Sustainability Across the Curriculum Colloquium" is our first step to creating a cohesive and comprehensive protocol for making climate neutrality and sustainability a fundamental part of CWU's curricular activities.

Given the different campus contexts around the country, we believe it is important to offer additional examples that revise the models pioneered by the Piedmont and Ponderosa Projects. Our Colloquium will kick off as a one-day workshop in September and will be open to all interested faculty. Our hope is that most, if not all, of the participants will integrate some element of sustainability studies into their existing course(s) during the 2008-2009 academic year or develop new courses for the 2009-2010 academic year.

Our poster will include an explanation of our one-day workshop agenda, an overview of our efforts to make the workshop carbon-neutral, a workshop assessment by participants and facilitators, and the calendar of events and courses for winter and spring academic quarters.

Launching Sustainability at the University of Hawaii at Manoa

The Sustainable Saunders initiative at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is an inspiring case study of students leading the way for campus and state-wide sustainability. The interdisciplinary student team calling themselves the HUB (Help Us Bridge) has engaged the campus and state-wide community to transform seven-story Saunders Hall into a model of sustainability. By bridging with utilities, government agencies, corporations and community volunteers over a dozen projects have been launched including water catchment, green roofing, lighting retrofits, a building mounted wind turbine and the first solar panels on campus. In addition to providing lessons learned, each project is a proof of concept, empowering other buildings across Hawaii to adopt the successes.

As a result of these efforts, a third of the building's energy use will be cut in one year with minimal costs. This is well ahead of the campus goal of reducing electricity consumption by 30% in 2012. Demonstrating this possibility is paramount for the campus as well as the state since UHM is the second largest consumer of electricity in Hawaii after the military with over 1.5 million dollars in student tuition paying the electricity bill every month.

With their commitment to rigorous scientific assessments in the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental benefits, the Sustainable Saunders student team provides an unbiased perspective on potential sustainable solutions. And with their dedication to state-wide outreach, they generate positive energy which has gone beyond educating to movement building.

Launching Web-Enabled, Real-Time, Energy Management Software in Campus Buildings

This presentation will discuss the lessons learned in deploying an energy management software tool at the University of British Columbia.

The University of British Columbia Sustainability Office partnered in the project with Small Energy Group to deploy an energy management software tool that allows campuses to meet their energy reduction objectives. The software is managed through the internet and accessed through web applications that are available to anyone with an internet browser.

The successful deployment of the software was made possible because of the impressive infrastructural foundation that was put in place through the recent energy and water retrofit project, ECOtrek. UBC has installed an advanced network of utility meters that make it possible to easily collect the required information. The UBC Sustainability Office has an existing program for Sustainability Coordinators and these volunteers played an important role facilitating the communications campaign and participating in product design workshops.

The web application designed for building occupants provides a simplified view of real time energy consumption and typical energy consumption for that building. Typical consumption is calculated using intelligent algorithms, so that anomalies can be quickly detected. The application displays energy consumption in easy-to-understand equivalent forms and communicates customized sustainability tips for each building. More advanced versions of the application can provide detailed information for facility management and financial and carbon accounting.

This presentation will be applicable to anyone considering the use of any software tool to help modify energy consumption patterns at a university or college campus.

Launching Web-Enabled, Real-Time, Energy Management Software in Campus Buildings

As universities and colleges across Canada ramp up efforts in campus sustainability the need for mechanisms to exchange information and best practice, and build networks for dialogue specific to the Canadian experience grows. The Canadian university experience is set within distinct political and institutional frameworks and related opportunities. This presentation will examine the Canadian university leadership in sustainability and explore opportunities to enhance exchanges, build networks and form strategic alliances specific to Canadian institutions.

The panel will include presentations on four major Canadian initiatives: the University Presidents’ Climate Change Statement of Action for Canada; Building Transportation Alliances with the Post-Secondary Sector; Campus Sustainability Efforts Across Canada; and Overcoming Barriers to Sustainability: Implementing Institutional Reform. Each presenter will conclude with some thoughts on what further actions can be taken to build ways in which we can work together for success and influence both nationally and globally. The panel moderator will facilitate open discussion with audience members on this topic. Canadian and non-Canadian participants are welcome.

Leading the University and Print Vendor Community toward Sustainable Practices

Applying sustainability principles to the design of printed material needed by universities must take into consideration a life cycle from raw materials through the manufacturing of paper to design and printing, distribution, use, and disposal.

Graphic designers engaged in sustainable practice use techniques, processes, materials, and vendors that will help reduce the detrimental environmental, social, and economic impact of their designs.

Our presentation explains how graphic designers in the Institutional Marketing department at Grand Valley State University use sustainable practices to design and produce publications and how, at our urging, local printers have transformed their practices as well, to reduce the overall carbon footprint of each piece.

By being aware of paper and printer choices available, designers and print buyers can make a difference in using resources wisely.

Learning from Experience: Collaboration for Campus Carbon Cutbacks

This poster will reveal some preliminary findings from Rocky Mountain Institute's (RMI) new research project: Accelerating Campus Climate-Change Initiatives. RMI is partnering with AASHE to develop a comprehensive research report that will be released next spring. Campus buildings and facilities present opportunities for reducing an institution's carbon footprint by incorporating principles of sustainable and energy-efficient design. The poster highlights common barriers and solutions RMI has found to minimize the carbon footprint of campus buildings and facilities. The Built Environment Team (BET) at RMI has worked with colleges and universities around the world to find customized ways of incorporating principles of energy efficiency and regeneration into the design of campus physical space. The poster represents a thread of ongoing research in BET's campus work, which focuses on all aspects of campus operations and attempts to systematically analyze the barriers and solutions to reducing campus greenhouse gas emissions. Preliminary findings presented here have been drawn from qualitative interviews with experienced architects, planners, engineers and LEED specialists at RMI as well as from interviews with sustainability, planning and finance professionals at colleges and universities around the country. We hope the poster will provide a venue for interactive discussion with AASHE conference participants that will enable refinement and expansion of our continuing research on campus climate action planning.

Learning to Lean: How Lean Can Improve the Way You Address Sustainability Challenges on Campus

Planning for sustainability in the face of campus complexity is a daunting challenge. How can we approach that challenge in a way that supports (and is supported by) the diverse stakeholder groups? A critical starting point is to understand what the stakeholders in the system value. Yet, those stakeholders are often disconnected, and have widely divergent objectives related to sustainability on campus. How can we optimize our approach to engaging them to see the “big picture” and then chose from competing options to improve the entire picture?

This highly interactive workshop will demonstrate how to apply lean thinking to understand what stakeholders value most and deliver that value in the least-wasteful way. Using a real campus sustainability challenge at Cape Cod Community College as an example, we will demonstrate a rapid improvement process that applies a variety of tools to implement that thinking. We’ll include tools for value assessment, current situation evaluation, future state visualization, rapid prioritization and standardizing best practices. Properly used these tools can help faculty, administrators, students, vendors and communities and find the best way to use limited resources to generate sustainable value.

As you’re exposed to one issue on Cape Cod’s campus, this session will give you a chance to explore an approach and tools which help facilities professionals, campus sustainability leaders, and administrators understand needs and problems, assess and prioritize responses, and quantify the value for any sustainability goals --- at the departmental level or the institutional level.

LEED Certification Assessment Project: Dr. Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions, University of South Florida

This project was conducted as part of the Green Infrastructure for Sustainable Communities class in the spring 2008. The objective of this class was to understand infrastructure management, green design and sustainability in a multidisciplinary classroom environment.

In May 2005, the Dr. Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions was launched by the University of South Florida (USF Tampa) and philanthropists Drs. Kiran and Pallavi Patel with a focus on "creating real solutions that deliver a sustainable quality of life for all people". The Center aims to bring together faculty, staff and students across USF's campuses to facilitate research in the broad area of global sustainability. In keeping with its core value of promoting sustainable healthy communities, the Center's Strategic Plan identifies the need to pursue Green Building status for their proposed new building.

The objective of this project was to provide innovative yet cost-effective recommendations for specific green features in order to assist potential qualification for LEED certification. This assessment was based on the LEED New Construction v2.2 criteria and in accordance with the campus master plan. A final report comprising of specific recommendations, potential funding sources, case studies and a list of locally available sustainable resources was submitted to the Center.

The project outcome will help the proposed Center become the first LEED certified building on USF Tampa campus, and also further the University's Strategic Plan and help meet the requirements of the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, which was signed by USF earlier this year.

LEED-EB Case Studies; Implementing Sustainable Practices through Project Documentation and Certification

Documenting sustainable operations for LEED-EB Certification elicits the expertise and involvement from numerous campus departments, off-campus professional organizations and building occupants. In this presentation will share how project teams were formulated to document the LEED-EB credits, the relation of campus policies and procedures to the certification process and provide current certification status update with Cal Poly's first LEED-EB Certification submittal. This presentation will focus on the importance of establishing teams that are involved with each credit, how the teams are organized using a centralized team administrator and how this increased the number of participants in the LEED-EB certification process. For example, when calculating the amount of water consumption and reviewing ways to decrease usage, a team consisting of plumbers, custodian supervisor, the associate director and the team administrator were all involved in the analysis and decision making process for improvements. Creating smaller teams from a large organization gave the opportunity to educate the trades and departments about the significance of sustainability and resulted in a higher level of buy-in for the work that would be required for certification.

Less is More: EKU's New Science Building is Right-Sized and Sustainable

Eastern Kentucky University evaluated their existing science facilities, spread between 3 out-dated buildings (constructed between 1880 and late 1960"s). After going through a careful process, EKU decided to relocate all the sciences to a new facility that meets the requirements for LEED certification. EKU made initial estimates of the are requirements that exceeded the Commonwealth of Kentucky approved budget. With results of a utilization study of classrooms and laboratories, EKU was able to reduce the program to meet the state budget.

An updated construction estimate produced in the design development phase indicated that EKU would have to make another reduction in building size, because construction cost escalation rates had doubled in the year since the program was approved. The building architect recommended a 4 foot reduction of the width of the building along the entire length, over 600 feet on each floor! The total area reduction achieved was over 14,000 net square feet. The engineers found the net area reduction significantly reduced the size of the ventilation air system equipment and overall utility energy load. The significantly added to the sustainable value of the decision to right-size the building.

At every step of the process, the design team applied sustainable materials, systems and methods for the building. Materials in laboratory environments must be durable, chemically resistant and adaptable for future reuse. Many materials the team recommended have high recyclable content, where possible. This new sustainable building is now under construction for the citizens of eastern Kentucky.

Less is More: How Plumbing Products Contribute to Water Conservation

As water conservation is becoming an important issue worldwide, the need for plumbing products that preserve water is also increasing. Whether you are specifying plumbing products that meet the criteria of Green building initiatives, working to reduce your facility's operating costs or need to accommodate the preferences of leasees, environmentally conscious fixtures and faucets can help you address these challenging demands. This course will cover general water conservation, Green building standards and how to specify water-saving plumbing solutions that contribute to the big picture. Kohler has worked with the University of Wisconsin, Boston College, Vanderbilt University and Georgia Tech - providing them with water conserving product solutions that meet the needs of their facilities.

Leverage Your Greenhouse Gas Inventory

Campuses across the country are completing GHG inventories, many for the first time. Though the effort can be daunting and complicated, the inventory is an important strategic tool that institutions should use to guide and optimize their environmental sustainability efforts. In addition, campuses should have a plan to maintain their GHG inventory, as it will continue to provide “next step” guidance in their quest for carbon neutrality.

Through a panel format attendees will hear from both leaders in quantifying gas emissions as well as campus representatives. There will be three speakers, each providing a unique perspective.

1. Clean Air - Cool Planet will discuss their evolving Campus Carbon Calculator, share the struggles institutions have experienced completing a GHG inventory, reveal standard practices, and comment on GHG accounting areas which are still evolving such as indirect emissions sources and sinks.

2. Sightlines will provide an overview of the GreenLine process, which assists campuses in quantifying and verifying environmental stewardship metrics. They will then also explain how understanding your longitudinal performance and benchmarking against peers can identify strengths, and opportunities, ultimately leading to strategic and tactical actions to achieve carbon neutrality.

3. Fitchburg State College will share a case study of their experience completing their first GHG inventory, highlight what the College discovered through the GreenLine process, and reveal the next steps Fitchburg State will be taking to reduce their carbon footprint.

Life Cycle Assessment of a Banana Split

It seems everyone is talking about sustainability. We are bombarded with news, businesses, governments, parents, and academia about products ranging from cars to household cleaning agents. However, when one asks what sustainability or sustainable development is, most people give a vague definition. Yet the answer can be found when a simple everyday pleasure (Banana Split) is assessed for its embodied energy and material flow.

This presentation will examine the anatomy of this product and dissect it into its various components using a team-based collaborative approach. The teams will then examine the individual components, conducting a mini-LCA on each.

This presentation will offer:

-Insight into the embodied energy it takes to package and create a banana split.

-Information on toxic materials used to create a banana split.

-Information how much energy it takes to keep ice cream cold and fruit cool.

The presentation will conclude with brief team presentations/observations, and depending on circumstances, number of participants, and availability of resources, the eating of ice cream.

Lighten Up Caroline - A Community Project For Energy Efficiency

On Saturday, April 19th, 2008, approximately 90 volunteers distributed one compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL) in a reusable bag containing information about household energy conservation and CFL use and recycling to each of the 1,400 households in the Town of Caroline, Tompkins County, NY. This collaborative effort, called "Lighten Up Caroline", was a project of Energy Independent Caroline, a community group dedicated to producing local renewable energy in order to make the town independent from fossil fuels. The project was made possible through months of planning by Cornell University and Ithaca College students together with Caroline residents, as well as various grants. Additionally, many of the reusable bags were hand-sewn by Sew Green, an Ithaca-based sustainable sewing group, as a fundraiser to launch their organization.

The immediate impacts of the project include collectively saving residents $70,000 in energy bills, preventing more than 800,000 pounds of CO2 emissions, and getting people interested in renewable energy and energy conservation at a community scale. "Lighten Up Caroline" is an especially important example for the sustainability arena, as there is often not a significant focus on rural areas. This project is just one way individual communities can take sustainability into their own hands, even if regional and national governments are not doing enough. "Lighten Up Caroline" demonstrates that students can go beyond campus and work with local residents to make surrounding communities more sustainable. Such coordination is a model for university partnerships with local communities and thus should be recognized by larger sustainability organizations.

Like, Why do I Need to Know my Watershed?

Progressive educators have promoted the concept of place-based education for more than 100 years. For example, John Dewy advocated: "Experience [outside the school] has its geographical aspect, its artistic and its literacy, its scientific and its historical sides. All studies arise from aspects of the one earth and the one life lived upon it (1915, p. 91). Place-based education usually includes conventional outdoor education methodologies as advocated by Dewey to help students connect with their particular place in the world. More recently, proponents of place-based education envision a role for it in learning about ecological and cultural sustainability (DeLind & Link, 2004; Gruenewald & Smith, 2007; Orr, 2005).

This presentation gives a place-based, experiential learning model for an undergraduate general education course. Developed over nine years and with feedback from over 750 students, this model integrates concepts of ecological and cultural sustainability with multiculturalism and foundations of education.

Linking Difference, Defining Action: Sustainable Living on Campus

The signing of institutional commitments by American colleges and universities to advance sustainability and become carbon-neutral parallels the trend seen in the last decade toward creating sustainable campus housing. Similar interest underlies this project to promote sustainability through campus housing at a land-grant university. The project evolved over three phases starting with a benchmarking study that systematically identified environmentally-themed residential learning communities within green campus residences.

Practical application of this concept to the specific needs and goals of this university was explored in two subsequent phases. Phase two combined research and education in a design studio project for an existing village for student families. To design the physical environment of the village in support of sustainable living, the research was conducted to explore environmental attitudes among village residents and perceived challenges and opportunities for environmental praxis within the village. The study found residents already attempting to live sustainably in ways not fully supported by campus housing facilities and policies. Given the markedly multi-cultural demographics of the pilot village, researchers pondered whether cultural differences, among other factors, affected both resident and institutional expectations.

Phase three is an ongoing in-depth study on the creation of a sustainable residential learning community on campus. Its aim is to understand the environmental values, interests, and practices among residents of the university's five student family villages, their possible bearing on the creation of a sustainable residential learning community, and lastly, to identify a model for one such community on campus.

Living Green, Learning Green: Applying Green Values to Housing and Across the University

At the University of South Carolina, applying green values across the campus is part of an attempt to transform not only the curriculum but also the daily lives of students in a way that will create the global citizens needed to address the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainability. This presentation will outline three interrelated initiatives:

The "Green Learning Community" is an experimental community of 30 students who live within the Green Quad (the nation's largest LEED-certified residence hall) and experiment with the personal, cultural, and environmental changes required to create a more sustainable society. Community members form part of the core of activist students who participate in the projects and programs of the Learning Center for Sustainable Futures, which facilitates interactions among students, faculty, staff, and local activists.

"Green Explorations/Green Engagements" is an interdisciplinary seminar sequence for first-year students. "Green Explorations" allows new students to explore their physical environment as well how the "environment" is understood within a broad range of disciplines. In "Green Engagement," students undertake their own research/advocacy project, in collaboration with key stakeholders within university and with community activists.

"Green Politics" is on-going experiment in teaching in accord with "green values." Instead of learning only about green values, students experience green values as the foundation of a cooperative, non-hierarchical learning process. During the first half of the course, participants learn about green pedagogy, green political thought, green living, and green action. Topics for the second half are left for the "class community" to determine.

Looking Past Single-impact Certifications: What Promises do they Really Make?

Third-party certification verifies that a product meets specific standards or claims made by the manufacturer. A major benefit of certification is that it can greatly reduce the time and expense required to identify, select and purchase products. A variety of “green” certifications have been created but most focus on a single attribute of a product. A product may be low in VOCs, but not have a single percent of recycled content. A product may be energy efficient, but to make it, the manufacturer is producing 100 times more carbon emissions than necessary into the atmosphere. This poster will illustrate single-impact certifications and provide tips on how to understand what part of sustainability they deliver, as well as review the SMART© Consensus Sustainable Product Standards and how it looks at more than one product attribute at a time.

Lynchburg College's Year of the Environment

The 2007-8 school year served as Lynchburg College's Year of the Environment, with a theme of "A Greener Tomorrow Today." This was the first time that an attempt had been made to focus events around a given theme. Events were held throughout the year that focused on environmental issues, including lectures, art exhibits, service projects, movie screenings, and festivals. The year also saw the initiation of LC's Eco-house, an experiment in sustainable living. Six students moved into a college owned house with the goal of minimizing their impact on the environment. The environmental focus of the year also led the college to initiate a comprehensive recycling program. This poster summarizes the activities and accomplishments of the Year of the Environment at Lynchburg College.

Making it Personal: Targeted Outreach Climate Change and Energy Conservation

It's no surprise that students are more likely to take action on climate change if they understand it in the context of issues that affect and interest them personally. Similarly they are more likely to engage in energy conservation behaviors if they understand the connection between energy and its contribution to climate change. Surveys of CU students indicated a high concern for climate change, but low awareness of many of its primary causes (e.g. electricity production) and the impacts that could affect them personally.

A key strategy of the CU Environmental Center's Energy Outreach Team is to get students interested in climate change on a topic that they are already interested in and then make the connection to energy conservation actions they can take.

To do this, the team identifies campus entities (student groups, clubs, departments, etc.) that have some overlap with an issue related to climate change. The team then partners with those entities to co-sponsor or host a presentation or event integrating climate change with the entity's key focus.

This strategy has been successfully implemented as individual events with: a pre-med student group; student groups focused on genocide and human rights issues; the International Affairs club; and the business school. Several additional target group events are planned for the 08/09 Academic year, including the snow sports clubs, religious groups, engineering clubs and environmental journalism department.

Making LEED a Reality; Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina

This poster presents sustainable building practices in the design and construction of a new, five-story, 104,000 square foot Arnold School of Public Health for the University of South Carolina. The University's commitment to sustainability, including energy and resource use reductions and improvement of the indoor environment for students and faculty, were priorities that shaped the design.

This new academic and research facility is the cornerstone of the University's Innovista Research campus and includes research laboratories and programs of the Departments of Exercise Science and Environmental Health Sciences, as well as the Prevention Research Center and the Children's Physical Activity Research Group.

The poster highlights goals that were established and examines the reality of ensuring that LEED requirements are met during the construction phase. Reduction of water use, including the incorporation an underground cistern, and reduction of construction waste through recycling are a few of the strategies incorporated in the design. Focus on improving the quality of the indoor environment through the use of daylighting, and reduction of VOC emitting materials, among others are aimed at creating healthy environments that promote the health and sustainability for students, faculty and staff working in the building.

Making the Truth Convenient: One Sustainable Behavior at a Time

Today's environmentally-aware college students are becoming increasingly active in driving their university's sustainable practices. This increased environmental activity has united a wide range of campus participants, extending the traditional faculty-student relationship to embrace greater participation levels with administrators and facilities personnel. One example of extending traditional college student relationships is using an energy savings performance contract (ESPC) as an opportunity to advance sustainability practices throughout the college campus and beyond. This presentation describes multiple outcomes of two successful partnerships between an energy services company and a public liberal arts university in Virginia; and a public university in Pennsylvania.

Traditional ESPCs result in environmental improvements to residence halls, classrooms, athletic facilities, and other campus buildings. When publicized, these improvements create a unique opportunity for interaction, communication, and collaboration between the school's administrators, facilities and residence life departments, residential students, student environmental clubs and organizations, and other community stakeholders. Framed as a buy-in opportunity for like-minded individuals, the ESPC becomes the vehicle to elevate existing sustainability activities and create pathways to new environmental actions. One new, unique action is a custom-tailored, social-cognitive behavior change program presented along with other traditional ESPC energy conservation measures. We will present the subjective and objective results of both a treatment vs. control pilot study, and the one-year results of a campus-wide implementation of this behavior change program within an ESPC. This session will illuminate opportunities to use a unique ESPC component to advance the sustainability message and support a culture of sustainability at their institution.

Making Your Campus a Laboratory for Sustainability: Linking Operations and Curriculum

How can you incorporate daily operations of your campus into a laboratory for learning opportunities for students? This presentation will emphasize easily transferable strategies, regardless of campus size and orientation. Issues such as climate neutrality, food production and service, renewable energy, and waste are intrinsically local as well as global. College campuses are communities which can serve as living laboratories for students to gain both theoretical and practical skills. Our efforts on campus also strengthen off-campus community sustainability efforts and local economies. The presentation will acquaint our colleagues with key academic programs and partnerships at Evergreen, and explain how we've developed and strengthened ongoing partnerships among faculty, staff and students in order to develop a communitywide culture around sustainability initiatives. This will be a highly participatory and interactive discussion in which we use our experience as a springboard to consider ongoing challenges at many campuses. The presentation will address: -Why is it important to link operations and curriculum? What are the benefits of focusing on this link? -What are the overarching challenges and barriers? -Examples at Evergreen. How did each of these programs get started? How did the process begin? -What is a common thread that transcends each of these examples? What are first steps for your college? -Identify first steps that sustainability leaders, faculty members, and others can take back to their own campuses!

Mandating GREEN-a Regulatory Scheme for Realizing Institutional Sustainability

The Boston region has long been recognized as a center for higher education, a dense urban environment which is host to over 30 colleges and universities and a student population of 125,000. The managed growth and physical development of these institutions is a major influence on the quality of life in the city. The city has an aggressive green initiative to include signing the Mayor's Climate Change Commitment and adoption of green building standards which are now incorporated within the development review process. Further regulation is provided with regard to institutions through a regulatory framework known as an Institutional Master Plan. An Institutional Master Plan (IMP) is a comprehensive development plan for academic institutions. IMPs describe institutions' existing facilities, long-range planning and sustainability goals, and proposed projects over a ten-year period. Article 80 of the Boston Zoning Code requires the approval of an IMP as part of the approval of academic institution project and governs the review process of both the IMP and any proposed projects. The institution must update and renew its IMP every two years and must amend it whenever it adds or changes any project over a minimum threshold.

The preesntation will explore the strengths and limitations of the regulatory scheme in achieving sustainability goals for both the institution and the city. The presentation will use actual examples drawing upon the experience of a range of institutions of varied context, size, enrollment and experience. Presenters will represent the perspective of the institution, city and student.

Many Fields of Green: An Interdisciplinary Approach

This curriculum-oriented presentation provides an overview of how sustainability principles are taught in a variety of academic disciplines at the college level. Through a series of examples and case studies, perspectives will be provided from each of the following disciplines: History of Green, Language of Green, Archeology of Green, Literature of Green, Philosophy of Green, Religion of Green, Architecture of Green, Engineering of Green, Science of Green, Medicine of Green, Mathematics of Green, Geography of Green, Politics of Green, Laws of Green, Sociology of Green, Psychology of Green, Economics of Green, Business of Green, and Education of Green. This presentation seeks to encourage new collaborative teaching and research efforts across academic disciplines by providing insights into common interests and approaches to green/sustainability studies. The concluding topic, the Future of Green, will invite participants to look at future directions of sustainability studies, and to consider how they may influence the future by infusing green principles into their own academic environments.

Mapping the Landscapes of History: the Elwha River as curriculum

The largest dam removal/river restoration project ever attempted is slated for the Elwha River in rural Washington state. A 1992 Act of Congress guaranteed the removal, following the efforts of local citizens, federal organizations, and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. This is a uniquely interdisciplinary project, involving treaty rights, local resources, endangered salmon species, a city dependent on the river for its water, and a variety of environmental groups and state and federal agencies. Key elements of sustainability are at issue: ecosystem restoration, equity and justice, water quality and quantity, and economic development. Peninsula College has actively engaged students in the study of this dynamic ecosystem—from bioregionally focused learning community courses (1995-2005) combining botany, composition, literature, and visual arts—to National Science Foundation grants that support undergraduate research.

This presentation will trace the educational opportunities created by the Elwha river restoration project. Internet technology and cooperative curriculum have broadened our understanding of the Elwha and its systems, and in turn, undergraduate research has been shared with elementary, middle and high school students, and the public at large. At Peninsula College, future work includes curriculum that links English composition and visual mapping through Google Earth and its multidimensional "lit trips." This virtual and physical exploration of the Elwha provides a conceptual look into history and a vision toward a future watershed, combining environmental science and humanities research in inspiring visual narratives.

Maximizing Student Action on Campus

Higher education institutions have been home to some of the most significant movements in history. Students recognize that there is strength in numbers and want to use their knowledge to effect meaningful change in the world. This facilitated roundtable discussion will bring together individuals from different higher education institutions to share ideas and create plans for maximizing sustainability-related student action on campus. The discussion will explore the following:

-Scale and Location – How does an institution's size and setting affect student action on campus? What models exist to bring students together in different types of settings and how effective are they?

-Communication Mechanisms – How do students effectively communicate opportunities to get involved? How do student groups maintain membership and stay connected?

-Funding and Administrative Support – How do students approach gaining support for their initiatives and what resources exist?

-Facilities – Where do students come together? Do campuses provide a meeting space for student initiatives and are these spaces adequate?

-Setting Goals – How do students decide what issues/projects to organize around? Are students reaching their goals?

-Awareness – What is the level of sustainability awareness on different campuses? What opportunities exist for building awareness?

Participants will be asked to identify what they think are best practices for different types of institutions. Responses will be used to develop a summary report that will be emailed out to participants after the conference. Participants can share the results with interested students on their campuses.

Maximizing Student, Staff, and Faculty Synergies: The University of British Columbia SEEDS Program

This presentation describes an award winning "greening the campus" program. SEEDS is the first academic program in Western Canada that brings together students, faculty, and staff to collaborate on developing and implementing sustainability projects on campus. It provides valuable experience for students to put their academic learning to use and has saved the University almost $200,000 in consulting fees. SEEDS coordinates applied research opportunities. Staff members request research pertinent to their fields, students earn academic credit for their work, instructors become more involved with the community, and sustainability issues are addressed by some of the brightest minds in the world. Since 2000, SEEDS has engaged almost 3000 participants. The program showcases UBC's commitment as an institution as well as the dedication of individuals throughout the university. Projects have benefited the University in a variety of ways. Our Biodiesel Project led Plant Operations to use 20 percent biodiesel fuel in all its fleet vehicles, research from various SEEDS projects has led to a pesticide-free campus, and has sparked a reassessment of landscape techniques in order to reduce heavy metal contaminants in stormwater. SEEDS has also coordinated investigation into how the world can use its seafood resources in wise and sustainable ways transforming food service operations on campus. This presentation describes the principles and processes that led to the success of the program, the framework that supports it, its impacts and how it might be replicated on other campuses.

Measuring Institutional Carbon "Foodprints"

Amid growing concerns about climate change, colleges and universities across the country are conducting greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories in order to begin taking steps toward reducing their carbon footprint. Many inventory tools exist; however, few of them capture food related greenhouse gas emissions. Considering estimates by the IPCC that 31% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture and forestry, the latter substantially comprised of deforestation for food production, food related emissions are significant and should be measured.

The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and Clean Air-Cool Planet collaborated to perform a review of methods used by industry and academics to quantify food related GHG emissions, in order to identify the tools currently in use and to aid in considering options for developing a "foodprint" calculator. The review included over 140 articles, life cycle analyses (LCA) and carbon calculators.

Currently, few complete methodologies exist that capture food related GHG emissions. The existing methodologies rely on a combination of life cycle analyses from the US and Europe. Recognizing limitations and seeking to use the most reputable, applicable data possible, a method was developed to represent some emissions from university food provision for incorporation into the Clean Air-Cool Planet Campus Carbon Calculator.

The review findings, including strengths and limitations of existing methodologies, as well as, the potential capabilities of the CA-CP tool will be discussed.

Mega University - Two Roads, One Path To Climate Neutrality

The University of Florida and Arizona State University both enjoy grassroots support and top level leadership for sustainability. With 55 and 65 thousand students respectively, the development of a campus climate action plan is challenging. Each university has taken two distinctly different paths geared to their unique environments in developing a campus climate action plan and yet distinct and consistent cross-over areas have occurred. This presentation will include over-views of each process, strategy, specific tools (policies, master plans, etc) and include a frank lessons learned component beneficial to any one in the early stages of their plans.

Moving On: From RECs to Local Offsets as Social Benefits

As the nation's first campus to fund Renewable Energy Credit (RECs) purchases with student dollars, the University of Colorado-Boulder was reluctant to abandon RECs. However, after considering the co-benefits of credible local offset projects, UCB decided to discontinue REC purchases and opt instead for verifiable local offsets in cooperation with the Colorado Carbon Fund. The extensive co-benefits include education/outreach, economic development, community partnerships with local governments and NGOs, service learning, and social justice. Experience with RECs at UCB also added weight to the decision as observers noted that few student behavioral changes were traceable to RECs. Likewise, the widespread imprecision of how RECs have been communicated at UCB and across the nation has resulted in the common misconception that facilities were 'powered by wind energy" when, in fact, RECs are a strictly financial transaction devoid of direct energy transfers to a buyer. However, it was the concept of local offsets as a social benefit that was found most compelling as campus sustainability evolves from its historically enviro-centric focus to a more mature socio-centric sustainability perspective now emerging across all sectors. The paper will survey RECs and their use on college campuses, identify strengths and weaknesses in RECs and local offsets, evaluate the co-benefits of both, review credible verification protocols for both, and recount the decision-making process that led UCB to transition to local offsets thus becoming the nation's first campus to forsake RECs in favor of more robust means to offset carbon while advancing broader sustainability values.

Moving People, Moving Forward: TDM at UBC

The University of British Columbia's Point Grey campus is home to over 44,000 students, 12,000 staff and faculty, and 3,000 market residents, and remains one of Canada's largest academic institutions. Its geographic isolation away from the downtown core of Vancouver coupled with an average enrolment growth rate of 2% per year alongside an aggressive neighborhood development plan has encouraged opportunities for UBC to take a proactive approach in developing a comprehensive transportation demand management strategy that includes sustainable transportation targets aimed at reducing single occupancy vehicle traffic, increased transit ridership, and improved transportation choices. These proactive efforts led to the creation of the TREK Program Centre, UBC's Transportation Management Department, and the development of UBC's Strategic Transportation Plan, which provides a policy framework for comprehensive and integrated demand management strategy comprised of sustainable transportation targets achievable through the development of a variety of TDM programs. UBC has seen significant advancements in sustainable transportation trends including a growth in transit ridership of 185% and overall vehicle reduction of 20% since 1997.

This presentation will outline the development and success of the University's TDM initiatives including the Universal Transit Pass (U-Pass) program, and the role that an integrated TDM approach can have in creating long lasting behaviour changes in people's transportation choices. The presentation will include a review of UBC's transportation targets and will discuss the challenges and opportunities the campus has faces in its pursuit of improved sustainable transportation options for all members of the UBC community.

Moving the Commuter Campus - TDM Initiatives

The University of Toronto Mississauga is a suburban commuter campus located 20 miles west of the Toronto campus. Most undergraduate students come to this campus from within 20 miles and few of them will choose to live in residence. Moving students, staff, and faculty to the campus on a daily basis could not impact the local community. An immediate concern for the campus was the doubling of the undergraduate population over five years. It was important to the community that surface parking not be increased. The campus mandate to Grow Smart – Grow Green led to the exploration of transportation demand management (TDM) initiatives. A partnership with the local transit authority led to the introduction of a universal bus pass (U-Pass), a partnership with Smart Commute brought in a carpool ride-matching program, and a partnership with a local bike manufacturer led to the introduction of a Bikeshare. Over the last five years the campus population doubled, and one parking lot was replaced with a wetland. This presentation will discuss academic research conducted on the suburban campus transportation mode shift over the last few years and projections for the future.

Multidisciplinary Education and Outreach: Partnerships in Sustainability

The Urban Operations Laboratory (UOL), comprised of Kansas State University, M2 Technologies, and CABEM Technologies, performs environmental research, training, assessment, and product development. One of UOL's tasks is to assist the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in conducting life-cycle environmental assessments (LCEA) during the acquisition phase of technology development. The multifaceted LCEA provides a unique opportunity for technical and public stakeholders to participate in comprehensive partnership. UOL addresses complex human health and ecological challenges that affect natural and cultural resources through a continuum that progresses from the programmatic to the geospatially site-specific. As part of the LCEA work, multidisciplinary groups coordinate with DoD's Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) and Human Effects Review Board to provide technical input on potential environmental concerns and participate in design, demonstrations, field testing, data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Efforts to further enhance assessments with respect to interdependent military readiness and eco-socioeconomic aspects via triple bottom line analysis are being pursued. UOL developed the Environmental Knowledge and Assessment Tool (EKAT) for the United States Marine Corps. EKAT is used by collaborating professionals as part of the LCEA analysis. The presentation highlights methods by which UOL conducts LCEAs by presenting examples from several current and ongoing projects. Moreover, beyond the technomilitary sphere, the efficacious model can be utilized for improving and "greening" other products and processes.

Nature Immersion: A Model for Sustainability Education

This presentation is an overview of a new Nature Immersion Model for Sustainability Education. This model entails a week-long "Leadership in Sustainability" seminar offered through Student Support Services at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. The seminar is held at a field station in the Chequamegon National Forest. Students earn 1 credit in Biology and 1 credit in First Nations Studies; and the seminar is free for participants. Outdoor classrooms and hands-on learning, utilizing an indigenous pedagogy, guide the process of reconnecting humans with the natural world. Sixteen students and two teachers live side by side for the entire week as we ditch the technology (no computer labs, television, laptops, etc.) and instead relish in what the natural world has to teach us.

Upon return from the seminar, students are required to become engaged in some aspect of sustainability, guided by their own personal interests, where they can take on a leadership role and help promote positive change. Data collection and analysis through opinionnaires, conversations, observations, reflections, and surveys indicate the following in terms of the effectiveness of this model for sustainability education, as reported by students and faculty: life-changing, transformational experiences; personal reconnection with the natural world; a positive, empowering change in attitudes, actions, and lifestyles; an increased sense of responsibility toward others; a desire to have more nature immersion experiences and opportunities; and a demonstrated willingness and enhanced ability to be involved in sustainability projects and become a leader in sustainable change.

Navigating GHG Inventory Methodologies: Comparing Experiences at Harvard and Clark University

This presentation explores the inventory tools and methods institutions of higher education might consider when approaching a greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory of their campus. To elucidate the different calculation and data collection methodologies in practice, it compares and contrasts the experience at Harvard University of developing a customized GHG calculator using California Climate Registry's General Reporting Protocol and the experience at Clark University of using the Clean Air Cool Planet (CACP) Campus Carbon Calculator v5.0©.

This presentation compares and contrasts emission calculators according to characteristics such as user friendliness, fit with institutional data availability, regional compliance issues and best practice, and the robustness of the inventory. The presentation uses case studies on two private universities in Massachusetts to provide information on: the initial approach to determining which inventory methods and calculators to use, the process of identifying and collecting quality data, and the analysis of the respective inventories.

Navigating Theory and Practice: Indiana University's Summer Program in Sustainability

As a prominent component of its emerging, campus-wide program of sustainability Indiana University has developed a high-profile internship program for its IU Bloomington campus. The IU Summer Program in Sustainability, which engages 18 undergraduate and graduate students in sustainability-related projects on campus throughout the summer, encourages students to explore specific projects in sustainability in the context of local and national sustainability movements. The program is based on the premise that universities provide a rich and complex learning laboratory where students can collectively explore how to incorporate global concepts of sustainability into local applications in campus operations, university academics, and their broader communities. The Summer Program in Sustainability has two primary components: 1) mentor-directed student projects related campus operations, research and teaching and 2) a core academic seminar. By combining individualized projects and a collective seminar, the summer program seeks to create an experience that constantly explores the balance between theory and practice as well as the tension between the ideal and the tough realities of implementation. In addition to providing rich opportunities for both learning and professional development, the model employed by the IU Summer Program in Sustainability invites students to develop a more sophisticated understanding of their campus community and directly contribute to the advancement of sustainability on campus.

NC Petroleum Displacement Plan Requirement: A Case Study & Measuring Success

The North Carolina Solar Center (NCSC) at NC State University will organize a presentation on North Carolina's State Petroleum Displacement Plan Requirement. The presentation will include representatives from UNC Charlotte and Western Carolina University. Working with the State Energy Office, the NCSC's Clean Transportation Program is charged with implementing NC Session Law 2005-276 State Budget Bill which states that "All State agencies, universities, and community colleges that have State-owned vehicle fleets shall develop and implement plans to achieve a twenty percent (20%) reduction or displacement of the current petroleum products consumed by January 1, 2010. "

The State's Petroleum Displacement Plan (PDP) has a target 4.65 million gallon reduction in petroleum use by the State vehicle fleet by 2010. The NCSC is working with 39 agencies (including 15 universities and 7 community colleges) to implement the PDP through alternative fuel use, advanced vehicle technology, and increased efficiency.

The presentation will highlight campus success stories and lessons learned about:

• Ethanol ( E10 & E85)
• Transportation conservation and efficiency measures
• Biodiesel
• Neighborhood electric vehicles
• Fuel use tracking and assessment

The transportation sustainability case study will focus on the theme Working together for sustainability on campus and beyond. By linking State and campus efforts we believe the panel will be of value and interest to those attending the AASHE conference and can serve as a model for other States to adopt.

New Developments in Green Facilities Management

Presenters will discuss several new and important elements of green facilities management including two new Green Seal pilot programs: the Green Facilities Partnership and the Green Purchasing Partnership.  These programs provide recognition and offer hands-on technical assistance to organizations that are taking or commit to take significant actions to green their facilities management and/or purchasing. The partnerships require continuous improvement, provide for increasing levels of sustainability and recognition, are adaptable to a wide variety of organizations, and are designed to complement leading sustainability rating systems such as LEED certification. Food and food service sustainability will also be reviewed.  Discussion topics will include food and supply sourcing, waste and use of disposable products, energy use, and food-related packaging. "Zero waste" expert (TBD) will explain the key concepts of zero waste and discuss how waste and source reduction has proven to significantly reduce climate impact and overall facility and community environmental impact. Strategies for waste and source reduction will be considered including review of current zero waste programs used throughout the country.

No Child Left Inside

No Child Left Inside is a movement, both grassroots and political, with implications for sustainability, higher education, Public Land Management Agencies, and the environmental justice movement.

This presentation begins by citing some of the research linking children's health and well-being to time spent outside. It also links behavior and action to early childhood experiences in nature.

The presentation then specifically looks at the No Child Left Inside Act of 2007 (HR 3036 and S 1981) and what this means for primary, secondary, and higher educational institutions. It will look at how the Act amends the Primary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, what it means to No Child Left Behind of 2001, and what it will require of higher education institutions.

This presentation makes direct connections to Public Land Management Agencies and the Laws and Acts mandated within those agencies. This presentation also looks at the entire No Child Left Inside movement and connects it to environmental justice movements. It concludes by uniting No Child Left Inside with the sustainability movement in an attempt to make this a top priority for sustainability across the nation and will provide some possibilities for the future.

North Carolina State University: Accomplishments and Commitments during the Year of Energy

The administration at NC State University declared the 2008-9 academic year as the "Year of Energy." During the year, the University is accelerating the pace of moving towards the sustainable use of energy and all other resources. The effort is campus-wide, and involves all units in the University, along with many of NC State University partners. The move towards the sustainable use of energy and other resources also brings together the missions of instruction, research, and outreach and engagement. This field report summarizes the accomplishments and commitments made, including: establishing the NC State University Energy Council; organizing the first Energy Fair; expanding the Earth Day program to an Earth Week program; hiring a Sustainability Coordinator; organizing lectures, workshops, and conferences related to environmental sustainability; inviting speakers to campus; and joining the Energy Star program. In addition, the Chancellor signed the ACUP Climate Commitment, and activities are underway to comply.

NWF's Campus Environment 2008 National Survey Findings

It has been seven years since NWF Campus Ecology's last national survey, and much has changed in the landscape of campus environmental programs and practices. In early 2008, the survey was updated and sent to all U.S. colleges and universities, with over 1,000 campuses responding from all 50 states. The survey had two parts - Management/Curriculum and Operations, which were sent to top campus leaders. Released in August, the survey's detailed report gives a fascinating snapshot of sustainability trends in higher education and reveals some unexpected new directions. As in 2001, it also presents a national "report card" on campus environmental performance across such topics as energy conservation, transportation, building performance, campus sustainability programs, recycling, water use and landscaping -- with grades assigned based on the activities reported by 2-year and 4-year schools, both regionally and nationally. The presentation names and applauds exemplary schools and makes suggestions for improvement in areas of under-performance. In this presentation, we will explore the survey's compelling findings and its implications for best practices on campus.

NYSERDA's Ongoing Relationships with New York State Colleges & Universities

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is a public benefit corporation with a mission to use innovation and technology to solve some of New York's energy and environmental problems in ways that improve the State's economy. NYSERDA has developed long term working relationships with New York State colleges and universities to help them establish and reach their sustainability goals. As an example of these relationships, over $9.5 million has been provided from NYSERDA to the Cornell, Columbia, and New York University.

This presentation will include discussions on NYSERDA's relationships with New York State higher education institutions and the NYSERDA initiative:  Focus on Colleges & Universities.

One College's Grassroots Path to Sustainability

CPCC's Center for Sustainability will present a discussion on how the college developed its current program from a grassroots process into a major "go-to" center for environmental education.

Our presentation will include input from a number of CPCC personnel who have been instrumental in pulling college resources and talent together. Many small internal efforts over a three year period continued to gain interest and momentum supported by world events and local conditions. A few key individuals began raising the bar and cultivating internal and external partners who allowed for more visibility and open discussion on the business sense of going green. Multiple college divisions and departments began sharing information and joining forces, leading to the college-wide shift towards green thinking.

A new focus on workforce development in new industry technologies lead to even more ideas and partners. As "like - minds" came together, a coordinated effort and new partnerships lead to the development of a number of corporate & continuing education courses, speaker events and the current process of developing our first environmental degree program.

Panel members will share their grassroots beginnings, contributions, partnerships and accomplishments. A partial list of interest areas will include; the Center's humble beginnings, Student Services projects, a focus on alternative energy, the highly successful GIS Division, $1.5 million in grants, wildlife habitats, enhanced Earth Day, a farm, a Green Award, and more.

One Size Does Not Fit All: How Every School's Character can Define a Distinctive Curriculum for Sustainability

This paper will examine some of the paths to and virtues of diversity and difference in environmental education, and how this diversity enhances our common knowledge.

In the quest for students, scholars, and resources, colleges and universities benefit by defining and promoting their own special characters. An institution's specific values, goals, and physical attributes (size and location included) are the foundation of an academic community's identity.

These same values, goals, and attributes should also be the foundation for developing a curriculum on sustainability. In place of reliance on generic coursework, this approach to making an environmental curriculum will embed it into the soul of the university – a commitment deeper in its being and livelier in its results.

The case studies will include examples from around the United States, among them: a university founded and run by the Society of Jesus, with a strong emphasis on religious/philosophical education and people-to-people social service; a large state (land-grant) university with prominent engineering, architecture, and agriculture schools; a small college with no or few curricular choices for students, who follow a mandatory course of seminars; an elite African-American university.

The incredibly different values and natures of these institutions pose unique challenges for curricular development. This paper will address how all can successfully make sustainability a part of their teaching, and how they can be true to themselves and their values and goals in the process.

Operations and Academics Collaboration for Sustainability on Campus

The British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) is Canada's premier polytechnic institution. It operates out of five campuses in western Canada, and it is oriented towards meeting the needs of industry for both practical training and applied research. Recently, BCIT's Administrative Services Department, with responsibilities for campus operations, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with BCIT's School of Construction and the Environment to collaborate in the achievement of transforming BCIT's campuses into Living Laboratories of sustainability. This initiative aims to break-down the silos that often exist between the activities of operational departments and academic programs on campus. The purpose is to harness the expertise of faculty, the enthusiasm of students and the implementation capabilities of staff to achieve mutually shared aspirations for reducing the Institute's ecological footprint and contributing to the social and economic prosperity of British Columbians.

Our Solar Sunflowers: Collaboration and Education

Northeast Wisconsin Technical College has developed three certificate programs which began enrolling students this summer. The programs include: Renewable Energy - Solar, Sustainable Design, and Biofuels. The college is focusing on infusing sustainable and renewable energy curriculum into all of its programming. NWTC is developing courses to supplement student instruction in electricity, architectural technology, landscape design, construction trades, HVAC technician, power and gas distribution, plumbing and business. NWTC is building awareness regarding sustainability by organizing a facilities energy management team, student environmental club, and events such as Focus the Nation, Earth Day and an Involvement Fair to promote service learning activities with environmental themes.

NWTC has installed photovoltaic "sunflowers" on our campus and received a mayor's beautification award. The project was largely funded through grants and donor support. The college is also investigating the prospects of installing a biomass gasification system on it's Green Bay campus. The energy management team has moved forward with many energy efficiency projects and has a plan for it's continuing efforts in sustainable practices. Learn details of personal experience with starting up a program, finding and developing instructors, raising awareness, networking, grant solicitation, facility management involvement, SEET and awareness campaigns.

Our Words Create Worlds

Sustainability is a new arrival to higher education, enjoying increasing acceptance by colleges and universities in a little more than a decade. Colleges and universities have been quick to embrace the "triple bottom line" approach, which adds value across an expanded spectrum including people, planet, and profit. Institutions of higher education around the globe are applying sustainable practices and policies in operations, campus planning, purchasing, transportation, and food services. In addition to operational applications, many institutions are revamping or designing new academic and research programs which focus on sustainability. With this wave of interest and activity, a new career is being born- that of the campus sustainability professional. Because of the diversity of issues campus sustainability programs are involved with, the sustainability professional is an advisor and educator on many subjects- energy, food, waste, purchasing, recycling, and motivation. Moreover, because the profession is so new, most campus sustainability professionals come from a variety of backgrounds, like facilities management, environmental studies, engineering, social sciences, or the non profit arena. This on-going project addresses just one aspect of campus sustainability-- the expectation that campus sustainability professionals facilitate culture change. This presentation explores the language campus sustainability programs use to attract, educate, and involve constituents. Looking at other professional fields, strong evidence suggests communications with a positive, underlying emotional tone attract more people and for longer periods of time. This study aims to develop a model of sustainability communications for higher education, underpinned by organizational theory and practice in positive and sustained systems change.

Out of the Trash Aquarium: How Do We Teach Teachers to Educate for Sustainability in Their Classrooms?

In the United States as well many other countries, teachers must fulfill a governmental authorization of the particulars of their curriculum. These curriculum mandates propose benchmarks in pupil academic expertise. And although, arguments may rage as to what is most necessary for children aged three through eighteen years of age to learn in the areas of liberal arts and technical sciences , there has been almost no discussion of the necessity of the knowledge of sustainable practices as an interwoven academic thread. Yet, classroom teachers are the foot soldiers in most health and welfare initiatives. Whether it has been the dangers of tobacco use, the need for safe sex practices, fire prevention or healthy nutrition; most of us have learned these topics in a classroom, along with our reading and mathematical skills. Teachers have a long tradition of engaging with children to teach not just what is important to promote their curricula achievements but also to that which is more far ranging and necessary for us to live together. For most of us, "sharing" was learned in a classroom. To that end, this presentation proposes to discuss the education of teachers in issues pertaining to sustainability. More than just finding appropriate lesson plans, it is a radicalization of education theory that has yet to be explored. This presentation will present both curricula approaches to teacher training and areas of future research in teacher education and sustainability practices.

Overcoming Challenges in Campus-Wide Energy Benchmarking

Colleges and universities wanting to track their energy use may face several roadblocks.

One is that for many campuses, buildings are not submetered, but grouped together as a single source or as several sources. This means that energy use tracking, while excellent in any form, is not as informative as it could be to a campus looking to improve the weak links in its energy consumption. Then there is the issue of ratable building space types on campus, like dormitories and offices, and other campus building types that are able to be benchmarked and tracked but not comparatively rated, like athletic centers and laboratories.

How can we get around these challenges?

We will discuss this by examining a case study of a campus in Portfolio Manager, a no-cost energy tracking program offered by the Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR program. Issues we will consider include: (1) submetering and its alternatives (dataloggers); (2) the use of the Campus and Master Account features of Portfolio Manager; (3) the idea of grouping campuses by Carnegie Classification to create a comparative database among institutions; (4) how benchmarking all spaces in Portfolio Manager can make intra-campus comparisons between similar building types; (5) ratable space types for nationwide comparisons in energy efficiency; (6) recent efforts and programs to make laboratories ratable spaces (LABS21).

Overcoming the Challenges of Calculating your Carbon Footprint: An American University Case Study

As institutions that mold our future leaders and professionals, colleges and universities have a duty to set an example in promoting sustainability. Today, American colleges and universities are calling for their presidents and chancellors to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), a commitment to move towards climate neutrality by eliminating their contribution to global warming over time and by accelerating their research and educational efforts to re-stabilize the earth's climate. An important part of the ACUPCC is calculating your carbon footprint to determine your baseline emissions. After all, you need to know where you are before you can set a path for decreasing your greenhouse gas emissions. We will demonstrate how to determine your carbon footprint baseline by walking you through American University's (AU) carbon footprint initiative. Our carbon footprint team, including AU representatives, will outline the hurdles we encountered and show you how we overcame them. There are many carbon footprint calculators out there that will do the calculations for you, but the hard part is getting accurate information to put in them. We will provide you with the tools you need to best accumulate the information you need. For example, we will discuss the Greenhouse Gas protocols and how to define your boundaries and scope. We will dive into Scope 2 emissions and outline how AU accumulated accurate information. We will provide real examples and tools that you can take with you to perform your own carbon footprint calculation at your college or university.

Pacific University's B Street Permaculture Project; a Natural Systems Design Approach for Teaching Sustainability in Higher Education

There are pressing concerns related to the global dependence on fossil fuels due to limited supplies and the expanding production of greenhouse gases. As leaders in the global community, institutions of higher education must abandon tradition and embrace innovation by becoming responsible for imparting the knowledge and skills that produce ecologically literate students. These forward-thinking institutions will embrace experiential, project-based learning practices and produce students who are environmental stewards and active citizens with a deep understanding of local ecosystems and how humans can interact with them in a sustainable way. Permaculture is a systems approach to designing environments that support human activities in a sustainable way. The permaculture design system may be an appropriate model for use in higher education because its methodical presentation of complex material is ideally suited for students at the introductory level. In addition, it is well-established and has been practiced and refined for over 30 years resulting in a globally diverse network of practitioners who have successfully applied this system to a wide variety of situations. The B Street Permaculture Project was initiated as a way to jump-start a conversation about how the university could address issues related to sustainability in an interdisciplinary and systemic way. The site's mission is based on the permaculture principles of "care for the earth, care for the people, and fair share of resources, as applied through systems thinking design methods. This presentation describes Pacific University's B Street Permaculture project and the integration of permaculture principles into the Environmental Studies curriculum of a small liberal arts university.

Partnering for Sustainable Stormwater Management on Campus and Beyond

Sustainability requires working together for a common goal. At universities, effective partnerships can result in improved water quality on campus and beyond. Collaboration between campus departments and innovative town-gown relationships can facilitate successful implementation of best management practices on the University campus. This presentation will address innovative solutions to campus storm water issues through specific case studies from projects implemented and planned for the University of Georgia campus.

Watersheds do not always respect political boundaries. Environmental leadership often requires a blurring of these lines as well. Beginning in 2003, the University of Georgia embarked upon a new level of sustainable partnership to improve water quality through innovative stormwater management. The Lumpkin Street Drainage Improvements project, a joint venture between the University and Athens-Clarke County and one of the largest water quality improvement projects of its kind, employed forward thinking, collaborative negotiations and creative problem-solving to improve conditions in the Tanyard Creek watershed.

Additional case studies for discussion will include lessons learned through over 64 acres of campus greenspace creation, three rainwater harvesting projects, campus storm water bioretention areas, invasive plant removal, a historic spring restoration, and other water resource initiatives at the University of Georgia. Presenters will include members from two University departments as well as county government, with experience in all phases of design, construction and ongoing maintenance of the projects discussed.

Partnering for Sustainable Transportation in Greensboro, NC

Fall 2006 marked the beginning of Higher Education Area Transit (HEAT) service in Greensboro, NC. Initiated by the Greensboro Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (GUAMPO) and the Greensboro Transit Authority (GTA), HEAT provides free transit service to over 60,000 qualifying students on eight college/university campuses:

Three years' funding for the service comes from FHWA's Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) program, and from contributions by the participating institutions. In addition to ten new buses on six new routes, the service provides free access to the entire GTA system. HEAT service offers convenient access to off-campus housing, downtown activities, and resources on other campuses, and is marketed as a convenient, cost-effective alternative to bringing a car to school.

HEAT carried over 130,000 passengers in its first year. Year two saw the addition of another campus, along with minor route adjustments. Ridership has risen with gas prices, culminating in a 20% increase for April 2008.

Planning for HEAT was underway as UNCG began its Transportation Master Plan (TMP). Close coordination yielded more efficient, effective routes, and led to discussions about assessing and allotting the benefits and costs once CMAQ funds expire. Also concurrent with UNCG's TMP was an update of Greensboro's Bicycle Plan. Careful town/gown coordination resulted in the timely completion of projects to improve off-campus bicycle access. Thanks to parking demand reductions from these two efforts – along with other TMP recommendations – UNCG was able to postpone the imminent construction of one parking deck, while delaying indefinitely the construction of another.

Partnering with Industry to Create Sustainable Changes

The Concrete Industry Management Program is a four year degree program that developed from a recognition that this industry did not have a workforce with the skills needed to pull them into the next level of social and professional needs.

One of the growing areas of research and implimentation is the Green Building movement. Concrete is the most widely used construction material in the world and yet contributes a significant amount of emmissions. This industry recognizes that it needs to address this issue. The academic partnership it has developed throughout the nation has now translated into a budding workforce immersed in these issues through the development of curriculum geared specifically around global warming and sustainability.

This is a totally unique and exciting approach to solve this signifcant problem that should be a model for other industries.

Peer to Peer Sustainability Outreach Programs: From A to Z

Student outreach is a goal of many sustainability programs. One model, using the peer to peer education approach, attempts to broaden the reach to all residential students. Often known as "Eco-Reps", these programs enlist students to be educators and leaders in their residence halls to encourage behaviors such as waste reduction and energy conservation. During this workshop, you’ll hear from several coordinators of established programs on everything from how to start a program on your campus, to best practices of administration and management, to evaluation methods. The workshop is designed as a working session for current program coordinators as well as for those who are interested in starting a program on their campus.

Perspectives on Sustainability Curricula

Interdisciplinary environmental programs have proliferated and flourished in higher educational institutions across the United States for four decades. Despite this long history and the large and growing number of programs, no consensus has emerged on a shared program identity or core principles. Sustainability, being quite a bit younger, presents an even greater challenge in curricular design. This panel addresses the development and implementation of sustainability curricula, emphasizing the emergence of sustainability as a guiding paradigm for interdisciplinary environmental programs. Presentations include a conceptual model for an interdisciplinary sustainability curriculum, the results of a National Council for Science and the Environment survey of environmental program leaders, a college president’s vision of sustainability education, and a discussion of how program leaders may collaborate to develop sustainability curricula guidelines for environmental and other programs.

Piloting STARS at a Small Baccalaureate Institution

Mount Union College (MUC) is a private, undergraduate, church-related institution in northeastern Ohio with about 2100 students and a staff of about 400 FTE. MUC is piloting the AASHE STARS (Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System) with the goal of assessing the institution's current level of sustainability, identifying appropriate areas of action for our institution and providing feedback to AASHE on our experience with the tracking system. Direction for the work at MUC is done by a presidential task force composed of high level administrators, faculty, students and community members. The pilot program is based on STARS version 0.4 and includes four major categories: Operations, Governance and Finance, Education and Research, and Social Responsibility and Community outreach. This presentation describes how data collection was approached for each of these four categories, how the data was used to begin formulating a campus action plan, and some of the responses to AASHE on the utility of the rating system. The pilot program continues throughout 2008 and this field report will include results through October of 2008.

Planning to Move Beyond Climate-neutral: Supporting Students in Catalyzing Change.

The need for comprehensive, integrated climate action is offering new avenues for collaboration and the formation of new partnerships. Nowhere is this more visible than on campuses, where collaboration among student, staff, faculty, administrator and community stakeholders is necessary to produce legitimate and implementable climate-management strategies.

In British Columbia, Canada, the Campus Climate Network (CCN), a youth-driven network supporting student-action on 15 member campuses has been particularly successful in engaging in partnerships to produce concrete climate-action on campuses. Over the past year, the CCN has successfully brokered relationships between the provincial government, the provincial utility provider, public institutions and environmental-non governmental organizations to develop and implement a youth-driven climate-action program for the province. Working in the areas of capacity building, participatory climate-planning, curriculum development, and campaigns/programming, the Campus Climate Network is demonstrating that students can be an asset for institutions that seek to achieve and move beyond climate-neutrality.

Other examples of student engagement programs that have been successful at mobilizing student action around sustainability can be seen across North America.

This roundtable will bring together several student organizers working on campuses in Canada and the United States to explore the opportunities that arise when student groups collaborate in new partnerships to develop programs that promote climate-action and support student engagement and success.

Portland State University: Let Knowledge Serve the City

PSU's approach to sustainability seeks to integrate operations, research, education and community engagement. Our poster will draw on green building and watershed stewardship projects that demonstrate our strategy. The ways in which our four sustainability research focal areas translate into projects on campus and in the broader community will be included, along with highlights from our research & academic strategic planning process.

Poster I - Sustainability on Campus: Higher Education and Leadership Role

This poster is a collaborative effort between Mansoura University in Egypt and East Carolina University. It was developed as part of a post doctoral study, focused on fostering campus-wide sustainability planning, design, and operations. Posters were an integral part of the raising awareness campaign adopted by the authors. This is Part One of a multiple-part series of the campaign. The methodology employed to approach these goals is to inform stakeholders on sustainability, change their culture and default behavior, seed initiative, maintain momentum, and develop criteria to adjust required budgets. The posters series were designed in a way to support, educate, and inspire green and eco-friendly practices in everyday stakeholders' campus living. Education for a sustainable society was illustrated as an essential evolution. An argument was built upon evidence from behavioral experiments on how sustainable societies will enable people to develop the knowledge, values, and skills needed to participate in decisions that will improve the quality of life in the present without damaging the planet for the future. Reasons were given on the importance of fostering education for sustainability and their enormous potential in the USA. Advancing sustainability within higher education was portrayed in the efforts adopted by the Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium, UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, US Partnership for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development , and Talloires Declaration. The poster depicted these efforts in many terms of supporting sustainability programming, engaging in joint projects, and serving as a resource through different development acts.

Poster II - Sustainability on Campus: What Others Do - Short, Medium, and Long Term Plans for Green Campus Initiatives

This poster is a collaborative effort between Mansoura University in Egypt and East Carolina University. It was developed as part of a post doctoral study, focused on fostering campus-wide sustainability planning, design, and operations. Posters were an integral part of the raising awareness campaign adopted by the authors. Other initiatives included surveys, presentations, launching an ECU website for sustainability, developing collaborative educational programs on sustainability in both academic institutions, and interlinking with the ongoing development for the City of Greenville Climate Protection Program (GCPP) in terms of climate change and biodegradation. This is Part Two of a multiple-part series of the awareness campaign. The methodology employed to approach these goals is to inform stakeholders on sustainability, change their culture and default behavior, seed initiative, maintain momentum, and develop criteria to adjust required budgets. The posters series were designed in a way to support, educate, and inspire green and eco-friendly practices in everyday stakeholders' campus living. Several examples were provided on how colleges and universities featured as sustainability leaders have adopted their green initiatives, addressed their goals, and successfully planned for short, medium, and long term plan of achievements. Examples included initiatives and plans on energy consumption, sources, inventory, and tracking; water consumption and wastewater management; the built environment and approaches to long range campus planning; campus transportation planning programs and their potential environmental implications; purchasing and waste management; land use, landscape and habitat; food, health and environmental quality; and academia.

Posters for Change: the Power of Communication Design

The course, "Design & Social Change," at Carnegie Mellon University strives to promote environmental literacy in the early years of secondary education, encouraging students to incorporate environmental thinking into their problem-solving process.

The first project in the course challenged students to use a powerful combination of words and images that would illustrate how one person could reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The second project focused on getting customers to remember to use their reusable shopping bags at a local grocery store chain. This was especially challenging, considering their customer base is not generally environmentally concerned.

Both projects made a huge difference - the carbon reduction posters were featured in the January issue of Sierra Magazine, and the Giant Eagle posters are now featured in all of their stores in four different states.

Potential Impact and Uses of Thermoacoustic Refrigeration

Ever since refrigeration has been introduced into modern societies, its use has significantly increased. In fact it is impossible imagine life without refrigeration and air conditioning. Mostly, cooling is achieved with vapor compression machines that use a specific refrigerant that can be tailored to any required temperature level. Most notably is the use of blends of hydrogen, carbon, fluorine and chlorine in various mixing ratios. Depending on those ratios, the refrigerant exhibits a specific global warming potential and ozone depletion potential. Since the adverse effects of those substances have been discovered, the field of refrigeration is moving away from conventional refrigerants, constantly searching for better alternatives. Thermoacoustic refrigeration is such an alternative that can provide cooling to essentially any required temperature level without using any environmentally harmful substances. It is a niche technology that can be expanded into a broader market, primarily if the sizing problem can be solved. Currently, the efficient thermoacoustic refrigerators are used in industrial settings. This work illustrates the benefits of this technology with a consideration of its "Total Equivalent Warming Impact" (TEWI) compared to conventional cooling in vehicles, which is shown to be a potential target application. As a result, the possibility of decreasing the footprint of said refrigerators by utilizing a coiled resonator rather than the usual straight one is evaluated. A CFD analysis for this investigation has been developed and first results are shown and discussed.

Prairie Restoration and Community Building through Service Learning

In a unique partnership, Carthage College and Harborside Academy (a high school specializing in expeditionary learning) recently paired with a local nature center in Kenosha, Wisconsin to design and implement a native prairie planting as part of a service learning course. The objectives were to promote ecological education while students gained knowledge of native prairie plants and their ability to tolerate both wet and dry conditions, as well as to illustrate the process of collaboration and environmental decision making. The planting area was selected because it often floods in the Spring; planting native prairie plants can increase infiltration by up to 30%. With plants from the University of Wisconsin Arboretum and plants donated from Gateway Technical College and the local community, students in this class planted the first 500 square feet of their 4000 square foot design in this first year of a multi-year project, and the garden is already serving as an educational site for the community. Already, educational brochures accompany the area and the project has attracted the attention of the media. This collaboration serves as an excellent example of how it is possible to successfully combine ecological education and research with outreach aimed at a variety of audiences. 

Preparing Graduate Students to Teach Sustainability

This presentation outlines an innovative approach to training graduate students to be effective teachers of sustainability in academic, K-12, community, and professional environments. Because most of our graduate students will eventually have formal and/or informal roles as educators of sustainability, the Global Institute (GIOS) and School of Sustainability (SOS) at Arizona State University have created a credit-bearing workshop course to prepare students to teach. The course is designed for graduate students who have knowledge related to sustainability, but little or no teaching experience. The course outcomes are for students to be able to: participate effectively in a curriculum development processes; design and assess learning goals and objectives; design, facilitate, and debrief active and experiential learning activities; adapt learning materials to different settings, such as K-12, university, community, and professional settings; evaluate curriculum and instruction; develop a philosophy of teaching and learning; and, present and teach sustainability concepts with confidence in diverse settings. Student projects in the course included interviewing faculty to compile and edit the School of Sustainability's undergraduate learning outcomes, developing an undergraduate introductory sustainability class, developing an introductory sustainability presentation for community audiences, and working with K-12 teachers and students in GIOS outreach programs. In this presentation, we will examine the strengths, weaknesses, and unintended consequences of graduate teaching workshops, and discuss their potential in preparing graduate students as teachers.

Principles and Practices for Effective Sustainability Education

So your president signed the President's Climate Commitment, and you've completed a carbon footprint analysis. What do you do about the education component? This presentation will provide an informal survey of best practices from effective climate change education programs as well as identifying themes shared by many of these programs. From the necessity of giving students a sense of agency to including an experiential component, common principles emerge will be highlighted and explained. The presentation will cover both basic theoretical background and real world examples of actions that work. The focus will be on educating the general undergraduate student population, not graduate students or students specializing in environmental studies. While I will emphasize the liberal arts college context, the principles and practices should be relevant to any school with relatively small class sizes that allow for experiences beyond classroom lecture.

Problem-Based Learning for Campus Sustainability: Design and Implementation of Western Washington University's Campus Sustainability Assessment

Campus sustainability assessments using a problem-based learning pedagogy pose a

unique opportunity for sustainability education for both higher education institutions

and students. Student research teams at Western Washington University were involved in

the university's first campus sustainability assessment through a sustainability-themed

learning-community class known as Campus Planning Studio. This presentation describes the framework used during the assessment project and the elements of problem-based

learning used in the Campus Sustainability Assessment project. Transfer of research

information between Campus Planning Studio classes and translation of assessment

information into a comprehensive report is discussed. This presentation is intended to provide support for implementing problem-based learning practices within the context of

student research teams working on a campus sustainability assessment.

Progress along the Path of Transdisciplinary Action Research. Experiences and Challenges in the Integration of Engineering and Community Development to Address Water Quality Issues in rural Honduras.

Sustainable development presents complex, multidimensional issues that require approaches extend well beyond conventional academic disciplines. Bridging disciplinary boundaries is challenging, and sustainable development requires more than interdisciplinarity. It requires integrating and evolving disciplines into transdisciplinary approaches that evolve new methods appropriate to the issues. Students, for whom disciplinary boundaries are less rigid, provide important avenues for the development of transdisciplinary research.

Academic disciplines tend to define problems through the particular lens of their expertise. When this research is applied to sustainable development is has often led to failed projects and disappointed communities. The research reported here summarizes a case study integrating engineering and community development programs through a multi-year, international service-learning water quality improvement program in rural Honduras. Solutions to water management issues are generally not simple and involve more than technical fixes. Community support, understanding and ownership are critical for successful water project development, integrated with well-designed and appropriate technical options. In this case study water quality management involved knowledge of social processes, ecological economics, environmental education and technical infrastructure engineering. Students have been involved in participatory planning, youth and adult education, watershed assessment, water systems design, construction and evaluation.

Challenges have included limited flexibility in curriculum development, institutional barriers, faculty incentives, and difference in student skills and perspectives. Institutional, technical and cultural experiences gained over time outline the challenges and opportunities for higher education programs interested in engaging in applied sustainable development research. General concepts and principles for transdisciplinary program development and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Promoting Campus Sustainability through Interdisciplinary Cooperation: A Case Study at the University of Arizona Visitor Center

During the 2006-07 academic year, University of Arizona students, faculty and staff designed and implemented a "green retrofit" for the UA Visitor Center. This retrofit emphasized two main components: water and energy. A team of students constructed several water harvesting systems, both active and passive. The active system features two cisterns with a combined capacity of approximately 2,300 gallons that catch roof runoff for irrigation of native plants. Once plants are established, the only irrigation they will receive will be harvested rainwater. The lush native vegetation currently in place is in contrast to the previous landscape which was bare and sloped into adjacent thoroughfares, creating flooding and erosion problems during monsoon rains. Rainwater harvesting allows water to slow down and percolate through the soil, reducing on-site erosion. The energy portion of this project involved installation of a photovoltaic system on the south side of the building to maximize hours of sunlight and public visibility. Technicians installed the system's inverter inside the building as part of a public education display where visitors can observe both the current amount of power being generated by the system as well as the total amount of power generated since its installation. This project could not have been completed without a groundswell of voluntary cooperation among several university offices and departments—a unique occurrence at a large university. This poster presents the Visitor Center project as a case study of interdisciplinary cooperation in working towards campus sustainability.

Promoting Recycling at a Big Ten University: Garnering and Understanding Stakeholder Input for a Communication Strategy at Michigan State University

In 2006, Michigan State University (MSU) began systematically studying methods to improve campus sustainability efforts. The MSU Vice President for Finance and Operations launched the Boldness by Design Environmental Stewardship Initiative with funding for multiple emphasis areas for coupled operations and research efforts. This presentation focuses on some key findings from the behavioral group concerning MSU's current and proposed recycling programs. The behavioral research group used mixed-methods of focus groups, individual interviews, and a web-based survey to better understand the campus community's perceived barriers to recycling, program preferences, and environmental attitudes. Findings of our group's work are meant to inform the decision-making process for planning and implementing a new $14 million campus recycling program. This paper reports findings pertinent to stakeholder recycling knowledge as well as communication strategies across three campus populations – students, staff, and faculty. The research efforts sought to measure and understand respondents' knowledge of how to recycle, where to recycle on campus, environmental benefits associated with recycling and waste reduction. Moreover, the research examined respondents' willingness to learn more about recycling benefits and how to recycle properly. We also asked respondents to rate the perceived effectiveness of various communication alternatives. The results suggest that MSU communication efforts focus more on what, how, and where to recycle instead of why to recycle, and publicity approaches should differentiate their mode and content based on the target audiences.

Promoting Sustainable Agriculture Careers for Undergraduates through a Collaborative Experiential Learning and Research Program at Cornell University: The Sustainable Agriculture Scholars Program

The number of undergraduate students majoring in agricultural fields is steadily declining, resulting in fewer trained agricultural professionals able to address complex problems concerning agricultural sustainability. We developed and piloted the Sustainable Agriculture Scholars Program, which linked scientific research in organic agriculture to structured experiential learning activities for summer undergraduate employees. Our objectives were to: 1) further student understanding of the role of research in supporting sustainable agriculture, 2) increase student interest in agricultural careers, and 3) use community service as a vehicle for learning. Three students were selected for the summer program in each of two years. The three major learning environments were on-farm and laboratory research settings, weekly field trips to discuss research and observe farming practices, and a facilitated service-learning project with a local agricultural organization. We collected student feedback through a post-program focus-group style interview with a third party in years one and two, and added a pre-program interview and a student comparison group in year two. Year one students reported learning about linkages between sustainable agriculture research and practice primarily through farm visits, however relevance of research to the farming community was less understood. All students reported increased interest in agricultural or environmental careers as a Program result. Service project discussions demonstrated students' sense of ownership and satisfaction about contributing to their community. There appears to be clear potential to foster undergraduate student interest in sustainable agriculture research through programs linking scientific research to experiential hands-on learning opportunities. Results from both years will be presented.

Promoting Sustainable Business Practices by Teaching Business Principles to Environmental Scientists

This presentation will report on a newly created course (spring 2008) to teach business principles to environmental science students. The course introduces the environmental scientist to how environmental sustainability is understood and approached by a business, and how business manager's decisions about the environment are shaped. The course helps students understand why business managers act the way they do with respect to the environment. This should enable the environmental scientist to communicate environmental concerns in ways that will engage and be meaningful to the business manager, thereby increasing the likelihood that the two can work successfully together to find solutions to environmental challenges. The course is targeted toward seniors and Masters students in environmental science and natural resource management, but uses teaching methods and materials more commonly found in MBA programs (e.g., Harvard Business School cases). The course assumes no previous business coursework by the students. Broad themes covered in the course include ownership, governance and strategy concepts; performance measurement, evaluation and reporting concepts; and consumer behavior, product design, and supply chain management concepts. Initial feedback from the first class of students has been very positive. The creation of this course is the second step in a process to prepare our business and environmental science graduates to work together. The first step was to require all business students to take an environmental science course, which took effect fall of 2006.

Providing Pomona Students with Line Drying Options: Changing Behavior and Reducing Energy Use One Sock at a Time

In Spring 2008, Pomona College began two projects to give students the opportunity to line dry their clothes. The first project was the installation of eight large, high-quality drying racks in five campus laundry room that provide a total of 800 feet of clothesline. The second project was the purchase of 25 foldable, personal-sized drying racks and the initiation of a racks-for-loan program to loan the racks to students for use in their rooms for the duration of the school year. Both projects include an ongoing education component to explain the benefits of smart laundry practices and answer questions about the drying racks. An online survey to gauge student interest in various line drying options and better understand students' general laundry habits was completed by over 20% of the student body and informed both projects. While these projects may have a negligible impact on Pomona's greenhouse gas emissions and overall environmental footprint, they will encourage a change in behavior that could have a lasting, lifetime impact among Pomona's alumni and their families. By giving students the opportunity to try out and embrace line drying in a supportive, cost-free manner, we believe the project will result in many students leaving Pomona with a much more supportive attitude toward line drying and more environmentally-friendly laundry habits.

Rational Resource Management: The Case EARTH University, Costa Rica

EARTH University, located on an 8,000 acre property in the lowlands of Costa Rica, Central America, is a private, international, university dedicated to education in the agricultural sciences and natural resources. EARTH's mission is to prepare leaders with ethical values who can contribute to the sustainable development of the humid tropics and construct a prosperous and just society by seeking a balance between agricultural production, social development and environmental conservation.

Since its founding in 1990, EARTH University has taken many steps to "walk the talk" and improve the sustainability of campus operations. One of the most significant was the establishment of the Resource Management Program (RMP) in 1993. Since 2000, this program has provided leadership in efforts to inculcate the principles of rational resource use among the student population, staff and faculty as well as among the members of neighboring communities. The program has developed specific strategies designed to minimize the potential negative impacts of EARTH University's campus operations.

The Program is directed at four specific areas that cut across all campus and farm operations: energy efficiency and alternative energy, water management carbon neutrality, and waste management. In addition, the Program is responsible for implementing the "Blue Flag" certification, an initiative of the Costa Rican government that promotes environmentally sound practices at the community level. This presentation will discuss the many successful projects that EARTH University has achieved in its quest to be a sustainable campus.

Reaching Sustainable Research Goals through Co-curricular Learning: An Example in Starch-based Plastics

Conventional plastics, derived from petroleum, contribute to the depletion of non-renewable resources and landfill space when recycling or reuse is not viable. Starch, a renewable and abundant polymer, offers an alternative to petroleum based plastics. The overall goal of this research is to integrate starch into everyday “short life span” products such as disposable packaging and diapers. However, the incorporation of starch into mainstream plastics is hindered by its poor mechanical properties and tendency to absorb moisture. One means of overcoming these barriers is to blend starch with synthetic plastics, such as polypropylene, to create a partially degradable product with suitable processing and mechanical properties. To successfully create a starch blend that is able to become a viable substitute for petroleum based materials, stability of the blend through the use of compatibilizers and processing conditions must be examined. Through undergraduate outreach, the groundwork has been completed in reaching the overall goal of processable, sustainable starch polymers. Preliminary research includes chemical characterization of model polymer blend components, analysis of the compatibilization of model polymer blends, and examining the processability of starch blends. The work presented in this poster highlights this research which was completed by undergraduate researchers with backgrounds in different disciplines. These contributions have been invaluable in reaching the overall goal and have complemented their undergraduate curriculum.

Recycling During Student Move In and Move Out

Student Move In and Move Out are both times of heavy waste generation on most college campuses. The University of Colorado at Boulder has developed a means to divert tons of recyclable and reusable materials from the landfill to be put back into use or recycled.

During Student Move In, CU Recycling creates a means to capture the large amounts of excess cardboard and polystyrene (#6. block styrofoam) that appears at the residence halls. Students often bring new computers, TVs, microwaves, fans and other electronics which all have excess packaging that needs to be disposed of. Over the course of about two weeks, CU Recycling collects over 20 tons of cardboard and over 75 cubic yards of polystyrene.

During Student Move Out, CU Recycling creates a "Reusable Items Drive" to capture all the usable items that student will otherwise throw into the trash. These items are perfectly good, but students choose to leave them behind since they are traveling or don't need the items any longer. CU Recycling partners with Habitat for Humanity to collect more than 10 tons of reusable items over a two week period. Along with reusable items, non-perishable food and personal care products are collected and taken to the Boulder County Homeless Shelter. Almost 1 ton of food and toiletries were collected.

The main goal of this panel is to demonstrate a working model for college campuses across the nation to successfully divert waste during student Move In and Move Out. Since Habitat for Humanity is a national organization, their involvement can be duplicated in other communities as well.

Reducing the Cost of Energy on Campus with Distributed Wind Generation.

By installing small wind on campus, university administrators insulate budgets from increases in electricity prices.

Capital funds invested in a wind turbine can yield significant annual operational savings that can be leveraged in other areas including:

Salaries

Equipment

Curricula

Scholarships

Additional benefits include:

Reduced carbon footprint

Positive public image

Turbine data for curricula

Attendees will learn:

The details of how distributed generation benefits the campus's bottom line

Small Wind turbine options for campuses

The difference between "behind the meter" applications and utility-scale wind

Additional benefits of on-site wind, including curricula enhancement and other associated learning opportunities

The process for purchasing and installing a commercial-scale wind turbine

Case studies of other distributed wind applications

Federal and state incentives

What "net metering" is and how it works

Repairing, Improving & Preserving Mid-20th Century Campus Buildings

The repair and maintenance of mid-20th century architecture produces difficult and worsening problems for owners of major buildings throughout the country. Masonry and concrete deterioration, un-insulated curtain walls, glazing failures, and rocketing energy costs are characteristic shortcomings of this generation of modern buildings. Structural concrete has its own accelerating inventory of difficulties. Ineffective exterior envelope designs result in poor thermal performance, unsustainable levels of energy consumption and reduced comfort. Many of these buildings may be judged worthy of preservation, making the acceptable solutions less obvious.

Learn about sustainably designed technical solutions to problems with these buildings:

Architectural: Material Analysis; 20th Century Building Preservation and Repair Strategies

Building Envelope Performance: Concrete Analysis (Alkali Silica Reaction and Carbonation); Concrete Repair; Exterior Wall Insulation; Window Glass, Frame Replacement and Repair

Thermal Analysis: Thermography; Energy Consumption and Energy Modeling

Specific examples from the following campuses will be highlighted:

Harvard University's Peabody Terrace student housing; Holyoke Center office building; Gund Hall at the Graduate School of Design

Vanderbilt University's Stratton Student Center

Boston University's Law School , Library, & Student Union

Restoring the Wellesley Campus Community: Landscape as Infrastructure and Learning Resource

Over the past decade, Wellesley College has executed two major projects that have addressed campus needs while providing substantial environmental benefit and educational opportunities through the living classroom of the created wetlands. The Paint Shop Pond project combined the expansion of the athletic facilities—including a track, soccer fields, and softball field—with the remediation of contamination at Paint Shop Pond. This comprehensive cleanup plan focused on Paint Shop Pond and neighboring wetlands, and crafted a permanent solution for the land's safe reuse. The remediation required the dredging of over six acres of wetlands and included over seven acres of wetland replacement—one of the largest environmental projects ever undertaken in Massachusetts. The West Campus projects included the restoration of Alumnae Valley, a neglected remnant of the original Olmsted-designed landscape that had become a parking lot and service areas and historically had served industrial uses that included a gas manufacturing plant. The restoration approach involved combining different aspects of environmental remediation and sustainable stormwater management, and integrating these components as part of the landscape design to provide aesthetic enhancements extending out from Lake Waban to the Wang Campus Center. Together, these projects resulted in the net loss of over three acres of pavement and the net gain of over two acres of wetland areas in designs that incorporate the stormwater management, landscape design, and environmental remediation. The wetlands created through these projects are currently used by the College as teaching areas for engineering, biology, and ecology classes.

Rethinking Diversity: Social Sustainability in U.S. Higher Education

The overarching objective driving this session is the incorporation of social sustainability into U.S. higher education. As a movement gaining in momentum and popularity, sustainability has the ability to promote social justice as a central tenet and as a paradigm that can transform the current crisis of inequality we now face. The scope of this session will address the incorporation of social sustainability into three areas: the work of institutional diversity policies and mission, student life administrators, and curriculum.

Given the agenda-setting economic ideology, we have seen affirmative action eliminated by legislation and popular vote. And now we face a landscape in which white men are considered as an "under-represented" population. As a movement gaining in momentum and popularity, sustainable development has the ability to promote social justice as a central tenet and as a paradigm that can transform the current crisis of inequality we now face. The scope of this presentation will address the incorporation of social sustainability into four-year, land-grant, research universities.

Drawing from recently conducted case studies and other qualitative research, this presentation will offer participants the opportunity to learn about promising practices already in place around adaptation toward social sustainability. Moreover, learning objectives for attendees aim to ensure that an open dialogue around social sustainability will take place. Specifically, origins and the next steps in advancing the concept of social sustainability in the field, as well as the opportunity to discuss collaboration, are main objectives of this preesntation.

Return on Investment: Economic Report on Warren Wilson College's Green Building Initiative

Warren Wilson College (WWC) enacted a green building policy this past year in line with the College and University Presidents Climate Commitment that states all future buildings and renovations will be done to minimum LEED Silver standards. The choice to build green at WWC is part of an overarching institutional commitment to the values of sustainability and to the need for climate change action. Though the policy is new, WWC has already built a LEED Gold certified office building, a LEED EB Platinum dorm (pending), two LEED Gold dorms (pending), one LEED Gold academic building (anticipated), and renovated an office building to green building standards. WWC is confident that these buildings lessoned their potential environmental impact (for example they are very energy efficient, incorporate reused/recycled elements, and use non-toxic and renewable products) and that they also lessoned their potential social/cultural impact (for example they consist of locally sourced materials, possess high indoor air quality, and reduce foreign-based fossil fuel inputs). But what about the economic sustainability sphere? Does building green cost WWC money that should be applied to other essential functions? Is green building economically viable in the long-term? Is it a wise and prudent investment? This poster presentation will examine WWC’s green building construction costs and operation costs over time utilizing data gathered from the annual WWC Greenhouse Gas Inventory, the WWC Business Office, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The information presented will reveal WWC’s anticipated green building return-on-investment in an effort to further stimulate the national campus green building dialogue.

Running the Numbers: Enhancing Calculus through Education about Sustainability

We will give a brief overview along with specific examples on how to incorporate sustainability themes into a calculus class. With the widespread availability of data and the commonality of Excel on computers, we can use curve fitting techniques in Excel to convert the data into functions. Now, all kinds of fundamentally important questions about sustainability become calculus questions about those curves, and so we can still cover the usual calculus content but in a more meaningful context. In this class we had other faculty (Biology/Ecology, Business, Political Science) come to class to answer student questions and students had to produce a 3-5 page final report (yes in a calculus class). The sustainability theme provided a natural setting for multidisciplinary discussions. We will also provide some assessment results to show that this is an effective way to engage a broad range of students in calculus.

Schoolcraft College Biomedical Technology Center - New Technologies Integrated with Sustainable Features

Schoolcraft College's Livonia, Michigan campus recently completed construction of a state-of-the-art Biomedical Technology Center. The design integrates new technologies with sustainable features to enhance the curriculum and learning environment of the facility. Starting with the building's north orientation on the site, the U-shaped building and its high R-valued exterior envelope (utilizing regionally produced materials), this building was conceived to reduce energy consumption and increase its environmental stewardship. Rain chains harvest and funnel water collected on the building's roof down to rain gardens, which are integrally designed into outdoor seating terraces that students and faculty utilize for learning. The College will tap into these rain gardens in its curriculum as "natural labs" which will focus on sustainability and the environment. The building's design incorporates natural lighting into 100% of the classrooms, laboratories, and faculty offices and utilizes operable windows in 90% of those to maximize the use of natural ventilation. The environmental standards and concepts designed and implemented into the new Center echo the College's ongoing commitment to creating sustainable buildings and environments to enhance their students learning! This poster will highlight the design elements of the building, their value, and their integration into the curriculum. Sustainable building design will be discussed in the context of the College's long-range planning.

SD Wind Energy: The Need for Public Activism

Wind energy has the potential to significantly reduce United States carbon emissions and to provide an economic stimulus for rural America. South Dakota has one of the largest wind energy resources in the U.S., but before SD can capitalize on its wind resource, state policies need to be enacted to overcome existing barriers. Additionally, educational opportunities need to be more accessible to the public and there needs to be greater public mobilization in support of wind energy. In South Dakota, as well as in other states, there is a need for student organizations to mobilize citizens and to pressure public officials to support wind energy.

Student organizations should prioritize advocating for community wind projects because these projects maximize the benefits wind energy provides to the public. Community wind means that the wind project is a community owned asset, which heightens the benefits localities and tribes can receive. Students can support community wind energy by advocating certain policies and by working with their local communities or tribes to develop community wind projects.

During this presentation, policies will be discussed that should be pursued and actions that should be taken to promote wind energy. The presentation will rely on independent research conducted this summer from interviews with individuals from SD, ND, MN, CO, and IA. as well as experience organizing a community wind energy meeting in Yankton County, interning for the Intertribal Council for Utility Policy, and conducting a survey of SD Farmer's Union membership.

SEE and Sustainability Across the Curriculum: Cooperation Among the Natural Sciences, Humanities and the Social Sciences

The University of Dayton, a Catholic Marianist institution, is currently developing an interdisciplinary program, Sustainability, Energy and the Environment (SEE). SEE is not a new major in environmental studies, but rather a set of courses that fit into the General Education curriculum and additional courses that provide a focus to individual students and their majors. The University of Dayton's mission statement focuses upon community and service and so strives to emphasize community in the education of its students as well as in the passions of its faculty. As a result, this panel is particularly interested in engaging discussion of what it means to be a community in an environmental context; how we sensitize students to the environment or help them to develop environmental awareness; the relationship between local and global communities; and how different levels of community demand different levels of engagement with the environment. We suggest that when discussing sustainable education, we must also address sustaining environmental awareness and commitment among students beyond the classroom. We also emphasize the importance of sustaining financial support for campus environmental initiatives.

Service Learning - Moving from Planning to Action in the First Year

During 2005-2006 Wright State University’s First Year Experience program was recognized nationally through its inclusion as one of 13 four-year institutions in the Foundations of Excellence in the First College Year project. Through a year-long self-study, the Foundations of Excellence Task Force, comprised of 50 staff and faculty from across the university, recommended, among other conclusions: • That we expand our First Year experience program to include the whole first year, not just the many offerings in the fall quarter and the few during winter term •That we collaborate across disciplines to create opportunities for first year students to become engaged, excited, and motivated by the prospects of life-long learning, civic engagement and service in our communities. In an effort to implement these recommendations, as well as the Wright State University mission to meet the need for an educated citizenry dedicated to lifelong learning and service, we proposed the development of service learning opportunities for first year students through our First Year Seminar and Learning Community courses, in which 1700 students enroll (approximately 80% of new students) as well as the development of a new course to be offered during winter and spring quarters. Our poster will guide attendees through the challenges and successes from our fall quarter experiences with service learning as part of our First Year Seminar. We will also illustrate the steps made in the development of our new course, Campus-Community Connections in the First Year, and report on its initial quarter of operation.

Serving Sustainability to Sun Devils: ASU's Award for Ecologically Healthy Food Services

"Serving Sustainability to Sun Devils" is Arizona State University's award program for ecologically healthy food services. The mission of Serving Sustainability to Sun Devils is to provide a comprehensive mechanism for recognizing food services on and near ASU that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to sustainability goals such as waste reduction, pollution management, and energy efficiency. This program engages food services in developing zero-waste business practices that simultaneously enhance the natural environment; support a thriving local community; and improve bottom-line costs through resource efficiency and waste reduction.

Along with supplying an evaluation mechanism for sustainability in the food service industry, Serving Sustainability to Sun Devils is also an educational tool designed to 1) connect local food services to practical strategies and resources aimed at minimizing their ecological footprint; and 2) promote consumer consciousness and support of sustainable food service industry practices.

Serving Sustainability to Sun Devils began in spring of 2007 as a student fellowship project and has continued with the support of the Global Institute of Sustainability. In the past year, an award structure has been developed, and a comprehensive list of resources has been compiled in a booklet for distribution to the food services who participate in the program. Currently, five local food services are piloting the Serving Sustainability to Sun Devils program, and one food service has undergone evaluation. The others will be evaluated in August. Based on feedback from this pilot program, the project will be revised for widespread, long-term implementation.

Show Me the Money: Resources for Campus Sustainability Programs

How do you create a shared institutional understanding of and support for campus sustainability? How can you create "coalitions of the willing" to support curriculum development, campus operational modifications, and community outreach? What do each of these institutional constituencies need and how can you help them achieve their goals? What do YOU need as a coordinator to enable your campus sustainability activities? Where are the available resources you can tap into? What are some strategies to enlist institutional support for sharing of resources? How can you convince your institutional leaders to "show you the money"?

In this presentation, participants will learn:

* a working definition of "sustainability" that engages multiple sectors of your community;

* what motivates and supports faculty to incorporate sustainability principles in their courses;

* what motivates and supports operational managers to make more sustainable decisions;

* how can you most effectively communicate your efforts within your campus and externally;

* the most appropriate role of a coordinator to facilitate campus sustainability;

* what resources you need the most; and

* how you can craft the best case possible to convince your administration to provide you with the support you need.

SOGreen: A Sustainability Model for North Carolina's Local Governments

In January of 2008, four Masters of Public Administration students launched the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government’s (SOG) initiative towards more sustainable facilities and operations: “SOGreen.” The School of Government operates at the intersection between academic research and the practicable application of best practices for NC’s state and local governments. As many of the state’s public officials face pressure to green their own operations, the students hoped to not only reduce the environmental impact of the School of Government itself, but to create a learning environment for local governments across North Carolina.

Over the course of the semester, the students analyzed attainable projects to introduce faculty and staff to sustainable projects and inaugurate SOGreen. The students studied and made recommendations on the use of energy efficient hand dryers, green caterers, composting, environmentally friendly printing practices, and a more effective recycling process. The students also developed a public information campaign to raise awareness about SOGreen and sustainable practices. The team worked with SOG faculty, staff and students; consulted University and state experts and program managers; and scrutinized the building’s waste to develop a tailored plan that could be integrated into the larger green movement.

While not a drastic overhaul, the SOGreen project serves as an example of how university departments can take initiative within their own walls and incrementally make a larger environmental impact. SOGreen will continue under the leadership of a newly formed SOG sustainability group of faculty, staff, and students. Project highlights are illustrated in the project poster.

Solar Heating and Cooling with Sale-of-Energy Financing

Solar Hot water plants offer excellent economics. Sale-of-energy projects offer the opportunity for free installation, paid for over time with energy purchased at a price typically 10% less than current oil and gas costs. Solar hot water is much less costly per watt(thermal) and several times more efficient than Photovoltaics.

SOLID Solar is the global leader in large-scale solar heating and cooling plants. Recent projects include solar Cooling and Hot Water for the Olympics in China, which won an award for the Best Renewable Project in Asia. Major US universities with engineering or installation contracts completed include Harvard, MIT, and Dartmouth. Solar thermal can be a major source of carbon-free energy for campus loads such as central steam systems, dorms, and recreation centers. Output can be displayed realtime on lobby monitors and online. With lease financing or sale-of-energy, solar installations are available with no need for any capital contribution from the school.

Solutions Beyond Green: Feng Shui and Human Sustainability in Residence Halls

Which bed position supports restful sleep? Which desk position promotes expansive thinking? In which room would you prefer to sleep and study? In which room shape would you prefer to live? How does a long narrow hallway affect academic research or a personal relationship?

These questions appear and are answered on the "Solutions beyond Green" poster.

Students are impacted by furniture design and placement as well as the architectural design of their residence hall rooms and apartments. Some designs encourage creativity, concentration and relaxation, while others block the thought process and cause stress. Feng shui, the art and science of creating living environments most suitable for people, provides solutions for residence hall design that promotes student cognition, sociability and well-being. When feng shui principles are incorporated into the green building process, colleges and universities have a structure that is life sustaining as well as environmentally sound.

This interactive poster features scenarios of residence hall photographs and floor plans that invite viewers to choose furniture and architectural design that best supports the students. Captions explain why certain furniture arrangement and room designs are optimal and why others are detrimental. "Solutions beyond Green" gives viewers a new perception that a building that is good for the environment can also be good for people.

Starting a Successful, Student Organization for Sustainability.

Philadelphia University is a private, coed, regionally accredited school with 4-5 year degrees in the six different schools of, Science, Architecture, Design/Media, Engineering/ Textiles, and Liberal Arts. We have a population of 3000 students, faculty and staff, and are located within the city of Philadelphia, Pa on the edge of Fairmount Park, the largest urban park system in the country. We have the potential to become a leader among smart, sustainable campuses because of our dedication, enthusiasm, and role as stewards of the park. SOSA is a three-month-old organization that has been especially active and made significant progress this semester alone. We set into action several campus wide initiatives and we were featured in PhilaU Today, a campus wide bulletin, that gave us great exposure and explained what SOSA was doing.

This presentation encompasses how the Student Organization for Sustainable Action was started, how we're structured, what initiatives have been implemented, what the outcomes have been, and our vision for Philadelphia University's future in becoming a leader in sustainable practices.

Student Directed Bicycle Education Course Creates Community Understanding

This project addresses the challenges UCSC faces with implementing sustainable transportation. The primary mode of campus transportation is via automobile. The cost of automobile use for the UC, students, and the environment is both unhealthy and unnecessary. Bicycling is a more affordable and sustainable alternative that is gaining popularity among the UCSC community as it becomes more accessible through such programs as the award winning bike shuttle and campus bike coop. Unfortunately, most students choose not to bike due to a variety of factors including, but not limited to, vague knowledge about the benefits of bicycling, concerns about safety, being overwhelmed by the concept of maintenance, or lack of financial resources. As the need for sustainability in our lives becomes more apparent, opportunities for change are appearing in a variety of forms. This presentation offers a solution via a bike library which would make biking more widely available for the campus community. The library is in conjunction with the student created and facilitated Culture and Community of the Bicycle Course being offered at Oakes College for five credits. Through guest lectures, films, and hands-on experience, students gain a deeper understanding of the role of the bicycle in our lives, community, and our world.

Student Leadership in Campus Sustainability

Northland College successfully addresses issues of transportation, food, recycling and reuse, and energy conservation through student-led projects. Active student involvement in campus operations has been key to sustainability innovation at Northland College. Yet student leadership presents challenges of turnover and lost history, uneven skill and participation, repeated projects, and parallel efforts. This presentation will outline the model Northland has adopted to systematically address these challenges and to lead strategic change. Our priority is to provide learning opportunities for students by using the campus itself as a lab, linking classes with co-curricular service, and linking campus projects with initiatives in the surrounding communities, which were the first in the country to adopt Ecomunicipality resolutions. Balancing opportunities for student learning and risk-taking with operational needs requires a systems perspective and careful staff coordination.

Student-Powered Sustainability at Pacific Lutheran University

Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) has taken up its role in the environmental movement by fostering environmental education as well as promoting environmental responsibility. One of PLU's most vital facets as it strives toward sustainability is the student body. There are a number of student-led clubs and organizations that address environmental concerns and promote sustainability-both on and off campus-in a variety of ways. The environmental club GREAN highlights grassroots issues while instigating change at PLU and elsewhere. The Garden Club practices sustainable agriculture and shares their work with the community. The Climate Change Ambassadors program focuses on the scientific facts of climate change and promotes educational awareness. Earth-friendly practices are promoted in each residence by an appointed Environmental Justice Director. The student government body recently added the position of Sustainability Director, who works closely with all these groups to strengthen their common interests. Outside of organized efforts, individual students voluntarily contribute on a daily basis by participating in PLU's recycling and composting programs, using alternate modes of transportation between campus and the greater community, and by incorporating other sustainable habits into their lifestyles. Exemplary students have been awarded fellowships that allow them to research and develop sustainability programs for PLU. Thus, the diverse roles that students play as PLU continues to be concerned for the environment are undoubtedly and continually important.

Students Doing Research on Sustainability Reaching Out Beyond the Campus

The concept of education for sustainable development has been acknowledged by institutions of higher education and underscored by the UNESCO Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. On the demand side, sustainability literacy is requested by the labor market. However, studies indicate that there is still a gap between supply- and demand-side as universities have not yet fully implemented sustainability education in their curricula, thereby also accounting for skills in interdisciplinarity, transacademic research, and real-world problem solving.

This presentation will share experiences with a service-model for transacademic research projects on real-world sustainability problems conducted by under-/& graduate students. These projects are designed as part of students' academic education (PhD-, Master-, Bachelor-theses), enhancing their capacities to become responsible and accountable decision makers. (1) Projects focus on real-world sustainability problems as encountered by business, administration/government, or civil-society. They deal with sustainable quality management, nanotechnology, tourism, climate change, ethics, and politics for sustainability. (2) Projects aim at solution-oriented research and are based on science-practice collaboration to enable joint learning and mutual knowledge transfer. Thus, transacademic project teams involve external partners striving for applicable solutions, and students of different disciplines and their supervisors accounting for high scientific quality of outcomes. (3) To guarantee that the research process delivers applicable and credible results, projects are coordinated by professional interface-managers. (4) Projects enhance students' professional and social competences by conveying soft skills and coaching (moderation, team-working, etc.). Using the format of academic theses, the model allows to mainstream sustainability research across academic curricula.

Students Teaching Students (STS) Courses: Supporting Peer Education on Emerging Environmental Themes

Courses designed and taught by students on emerging environmental themes have been offered at the University of Vermont since 1985 through Environmental Studies. Students Teaching Students (STS) courses are approved by the Environmental Program and supervised by faculty; some student instructors write up and evaluate their teaching experience for senior thesis credit. Course topics have included: environmental justice, ecopsychology, nature writing, campus sustainability, and cultivating holistic lifestyles. The study evaluates the role and effectiveness of these courses for both instructors and participants.

Fifteen senior theses (70-120 pages in length) were reviewed to determine range of pedagogical styles, perceived value in peer teaching, elements of success, and common challenges. Pedagogical approaches included: case study presentation, peer-led discussions, guest speakers, multiple draft writing, activism projects, anti-racism training, self reflection, and intensive retreats. Students appreciate the shared model of peer teaching, the awareness of power and dominance relations, and the experiential orientation of class design. Elements of success include: close faculty supervision, well prepared syllabus and readings, clear assignments and grading rubrics, collaborative teaching, weekly preparation and debriefing sessions between co-teachers, and clear course goals. Common challenges are: issues of authority, leading discussions effectively, grading, and differences in teaching styles between co-leaders. Students Teaching Students (STS) is presented as a model for including course offerings that reflect senior level preparation and engagement. The Environmental Studies faculty support these courses and see them as enriching the diverse range of educational opportunities at UVM.

Successful Integration of Waste Diversion - 76% and counting!

This presentation will be a case study demonstrating San Francisco State University's success in integrating its waste diversion program into all aspects of the campus community. In 2006, SF State reached a diversion rate of 76% and continues toward its goal of zero waste. SF State achieved this goal by creating a safety focused trash removal process, using student assistance in marketing the project to the greater campus community, creating recycling websites with guidelines, creating new waste diversion streams as the campus needs grow, expanding the composting program with the help of the student led ECO-Students group, working through the campus SWAP shop to encourage reuse, working with Engineering students to design and build innovative waste handling equipment, and carefully organizing waste management in all campus projects. The integrated waste diversion program incorporates and benefits from student leadership development; students are involved in the entire process including initial brainstorming, interacting with focus groups, conceptual designing, construction modeling, project scheduling and management, publication in a variety of formats, and speaking before classes and professional associations.

Sustainability & Pepperdine University: A Contradiction in Terms?

A central Christian metaphor is being "a light on a hill." Applying this metaphor to our current ecological crisis, this presentation considers whether or not a Christian college or university has a moral responsibility to be a "green" light on a hill. In other words, does a Christian institution of higher education have an ethical duty to be a model of sustainability? Current research investigates this broad question using Pepperdine University as a specific case study and considers questions in roughly these three areas. The first focuses on determining what, if any, sustainable measures Pepperdine practices and/or plans to employ in the future. The second area reflects on what, if any, definition of sustainability the university currently uses. Furthermore, the presentation will seek to ascertain whether or not Pepperdine's Christian commitments readily influence its definition of sustainability or its application of sustainable measures. The third area explores the relationship between the university's administration and the student body in the execution of its sustainable measures.

Sustainability across the Curriculum - Elon University Faculty Scholars Program

The Sustainability Faculty Scholars program was developed to assist faculty in the incorporation of sustainability themes across the University curriculum. Faculty members apply for the program by proposing the incorporation of sustainability into specific courses. Selected faculty attend workshops, presentations, field trips, and shared work days. Outcomes are assessed and presented to the group mid- and at the end of the semester the courses are taught. Three classes will be presented: 1) The interdisciplinary, freshman course entitled "The Global Experience," explicitly addresses environmental sustainability by emphasizing the theme of "the relationship between humans and the natural world." There is an intensive focus on developing research, writing, critical thinking, and information literacy skills, integrating the biological and environmental sciences, social sciences, business, ethics and art; 2) Students in a non-majors biology course will measure their personal environmental impact through study of specific out-of-class practices. The class will discuss putting these studies into a larger context to better appreciate the magnitude of environmental challenges, their personal responsibility, and an ability to make informed choices; 3) In Introduction to Sociology, environmental sustainability will be integrated into the existing topics which are already central to the course. For example, what do the "fathers" of Sociology theory contribute to discussions of sustainability? How does sustainability relate to topics such as the family, religion, race/ethnicity, class status, and sex/gender? The ultimate goal is to create a course where discussions of environmental sustainability are not something we do for one week, but rather throughout the semester.

Sustainability Across the Curriculum at Antioch University New England: Lessons & Questions from the Field

Antioch University New England’s stated purpose is “to provide transformative education through scholarship, innovation, and community action for a just and sustainable society.” This panel will explore how one academic institution – ANE – pursues this purpose across its four distinct academic disciplines: education, environmental studies, organization & management, and psychology. Panelists will highlight specific sustainability curriculum components and outcomes, as well as the ways in which faculty and students work across disciplines to promote sustainability. As a basis for discussion, panelists also will identify both successes and significant hurdles in pursuing sustainability within their respective disciplines – and within the institution. Questions for panelists and audience participants will include: 1) How can faculty, students and administrators facilitate more cross-disciplinary collaboration to advance sustainability? 2) How can sustainability curricula and institutional practices be better coordinated to promote a more holistic education for sustainabilty? 3) How do those of us operating within specific academic disciplines work within those particular parameters to promote sustainability?

Sustainability Across the Curriculum: Strategies for Change

Curriculum change is one of the key components for helping colleges and universities create a more sustainable future. And yet, curriculum change remains challenging precisely because the curriculum is not something that can be easily changed with a policy or directive from a central authority. Faculty “own” the curriculum and thus faculty must become change agents.

Over the past several years, over 100 faculty members from the United States and Canada have taken part in workshops aimed at helping institutions develop strategies for working with faculty and for infusing sustainability across the curriculum. These workshops, based on the Ponderosa Project (Northern Arizona University) and the Piedmont Project (Emory University) have been fruitful. A number of colleges and universities have now developed their own highly successful curriculum change projects.

In this presentation, several leaders of these projects will discuss the strategies, challenges, and successes they have realized on their own campuses. Drawing on the distinctiveness of their own institutions, they will discuss how they were able to effect change, and how they were able, given their varying missions, to create mechanisms for infusing sustainability into a wide range of courses. These presenters will also answer questions and engage in brainstorming with other participants about how to lay the ground work for curriculum innovation around sustainability.

Sustainability and Furman's New Curriculum

Furman's Director of Sustainability and Environmental Education and its Provost will discuss various curricular initiatives developed by Furman University that make sustainability more integral to our learning environment. Furman's faculty has approved a new curriculum that includes several components that focus on the environment and sustainability. This curriculum will be implemented in the fall of 2008. As part of the general education requirement, for example, all students will be required to take at least one course in a category entitled "Humans and the Natural Environment." A number of our existing courses will meet this requirement, as well as a significant number of new courses designed specifically to fit into this category. The new curriculum has thus become a catalyst for the development of curricular options related to sustainability that didn't exist before. Moreover, in the new curriculum all first-year students will be required to take two seminars – one in each semester – designed by faculty to reflect their own intellectual passions, experience, and research interests. The seminars will be small; the cap for seminars meeting our writing requirement is 12, for other seminars 15. To accommodate nearly 700 first year students, Furman has created about 100 new seminars – and about a dozen of those approved by the faculty focus on some aspect of sustainability and/or the environment. Importantly, then, one of the first intense academic experiences for a considerable number of our first-year students will focus on questions related to the environment. We have work to do, but the foundation for a substantial curricular commitment to sustainability has been established.

Sustainability and General Education

Universities, especially publically funded universities, have a responsibility to educate students about the world in which they live and the trends that are defining the world of the future. One of the best ways in which they can live up to this responsibility is to rethink their general education requirements, so that all of their students graduate knowing the challenges that lie ahead.

Most universities have a Gen. Ed. (or Liberal Studies) Requirement that has nothing to do with sustainability or global issues such resource wars, immigration, and the social and cultural implications of free trade. Therefore, the majority of students graduate having completed all of their requirements knowing almost nothing about the world in which they live.

Attempts to "green" the entire curriculum; to supplement the required curriculum with extracurricular lectures and films; to "green" certain majors such as economics and political science; and to offer certificates in sustainable living, have their merits and need to be continued. There is also a need to rethink "general education" so that it addresses real world issues.

Needless to say, any major change in the general education requirement will encounter enormous resistance from within the university itself (mainly from faculty) and from politically conservative organizations outside the university. University administrators and governing board members, especially those at state-supported institutions, will be extremely sensitive to any allegations, no matter how ill-founded, that universities are a breeding ground for anti-business, anti-free trade, or anti-American thinking.

Sustainability as An Integrative Strategy for Promoting Interdisciplinary Education and Community Action

The term "sustainability" is used increasingly in international dialogues on topics ranging from economic recessions to renewable energy sources and global warming. It is viewed with some justification as a key concept to address the challenges of the 21st century by realigning economic, environmental, and societal adaptations of our species for survival rather than catastrophe. Sustainability is truly an integrative spatial and temporal concept because it integrates biosphere economic, environmental, and societal issues in space with intergenerational responsibilities in time.

Sustainability is a wonderful concept to promote interdisciplinary and integrative teaching and scholarship in academic institutions, and many universities have developed institutes or offices of sustainability. However, sustainability is not yet strongly rooted in either the traditional academic disciplines or in many nearby communities. But what if both goals could be accomplished synergistically using integrative pedagogy, research, and community action as cross-pollinators? This approach has the added advantage of bringing students and faculty together with community leaders and activists to accomplish "real world," "cutting-edge" projects promoting academic value and community progress.

In this presentation, the author reports on the progress of the Sustaining Tomorrow Today Project (STTP) since its inception in 2004. The STTP mission is to foster economic, environmental, and societal practices in Southwest Florida and other rapidly growing regions through research, demonstration, education of students, and community outreach leading to sustainable rather than declining futures.

Sustainability as Part of the Curriculum: An Example from a Liberal Arts College.

There are many opportunities to engage students in sustainability projects in a liberal arts setting. Such engagement benefits the students but is also beneficial in moving the college toward greater sustainability. Environment and Society, an interdisciplinary course at Furman University, serves as the capstone for the Environmental Studies Concentration. In 2008 the course had 12 students and was designed as a project-based course. After defining their skill sets, students formed two groups of six. The course began with a focus on project planning and management, guided by two campus experts, and students wrestled with defining their projects and coming up with measurable goals. Each group undertook two projects aimed at helping the college meet the Presidents Climate Commitment. Projects included: 1) paper reduction; 2) reduction in food waste and determination of embodied carbon emissions in dining hall food; 3) energy conservation in laundry rooms; and, 4) renewable energy in the form of photovoltaic panels for charging campus electric vehicles and golf carts. Notable results include better printing practices and consideration of limitations on paper per student, purchase of drying racks for student apartments, installation of a PV array tied into the campus grid, reduction of food waste, and calculation of carbon emissions associated with dining hall food. Student awareness on campus was raised and project teams became invested in sustainable behavior. Teams learned about: the value of defining a project well and early; educating various constituencies and preparing them for change; resistance; and persistence in dealing with decision makers.

Sustainability Assessment of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of British Columbia

The Chemical and Biological Engineering (CHBE) Sustainability Club of the University of British Columbia (UBC) has conducted a departmental sustainability assessment (DSA). The DSA was adapted at a departmental level from the Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework (Cole, 2003), a program developed with the Sierra Youth Coalition - Canada. Large universities, such as UBC, have many of their operations, research and teaching decentralized. Whole campus sustainability assessment would not give an accurate picture of a specific department or faculty. We are presenting our results, methodology and challenge to conduct our DSA and we also compared our indicators and results with the AASHE STARS 0.5 rating system.

Sustainability at Missouri State University: A Public Affair

Missouri State University has a State wide Mission of "Public Affairs". Over the past several years, that mission has been explored through a Public Affairs Conference and various themes. In 2008-2009 the theme is sustainability. MSU will sponsor an international conference on sustainability April 21-24, 2009. This provides the University the opportunity to address sustainability at all levels of operation. We have thought of the past five years as the "toddler years". Students have started a new organization "Students for a Sustainable Future" - and we will highlight their activities. Residence Life has promoted recycling to the point where Missouri State University is very competitive in Recyclemania, while the University as a whole struggles with recycling. Energy initiatives have reduced electricity usage by over 15% the past ten years while the student body had grown, yet comprehensive waste and water management has not been comprehensively addressed. This poster will highlight the bottom up successes at MSU that have been successful to date. Our goal is to both influence and be influenced by university students, staff and faculty to move MSU towards true sustainability while have our graduating students lead in their lives and professions.

Sustainability Attitudes and Behaviors of Incoming Freshmen at Juniata College

Juniata College has been administering an environmental attitudes survey to incoming freshmen since 2005. The objective of the survey is to document students' attitudes and behaviors towards environmental issues. The survey is divided into four sections – the new environmental paradigm, which addresses broad issues on ecology and the environment; transportation related issues; attitudes and behaviors towards recycling; and attitudes and behaviors related to consumption. As part of the analyses we placed students into one of three categories based on their environmental values - Dominion, which represents the philosophy of human control over the environment; Balance of Nature which represents the viewpoint that there is a limit to human use, humans are subject to the laws of nature, and that we must use nature carefully; and Deep Ecology which represents the philosophy that views humankind as an integral part of the environment. We found gender differences in attitudes, where males appear to be less environmentally minded than females. We also found some encouraging trends - most students are willing to take steps to be more sustainable. However, further analyses revealed that their actions do not always coincide with this response. The results of the survey can be used to develop change in policies or identify areas where sustainability attitudes can be cultivated or improved. With the first set of surveyed students graduating in 2009, we plan to administer an exit survey to assess the impact of the Juniata College experience on attitudes towards the environment.

Sustainability Coalition Growth Model

Students Act Now for Sustainability (SANS) is Arizona State University's new sustainability coalition whose goal is to build a base of sustainability in Arizona through action, outreach and education. SANS is a network of student organizations, staff and faculty at ASU, community colleges, community groups and individuals. SANS oversees committees, events, membership, marketing and promotion, volunteer outreach and finances (including fundraising).

By drawing on the creativity of students, the resources of businesses, and the social capital of the community, SANS aims to empower and connect students and community members, encourage collaboration among organizations and create a model of sustainability in Arizona.

Five phases are being developed to expand the organization over the next five years. These phases are being designed so that other universities of different sizes and demographics can adapt this same model.

SANS was launched this year at ASU and is rapidly growing with the help of interested students from all over the valley.

Sustainability Education and Vladimir Vernadsky's Theory of Biosphere and Noosphere

After years of silence, the West finally started to discover and scientifically recognize a prominent Russian researcher, philosopher, and thinker – Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1863-1945). Paradoxically, Vernadsky's name was not known in the West until the end of the Cold War, but for more than half a century his ideas provided an invisible foundation for many fields and branches of modern science, and have been used widely. These ideas predetermined the appearance and influenced the development of such important disciplines as biogeochemistry, global ecology, and Earth system science. It is essentially Vernadsky's theory of the biosphere and the noosphere that is embodied in the global approach to ecological problems and to sustainable development. According to Vernadsky, the noosphere is a new evolutionary stage in the development of the biosphere when the human-and-nature interaction will be consciously balanced. In our time of the impending global ecological crisis and uncertainty about the future, it is important to include Vernadsky's theory of the biosphere and the noosphere into the sustainability education curriculum because his concept carries an interdisciplinary and systems thinking approach, and an optimistic vision of our future.

Sustainability Education at the Edge: A Cohort Model for Doctoral Study

The challenge for the field of Sustainability Education is how to develop and support "agents of change" who can profoundly impact and transform our educational systems to produce a more informed, engaged, proactive citizenry, and ensure a sustainable future for both the human and more than human world. This is the purpose and vision of the PhD program in Sustainability Education at Prescott College. In its 4th year of operation, this program explores a range of perspectives from Education for Sustainability, or the act and practice of learning how to achieve global and local sustainable communities, and Education as Sustainability, or the process for transforming education to create a more informed and transformed populace to support a more sustainable, secure society. The program emphasizes the 4 "Es" of contemporary sustainability: Ecology, Economy, and Equity, through the lens of Education and an emphasis on bio/cultural diversity to examine those issues of interdisciplinary concern that are often overlooked in more focused study of specific disciplines. The cohort-based process allows students to form a strong, tight-knit learning community supported by open dialogue that invites diverse perspectives and feedback within the cohort and with faculty. Contact is maintained by frequent email, phone, and internet course management interactions as well as colloquium gatherings in Prescott or other locations.

Sustainability Education in the Developing World

Of the more than 3 billion people currently living in the world’s urban areas, over 2 billion are in less-developed regions. By 2015, these regions will include an estimated 3.2 billion out of 4.1 billion urban people; and by 2025, over 4 billion out of 5.1 billion. The increased concentration of global populations in urban cities of the developing world, are therefore, linked to international prospects for sustainable development.

The ability of cities to function as social, cultural and economic centers, and to meet the challenges of sustainable development, is shaped by urban population dynamics, including the dynamics within the education sector. Consequently, there is growing pressure upon urban universities in developing countries to advance sustainability education while preparing a workforce with the capacity to compete in a globalized economy.

SolarQuest®, Global Challenge and the Urban Age Institute will convene a panel of urban sustainability education experts to discuss the need for international cooperation and exchange among members of AASHE and public universities of the 125 member cities of World Association of Major Metropolises (WAMM).

This panel presentation will feature three 10-minute presentations followed by Q&A and discussion.

An objective of the panel will be to form a working group to promote international cooperation and exchange among members of AASHE and public universities within WAMM, and to assess the interest of AASHE members to collaborate in the development of an international training center for sustainability education serving WAMM institutions.

Sustainability Framework at Dalhousie University

Dalhousie University has been involved in sustainability activities for over 20 years. Presently a comprehensive university-wide sustainability policy, framework, and/or system hasn't been adopted. Common decision-making tools such as these help to guide decisions, focus work to a common purpose, and achieve transparency in decision-making.

There are numerous examples of policy, frameworks, and systems used by organizations and universities in the environment and sustainability arena. These range from certified management systems such as 1S0 14000 to framework and planning tools such as the Natural Step to assessment regimes like the Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework.

A university campus is a community with varying interests and players. It has its own web of governance structures and operating mandates spread across many sub-structures within a small geographic footprint. Many in the community are highly focused on achieving goals related to specific areas of academic study. It is therefore important to create decision-making structures that are easily understood and embraced by the diversity of parties, can be utilized and maintained in a reasonable amount of time, are flexible to meet the needs of various players, and have enough "bite" to make change.

A proposed sustainability framework for Dalhousie University re-organizes and builds on existing systems by: taking a systems approach, focusing on a handful of indicators and targets, and incorporating academic and on-campus operations in the model.

Sustainability from Scratch

This presentation will focus on how one "late blooming" college launched a multifaceted sustainability program. From having a fairly embryonic program a year ago, St. Petersburg College formed a Sustainability Committee and began a grass roots yet coordinated college-wide effort that included CURRICULAR (a baccalaureate track in sustainability, plans for a similar track in an Environmental Science Technology associate degree program, a new online sustainability course, and non-credit training opportunities), FACILITIES (LEED-certified buildings, green purchasing, recycling, etc.), and STUDENT ACTIVITIES (ranging from environmental and building arts club activities to "SPC Goes Green" welcome back mugs for student use). The presentation will also feature details of recent legislation specifically identifying SPC as a provider of sustainability training in Florida, and the plans for a Natural Habitat Park and Environmental Center at the College's Seminole Campus that will provide a "living laboratory" for multiple sustainability initiatives.

Sustainability In Action

A case-study of the University Of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC) Sustainability Initiatives.

Included are areas of Waste Reduction Strategies, Energy Management,Green Purchasing,Transportation,Grounds Management,Green Buildings, Funding, Education and Community-Based Social Marketing.

The UMKC Sustainability team is a cross campus organization open to students, faculty and staff. This team works under the Director of Campus Facilities Management(CFM) and works closely with CFM Building Services to manage the sustainability program. This team is responsible for implementing the sustainability programs on campus as well as evaluating the programs success and expansion opportunities. The UMKC Sustainability team along with other dedicated campus facilities management individuals put in over 1200 hours of service to implement the program.

The team's goal is to ensure that sustainability will become a norm on campus. From recycling instructions on what items are accepted at each bin location to education regarding Green Buildings and student lead community projects and campus carbon print.

In order to make this program successful the team plans to carefully assess the program at several stages and provide feedback outlets for program participants through email, phone and in person. The team will respond in a timely manor making adjustments to the program as needed.

Sustainability in Education Abroad

International Education exposes students to the world. It also exposes the world to the environmental, economic, and social impacts of travel and program activities. Program decisions about transportation, accommodations, food, and even recreational activities affect not only the integrity of students' experiences, but also the integrity of local economies and natural resources.

With over a quarter-million U.S. students currently studying abroad each year and members of Congress hoping to push this to a million by 2017, international education is increasingly becoming a key player both in terms of its global environmental and social impacts and its potential to create positive change. Two central questions for education abroad programs today are (1) How can they be both high quality and low impact? and (2) How can they contribute to the broader movement towards ecological awareness?

This presentation will present an overview of initiatives in the field, such as the Green Passport program and efforts at Carbon Neutrality along with perspectives from campus study abroad directors, program providers, and resident directors. Several programs exemplifying sustainable theory and practices will also be highlighted.

As Lao Tsu said, "The journey of a thousand miles, begins with a single step." Only here, we are talking about hundreds of millions of miles that students travel every year to pursue education abroad. Greening international education offers opportunities to support local ecosystems and economies, educate and empower students about their environmental impacts, and, ultimately, help create a more sustainable future.

Sustainability in Elite Public Business Schools: Reality or Oxymoron?

Critics of business schools and their cadillac MBA programs find fault with both for their lack of civic engagement and diminutive focus on issues of ethics, diversity, social justice, and sustainability. Examining business schools and MBA programs through a narrow lens, as a number of researchers have, finds them wanting in each of these individual measures of social responsibility. If they were to be analyzed using a much broader set of criteria related to social engagement and environmental impact management, how would they fare? To answer this question, we turned to the literature on sustainability and social responsibility in higher education and crafted an expansive engagement framework. We tested and refined this framework in a pilot study of 12 elite public business schools and in an in-depth study of six of these same schools using interviews, analysis of archival data, and cross-case analysis. Through both investigations we found evidence to suggest that this nation's top public business schools are, in fact, engaging with society and attending to issues of social responsibility and sustainability. And they are doing so in ways that reflect their unique missions. The tactics used by this small subset of public business schools to enact their social compacts provide fodder for larger scale studies on this subject and serve as resources for other schools looking to expand their sustainability and engagement efforts. This presentation will introduce the engagement framework and highlight best practices in social responsibility and sustainability in public business schools and MBA programs.

Sustainability in Higher Education (SHE) Panel Discussion: STARS in Action at Two Universities of North Carolina

In 2008, The University of North Carolina's 16-institution system adopted environmental sustainability as a core value. The UNC-Tomorrow Report called for individual university initiatives that move toward this goal; all UNC institutions developed innovative strategies to meet these objectives. Western Carolina University (WCU) and Appalachian State University (ASU) proposed the adoption of STARS for self-evaluating comprehensive sustainability progress. Of STARS' two tracks in SHE, one appraises physical campus sustainability (energy, land and resource use, LEED built environments, etc.), while the other assesses degrees of sustainability embeddedness in the curriculum.

WCU and ASU discovered commonalities contributing to their dual commitment to STARS. Both are located in western North Carolina, in rural, pristine mountain settings. WCU and ASU faculty mutually engage in doctoral SHE research. Additionally, faculty, students and staff from WCU and ASU have coordinated interdisciplinary efforts aimed at recycling, reduced energy use and 'Solutions for Global Warming.' It is at this nexus that these UNC "change agents," who share common ground and goals, simultaneously initiated STARS.

STARS, in its infancy, is being developed and refined. WCU and ASU serve as STARS beta test sites, negotiating uncharted territory in tandem. As WCU and ASU attempt to both form and conform to the evolving STARS criteria, they function as sister learning institutions on a parallel path to sustainability, seeking inspiration and encouragement from each-other. Operating within a framework that is both transdisciplinary and inter/intra-institutional, this panel will provide a model for other colleges and universities seeking similar sustainability goals.

Sustainability in Higher Education: the Strategies and Implications of Campus Planning Decisions and Change Efforts

In the past year, members of AASHE have been asked to participate in a number of surveys. This presentation will offer summaries of three perspectives being studied, providing participants with an opportunity to learn about and improve our efforts to become sustainable. The three research projects address:

1) Factors that lead to successful implementation and ongoing success of sustainability programs

Researcher, Katie Eimers, will present the results of a survey and several interviews with sustainability officers to highlight common themes of successful sustainability initiatives, including: institutional culture, characteristics of effective sustainability officers, and sources and amount of institutional support.

2) Leadership and change management strategies used to successfully implement sustainability initiatives

Researcher, Kim McNamara, will present the results of a survey and interviews with sustainability leaders on campuses around the country to examine leadership skills and approaches, the engagement of college constituents, and strategies for overcoming limitations and barriers.

3) How indicator models are being utilized to make campus planning decisions

Researcher, Dominique Laroche, will present the results of a web-based survey designed to capture comparable sustainability initiatives, and to identify areas of innovation that could further the field of sustainability and the use of indicator models.

Sustainability in the Business Curriculum

What happens when business majors complete a hands-on course helping local business become more sustainable? This year students in the Management Policy and Social Responsibility course analyzed renewable energy options in a cost-benefit framework for a local business, recommending grant sources for investing in solar electric power.

Sustainability in the Curriculum: A Case Study in Art

This presentation will summarize ongoing efforts to integrate sustainability into the theory and practice of the sculpture program at Auburn University. The first half of the presentation will focus on the hazards of traditional art education and the challenges of promoting a change of culture in an academic department. At the level of operations, these challenges range from the modification of building systems to changes in facility management and classroom policies. At the curricular level, they include research into the environmental and personal dangers of many traditional sculptural materials — such as wood composite materials, paints, patinas, and other finishing products — and the promotion of alternative, safer, and eco-friendly materials and processes.

Despite this tradition of using hazardous materials, over the past two decades contemporary artists have increasingly engaged in a range of practices that attempt to remedy or highlight human-caused damage to the environment. The second half of this presentation will briefly survey this recent work and how it has been used in the classroom to inspire current students both to develop novel approaches to art making as well as to question and re-imagine their personal and professional relationships to the environment.

Sustainability Planning at a Public University

This presentation will explore some of the different challenges and opportunities for sustainability planning in large, public universitites (versus smaller, private institutions). Sustainability planning is always a very localized endeavor, needing to capitalize on specific strengths and circumstances of the institution. Large, public universities can differ not only in size, but also sometimes in centralization, funding sources, and student body engagement. By exploring these differences as they relate to climate action planning, institutionalization of sustainability, funding mechanisms for energy efficiency and other projects, and student-driven and implemented projects, this panel will offer some examples and lessons learned that may benefit institutions of all sizes.

Sustainability Science at a Land Grant Institution: Linking Community Visioning and Scientific Analysis

The need for academic researchers to have meaningful co-learning experiences with leaders in the broader community has been highlighted in much of the literature on sustainability. Scientists and community leaders have used structured scenarios to foster communication around the dynamics of complex human-natural systems. However, many scenario exercises are developed by academics and involve stakeholder input only at the end of the process. At the University of Minnesota, the Ecosystem Science & Sustainability Initiative, in collaboration with a network of Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships, has devised a novel approach to scenario development in a project called Minnesota 2050: Pathways to a Sustainable Future. Our goals for this project were: (1) to develop multiple plausible scenarios of Minnesota's future in the face of uncertainty; (2) to determine which policies or practices at the state and local level best create adaptability to multiple futures; (3) to build capacity in systemic thinking among the project participants; and (4) to co-develop research questions and quantitative models between scientists and citizen leaders. Throughout this process, citizen participants reported discovering previously unexamined feedbacks and systemic effects, while University faculty and researchers revised some of their assumptions based on information from participants with expert knowledge of local socio-ecological systems. We discuss how the uniquely collaborative relationships developed in the Minnesota 2050 project show promise for driving a more relevant and informed scientific research agenda, and for guiding the actions and decisions of stakeholders by providing practical and holistic information.

Sustainable Agriculture on a Community College Campus

This presentation discusses work at a community college in Chicago's western suburbs, where we combine the interdisciplinary (English and Biology) academic study of food and agriculture with hands-on experience in sustainable local agriculture. Seminar students engage in service learning in our campus community organic garden, created and run by students, which has supplied fresh organic produce to a the food pantry at a local social service agency. The study of food production and consumption engages students in critical inquiry about humans and their relationship to the environment, and the experiential learning shows them that local, sustainable agriculture is possible even in the suburbs, and offers some solutions to the problems they have identified in their classroom inquiry. Through our partnership with the People's Resource Center, we also increase connections between the college and its students and the communities that our students live and work in. Thus, our work at the garden helps promote sustainability both on campus and in surrounding communities.

This presentation shares the history of the garden, shows some photos, and shares student written reflections on the impact that growing food for low income community residents has had on their understanding of the need and the possibility for local action in building more sustainable communities.

Sustainable Campus Certification

The Sustainable Campuses is a Sierra Youth Coalition (SYC) initiative that works to assist, empower and network college and university students working to make their schools more sustainable. Sustainable Campuses challenges peoples to make the links between university operations and their socio-economic and environmental effects - both locally and globally. This project helps students integrate sustainable operations, policy and practice into their university institutions for the long term. Sustainable Campuses works directly with students to build their skills, enhance their knowledge, and help them to succeed in institutionalizing sustainability.

In 2007, SYC initiated the development of a Sustainable Campuses Certification, a process based rating system. Developed by both staff and students, Sustainable Campuses Certification aims to assess the level schools are at in developing their sustainability. The presentation will be giving a broad overview of Sustainable Campuses, the certification content and the way it has been developed. The presentation also aims to have the participants' feedback on the certification itself and the next steps to be taken.

Sustainable Capital: Creating a Campus Sustainability Revolving Loan Fund

One of the major obstacles to making campuses sustainable is high initial costs, which render financing sustainability measures difficult despite the long-term cost savings many projects reap. On several campuses we have seen the creative application of revolving loan funds to finance projects. The revolving mechanism capitalizes on the long-term profitability of sustainability projects by funding these initial costs while securing the return they produce for future initiatives, making such projects much more feasible. In essence, the capital is "recycled" and, if done correctly, reaps net benefits. Using the guide created by AASHE by students and for students, one student aims to create a Campus Sustainability Revolving Loan Fund at a private liberal arts college. This presentation will describe the process of researching and implementing a revolving loan fund with the objective to make one department at Roanoke College sustainable and the intent to expand the fund campus-wide. The presentation will include analysis of the efficacy of the revolving loan fund, obstacles and successes for the project, and recommendations. The presentation will also convey the usefulness of the AASHE guide as a resource for the project and the feasibility of student-led projects for campus sustainability.

Sustainable Energy Curriculum Development

At Eastern Connecticut State University, we are developing on-campus and online courses which serve the general student as well as majors and minors in Sustainable Energy Studies. The course sequence includes Global Climate Change, Sustainable Energy and the Environment, Renewable Energy Laboratory, Green Buildings, Sustainable Power, and Carbon Footprint. All courses make extensive use of web resources, use online discussion tools, involve group work, and require the completion of a project. Although the course sequence does not require advanced mathematics, it does require extensive use of mathematical analysis tools such as Excel. Majors and minors also take courses in political science, biology, physics, economics, and geography. The Sustainable Energy Studies courses include consideration of campus sustainability activities such as the design and operation of LEED-certified buildings, efforts to improve campus recycling, the campus greenhouse gas inventory, design and operation of campus renewable energy systems, retro-commissioning of campus buildings, and campus load-shedding programs. In addition to activities which use the campus as a laboratory, these courses include a field component. Field activities include visits to campus facilities, fossil-fuel power plants, nuclear power plants, wind farms, solar power projects, water power projects, and environmental art exhibits. We are currently developing a capstone course which will include collaboration with energy professionals working in industry, in the state government, and in non-profit agencies. Students majoring in Sustainable Energy Studies will be prepared either for graduate education or for careers as energy professionals.

Sustainable Facilities Management - GS-42

This presentation is designed to introduce you to the background, development and requirements of Green Seal's GS 42 standard, it's implementation on the Cornell University Campus, and to explore some of the more innovative sustainable management practices that can improve your facilities departments and thus improve the health of the University. At the conclusion of the program you will have an understanding of how the standard was developed, the focus of the requirements, and how to begin the process of certifying your department. You will have an opportunity to meet with the Campus Life Director and Trainer to discuss the issues, problems and triumphs of implementing GS 42 on campus. Finally, we will jointly discuss the lessons learned and some of the more innovative sustainable management practices that we can adopt in the future.

Sustainable Growth - On Campus and Beyond

LaGrange College has partnered with the City of LaGrange and CIFAL Atlanta (a branch of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research) in presenting yearly workshops to promote the adoption of sustainable practices for local governments throughout the world. The first conference, held in 2006, provided information to government officials from the southeast for landfill methane capture and subsequent sale to industries for energy use. The second workshop, held in 2007, brought 65 high-level officials from the U.S. and abroad to learn about sustainable construction to assist their local governments in achieving U.N Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The third of these workshops is being held in August, 2008 and will focus on sustainable growth, drawing on experiences of LaGrange and Troup County, Georgia as they prepare for an expected two-fold population growth over the next 20 years. LaGrange College is the site of these conferences, provides housing, meals, and student interns, staff, and faculty who work on planning, service coordination, invitation lists, and as hosts during the events.

This report, produced by the Sustainability Council of LaGrange College, describes the building of the relationship between the College and the City and how a college can carry its message of sustainability out into its own community and beyond.

Sustainable Investment Opportunities

In the two decades since the South Africa divestment movement engulfed campuses in a debate over what constituted defensible engagement under apartheid, responsible investing has come of age. Mainstream Wall Street firms are joining socially responsible investment companies, seeking to integrate assessments of corporate environmental and social practices into financial analysis. Climate change and its clear bottom-line effects on companies is driving this trend. Yet it is also affected by concern about Darfur and more broadly applicable worries about sweatshop labor and inadequately managed environment impacts in vast corporate supply chains. Higher education institutions have been largely reluctant to integrate non-financial factors into endowment money management. But some campuses for years have involved faculty and students in decision-making about voting on shareholder resolutions about controversial issues at companies owned by their institutions.

This panel will tell conference attendees how their campuses can integrate a sustainability ethos into endowment investments.

Presentations from both a leading socially responsible investment firm and a mainstream investment advisor will show how and why sustainability has become such a hot topic in the investment world. These will put into context the nationwide campaign to promote engagement on sustainable investment by colleges and universities, and the experiences of a professor who served on advisory committees for shareholder resolution voting by Harvard and Brown. An investment research firm that has advised higher education institutions on responsible investment issues since 1972 will moderate the panel.

Sustainable Laboratories: Occupants Make a Difference

At UCSB the Laboratory Research And Technical Staff (LabRATS) program evaluates laboratory practices to save energy, plastic, water, electronics and chemicals, while making the research itself more efficient. Our efforts were featured in the journal Science (October, 2007). We assess single laboratories for their unique needs, and interns work on projects such as refrigerator rebates and light switch labels. We also work at the campus level on green chemistry, surplus chemicals, surplus equipment, excessive lighting, and with facilities supervisors on building commissioning and HVAC modifications. Our poster highlights the myriad teaching opportunities, and how linking researchers directly to operations creates many ways to save resources. Science faculty and grad students are often surprised and sometimes excited when invited to join sustainability initiatives.

Sustainable Laboratory Design Case Study

Laboratory buildings are usually thought of as being the inevitable energy hogs on campus. The Fayez S. Sarofim Research Building, home of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston is a case study of strategies that not only optimize energy performance but also incorporate a wide range of sustainable strategies.

Institute leaders wanted the facility to be a model for collaborative science and research that encouraged both formal and informal interaction among members of the various research teams.

Orientation allows optimum penetration and control of natural light in relationship to the differing programmatic elements of flexible laboratory space, support laboratories, office and common areas. Sectional organization allowed the design team to optimize the spatial characteristics of different program elements. By separating office and lab elements the environmental control system captures and reuses energy that would normally be wasted.

The mechanical system includes many best practices such as low pressure drop cooling and heating coils, phase change sensible heat recovery from lab exhaust air and proximity sensors at fume hoods that control VAV exhaust.

The concrete frame structure employs high fly ash concrete. Cladding and finishes are based on a palette of natural, sustainable and low VOC emitting materials. A rain screen cladding system provides a building envelope that reduces energy loss and gain while reducing the likelihood of moisture penetration in the harsh Houston climate. Provision was also made for future photovoltaic panels.

Sustainable Societies

Developing Education for Sustainable Development that includes a balanced examination of social, economic and environmental issues is a challenge. The Environic Foundation International (EFI), in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has developed Sustainable Societies in Africa: Modules on Education for Sustainable Development (SSA). SSA is a one, or two semester course for college and university students about Africa, its sustainability challenges and how they can be addressed. The course is designed for use as is or customized—to address local sustainability priorities.

The course was classroom-tested and evaluated at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) during the Spring 2008 semester. UNEP plans to introduce the course in African universities in 2009.

The course uses learner-centered pedagogy. The objectives of the course are to develop students' understanding of the issues while simultaneously developing their abilities to design strategies to tackle them.

The course first provides students with an opportunity to personally connect with the issues and the concept of sustainability. It then examines each of the issues and explores approaches being used to address them. Next, a detailed case is used to demonstrate issue inter-relationships and how a well-designed solution can address many issues simultaneously. Finally students design sustainability strategies for use in their own communities.

This presentation will explore the course, its use and its adaptability as well as present the results from the testing at UNL.

Sustainable Stanford: Leading Campus Sustainability in the 21st Century

With sustainability as a core value for Stanford, the progressive projects in operations, buildings, transportation, and IT are indeed defining leadership in campus sustainability in the 21st century.

The university has been a leader in full energy metering, major energy conservation programs (Capital Retrofits, ERP, ECIP, Bldg Operating, Building Monitoring, and MBX). With the new demand-side management unit, Stanford is raising the national bar in energy conservation in campus buildings.

Stanford is adopting energy and water use guidelines for new buildings of at least LEED Gold equivalency. The new Graduate School of Business to be LEED Platinum. Award winning green buildings - Jasper Ridge, Carnegie Institute, and Y2E2 - have outstanding sustainability elements that both inspire learning and conserve natural resources in innovative ways.

Stanford's nationally acclaimed transportation program has consistently achieved significant reductions in SOV and peak-hour commute trips. From 2002 to 2007, the portion of employees driving alone to campus dropped from 72 to 52%. In 2007, 48% of employees primarily used alternative transportation, half of which used public transportation compared with only 4% county-wide.

Thriving at the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford is a pioneer in high tech solutions deployment. In recent years Stanford has implemented numerous sustainable IT solutions to reduce campus energy and resource demand. Examples include innovative biological sample storage technologies, enhanced software power management for PCs, and virtual server consolidation.

The poster will display these highlights, with a discussion on the process and organizational design in sustainability governance that delivers outstanding results.

Sustainable Stormwater Management at Old Dominion University: A Low Impact Approach to a Greener Campus Community

Located in an urban setting in Norfolk, Virginia, the 188 acre campus of Old Dominion University is nestled between the Elizabeth and Lafayette Rivers in the sensitive Chesapeake Bay watershed, In 2002, the university outlined a 10 year master plan which incorporated an innovative approach to stormwater management, one that represented a dramatic departure from its old approach to managing stormwater and reinforced its sustainability goals. The scope of the new plan included a review of all available plans and reports (both on and off campus), mapping of the entire storm drainage system, delineation of the watersheds for each major campus outfall, determination of pollutant loading, and a plan for implementation of future facilities that will result in much-improved water quality. Various bio-retention and low-impact design techniques have since been implemented, ranging from parking lot cells to tree pits. Water conservation measures, soil amendment, soil aeration, modification of expansion of existing facilities and other techniques have also been applied. In addition, a Geographic Information System (GIS) has been created to compile, organize and present data to facilitate performance monitoring. The university involved other stakeholders in the development of the plan, to include the Virginia Department(s) of Conservation and Recreation and Environmental Quality, the Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Department, the City of Norfolk, and the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority

The panel will present the plan as a case study and use 3 actual built projects to demonstrate the design and performance of the plan

Sustaining a University Committee on Sustainability

A campus-wide Committee on Sustainability was formed at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) in the fall of 2006 through an open invitation to faculty, staff, and students from the Provost and Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs, the Vice-Chancellor for Business Affairs, and the Chair of the Faculty Senate. The response from 54 people on campus included the Manager of the Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling (OWRR) who also was the Environmental and Sustainability Coordinator at UNCG. Though the OWRR was well-known at the university, the position of a coordinator for sustainability was not known widely. The purpose of this presentation is to:

-Describe the formation of the University Committee on Sustainability which unexpectedly served as a vehicle to unite individual efforts on campus,

-Articulate the importance of involving upper administration in campus-wide sustainability efforts,

-Explain the structure of the Committee which includes 10 working groups and a Council of Representatives, and to

-Discuss the development of a Center for Sustainability at UNCG.

During the 2007-2008 academic year, the University Committee on Sustainability became a standing committee, one which reports directly to the Chancellor and promotes a wide range of recommendations and initiatives intended to make the campus more sustainable in both academics and operations. Membership in the Committee swelled to nearly 100, providing enough interest on campus to develop educational workshops and programs, directly engage significant numbers of students in sustainability events and class projects, and to extend efforts regarding community outreach.

Talking the Talk: The Role of University Communications in Creating an Institutional Identity of Sustainability at Drury University

Drury University has vigorously embraced a commitment to sustainability and emerged as an institutional leader in southwest Missouri, the Midwest and the nation for modeling sustainable operations, academic programs, and community partnerships. A large part of Drury's success in realizing a commitment to sustainability which arises from the branding the Office of University Communications has developed to promote our initiatives internally and externally. Through graphic design, website development, media relations, and the Drury Magazine, the UC staff have generated promotional materials, articles, media advisories, and the quarterly Sustainable Drury newsletter. Current and prospective students, staff, and faculty are bombarded with the message of Drury's commitment to sustainability. This message, endorsed by the president and students alike, is sent often and loudly, so everybody realizes that as a member of the Drury community, we are all responsible for minimizing our impact on the planet's natural resources and on the university's financial resources. Via the regular appearance of our sustainability initiatives in local newspapers, regional magazines, radio, and TV, Drury has produced an image in the community as the "green"� university, and educational institutions, government agencies, and businesses view Drury as a model for a sustainable organization.

In a brief montage of promotional materials, we highlight the creative work of the University Communications Office that has generated the sustainability branding of Drury University. Then we discuss ways that the University Communications office works with all campus sectors to highlight and celebrate sustainability initiatives arising from the academic, operational, and community partnership arenas.

Talking Trash: Getting the Best Data Out of Your Waste and Recycling.

Join this presentation to learn about three different efforts to collect baseline data on recycling and waste on campus. An overview of a community-based social marketing campaign (CBSM) to "green" the offices will provide the context for three examples of data gathering. The campus-wide CBSM study focused on awareness and behavior change around paper reduction, recycling, and environmentally preferable purchasing at Pacific University in Oregon.

The first example presented is a study of the recycling stream designed to obtain data on the type and weight of recyclable materials, as well as typical contaminants. This triangulated the findings of the other elements of the overall study to determine if campaign interventions targeted at paper reduction and recycling brought about behavior changes. Weekly sampling of recycling sites across campus were conducted over a six-month period to track changes. The second example, is a one-day solid waste audit to complement the weekly recycling characterizations. The audit sampled a percentage of campus office waste. A detailed report provided categories and percentages of waste materials found. The final example is a one-day audit done on the university food service waste stream, made up largely of compostables.

This presentation will change your outlook on campus trash and recycling and provide you with numerous ideas on how to make data collection fun, educational and valuable!

Teaching Sustainability through an Interdisciplinary Learning Exchange

How do we integrate sustainability into our existing courses? An interdisciplinary learning project which integrates two traditional courses: Lifespan Developmental Psychology and Nutrition Across the Lifespan, will be presented. This project challenges students to consider psychological development, nutrition, and wellness from a larger systems perspective. One psychology student and one nutrition student are paired as "learning partners". Together, these partners interview older adults in the community about diet, lifestyle, and personal life events that are relevant to their nutrition and well-being. Additionally, students, themselves, reflect on these same questions. Class time is spent discussing the dynamic interplay between nutrition, lifestyle choices, and psychosocial factors. Larger macrosystem factors (political, social, environmental, economic) affecting nutrition and wellness are also considered. As part of our project, we will evaluate the extent to which learning is enhanced in the following areas: 1) systems thinking, 2) knowledge and concern about sustainability issues, 3) benefits of intergenerational exchange, 4) benefits of interdisciplinary exchange, 5) attitude and behavior change regarding personal nutrition and wellness, and 6) civic engagement. This presentation will include an overview of our plan for evaluating the project, and share preliminary data on student learning.

Teaching Sustainability Using an On-Farm Community Supported Agriculture framework

An organic garden operated as a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) venture at New Mexico State University (NMSU) was used as the framework for teaching sustainability concepts. The CSA model of farming involves the sale of shares to members who receive weekly assortments of the farm's output. The objectives of the project, named Organic Agriculture Students Inspiring Sustainability (OASIS), were to provide students with a multi-disciplinary, experiential educational opportunity, investigate the feasibility of small scale, organic, drip-irrigated farming in the Chihuahuan desert, demonstrate the CSA model to the local community, trial vegetable varieties, and provide a site where faculty could conduct research or student laboratory exercises. This was the first organic garden on the NMSU main campus, the first organic vegetable production class, and the first CSA venture in southern New Mexico. The project was enthusiastically received by the community, students from across campus took the class and sought OASIS summer jobs, and long waiting lists of people wanted memberships every year. The class incorporated a group project in CSA planning, an individual creative project, and weekly work requirements in planting, harvesting, and CSA distribution. This poster examines the concepts of sustainability taught in the class, the value of experiential education in teaching concepts related to sustainable food systems, and the community outreach that the project generated.

Teaching Sustainability: Engaging Students in Developing Local Sustainability Indicators

Students play an important role in defining the culture and spirit of a campus and engaging them in sustainability initiatives on campus and beyond is an important component of the overall goal of campus sustainability. This paper is based on a pilot project to teach sustainability to undergraduate students at Oberlin College as part of a course on environmental analysis offered by the Environmental Studies department. Students were asked to research environmental sustainability in North-east Ohio for a class project by developing several indicators of the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) framework for the region. The GPI includes a range of economic, social, and environmental variables that contribute to community well-being and sustainability. Such sustainability indicators have potential use for community outreach lending themselves well to both interdisciplinary and service learning-based education opportunities. By involving students in developing these indicators, they can better understand how their communities measure their progress, and identify areas where improved performance could enhance regional sustainability. They also learn about key trends, data gaps, and innovative techniques of estimating progress that are useful for local and regional policy despite the uncertainties involved in the analysis. In an evaluation conducted by the instructors, the students later revealed that this experience of working on local sustainability indicators using real data and applied analytical techniques significantly helped their understanding of and appreciation for local sustainability.

Teaching Sustainability; Creating Social Change: The Role of Sociology in Sustainability Initatives on Campus and in the Community

This presentation offers a case study of how teaching sustainability can become a force for change on campus and the wider community. The paper examines the 10 week process by which an Environmental Sociology instructor and her students abandoned their syllabus in order to complete the first preliminary sustainability audit for their college. Their preliminary audit ultimately motivated the college to incorporate sustainability as a key part of the institutional strategic plan that was serendipitously in draft stage at the time of the course. The student's sustainability audit received significant public attention, enough to also ignite several important sustainable community organizations in the greater Columbus, OH metropolitan area. Building on their work from the previous quarter, students enrolled in an Urban Sociology course with the same instructor. Together, and in collaboration with the Sierra Club, they succeed in organizing a town meeting with over 100 participants to ask the Mayor to sign the Cool Cities agreement. Their work further galvanized campus and area sustainable community initiatives.

The presentation provides a template for course development and community engagement. While acknowledging the need for interdisciplinary collaboration, the presentation further examines the unique role that sociology can play to build the sustainability movement on campus and in the community. More broadly, this presentation considers how both top-down and bottom up sustainability initiatives can succeed. Finally, it evaluates the potential for synergistic outcomes in local communities when institutions of higher education begin more sustainable practices.

Technology Education for Sustainable Development: Institutional Transformation, Integration of Best Practices, and Associated Challenges at a Premier Canadian Institute of Technology - NAIT

NAIT is the third largest post-secondary institution in Alberta, serving over 86,500 full and part-time students in a wide range of programming. In addition to diploma and baccalaureate programming, the Institute trains over 17% of all apprentices in Canada (50% in the province) and provides international training and capacity building services in 23 different countries world-wide. Given NAIT's strong ties to industry (both nationally and internationally) and recognition of its own corporate responsibility in the larger global community, the Institute has also been actively undergoing corporate, cultural, technological and educational transformation to support change. This presentation documents the "paradigm shift" occurring at NAIT through the development of sustainable initiatives, innovation, and adoption of best practices from the corporate and academic to grass-roots levels within the Institute and its diverse community. These include changing corporate brand identity; realigning the Institute's guiding principles and key business directions to include sustainable practices, social responsibility, embracing diversity, and advancing institutional sustainability and stewardship; building social capital through community engagement and agency (locally and internationally); and sustainable development and global perspectives as a central curriculum feature in educational programming. Energy and environmental sustainability have been identified as two areas of focus in the Institute's Strategic Research Plan and have spawned research in fuel cell technology, water treatment and other areas. This presentation illuminates some of the key roles and challenges in fostering environmental and social responsibility that institutes of technology and other related post secondary institutes need to address, from both a practical and theoretical perspective.

The 4.0 Initiative: An Action Plan for Sustainable Living on College Campuses

College students have the power to change the way people think about the environment and sustainability, but many students do not yet realize this or aren’t sure where to begin. So how do we get students to act responsibly towards bettering our future? This is where The 4.0® Initiative comes into play.

The perfect solution to raising student awareness towards campus sustainability is through The 4.0® Initiative. 4.0® is a comprehensive, self-contained program that comes packaged with materials designed exclusively for easy implementation at college campuses. Easy lifestyle changes are designed for college students to adapt, have fun with, and feel good about.

Why 4.0®? The idea refers to a 4.0 grade point average, which symbolizes excellence in academia. Therefore, 4.0® is striving for excellence in our campus environment.

4.0® is an initiative that can be adapted and altered to any campus that wants to get students actively involved in living more sustainably. Students will be introduced to the 4.0® “brand” through events that are sponsored and planned by 4.0® beginning their freshmen year and continuing through to graduation.

Our poster presentation highlights how the initiative can be integrated and promoted on campuses through Residence Assistance Programs, Environmental Clubs, and volunteer teams who are concerned for the well being of our future. It is a simple, and easy to produce a concept that could become a national mark for sustainable living on college campuses. Its’ hip, fun, and highly designed characteristics set it apart from any other concept conceived so far.

The Architecture of an Institutional Framework for Campus-wide Sustainability

West Virginia University (WVU), a major land-grant institution is well aware of the shift in thinking and reality that campus sustainability is not only an important advantage in recruiting students, but also key in managing its economic and social interests. In March 2007, WVU formally articulated a clear commitment and vision to be proactive in advancing and functioning as a sustainable campus. In alignment with this commitment, an effective governance system was established, with the administration serving as the hub, leading and charting the course as well as inspiring, mobilizing, and enabling actions through a decentralized approach at the unit and departmental levels. Outlined in this paper is the architecture of an institutional framework for action. This holistic approach targets all elements from policy to metrics/monitoring using a circular process paradigm. It is built on a broad and all-inclusive continuum anchored by two bookends of practice: the individual(s) and the institution. Advancing this paradigm further, an implementation framework was formulated using a spoke and wheel model. The overall sustainability architecture is flexible, practical, and systemic integrating all aspects of administration and finance, operations, and education and research. As a "catalyst for change," WVU is leading a statewide effort assisting K-12 and higher education institutions adapt and adopt this paradigm appropriate to their institutional settings.

The Bucknell University Environmental Assessment: An Integrated Approach to Campus Sustainability.

This presentation outlines the design, development, and findings of Bucknell University's Environmental Assessment, the first comprehensive study of the University's ecological impact, and arguably the most extensive of such studies for a university of its size. Designed as a collaborative, campus-wide project, this assessment has evolved to serve multiple functions in the campus community's transition towards sustainability including: 1) a metric function, 2) an educational function, 3) a networking function and 4) a policy function. Key elements in the success of this integrated approach to the environmental assessment process have been the inclusion of multiple university constituencies, coordination through an organizational center, and inherent flexibility of the project design. Research highlights in the areas of energy metrics, campus stormwater dynamics, environmental literacy, and life cycle analysis will be presented, along with lessons learned, unexpected revelations, and next steps.

The Campus and Community, Tools for Teaching Sustainability: An Examination of a Service-Learning Project

This presentation will focus on a service-learning project that utilized the campus and community as tools to help teach sustainability in an introductory undergraduate course in Environmental Humanities. In this class, students were exposed to campus and surrounding community environmental/sustainable needs by participating in thoughtfully-organized service-learning projects. The service-learning projects were coordinated with local community partners so that students were able to connect classroom concepts with local action in regards to environmental and sustainable issues. A central theme of the thesis project was to provide education on the need for a more equitable and environmentally sustainable society, and through the process of service-learning, help introduce students to tangible ways to move in a more sustainable direction.

The College Sustainability Report Card

The College Sustainability Report Card is the only independent evaluation of campus and endowment sustainability activities at colleges and universities.

The Report Card is designed to identify schools that are leading by example on sustainability. The aim is to provide accessible information for schools to learn from each other's experiences and establish more effective sustainability policies.

This presentation will include:

- An analysis of the latest trends in college sustainability initiatives captured through tracking progress between the 2008 and 2009 editions of the Report Card

- A discussion of the merits of various evaluation methods

- Future expansion plans of the College Sustainability Report Card

The East Carolina University & Pitt Community College Partnership in the North Carolina Sustainable Building Design Competition: A Catalyst for Team-Building and Sustainable Learning

The North Carolina Sustainable Building Design Competition (NCSBDC) has engaged teams of students from UNC 4-year institutions and community colleges in the design of sustainable residential structures annually since 2001. Their solutions address energy efficiency, renewable energy, building science, water conservation, indoor air quality, universal design, and hazard mitigation. In 2003/4, Pitt Community College and East Carolina University faculty and students in architectural technology and interior design developed a partnership to compete in the NCSBDC. Since then, over 150 students have participated in this collaboration with award winning results.

The Partnership developed a unique pedagogy to help students gain a better understanding of team-work and sustainable design. In a classroom setting, an architectural office environment is modeled, teams are formed, and students assume responsibility. The students are provided the opportunity to apply sustainable knowledge and skills learned in their courses as they fulfill their jobs as project managers, designers, code reviewers, or researchers. They make decisions, defend positions, negotiate, manage time, prepare budgets, and meet deadlines. They create designs that positively impact the designed environment. They experience and embrace diversity, and develop a deeper understanding of themselves.

The Partnership is a valuable community and educational resource because it builds bridges between academic institutions. It creates awareness of the value of multiple disciplines working toward common goals. It provides real-world experiences and it develops leadership skills in a learning environment. Most importantly, the competition creates a passionate belief in the students that they are the catalysts for changing our environment.

The Environmental Action Component in Sustainability Coursework: Service Learning in the Syllabus

In 2007, a new module for service learning in sustainability education at UT Austin was implemented. Known as the Environmental Action Component (EAC), the module dynamically included environmental community service within the syllabus of "Sustaining a Planet", the UT foundational course in sustainability.

All students in the course complete a "portfolio" that engages them in out-of-class experiences centered on a specific topic in sustainability. With the EAC module, students were presented with the option of partly fulfilling the portfolio requirement by joining one of 7 team Environmental Action Projects developed specifically for the course in partnership with selected campus and community sustainability organizations.

A student pursuing the EAC in a portfolio on "onsumption and waste," for instance, joined the UT Ink Cartridge Recycling Project to earn EAC portfolio credits for volunteering as an on-campus ink recycling intern and completing a research assignment in the environmental threats of printer ink waste. These EAC credits supplemented portfolio credits earned from lectures and readings about waste and consumption in general.

The dynamic characteristic of these EAPs was that each one was coordinated by two EAC coordinators to ensure that each student was engaged in specific environmental actions that ultimately converged toward the progress of a larger and ongoing campus or community project. Student involvement in these projects constituted an Environmental Action Component of the course, allowing a single course to provide both academic competence in sustainability and direct experience with community environmental action while also benefiting selected campus and community sustainability projects.

The Evolving Role of Sustainability Coordinator: What Do They Do?

This presentation will describe the journey of the first campus sustainability coordinator (CSC) at the University of Minnesota, Morris (UMM)-- a small liberal arts college in rural Minnesota over the past couple of years. UMM is on-track to becoming carbon neutral and energy self-sufficient in 2010. UMM has implemented and is pursuing a wide range of sustainability-related initiatives. Successes and failures of the CSC will be addressed, some strategies for job success, key roles for the CSC to play, some reasons why the position is important and how to advocate for it, where the profession is evolving, and some questions to ask before you accept the job.

The FLC-SHE: A Transdisciplinary Faculty Learning Community on Sustainability in Higher Education

In 2007, an ad hoc Campus Sustainability task force at Western Carolina University was regenerated as a Faculty Learning Community (FLC), with a focus on integrating sustainability in the WCU curriculum. The FLC, consisting of faculty from 8 disciplines and Facilities Management staff, coordinated campus-wide events and workshops, created institutional initiatives, and collaborated with student groups to advance goals of sustainability. This poster shares how ten months of synergistic efforts have helped transform the culture at Western Carolina University.

The Furman Sustainable Agriculture Project

At a small liberal arts school in upstate South Carolina, a quarter acre garden of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers is being cultivated and promises to be integral to Furman University’s sustainability commitments and efforts. Learn how a school with no agriculture or horticulture department, and no formal history of small scale food production, took a campus garden from idea to reality.  This effort has integrated the garden into Furman’s Engaged Learning philosophy as well as the campus culture, including students, faculty, staff and community members.

Our garden is adjacent to the Cliffs Cottage, a Southern Living Sustainable Showcase Home that becomes the Center for Sustainability at Furman in 2009. Just as the Cliffs Cottage will show the Furman community what it means to build well, the garden will show our constituents what it means to eat well and how critical our campus, regional and global food systems are to any sustainability effort.

Visit our poster to learn how Furman built enthusiasm and commitment from the campus and community, by hosting garden design charettes, forming a steering committee, and holding meetings and workshops for students and community members (including local farmers), before the first seeds were sown. One remaining challenge is whether to pursue USDA organic certification and we’ve been able to turn this into a teachable moment for our community. The decision to pursue USDA organic (or other third party) certification will be made by July 2008.

The Furman University Green Guide to Sustainable Living

Furman University has committed to establishing itself as a national environmental sustainability leader among college and university campuses. The university has been very proactive in supporting sustainability efforts on campus and has been looking for ways to solidify student support and promote active participation. Interestingly, many of the environmental efforts on campus are being initiated not by students, but by the faculty and administration. As such, Furman's Associated Colleges of the South Environmental Fellow, Brad Cake, and the Student Environmental Action Group developed an on-line campus Green Guide to Sustainable Living that both describes and documents all campus sustainability initiatives (student and administrative) and suggest ways for students to live more sustainably and environmentally. The centralized web portal is widely and readily accessible and serves not only to inform and foster collaboration among environmental student activists regarding campus sustainability projects, but perhaps more importantly reach the larger Furman student body to make them more aware, or in fact most cases, simply aware of campus sustainability efforts, the significance of these efforts, and ways in which they can become directly involved. The on line portal is currently being used as a mechanism to showcase Furman's environmental efforts and is being shared with other institutions and student environmental activist groups to foster cross pollination of regional and national campus sustainability initiatives.

The Greening of a Community College

Harford Community College has been a leader of the nation's campus sustainability initiatives since 2001. This poster presentation will share how the college has institutionalized sustainability practices into all campus operations, including facilities, purchasing, master plan, strategic plan, student life, curriculum, and research.

The campus includes a LEED Silver certified renovated classroom building and features green building design in all renovations and improvements. Visitors to the campus see green roofs, energy efficient lighting, cooling, and heating systems, a windmill, geothermal wells, solar panels, waterless urinals, dual flush toilets, sustainable and recycled building materials, bioswales and rain gardens, gray water collection, natural landscaping, an outdoor amphitheatre, hiking trails, protected streams, wetlands, and ponds. The college has offered international travel study courses in sustainability and is committed to green purchasing, green housekeeping and recycling of paper, plastics, glass, ink cartridges, batteries, and building materials.

The college offers degrees in environmental science and environmental technology, as well as credit and non-credit courses in sustainability, green building, and environmental topics. The college is a signatory of the Talloires Declaration and the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. As recipients of several national and local grants to develop projects to promote green building design and sustainability initiatives, the campus is often used as a demonstration site for businesses, nonprofits, schools, and government agencies in the Baltimore metropolitan area interested in developing their own sustainability initiatives.

The Illinois Community College Sustainability Network

The estimated 9.6 million Illinois residents over the age of 18 will directly benefit from an organized effort led by community colleges to learn about, and be encouraged to implement, cost-effective energy efficiency measures. Because community colleges are the trusted local resource for workforce development, continuing education, business training, and technology education, they are an ideal partner in the new energy economy. The Community College Sustainability Network (ICCSN) is the creation of a network of community colleges whose collaborative efforts in energy efficiency and energy conservation will far exceed what each can do alone.

The ICCSN poster illustrates the organizations four primary outcomes:

1. To create a network of community college sustainability institutes that will develop and share curricula, workshops, and public information related to energy conservation and alternative energy. The project aims to serve 13,300 participants across the state within the first year.

2. To establish model "Sustainability Institutes", information and training portals, at eight Illinois community colleges, geographically dispersed around the state. Each college has an active agenda to provide education and information about energy efficiency incentives, renewable energy, recycling,retro-commissioning and other related "green" technologies.

3. To establish public and private partnerships with those entities that have established foundations and funding to promote and provide incentives for energy efficiency and conservation.

4. To lay the groundwork to expand the network to cover the entire state in four years or less, either by regional centers or by each community college participating with their own sustainability institute.

The Institutional Demotechnic Index - A Comparison of Technological Energy Consumption at U.S. Colleges and Universities

The Campus Demotechnic Index (CDI) is a metric being developed to serve as a sustainability indicator for U.S. colleges and universities. The CDI is modified after the Demotechnic Index (D-Index) first elaborated by Mata et al. (1994). CDI values are calculated by assessing the total campus energy consumed through use of the built and mobile environments against total campus population energy required to meet that population's basal human metabolism. Like the D-Index, the CDI is thus a measure of the scalar quantity of energy consumed over and above the quantity of energy required for simple survival on a per capita basis.

Institutions with low CDI scores may serve as models of sustainable practices for institutions with higher CDI values. Knowledge of factors affecting CDI rankings enables prioritization of sustainability-related issues and the design and establishment of sustainable management systems. Index results can be used to assist signatories in meeting obligations specified by the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment to achieve climate neutrality. CDI results provide an 'optimal' profile of energy use in terms of campus size and energy source usage. The purpose of the CDI is not to rank institutions according to energy consumption, but rather to demonstrate how improving energy efficiencies or changing energy fuel sources combined with campus population statistics can reflect movement towards or retreat from campus sustainability.

The Kanawha Project: Environmental Issues Across the Undergraduate Curriculum

The overall goal of the Kanawha Project is to enhance the undergraduate curriculum by integrating environmental issues across disciplines. During the 2008-7 academic year the following activities took place on the campus of Ohio University: 1) Professional development opportunities for 20 faculty members from a range of disciplines that focused on enhancing environmental literacy; 2) Individual courses modifications to include environmental issues as an integrating theme; and 3) A multidisciplinary learning community of faculty committed to enhancing their courses with environmental topics. A Faculty Development Workshop was the cornerstone of the project and it was based materials provided by AASHE. Several "resource people" contributed their expertise during the project with the goal of fostering environmental literacy among the participating faculty members. Faculty participants revised one undergraduate class syllabus and agreed to incorporate a test of environmental literacy in their classes. Faculty also participated in monthly discussion groups and field trips to share experiences and continue to generate ideas for integrating environmental issues into the curriculum. This project is the first step in a greater vision of developing a critical mass of environmentally-literate faculty members at Ohio University. Based on feedback from participants, the project was a great success with several faculty members identifying the experience as one of the highlights of their teaching careers. This project will be expanded in 2008-2010 to include additional faculty across campus.

The Learning Barge Initiative: Advancing Sustainability through Multi-disciplinary Research Service Learning

The Learning Barge Initiative is a unique example of university students and community partners collaborating on a project with wide-reaching social, educational and environmental benefits. The research, design and construction of the floating, self-sustaining field station are being achieved through a multi-semester, interdisciplinary process involving University of Virginia architecture, engineering, education, art and history students and faculty; community and environmental groups; federal and state environmental agencies; and local school teachers .

Traversing the most polluted tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, the Learning Barge will provide interactive K-12 and adult education about ecosystem restoration, global climate change, and forms of energy that reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. The design will teach through example by harnessing energy from sun and wind, collecting rainwater and filtering gray water in an onboard wetland, and utilizing recycled materials and green technologies. Touching the lives of more than 19,000 people yearly via school field trips, university research, teacher training, and public workshops, the Learning Barge will foster environmental stewardship and create a significant national model for service learning and education about urban habitat restoration and sustainability. Funded by federal and foundation grants, the project has received awards from the American Institute of Architects, US Environmental Protection Agency, American Society of Landscape Architects, NCARB, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and US Green Building Council. The Learning Barge Initiative exemplifies a synthesis of community, education and environment that inspires students to develop an ethical commitment to environmental justice, social responsibility and sustainable design.

The LED University Program: Stories from Three Member Institutions

The LED University program launched in April, 2008, showcases member universities' LED lighting installations around the world. Three member universities will describe their efforts to deploy LED lighting including the analyses they performed, the steps to deployment and the results they enjoy. Applications covered are parking garages, student housing, offices and outdoor lighting.

The Little Things that Administrators can do

Greening a campus is often viewed as accomplished through high profile intitatives that are based on campus-wide changes. As a dean at two different institutions I've found that the greatest influence I can have comes from daily decisions that are guided by principles of sustainability. This paper will discuss how keeping the sustainabiltiy lens before us is central to the daily decisions that reshape a campus. Also discussed will be specific ways that adminstrators can change the ethos of a college through attention to details and how the process of reinforcement and reallocation of resources can be critical.

The Next Step: Developing and Implementing Climate Action Plans for Reducing Net GHG Emissions

With the challenge so critical and the stakes so high, the need for climate leadership has never been greater. The good news is that the higher education sector is responding to global warming with more than 550 colleges and universities committed to achieving climate neutrality and many others working toward substantial emissions reduction targets. Despite these commitments, however, net greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise on most campuses. Gains from energy efficiency and conservation have been outpaced by growth in student populations and new construction.

This presentation addresses a simple question: How can colleges and universities reduce their net greenhouse gas emissions in significant amounts over a relatively short time? By drawing upon the experiences and expertise of leading campuses, we will explore how campuses can move from climate commitment and ad-hoc climate projects to a comprehensive, systematic, long-term implementation strategy for emissions reduction. This presentation will also provide participants opportunities to share success and challenges in reducing campus emissions from various sectors, and to discuss effective strategies for emissions reductions, mindful of individual challenges including budget restraints, size and focus of institution, and degree of progress toward reducing campus emissions.

The PCC, STARS and the 2030 Challenge: Going from the Conceptual to the Concrete

This presentation will review the interrelation of obligations that institutions undertake when signing the Presidents Climate Commitment, implementing the Sustainable Tracking and Rating System (STARS), and adopting the 2030 Challenge -- calling for all new construction to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. More importantly, the tasks of implementation will be addressed by review of the many avenues available to colleges and universities to finance green infrastructure projects.

Colleges and universities generally have the ability to issue tax-exempt bonds for educational related projects and infrastructure. These bonds allow the institution to borrow money at a lower interest rate than traditional financing. This ability makes college and university campuses ideal candidates for green construction projects. In addition to the issuance of bonds, public-private partnerships between institutions and the local business community are an ideal source of additional revenue for these projects.

In this presentation we will explore the use of tax-exempt financing and public-private partnerships as we discuss funding options for the construction of green buildings on your campus. Additional topics we will cover include federal tax issues, guaranteed energy savings contracts and other miscellaneous issues institutions undertaking financing often face.

The Power of Purchasing

The Responsible Purchasing Network (RPN) has produced a series of Guides on institutional procurement of socially and environmentally preferable products ranging from cleaning products to vehicles to computers. This presentation includes 1) an overview of responsible purchasing, 2) a summary of key products where responsible purchasing can have a significant impact, 3) tips on best practices in procurement, and 4) case studies from leading actors across the country.

The Presidents Climate Commitment and the University of Maine Master Plan

The American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) is guiding over 500 institutions toward the ultimate goal of climate neutrality. As a charter signatory of the ACUPCC, the University of Maine is coordinating the goals and objectives of its campus master plan with the requirements of the Commitment.

Originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. in 1867, and subsequently expanded by the Olmsted Brothers in 1932, UMaine has a long history of planning and a rich cultural landscape. This presentation will explore how the recommendations of the 2008 Master Plan acknowledge this legacy while addressing the key sustainable planning issues of the 21st century. It will review the emerging energy strategy for the campus and how it will assist in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and, ultimately, contribute to the goal of climate neutrality. It will also address broader goals intended to transition the University toward a more sustainable campus environment. Specific recommendations include: management of campus forested areas for habitat protection and carbon sequestration purposes; a comprehensive stormwater management concept focusing on reducing impervious area and wetland restoration; an integrated transportation strategy emphasizing non-motorized movement; a campus growth boundary promoting compact infill development; and, coordination with local planning initiatives to support community development goals. Details of the proposed "working landscape" and campus design strategy will be reviewed highlighting design recommendations for a northern climate including a system of landscape and architectural windbreaks, and building orientation guidelines to maximize solar potential.

The Price of Reduction: A Comparative Analysis of the Cost-Benefit Perceptions of Reduction Initiatives

This research contrasts the perceived benefits and costs of implementing two reduction initiatives (plastic bottle ban, pesticide ban) as perceived by key constituencies (students, faculty, administration). The two initiatives provide similar "benefits" such as reduced exposure to toxic materials and reduced consumption of finite resources (e.g., oil). Perceived "costs" of each initiative are expected to vary between constituencies. Faculty and students are likely to perceive minimal costs for a pesticide ban, as it delivers individual and societal benefits without requiring any change in behavior or obligation. A plastic bottle ban, in contrast, may represent significant cost to faculty and students in terms of behavior change, discomfort, inconvenience, and frustrating effort to meet needs. Administrators are likely to have the opposite pattern of perceptions. The costs of a pesticide ban may be viewed by administrators as significant and difficult to manage due to the continuing need for weed control without access to affordable, available and effective pesticide options. In contrast, administrators are not likely to be as sensitive to the costs of a bottle ban due to minimal investment requirements and potential waste disposal savings. The goals of this research are thus threefold: to clarify the extent of psychological and pragmatic forms of resistance to reduction initiatives within key constituencies on campus, to propose a strategic framework for addressing and overcoming these disparate forms of resistance, and to suggest tactics for effectively sustaining reduction initiatives for long term success.

The Revitalization Institute

Revitalization Institute (RI) is the academy and advocate for what Storm Cunningham (reWealth: 2008) calls the magic of restoration in which natural, built, and socio-economic assets are continuously enhanced rather than being depleted or simply replaced.

Its network of public and private agencies, academic organizations, and supporters, pursue community revitalization and natural resources restoration strategies in recognition of an ongoing transition from the politics and interests of an extraction economy to one based on active renewal.

At its core is the embedding of environmental imperatives within a restorative economic development process which enhances bio-diversity and resilient responses to climate change, as well as contributing to a replenished stock of beautiful buildings, cleaner air, increased fresh water supplies, safer and more vibrant cities and regions, and better educated citizens.

As RI transitions from its original base in Washington, DC under the leadership of Storm Cunningham, to its new global secretariat home at Seneca College, Canada's leading eco-polytechnic post-secondary institution, in Toronto, it will encourage and report on research initiatives in support of both the process and results of restoration, celebrate robust models and examples throughout the world, and provide a forum for the success stories of its expanding roster of affiliates.

The Role of Higher Education in the Climate Policy Debate

Comprehensive climate policies have already passed in California and New Jersey. A dozen other states are currently debating similar policies. Congress will likely adopt some kind of climate policy in 2009 or 2010. Higher Education already played a big role in the debate. What additional roles should it play in 2009? Come participate in a discussion from some of the nation's leading climate policy experts, advocates and organizers.

The Role of IT in Sustainability: A Green IT Campus Model

Information Technology's (IT's) role in sustainability efforts can be more than just powering down equipment and utilizing server virtualization. IT can play a substantive role in campus sustainability issues. This presentation will review campus best practices of IT's role in college green plans. The results of a national survey of CIO's about current projects on sustainability and the development of a Green IT Campus Model will be discussed, and the use of a review of the literature in the design of a Green IT instructional module will be shared.

The goals of the presentation are: 1) to facilitate a conversation about IT's role in campus sustainability efforts, 2) to enhance and broaden the Green IT Campus Model so that it can serve as a framework for replication at other institutions, and 3) to facilitate a discussion on the inclusion of IT-related issues in the AASHE survey.

Attendees will be invited to participate in the Green IT Campus Model wiki developed at Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York. This presentation will particularly benefit those who wish to learn more about IT and sustainability.

The Sustainable Agriculture Education Association: Facilitating the Teaching and Learning of Sustainable Food and Farming Systems in Higher Education

Sustainable agriculture as an academic discipline is an emerging field. In the past five to ten years, numerous U.S. colleges and universities have formed courses and programs dedicated to the application and advancement of sustainable agriculture, organic agriculture, and agroecology education. Yet despite this academic vitality, there is little formalized inter-disciplinary or inter-institutional support designed to intentionally advance the discipline. A new professional association, Sustainable Agriculture Education Association (SAEA), has been created to promote and support the development, application, research, and exchange of best teaching and learning practices and curricula in sustainable agriculture education. We do this through communication, training, development, and collaborative activities for teachers and learners of sustainable agriculture. Future activities of the SAEA will include providing forums for addressing issues in sustainable agriculture education teaching and learning such as regional workshops, symposia, short courses, and a national annual conference. SAEA will serve as a vibrant and collaborative network for educators, students, institutions and other organizations involved in sustainable agriculture education. To meet our goal of collaboratively developing and exchanging sustainable agriculture education and curricula, we have recently created a digital library of educational materials available to the general public. Additionally, the SAEA has established an official listserv for sharing information about developing sustainable food and farming systems within and across disciplines and communities of practice. The SAEA is a new professional society and this poster presentation will describe the organization mission, goals and how to get involved.

The Sustainable Community College: Internal and External Paths We Have Followed

A presentation, by the Associate Provost and Director of Sustainability at Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC), will examine how GRCC have come to integrate sustainability into the principles and practices of the college. The presentation will include a discussion of our participation in the STARS pilot project as well as our involvement in CQIN's (Continuous Quality Improvement Network) Sustainability Visioning work. Significant findings include our experience with community based sustainability networking, creating interdisciplinary courses with a sustainability focus, and developing a campus wide, cross-college Sustainability Council which brings all elements of the college together and has yielded a college Sustainability Plan and reporting system.

The Sustainable Learning Community: The University of New Hampshire

The Triple Bottom Line on Campus - Walking the Talk, Saving Money and Saving the Planet

Through our experience with several colleges and universities, this presentation will discuss how college and universities have implement measures to lower there green house gas emissions, save money and create a learning environment. Specifically this presentation will discuss the ability to generate savings through energy efficiency and leverage that savings to support renewable energy and green house gas offsets.

Related, this presentation will provide revenue opportunities available to college and universities through the wise management of White Tags, Renewable Energy Credits and Green House Gas emissions offsets. Finally, this presentation will provide the latest state of the carbon offset and REC's markets in the US and opportunities for colleges and universities to participate

The University at Albany's Purple Path: A Vision for Sustainable, Non-Motorized Travel

The University at Albany has begun construction on an ambitious and student driven project called the Purple Path. Named after our school's colors, the path is a five kilometer loop trail designed to provide safer and more sustainable campus and community activity. The project was conceived by graduate students as part of a planning studio course and won an American Planning Association Regional award for design. A supplemental project, entitled the Golden Grid, has been developed to identify pedestrian and bikeway connections that will complement the Purple Path.

The current construction of a two lane trail, one third of a mile long, will be part blacktop for walkers and part crushed stone for joggers with a grassy area between the two and accentuated with seating and lighting. This will replace the existing patchwork of concrete sidewalks, dirt paths and blacktop pavement.

The initial phase of the project was funded through a partnership of university and community organizations. The Office of the President and the Vice President for Finance and Business provided the money and support needed for the graduate students to complete the design. Implementation is sustained by the Office of Architecture, Engineering and Construction Management as well as Parking and Mass Transit Services. Community support has come from the McKownville Improvement Association and a grant from the Institute for Healthy Infrastructure, a division of the New York State Department of Health.

The University of Hawaii at Manoa Energy Summit: Engaging the Campus in Energy Savings and Greenhouse Gas Reduction

In 2006, the Chancellor convened an Energy Summit that engaged faculty, students, and facilities staff in the design of the MÄnoa Energy Plan. UHM committed to reducing energy use by 30 percent by 2012 and to have 25 percent of campus-wide energy use come from renewable resources by 2020.

The Chancellor's Energy Summit launched multiple initiatives. Students convened the Sustainable Saunders project to model energy savings technology and track progress in Saunders Hall. The Hawai'i State Legislature provided operational funding to support the creation of an Energy Manager office and capital improvement funds for retrofits. The MÄnoa facilities and operations teams adopted new practices such as the purchase of electric fleet vehicles, and energy retrofits.

The Chancellor joined the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment and appointed the MÄnoa Climate Change Commission. A blue-ribbon panel of faculty, the Commission overseas campus energy savings and greenhouse gas reductions. Students worked with faculty and staff to compile a greenhouse gas emissions inventory for campus operations. In May 2008, UHM became the first organization in Hawai'i and the first university in the nation as a Founding Reporter to The Climate Registry.

The UHM is meeting bold energy goals established in 2006. The UHM has reduced electrical usage by 15%, saved $3.7M, and reduced carbon emissions by over 6,800 tons per year. By engaging the campus in goals and the design of solutions, the campus is tackling a monumental challenge and bringing about significant change.

Together, We Can Do More: Examples of Campus-Community Sustainability Partnership in NH's Monadnock Region

Achieving community sustainability requires striking a balance between social, environmental, and economic costs and benefits. Because no one entity or sector can achieve solutions on its own, sustainability requires collaboration across sectors, jurisdictions, interests, and issues. As highlighted through this panel’s presentations, Antioch University New England, Keene State College, and the City of Keene have worked together to achieve sustainability goals within each institution as well as for the greater Keene community.

The City recognizes that the institutions of higher learning in our community are models of responsible environmental stewardship. The City also understands that within our community’s educational institutions lies great human and technical capacity to improve the quality of life in Keene. This panel will provide examples of recent collaborative projects between the City, Keene State College and Antioch University New England. Speakers will present on a project they have organized, managed, or are currently working on that fosters campus-community partnerships to achieve sustainability and address the challenge of global climate change.

Participants will hear about the 10% Challenge program, which assists local businesses in achieving greenhous-gas reductions and energy conservation, the development of a biodiesel production plant that will provide research and educational opportunities as well as the raw product for Keene State and the City’s fleet, an initiative to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions at a regional scale, and examination of the community’s vulnerabilities to climate change – and proposed mitigation measures – as they relate to stormwater management infrastructure.

Toward an Ecologically Sustainable Vocabulary--Avoiding the Linguistic Colonization of the Present by Earlier Thinkers

The current approach in many social science and humanities courses that introduce students to environmental issues fails to address the deeper and taken for granted ways in which the metaphors that gave conceptual direction and moral legitimacy to the industrial revolution continue to be reinforced. Introducing students to environmental writers and to how policies continue to be framed by the market paradigm is important. Such an approach, however, fails to address the deeper ways in which the metaphorical language reinforced in class carries forward misconceptions of earlier thinkers. The root metaphor of anthropocentrism is now being challenged, but other root metaphors such as individualism, progress, mechanization, and evolution continue to be reinforced in classes without being challenged. E. O. Wilson's reference to the brain as a "machine" is an example of this problem. Part of the explanation for why environmentally oriented social science and humanities faculty continue to ignore the linguistic colonization of the present by the past is that they think of language as a conduit in a sender/receiver process of communication, and that the rational process is free of cultural influences. The adoption of ecology as a new root metaphor would lead to a more ecologically sustainable vocabulary, and give new meanings to such concepts as intelligence, individualism, wealth, community, progress, and tradition.

Toward Sustainable Decision Making

Shaping a sustainable future is the most pressing work of our time. To respond to this challenge, we must account for our profound influence upon the interdependent web of economic, social/cultural and environmental realities so that we may live responsibly into the future we desire. Higher education is uniquely qualified to provide the leadership required at this critical juncture. With data to inform best practices, the intellectual prowess to project future scenarios, and campus operations that resemble small towns, colleges and universities have the potential to serve as demonstration sites for sustainable community. To adopt sustainability as an ethos, however, and not just a series of practices, it is necessary to define an appropriate framework that guides decisions and leads to best practices.

Warren Wilson College's administration has adopted a sustainable decision making process for institutional planning. Though the College's environmental actions are anchored in a legacy of stewardship, the sustainability imperative has raised the bar for behaviors and decision-making tools formerly regarded as best practices. To institutionalize these redefined standards, and serve as a demonstration site for full engagement, the College has adopted a process for decision making that insures consideration of the potential environmental, economic, and social/cultural impacts of its options. This process serves as an effective planning tool as well as a metric for evaluation of existing practices.

This presentation will examine the decision making model, practice using it, and discuss the challenges and the benefits of anchoring the sustainability framework in an institution's decision making process.

Transportation Demand Management at North American Colleges and Universities

From 2006 through 2007, the Environmental Center of the University of Colorado at Boulder, along with the College of Architecture and Planning, surveyed a total of nearly 60 leading North American higher-learning institutions about the transportation-demand management (TDM) challenges and strategies. These institutions exercise a number of strategies around mass transit, bicycles, carpooling, and pedestrians to curb automobile use. Several important themes or trends emerged from these surveys.

The most important or prevalent challenges and strategies revolved around (1) understanding and educating end users, (2) planning for growth and spatial changes on and around campuses, and (3) managing the very significant fiscal demands of TDM management. This presentation explores some of the concerns and strategies apparent within these major categories and explores the basis for understanding policy priorities for TDM at these institutions.

Trayless Dining: The Triple Bottom Line Business and Social Case

Trayless dining is recognized as a significant opportunity to introduce sustainability into the dining stream. It represents a true triple bottom line initiative with environmental, economic, and social benefits. Yet, higher education has been reluctant to embrace the removal of trays as cultural and social hurdles still exist among students, faculty, and staff.

To support widespread adoption, this presentation will present the findings from a recent national pilot program to remove trays from dining halls across the country. Empirical data will make the triple bottom line argument for tray removal. Results from a national student survey provide useful insights on student's willingness to accept trayless dining. Finally, best practices and lessons learned from successful and unsuccessful trayless dining implementations will be shared.

Tree Campus USA: Supporting Sustainability Efforts with Community Forestry

In 2008, The Arbor Day Foundation is launching the Tree Campus USA program aimed at recognizing those colleges and universities who meet core standards of forestry management, planning, student involvement and connectivity with the community at large. This program, modeled after successful city and utility forestry recognition programs will compliment emerging sustainability efforts on campuses nationwide.

The standards established through the Tree Campus USA program will support promising energy conservation initiatives on campuses, promote public understanding of the importance of sustainable facilities management and foster increased student awareness and service learning opportunities around campus forestry efforts.

Tribal College Sustainability Indicators

The Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) within the College of Menominee Nation (Menominee Indian Reservation, WI) is spearheading the Tribal College Sustainability Indicators Research Project. Prompted by the success of the sustainable forest management practices of the Menominee, in 1993 tribal leaders established the Sustainable Development Institute for the Menominee Nation. The Sustainable Development Institute is to look at sustainable development through the prism provided by Menominee efforts to sustain their forest and society for the last century. This prism provides clues about the kind of values, economic system, and social order that might be necessary if a sustainable world is to be created. It also provides clues about what kind of path might be taken by the modern world towards a sustainable future.

The College of Menominee Nation is seeking to build capacity in rural reservation based communities to achieve sustainability in environmental, economic, ecological, and educational aspects, and to support tribal communities, governments, and operations in efforts to address the policy challenges and opportunities to sustainability. SDI is used by the College of Menominee Nation to drive sustainable development.

SDI is using participatory action research methodology to research and develop sustainability indicators for tribal colleges and universities to measure and monitor sustainability performance in a realistic, reliable, and cultural appropriate way. The overall goal of the project is to promote environmental, economic, social, and cultural livelihood in rural communities by establishing a sustainability indicator performance guide for rural reservation-based community sustainability in the Land Grant University system.

Turning Trash into Transportation: Establishing and Growing a (Recycled) Campus-bicycle Sharing Program

At the University of Kentucky we have developed a highly successful and innovative bicycle sharing program called the Wildcat Wheels Bicycle Library (www.wildcatwheels.org). The mission of our program is to promote the bicycle as a cheaper, cleaner, healthier and faster alternative to automobile use on our campus. The program began on a shoestring in 2003-2004 as a student project and has grown tremendously. The foundation of the program is a bicycle recycling system that can be easily replicated at most colleges and universities. Abandoned bicycles are sourced from the surplus property division and then painted and rebuilt in our campus bike shop by interns and volunteers. The bike shop also serves as an educational resource center for all members of the university community who are interested in learning more about bike maintenance. In addition to providing the bicycle library and campus bike shop, our program now employs two student mechanics, one intern, and offers student apprenticeships and volunteer opportunities. Visit this poster presenation to learn:

• How similar programs can easily be developed at other universities.
• How to handle liability and insurance issues
• How to identify and develop effective partnerships
• How to secure funding from a wide variety of sources
• From our mistakes and successes 

Two Paths to Integration: Developing Formal and Informal Networks for Campus Sustainability

The University of Florida and Arizona State University both enjoy grassroots support and top level leadership for sustainability. With 50 and 60 thousand students respectively, the development of a sustainable campus community is challenging. Each university has created a network approach to integrating sustainability throughout campus. One campus has taken a more formalized approach and the other a more grassroots approach. On their respective paths, sustainability leaders on these two campuses find themselves developing similar initiatives from different perspectives. The presentation will include sustainability professionals from each campus discussing the initiatives underway – successes, and opportunities on the horizon.

UCSC Sustainability Assessment

The 2007 UCSC Sustainability Assessment was created to assess UCSC's current standing in sustainability and where UCSC could use improvement. This poster showcases the Assessment by explaining the process and purpose of creating it as well as outlining some of its key findings. The Assessment is a major step towards institutionalizing sustainability, serving as a roadmap to greater sustainability and benchmark of what we've achieved. The poster focuses on the Assessment's recommendations for creating a governance infrastructure to enforce and encourage sustainability within UCSC, recommendations that could be applied to other institutions of higher education. This Assessment is the product of the UCSC administration's attempt to create a more sustainable campus. By creating this Assessment UCSC's administration was able to prioritize the next steps UCSC needs to take to become more environmentally friendly in every aspect of operations and academics.

Undergraduate Management Education for Sustainability

Furman University's Department of Business and Accounting plays a significant role in the university's sustainability efforts through innovative curriculum development and engagement of the corporate community. Sustainability concepts are infused throughout the core business curriculum and specialty classes are evolving. Three unique class offerings in the management arena incorporate global sustainability at their core. "The Sustainable Corporation" presents the 'business case' for an organization to simultaneously consider environmental and social goals with their financial objectives. A capstone "New Product Development" course is being designed to incorporate sustainability from concept development to product recapture. An additional class in "Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics" will also address the ethical dimensions of the sustainability paradigm. The intent of these courses is to have students determine whether or not a 'refined' version of capitalism is possible, and how business organizations can sustain themselves using a triple bottom line.

University Leadership in Island Climate Mitigation

Islands are uniquely affected by climate change. Rising sea levels threaten coastal infrastructure and fresh water aquifers; ocean acidification deteriorates coral reefs ecosystems; and native forests are susceptible to new invasive species invited by warmer temperatures. While Hawaii's carbon footprint is only 0.3% of that of the U.S., as a Pacific Island highly vulnerable to climate change, it is of great importance for Hawaii to take a leadership role in climate mitigation.

The University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) has long been recognized for its' work in understanding the ocean impacts of climate change. More recently, UHM adopted a larger leadership role in the creation of the Manoa Climate Change Commission (MCCC). MCCC serves to catalyze and build upon University faculty, staff and students collective expertise to meet the challenges of climate change to Hawaii and other Pacific Islands. As part of its mission, MCCC lead's the University efforts on the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. UHM recently became a founding member of The Climate Registry, amongst the first Universities in the country to make such a commitment. MCCC plays an essential role in guiding the State to develop a work plan to achieve Hawaii's legislative commitment to cap greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by 2020.

This presentation outlines the creation and purpose of MCCC; how such organizations are essential to support campus-wide commitments through multi-disciplinary collaboration; and how Universities taking leadership roles in climate mitigation can have institutional importance and achieve larger outreach and policy goals.

University Transportation Demand Management

This presentation will focus on sustainable transportation options presented through transportation demand management programs at three different universities, in three different environments.

1) Large Urban (TBA)

2) University Town (UNC-Chapel Hill)

3) Land Grant University (Virginia Tech)

This presentation will examine the available infrastructure, future opportunities, funding structures, and built environment to assess different transportation options and how they have helped these three universities build award winning transportation demand management programs.

Use of a Wiki Site to Promote Sustainable Actions Among Students

Utah State University's new Sustainability Council created an educational website. Wanting to engage students rather than simply educate them, we added a wiki component to the website using freely available software. We promoted this website to new students in conjunction with their orientation to the university in the USU Connections program. To encourage participation among the current student body we also promoted the website through various activities, contests, and outreach programs. The primary goal of the website is to promote choices for sustainable living among the student body. The wiki component allows students to track their achievements, be inspired by others, and work collaboratively on larger projects. We measured outcomes through surveys, through tracking participation in promoted activities, and through site usage. Here we present the results and outcomes of this approach with an emphasis on best practices that we would recommend.

Using a Class to Conduct a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory: Lessons from Macalester College

During spring 2008, students in Macalester College’s environmental studies senior seminar conducted a greenhouse gas emissions inventory of Macalester College as their class project. This project is the campus’s first full-fledged greenhouse gas emissions inventory, charting the college’s emissions dating back to 1990. The student’s data and report will be used to fulfill one of the requirements of the President’s Climate Commitment. The inventory will also provide the baseline data needed for the college to proceed with its plans to become climate neutral. This poster will discuss the educational benefits of this approach and the practical realities of using this format to conduct a greenhouse gas emissions inventory.

Using GIS to Promote Sustainability

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have widespread applicability to many facets of the Sustainability world. In fact, GIS has its mid-1960's roots in the sustainability subfield of natural resources management. Basic GIS functionality includes the capability to integrate diverse forms of data, spatially analyze the data, and visualize the results. Integration of diverse data is of great importance to the sustainability community. The implementation of sustainable policies often requires data inputs from multiple sources. These data may include images, spatially distributed objects, time series, and more. A rich set of analysis tools allows GIS to extract spatially explicit information from data in support of sustainable activities. These tools include map overlay, buffering, or calculation of network distances among many more. Furthermore, GIS has the potential to present information visually in a compelling and simple manner, breaking down barriers to communication. Improved communication through GIS may make valuable contributions to the education of students in sustainability practices. And, it may facilitate consensus in sustainability planning among stakeholders in the applied environments to which these students will eventually serve. In support of these assertions of GIS' capability we present three hypothetical case studies. First, we use GIS to integrate many data sources for a community mapping project of bicycle trails. Second, we show that GIS can be used to find all locations within 100 road-miles of a local foods restaurant. Finally, we demonstrate how GIS can facilitate consensus in choosing which sensitive lands to protect in a threatened watershed.

Using IPCC DDC Scenarios and MAGICC-SCENGEN Model for Teaching Global Climate Change

Global climate change is a very complex phenomenon: students need to understand the causes of climate change, its potential environmental and socio-economic consequences, and the adaptation and mitigation options to respond to it. Atmosphere Ocean Global Climate Models (AOGCMs) representing physical processes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and land surface are the most advanced tools currently available for simulating the responses of the global climate system to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. However, because of the immense mathematical complexity of AOGCMs, their use is limited to the scientific community. Uncertainties associated with mathematical modeling have been a cause significant skepticism about validity of the AOGCM scenarios in the general public, media, and some policy-makers.

One of the key objectives of GPY412 Global Change course at GVSU is to provide students with a solid understanding of climate change scenarios, principles of climate modeling, and model applications in policy making. We use AOGCM data and scenario archive from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Data Distribution Center and MAGICC/SCENGEN user-friendly interactive software developed by the NCAR. Students investigate future climate change and its uncertainties at both the global-mean and regional levels through a series of hands-on exercises. They construct geographically-explicit climate change scenario by selecting a future time interval, a month or season, a variable (temperature or precipitation), and one or more of the AOGCM and climate policy scenarios. Pattern-scaling methods are employed to create the climate change fields to obtain actual climate scenario values for the future time period in question.

Using Second Life

Second Life® is a web enabled virtual world rich in graphics which is increasingly being used for business and educational activities. In Second Life®, your avatar or virtual persona, interacts with individuals from across the globe. Second Life provides a "wiki" or "ever-evolving" environment of knowledge. It is here in Second Life® where participants come together to collaborate using their ideas and experience as building blocks. As of this writing, Second Life® has a resident population over 1.1 million and approximately 50,000 or more individuals are "in world" at any given time. The diversity of culture from which to draw from is extensive.

The University of Idaho began establishing a Second Life® presence known as Idahonia in 2007. Faculty and students from colleges across campus are beginning to explore and offer educational programming "in world". The College of Business and Economics Department of Accounting is using Second Life® to provide accounting students experiential learning opportunities in sustainability accounting.

Students experience a number of different learning formats. In addition to lectures and discussion, students one of Idaho's sustainability accounting class used virtual quests to explore ideas and concepts related to sustainability; interviewed individuals interested in sustainability and participated in simulations. In addition to using Second Life® as a platform to learn more about sustainability, students explored opportunities to exchange ideas via discussion and workshops to individuals in the United States the United Kingdom and beyond. This field report showcases these experiences.

Using Tire Pressure Checks to Educate Students about Fuel Efficiency, Car Maintenance and Safety

Like most colleges, Furman University experiences a mass exodus of students during breaks such as Thanksgiving and at the end of the Academic year. One of the easiest ways to encourage sustainability and reduce the environmental impact of the migrating student body is to improve fuel efficiency. Inspired by a similar event at Carnegie Mellon and the Year of the Environment (2006-2007), student groups and members of the Furman community host a tire pressure check. Since November 2006, volunteers help check and adjust tire pressure before every Thanksgiving break and the end of the Spring term. Although the results from this spring’s event are still being processed, the results from the previous three events are impressive. Servicing nearly 350 cars, participants have saved more than 860 gallons of gas, $2,200 and 17,500 lbs of CO2 emissions. The tire pressure checks provide students with a tangible example of how small behavioral changes within a larger community can translate into significant environmental benefits. These events have increased awareness as more students are carrying tire pressure gauges, know where the recommended tire pressure is listed, and the deviations from the recommended pressure appear to be declining. The goal of this poster presentation will not only present the results but will also illustrate how to run a tire pressure check and process the data year after year.

UW Tower: Live Green-Work Green-Go Green

The University of Washington recently purchased Safeco Tower, an imposing landmark located in Seattle's university district. With all eyes on the tower, Transportation Services decided the timing was right to introduce sustainable practices to the over 2000 staff that are expected to move into the tower over the course of 2008.

Live Green - Work Green - Go Green, isn't just a marketing phrase. It aims to create a green culture, one that inspires occupants to reduce their carbon footprint while having a positive impact on quality of life.

Services introduced in 2008 include: mini self-service liner-free trash bins, Personal Recycle Bins, centrally located waste bins, paper and cans and bottles recycling, composting, a car-sharing program that includes hybrid and electric vehicles, and electric bicycles for rent (starting September 2008).

Each employee is given a welcome packet that includes information on the many green initiatives, what is expected of them, and how embracing the new sustainable practices will make a difference.

Walking our Talk: Strategies, Challenges & Successes in the Pursuit of Sustainability and Social Justice on Campus

This presentation will focus on identifying the tensions, obstacles and openings for moving higher ed institutions towards greater sustainability and social justice. The presentation will draw on the experience of Antioch University New England (ANE) in designing, conducting and implementing recommendations of a comprehensive ‘whole systems' audit of the institution's social justice and sustainability practices and policies (curricula, policies, procurement and business relationships, social and environmental performance, and community relations).

ANE's Social Justice Audit (December 2006) and its companion Action Plan (July 2007) are the culmination of two years' worth of intensive work by a team of staff, administrators, faculty, and students from every office and department at ANE. The school also completed a greenhouse gas (ghg) inventory in keeping with its becoming a signatory to the ACUPCC and - as part of its overall Action Plan - is implementing ghg reduction strategies. This intensive change process also has involved steady development of the school's governance and decision-making infrastructure to facilitate recommended changes.

This presentation will offer an overview of ANE's social justice audit and action planning process as a precursor to posing these core questions: How might administration, staff, faculty and students respond to constructive critiques and perceived threats and blame that surface through the change process? What strategies can be employed to maintain the momentum and focus that any change effort requires? How can a change process increase integration of social responsibility & social justice in campus decisionmaking and promote student leadership development in sustainability?

Walking the Talk Together: Queen's University's Sustainability Collaboration Model

Sustainability and collaboration are among today's popular buzz words. However, rigid organizational lines, resource challenges, and a fast-paced environment severely constrain well-intended efforts. There is no shortage of great ideas, but implementation can be easily pre-empted or derailed when champions do not approach their initiatives in a manner authentic to the setting. Successful achievement of sustainability outcomes (whether environmental, political, social, or economic) does not necessarily require radical changes. How can a post-secondary institution approach sustainability in an manner that considers the current culture and structure? We would argue that by identifying locations for realizing early wins, buy-in and commitment can be cultivated to accomplish powerful collaborations that are truly sustainable.

This poster presentation will demonstrate a case in point, highlighting a model being employed at a Canadian research university in which a "both/and" approach allows for individual and collective efforts to happen simultaneously under a broad vision. This model is facilitative of exploration and research, informed strategic procurement and facility development, inquiry-based and service-learning, curricula, and student-led initiatives on and off-campus. Representatives from several divisional areas will be available to discuss these projects and how your institution might benefit from our story.

Warm Data, Cool Earth or Unplug to Keep the Polar Bear Happy

Faculty and students at Dartmouth College have created an animated real-time energy display system to encourage students to reduce electric use through behavior changes. What is unique about this system is the way data is displayed: monitors, mobile devices and other displays show a polar bear animation. As energy use changes, the polar bear responds. High energy use causes the sun to come out, the ice to crack and the bear to fall through, less use and the bear is happy and playful, etc.

The prototype for this system was called Green Lite Dartmouth and has resulted in a significant reduction in electricity use and excitement among the students. They have named the bear and look regularly to check in and see how happy the bear is.

Due to excitement about this project, other schools have asked us to put our system up in their dorms and Dartmouth is expanding the system to additional buildings. We will present our system and our results.

We All Have a Part to Play: The Influence of Multiple Stakeholders on the Path to Operational Sustainability at Michigan State University

Michigan State University is working to become a leader in sustainability initiatives among land grant universities in the United States. As part of that effort, there are multiple campus-based groups working on conceptualizing and initiating sustainability efforts. Combining the experiences of two of these groups, the University Committee for a Sustainable Campus and the Boldness By Design Environmental Stewardship Team, this paper presents the current status of adoption of sustainable practices by the university's various operational functions, and the cumulative impact of small behavioral changes across the university. Inherent in this analysis is an understanding of benchmarks in the history of sustainability initiatives at Michigan State, and an analysis of the future direction of the university's operational functions.

The paper uses data collected from in-depth interviews, as well as photographic elements, to examine sustainable practices from a unique lens that incorporates the perspectives of operations employees, university administration, faculty members, and students. Operational areas discussed include purchasing, facilities management, food services, physical plant operations, and transportation. The core element of the analysis is a focus on the influence of these stakeholder groups on daily operations and long-term operational changes, with lessons for other universities with similar structures embarking on their own paths to sustainability changes. Emergent issues that are apparent among all of the above stakeholder groups are discussed, including the challenges involved in coordinating the efforts of the university community; the unique role of students in facilitating sustainable change; and the challenges inherent in sustaining and communicating new adoptions.

WFU Biofuels

WFU BioFuels will fuel the crucial movement toward sustainable energy development. The facility will incubate the research and innovation that fuel our country's sustainable energy industries, helping alleviate problems of petroleum dependence. WFU BioFuels proposes a self-sustaining plan that will allow Wake Forest University to take waste vegetable oil and turn it into fuel that will be used in campus machinery. WFU BioFuels will create a facility capable of producing 500 gallons of biofuel per month. Seed funding will make this facility a reality and allow Wake Forest and its surrounding community to begin by producing biodiesel. WFU BioFuels will collect and process feedstock, or discarded vegetable oil, from eateries on and around campus and has ultimately plans to expand into farming canola.

What's Next? The Greening of Art Pedagogy

Studio art teachers are confronting the unprecedented challenge of preparing students to maximize their artistic marks while minimizing their environmental footprints. What strategies can be adopted to integrate environmentalism into studio art education and art practice?

This pedagogical revision acknowledges that art-making impacts the planet's ecosystems, and that creating art is not exempt from the ecological responsibilities all humans share. Assessing an art work's ecological footprint involves measuring how much land and water was consumed, and how much waste was generated while it is being created, stored, crated, transported, exhibited, promoted, and maintained.

Humanity's current ecological footprint exceeds the planet's rate of renewal by 23%. This overshot is maintained by liquidating the planet's reserves of minerals, ores, petroleum, fisheries, forests, groundwater, and species. Many current art practices and pedagogical procedures exacerbate this deficit. In order for art to become sustainable, artists must factor environmental impact into their choices of tools, mediums, processes, dissemination strategies, and maintenance. These issues are relevant whether or not environmentalism is the theme of the work of art.

This Poster session has four components:

l. It will manifest the ongoing evolution of art by mounting images of past and recent art-making and art-teaching practices.

2. It will invite discussion about defining and teaching environmental art practices.

3. It will solicit input from teachers about how environmentalism is currently being attended to in their classrooms and on their campuses.

4. It will distribute a free resource that I am writing for teaching studio art ecologically.

When Sustainable Building Practices Meet Reality: The Design and Construction of a Deep Green, Southern Living Magazine, Showcase Home at Furman University.

When the promise of millions of dollars in marketing and advertising opportunity from Southern living Magazine (7th largest circulation in USA) is merged with Furman University's desire for a permanent home for its growing sustainability cadre, exciting outcomes are predictable. On June 14th, 2008, the Cliffs Cottage/Southern Living Showcase Home opened to the public with an anticipated visitation of 35,000 people through June, 2009. A 3000 ft sq LEED registered platinum building, every effort was made to acquire, use and demonstrate environmentally sensitive materials and practices. However, when a building is designed and constructed by a committee composed of talented, powerful, and strong-willed professionals, balancing the fundamental, deep green premise of the building with the aesthetic, functional, and financial realities of any building project is both educational and enlightening. Our experiences lead not only to a great shared story but also to a highly documented example of the growing complexity of sustainable building practices and some useful templates that can better guide current practices. Sustainability is embedded in tradeoffs.

Intending to build or renovate in a deep green style? Join us for a detailed look at the decision making required to produce a unique yet highly instructional academic building that is sure to influence green building practices for years to come.

Why Being Green Isn't Enough: Using Technology as a Catalyst for Sustainability in Transportation

With increasing fuel prices and concerns about greenhouse gases, transportation plays an important role in the sustainability conversation on college campuses. Indeed, transportation and its byproducts affect each of us everyday, whether or not we are still on campus.

College campuses are excellent laboratories for studying sustainable transportation choices and seeing how they impact its citizens. Less bureaucracy and more concerned riders lead to a melting pot of good ideas and quick decisions. Once students leave the enlightened campus environment, they can and will demand change in their new communities.

But making your campus transportation system more sustainable is not easy. Students and administrators cannot simply introduce green elements and expect they will make the impact that they desire. Stakeholders must also be smart about how and what they implement.

With transit, being green is not enough because cost considerations can sometimes overwhelm decision-makers and the general population’s commitment to sustainability is not sufficiently strong enough (yet) to consistently change transit habits. That’s where technology comes in. Technology provides the catalyst to allow transportation to truly engage with its potential riders in a way that sustainability alone does not.

This poster presentation will highlight efforts by leaders in clean energy and technology deployed on college campuses as well as the integration of sustainability and technology in transportation.  Experiences and lessons will be illustrated.

Why Your Campus Needs an Office of Sustainability

Sonia Marcus, sustainability coordinator at Ohio University, will discuss the benefits of creating a dedicated office of Sustainability to address green campus goals. In this presentation, you will learn why the Office of Sustainbility has been a key factor in the greening of Ohio University since 2006, as well as how to get the most mileage out of a sustainability coordinator position on your campus. Possible funding and management structures will be reviewed using case studies from a number of colleges and universities across the country. Participants will be provided with a list of resources relevant to the drafting of a position description and a guiding mission statement. Find out why an office of Sustainability is something your school just can't live without.

Winthrop University's West Center: Pursuing LEED: A Vision for a Sustainable Future

The new Lois Rhame West Health, Physical Education and Wellness Center includes a blend of spaces for the education of students in Health, Physical Education, Sport Management and Recreational career paths in addition to providing general recreation and wellness spaces for the campus community.

The West Center is the first campus building specifically designed to achieve a LEED certification. The building is designed to use 52% less energy than a similar traditional building. The basic orientation of the building, in addition to the integration of daylighting and lighting controls, was a major factor in achieving this level of efficiency.

A unique daylighting feature in the building can be found in the classrooms that are day lit at each end of the space through roof top dormers. The classroom corridor opens up to the weight room below, introducing daylight into the corridor and allowing views of students participating in activities in the gymnasium and on the second level running track. A skylight above the 40-foot custom sculpted climbing wall adds to this dramatic lobby focal point.

The swimming pool has a cutting edge filtration system that allows the University to save approximately 200,000 gallons of water per year. Other water saving features include the use of waterless urinals and low flow fixtures which will achieve a further 35% reduction on municipal water demand.

With Winthrop’s vision for its future and commitment to the well-being of its students and community, the West Center sets a precedent for future environmentally conscious design and construction.

Winthrop University: Regenerative Design

A recent master plan moved the core of campus to a new location. The first building completed is the "West Center." This building pays homage to the 1915 building it replaces and sets a precedent for future growth. It is the first LEED certified building on campus and has had a regenerative effect on the PE Department and campus recreation. The building promotes the well being of the environment, campus growth, academic program and the users.

Winthrop is proactively regenerating its campus. Although academic and architectural traditions are important to the administration they are not stuck in the past and feel they can respect the past while preparing for the future. It has meant thinking outside the box and taking the lead on sustainability and rethinking the very center of campus. New facilities also can regenerate academic programs which will be demonstrated with the "West Center", the first building completed in the new campus center.

This will be a three part presentation by a campus administrator, Architect and PE Department Chair looking at the impact of sustainable design on the scale of the campus, a building and a department.

Working Beyond the Campus with Government to Promote Sustainability

Eastern Connecticut State University's Institute for Sustainable Energy (ISE) exemplifies the expanding role of Sustainability Research Centers as it leverages the impartial academic discipline of the University to promote sustainability beyond the campus. Through the work of its staff and student interns, ISE supports the development of sound public policy; promotes the implementation of technically and economically feasible energy projects and practices; and provides educational outreach to ensure a more sustainable energy future for Connecticut. Recently, ISE worked with members of the Connecticut General Assembly to research and create new laws which; provide incentives for in-state producers of Biodiesel; and regulations which upgraded building standards to LEED Silver for all major state funded construction projects, including public university buildings and local school. In addition, through its Energy Star partnership with EPA, ISE facilitates benchmarking and operations training for facility managers at Connecticut's public schools and state agencies.

These activities provide real world work experiences and research opportunities for undergraduates at Eastern pursuing careers in Political Science, Economics, Business and Sustainable Energy Studies. For its efforts, Eastern has been recognized as an Energy Star Partner of the Year by the US EPA, as well as having received numerous awards from regional EPA, CT DEP and state organizations. Institutions interested in expanding their sustainability efforts beyond the campus community, either to influence public policy in their region or to provide community service-learning opportunities for students interested in careers related to sustainability may find ISE a model adaptable to their setting.

You Can Take It With You: Practicing Sustainability Within and Beyond the Academy

In his essay "Sustainable Composition," Derek Owens suggests that teachers have an ethical and social responsibility to their communities to consider more sustainable practices in our pedagogy and professional lives, and by the same token, to encourage these practices in our students' lives. How do we raise awareness among our students about sustainability issues, which most certainly affect their futures? How do we not only inform them, but engage them, so that they participate as citizens in the shaping of a sustainable future? How do we help them apply their academic experiences with sustainability to their personal and professional lives? This presentation will discuss one way to address these goals, fostering crucial connections between community, professionalization, and sustainability through a service learning project yo English and Environmental Studies students: the contribution project. For this project, students are asked to contribute to the sustainability of one community to which they belong, keep a journal, write a final report, and create a project presentation. Students not only learn about sustainability, but also connect the associated concepts and challenges to their individual projects, thereby investing themselves in the communities they choose to serve while gaining resume-building experience. This presentation will share their projects, outcomes, and personal reflections on the experience as a model that reinforces practical and meaningful connections between the academic, the professional, and the greater community.

Zero Waste Programs on Campus: How Low Can We Go?

A renewed emphasis on waste prevention is signaling an exciting shift among a growing number of college campuses, off-campus communities, and leading corporations internationally. Zero waste is no longer an idealistic vision but a practical cornerstone of sustainability. Newsweek for instance, listed zero waste at the top of its list of ten fixes for the planet. (Apr 14, 2008)

Integrating "zero waste" with campus sustainability is the goal of this presentation. Since the University of Colorado first envisioned a waste free campus in its 2004 Blueprint for a Green Campus, waste has decreased, despite record-levels of enrollment and new construction. Today, Colorado's Greening the Government initiative has set zero waste goals in the construction as well as operation of campus buildings.

This presentation will draw from CU's experience as well as a growing set of best practices around the world applicable to higher education. Indeed, the presentation intends to complement a goal of the conference by introducing a new means of elevating sustainability education and student leadership development.

The recent RecycleMania Waste Minimization contest and the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment will be included. Findings from over 110 colleges and universities will be presented.

From this body of information, a matrix of zero waste options will be introduced. This matrix can help any campus plan appropriate zero waste operations well as enable students' academic work and create opportunities for civic engagement and activism.