U Maryland Building Attains LEED Silver
The science and research building features daylighting, energy-efficient lighting and fixtures, materials including rapidly-renewing sources or recycled content, reduced water use, a green roof, and bioremediation of water runoff.
U Maryland Commits to Carbon Reduction Initiatives
The university recently committed to reduce electricity use on campus by 20 percent by 2020, offset new greenhouse gas emissions from new construction through energy-efficiency standards and renewable sources, and eliminate carbon emissions from purchased electricity by 2020 using strictly renewable sources.
U Oregon Offers Mobile Bike Repair Station
To provide help when and where it's needed, the mobile repair trike features a worktable pegboard of tools, and collapsible bike stands. The Student Sustainability Fund (SSF) granted the UO Bike Program $3,700 to build the bicycle.
Wake Forest U to Develop Well-Being Survey
The university’s administration and a few faculty members have been working on a survey that is designed to determine whether the college is helping its students find meaning and purpose in their lives. The university has six main areas it wants to explore: self-reported well-being; the level of meaning and purpose students find in their lives; “belongingness”; commitment to others; grit and perseverance; and physical health.
Washington U St. Louis Increases Solar Output
Furthering its environmental impact, the university's new commitment calls for an increase in solar output on all campuses by 1,150 percent. By fall, 379-kilowatts of photovoltaics will help subtract a calculated 385 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year from the school's carbon inventory.
Building Green Initiative Names Ten Greenest HBCUs
(U.S.): The Building Green Initiative at Clark Atlanta University ranked Historically Black Colleges and Universities based on administration, energy efficiency, green building, recycling, renewable energy generation, food, transportation, purchasing and student involvement. Of the 43 respondents to the survey, the top ten are (public schools) University of Maryland Eastern Shore; Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University; Elizabeth City State University; North Carolina Agricultural & Technical University; and (three-way tie) Morgan State University, Bowie State University and Mississippi Valley State University; (private) Spelman College; Howard University; Morehouse College; Livingstone College; and (tie) Claflin University and Clark Atlanta University.
California State U Fresno Introduces Water Conservation Plan
(U.S.): Due to the state's growing drought problem, the university recently announced plans to reduce its water consumption, two-thirds of which are used for campus and farmland irrigation, by 20 percent (60-65 million gallons) by using micro-sprinklers, soil sensors, water meters and drip irrigation.
Colorado State U Celebrates Energy Research Building Opening
(U.S.): The recently completed 100,000 square-foot Powerhouse Energy Campus, associated with 13 research centers across campus, features a greenhouse for biofuel feedstock development and an algae photobioreactor, rooftop solar arrays generating 20 kilowatts of electricity, a passive air conditioning system, energy efficient windows and LED lights.
Cornell U Upgrades Building Controls
(U.S.): After a recent energy study found the controls of an energy intensive laboratory building to be malfunctioning, the new installed controls will reduce maintenance-associated cost and provide energy savings.
Eastern Connecticut State U Wins National Award
(U.S.): The university's Institute for Sustainable Energy was recently selected to receive the 2014 Energy Star Partner of the Year Award from the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection for its energy efficiency efforts such as benchmarking and sharing of energy data and connecting towns and agencies with the energy incentive programs available in Connecticut, which helps to accelerate the installation of energy efficient equipment.
HKUST Buildings Receive BEAM Gold Award
(Hong Kong): Two residential buildings of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, awarded the Building Environmental Assessment Method Eco Building honor, feature energy efficient elevators, occupancy sensors, water-saving devices, green rooftops, solar panels, and recycled glass paving blocks.
HKUST Holds Opening Ceremony for Energy Institute
(Hong Kong): Building upon The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's programming and research in energy, the Energy Institute offers a multi-disciplinary platform for fostering energy-related research and curricular programs within the university and community.
Indiana U Bloomington Purchases Renewable Energy
(U.S.): The university's School of Public and Environmental Affairs is purchasing renewable energy certificates to offset its use of electricity from fossil fuels. The purchase covers the school’s academic energy use including classrooms, laboratories and offices through May 2015.
Michigan State U Honored by American Biogas Council
(U.S.): The university has been presented with the Project of the Year Award for its anaerobic digestion facility, which generates approximately 3,000 megawatts of renewable energy from processing organic waste from campus dining halls and university farms. This process diverts nearly 10,000 tons of material from landfills and wastewater facilities.
Montgomery County CC Introduces Wind Turbines
(U.S.): Dedicated on behalf of Earth Day were four 25-foot, vertical axis, 1-kilowatt wind turbines, which provide enough electrical output to power LED lights in one of the campus' parking lots.
MRIT U Launches Energy and Water Reduction Retrofit
(Australia): The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University will invest AU$98 million ($92 million) in its Sustainable Urban Precincts Program over three campuses, which will work with two corporations to reduce its water and energy use through improved, more efficient equipment, saving money and lessening greenhouse gas emissions. A portion of the funding will support teaching and research in sustainability including 10 doctorate of psychology scholarships.
Pueblo CC Students Begin Environmental Club
(U.S.): The recently started student club helps bring awareness and education to the campus and surrounding community and has several projects underway including initiating a recycling and tree planting program.
Seattle U Publishes First Sustainability Report
(U.S.): The recently released four-year sustainability progress report highlights the institution's climate action plan and its goals for academics and research, co-curricular education, environmental justice, operations, and strategies for the future.
Shippensburg U Begins Food Recovery Network
(U.S.): Students from the university's social work discipline recently began fighting hunger in the surrounding community by delivering surplus food to a community meal program.
U Alaska Anchorage to Implement Bike-Share Program
(U.S.): Using a university identification card, students, staff and faculty will be able to check out a bike through the campus library circulation desk, which can be used for an hour, a day or up to a month, for free. The bikes come with fenders, lights, a back rack and a front basket, and require monthly safety checks.
UC Riverside Installs Off Grid Solar Power
(U.S.): Bringing the university closer toward its carbon neutrality goals, the 13 solar charging cafe-style tables have recently been installed across campus and provide the campus community with a vehicle to charge the growing number of handheld electronic devices and laptops.
U Hawai'i Manoa Hires First Sustainability Coordinator
(U.S.): Aurora Winslade, previous director of sustainability at the University of Hawai'i West O'ahu, is now charged with moving Manoa's sustainability efforts forward as directed in its strategic plan, and hopes to empower campus leaders, staff, faculty, students who care about campus sustainability.
U Maryland Awarded $50K for Urban Design Competition
(U.S.): A team of university graduate students took top honors at the 12th annual ULI Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition, which asked the student teams to submit a development proposal that would promote healthy living for the residents of a Nashville neighborhood. Georgia Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and the University of Texas at Austin each received $10,000.
U Maryland Grants $50K for Sustainability Projects
(U.S.): The university's Sustainability Fund granted Facilities Management $50,000 to implement a rainwater harvesting system, a teaching green roof, or both, for the new Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center, which is scheduled to open summer 2016.
U Utah Offers Community Solar Program
(U.S.): Called U Solar Program, the university is now sponsoring the community solar program, offering a 25 percent discount on installation of rooftop solar panels for students and other university associated residents.
U Wyoming Launches Revolving Fund
(U.S.): The university's new Conservation and Efficiency Revolving Fund, aimed at energy, water and waste efforts, emerged from a student project and was granted $250,000 seed money from the school's Physical Plant. Part of SEI's Billion Dollar Green Challenge, projects will be tracked and evaluated through Green Revolving Investment Tracking System (GRITS) and internal metrics.
Villanova U Commits to Catholic Climate Covenant
(U.S.): The university president recently signed the St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor, which is a pledge that asks individuals, families, parishes, organizations and universities to live their faith by protecting God’s Creation and advocates on behalf of people in poverty who face the harshest impacts of global climate change.
Western Illinois U Calculates Value of On Campus Trees
(U.S.): Students from an urban forest management course recently used free U.S. Department of Agriculture software, i-Tree, to estimate benefits of the university's tree canopy including carbon dioxide sequestration, energy savings and shade cover for people enjoying or working in the outdoors. The tree canopy is estimated to cover about 35 percent surface area of campus, which the program equates to roughly $26,000 of annual benefit to the surrounding area.
Bentley U Remakes Disability Icon
With assistance from the university's Diversity Mini-Grant program, the Accessible Icon Project will repaint handicap parking spots on campus with an icon that represents independence and abilities of individuals who use wheelchairs.
Cornell U Creates Faculty Director Endowments
The original funders of the David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future are now going to gift an endowment for the center's directorship and establish a challenge campaign to endow the center's three faculty director positions. For every $2 million a donor gives for a faculty director chair, the Atkinsons will contribute another $1 million to endow each of the three faculty leadership positions that oversee the center's three main research areas: energy, the environment and economic development.
Cornell U to Install a 2MW Photovoltaic Array
The university's largest solar endeavor, the two-megawatt solar electric system will include 6,500-plus panels, 10 of which will be designated for academic use allowing students physical access to manipulate the panels and access to the web-based dashboard monitoring software.
Energy Dept Announces $4M Toward Renewable Energy
In an effort to accelerate development of marine energy systems including tidal energy, a consortium of universities will receive $4 million for research that seeks to optimize operations, reduce maintenance costs, and improve the components and performance.
Loyola U Chicago Votes to End Plastic Bag Usage
Waiting to see how the administration votes on the matter, students are in favor of using compostable totes carrying a charge $0.70 per bag, which they hope will incent students to use their own reusable bags.
Montgomery County CC Honors Sustainable Food
A new focus of a Honors Colloquium, students spent time learning about sustainability issues of the modern agriculture and food system and were asked to provide possible solutions such as policy changes.
Springfield College Students Clean Local Zoo
As part of a 735-acre city park, the zoo recently hosted students from the college's Project for Sustainability club to volunteer their time with clean-up to prepare it for its opening.
Student Startups Compete for $100K in Energy Dept Competition
University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Colorado at Denver, Iowa State University and University of New Mexico were represented at the CU Cleantech New Venture Challenge. The seven groups representing the universities presented solutions to pressing sustainability issues. The winning team receives $100,000 seed funding and a chance to compete at the national competition in Washington, D.C.
SUNY Cortland Becomes Tree Campus USA
The establishment of the university's urban forest with 53 tree species recently earned it the designation and will be celebrated by a tour during the school's Green Days festival.
U Maryland Panhellenic Receives $4K for Energy Efficiency
Allowing the building to stay cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, the university's Fraternity and Sorority Life housing coordinator applied for the grant to install the ceramic glazing on the windows of a Panhellenic chapter house as a pilot program.
U Maryland Procures Solar Panels Jointly
Partnering with a local renewable energy-based nonprofit, seventeen university faculty and staff have recently signed up for a bulk purchase of photovoltaic panels.
U Ottawa Declared Fair Trade Campus
The university recently achieved the status through increasing availability and awareness of coffee, tea and chocolate that has the Fairtrade designation.
