Portland State U Professor Leads Clean Water Effort in Rwanda
(U.S.): Owned and funded by water quality testing company DelAgua, and contracted to Manna Energy Limited, the project will distribute water filters and efficient cook stoves to 750,000 households, nearly all of the Western Province of Rwanda, reducing the demand for wood fuel. Portland State University (Oregon) Assistant Professor of Engineering Evan Thomas, who co-founded Manna, is heading up the effort.
Skidmore College Students Host Nuclear Awareness Forum
(U.S.): As part of a "Community Engagement" course at the college, students recently held an information session to raise public awareness of the health and environmental implications associated with a local nuclear site. The students have been working with concerned citizens and former site employees this semester to disseminate information to those who live near the site about the lack of safety features including emergency cooling systems, containment systems to keep radiation from reaching the public, and a 10-mile evacuation plan.
U California Berkeley Students Work with Communities During Break
(U.S.): More than 136 students participated in the university’s Alternative Breaks program, lending their skills to public service projects. This year’s participants spent the last week of March working on projects involving animal welfare, health care, immigration and homelessness across the country. As part of the program, the students also learned about social justice issues at play in the surrounding community.
Udall Foundation Announces 2012 Scholars
(U.S.): Eighty students from 70 colleges and universities will receive up to $5,000 each and assemble in August to meet policymakers and community leaders in environmental fields, tribal health care and governance. Sixty-eight of this year's scholars intend to pursue careers related to the environment and 12 Native American/Alaska Native scholars intend to pursue careers in tribal public policy and health care.
U Edinburgh, Kwame Nkrumah U Research Safe Drinking Water Options
(Ghana and U.K.): Researchers from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Edinburgh are partnering to develop technologies for safe drinking water. Funded by the Leverhulme Royal Society Africa Award, the researchers will focus on the use of laterite, a soil-type rich in iron and aluminum, as a sorbent and ultra-filtration for physical disinfection.
U Illinois Chicago Named Tree Campus USA
(U.S.): The university earned the Arbor Day Foundation recognition by meeting required standards for sustainable campus forestry and sponsoring student service-learning projects. The 250-acre urban campus has 5,376 trees of 101 different species.
UK Institutions Launch Student Food Co-ops
(U.K.): Oxford Brookes University is the latest of eight institutions in the U.K. to launch a student-run food co-op. Organized by People & Planet student chapters at Kent, Strathclyde, Durham, Manchester, Birmingham, East Anglia and Newcastle universities, these co-ops are designed to provide students and staff access to ethical food at low prices.
U Mass Med School New Air Systems Save Water and Energy
(U.S.): In an effort to reduce energy and water consumption, the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s facilities team has completed the replacement of two medical vacuum systems and one medical compressed air system. The new systems are expected to save 483,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and four million gallons of water per year.
U Queensland Awarded $10 M for Sustainability Research Center
(Australia): Funded through a Dow Chemical Company contribution worth $10 million over the next six years, the university will establish the Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation. The center will pursue research and collaborations aimed at confronting large-scale sustainability challenges.
U Queensland Facility Awarded Green Star Certification
(Australia): The university’s new Advanced Engineering Building has received a 5 Star Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. Sustainable features include a passive cooling system, natural ventilation, the use of recycled materials and building-wide monitoring systems that track the building’s environmental performance.
U Queensland Installs Water Bottle Refill Stations
(Australia): Three new water bottle refill stations have been installed on campus as part of the university’s campaign to raise awareness of the environmental and financial costs of purchasing bottled water. The installation follows the success of a trial water station installed in spring last year. The university plans to install more stations over the coming months.
U Worcester Completes Solar Array Installation
(U.K.): Students and faculty will have the opportunity to monitor the amount of energy produced from the 50-kilowatt solar photovoltaic array and, by contributing power to the electrical grid, the university will benefit from the feed-in tariff payments.
York U Students Rally for Full-time Sustainability Officer
(U.K.): The York University student chapter of People & Planet, a student network in Britain that organizes campaigns to end world poverty, defend human rights and protect the environment, recently protested outside of a university Sustainability Strategy meeting for a full-time sustainability officer.
Champlain College Restoration Awarded LEED Platinum
The $12 million renovation and expansion of the college's Welcome and Admission Center features a geothermal heat pump to provide space heating and cooling, ecological landscaping for wildlife habitat and stormwater reduction, energy-efficient lighting and the use of local and recycled building materials.
Clark U Debuts Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
The university joined fellow Worcester, Ma.-based institutions Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Quinsigamond Community College to debut new charging stations for the campus community and city. The Institute for Energy & Sustainability, a nonprofit housed at the university, received a Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources grant to install 10 charging stations in central Massachusetts.
Eastern Kentucky U Installs Water Bottle Filling Stations
A $5,000 grant from the Bluegrass PRIDE community grant program will fund the installation of five water bottle filling stations in an effort to steer the campus community away from plastic water bottle use. With another $8,835 grant, biology and wildlife faculty and students will assist in the construction of an outdoor classroom and wetlands area to be shared by two local schools.
Eastern Michigan U Installs Green Roof
The 3,000-square-foot rooftop garden, installed atop the university's new Science Complex, contains 16 plant species and is expected to save the university $3,600 in energy costs per year.
Emory U Establishes Diversity Website
In an effort to bring students and faculty to a single location where they can learn more about ongoing diversity initiatives, the university has launched a new website in collaboration with the Office of Community and Diversity. The diversity web portal includes a section for news and announcements regarding diversity, lists upcoming diversity events and enables users to search for diversity-related organizations and groups on campus.
Gay Mormon Students Have New Visibility at Brigham Young U
A recent panel discussion of what it’s like to be gay and Mormon signaled a new attitude toward being gay at the university, which is owned and run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Church teachings condemn sexual relationships between members of the same sex, but in recent years the university has adjusted its Honor Code to allow students to identify as gay without facing sanctions, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Genesee CC Debuts Solar Powered Weather Station
The wireless weather monitoring station is powered through solar energy stored in rechargeable batteries. Current temperature and weather conditions are available via the college's Facebook page. The station was funded through the college’s Foundation President’s Innovation Award Program.
Local Food Co-op Comes to U Mass Med School
(U.S.): The Massachusetts Local Food Cooperative has begun offering monthly distribution at the Worcester campus due to the efforts of a group of volunteers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. On the first Friday of every month, student and faculty volunteers travel to the distribution center in Westminster to pick up orders from the university. The goods are then brought back and unloaded to a waiting pick-up area set up in the old Medical School lobby.
Luther College Completes Community Wind Power Project
A 1.6-megawatt wind turbine owned and operated by Luther College Wind Energy Project is providing the college and community with wind-generated electrical power. The power generated by the turbine is being sold to Alliant Energy under a long-term power purchase agreement and the project's Renewable Energy Certificates are being sold to the college.
Maharishi U Mgmt Debuts Net-Zero Sustainable Living Center
Together, the building's 58 solar panels and 100-foot wind turbine are capable of producing 25 kilowatts, contributing to the building's ability to produce more energy than it consumes annually. Other energy-saving features include a heat pump and geothermal tubing, extensive use of daylighting, and strategic placement of windows and verandas. As more funds are raised, the university plans to take the center completely off the grid with respect to electricity, heating, cooling, water and waste.
Public Institutions Caught in Maintenance Funding Conundrum
In what Inside Higher Ed is calling "the other debt crisis," public colleges and universities are issuing their own debt to finance facility renovations, reports the online news source. Facing aging campuses, several years of backlogged maintenance projects, increased competition for students and little hope that states are going to fund the construction they need, institutions are "now catching up for several years of not being funded appropriately." Institutions that can't issue cheap debt are faced with choosing whether to hold off on projects (leading to an aging and potentially unsafe campus and more expensive renovations in the future), or funding projects from their operating budgets, potentially siphoning off resources for other priorities like faculty salaries and student services.
San Francisco State U Earns Diverse Campus Designation
More than 35 percent of students enrolled at San Francisco State University (California) in fall 2011 identified as Asian American, Native American or Pacific Islander, earning recognition by the U.S. Department of Education as one of the nation's most diverse campuses. The designation allows the university to apply for federal funding aimed at increasing the recruitment, retention and graduation of students from all underrepresented backgrounds.
Temple U Hosts Sustainability Week
Focused on a call to action to "learn by doing," the week’s events included workshops and demonstrations that offer staff, students and faculty an opportunity to develop useful pursuits that can lead to a more sustainable lifestyle.
Texas A&M Green Roof to Engage Wide Variety of Students
Next fall, students from a variety of academic programs at the university will begin collaborating on an interdisciplinary, three-year project to install and monitor a green roof and living wall atop a campus building. The project is funded by a $100,000 university reallocation grant for enhancing students’ preparation for the workplace and society through high-impact learning experiences. The project will also raise awareness of "green" technologies and provide opportunities for additional student research.
Tribal Colleges Focus on Preparing Students for Workforce
As the U.S. focuses on increasing college attainment and reducing unemployment, tribal colleges—some located on reservations with low education rates and high unemployment—are increasing their efforts to teach and train more of their populations, reports a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article. Six tribal colleges are the latest to join a growing list of community colleges involved in Breaking Through, an initiative developed by advocacy groups Jobs for the Future and the National Council for Workforce Education that includes comprehensive support services and remedial work embedded in credit-bearing courses.
U Florida Launches Adopt-A-'Swamp' Program
Student organizations will have an opportunity to clean and maintain conservation areas on campus through the Office of Sustainability’s new Adopt-A-"Swamp" program. At the start of the 2012-2013 academic year, participants will be responsible for keeping a selected area clean by picking up litter, removing invasive species and other tasks, for one year.
U Georgia Enlists Goats for Creek Clean Up
With $3,000 from the university's student green fee, eight goats are now cleaning up a campus creek by eating the non-native plant species. Additional green fee money will go toward time-lapse equipment to document the progress of the clean-up.
Unity College Partners to Raise Chickens for Food Security
Unity College (Maine) students have partnered with the Waldo County Technical Center to grow broiler chickens in support of hunger relief efforts in Waldo County. The students are developing management plans, delivering animal care and learning more about how local agriculture can work to improve food security.
U North Carolina Partners to Keep Mattresses from Landfill
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte's new mattress provider for on-campus housing uses a recycling and re-manufacturing process that includes the on-site removal and collection of old mattresses. The company deconstructs the mattresses and reuses or recycles all components. The university is saving 30 percent per mattress with the new contract, and expects to replace 800 mattresses annually; a savings of $20,000 per year.
U Oregon to Expand Urban Farm Curriculum Opportunities
The university’s Urban Farm project, a program of the Landscape Architecture department and the Student Sustainability Center, has received $42,000 from the Associated Students of the University of Oregon's Over-Realized Fund to help secure more land and resources to meet increasing student interest. The funding will expand the farm to three new lots and create another graduate teaching fellow position to help with hands-on instruction, allowing more students to be involved with the farm.
U South Florida Announces Green Energy Fund Awards
The university's Student Green Energy Fund Council has awarded a total of $269,510 to five approved proposals for energy-conserving projects around campus. Projects include the installation of lighting controls; software that will put computers in sleep mode when not in use; and upgrades to a campus building's heating, ventilation and cooling system.
U Vermont to Install Solar Panels at Equine Farm
With $55,740 from its Clean Energy Fund, the university has announced a solar panel installation at its Miller Equine Farm. Students will have the opportunity to work with Vermont Solar & Wind Partnership Program and the Clean Energy Fund during the installation in May. The power generated will feed directly into the electrical grid.
Arizona State U Receives $27.5 M for Sustainability Efforts
The university’s Global Institute for Sustainability will use the gift from the Rob and Melani Walton Fund to develop and deploy solutions to sustainability challenges including energy, water, environment, climate, urbanization, social transformation and decision-making in local, national and global contexts. The fund will support sustainability efforts, which also include educating future leaders in sustainability, over the next five years.
Carnegie Mellon U Purchases Wind Power
The university has partnered with Renewable Choice Energy to offset 100 percent of its 2012 electricity consumption. The university purchased 116,000-megawatt hours of certified renewable energy credits sourced from wind farms located in the Midwest.
Central Michigan U Launches 'Bring Your Own Bottle' Campaign
In effort to raise environmental awareness and sustainability through small steps, the university’s Student Environmental Alliance has partnered with the Great Lakes Institute for Sustainable Systems to distribute 700 Bring Your Own Bottle (B.Y.O.B.) stickers around campus. Stickers have been placed near water fountains and trash cans to encourage the elimination of plastic water bottle waste.
Champlain College 'Kill-A-Watt' Winner Reduces Energy by 36%
The top energy savers of Sustain Champlain's annual energy reduction challenge among residence halls achieved a 36 percent savings in electricity use. The winner, Rowell Hall, was determined through a point system split between actual electricity reduction and spreading awareness through programming.
Columbia U Commits $30 M to Increasing Faculty Diversity
The funds will be dedicated to the recruitment and support of female and underrepresented minority scholars, most notably in the schools involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. The provost’s office will organize a competition between the schools to allocate the funds. A committee of senior faculty members will distribute the money based on the quality of candidates put forward, the degree to which the school is supporting current faculty, and the consistency of the enforcement of the diversity plans over time.
Florida Gulf Coast U Students Initiate 'Food Forest'
Funded by student fees, the half-acre permaculture garden mimics the seven layers of a natural forest and is divided into irrigation zones. In addition to producing edible plants, students cite the initiative's ability to create community.
Kent State U Earns Tree USA Status for Fourth Consecutive Year
The national Arbor Day Foundation program honors colleges and universities for promoting healthy urban forest management and engaging the campus community in environmental stewardship. Kent State University (Ohio) planted 132 trees last year including replacement trees for those that died and trees for new construction projects.
Luther College Pilots Employee CSA Program
The college's Wellness and Sustainability programs are collaborating to reimburse faculty and staff that take part in community supported agriculture (CSA) programs, take two cooking classes and become part of two book groups offered this summer that support a holistic approach to food education. The college is working with three local farms to provide CSAs to the campus community.
Rice U Renovation Earns LEED Silver
Sustainable features of the renovation of Will Rice College include salvaged roofing materials, water-efficient fixtures, occupancy sensors for lights and 54 new bicycle parking spots.
