Carbon Pricing Approaches for Climate Decisions in U.S. Higher Education
This open access article, "Carbon pricing approaches for climate decisions in U.S. higher education: Proxy carbon prices for deep decarbonization", analyzes a range of internal carbon price tools in use by 11 higher education institutions in the U.S. and discusses tradeoffs. It also discusses how schools can collaborate and experiment with these tools to help drive good climate decision-making and inform climate policy at larger scales.
Advancing University Engagement Report
The University of Melbourne, in collaboration with King’s College London and the University of Chicago, released a new report, "Advancing University Engagement: University engagement and global league tables", that proposes a way to measure and recognize university engagement. The engagement indicators of the proposed framework are university commitment to engagement, community opinion of the university, student access, volunteering, research reach outside academic journals, community engaged learning within curriculum, socially-responsible purchasing, and carbon footprint.
AASHE 2020 Higher Education Staffing Report
Using data provided by AASHE's Higher Education Staffing Survey, the 2020 Salaries & Status of Sustainability Professionals in Higher Education report examines the nature of sustainability positions at colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada and other countries. The report provides insights into salaries, funding, supervision, job satisfaction and challenges, as well as graphical comparisons between this year and previous years.
Survey on HEI Presidents’ Responses to COVID-19 and Racial Justice
“Responding to the Ongoing COVID-19 Crisis and to Calls for Racial Justice”, released by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, summarizes findings from a survey of college and university presidents who weighed in on how their institution is responding to racial justice, anti-Black racism, and the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Report on Underrepresentation of Black and Latino Students at Public Institutions
'Segregation Forever'?: The Continued Underrepresentation of Black and Latino Undergraduates at the Nation's 101 Most Selective Public Colleges and Universities examines how access for Black and Latino students at the nation’s 101 most selective public colleges and universities has changed since 2000, and whether these institutions are serving an undergraduate student body that represents the racial and ethnic diversity of their particular state’s population.
Power Dialog Webinar Discussion Templates
These discussion templates are from Bard College's Solve Climate By 2030 Power Dialog webinars discussion series. Discussion templates are designed for 60-minute classes and cover wide-ranging topics including statistics, Spanish, psychology, physics, music, literature, engineering, art and more.
COVID-19 Planning & Self-Assessment Guide for Higher Education
The COVID-19 Planning Guide and Self-Assessment for Higher Education is designed to be a practical planning tool to help institutions in two ways. First, the guide poses four central questions to determine if your institution is prepared to reopen for each of the major COVID-19 phases. Second, the guide is organized into leadership, cross-functional and functional workgroups to support comprehensive planning efforts across various institutional groups. The guide also contains links to guidelines, resources and media reports to further supplement institutional planning.
Police Free Campus Toolkit
The Campus Divestment From Police College and University Toolkit, curated by UnKoch My Campus, is intended to help students create targeted letter-writing campaigns to call on their respective institutions to cut ties with police, envision a future without police presence on campus, and use public records requests to better understand their school’s relationship with the police.
Post-Landfill Action Network "Reusables and Sanitation Toolkit"
To help campuses navigate the complexities of opening amidst the coronavirus pandemic, the Post-Landfill Action Network (PLAN) created the Reusables and Sanitation Toolkit, which contains references to 14 key resources, including guidance from the FDA, the CDC, the National Restaurant Association, ServSafe, EcoLab and a handful of scientific journals. The toolkit provides guidance to dining facilities that are considering switching to disposable (instead of reusable) dishes and take out containers, as well as reuse programs for items like furniture and electronics.
'Sustainable Futures – Communities in Action' Documentary & Educator's Guide
The Community Conservation Research Network released the documentary Sustainable Futures - Communities in Action covering food security, sustainable livelihoods, community-based conservation, fishery/coastal management, Indigenous rights and more, along with an education guide. The guide provides information and resource material to facilitate discussion and action with students and community groups.
'The Wild Hometown Toolkit: A Toolkit for Student Leaders'
The Wild Hometown Toolkit aims to help students start and build a Wild Hometown chapter in their community, build a campus organization, and connect with other youth and local partners involved in land conservation, environmental education and biodiversity. The toolkit was developed through a collaboration between the Wild Hometown Movement and the Academics for Land Protection in New England (ALPINE).
AASHE Report: STARS Aligned: Using STARS to Report on Contributions to the SDGs
“STARS Aligned: Using the Sustainability Tracking Assessment & Rating System to Report on Contributions to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals” documents the alignment between the Sustainability Tracking Assessment & Rating System (STARS) and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Tips and strategies to assist institutions with reporting on contributions to the SDGs through the STARS framework are included.
New Support Website for Dreamers and DACA Recipients
RemembertheDreamers.org, launched by the American Council on Education (ACE) and a coalition of partners, aims to be a resource for students, families and higher education institutions as Dreamers and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients await the Supreme Court’s decision on whether President Trump illegally ended DACA in 2017. The decision is expected to be made between now and mid-June.
Be-Trayed: How Kickbacks in the Cafeteria Industry Harm Our Communities & What to Do About It
The new report from Real Food Generation examines the practice of cash rebates between major cafeteria contractors operating on campuses, such as Aramark, Sodexo and Compass Group, and large agricultural corporations, like Cargill and Tyson. The report provides resources and guidance to students and school administrators to implement institutional procurement policies that contribute to local food economies that advance racial justice and prioritize ecological balance.
Designing an Innovative Pedagogy for Sustainable Development in Higher Education
This book offers pedagogical support to both students and university/college-level instructors using approaches based on innovative design thinking, arts-based practices, digital transformation, and entrepreneurship for sustainable development. It includes an education toolkit to help instructors support students in the process of creating new knowledge for addressing real-world problems and enhance their societal involvement, foster entrepreneurial spirit, and reach opportunities for a sustainable future.
Wasted Food Solutions Toolbox
The toolbox, created by the Center for EcoTechnology, provides resources that aim to reduce and divert food waste, from source reduction, source separation, and food donation guidelines to understanding organics waste bans and providing hauler contracting guidance.
Environmental Justice Toolkit
The toolkit defines environmental justice, features various university, community and international case studies, and includes specific action items that people can take to advocate for and promote environmental justice. The toolkit was collaboratively developed by University of Connecticut professors and students, local community organizers, and national advocates at the United Nations Association of the USA.
Land Ethics Curriculum Resources
These resources form the Aldo Leopold Foundation explore land ethics generally and specifically through Aldo Leopold’s articulation of a “land ethic” and can be used either as standalone elements such as a film, video or book in your course, or they can build upon each other.
Operational Recommendations for Higher Education During COVID-19 Shutdowns
Released by TVA EnergyRight for Business and Industry, the "COVID-19 Response: Modified Operations Recommendations for Higher Education" resource provides guidelines for turning off or adjusting electronics, appliances, and energy and water systems across campus, as well as sanitation, maintenance and operational practices to undertake while facilities are unoccupied.
Sustainable Development and Higher Education Institutions: Acting With a Purpose
This special issue, published in the open access journal "Sustainability", builds on papers presented at the 2018 International Sustainable Campus Network conference. The articles cover a range of perspectives on sustainability, including organization and management issues, networking and city partnership themes, student involvement, gender issues, and metrics and indicators related to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Second Nature Solutions Center
Second Nature's Solutions Center identifies carbon and energy reducing activities to support campus climate action goals. The objective of the Solutions Center is to help campuses review more quickly the solutions available and to help build a presentation for decision makers to be able to assess and prioritize decisions faster in order to accelerate climate action.
Meal Exchange Canada: Food Support for Students
Meal Exchange, which supports universities and colleges across Canada, has organized a list of supports available for students that includes community support groups, emergency food services, and local food delivery. Additionally, students that are facing food insecurity now can submit a form to Meal Exchange for food relief.
New Issue: Sustainability: The Journal of Record
The last issue of Sustainability: The Journal of Record is a special issue covering the 2019 AASHE Sustainability Award winners, including the second recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Judy Walton. Additionally, the issue includes research about sustainability competencies among graduates.
New Report: #RealCollege 2020: Five Years of Evidence on Basic Needs Insecurity
The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice released a new report on the basic needs insecurity crisis that some college students face, which is based on a survey that has reached more than 330,000 students and 400 colleges and universities. Some key findings include 39 percent of respondents were food insecure in the prior 30 days, 46 percent of respondents were housing insecure in the previous year, and 17 percent of respondents were homeless in the previous year. While the report also includes programs and policies to support students' basic needs, it strongly recommends focusing on prevention rather than only responding to emergencies.
Higher Education and Research for Sustainable Development Report
This report is the result of the analysis of the second Global Survey on Higher Education and Research for Sustainable Development conducted by the International Association of Universities. It discusses the role that higher education institutions play in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
AASHE STARS Data Accuracy Video Series
The STARS Data Accuracy Video Series is a compilation of short videos that highlight tips and resources for submitting high-quality and accurate content for credits with high error rates. The series also contains a video describing differences between STARS 2.1 and 2.2, and a video that goes over where to find resources and support for conducting a STARS assessment.
Introduction to Zero Carbon Online Course
Offered by the International Living Future Institute, this course is a one-hour introduction to carbon in the built environment, and what project teams should consider when pursuing their first Zero Carbon building.
Embodied Carbon Guidance Document
The International Living Future Institute has created the Embodied Carbon Guidance Document in order to provide practices and methodologies that help draw a common understanding of embodied carbon. This guidance seeks to help project teams quantify the reductions made within their projects and empower them to create measurable change in order to meet their climate action goals.
Higher Education for Sustainability
This book explores how higher education and sustainability interact in New Zealand, and argues that higher education at present may be contributing as much to unsustainability as it does to sustainability. It considers how education, and higher education in particular, works alongside a wide range of other life experiences to impact individuals’ attitudes and actions. In turn, it envisions a form of higher education that supports graduates to decide what their contribution to a sustainable future will be. This book addresses those aspects of higher education that are best suited to fostering the development of students’ abilities and dispositions to think deeply, critically and independently about the world.
Report on Addressing the Climate Change and Poverty Nexus
This report makes recommendations for improving the ways in which the interrelated challenges of poverty and climate change are understood and addressed. Policy recommendations and tools are presented and discussed, based on the premise that improving the coherence and coordination of policy, institutional, financial and practical linkages between climate responses, poverty reduction and food security initiatives will contribute to greater integration of, and gains towards achieving, the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement targets. The report is intended to be a tool to support policy development and action by policymakers, government officials, development and humanitarian agencies, local level institutions and communities, and researchers.
Rethinking Diversity Frameworks in Higher Education
With the goal of building more inclusive working, learning and living environments in higher education, this book seeks to reframe understandings of forms of everyday exclusion that affect members of nondominant groups on predominantly white college campuses.
Climate Crisis Educational Resources
Developed by faculty from the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems, UC-CSU NXTerra is a resource for faculty from all disciplines seeking to enhance their teaching and learning about the climate crisis, critical sustainability and climate justice studies, both inside and outside the classroom.
Creating Space for Democracy: A Primer on Dialogue & Deliberation in Higher Education
This primer offers a blueprint for achieving the civic mission of higher education by incorporating dialogue and deliberation into learning at colleges and universities. It aims to impart the power and impact of public talk, offers the insights and experiences of leading practitioners, and provides the grounding to adopt or adapt the models in their own settings to create educative spaces and experiences that are humanizing, authentic and productive.
NCSE Report on Climate Science Research
"Climate Science Research in the United States and U.S. Territories: Survey of Scientific Publications From Selected Public Universities (2014-2018)", released by the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), provides a snapshot of the scope and focus of climate science-related research in selected public research institutions over the last five years across all 50 states and U.S. territories. NCSE analyzed the research of 80 public institutions from all 50 states and found that they had produced 10,004 studies on the impacts of climate change on their regions between 2014 and 2018. The report is intended as a resource to help decision-makers recognize the local salience of climate change and to develop policies that are responsive to the challenges facing their regions.
New Issue of Sustainability: Journal of Record
The latest issue features a case report titled "Reflective Practices in Sustainability Education" and an article about systems-thinking modeling for zero carbon emissions in buildings.
RecycleMania: Activity Guide for Freshmen, Dorm Dwellers, and Student Leaders
This guide is for college and university students who wish to help their school participate in waste reduction and waste elimination measures, increase recycling, and take part in the spring RecycleMania competition. The guide provides activities and resources to engage RAs and new students, and to increase waste reduction and recycling practices among all students and faculty.
Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education
This encyclopedia serves as a tool to support universities across the world to implement sustainable development in higher education in a number of key areas. Five sections cover policy-making, visioning, structures, management and strategies; teaching, learning and competencies; research and transformation; campus greening, design, operations and carbon impacts; and student and stakeholder initiatives and involvement.
