Tufts U to Hold Student Solar Project Competition
The Tufts Energy Conference offers students the opportunity to submit a photovoltaic technology project that will operate without a connection to the university's electric grid. The winning proposal will be allocated $10,000 toward implementation on campus.
U Maryland Cultivates Campus Farm
In partnership with the university's Dining Services, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Office of Sustainability, the new sustainable farming operation will be located 15 miles from campus and it will supply the university and food-insecure campus and community members with fresh and sustainably-grown food.
Wesleyan U Begins On Campus Food Cooperative
Recently began in concert by interested students, the local food co-op, which now has nearly 600 members, was started to meet the needs of those who wanted locally-grown and ethically-raised products, including meat and eggs, dairy, bread, jams and vinegars.
Hampshire College Students Check Out Vegetable Seeds
(United States): Called a seed-lending library, students interested in learning more about sustainable gardening and seed saving can now check out seeds from the on-campus library. Once the plants produce fruit or flowers, students harvest and dry the seeds, and then return them to the library's catalog.
Davidson College Unveils Sports-Centered Sustainability Programs
The college's The Next Play program will use the influence of sports to encourage sustainability through the creation of a Student-Athlete Sustainability Coalition, two zero waste athletic events and a speakers series. The initiative will also coordinate two national events: a sustainability-in-sports venture pitch tournament and a virtual discussion on sustainability and sports.
Middlesex CC to Host Statewide Sustainability Conference
Designed for staff and students of the state's public and private colleges and universities, the event, featuring workshops and discussion panels, will focus on campus and community engagement, curriculum, teaching and research, and campus planning and facilities management.
U Kentucky to Open New Residential Learning College
Available to students in fall 2014, the university's Greenhouse Residential College is a living and learning community for those interested in learning different aspects of their local environment through the lens of sustainability.
U Georgia Students Receive $28K to Promote Sustainability
The university's Office of Sustainability recently announced $28,000 to be used by nine student groups' projects that aim to promote a culture of campus sustainability. While biking was the most popularly submitted proposal, others included an on-campus garden and water quality testing.
Oxford College Acquires Land for Organic Farm
(U.S.): After an alumni recently donated land, the college will now offer an organic farm to model sustainable farming techniques and for integration into the school's curriculum.
North Carolina State U Students Opt to Live in EcoVillage
The new sustainability-focused living and learning community drew 63 students whose focus is on service programs and a first-year student course on sustainability, which encourages students to lead, serve, problem solve and engage in complex issues.
Small Steps, Big Wins Campus Challenge Announces Fall Results
A national contest to empower college students to take positive social and environmental actions, such as donating blood or recycling, released the top scoring schools for fall semester as Oklahoma State University, University of California at Berkeley, Southern Illinois University, Penn State University and Washington University.
Green Mountain College Students Build Sustainable Mobile Home
Motivated to build a mobile living space that could be towed behind a four-cylinder vehicle, the Renewable Energy and Ecological Design students custom-built a 70-square-foot room with a composting toilet, rainwater collection system and a 120-watt photovoltaic panel.
North Carolina State U Students Engineer Heat Ventilation System
Students from the university's Landscape Construction Studio class recently designed and implemented the heat ventilation system for a garden space that has steam pipes underneath it causing vegetation to die. The student-staff collaboration won a local award.
U Idaho Students Develop Net-Zero Lab
(U.S.): After time spent researching forestry's role in wood production, graduate students were challenged to use the resource in new and innovative ways to construct a new campus laboratory building.
U Iowa Students Hold Sustainability Summit
(U.S.): Hosted by the university's Student Government, the event invited dialogue from administrators, students, faculty, staff and community members about campus sustainability and taking action beyond campus borders.
Maharishi U Management Students Build Adobe House
A group of 12 students studying natural building traveled to the Texas desert last month and spent 11 days building an adobe house measuring 14 feet by 14 feet. Construction included local soil for the bricks and locally harvested dead trees.
Dickinson College Selects Sustainability Fellows
The Baird Sustainability Fellows, a college-wide honors program, recognized seven graduating seniors who have advanced campus sustainability goals through scholarship, leadership and service.
Princeton U Students to Install Solar in Peru
A pilot program of the university's Pace Center for Civic Engagement, eight students and one faculty will install a portable solar unit and provide education to the community members about how to install and maintain the system.
Boston U Held Regional Eco Rep Conference
(U.S.): The recent Eco Rep Symposium at the university featured games to prompt discussions, presentations and roundtables about campus sustainability topics including waste, engaging students and communities, programs, effective communication, social justice and failures.
Loyola U Students Help Lower Avian Mortality
In a concerted effort to reduce avian mortality on three of the university's buildings, service-learning students enrolled in the spring 2013 SOAR (Student Operation for Avian Relief) program designed a plan that includes nets and usage of the building's automation system to lower blinds during early morning hours.
North Carolina State U Homecoming Becomes Sustainable Certified
Through the university's Sustainability Office, the fall event earned the highest achievement, Wolfpack-Certified Green Champion Level, for its efforts to reduce event waste, including parade materials, offer healthy food options and donating leftover food, and community engagement.
U Nebraska Lincoln Begins Student Engagement Campaign
Students of the campus' Association of Students of the University of Nebraska are hosting events that engage on-campus residents to reduce energy consumption, discuss campus sustainability, and further Dining Services food waste diversion and recycling program.
Wesleyan U Uses App for Sustainability Contest
A fresh effort to engage students in campus sustainability and learn how social media can promote behavior change, the JouleBug Sustainability Contest used the mobile application to track environmentally-friendly efforts, such using a reusable mug.
U Texas Austin Students Plant On-Campus Farm
The new green-fee funded Micro Farm is the university's first student-run operation where students grow vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs for university dining halls, a local food shelter and an on-site farm stand.
U West Florida Students Begin USGBC Chapter
In hopes of creating an environmentally-friendly campus, the new U.S. Green Building Council student club's first project will be construction of an Earthship structure composed of compacted dirt and used tires, which will be used as a seating area outside of the science and engineering building for campus members to create community.
Duke U Arts Festival Centers Around Sustainability
The annual festival's thematic choice this year is sustainability in order to promote interdisciplinary collaboration and expand the boundaries of artistic endeavors on campus. Organizers' intention is for participants to consider how creativity can galvanize sustainable behaviors.
Portland State U Questions Oppression in Sustainability Movement
The university's new Social Sustainability Month theme for 2013-14 is Decolonizing Sustainability: Unsettling the Dominant Paradigm, a focal point that encourages consideration of how the mainstream environmental and sustainability movements may perpetuate historical systems of oppression, colonization and domination.
Wesleyan U Students and Faculty Re-Envision 'The Commons'
As part of the university's College of the Environment year-long academic think tank on critical environmental issues, students and faculty discuss management of common property from an interdisciplinary perspective involving humanities and performing arts. The think tank will conjoin its scholarly work with the efforts of student sustainability groups like the Long Lane Farm Club, WILDWes and WesFresh.
Students Organize Around Campus Food Day 2013
(U.S.): Campus Food Day was celebrated recently at 350 U.S. colleges and universities. The event mobilized students to unify the food movement and launch efforts to change food policies on campus through events such as lectures, documentary screenings and petitions. Johns Hopkins University, Northeastern University and The University of Massachusetts, Amherst signed onto the Real Food Campus Commitment, pledging to source 20 percent of its food from local, fair, sustainable and humane farms and food businesses. As of Campus Food Day, 22 institutions have signed the Real Food Campus Commitment.
Concordia U Students Learn About Homelessness
In an effort to understand the plight of the homeless demographic, students organized an event in which they built cardboard shanties that they slept in overnight and spent time serving the homeless.
Penn State Students Aid in Stormwater Infrastructure Rebuilding
Students from the university's architecture program, staff and community volunteers worked with the Penn State Cooperative Extension and Public Media to rebuild one of the city's rain gardens and stormwater remediation areas. The project was part of an outreach effort for Penn State Public Media’s documentary "Water Blues, Green Solutions," which aims to encourage public education and awareness of green infrastructure.
