Arizona State U Partners With Lyft
Under a new agreement between the university and Lyft, ASU will replace a shuttle line with free Lyft rides to relevant individuals and will install marked ride-share pick-up and drop-off points on every campus. All ASU students, faculty and staff all will receive a one-time $15 credit on Lyft rides.
Emory U Opens Biking & Pedestrian Trail
Developed through a partnership with Emory and the Path Foundation and opened on Earth Day, a new, 12-foot wide, paved bicycle and pedestrian trail opened that will eventually link Emory’s Clairmont Campus to a scenic, off-road trail system. The new trail replaces a previous section of narrow sidewalk.
U California San Diego Receives 2018 Grid Edge Innovation Award
The university was recognized for providing a platform for companies to test new electric vehicle charging technologies with real customers. The university partners with 18 commercial EV charging companies to test a variety of technical configurations and models with the university's population of more than 400 EV commuters.
Northwestern U & U Tennessee to Receive $3M for Bio-Energy Research
The U.S. Department of Energy has selected projects from the University of Tennessee and Northwestern University that will receive between $1 million to 2 million each. The research aims to develop economically and environmentally sustainable sources of biomass and increase the availability of competitively-priced renewable fuels and bio-based products, while increasing and diversifying the U.S.'s domestic energy sources. The funding is provided through the Biomass Research and Development Initiative, a joint program from the Energy Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Penn State Behrend Partners for Biofuel Research Opportunities
A $1 million investment by Hero Bx, an Erie-based biodiesel company, will create research opportunities for students and faculty members in the School of Science. Students will work in a new, 1,500-square-foot chemistry lab with Hero Bx chemists and other researchers to reduce the sulfur in biodiesel feedstocks, which are processed for reuse as transportation fuels and heating oil. Subsequent studies will focus on increasing the efficiency of biodiesel in cold-temperature applications, including commercial aviation.
Northern Arizona U Collaborates With Flagstaff on Bike-Share Program
In conjunction with the City of Flagstaff, the university launched a new bicycle share program through Spin as part of an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The city is testing the bike-share program fee-free for six months, which allows people to use one of 300 dockless bikes for 50 cents per hour.
St. John's U Students Introduce Bike-Share Program
Two students introduced Johnnie Bennie Bikes to campus, which provides 12 bikes available for use between St. John's University and the College of St. Benedict. The bikes are available for six-hour stretches, 24/7. The university's Outdoor Leadership Center is in charge of the bikes.
Wesleyan U Offers Bike Sharing Service
In mid-April, the university placed 100 orange bikes on campus through a company called Spin, a bike sharing program that allows students to use the bikes for a small fee. The system works with an app that allows registered users to scan a QR code on any bike, which unlocks the bike for use. In the first seven days, nearly 1,000 individuals used the bikes for 2,082 total trips.
Northern Illinois U Rolls Out Bike-Share Program
A campus bike sharing option called VeoRide launched at the end of April that offers students a free month of service, followed by discounted rates for three months. Once the three-month period ends, the service will charge its regular rate of 50 cents per 15 minutes.
U California Davis Releases Growth Plan Alongside an Environmental Impact Report
The university recently released an updated Long Range Development Plan and Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR), which assesses the potential environmental impacts of the proposed development plan along with new housing projects. The goal of the new development scheme is to plan for future growth in programs while targeting environmental goals in areas such as energy and water use, transportation, and waste management.
Eastern Kentucky U Introduces Dockless Bike-Share System
Designed to help students get around the Richmond campus, the university recently contracted with LimeBike to introduce 100 brightly painted green and yellow bicycles at no cost to the university, with plans to increase the fleet to 250 in the upcoming weeks.
Arizona State U Hosts 'Day Without Cars' Event
As part of a coordinated effort to further sustainable transportation efforts, nearly 400 university students and staff members signed a pledge to take an alternate, non-single occupancy vehicle mode of transit to campus on March 27.
Cornell U Students Redesign Regional Bus Signage for Accessibility, Clarity
Students of the Cornell University Sustainability Design (CUSD) collaborated with the county-wide campus and regional bus system to redesign over 560 signs to incorporate responsive mobile phone text messaging to help riders understand routes and delays. The new signs are also compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Utah State U Offers Bike Sharing
Through a partnership with Spin, a new bike-share program is now available to the campus and surrounding community. The program costs students and those within the USU community 50 cents for 30 minutes. Logan City will also be deploying up to 100 bikes soon.
U North Carolina Charlotte Connects With City by Light Rail
The 9.3-mile stretch of extended light rail tracks offers 11 new stations providing service to the university’s main and uptown campuses. The campus added sidewalks, crosswalks, and bus stations to support pedestrian traffic from stations. For the station on the edge of campus, the university funded a pedestrian bridge over a highway.
Texas A&M U Installs Dockless Bike System
Texas A&M Transportation Services partnered with ofo to introduce 500 dockless bicycles to campus in early March. Next semester, an additional 4,000 ofo bikes will be introduced to campus.
U California San Diego Partners With Lyft
In an effort to meet the university’s evolving transportation needs, the university and Lyft formally announced a partnership to provide access to alternative commuter options, safe rides for students, patient transport, designated pick-up and drop-off locations, direct billing for business travel, and ride credits for certain university-sponsored events.
U Kentucky Offers Commute Planning Assistance
In an effort to increase the number of campus community members using alternative modes of transportation, the university's Transportation Services now offers free personalized commute planning assistance.
Webster U to Offer Bike-Share Service
The university will roll out a bike-share service to campus in March that will be free for short, two-hour trips and have a nominal cost for longer trips.
Harvard U Installs Rails on Trucks to Protect Cyclists & Pedestrians
After a successful pilot to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety, university fleet technicians have begun installing side guards on all existing, eligible Harvard-owned trucks, including box trucks, and solid waste and recycling trucks. Harvard has also begun asking vendors that drive large trucks to campus to install side guards on eligible trucks as quickly as possible.
California State U Northridge Rolls Out Bike Rental Program
In mid-January, LimeBike delivered 400 bicycles to the campus that are now part of a rental program to provide an alternative mode of transportation to the campus community. There is no membership fee required, however the rental fee is 50 cents per half hour with no time limit. Solar-powered GPS units will allow the university to determine where bike lanes are most needed.
Maharishi U Management Students Build Electric Vehicle Charging Station for Campus Use
Eleven students in a recent course on energy and sustainability built a charging station for electric cars that is attached to its Sustainable Living Center grid. The station uses some of the excess energy from the wind turbine and solar panels that power the building. The charging station, which is free for anyone to use, was set up for about $600.
U North Carolina Chapel Hill Rolls Out Bike Sharing
The official launch of UNC’s new Tar Heel Bikes program happened in late October, offering students the opportunity to rent a bike from one of 18 hubs on campus. The new bike-share program is one of the latest efforts in the university’s Three Zeros Environmental Initiative, which aims to reduce waste, water use and carbon dioxide emissions on campus.
U California Los Angeles Launches Bike-Share Program
Developed in partnership with CycleHop, Bruin Bike Share will start with 130 bikes distributed at 18 hubs. Cyclists can rent the bikes for $7 an hour or purchase a plan that includes 90 minutes of daily riding time.
Humboldt State U Introduces Bike Sharing
The university, in conjunction with the city of Arcata, launched the Zagster bike-share service to help students, staff and faculty get around campus and town while reducing their carbon footprint. The university has two bike stations while the city is planning to host four stations.
Arizona State U to Implement Bike-Share Program
A new regional bike rental program with four stations will soon be available to the campus community. A unique aspect to this service is the freedom to park bikes at either the service's hubs or at a public rack.
U Kentucky Introduces Car Sharing
University students and staff can now check-out one of two vehicles parked on campus through a university partnership with Zipcar. The car sharing program is part of a suite of alternative transportation options available to the campus community designed to simplify the process of shifting from driving a single-occupancy vehicle to campus to an alternative form of transportation, and to reward those individuals who make the change in their routine.
Pennsylvania State U University Park to Launch Bike Sharing Program
The university's Transportation Services and Zagster, Inc., have announced the launch of a new bike-share program that will open with 85 bikes across 17 stations for members to use for on-demand, local trips. The program will offers memberships for students, faculty and staff, and community members, as well as single-use rides for non-members.
Flinders U to Introduce Driverless Electric Bus
(Australia) The new autonomous, solar-powered bus will be used at the university's Tonsley campus. A 320,000 Australian dollar ($253,000) solar garage will be built, capable of recharging about six electric vehicles at once, including the new autonomous bus. The university won AU$1 million in state government funding to trial the autonomous bus technology, and will also use another AU$3 million from other investors to run the project over the next five years.
U Philippines Baguio Implements Carless Wednesdays
(Philippines) In an effort to reduce the university's carbon footprint, the university began Carless Wednesdays, prohibiting the campus community and visitors from parking cars on university property each Wednesday.
Bournemouth U Initiates Employee Sustainability Program
After a six-month pilot of a behavior change program reduced energy consumption by 14.6 percent across four departments, the university is expanding the program to all staff members. The initiative works by engaging employees on a range of themes through an online platform and app. Employees are rewarded with points for reducing their environmental footprint and improving their well-being through measures such as cycling, car-sharing or using re-usable cups and bottles.
U California San Diego Tests Vehicle-to-Grid Charging Platforms
A San Diego-based company will use the university to pilot its new vehicle-to-grid technology, which allows a parked electric vehicle to become part of the electric grid by enabling charging from and discharging to the grid. Drivers will be paid for energy discharged from their car while still being guaranteed the expected level of charge needed to operate the vehicle.
U Maryland to Complete 2 MW Photovoltaic Project
Three soon-to-be-completed solar canopies, totaling 2.17 megawatts, will help the campus exceed its on-campus renewable energy goal of generating 2.7 megawatts of solar power for university facilities by 2018. The solar canopies are a part of the President's Purchased Power Initiative, which aims to ensure 100 percent of purchased power comes from renewable sources by 2020.
American U Offsets Study Abroad Air Travel Emissions With International Project
The Paradigm Project, an endeavor that benefits communities in Africa by empowering women and reducing greenhouse gas emissions through reduced deforestation, is the university's new investment to reduce emissions from study abroad-related travel. The Office of Sustainability announced that this is the first project in what will be a portfolio of offset investments aligned with certain remaining sources of emissions that cannot be fully managed through efficiency and other mitigation strategies.
Indiana U Adds Electric Vehicles to Fleet
The first all-electric cars were recently added to university fleet operations. Four 2017 Nissan Leafs will be used in various campus operations, including one that employees can rent for university business.
Cornell U Announces Bike-Share Program
Partnering with Zagster to launch an updated and expanded bike-share program, Big Red Bikes Bike Share, the new program features 32 cruiser bikes available at five locations around campus for riders to check out for on-demand, local trips.
U Kentucky Program Pays Employees to Use Transportation Alternatives
The university's Transportation Services has launched a pilot program to give $200 each to up to 200 qualified employees who agree to forgo bringing a motor vehicle to campus for one year. The goal of the program is to reduce the number of motor vehicles on campus and create a more pedestrian friendly community.
U Idaho Begins Fueling Trucks With Biodiesel
The university's Steam Plant has begun reducing greenhouse gas emissions from their operation by fueling their semi-truck and front-end loaders with a 20-percent blend of biodiesel made on campus from used cooking oil from Dining Services.
U Maryland Student Launches Ride-Sharing App
A sophomore accounting major launched CarPo on March 1 after almost a year and a half of planning and developing the app. Through the app, students looking for rides to and from their hometowns and colleges are able to see registered students with cars who are already driving to the same place.
Ball State U Releases Bicycle Plan
In an effort to reduce the negative impacts from automobile trips and parking, including impervious surfaces, emissions, and the heat island effect, the new plan encourages cycling on campus by proposing dedicated bicycle paths, shared multi-use paths, and establishing bike lanes on existing streets.
