U Edinburgh Faculty Urge Divestment From Fossil Fuels
(U.K.): Fifty academics from the university have signed an open letter calling for the institution to divest its 230 million pounds ($343.9 million) endowment fund from fossil fuels and the arms trade. The university is expected to make a decision about divestment in April.
U Malaya Initiates Zero Waste Campaign
(Malaysia): The new campaign, started by students driven by the desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from methane, includes food and garden waste, paper, plastics, metals, textiles, electronics and wood and includes a special focus on reducing organic material, which accounts for over 50 percent of discarded material.
U New Mexico Connects Solar Electric System
(U.S.): The new photovoltaic system, generating approximately 70 percent of the campus' electricity, enables the university to use cost avoidance savings to support future renewable energy projects on campus.
U Sunshine Coast Installs Water Bottle Refilling Stations
(Australia): Aligning with the university's goal to reduce waste and provide alternative choices, three new refilling vending machines have been installed that dispense chilled, filtered water or sparkling water at a low cost to users, in addition to 18 bottle refill stations.
U Sydney Introduces Centralized Recycling Stations
(Australia): Hoping to increase recycling rates and reduce the use of plastic bin liners across campus, the new two-bin system allows for mixed recyclables, plastic, glass, cans and paper, and general waste.
U Zamboanga Partners for 120KW Solar Installation
(Philippines): As as part of the university’s corporate social responsibility on the environment, the recently signed memorandum of agreement indicates the 120-kilowatt system will be installed by late summer 2015.
Virginia Tech Eliminates Foam To-Go Containers
(U.S.): With the high number of complaints about the university's use of foam containers, the university recently transitioned to compostable to-go containers available in four different sizes.
Visvesvaraya Technological U to Install Renewable Energy
(India): Despite some solar electricity in residential areas, the university plans to install photovoltaic systems on academic buildings at five of its campuses in order to reduce the capital expense of electricity and to supply energy to adjoining villages.
California State U Fullerton Hosts Campus Tour for Faculty
Recently the notorious commuter campus convened its faculty for a first-ever tour of the inner-workings of campus heating, cooling, ventilation and electricity systems, including a solar installation, in order to build a sense of community among the group.
City College Opens Campus Bike Shop
Embracing alternative transportation plans that encourage cycling, the new do-it-yourself bike repair shop allows students, faculty and staff to learn how to fix their bike and purchase bicycle parts and accessories. The shop will also host education classes and bike-focused events.
Dean College Completes Energy Efficiency Project
The college's newly completed project in seven campus buildings, including residence halls, consists of mechanical and lighting measures, and behavioral measures to engage building occupants.
Elon U Breaks Ground on Solar Farm
Projected to be completed in spring 2015, the 3-megawatt photovoltaic array, supplying electricity to Duke Energy, is being installed near the university's Environmental Center, a research facility for the university's academic programs that includes a greenhouse, agricultural plots, responsible architecture studio, and a composting facility.
Gonzaga U Green Fund Announces First Round of Funding
Started in 2011, the university $20,000 annual budget fund aimed at furthering campus sustainability chose four projects in its first year of operation: a composting program, increasing plants in classrooms, the campus garden, and participation in the Real Food Program.
MIT Holds Campus Sustainability Brainstorm Event
The aim of the inaugural Sustainability Connect was to convene campus stakeholders to discuss a transition toward the university as a living laboratory for exploring, testing and quantifying ways to make more efficient use of energy, water, buildings and equipment, and then to disseminate information about the most successful practices to have a global impact.
NY Times: 'Obama Signs Student Bill of Rights'
The recent post by The New York Times describes the Student Aid Bill of Rights signed by President Obama to help students deal with the growing burden of college loans. With the memorandum, Mr. Obama directed federal agencies to take steps to make it easier for college students to finance their education, pay back their loans, and avoid being taken advantage of by lenders.
Portland State U to Increase Local Food Procurement
Under the new amendment developed by the Campus Sustainability Office and the university's food services provider, Aramark, PSU Dining will increase total local and third-party certified food expenditures each by 5 percent annually, based on purchases made in 2014.
Rochester IT to Complete 2MW Solar Farm
With expected completion in spring 2015, the 2-megawatt photovoltaic array will be connected directly to the institution's electricity grid, helping to meet peak electricity demand by producing roughly 3.2 percent of the campus' total consumption.
Simon Fraser U Building Earns LEED Silver
The newly renovated space, certified through the Canada Green Building Council, features 30 percent reduction of potable water use from the baseline buildings, use of recycled lab furniture, and re-use of the existing raised floor system, including in wet labs.
Syracuse U to Start Bike Sharing Program
Because of a pilot bike-share initiative being organized by the university's Student Association, students will soon be able to use bikes for free, only paying fees if bikes are late, lost or damaged.
Texas Tech U Hosts Regional Sustainability Summit
The recently held inaugural summit, convening stakeholders from over 20 schools, helped create a statewide network among higher education institutions to collaborate on ideas about how to create environmental preservation, economic development, and social equity.
U Arkansas Launches Zero Waste Resource
The university's Office of Sustainability has developed a process for event planners to follow to achieve event landfill diversion rates of 90 percent or more. The sustainability office offers containers, scales and other materials for free check out in addition to interns for consultation.
U California Merced Building Achieves LEED Platinum
The university's student housing building, Half Dome, features water-efficient landscaping, a 96 percent construction waste diversion rate, a 48 percent of building materials feature recycled content, and a 98 percent of the building's wood is Forest Stewardship Council-certified.
U Maryland Receives Funding to Restore Campus Creek
Thanks to a $50,000 grant from the University Sustainability Fund and $1.5 million from the Department of Natural Resources, the waterway notoriously troubled with flooding, sediment and trash will be restored to improve the creek's stormwater output and general functionality.
Utah State U Installs Composting System
Contributing to the university's greenhouse gas reduction targets, the new Earth Flow compost unit handles approximately 25 tons annually of landscape waste and post-consumer food from the university. Each batch takes roughly three weeks to create usable landscaping material.
U Washington to Open Hub for Indigenous Students
Aspiring to bring together all walks, the new 8,400-square-foot building, which used traditional building techniques and materials, features a gathering space for 500 people, a smaller meeting room, and an outdoor area with a fire pit where salmon can be cooked in the traditional way.
Yale U Student Develops Science-Based Tool for Emissions Goals
Based on the question, how much greenhouse gas reduction is enough to prevent humans from crossing a potentially dangerous climate threshold, a student's masters project led to the development of a tool that compares a university's greenhouse gas emissions to a global emissions scenario that is most likely to keep global warming below two degrees centigrade.
Amherst College Creates Statement on Sustainability
The newly adopted statement by the college's 21 trustees calls for the creation of a climate action plan, exploration of renewable sources of energy, investment in campus clean energy and energy conservation, and creating a revolving fund to support other clean energy projects.
Antioch College Holds Sustainable Housing Charrette
The college recently gave an open invitation to the campus and surrounding community to provide input on a housing project that will focus on affordability and environmental impact. Located on campus but open to the community to rent or purchase, the connected units will contain renewable energy and water filtration systems.
Arizona State U Convenes Educational Task Force on Sustainability
The university's new National Sustainability Teachers’ Academy educational task force for sustainability aims to bring teams of elementary, middle and high school teachers from across the nation together to focus on solutions-based curriculum with an emphasis on urban systems. University sustainability scientists and scholars will help coach and lead hands-on sessions on solutions surrounding food, water, energy and climate.
Berry College Holds Tree Campus USA Honor
In the past year, in addition to meeting the Arbor Day Foundation's requirements for the designation, the college started growing trees from seed and grafts for the sole purpose of replanting its grounds with species that are healthy and native, ensuring that trees of historical or good quality endure for years to come.
Brevard College Commits to Fossil Fuel Divestment
The Brevard College Investment Committee presented the motion, calling for divestment of its four percent in fossil fuels by 2018, to the board of trustees, who voted in favor at its annual spring meeting.
California State U Monterey Bay Opens New Sustainable Degree
The new bachelor of science in sustainable hospitality management provides students with local, regional and global perspectives on current and pressing sustainability issues and problems within the hospitality industry. Concentrations exist in sustainable hotel, resort and event management, and sustainable ecotourism management.
Clark U Expands Composting Capacity
Clark Composts, a student group dedicated to education and expansion of campus composting, assisted in expanding intake of compostable material by equipping the library with bins. The student group will focus next on instituting composting in the newest residence hall and in academic departments.
Dalhousie U Partners with Sustainable Seafood Program
The university recently received its first shipment of seafood from the Ecology Action Center's Off the Hook program, which provides fresh, local, high-quality fish caught by fishermen in Nova Scotia via environmentally friendly methods. This along with a Marine Stewardship Council partnership allows all seafood at the university can be traced back through the entire supply chain.
EPA Recognizes Chevy for University and College Partnerships
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded Chevrolet with its Climate Leadership Award for Innovative Partnerships for it's Chevrolet Clean Energy Campus Campaign that enables participating campuses to create a new source of funding for large-scale energy efficiency efforts. The funding comes from carbon credits from the voluntary carbon market. Participating institutions include Ball State University, Valencia College, Portland State University, Spelman College, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Boston University, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Grand Valley State University and Southern Oregon University.
Florida Gulf Coast U to Construct Renewable Energy Research Park
The proposed 240-acre research park focusing on environmental sustainability will focus on technologies that impact the use of solar and other renewable sources, structures that combine renewable energy with electric transportation, energy storage, solar desalination of brackish water, anaerobic digestion of food waste on farms, and shade tolerant plants that can grow under solar panels.
Lehigh U Converts to Gender-Neutral Restrooms
In an effort to foster a more gender-inclusive community, many restrooms at the university have been converted from gender-specific to gender-inclusive facilities regardless of how one self-identifies.
Northern Arizona U Heats Air With the Sun
In an effort to decrease fossil fuel use and create a culture of sustainability, the newly installed solar thermal air system is projected to reduce carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by three tons per year.
Ohio U Collaborates on Campus Sustainable Design
A new project will bring together several university offices to brainstorm the best ways to keep university facilities up-to-date on modern, sustainable designs, such as sustainable stormwater runoff and green roof technologies. The main goal of the project, which is on a one-year trial, is to focus on waste management and energy efficiency throughout the construction process, while also maintaining LEED green building certifications.
Portland State U Earns Tree Campus USA Designation
Its 49-acre urban campus recently earned the designation for meeting Arbor Day's Tree Campus USA standards, which include maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures for its campus tree program, an Arbor Day observance, and student service-learning project.
Stanford U Students Petition for Drought-Tolerant Landscaping
The recently presented petition with over 800 signatures asks the university to replace non-signature Stanford grassy areas with native landscaping in order to reduce water consumption. According to the petition, watering plants makes up 40 percent of the university's annual water use.
St. Olaf College Acquire Solar Power for Carbon Neutrality
The college recently announced plans to lease 90 acres of land for the development of 15 one-megawatt solar electric arrays. The college will acquire 40 percent of the project's output. This along with 10 percent from another project enables the college to achieve 100 percent carbon-free electrical power.
U California Merced Hires First Sustainability Director
Colleen McCormick will preside over the university's first sustainability office. McCormick comes from Indiana University-Purdue University's office of sustainability where she served as director for 3-1/2 years. Her position's role includes developing communications and building collaborations among faculty, students, staff and community members in an effort to engage and advance campus and community sustainability initiatives.
U California Santa Cruz Honors People of Color Environmental Work
The university's Ethnic Resource Center recently hosted its first world cafe style discussion aiming to showcase the contributions that people of color have made to the environmental movement and to have a critical dialogue about the current state of the campus environmental movement.
U California System Approves Carbon Neutrality Projects
As part of its efforts to accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions across the school system, the university recently approved 20 research and outreach projects that focus on leveraging faculty expertise and student creativity to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and develop carbon neutral energy supplies. Some areas that the projects touch on are deep energy efficiency, a research summit, faculty climate action awards, student fellowships, and green labs certifications.
U Hawai'i Adopts Sustainability Policy
At the recent systemwide, annual summit on sustainability, the new executive policy on sustainability includes setting specific targets for reducing energy consumption and increasing utilization of renewable energy in 5-year increments, with a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, energy management systems, water conservation, transportation changes, and calls for an increase in local food products.
U Northern British Columbia Reduces Food Waste
Since October 2014, more than 1,000 pounds of food have been provided to local charities from the university's Food Recovery Project that collects and redistributes the surplus food from a new dining hall.
