Northwestern U Offers Green Office Certification
(U.S.): The university's new Green Office program helps decrease a department or office’s environmental impact by offering guidance on energy and water conservation, waste reduction, and increasing environmental awareness in the workplace. The certification requires that 75 percent of an office or department agree to participate in the program.
Pomona College Adopts Drought Action Plan
(U.S.): With the state of California in its fourth year of drought, the college's new plan reduces landscape irrigation by 20 percent, includes the use of pH controllers on water cooling towers, which reduce the number of water replacement cycles in a building's air conditioning systems, schedules for nighttime watering, and calls for the installation of 750 new low-flow plumbing fixtures.
Skidmore College Celebrates Completion of Solar Array
(U.S.): Aiding in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the new photovoltaic system, with $2.3 million from the NY-Sun Initiative, is predicted to generate approximately 12 percent of the college's electricity needs.
Truckee Meadows CC & Colorado School of Mines Win Challenge
(U.S.): The Energy Department's National Geothermal Student Competition announced Truckee Meadows Community College as top finisher and the Geothermal Case Study Challenge winner went to Colorado School of Mines. The two competitions challenged college and university students to develop professional business solutions for public outreach as well as case studies that could help industry more accurately pinpoint geothermal resources in subsurface areas across the United States.
U Bristol Partners for Year as Green Capital 2015
(U.K.): The city in which the university resides is set to become the European Green Capital 2015, and as such, the university has committed to ensuring the legacy of the year by aiming to become a net carbon neutral campus by 2030, decreasing the university’s transport footprint, and ensuring that its students have the opportunity to undertake education for sustainable development. The university will host or co-host over 100 public events across the city including major conferences, seminars, debates and art installations.
U Colorado Boulder Retrofits for Energy Savings
(U.S.): A nearly $11 million project, with an anticipated $573,000 in energy cost avoidance, will upgrade one of the campus' buildings with energy-efficient boilers, lighting and HVAC systems, and water conservation improvements.
U East Anglia Students Initiate Water Saving Campaign
(U.K.): Attempting to challenge conventional water usage behavior, students recently launched the Go with the Flow Campaign asking students who take showers in the morning to urinate in the showers instead of using the toilet.
U Georgia to Decommission Coal Fired Boiler
(U.S.): In a recent announcement from the university's president, the decision came after a third-party study revealed a more economically appealing option for the 50-year-old boiler, the single largest source of pollution in the town.
U Michigan Reduces Energy Through Lab Sash Program
(U.S.): With nearly 800 campus labs, the new Shut the Sash awareness campaign, an initiative of the Sustainable Labs program, resulted in an estimated 10 percent energy reduction and avoidance of $1.5 million in energy costs.
U North Carolina Chapel Hill Targets Clean Energy Investments
(U.S.): After three years of campaigning by the university's Sierra Student Coalition Beyond Coal team for coal divestment, the university's board of trustees unanimously passed a resolution to target clean energy investments in the management of its $2.2 billion endowment.
U Oregon Releases Seven Year Progress Report
(U.S.): The recently released new report, Sowing Change, details the growth and evolution of the university's environmental improvement projects on campus. Categorized by five areas identified in the university's Office of Sustainability mission statement, leadership, policy development, projects and programs, monitoring, and outreach, some of the projects featured include the climate action plan, student sustainability fund and green office program.
U San Diego Student Club Challenges Campus to BYOC
(U.S.): Students from the university's Net Impact chapter launched a month-long Kill the Cup campaign aimed at reducing the amount of one-time use cups heading to the landfill by offering incentives to campus members who bring their own coffee cup.
U Wisconsin Engages Students for Diversity
(U.S.): A new plan addressing five main goals, including promoting diversity values, engaging campus leadership, coordinating planning efforts, and improvement of recruitment and retention of faculty and students, aims to garner ideas and support from students in order to accomplish.
Weber State U Sustainability Center Gets Board Approval
(U.S.): The proposed Sustainability Practice and Research Center, with support from a half-time faculty director and a full-time sustainability coordinator, will include workshops, lectures, student projects, field-based courses and guest speakers.
West Virginia U Recognizes Latino Culture on Campus
(U.S.): In an effort to bring awareness to the university's Hispanic and Latino culture, the university's Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion hosted a Hispanic Heritage Night, which was organized through the recently initiated student club WVU Hispanic and Latino Association.
Bowling Green State U Approves Landscape Master Plan
Approved by the university's board of trustees, the new plan, outlining 53 projects, includes the following guiding principles: keeping the landscape simple and elegant, creating places for people to enjoy, developing outdoor spaces as a learning laboratory, and creating a memorable and beautiful environment.
Colorado State U Donates to Local Food Bank
Landscaped campus beds this year provided vegetables and herbs that were donated to the community in addition to food from the university's community-supplied agriculture horticulture farm.
Four Colleges Subscribe to GRITS Affiliates Program
Dickinson College, Emerson College, Wellesley College and Williams College are the first four subscribers to the new Green Revolving Investment Tracking System (GRITS) Affiliates program. GRITS Affiliates helps schools track their carbon, energy and financial data from their energy efficiency and resource conservation projects. For more information on accessing GRITS, go to http://greenbillion.org/gritsaffiliates/.
MacEwan U Releases Student Research Journal
The student-driven and managed Earth Common Journal recently featured peer-reviewed undergraduate research papers that focus on everyday activism including perceptions of organics and the sustainability of hip hop culture.
Middlebury College Building Earns LEED Platinum
The campus' new athletic center addition features natural light, an energy-efficient heating, ventilation and air condition system, low-emitting construction materials for indoor air quality, a green roof and a rooftop solar array.
Northwestern U to Recognize Campus Sustainability Champions
University community members who have identified innovative initiatives to reduce energy, water or waste, or engage their fellow employees in greening their physical environment will now be honored at a quarterly Service Excellence luncheon. The three types of awards to be dispensed are the Student Excellence in Sustainability, Faculty and Staff Excellence in Sustainability, and the Green Office Excellence Award.
San Francisco State U Class Analyzes Bikeability
As part of an agreement with city agencies to take measurable steps to minimize transportation impacts of the growing student population, the university's Bicycle Geographies class released a new report outlining how to make students' commutes safer and where more secure and convenient bike parking could be located.
U Hawai'i Mānoa Students Pass Sustainability Fund
Aligned with the university system's newly-adopted sustainability policy and the campus' strategic plan, the Associated Students of the University of Hawai'i passed the resolution in support of a $4 fee per student per semester. According to an associated survey, participants listed solar energy and waste management as top initiatives for which they would allocate funding.
Coastal Carolina U Releases Fracking Brief
Students created reports that analyze federal and state laws and their impacts on various communities. A recent report looked at fracking in North Carolina in an effort to best prepare students for sustainable leadership and public service.
Colorado Mountain College Installs EV Charing Station
The college recently installed charging stations at five of their campus locations in an effort to reduce fossil fuel emissions, encourage eco-friendly transportation and move toward carbon neutral campuses with the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.
George Mason U Achieves STARS Gold
Through new and recent efforts such as a Sustainability Learning Living Community, a Green Job Networking Fair and new certificates available to students that are related to sustainability, the university improved their STARS rating from silver to gold in September.
Indiana U South Bend Building Earns LEED Silver
The Education and Arts building was recently renovated and awarded certification through elements such as using natural resources when designing the space. This renovation promotes environmental awareness to students.
Louisiana State U Starts Water Bottle Campaign
This fall, the university is giving out punch cards to redeem for a free guest pass or a reusable grocery tote after bringing a refillable bottle 10 times. The university projects that this will save 25,000 to 30,000 bottles out of waterways based on past semester data when the program was first introduced.
Louisiana State U to Improve Lakes
A recent $10,000 grant will allow the university to increase recycling opportunities in and around Campus Lake to help reach the recycling goal of 50 percent in 2014.
Students Promote Green Cleaning [VIDEO]
Students from several institutions promote the importance of using green products such as baking soda and vinegar for cleaning as a less expensive and healthier option.
U Michigan Hosts EarthFest
This past September, Planet Blue, a university sustainability initiative, held a "Party for the Planet" to increase awareness around environmentally friendly food purchases, climate action and waste prevention. During this event, students had the opportunity to learn about sustainable focused groups that they could join.
U Montana Students and Faculty Encourage Fossil Fuel Divestment
Advocates for renewable energy recently held a rally to ask university administrators to remove fossil fuel investments in the endowment portfolio. The university responded and asked these advocates to remain engaged in these conversations moving forward.
U Texas Austin Students Create BioFuel
Through a 2013 grant, students have researched, studied and created a biofuel that is intended for use in university vehicles once out of the testing stages. This particular biofuel is created from a waste product that was slated to be thrown away and will decrease the university's fuel intake.
U Utah Recognized for Energy Efficiency Leadership
The Department of Energy recently recognized the university in its Better Building Challenge for its work toward reducing energy use by 20 percent by 2020. This goal is achieved through building upgrades and renovations to save money, reduce energy consumption and cut waste. One major upgrade included the heating and cooling system at its Dumke Health Professions Education Building that, upon completion, reduced the environmental impact.
Western Michigan U Building Earns LEED Silver
The university's Lee Honors College building received this environmentally friendly status due to renovations that include low-plumbing fixtures to reduce water use and native plant species added to the landscape that reduced irrigation water usage by 69 percent.
West Philadelphia Institutions to See Sustainable Shop
A new sustainable coffee and retail shop from United By Blue will open soon in University City, a western part of Philadelphia that is home to the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. For each product sold, the company removes one pound of trash from oceans and waterways through local cleanups.
Bowling Green State U Building Earns LEED Gold
The university's dining service building received LEED certification due to 75 percent of the construction waste being recycled, all building materials used were purchased within a 500-mile radius, Ohio barn wood was utilized throughout and the construction used less structural steel.
Clarkson U Student Starts Project to Offset Carbon Emissions
(U.S.): A graduate student recently developed an forestry project in Uganda in an effort to balance the effects of carbon emissions generated by university air travel. Micro-finance groups were also set up to create paid jobs for women who work on this project.
