Virginia Tech Opens Center For Natural Resources Support
In response to local natural resource stakeholders calling for improved data, models, and analytical techniques in their field, the College of Natural Resources and Environment has created a new center to provide data sets of forest resource conditions and computer modeling designed for use by industry, government, and policymakers.
Yale U Designates Urban Meadow Areas
Mowed just two to three times a year to promote the natural regeneration of grasses and wildflowers, these meadows promote increased biodiversity, improved air quality, natural aesthetics, stormwater runoff reduction, economic savings and learning opportunities.
Georgia Piedmont Technical College Signs Sustainability Agreement
The college has partnered with nonprofit Emerald Cities to create and implement a comprehensive campus-wide sustainability program designed to transform institutional operations and create a demonstration center for green technologies-related skills training and environmental education.
Harvard U Students Test Stormwater Purification Solution
Funded by an Office for Sustainability student grant, the Graduate School of Design students have transformed a concrete patio space into a modular system of vegetation and planters that can absorb and purify stormwater. The students are testing the capacity of a small-scale system to reduce the quantity of stormwater runoff from rooftops to help improve water quality.
Kennebec Valley CC Debuts Sustainable Ag Program
Debuting this fall, the new two-year program is part of a recent $150,000 grant from the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation that will help the college revitalize a defunct dairy farm and train a new generation of farmers who want to be part of Maine's growing local food economy.
Quinsigamond CC to Offer Clean Energy Job Training
Part of $924,233 in clean energy job training grants awarded by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center for low and moderate-income individuals, the year-long program will introduce out of school, unemployed or underemployed youth to clean energy concepts.
U Colorado Boulder Takes Sustainability Certificate National
The university's sustainability training and non-credit certificate program is now entirely online and available to participants across the nation. Ranging from organizational change to zero waste, the curriculum is designed to help professionals meet the growing need for “green” skills and credentials in the public and private work sectors.
UC San Diego Receives $7.2M in Energy Incentives
The $7.2 million check from San Diego Gas & Electric represents energy efficiency incentives earned through the university's implementation of energy-efficient projects from 2010 to 2012 including green building and renewable energy initiatives. During this period, the university has saved more than 21 million kilowatt hours and reduced more than 2 megawatts of demand.
Elon U Residence Halls Earn LEED Gold Certification
(U.S.): Sustainable features include preferred parking spaces for low-emitting vehicles, a stormwater management plan, geothermal system and a building dashboard for monitoring real-time energy consumption.
Indian Institute Kansbahal Awarded Green Campus of the Year
(India): The institute recently received the honor at the 33rd World Environment Congress in New Delhi and its director, Niranjan Nayak, received the International Association of Educators for World Peace's Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to educational planning and administration.
JCTC Students Initiate Trash Removal Process for Local Watershed
(U.S.): After realizing that no one was measuring the amount of debris traveling to the Atlantic via their local Ohio River, the students established a uniform system and collected data for eight weeks. The group recently presented their findings to JCTC staff and students, as well as a representative from the Ocean Conservancy's Trash Free Seas. As a result, those in attendance are brainstorming ways to raise public awareness of the problem and help remove trash and debris from the river and watershed areas.
Lahore U Mgmt Sciences Students Take Social Responsibility
(Pakistan): More than 160 graduating students recently signed the Graduation Pledge Alliance’s Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility: "I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organizations for which I work."
Linfield College Debuts Sustainable Food Systems Internship
(U.S.): Spearheaded by a recent graduate and the university's sustainability coordinator, the program exposes students to the history, business and politics of food through guest lectures and field trips, as well as hands-on experience with planting, tending and harvesting crops at local farms.
NY Times: 'Greening of Canadian Campuses'
(Canada): "Sustainability has become more than a fashionable buzzword on Canadian campuses; it has become enshrined both in university policy and in daily student life," says a recent New York Times article. From a Shut Your Sash program, which encourages lab users to close their fume hoods when they were not in use, to campus farmer's markets and student-spearheaded fees for sustainability, several higher education sustainability strategies at McGill University, University of Toronto and University of Victoria are profiled.
U Melbourne Debuts Green Roofs for Research, Education
(Australia): Divided into three sections, the Research Roof will operate as a testing facility for the university's urban horticulture team, the Biodiversity Roof aims to provide a protected space for experimentation with Australian native plants, and the Demonstration Roof serves as an exhibition and interpretive space, designed for educational activities.
U Melbourne on Track for Green Star – Communities Rating
(Australia): The university has committed to achieving Green Building Council of Australia's rating for its Parkville Campus. All new buildings will have a minimum rating design target of 5 Star Green Star, and all major building upgrades will need to achieve 4 Star Green Star.
U Victoria Releases Carbon Neutral Action Report
(Canada): The university has reduced total greenhouse gases by 8 percent and natural gas use by 10 percent. These reductions are the result of increasing energy efficiencies in campus buildings, lighting upgrades and behavior changes among staff, students and faculty.
Virginia Tech Launches Environmental Informatics Major
(U.S.): Based in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, the new undergraduate major will bring together information technology, data analysis, natural resources, geospatial science and ecological modeling.
2 North Carolina State U Buildings Earn LEED Certification
Receiving LEED Silver certification, the university's James B. Hunt Jr. Library features a green roof to assist with rainwater runoff, solar thermal panels and a robotic book retrieval system that enables the library to be 40 percent smaller. The Eastern 4H Center, which earned LEED Gold certification, includes insulation made from recycled denim, recycled ceramic tile, concrete exterior panels, a rain garden and bamboo flooring.
Bowling Green State U to Install Bike Shelters
Funded by a $50,000 grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the new bike shelters not only help encourage biking to campus, but also trap stormwater run-off with green roofs of succulents and sedums.
Chatham U, EARTH U Partner for One-year Grad Degree Programs
EARTH University graduates now have the opportunity to enroll in one-year master’s degree programs at Chatham’s School of Sustainability and the Environment. The one-year Master of Sustainability and Master of Arts in Food Studies programs are designed specifically to prepare EARTH graduates to address sustainability and food system challenges.
Cornell U Opens Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture
Developed from a need to help farmers adapt to changing climates, the institute will act as a clearinghouse for research, climate monitoring, decision‐support tools and applications at the intersection of climate and agriculture. An early step will be developing a website for disseminating and gathering information on farm-level impacts and trends, losses and gains resulting from warming and extreme weather. Allison Morrill Chatrchyan, who most recently served as environment and energy program leader with Cornell Cooperative Extension, will step in as the institute's first director effective September 1.
Elmhurst College Receives $28K Composting Grant
Awarded by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s Food Scrap Composting Grant Program, the funding will allow the college to purchase a grinder that will help divert up to 900 gallons of compostable material and food scraps from the landfill per week.
Indiana U-Purdue U Indianapolis Names Diversity Vice Chancellor
Karen Dace, who most recently served as deputy chancellor in the Division of Diversity, Access and Equity at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, will become the university's next vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion effective September 3. In her role, Dace will oversee the Multicultural Success Center and Adaptive Educational Services, as well as facilitate the institutionalization of structures that advance equity and diversity on campus.
Rollins College Earns Fair Trade Status
Thanks to a student-led effort, the college is committed to purchasing fair trade products and encouraging its vendors to provide sustainable products created under fair working conditions. The school will also incorporate fair trade principles part of its curriculum.
U Iowa Student Leaders Focus on Affordability, Workforce Access
Student government leaders recently met with the Iowa governor to discuss college affordability and workforce development for graduates who want to stay in Iowa. The students will travel the state this summer to talk with legislators about extending the tuition freeze another year and ways that the state can help connect graduates from area universities to in-state job opportunities.
U New Hampshire Student Turns Recycling Prgm into Nat'l Nonprofit
The launch of a new nonprofit, PLAN: The Post-Landfill Action Network, is a national expansion of the university's student-led Trash 2 Treasure program, which to date has salvaged more than 100 tons of usable materials, recycled over 2,000 electronics, and donated more than five tons of food and clothing to local shelters. Trash 2 Treasure co-founder and recent graduate Alex Fried founded PLAN to work with student groups, administrators and sustainability offices to reduce campus waste nationwide.
U Rhode Island to Lead National Climate Change Education Project
The university's Graduate School of Oceanography has received a $1 million National Science Foundation grant to serve as the national hub for a Climate Change Education Partnership Alliance. The school will work to build a network of climate change scientists, educators, communication professionals and government and private-sector stakeholders to educate the public about the science of climate change and its implications.
U Wisconsin-Oshkosh Breaks Ground on $7M Biodigester Facility
Funded by the UW Oshkosh Foundation, the new biogas production facility at the state’s largest dairy farm will be able to generate 1.4 megawatts of electricity using livestock waste to generate, capture and combust methane. The biodigester will also be used by the university's environmental science, microbiology and sociology students as an off-campus laboratory.
2 Cornell U Student Teams Win EPA P3 Award
Soliciting student projects that protect people’s health, the environment, encourage economic growth and use natural resources efficiently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Award honored students working on a cookstove fuel/biochar project in Kenya and a water filtration project. Each winning team now qualifies to receive a grant of up to $90,000 to further develop their design.
Harvard U Housing Project Achieves LEED Platinum
The newly renovated Graduate Common Area maximizes daylight and incorporates efficient LED lighting. Twenty-seven percent of the project’s construction materials were manufactured within 500 miles.
Historic Harvard U House Awarded LEED Gold
Originally constructed in 1807, the university's Fay House at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study now features ground source heat pumps to provide building heating and cooling and LED lighting. Eighty-seven percent of the existing structural walls, floors, and roof were preserved including the restoration of the wood windows and original hardwood floors.
Lehigh U Embarks on Community Native Planting Project
The latest project to come from the South Side Initiative, a group of university and surrounding community members that aims to foster democracy and improve quality of life, includes the transformation of a former railroad bed into a scenic meadow of native vegetation.
Oregon Lawmakers Roll Out 'Pay it Forward, Pay it Back' Plan
The Oregon state legislature has unanimously approved a plan to provide free tuition to those students attending a community college or public university. In return, students will pay back the state with a percentage of their incomes after graduation. The state's Higher Education Coordinating Commission will develop a pilot program and lawmakers will decide whether to implement the program in 2015.
San Diego State Holds Rainbow Flag-Raising Ceremony
To show its support of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities on campus, the university recently held its fourth annual Rainbow Flag-Raising Ceremony. The university offers a minor in LGBT studies and has announced plans for a new LGBT studies major next spring.
Student Loan Rates Double
With no action by Congress to prevent the increase on July 1, the interest rate for federally subsidized Stafford loans for undergraduates has doubled from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. Congress may act later this month to reverse the increase.
