Campus Green Builder

This is a re-blog of a post by The American Meteorological Society. See the original post here.

The AMS Education Program has been awarded a grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to implement the AMS Climate Studies course at 100 minority-serving institutions (MSIs) over a five-year period. The project will focus on introducing and enhancing geoscience coursework at MSIs nationwide, especially those that are signatories to the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) and/or members of the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation. AMS is partnering with Second Nature, the non-profit organization administering the ACUPCC.

“This national network involves more than 670 colleges and universities who are committed to eliminating net greenhouse gas emissions from campus operations by promoting the education and research needed for the rest of society to do the same,” explains Jim Brey, director of the AMS Education Program. “AMS and Second Nature will work together to demonstrate to current and potential MSI signatories how AMS Climate Studies introduces or enhances sustainability-focused curricula.”

In the first four years of the project, AMS will hold a weeklong AMS Climate Studies course implementation workshops for about 25 MSI faculty members. The annual workshops will feature scientists from NOAA, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, University of Maryland, Howard University, George Mason University, and other Washington, DC area institutions. Faculty will initially offer AMS Climate Studies in the year following workshop attendance and colleges that successfully implement AMS Climate Studies will be encouraged to build a focused geoscience curricula area by also offering AMS Weather Studies and AMS Ocean Studies.

“The major outcomes of this project will be a large network of faculty trained as change agents in their institutions, sustained offering of AMS undergraduate courses within MSIs, and the introduction of thousands of MSI students to the geosciences,” comments Brey. He notes that this project builds on the success of similar NSF-supported programs for MSI faculty implementing the AMS Weather Studies and AMS Ocean Studies courses, which together have reached 200 MSIs and over 18,000 MSI students. “We’re looking forward to working with Second Nature to continue to expand the climate course and the education that it represents.”

This is a re-blog of a post by Rosa González, Education Director, Green For All. See the original post here.

I can confidently say the green movement is fully underway at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)! This is a big deal because most HBCUs are located in communities disproportionately impacted by climate change and poverty. And in the past, HBCU students have been under-informed about these issues and have not been significantly engaged around developing solutions to economic and environmental crises. Today, HBCU students from all around the country are building a student-led movement to ensure their communities do not remain on the margins of the sustainability movement.

On August 19th through August 21st, Green For All brought 30 student leaders from 15 Historically Black Colleges and Universities together in Washington, D.C. for the 2nd Green For All College Ambassador training.

The program kicked off with a keynote address by award-winning journalist, social activist and political commentator, Jeff Johnson, who engaged the Ambassadors in a strategic thinking around campus organizing. The rest of the program included a dynamic combination of team building activities, environmental literacy training (using the Roots of Success curriculum), student organizing workshops, and opportunities for deep dialogue and planning. Ambassadors shared songs, poetry, and testimonies at a celebratory dinner, proving this multi-talented cohort is unstoppable!

The potential of HBCU students may be overlooked by many and understood by few in the green movement, but these students are determined to shape the local, state and national discourse on the needs and benefits of an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.

Green For All launched the College Ambassador program in September of 2010 to invest in student organizers to champion the green-economy within communities most impacted by climate change and poverty. The program follows the academic calendar and runs on fifteen historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The Ambassadorship consists of expert trainings, a mentorship program in partnership with Green For All Academy Fellows, student-led green education workshops, and a semester long campus sustainability initiatives created and carried out by the Ambassadors with support from students, faculty and Green For All.

Through the Green For All Ambassador program, we hope to provide the tools and support that will allow students to step up to new levels of leadership. Through their leadership we are expanding the base of students calling for sustainable economic development, and creating real change throughout the HBCU system.

The students who have successfully finished serving their Ambassadorships can be found on the College Ambassador Alumni page.

This is a re-blog of a post by Amy Hattan, Chief Operating Officer, Fore Solutions.  See the original post here.

The USGBC’s Center for Green Schools may be new, but there are already numerous programs underway. In a recent call with the USGBC, we heard about the many ways that green building consultants and others could get involved in the buzz.

The web site is very informative, and a good first stop to learn about the many facets of the Center. The programs are categorized according to K12 and Higher Education, and they focus on more than buildings. The Center is also working to improve curriculum and to engage the broader community by facilitating conversation at the local level.

A lot of the work is happening at the local level with the USGBC Chapters. Many of the Chapters now have a Green Schools Committee. Committee membership is one of the best ways to get involved at the K12 level. The Center hosts a monthly webcast for the committees on a variety of topics.

The Center is also approaching their mission of “provide every child in America with a green school within this generation” from the advocacy angle. The Center has a staff member who serves as the Schools Advocacy Lead, and the Coalition for Green Schools helps to advance the advocacy agenda. Membership is free.

A new fellowship program places sustainability professionals into school districts, where they work for three years to advance the broad array of sustainability issues including green building in these K12 institutions. Currently, the Center has funding for two fellowships but is looking for sponsorship for expansion.

On the higher education side, the USGBC Students program continues to play an important role as a national network grows. National chairs have been selected to guide this work, and currently there’s a call out for regional chairs.

Research is an important mission of higher education, and it plays a role in the Center as well. The Research to Practice Program supports teams of students, faculty, and other research contributors studying various topics of interest. The Center is providing tools for assessment and small grants to the top teams.

And – very cool – USGBC is working on developing a GIS mapping system that will allow users to search for LEED projects all over the country, learn details about the projects, and to find other information such as locating all the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment signatories. The USGBC is holding a webinar on June 16 for more details.

This isn’t all….many other good things are happening. I would particularly like to point out that the Center is working to advance green building at under-resourced schools like community colleges and minority serving institutions. (This interest of the USGBC is directly connected to the prior work conducted by Second Nature – where I previously worked – on capacity building at under-resourced schools.)

While there are many entry points in this valuable effort by the USGBC, our contact says, “Perhaps the best place for consultants to help is through gap analysis, focusing on efforts like assisting the campus-wide approach of EB:O&M and Climate Action Planning.”

By Van H. Du, on behalf of Second Nature team

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced the winners of the Green Power Challenge for the 2010-11 academic year. The Challenge is part of the EPA Green Power Partnership Initiative, which as a requirement each conference has to have at least one institution that is an EPA Green Power Partner. These partner institutions must meet EPA energy purchase requirements using any combination of three options: renewable energy certificates (RECs), on-site generation and utility green power products.

Each year, the EPA hosts the Green Power Challenge as an opportunity for all collegiate athletic conferences to track their power sources and compete for the title of having the “highest combined green power purchases in the nation.” In addition, contributing colleges and universities within each participating conference also partake in the Individual Conference Champions category and compete to become the “largest single green power purchasers.”

This year, with over 256 million kilowatt-hours (kWh), the Big 10 conference topped the Collective Conference category for having the largest total green energy purchase among all conferences. Other notable runner-up conferences included the Ivy League with the total of 200 million kWh purchase (achieved single-handedly by University of Pennsylvania), and the University Athletic Association with the total of 92.5 million kWh of green power purchase.  For the complete list of EPA Green Power Champions, please click here. 

While smaller conferences (such as Cascade Collegiate Conference, New England Small College Athletic Conference, Northwest Conference, etc.) have accumulated lower total amount of green power purchase, they are as equally impressive and noteworthy given that many of these institutions actually have 100% or more of their energy purchased from green power sources. For example, the amount of green power purchased at Southern Oregon University is actually an equivalent to 287% of the total electricity usage on campus.

Another notable practice aside from buying green energy is simply saving energy. For example, at Pennsylvania State University, being green and energy efficient simultaneously is nothing more than just “business as usual.” PSU purchases approximately 83,600 kilowatt-hours of green power, which is about 20% of the institution’s total energy sources. At the same time, according to GreenBiz, the campus has also recently employed a new computer power management technology that is reported to save the school about $80,000 annually on its total energy bills.

Through competitions such as the Green Power Challenge, participating colleges and universities receive recognition not only for their immense efforts in greening their campuses, but also for taking the leadership role to address sustainability issues in the higher education community. It must also be noted that the majority of institutions awarded in the Individual Conference Champions category are, in fact, signatories of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. It shows that although signing the ACUPCC may be a voluntary commitment, being part of the network with guidelines and opportunities for exchanging ideas can indeed help these institutions commit, plan and implement their campus sustainability and climate action plans.

By Vanessa Santos, on behalf of Second Nature team

As a recent college graduate with just one year of experience in the “real world,” I have a lot of questions I tend to ask myself on a daily basis.

Amid that unknown abyss that faces most fresh college graduates, I find most of my questions start with the word “what:” What can I do with my college degree? What can I afford to buy and eat for dinner tonight? And most importantly for me, what can I do that will make a positive and lasting impact on our society and the world?

Admittedly, these aren’t easy questions for anyone to answer. A few months before graduating Boston University in 2010, I made a one-year commitment to an internship at Second Nature, deciding that this would be the first small professional step I would take to being able to answer all these questions.

Before stepping into the Second Nature office for the first time in February of 2010, my knowledge of sustainability was pretty limited. Though I was eager to learn more, in my mind, the vague concept was associated with phrases like: “global warming,” “saving the planet,” and “sounds cool.” Sure, I recycled, tried to conserve energy for a lower monthly bill, and believed in social equity for all groups of people, but how does this all tie together and what does this have to do with sustainability?...Read more.