AASHE 2010 Session Search
You can use this interface to search and sort AASHE 2010 Conference Sessions. Minor adjustments continue to be made on the conference program which may not be reflected here. Please be sure to refer to the printed conference program and addendum sheets during the conference for final times and dates. If you have any questions, please email conference [at] aashe.org
| Session ID | Title | Abstract | Type | Length | Day | Room | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAP3250 | “Quickfire Challenges†for Classroom Sparks: One-Day Experiences for Sustainability Skills | It’s an ongoing academic tension: How do we reconcile passions for sustainability with sometimes-sleazy capitalism? This presentation illustrates how combining seminal texts with service learning adds a richer level of credibility for stronger sustainability, transparency, and ethics. Think of Henry Fonda in “Twelve Angry Men” and imagine how students can be the critical thinkers amidst a carnival of sustainability naysayers ---it’s easier to embed hard skills when students get hands-on experience via experiential learning. This presentation outlines teaching strategies to help students embed sustainability into programs of real-world clients – all within a very tight timeline requiring teamwork in a “quickfire challenge.” Included with this pedagogy is a smorgasbord of student-led case studies about how language informs and persuades people, such as how sustainability is embedded in Pepsi’s Refresh Project as well as whether community partners suitable for these “quickfire” challenges. The teaching moment is that anytime we craft messages, whether for a start-up funding proposal or sustainability employee campaign, we are choosing which ideas to stress or ignore, which is in itself a process that maintains and validates power about sustainability in a product, service, or idea. As business and teaching activists hoping to reach target audiences, and as students approaching potential employers, we’re also holding up mirrors to target audiences who decode messages according to their own social constructions. Consider “quickfire challenges” as a great way to sew in financial decisions, measurements, and social media to ignite community/classroom sparks. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 02:50 PM |
| PAP10021 | Creating a Green Campus Action Plan | Texas Tech University successfully pulled its community together to develop a plan of action in the spring 2009 after receiving consecutively dismal scores from the Campus Sustainability Report Card. One year later on Arbor Day, University President Guy Bailey publically announced the University’s membership in AASHE, a commitment to STARS and the appointment of a University liaison for sustainability. These announcements fulfilled the recommendations rooted in these events. The College of Architecture drew upon its experience with a systems thinking tool know as “World Café” to bring the community together to brainstorm a plan of action. With a successful grant in the amount of $17,000, the College organized a one day symposium followed by a one day workshop for the University community and a private work session for campus administrators and managers. The event served as a catalyst for Spring into Green, two weeks of activities organized by the USGBC-students, American Institute for Architecture Students and Lubbock community activists. Events were held at the Student Union Building, The Arts Center in downtown Lubbock and at tour sites across the city. Keys to success were student engagement, academic engagement, administrator/manager engagement and town engagement with quality speakers and professional facilitators. The process is a model for getting started in campus sustainability. Experience a “World Café” and brainstorm methods of getting started with a plan for your campus. Learn directly from the success of the TexasTech University team. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 03:10 PM |
| PAP3286 | "Doing Science" as Service Learning | How can a science department in a college or university actually “do science” and be of service to the community; how can scientists-in-training perform testing and experiments in the field and in laboratories that will provide a quantifiable benefit to the local community? Oklahoma City University in partnership with the Blue Thumb Program, the educational arm of the Water Quality Division of the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, has found a way to take this challenge and make it relevant in the lives of our undergraduates. Students, both majors and non-majors, in the Department of Biology at Oklahoma City University collect data on macro-invertebrates and fish and perform chemical testing on a stream which runs through the Gamble-Buchanan Outdoor Lab. This information, collected and analyzed with data from other volunteer groups around Oklahoma, is used to guide decision-making by groups as diverse as neighborhood associations, the local food bank, the Department of Environmental Quality and city planners. A representative from the regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency performed a study which determined this service, which frees water quality professionals for other duties, to be valued at $16 per hour. Beyond this immediate service, the University is graduating citizens with a greater awareness and responsibility for their communities and with real skills to bring about change. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP10009 | 4 Rs: Residents Reduce, Re-use, & Recycle | The main goal for our presentation is to educate and inform attendees that young adults are leading the way on the UW campus in recycling, reducing and re-using. This discussion will demonstrate how the residents living in the halls at the University of Wyoming are making big changes in the way they recycle, reduce and re-use on an everyday basis. The discussion will have data that shows residents are recycling more plastic, glass and paper than ever. There also will be data that shows residents are reducing the amount of electricity each hall uses. The discussion also will focus on how residents are taking steps to re-use everyday items to get the most out them. Presenters will share information about successes on the UW campus, and plans for the future. Once the attendees are aware of the great improvements that UW residents are making in their halls we will open the floor for a discussion on how other campuses are also making improvements or how the residents are leading the way in recycling efforts. The presenters' goal is to not only inform others on how well UW is doing but also come away from the presentation with ideas and plans that we all can put into place. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 06:00 PM |
| PAP3523 | A business case for developing transformative sustainable education | Colleges and Universities have obvious financial incentives to invest in sustainability objectives that reduce the costs of campus operation. Similarly, investments in research infrastructure in topics of energy and sustainability yield returns for research-oriented institutions. The task of transforming the curriculum to embed concepts of sustainability across multiple disciplines, however, is a daunting and costly endeavor. This paper will articulate the results of a pilot program in which goals to integrate increasingly ambitious sustainability learning objectives are pursued in a manner that creates value and return on investment for colleges and universities. These learning objectives seek to (1) create fundamental sustainability awareness in every student, (2) cultivate leadership qualities among students seeking to apply sustainability principles in any field they choose to pursue, and (3) guide the most passionate and gifted student leaders to become skilled contributors to interdisciplinary teams working to develop solutions to real world sustainability challenges. We will discuss value streams associated with these pursuits that provide justification for their investment, including the development of new research capacity, increased community engagement activities, enhanced corporate and industrial relationships, and enhanced student recruiting. The value of a university-wide framework and a centrally administered sustainability education center are identified as key factors in the development of the sustained and consistent effort required to transform higher education curricula. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 01:30 PM |
| PAP3414 | A Case Study on furthering Campus Sustainability by Smart Scheduling General Purpose Classrooms | Today, higher education across the United States continues to use inefficient processes to schedule classrooms and events. Very little attention is given to optimal space allocation or usage efficiency. However, when scheduling incorporates maximization and optimization principles, the outcomes align well with the triple-bottom line (economic, environmental, and social). Considering factors such as matching room capacity to number of occupants, evaluating transportation and parking issues, reduction in utility costs, and other sustainable attributes result in a net overall benefit. In harmony with the sustainability vision of West Virginia University (WVU), the Office of Facilities Planning and Scheduling embarked on a smart scheduling program for non-course events and academic courses. This paper presents a case study of the WVU smart scheduling program that furthered campus sustainability goals through the focused use of general purpose classrooms using Schedule 25 developed by CollegeNet, Inc. Schedule 25 optimized course placement by finding a classroom that closely matched the maximum enrollment for a course, in a building listed by the department as a preferred building, and with room features requested. Identifying and assigning classrooms to match class size was an attribute given due consideration. Classrooms were identified and/or added to existing buildings or moved near student population centers such as residence halls and other student housing. This effort fit well with the overall sustainability goals to better manage assets and resources, energy and utility use, parking and transportation, and occupant engagement activities. It also helped facilitate a better learning experience and desirable teaching environment. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 104 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP3680 | A Collaborative Approach to Creating a More Sustainable Campus | As an early signatory of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, (ACUPCC), Eastern Connecticut State University made clear its ongoing commitment to leadership in environmental responsibility. We are committed to a collaborative approach to developing a more sustainable campus. The major components of this collaboration include the administration (President’s Office, Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and Fiscal Affairs), faculty (especially the Center for Sustainable Energy Studies), facilities management, students, and a campus energy institute. The Green Campus Committee was formed and given the task of addressing the Presidents Climate Commitment and has become the center of campus action. A well coordinated, collaborative effort was necessary to develop a culture of environmental awareness and to create a campus culture where environmental responsibility is a core value. Our journey is a work in progress, and here we seek to show how integration and collaboration have worked to improve sustainability on campus and develop environmental responsibility as an ethos amongst campus community members. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 112 | 01:30 PM |
| PAN3315 | A Comprehensive Approach to Sustainability on Campus: Stories from the Field | With students and college presidents alike making commitments to go green, higher education is institutionalizing a culture of sustainability like never before. Developing a comprehensive plan for sustainability on campus will take the efforts of multiple stakeholders and will need to reflect the mission, vision and values of an institution. This session will profile sustainability at three institutions and illustrate how the ACUPCC, STARS and LEED are interwoven into each campus’ strategic plan for sustainability. Chris O’Brien will discuss assessment methods to evaluate operations, gather data and report on performance at American University. Bonny Bentzin will present how Arizona State University is planning for a green future through the establishment of the ASU Global Institute of Sustainability. Norman Christopher will introduce Grand Valley State’s plan for getting to carbon neutral and outline their strategies and initiatives for mitigating GHG emissions. Following the presentation, the panelists will engage in a moderated conversation facilitated by Dave Newport from the University of Colorado, Boulder, to drill down into the implementation of initiatives that will enhance campus operations, improve environmental literacy and create healthier places to live, work and play. Looking at everything from departmental responsibility and interplay to financing and implementation to reporting and celebration, the panelists will expose the nuances, examine the lessons learned and offer advice for developing a comprehensive plan for sustainability on campus. Participants will walk away better equipped to address their strategic priorities on campus in a manageable and pragmatic way. | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 304 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3300 | A Critical Analysis of Social Sustainability and University Adaptation | Increasingly, colleges and universities in the United States are adapting toward a model of behavior that incorporates issues of sustainability. This adaptation in universities and in society has implications on the organizational and nation-state level, the very core of which may serve to reshape the social contract between the two. Until recently, the key focus of this paradigm shift, for both social and private organizations, has been an emphasis on ecological sustainability for continued economic growth. Within this framework, the capitalist economy continues as the agenda-setting priority. The outcome of such an agenda relegates diversity and equity measures as lesser priorities. Such an agenda, applied to a paradigm of sustainability would suggest that without resonance within central organizational ethos and priorities, sustainability measures tend to serve as surface, rather than transformative, changes. The result is that universities are being measured, ranked, and marketed as ostensibly subscribing to a “green” agenda, but failing to transform the organization in ways that incorporate social sustainability and further the social justice aspects of sustainability. A central tenet of this argument is that organizations laden with discrimination and inequality are not sustainable organizations. In addition to supplying a strong counter-hegemonic argument that alters the competitive economic agenda-setting paradigm, this paper offers evidence of a tripartite comparative case study analysis of university adaptation toward social sustainability. By employing a social capital lens to understanding social sustainability in higher education, this study seeks to examine the relationship between higher education, sustainability, and outcomes of social equality. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 107 | 12:30 PM |
| POS10029 | A Home for Sustainable Engineering: A Living-Learning Cohort | If promoting sustainability across the curriculum presents one set of logistical and conceptual challenges, and reducing a campus’s environmental footprint presents another, surely integrating the two constitutes its own complex problem set. Yet a truly transformative approach to sustainability across the curriculum must integrate what happens both in and out of the classroom, involving faculty, student affairs professionals, and facilities operations staff. One challenge here is to facilitate learning at every stage. Making students’ lived experience the subject of inquiry is a fundamental tenet of Deweyan and Freirean critical pedagogy, and the scholarship on residential learning agrees, emphasizing the value of “close integration of the student’s living environment with his or her academic learning environment” (Pascarella, Terenzini, and Blimling 52). At Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, we are planning an innovative, integrative living-learning experience for a cohort of first-year engineering and science students, designed to begin in 2011-12. A group of 20-25 incoming freshmen will live together in a residence hall and take a series of sustainability-focused core courses, thus combining the benefits of living-learning with an interdisciplinary learning-community approach. Thus, as students learn fundamentals of various engineering disciplines, they will also be living and learning sustainability principles and practices. While we are well aware of the logistical challenges unique to our own campus, we believe a discussion of potential obstacles and opportunities and some brainstorming with a sustainability-minded audience would be beneficial, not only for us, but for other schools interested in integrative learning. | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR3077 | A Liberal Education Requirement: People of the Environment | Bemidji State University has delivered a cross-disciplinary, liberal education environmental course for over a decade. The course objective is the following: "The major purpose of this course is to heighten awareness of current environmental challenges and of the complex interconnections between natural and human systems. Students will integrate various disciplinary perspectives on environmental problems and potential solutions and will employ critical thinking skills in reflecting on values-based and ethical dimensions of environmental decision-making. Students will gain an understanding of biogeochemical processes in the environment and of the social, cultural, and economic influences shaping human impacts on the environment. In light of these impacts, possible changes in these institutions will be considered." This short presentation will describe the benefits and challenges of integrating sustainability (including service) into the curriculum. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 01:10 PM |
| POS3297 | A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Sustainability In Housing | ecoMOD, born out of a desire for pragmatism in sustainable design, is a research and design / build / evaluate project conducted by the Engineering and Architecture schools at an American university that aims to create a series of ecological, modular and affordable house prototypes to demonstrate the environmental and economic potential of energy saving technologies and building designs. In the context of this multi-year project, ecoMOD succeeds with an interdisciplinary group of architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, historic preservation, business, environmental science, planning and economics students participating in the design, construction and evaluation phases of the project. To date, the ecoMOD team has designed and constructed four of these homes in partnership with affordable housing organizations (such as Habitat for Humanity) and continues to monitor and learn from the performance of each one. The homes blend cutting-edge design and technology with a focus on sustainability throughout the life of the project. The modular nature of the homes eliminates most on-site waste, while the innovative solar design and custom-created energy monitoring system offer a glimpse into the future of the housing industry. From the building to the site itself, the ecoMOD project seeks to demonstrate sustainability throughout the built environment. This program employs a number of unique techniques in its pursuit of sustainability, many of which are highly applicable to the AASHE conference focal points. We hope to present these techniques in order provoke a discussion on the benefits of multi-disciplinary approaches to sustainable problems. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3148 | A Multidisciplinary Model for an Undergraduate Minor in Sustainability | This article provides the theoretical rationale of the multidisciplinary framework for curricula in a new sustainability minor at the University of Arkansas. Sustainability is by its very nature multidisciplinary, and consequently, UA sustainability curriculum initiatives brought together faculty from every college representing a broad spectrum of disciplines with the common interest to develop an integrated curriculum –and pedagogy- in the teaching and learning of this field. Four domains of knowledge were identified as critical to the development of the framework and serve as the basis for the curriculum design. Social Systems, Natural Systems, Managed Systems (agriculture and business) and Built Systems are the four pillars of knowledge framing the interdisciplinary conceptualization of the undergraduate minor at the UA. This purposeful design highlights disciplinary focus areas at UA, provides foundational knowledge related to sustainability, and helps achieve a unique synergy between the four thematic areas. In the development of the undergraduate minor, four restrictive mandates were issued to participating faculty: 1) maximize the use of existing courses, 2) avoid the hiring of new faculty 3) maintain engagement by the stakeholders and 4) keep the budget request to a minimum. The authors describe the instrumental role of the steering committee in addressing these challenges, and in developing the various components of the curriculum, such as the creation of two gateway courses, a capstone course, and a three-tier categorization of the minor elective courses based on the surveyed university courses and their relevance to sustainability. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 101 | 12:30 PM |
| PAP3483 | A New Paradigm for Campus Electronic Waste | State institutions of higher learning are saddled with insufficient budgets, antiquated laws and policies that make it difficult to deal effectively and equitably with the problem of electronic waste. It is easier and if one discounts the inherent value “trapped” in discarded electronics, cost effective to store discarded electronics at various campus facilities. A study of the campus e-waste issue at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by students enrolled in a new e-waste research class articulates problems with the existing system and suggests a new paradigm based on policy change, new laws, extended use and financial incentives necessary that can solve this problem. . This case study will be of interest to other government organizations with similar electronic waste (e-waste) problems. (Paper with Dialogue Discussion presentation format). | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 09:50 AM |
| PAP3046 | A Pedagogy of Place: Sustainability and Sense of Place in Higher Education | This paper reports on the findings of a grant project funded by the Great Lakes College Association that employed experiential learning methodology in an environmental philosophy class entitled “Pedagogies of Place.” Utilizing a “place-based” education approach involving the Whitewater River, students engaged in a series of experiential activities with the river and completed both a pre and post place attachment survey measure in an effort to test the degree to which both their understanding of concepts in environmental philosophy and their own sense of place in Richmond, Indiana increased as a result of the alternative methodology. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 112 | 12:50 PM |
| PAP3454 | A Pyramid Scheme for Student Sustainability Leadership | Which students are the champions of sustainability your campus? When they graduate, will there be a new crop of eager leaders in line? Quality student leadership isn’t just luck; it requires planning and resources like all other sustainability efforts. Using a successful residence hall energy challenge at Westminster College in Salt Lake City as illustration, this presentation will offer strategies for establishing a continuous flow of student sustainability leaders through peer-to-peer programs. We will discuss ways students can motivate friends and classmates with less enthusiasm or expertise; and how faculty and sustainability professionals can create a pool of passionate, informed students by intentionally offering many levels of engagement options. Finally, participants will be asked to think critically about their own programs, where they do or could involve students with varying levels of commitment, and how they can fill the leadership void when students inevitably graduate. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 01:10 PM |
| PAP3153 | A Quantitative Measure of the Culture of Sustainability at Santa Clara University | As Santa Clara University (SCU) works to become a leader in sustainability, it is vital to understand the culture of sustainability in the community. A previous study found undergraduate students held a narrow view of sustainability and the university took a misguided approach to promoting sustainability. Do the faculty, staff and graduate students at SCU show a broader understanding of sustainability than undergraduates? What leads to sustainable behaviors? A survey of attitudes, comprehension and behaviors regarding sustainability was distributed to the faculty, staff and graduate students, a total of 511 participants. Respondents defined sustainability narrowly, lacked awareness of the behaviors most effective for achieving sustainability, were mostly influenced by internal motivations, and negatively responded to the word “environmentalism.” Though community members value sustainability, there is no culture of sustainability yet. To establish this culture the university should promote all three dimensions of sustainability, use the word “sustainability” instead of “environmentalism”, avoid reward and punishment methods, expose the impacts of eating habits on sustainability and encourage all members of the community to act. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 10:30 AM |
| PAP3494 | A Strategic Community Based Approach to Implementing Campus Sustainability | One of the greatest weaknesses to sustainability is the fact that it is not only multi-dimensional but also conceptually convoluted; demanding that practitioners juggle a myriad of concepts while balancing a variety of expectations. Tunneling through the jargon and establishing a functional framework for campus sustainability requires that practitioners develop a strong network of strategic high level allies while simultaneously catalyzing a swell of community support. This presentation will attempt to unpackage some key sustainability concepts and present some interesting findings from the University of Ottawa’s experience. Furthermore, the presentation will attempt to layout a pathway to implementing sustainability related projects on other campuses. Using the 4C model of campus sustainability as a guide, the presentation will explore various programs at the University of Ottawa from a case-study perspective, with an emphasis on methodology and performance metrics. The projects selected for this presentation will focus on higher level community behavioral change campaigns that involve elements of cross sector collaboration. The case studies selected will be presented in both a “stand alone” and “broader picture” context. Key Descriptors: “Building momentum”, “Behavior Change Campaigns”, “Campus wide sustainability” | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 04:30 PM |
| PAP3357 | A Survey of Water Management at University and College Campuses | The effective management of water is necessary as water resources become increasingly scarce and variable through inefficient consumption, pollution, and climate change. Integrated water resource management is recommended to sustainably manage water in the ecologically, geographically, and socio-politically complex world we are living in. Institutions of higher education have the potential to foster sustainable water management through their education, research, service, and operational activities. A survey study was conducted to assess the current state of water management at colleges and universities across the United States and to gain a better understanding of campus efforts at implementing and promoting sustainable and integrated water resource management. Facilities managers and sustainability personnel at institutions of higher education were invited to complete a questionnaire for the study. Respondents described institutional water management as generally adequate. Many respondents consider their water management and sustainability programs as integrated, however they indicated that features of integrated water management (e.g. iterative, multi-disciplinary, and participatory/collaborative management) are applied/considered only once per year or less frequently and other aspects are sometimes not applied/considered at all. The main drivers of sustainable water management and planning include individual initiatives, local codes and policies, campus community awareness about sustainability issues, and the development of specific environmental projects on campus, while the main barrier is budgeted funds. There is somewhat effective promotion of water management through teaching, research, outreach, and operational activities. The findings from this study will facilitate the development of a framework for integrated water resource management at universities and colleges. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 12:10 PM |
| POS10001 | A Symphony of Green Inititatives on College and University Campuses | A Symphony of Green Initiatives on College and University Campuses Brett Mayo, Director of Energy Management & Sustainability, Office of Student Life, The Ohio State University Abstract: Background Colleges and universities across the world are in the process of “greening” their institutions and are finding a virtual cornucopia of efforts by their various campus entities. Rarely are these efforts coordinated so they can best benefit the overall mission of the school. It takes great effort and support from the top and buy-in from all units to pull these initiatives together to work in concert with each other, thus optimizing their positive impact on the institution’s operations, research, education, and stakeholders’ expectations. Case Study The Ohio State University is immersed in the process of coordinating its efforts across campus bringing academia, physical operations, purchasing, athletics, student life, the medical center, and research together along with input from outside consultants to create a “One University” approach to its sustainability efforts. Results A new university green build policy, proposed curriculum adjustments, amended operations policies, revised purchasing guidelines, and an updated university master plan have emerged to set The Ohio State University on a new course orchestrating a comprehensive sustainable model. This model should benefit, not only, the students, faculty, staff, visitors, but also the community within which they operate both now and for untold years to follow. Conclusion All parties on campus need to step back from their immediate routine and work in concert to create a unified campus plan. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAN3176 | Accelerating Campus Climate Initiatives | This panel highlights inspiring examples from the book, “Accelerating Campus Climate Initiatives,” a collaborative project by RMI and AASHE. Panelists from Furman University, Luther College, and University of Colorado at Boulder will describe how they overcame barriers to climate action planning - such as lack of engagement - and instituted solutions that accelerate climate initiatives and campus-wide sustainability. Angela Halfacre and Brittany DeKnight (Furman) will discuss the development of a comprehensive Sustainability Master Plan and a Center for Sustainability serving campus and community and as a connector across disciplines. Jim Martin-Schramm (Luther) will present the college’s comprehensive campus energy conservation program as well as projects to tap county landfill gas and also wind energy. Dave Newport (Boulder) will describe best strategies for creating an organizational structure and buy-in for climate action planning. Moderator Judy Walton (AASHE) will show how these efforts tie into a larger project, and will highlight other examples from the book. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 207 | 02:10 PM |
| PAN3468 | Accelerating Climate Action through Local, State and Regional Networks | With more and more colleges and universities beginning to create climate action plans and implement sustainability initiatives, the need for developing networks to accelerate learning through peer-to-peer interaction and best practice sharing between campuses is apparent. The National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology program has been working to foster and support local, state and regional climate action networks in recent years, learning many valuable lessons along the way. Resource sharing, mentorships, cross-campus and inter-campus collaboration and community engagement are just a few benefits that have been realized within our networks. This panel discussion will highlight three climate action networks, from different backgrounds and geographic locations, which demonstrate the diversity in size, structure and functions found among existing networks. We will facilitate a dialogue between panelists and our audience regarding network challenges, successes and opportunities moving forward. Our Q&A time will focus on providing information for individuals and groups to help them overcome obstacles they may face in forming and developing their own climate action networks. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 103 | 03:50 PM |
| PAP3491 | Achieving Campus Sustainability through Service-Learning | How can you overcome budget cuts and staffing shortages while still achieving campus sustainability goals and empowering your student body? The University of Alberta’s liberal arts campus, Augustana, has been pursuing community service-learning to overcome such challenges. Junior and senior level community service-learning students in environmental and global and development studies courses have contributed to ongoing water, waste and energy projects. In addition, they have influenced a comprehensive recycling program, have assisted with awareness campaigns, and have been instrumental in two City-University collaborative projects to achieve a Municipal Sustainability Plan and an anti-idling campaign. Through these projects, students are able to connect their classroom teachings to various sustainability projects on campus and throughout the community. They are able to see the correlation between their efforts and the outcomes of the projects. Students report how their experiences provide insights into how they can contribute to social change and how they are empowered to do so. This has become a win-win framework for students and the Augustana campus at large, which could be easily replicated by other post-secondary institutions. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 02:10 PM |
| PAN3493 | ACUPCC: Writing, Implementing and Supporting Climate Action Plans | Over 600 chancellors and presidents have signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. However, making the commitment and meeting it represent two very different tasks, the challenges which are underscored during this current economic climate. This panel presentation will focus on developing a Climate Action Plan (CAP), implementing a CAP and creating a system for sharing best practices. San Francisco State University will illustrate the ways campus wide collaborations lead to successful climate action planning. At SF State, twenty key campus members collaborated in the writing process and the University’s Sustainability Committee set the emission reduction goal at 25% below 1990 levels by 2020. University of California, Berkeley will explore the challenges and opportunities of the CAP implementation phase. UC Berkeley has taken steps toward climate neutrality by setting an initial goal of reducing emissions to 1990 levels by 2014 and has behavioral and infrastructure GHG reduction projects underway which are anticipated to get the campus half-way to this target. The campus is now researching the additional project, policy, and collaborative strategies needed to meet the near-term target set forth in its CAP. The Office of the President (UCOP) will outline how it supports the University of California system on ACUPCC implementation by facilitating best practice sharing and setting minimum emission reduction targets. The UCOP will also discuss its energy efficiency retrofit program and renewable energy procurement strategies for meeting the long-term goal of carbon neutrality. | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 207 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP3081 | Addressing Sustainability, Diversity, Peace and Justice | Case study research and development can be effective for addressing aspects of sustainability but learning does not just happen (Timpson & Doe, 2008). To serve as effective guides, instructors must be skilled with a range of communication models. There will be times when direct instruction is appropriate, when material must be presented in clear terms. However, rather quickly, cases will plunge students into a compelling issue with all its varied arguments, subtleties and contradictions. Here is when deep listening and empathy are important. Value differences can also surface and require some awareness to navigate. In general, case studies are useful for teaching about complex topics. Teaching about diversity often raises emotionally charged issues. Discussions about racism, sexism, homophobia, religious differences, and social justice can touch nerves, intimidate the meek, shut down honest exchanges, provoke defensiveness, and more (Timpson et al., 2003; Timpson et al. 2005). Sustainability, in turn, raises all those big issues of global warming and human complicity, our “ecological footprints” and the standard of living many enjoy, the “carrying capacity” of the earth and the demands of a growing population world-wide (Timpson et al. 2006). Peace and reconciliation, then, represent all those skills, values and beliefs that allow us to handle our differences, our disagreements and conflicts without resorting to violence (Timpson et al., 2009; Timpson, 2002). Emerging from a semester’s work with graduate students in a class on communication and classrooms, a downloadable volume of original case studies will soon be available on Atwood Publishing’s website. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 04:50 PM |
| DD3515 | Administrative advocacy: fostering sustainability champions at the top | Having administrative champions on your side can help your campus sustainability efforts to move faster, receive more support, and be more effective. But how do you develop a rapport with administrators and promote sustainability in ways they will understand, appreciate and agree with? This collaborative workshop will focus on how to foster positive relationships with top administrators and how to make your case for sustainability in their terms. Emphasis will be placed on addressing common administrative barriers to campus sustainability efforts and overcoming them using creativity and positive approaches, using suggestions and examples from both the workshop facilitator and workshop attendees. Attendees will enlighten each other with their own experiences and learn how to work smart rather than working hard to trigger administrative-level policy change on campus. This workshop will help sustainability advocates get through the red tape and go full speed ahead with green initiatives. | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Mon | 105 | 02:10 PM |
| DD2001 | Adopting and Adapting Suitable Program Level Sustainability Competencies | Despite the proliferation of sustainability programs in higher education, consensus is lacking about the key competencies required for sustainability literacy. Sustainability competency expectations should differ depending on the level of academic program scale from undergraduate minors, certificates and majors to graduate minors, certificates and majors. Michigan State University has developed and licensed for public use a set of sustainability competencies for its new undergraduate specialization and seeks to circulate these among peers for critical feedback and refinement. Analysis of the 8 core competencies (ecological integrity, social equity, economic vitality, aesthetic understanding, civic engagement, critical thinking, systems thinking and personal development) and associated learning tasks will provide a focus for discussion about appropriate competency expectations for various audiences. How much is enough? How much is too much? And what do students need to know to be scholars of sustainability at various levels of sophistication? In this session participants will 1) learn about the theory and practice of implementing competency-based assessment in academic programs, 2) be provided a set of sustainability competencies to pilot at the home institution 3) foster discussion aimed at generating mutual understanding regarding the suitable level of sustainability competencies across academic program, 4) be encouraged to form a virtual learning community of practice. | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Tues | 301 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP3388 | Advancing Collaboration and Student Engagement in the Sustainability Curriculum | This paper is based on the premise that integrating sustainability issues into educational curricula is best achieved through activities that encourage students to take an active role in addressing real life problems, and that campus projects offer a unique opportunity in this respect by also allowing students to have a positive impact on their immediate environment. Integrating sustainability issues in architectural design studios, in particular, necessitates going beyond conventional studio formats, which only address form and image, and to introduce students to issues of building environmental performance and the methods and tools of improving it. Additionally, projects focusing on reducing the environmental impact of existing buildings train students to address the unique set of problems presented by these difficult yet important projects. Therefore, the paper will report on the results on a collaborative studio-seminar model in which students were tasked with developing environmentally sustainable design solutions to renovate a 1970’s campus building. The project was implemented in collaboration with the university’s facilities management department and combined both a senior-level design studio and a performance simulation seminar. Unlike traditional studio structures, students collectively developed a single renovation proposal for the building that represented a hierarchy of possible intervention scenarios: minimal, moderate, and intensive. Teams developing each scenario included both studio and seminar students, and were required to assess the environmental performance of their proposals by using simulation tools. The paper will describe both the process and product of this experiment, as well as assess its success through student and instructor feedback. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 10:30 AM |
| FR3004 | Advancing Sustainability Education: Transformative Learning and Undergraduate Research Experiences | Sustainable energy is a critical area of importance nationally and internationally in terms of education and workforce development. To address this need, K-State has implemented a National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduate (REU) Program focused on sustainable energy. This effort exposes students to a distinguished community of research, design, development, and practice. Beyond the targeted technical content, this REU explores complex challenges of security, environmental stewardship (including climate change), policy, and economy. The 10-week program includes dynamic engagement through research, Sustainability Seminar, Dialog on Sustainability, student presentations, field trips, team projects, reflective journaling and social events. The multidisciplinary summer program includes chemistry, geology, grain science, and engineering (chemical, electrical, computer, biological, and agricultural engineering).Transformative Learning Theory (TLT), which provides a pragmatic and innovative pedagogical framework, is being utilized along with other methods to evaluate various dimensions of the REU sustainability educational activities initiated in 2009. TLT is the process by which the world views of individuals, groups, and organizations are changed as a result of the adult development process. According to TLT, the driving purpose or central goal of the human mind is to make meaning out of experience. Initial findings from the 2009 evaluation focused on four areas: career path, definition/concept of sustainability, role in sustainability, and sustainability habits of mind. Feedback is being integrated into the program structure and delivery, thus helping to improve subsequent REUs and contribute more widely to the enhancement of sustainability education. Data from years 1 and 2 will be discussed. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 110 | 06:00 PM |
| PAN3463 | Advancing the Green Work Force through Community College Networks | As communities and the nation move toward sustainability and economic recovery, they will call upon community colleges to make significant and profound adjustments to prepare students for the new clean energy economy and a greener future. Community colleges are the primary route to the family-supporting, “middle-skill” occupations and careers generated by the emerging green economy. Moreover, community colleges can be a driver in creating local “workforce partnerships” that bring together green-sector employers, workforce development organizations, unions, and other community stakeholders. Such partnerships are key to ensuring that workers gain skills that lead to the green careers they want and that green economy employers need. Community colleges themselves are often among the largest local employers, so their investments in campus sustainability projects can directly create new jobs, provide hands-on training opportunities to provide students with skills and experience that employers seek. Join the conversation in an interactive and engaging workshop where you will hear from campus professionals working to develop green workforce programs on their campuses and strong networks helping to build the green economy in their regions. Learn how networks are valuable for sharing best practices, leveraging partnerships, garnering support and more. The workshop will highlight community college networks from North Carolina and Illinois, but all will be encouraged to participate. | Panel | 100 min | Tues | 103 | 12:10 PM |
| POS3344 | Advocating Sustainability: Learning from Campus, Teaching the Community | The dissemination of campus-based sustainability efforts provides both general knowledge and specific updates to several audiences, on campus and beyond. This communicated information is critical for evaluating and assessing sustainability goals, expanding engaged learning opportunities, and promoting community involvement related to sustainability issues. With sustainability infused across the curriculum at Furman University, course projects in several academic disciplines were developed to advocate for sustainability programs and campus living learning laboratories. In Earth and Environmental Sciences, Communication Studies, and Business & Accounting departments, faculty and students developed video-based class projects to communicate campus sustainability efforts. These have included informative messages, public service announcements, and documentaries, respectively. The university then disseminated the videos at various venues on campus (as previews for movies and conferences), at various community athletic events (as pregame and halftime entertainment), and to global audiences (via the Internet). Entirely student-oriented, the projects endorsed recycling, carpooling, energy conservation, social responsibility, local practices, and even “sustainability dating tips,” among others. The projects integrated several campus resources, including library research tools, our Center for Sustainability for topic development, and StudioLab for equipment and software. From our experiences as course instructors, we will share project descriptions, production tips, potential dissemination outlets, assessment rubrics, student responses, and significant outcomes from this popular student assignment. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP2340 | Aligning Sustainability Commitments with Actions at A Wild West University | This is a panel on how to encourage a university to align stated sustainability commitments with actions. Four faculty at a Wild West University (hereafter WWU, not its real name) somewhere in the southwest formed a ‘Green Team’ to draw attention to misalignments of action and sustainability commitment and enact greater social justice. The panel of four faculty members will each spend 10-15 minutes presenting their case on how they initiated change. Two will focus on the science of sustainability and two will focus on the ethics of social justice. We formed a faculty ‘Green Team’ to get WWU to implement sustainability efforts that were more visible, effective, and integrated. Our first ‘green paper’ (March 12 2010) recommended that WWU create a Sustainability Director position to head up the Sustainability Task-force and provide oversight of all sustainability efforts on campus. These efforts include oversight of sustainability as it pertains to campus operations, student/staff life/work, curriculum, and outreach. The director would report directly to the president of WWU. The Director would actively participate in AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) events and promote faculty and student presentations at AASHE conferences, when possible. The second ‘green paper’ (April 5 2010) invited a moratorium on leaf-blowers, reduction of high maintenance lawns, and implementation of a pesticide-free campus. In a time of budget downsizing, our position was that these actions were cost effective. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 104 | 10:10 AM |
| PAP3880 | Alternative University Appraisal Project - ESD and HEI'S in Asia Pacific | The growth in the number of HEIs coupled with fast growing competition between them has contributed to the boom and popularity of comparisons, rankings and classifications of HEIs. Higher education stakeholders (heads of HEIs, academic and administrative staff, students, decision-makers and the public) are closely monitoring these initiatives. The higher education community contests their value, questions their methodology, but often cites the results when they are positive. There is demand for alternative, more comprehensive tools and for new university appraisal systems that better address the multiple roles of higher education and respond to different needs of the ‘users’ to increase transparency about institutional differences of mission and performance and providing a new way of collecting and presenting objective and comparable data. Against this background, in June 2009, Hokkaido University initiated the "Alternative University Appraisal (AUA) project" in close collaboration with lead institutions in promotion of ESD in Asia Pacific, i.e., the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT, Thailand), TERI University (India),Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Yonsei University (Korea) and United Nations University-Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS). This is a joint activity of ProSPER.Net (The network for the Promotion of Sustainability in Postgraduate Education and Research), a network of several leading higher education institutions in Asia and the Pacific that have committed to work together to integrate Sustainable Development (SD) into postgraduate courses and curricula). The AUA project aims to support HEIs planning to introduce ESD or advance their current ESD activities, and sets as its ultimate goal the creation of a learning community through "AUA Peer-Consultation System" in which HEIs can identify their own strengths and weaknesses, learn from one another and share good ESD practices in their own areas of interest. As an integral part of achieving the ultimate goal to create a dynamic community of practice for reorienting higher education toward sustainable development, we initially created the "AUA Model" that includes self-awareness questions designed to help interested HEIs enhance their related activities. The model is a tool for self-reflection enabling HEIs to identify their involvement with ESD. It is expected to serve not only as a tool for self-reflection but also as a framework for consultation between the institution under assessment and experts capable of providing appropriate suggestions and know-how. It represents our overall approach toward the creation of an appraisal system through a series of self-awareness questions. Its focus is on ESD at HEIs, and it appraises both qualitative and quantitative aspects by review. Through this process, we believe HEIs can identify areas of ESD to be further addressed in the future with a view to protecting and enhancing the diversity of higher education. The AUA Model is expected to serve as the first step in AUA peer consultation among universities and ESD experts addressing ESD in diverse ways with the aim of sharing good practices and strengthening their initiatives. AUA is a system that recognizes diversity, innovation and change towards sustainable development. Ultimately, the AUA project is envisioned to become a guiding force that shapes the universities of today and tomorrow. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 02:30 PM |
| PAN3446 | America’s Greenest Campus: Sustainability at Rio Salado College | Building a sustainable campus takes good policies – and engagement of students both in and out of the classroom. In 2009, Rio Salado College won SmartPower’s America’s Greenest Campus contest, a carbon footprint-reduction campaign that engaged 20,000+ students at 460+ colleges nationwide. Using social media, viral Internet marketing and an innovative online platform, the contest resulted in a collective carbon reduction of 19 million pounds. At Rio Salado, participants reduced their per-person carbon output by 4.4 percent, winning a $5,000 prize. The money went towards a community garden, which now serves as a food source for an on-campus café and a classroom for students in the college’s Sustainable Foods Program. This is one example of how Rio has made sustainability into a campus lifestyle – something that starts small but spirals into daily routines and processes. This panel will discuss Rio Salado’s exciting sustainability initiatives, as well as the innovative America’s Greenest Campus contest, which won a 2010 Clean Air Excellence Award from the U.S. EPA. These form an interesting case study in how new media can be used to trigger small, personal actions – which in turn add up to big, community-wide projects, contributing to a long-term culture of sustainability. | Panel | 100 min | Tues | 203 | 12:10 PM |
| PAP2820 | AMS Climate Studies: Dynamic Climate Science Exploration for College Students | The American Meteorological Society has a long history of developing introductory college-level courses and has found them to be important avenues for advancing scientific literacy among the public. As a result, the AMS Education Program considers the development of high-caliber, scientifically-authentic educational materials to be among its top priorities. AMS Climate Studies, the latest addition to the AMS suite of science courses, investigates Earth’s climate system and societal impacts of climate change by using the most current, real-world environmental data. It explores climate as part of the entire Earth System, maintaining a strong focus on the fundamental science while still addressing the societal impacts relevant to today’s students. With a global and local focus, the course serves as a primer in preparation to become a responsible, scientifically-literate participant in discussions of climate science and climate change. The course package consists of a fully-integrated set of printed and online learning materials focused around a brand new textbook, Climate Studies: Introduction to Climate Science, by Joseph M. Moran. It also includes an Investigations Manual (containing 30 lab-style activities) and a course website with access to environmental data streams that use a suite of NASA and NOAA images and products. AMS Climate Studies offers colleges and universities a way to expand their geoscience offerings in a meaningful, cost-effective way. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.ametsoc.org/climatestudies. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 05:20 PM |
| PAP10015 | An Innovative Approach to "Going Green" While Addressing Deffered Maintanence | Going green is becoming increasingly important for schools to attract students. 63% of college applicants are looking for a green campus, according to the Princeton Review (2008). However, many college administrators are finding it difficult to balance the “green” movement with day to day budget challenges, such as addressing aging infrastructure. One out of every two schools is updating its campus master plan to cope with issues such as increasing enrollment and aging facilities, according to Capital Budgeting Practices in Public Higher Education (APPA, 2006). Hear why UCM, a state university with 11,000 undergraduate and graduate students, embarked on an unprecedented $36.1 million project that will radically reduce energy consumption and the university’s carbon footprint, while making a significant improvement to the learning environment. $20 million of the project was directed toward mitigating deferred maintenance issues such as outdated HVAC systems, and $16 million was directed toward addressing energy inefficiencies such as lighting, windows, and utlities. UCM’s comprehensive approach to greening its campus while addressing deferred maintenance will leapfrog UCM ahead in its green and deferred maintenance goals, and will cast UCM as a role model on sustainability in the U.S. This effort will assist UCM in its mission to attract outstanding students, faculty and staff. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 12:50 PM |
| PAP2743 | An Integral Approach to Institutionalizing Sustainability: A Case Study of Colorado College | Recently, institutions of higher education (IHE) have moved toward greening their campuses and incorporating sustainability principles into strategic planning, operations, education, research, and public engagement. While many IHE have some form of sustainability initiative, project, or policy, there are no examples of an institution that has successfully achieved a whole-systems transformation or fully institutionalized sustainability. These projects suggest a shift in values and operations toward environmental goals; however they do not prove long-term systemic change or transformation to becoming a sustainable organization. Sharp (2002) illuminates this important distinction, stating that, “it is critical to distinguish between project success and institution transformation. The journey to succeed in building a showcase green building is a very different journey to successfully institutionalizing a university-wide commitment to have all future buildings built green . . .” (p. 4). Thus, transitioning from isolated and fragmented greening initiatives to incorporating sustainability into the fabric of the institution can be challenging to achieve. No one has yet fully measured the extent to which this has occurred through a systemic shift in culture, behavior, values, and structures in IHE or given a roadmap for how to get there. Employing qualitative case study methods, this Masters Project analyzes the catalysts and barriers to institutionalizing sustainability at Colorado College using a theoretical framework adapted from Integral Theory. This analysis and the integral model of institutionalization are then extended to the broader movement of sustainability transformation across IHE. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 02:50 PM |
| PAP3840 | Anticipatory Competence as a Key Competence in Sustainability Education | With the continued development of sustainability science as an academic endeavor, witnessed in both the establishment of new programs and the maturing of established programs, comes increasing pressure to define key competencies to guide curricula and measure student achievement. A comprehensive literature review on sustainability competencies, performed in the summer of 2009, revealed an overarching competence of sustainability research and problem solving composed of five competencies considered ‘key’ for sustainability education. The need still exists, however, to define the pragmatic content of these competencies. This thesis defines the core pragmatic content of Anticipatory Competence, one of the five key competencies, and the contribution of that content to a students’ ability to solve sustainability problems. The results of this literature review and synthesis indicate that Anticipatory Competence in sustainability enables students to conceptualize, construct and communicate the fundamental features of the phenomenological structure of the future. Anticipatory Competence was chosen as the focus of this thesis because of both its prominence in founding sustainability literature and its under-representation in the literature on sustainability competencies. By defining what students need to learn to achieve Anticipatory Competence and why, this thesis is another in a series of important steps toward operationalizing sustainability education and enabling the transformation of students into change-agents during their time at university. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 01:10 PM |
| POS10041 | Appalachian State University Renewable Energy Initiative: A Five Year Perspective | Aligning with the theme for the AASHE 2010 conference, "Campus Initiatives to Catalyze a Just and Sustainable World", the Appalachian State University Renewable Energy Initiative (REI) would like to propose an abstract that focuses on a Five Year Perspective of the REI on our campus. We will highlight the following three categories: -Our Inception: The Appalachian State University REI, is a self-imposed student fee which is used to install renewable energy on campus, was conceived in 2004. The Appalachian State University Student Government Association proposed the $5/student/semester referendum fee to the student body which voted 83% in favor of the fee. –Projects: From 2004-2010, the REI has completed eight projects including a 100 kW wind turbine, photovoltaic arrays, and solar thermal installations. We also currently have three projects in progress. -Five Years Later: At the beginning of 2010, the REI became a University Funded Organization (UFO). The fee is now wrapped in with all other student fees and is a permanent part of our institution. This has shown the universities continued support for sustainability efforts on campus even in tough economic times. All three categories will focus on our sustainability efforts around leadership, planning measures, demonstration of moving from ideas to implementation, university transformation through cross-sector and collaborative efforts, and connecting our local higher education initiative to social justice and the global campus. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3145 | Approaching Light Speed - From Zero to 5.5 MW | The time has finally come where a combination of new legislation and public interest has put renewable energy on the forefront of environmental solutions that ensure a more secure future for our nation. Colleges and universities strongly influence the leaders of tomorrow so it would make sense for these institutions to take the lead in innovative technology and energy security. Unfortunately for many colleges and universities, stretched budgets are seen as a barrier in taking advantage of these opportunities. Colorado State University has participated in creating a unique model to make these investments affordable through cross sector collaborative efforts that have taken the university from using zero solar energy to 5.5 MW in just a few years. The university plans to continue to expand its current solar energy supply in the near future but the proposed session will explain the circumstances that led to the seven existing projects, important hurdles encountered, financing, various parties’ involvement in the projects as well as lessons learned and project outcomes. Colleges and universities are well positioned to take advantage of these golden opportunities to invest in renewable energy and educate campus communities on the importance of sustainability for our future. The proposed presentation will provide participants with the information necessary to overcome obstacles and make these projects a reality. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 09:30 AM |
| POS10058 | Are College Students Representatives for Future Generations? | The Brundtland Conference Definition of Sustainability: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Many in the United States see the environment is a political issue drawn largely along party lines, but this definition suggests otherwise: that the conflict truly lies along generational lines. William Strauss and Neil Howe wrote a book entitled Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (2000) in which they describe the Millennial Generation (Born from 1982-2001) and therefore today’s college students. Strauss and Howe predict that the Millennial Generation will be the next greatest generation that will solve many of the growing problems we face today (of which environmental challenges are a major part). Studying abroad in Southern Africa this summer, I was inspired by the generational power of the South African youth who are very involved in the political processes both within their schools and in national politics. After sharing the connections I saw, but actual and potential, we will have a dialogue about ways to get the American youth more invested and involved in our environmental future and to demand responsible behavior from older generations. More specifically, I am interested in discussing whether University students, as the only children who are enfranchised politically and having the most skills and resources at their disposal, are representatives of the next generations as well as their own with regard to environmental issues. If so, what can one do as a representative? | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR2984 | Are We Really Becoming More Sustainable? UMaryland Sustainability Metrics | How does a university measure its progress at becoming a more sustainable campus? How can the exercise of creating sustainability metrics engage stakeholders in developing a vision of a sustainable campus? This field report will focus on the process of developing sustainability metrics for a large university and address how the Office of Sustainability used the metrics to involve senior administrators in sustainability visioning and goal setting. The list of metrics will also be presented. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3114 | Assessing Systems Thinking Skills of Apparel and Textiles Undergraduate Students | The UN has challenged higher education to reorient education and integrate sustainability across all disciplines. This reorientation has pedagogical implications for advancing skills and attitudes supporting sustainable development. One skill, systems thinking – a problem-solving skill that works to understand the whole by examining multiple perspectives and interrelationships – is considered a fundamental learning outcome for education for sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to explore systems thinking competency among apparel and textile (AT) students with the intention of informing teaching strategy in the AT discipline. Participants included AT undergraduates (N=53) from a four-year institution. Students read a case study describing a firm’s efforts to develop a sustainable apparel line and identified sustainability challenges, analyzed conflicts between challenges, and offered business recommendations. Using a rubric, the authors scored the students’ responses on a scale of 0 to 5 and assessed ability to 1) think holistically and 2) perceive interrelationships and resolve resulting conflicts. Findings reveal low means scores for both holistic thinking (µ=2.17) and conflict resolution (µ=1.43), and a conclusion of this study is that AT students lack sophisticated systems thinking skills. Analysis also exposed a significant difference between the ability for holistic thinking and the ability to perceive the interrelationships and resolve conflicts (t-value=6.705, p<.001) – indicating that AT curriculum may be emphasizing multiple perspectives but not adequately showing interrelationships or requiring students to solve conflicts. Also discussed are teaching strategies for improving students’ system thinking skills and further research recommendations. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 05:00 PM |
| POS3217 | ASSESSING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF CARBON SEQUESTRATION THROUGH REFORESTATION | Ashley Mott, M.S. George Mason University, 2010 Project Director: Dr. Sharon DeMonsabert George Mason University began to address its greenhouse gas emissions with its Climate Action Plan commitment to climate neutrality. One of the most cost efficient ways to address greenhouse gas emissions, which are collectively referred to as “carbon emissions,” is through carbon sequestration methods, particularly reforestation. This assessment evaluates the sustainability of reforestation and carbon sequestration on the campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. The study investigated planting native trees on a one acre lot that would replace grass and eliminate the need for mowing. The environmental, economic, and social benefits associated with reforestation are evaluated in this report. The environmental benefits in terms of carbon offsets are calculated based on the sequestration of the trees and the reduction of CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions from the elimination of lawnmowing. A benefit cost analysis was performed to show the economic benefits and a literature review of the social benefits of reforestation was presented. The elimination of mowing had both economic and environmental advantages. The benefit cost analysis incorporates the present market value of carbon as a surrogate for the monetary value of CO2 reduction. Reforestation for carbon sequestration purposes would contribute to the long-term goals of George Mason’s Climate Action Plan by reducing the campus’s carbon footprint, while providing an educational tool directly on the Fairfax campus. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3073 | ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN COSTA RICAN UNIVERSITIES | Sustainability education is championed in universities in developed countries, but in developing countries it is just beginning to become an element of interest for the academic community. The purpose of this study was to perform an assessment of the extent to which Costa Rica universities are including education for sustainable development in their programs and curriculum, research and scholarship, faculty and staff development and rewards, outreach and service at the local, regional, national, and international level, student opportunities, and institutional mission and planning. The focus of this research is on universities in Costa Rica for being this country a pioneer in the region for introducing sustainability in their national public education system. The instrument selected was based on The Sustainability Assessment Questionnaire developed by the University Leaders for a Sustainable Future and supplemented with six addition questions based on the framework of UNESCO-DESD. Results of this study might provide relevant information to organizations regarding the status of the inclusion of sustainability in Costa Rican universities and create awareness in universities in which sustainability is currently not being addressed. This study might promote actions or plans of action adopted by higher education institutes in the Latin America and the Caribbean region to meet the goal of UNESCO. The results of this research might be used as a baseline for future studies to perform full assessments of sustainability in institutes of higher education. These results also might motivate scholars to generate new theories and hypotheses from the data that emerged. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 05:40 PM |
| POS3262 | Assessment of emission reduction as a function of biomass boiler installation | Life cycle analysis of biomass (wood pellet) production demonstrates significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, when compared to the life cycle analysis of No. 2 heating fuel. Life cycle analysis integrates sustainable forestry, local delivery, combustion and sequestration. Replacement of two residential and one athletic buildings' oil burning boilers with biomass boilers reduced Scope One (stationary) eCO2 annually by 1603 mT. Due to an institutional energy supply agreement with International Woodfuels, LLC, capital investment and annual maintenance costs were not obligatory. The University purchased the metered thermal energy used, resulting in an annual savings of $39,000. The University’s Climate Action Plan recommends expansion of boiler upgrades to be completed as soon as possible. Expansion of biomass boilers to all permissible buildings will reduce eCO2 by an additional 1584 mT, with an additional annual monetary savings of $43,000. This expansion coupled with the assessment and upgrade of inefficient energy use (Scope 2 emissions) and energy conservation through behavioral change programs (Scope 3 emissions), will reduce campus emissions by 58% by 2020. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3247 | “Enterprising†Students Lead Campus Sustainability Initiatives at Michigan Tech | Michigan Technological University’s innovative, student-centered educational initiative, the Enterprise Program, now has a team focused on advancing campus sustainability. Students enrolled in a variety of Enterprises form interdisciplinary teams to solve real-world engineering, design, and communication problems in partnership with a sponsor. In 2008 the University approved a Green Campus Enterprise to “better integrate sustainability into its research, education, and operations.” In only three semesters, Green Campus has established a close working relationship with administrators, faculty, staff, and other students to analyze, design and implement carbon reduction initiatives. Green Campus Enterprise students work in teams on a variety of Michigan Tech sustainability projects, including a greenhouse gas inventory; energy reduction associated with computing; energy reduction technology and practices in residence and dining halls; heat and lighting in academic buildings; alternative energy (e.g., wind and thermal solar); and moving the campus culture toward sustainability. Enterprise students report completed projects directly to the university president and vice-presidents for potential implementation. Two Green Campus Enterprise projects recently approved for funding are installation of lighting control sensors in restrooms, computer laboratories, and classrooms of all academic buildings (2.8 year payback), and installation of monitors on a radio tower to assess wind turbine potential. The presentation will cover 1) an overview of the origin and functioning of the Green Campus Enterprise within the Michigan Tech system and 2) details of two selected projects demonstrating students’ roles and activities. Green Campus has quickly become a powerful collaborative resource from both the sustainability and educational perspective. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 09:50 AM |
| PAP3235 | “What the H*ll is Sustainability?†Introducing Sustainability to Students. | This paper discusses findings from five years of teaching an introductory class on Sustainability as a Freshman Interest Seminar. Consistently 95% of students enrolled in this class report that they are there because the class time fit into their schedule. Similarly, at the outset, 80% of these students are not able to write a working definition of “sustainability.” Teaching what is already a broad topic to a class with little to no foundational understanding poses many challenges. Development of a student-led, cross-disciplinary curriculum overcomes these challenges and creates a deep engagement with the subject. This process allows students to develop their own understanding of the concept and move through the inertia or cynicism that commonly accompanies understanding the systemic challenges to achieving sustainable systems. However, the process of allowing students to develop their own curriculum can quickly become unwieldy for the faculty member. As a result, I developed several frameworks to encompass the breadth of student interests while keeping my responsibilities quite manageable. This paper is of particular interest to faculty who teach sustainability-related topics to majors outside of the natural sciences. It is also of interest to faculty who wish to incorporate more student-led curricula into their practice. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 09:30 AM |
| DD3336 | Baking Sustainability Into Co-Curricular Programs | Experiential, co-curricular programs can galvanize campus sustainability action and empower students to make sustainable decisions in a way classroom experiences cannot. Every campus has the opportunity to develop co-curricular programs that teach and inspire students in this way. Whether through internships or community-based weatherization programs, service learning, campus greenhouse gas emissions inventorying, or special event management, students who participate in campus programs like these, that are grounded in principles of sustainable decision making, learn how to think about problems sustainably and implement sustainable solutions. Learning to engage in sustainable problem solving that accounts for the full environmental, social and economic impacts of one’s choices is transformative. Co-curricular programs that immerse students in sustainable problem solving hone skills for these emerging leaders – skills, according to a recent Pew Institute study, employers demand. The presenters will discuss WWC's sustainable decision making process and give specific examples of several replicable, co-curricular programs that immerse students in the real work of sustainable problem solving. Participants will be asked to discuss how best to infuse sustainable decision making into co-curricular programs for new program design as well as for existing programs, and share specific examples of successful co-curricular programs that demonstrate sustainability learning and outcomes. | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Tues | 301 | 03:50 PM |
| DD3164 | Be An Effective Sustainability Champion: Lessons from National Sustainability Fellows | Anyone on campus can be a champion for sustainability, from faculty and staff to students and community members. Sustainability champions are needed to build momentum on campus and in the community, nurture the success of sustainability projects and build growing coalitions of support. Effective champions understand the formal and informal power structures and the dynamics of competing interests. They know how to take these into account as they foster increasing numbers of people involved in sustainability. Each successful sustainability champion has their own set of strategies and lessons learned. The Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium (HEASC – www.aashe.org/heasc ) is a network of the national higher education associations for college and university presidents and chief academic officers, business officers, facilities directors, housing officers, sustainability staff, student affairs and campus activities staff, planners, recreation directors, events planners, and trustees. HEASC has national Sustainability Fellows who have created successes on their own campuses and are helping to build the national trends in sustainability in higher education. This session will present some of their favorite projects and success strategies and will then be a dialogue with the audience. The focus of the dialogue will be to help the participants identify their front edge issues and create solutions while becoming a more effective champion for sustainability. | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Mon | 301 | 12:30 PM |
| PAN3142 | Behavior Matters: Program Results from Stanford, MIT, Princeton, and Cornell | Sustainability communication, education, and implementation tools that address the triple bottom line of sustainability– environment, economy, and social equity—behavioral programs at Stanford, MIT, Princeton, and Cornell showcase the importance of harnessing individual action. Designed for building-level conservation action by individual occupants, behavioral programs complement efficiency improvement at the infrastructure level and jointly contribute to resource conservation and carbon footprint reduction goals. Data compiled through program pilots and the first year of full operation prove occupant awareness and action directly contributes to resource conservation, lower utility bills, and knowledge of a more collaborative work environment consistent with university commitment to sustainability as a core value. The programs also encourage awareness and creativity among building occupants, which in turn can inform infrastructure decisions. Student involvement represents another crucial factor in the success of behavioral programs. The development of academic courses that share the process of institutionalizing sustainability enable students to take leadership roles in implementing building-level behavioral programs. This panel will compare and contrast behavioral programs at the four universities, explain the strategic benefit of institutionalizing sustainability, describe related courses developed to engage students, share case study results, and explain implementation challenges and creative solutions for peer institutions looking to launch similar efforts. All four schools achieved measurable savings at the building-level due to modified occupant behavior, highlighting the critical role individual action plays in achieving long-term sustainability goals. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 207 | 03:50 PM |
| CSW3295 | Best practice in UK HE sustainability implementation | To present leading work from UK HEis on the implementation of sustainability focussing on large scale curriculum, student engagement, outdoor classroom and cultural change. Specific feature on host institutional programme- Ecoversity- winner of two major national awards in 2009 and a recognised beacon for change management in HE sustainability. The presentation will review a range of UK experiences and raise similarities and differences between UK and US HE as a point of reference for transferability/comparability. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Mon | 303 | 02:10 PM |
| DD3062 | Best Practices for Green Student Organizations | This lecture will promote best practices for environmental student organizations. It will highlight how students can market themselves sustainably, convince decision makers, effectively network, and cultivate their own leadership to become true change agents on campus and in society. This lecture is also an introduction to Green Tower Sustainability, the first consultancy for environmental student organizations. All student attendees will be invited to take advantage of their extensive free services for student organizations. For more information about Green Tower Sustainability, please visit www.greentowercampus.com | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Mon | 103 | 02:10 PM |
| DD10024 | Between Two Worlds | Screening of a 15-minute video documentary film about global sustainability challenges. Between the world in which we live and the world that we hope to build lies a fundamental choice between conventional growth and sustainability. Filmed in 15 diverse countries, this video provides a sweeping synthesis of social, technological, and environmental driving forces that are shaping our world. | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Mon | 201 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP10004 | Beyond GHG Reduction. Climate Change adaptation for Dalhousie University. | Global and local environmental and sustainability challenges such as energy security, efficiency, and climate change are compounding. Universities across the world have responded by signing commitment statements, conducting GHG inventories, and taking action on primarily mitigation strategies. Dalhousie University’s climate change plan is moving beyond the consideration of greenhouse gas reduction and exploring pertinent issues such as vulnerability and adaptation. Learn how Dalhousie University took a collaborative community approach to identify campus vulnerabilities, assess risk, and formulate adaptation strategies. Interviews, surveys, literature review and a community workshop were used to collect data. Localized climate scenarios were crafted with the support of Nova Scotia and Canadian environment departments. These scenarios were used in the community workshop to discuss future vulnerabilities in a more visual and concrete way. Vulnerabilities and adaptation strategies include community and university services, built, and natural environments. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 01:30 PM |
| FR3438 | Biomass Utilization in Southside Virginia | Longwood University is a four-year, state-assisted, co-educational university encompassing 60 acres centrally located in Farmville, Virginia. The institution has a total of 4,700 undergraduate and graduate students and approximately 900 staff and faculty. Longwood’s heating plant is equipped with one sawdust burning boiler that supplies 90% of the annual heat and hot water needs of campus. Currently, a replacement heating plant is under construction to expand the campus’ use of renewable energy. Upon completion, the new heating plant will contain two sawdust-fired boilers (one new boiler and one relocated boiler from the old heating plant) and space for a third sawdust-fired boiler, each with a steam generating capacity of 20,000 pounds per hour. The new heating plant will provide 100% of the campus’ steam and hot water needs and will be able to accommodate future campus growth. As Longwood plans for the future, a long term goal for the new heating plant will be to expand its wood fuel stream by purchasing the necessary equipment to manipulate wood residue from sawmills, logging and tree trimming operations, land clearing, weather-related disasters and municipalities. By expanding its wood fuel stream, Longwood will further its efforts to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, divert wood residue from landfills, stimulate the local economy and assist in maintaining jobs of local sawmill and logging personnel. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 10:10 AM |
| PAP3864 | Bombing Detroit: Activist Architecture as a Pedagogical Model | Are traditional models of architectural practice still viable in cities mired in physical, psychological, and economic crisis? Are Universities initiating programs that educate students in a manner that allows them to maximize the public benefits of their talents? To accept these challenges is to accept the need for a new pedagogical model that allows for the possibility of new interpretations of the professional practice and deliverables. As Klaus Krippendorff describes in The Semantic Turn, aesthetic, and market considerations that justified products of design in the past have been replaced or overshadowed by more social, political cultural and ecological concerns. This Paper outlines the philosophical underpinnings and activities of two courses offered in the sustainable architecture concentration of the graduate program at a Midwestern university. By exploring alternative practice principles such as clientless and unsolicited architectural interventions the course requirements shift student skill development from "problem solving" to "problem seeking." Within the context of alternative practice, students are asked to expand the ethical role of architects by defining a new "post-industrial fiduciary responsibility" that views complacency and inaction as negligence. The paper concludes with case studies of student analytical process and problem identification, as well as project implementation and community involvement. The case studies provide a variety of project solutions including: Building typologies, commerce transportation and unbuilt systems-based implementations. Working at a human and neighborhood scale, each student project exposes the potential role of the academy in shaping a more sustainable world. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 10:10 AM |
| PAP3525 | Bottom-Up Facilitation Needed For Student Sustainability Initiatives | Student-led environmental coalition creates an ambitious agenda for 2009-10 school year complete with sustainability forums, films, Earth Week events, and local food fairs. Student clubs generally run a slate of independently produced, unrelated events, however we were seeking to institute a permanent sustainability initiative. The primary motivation behind a push for permanency was the perceived need for students to institute an effective, campus-wide, bottom-up sustainability initiative to complement the existing top-down programs derived from the university’s climate action plan. The language in the climate action plan that focuses on students primarily deals with changes in academic curricula; the plan is lacking language that specifically deals with the facilitation of bottom-up, student-sponsored sustainability programs. Part of the coalition’s agenda called for implementing a mandatory increase to the existing student fee. This fee increase would accumulate into The Green Initiative Fund—a fund that would dole out green grant money for student-involved sustainability projects. Unfortunately, there were limited options for the coalition to move forward with this mission; ultimately, we chose to attempt a student referendum, which meant we had to work almost exclusively with student government. Throughout our journey we were particularly hindered by a lack of institutional memory and professional staff, our hindered ability as students to maintain a hectic schedule of meetings and deadlines, and most noticeably, the absence of cooperation and assistance from campus administrators. The initiative failed and our efforts will need to be repeated next year as we were unable to meet some university deadlines. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 12:30 PM |
| PAP3810 | Boundary Crossing, Experiential Learning, and Sustainable Agriculture at Virginia Tech | A diverse team of faculty, staff, students, and community partners collaborated to conceptualize, develop, and propose undergraduate curriculum for a transdisciplinary and experiential-based Civic Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) Minor at Virginia Tech. This new curriculum was designed to provide students with knowledge and skills to identify, examine, and integrate agriculture and food system sustainability philosophies and activities into personal and professional practice. The framework for the curriculum was developed around knowledge and core values that embody the definition of CAFS: food sovereignty; civic engagement/democratic participation; strong local economies, ecological stewardship; healthy people/communities; and collaborative teaching/experiential learning. The four sequential courses include: Introduction to Civic Agriculture, Ecological Agriculture, Concepts in Community Food Systems, and Capstone. Drawing upon insights gained through a collaborative approach to curriculum development, this paper illustrates the rationales and practices for “boundary crossing” in sustainable agriculture curriculum, as a novel case study in sustainability education. We specifically focus on the ways the curriculum aligns with the 2009 report of the National Academy of Sciences calling on universities and colleges of agriculture to transform curriculum, research, and outreach agendas by enhancing student learning through cross-disciplinary education; collaborative curriculum development; and engaged outreach to community partners. Furthermore, we discuss how the CAFS curricular approach reflects a growing trend in experiential-based sustainability programming in higher education, and the challenges associated with such an approach. We conclude with implications for integrating sustainable agriculture concepts into university curriculum from these perspectives. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 107 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3169 | Bringing “Sustainability Across the Curriculum†Home: Integrating SoTL with Sustainability | Participating in AASHE’s “Sustainability Across the Curriculum” workshop is exhilarating – returning to our respective educational institutions and putting knowledge into action – a challenge. How do we find our champions, maintain our commitment and enthusiasm, engage in education for sustainability as well as fulfill our faculty commitments in our respective departments? This presentation describes how one institution’s Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) grant provided the means and opportunity for this participant to engage faculty in ongoing discussions of education for sustainability. A SoTL approach encourages faculty to systematically inquire into issues of teaching and learning and ways to share their learning with colleagues. The “Sustainability Across the Curriculum” workshop emphasized the need for faculty to be actively engaged in discussions of curriculum for sustainability. Committed to examining how we can engage students and ourselves in creating solutions to an increasingly complex world, both approaches value interdisciplinary, action-oriented education. A synthesis of these two approaches became a two-part research project. This SoTL research project examined faculty’s understanding, attitudes and willingness to incorporate education for sustainability into curriculum. Follow-up presentations and workshop objectives were to 1) gain a better understanding of sustainability, 2) explore ways to integrate sustainability concepts into curriculum, 3) discuss existing curriculum initiatives and, 4) explore ways to commit to change. The context, methodology and results of the research as well as results of the workshop and subsequent initiatives will be discussed. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 112 | 02:30 PM |
| CSW2941 | Bringing Sustainability to life in Australian Colleges & Universities | This session will provide an overview of current approaches to addressing key issues of environmental, social and economic sustainability in Australian Higher Education. Key areas of focus will include: Clarifying terms like “sustainability” and “sustainable development”; Universities and the national sustainability agenda in Australia; A comprehensive framework for sustainability in higher education – campuses, research, teaching and community engagement; Evaluating sustainability initiatives of universities; The 2010 national stocktake of sustainability in the Higher Education curriculum across 46 Australian institutions; Community engagement and sustainability in Australia – some recent developments like the Riverkeepers initiatives down-under; “Green” skills in the trades and in small and medium enterprises – a national strategy and learning pathways; Measuring impact of sustainability innovations at universities; Change implementation myths and successful strategies for this area. The session will be of particular relevance to those sustainability leaders and educators in universities and colleges interested in: benchmarking developments in North America with what is happening in Australia; and/or visiting Australian universities active in the same areas as themselves. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Mon | 203 | 12:30 PM |
| DD3412 | Building a catalyzing collaborative funding process: McGill's transferable lessons | Funding is a consistent limit to action toward sustainability in higher education. Last year, students at McGill University took the lead on actualizing the latent potential on campus by establishing a fund, with the administration as a full partner. A referendum brought students out in record numbers to vote ‘yes’ for a student fee to be matched by the administration. The outcome was the Sustainability Projects Fund (SPF) of $800,000+ a year. Its mandate is to foster a culture of sustainability and encourage broader involvement in sustainable practices and initiatives among the McGill community. It does so by facilitating campus sustainability projects led by students, professors, administrators, and staff. These resounding commitments were made despite the growing deficit culture of the university, and coming from a student body expecting to continue paying among the lowest tuition in North America. As further affirmation of the need for such an initiative, the fund had received 39 applications from all areas on campus, totaling $1.2 million in its first three months. The monies are delegated through a parity committee with equal representation from students and the administration. Through a consensus-based decision making, the fund demonstrates an effective model for multi-stakeholder campus collaboration. This dialogue and discussion session will provide transferable insights by focusing on the visioning, negotiation and design process, as well as the successes and challenges of its implementation. As this fund was inspired by similar movements throughout AASHE’s network, our breakout sessions will aim to catalyze similar processes at other institutions. | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Mon | 105 | 12:30 PM |
| PAP3124 | Building a International Sustainability Education Helpdesk | Sustainability as a distinct discipline and as an approach to undergraduate and graduate education is largely at North American and European practice. Incorporating sustainability into the curriculum in other countries remains problematic given the tradition of discipline specific approaches to higher education. Higher education faces different challenges in different parts of the world; transformations and adaptations to changing socio-economic conditions that take place in Eastern Europe and former Soviet countries; the Bologna process followed in most European countries; and adjustment to economic crises almost all over the world. Still, our experience in joint projects makes us certain that there are best practices, methodological approaches, and pedagogical tools of teaching sustainability that are applicable and valuable internationally. Rather than launch a new international organization, we intend to serve in an advisory capacity for any member of higher education looking to enhance sustainability curriculum by forming an international helpdesk to help direct faculty to appropriate articles, or colleagues in the same discipline or region. The first stage would be to assemble a core group of faculty advisers to serving as a steering committee. The second step would be to convene a meeting of the Steering Committee to brainstorm the most effective format, develop a list of advisers, and discuss and agree on the mechanisms of the help desk. The next step would be to build an interactive website that was user friendly, quick responding, comprehensive. We seek additional collaborators and early input. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 10:30 AM |
| PAP3374 | Building a New Sustainability Minor: Discovering Walls and Building Alliances | Growing consensus about the importance of college graduates understanding the principles of sustainability is driving the creation of various academic programs and approaches. Although the President’s Climate Commitment and the Talloires Declaration each mandate sustainability education for all students, much more common is education of self-selected groups. Confusing the development of such programs is different understandings of sustainability, and who should be the key participants. At Bowling Green State University (BGSU), a minor in sustainability was created through an inclusive approach involving four colleges. The development process had value in generating interest among a diverse group of faculty, and in increasing awareness and cooperation throughout the university. It also revealed administrative obstacles to academic programs crossing traditional disciplinary lines, and required creative approaches to implement. This session details the value of this minor at BGSU beyond educating students, and may provide insight that helps other institutions pursuing academic initiatives in sustainability. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 06:20 PM |
| PAP3418 | Building a solar house for interdisciplinary learning of sustainability | In 2009 this Midwestern University participated for the first time in the Solar Decathlon. The resulting 800sft solar powered home was the product of a multiyear effort, which demonstrates the power of interdisciplinary teamwork and collaboration for sustainable development. Collaboration across campus and with a nearby community college involved over 200 students and 20 faculty members from 11 departments. Much of the work was completed in classes devoted to the effort. An interdisciplinary workshop with students from Engineering (construction, mechanical, electrical), Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Interior Design, made all of the primary design decisions. These students actively engaged students in other courses such as Graphic Design and Journalism. The house is furnished with tables, chairs, and benches crafted by students in a furniture design course. Students in the Architectural Millwork Program at the nearby Community College detailed and crafted the cabinetry. The kitchen garden was nurtured by a local organic farmer and a Landscape Architecture alumnus in the DC area tended scores of native grass plants, shrubs and red oak trees in his yard over the summer. The Web site and exhibit materials were produced by students in Graphic Design and Journalism. This paper will elaborate on the reasons, why interdisciplinary collaboration is necessary to build sustainably and utilize this experience to develop a proposal for a new ‘sustainable design’ curriculum. Furthermore the State’s DNR is using the solar powered home as an interpretive center to show the potential for research and outreach. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 112 | 04:30 PM |
| PAP2990 | Building a sustainable data center | Between 2000 and 2005 the footprint of our data center grew by 1000%. Clear patterns evolved showing the growth rate would continue and we were on an unsustainable path. Beginning in 2005, a commitment was made to start shrinking the footprint by virtualizing servers and data storage. Five years later we have reached a maturity level where we can quickly deploy enterprise level applications in a sustainable manner. I will share lessons learned along the way and how we generate simple metrics to demonstrate sustainability in Information Services. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 04:50 PM |
| POS10060 | Building Campus Partnerships for Successful Behavior Change Campaigns | Campus sustainability initiatives often hinge on influencing other people to change their behavior towards more pro-environmental actions. A growing body of social science research demonstrates that to achieve significant progress, programs must be tailored to specific audiences, contexts, and behaviors. This workshop will use a recent “Lights Out in Classrooms” campaign at the University of Utah as a case study to illustrate key concepts for designing behavior change initiatives and measuring their effectiveness. For this project, the campus offices of Sustainability and Energy Management teamed up with Dr. Carol Werner and her research assistants in the Department of Psychology as well as service-learning students in a Global Environmental Issues course. Dr. Werner and her students helped design a pilot study that built on existing research as a foundation for promoting energy conservation on campus. During the discussion, we will explore questions such as: How do you choose behaviors to target? How can you use normative influence in group settings to help encourage individual action? What barriers to change exist? How can you engage faculty and student researchers to help with design and evaluation of pilot projects? What is possible on a limited budget? Participants will learn how to move beyond traditional advertising and incentive-based approaches by applying the concepts introduced in the workshop to their own interests. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP10050 | Building Capacity for Sustainability Through Faculty and Curricular Development | Portland State University has made integration of sustainability across its academic programs an institutional priority, including adopting sustainability as one of eight campus-wide undergraduate learning goals in 2009. This workshop will describe an assessment project used to understand curricular and pedagogical challenges that faculty members experience teaching sustainability courses. Additionally, the workshop will involve participants in exploring innovative means by which they can address similar challenges on their campuses. The workshop begins with an overview of the assessment project initiated within the faculty development center at Portland State to understand how faculty members teaching sustainability courses approached course design. In particular the project assessed how faculty tied learning outcomes to assignments, and how they developed assignments to actively engage students in learning. Course syllabi collected as part of this project were assessed to understand how learning outcomes and key course components were aligned. To further substantiate their assessment work, faculty developers sponsored six student focus group discussions to learn how interested students experienced sustainability in their courses. Results indicate that the translation of sustainability into meaningful learning experiences for students is challenging to most faculty members, who often fail to develop appropriate learning outcomes, to inform students of them, or to design assignments that address outcomes in engaging, authentic ways. Workshop exercises and discussion opportunities will encourage participants to consider these and related issues in sustainability course development, exploring key challenges and exchanging innovative ideas for their solutions. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP3831 | Building Climate Action Plans from Existing Plans, Targets and Laws | The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh submitted its first Climate Action Plan (CAP) to ACUPCC in 2009. The Director of Sustainability (author) was asked to develop the CAP in approximately one month, with subsequent review by the Campus Sustainability Council and the Chancellor and his staff. The plan could be developed on this rapid timeframe because it is based primarily on relevant components of a more comprehensive Campus Sustainability Plan developed with wide campus input in 2007-2008. The CAP also incorporated the latest energy conservation targets set by the state of Wisconsin for public agencies, specific targets set by the Governor for UW Oshkosh as one of 4 “energy independent” campuses, and results from recent engineering studies of campus energy options. Several factors contributed to simplification of the plan. First, administration leaders dictated that timeframes for carbon neutrality needed to be within a reasonable career horizon for current administrators (i.e., could not be delegated to administrators one, two, or more generations into the future). Second, this first plan focused solely on the three large sources accounting for over 90% of emissions: heating plant, purchased electricity, and commuting. The CAP has attracted some attention for brevity (12 pages), the aggressive timetable for carbon neutrality (2020-2025), and the development of multiple scenarios to address the political realities of planning under state targets and governor-led initiatives. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 01:10 PM |
| POS10018 | Building Community Through Collaborative Education: Partnerships for Sustainable Design | As educators it is critical that we recognize our obligation to take an active role in developing curriculum that engages students in understanding the issues of environmental and social sustainability. Design education is a highly effective process that can be used to challenge students to engage in collaborative activities that are respectful to our planet and people. These processes and projects are catalytic, resourceful and contribute to a deeper understanding of what sustainable creative work means.Traditional design pedagogies have been, by and large, centered on models of consumer culture. Conversations on sustainability within the practice are often restricted to responsible use of materials and production methods. As educators, we are able to steer away from insufficient models of the status quo, examine best practices for a more sustainable future and incorporate these into curriculum for the education of a more sustainably conscious future citizen-designer. When students are given the opportunity to collaborate on work that engages them directly with community and addresses sustainability through design solutions, they truly participate in sustainable design. This session will highlight case studies of projects and processes that engage students, faculty, community and industry in collaborations that sustain our global communities. Participants will brainstorm and take away potential projects and methods relevant to their disciplines. Ulasewicz, C & Vouchilas, G. (11/2008). Sustainable design practices and consumer behavior: A case study in FCS student perceptions., Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences. Hethorn, J., Ulasewicz, C. (2008). Sustainable Fashion: Why Now? New York: Fairchild Publications. | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR3112 | Building Global Bridges to Sustainability Research/Collaborations in Higher Education | The institutional repository (IR) concept was designed and created by faculty and librarians to showcase scholarly activity at the academy. The Open Access (OA) model upon which IR’s are built is inherently more sustainable and socially just, eliminating financial barriers that can hamper access to information and global sustainability efforts. At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), the repository serves several important goals. First, it showcases the research of scholars in all aspects of sustainability and makes it globally accessible. Secondly, by garnering difficult to locate federal, state, and local government-funded research reports on energy, sustainable development, transportation, and water resources, the repository facilitates further research. UNLV Libraries have initiated partnerships with local, regional, and national organizations, such as the cities of Las Vegas and Henderson, Clark County (NV), and Brookings Mountain West. By archiving their work and projects in the IR, we document their sustainability initiatives, increase the visibility of projects, and maximize opportunities for interdisciplinary urban sustainability research. Other relevant materials available through the IR include articles, theses/dissertations, presentations, posters, reports, conference proceedings, and peer-reviewed OA journals on topics such as clean energy, nuclear issues, technology and environment, sustainability, and climate protection. Archiving all campus sustainability efforts and maintaining documentation from these partnerships in a single location provides a one-stop research database for faculty and students, accessible anywhere in the world. This centralization and monthly item download reports also facilitates the sustainability measurement progress in campus and regional initiatives. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 09:50 AM |
| PAP3352 | Building iCAP: The University of Illinois Climate Action Planning Experience | We need visions of the future in order to plan. With a clear vision, campus leaders can guide our Universities toward becoming healthier, cleaner, safer, and more prosperous places. Most importantly, we need inclusive visions—visions in which a diverse faculty, staff, and student body can imagine themselves, and are inspired to actively defend. But getting from a vision to an action requires a plan. We need to know what to do and when to do it in order to realize these visions. Visions without plans are just ‘wishful thinking’. But a vision with a plan can change the world. In this discussion, we present the visions and plans, the lessons learned, successes and failures in the construction of the iCAP – the University of Illinois Climate Action Plan. The total campus emissions inventory modeled for the University is substantial - 570,000 MTE (metric ton equivalent) of CO2; most of which are a direct result of the need to heat, cool and operate our campus buildings. The iCAP process required engaging and satisfying multiple constituencies, significant research and negotiating with skeptical administrators. The outcome is an integrated strategy of limiting facility growth, aggressive building energy conservation plans, the de-carbonization of energy generation systems, active modifications to transportation, an increase in sustainable food and agricultural systems, and the construction of large-scale renewable energy sources. We believe this 'conserve-and-load' approach to achieving net-zero GHG emissions is achievable, and affordable, and implementable on campuses across the country | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 01:10 PM |
| PAN3373 | Building sustainability communities through service learning at University of Denver | The mission of the University of Denver includes a commitment to build active partnerships with local and global communities in an effort to contribute to “a sustainable common good.” One of the institutional structures that has emerged to facilitate this goal is the Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning (CCESL), which supports DU faculty in developing service learning curriculum and pursuing public good scholarship. This panel will include faculty from across disciplines—including political science, psychology, geography, and chemistry—who have worked with CCESL and a broad range of community partners including the campus community itself, community advocacy groups, and federal agencies. Each faculty member will present examples of integrating service learning into a course curriculum in order to broaden student awareness and engagement in social and/or environmental sustainability issues. The focus of the panel will be on service learning outcomes achieved, as well as challenges faced. Other points to be addressed by the panelists and audience discussion will include strategies for building community partners, the relationship between service learning courses and public good scholarship, and the role of institutional support in promoting the service learning curriculum development. | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 110 | 02:10 PM |
| POS10051 | Building Sustainability Programs and Administration, From Workforce Development to Degrees | Our institution began developing sustainable education programs over twelve years ago as a response to local farmers’ request to train farmers in organic and sustainable agriculture practices. From those first continuing education classes, taught by senior farmers, our campus has grown to include AAS degrees in Sustainable Agriculture, Alternative Energy Biodiesel Production and in 2010 we will institute our AAS degree in Sustainable Technologies in Green Building and Renewable Energy. Students participate in multi-level educational opportunities from one-day workshops in rain barrel construction to semester long NABCEP certified PV installation courses. Our campus is home to a LEED Gold certified class and lab building, a five acre student farm, an oilseed crop field, a biodiesel processing facility, living roof and solar thermal and pv demonstration/training elements. Our growth and success in programming is mirrored by both college administration and local government efforts to include sustainability in both long range planning and policies. As we embark on a higher level of sustainability, we have enrolled in both the AASHE STARS program and our President has signed the ACUPCC. Our vision is to model sustainable practices in our buildings and administration and prepare workers to re-tool for a sustainable workforce as well as prepare students for additional education in sustainability studies beyond their two year experience in our institution. | Poster | Poster | |||
| DD2400 | Building the New Green OR Greening the Already Built: Evaluating the optimal strategy for your campus | Many higher education institutions across the country are investing efforts and resources in promoting and implementing sustainable practices on their campuses. However, while addressing the infrastructure, these institution often run into a few common questions, such as, “Should we rebuild this facility or renovate it?” or “How can we make our buildings more energy-efficient, healthy and sustainable with limited resources?” or “How can we preserve the historic beauty and architectural integrity of our buildings, yet make them greener?” Evaluating these questions is especially critical to schools that lack financial and technical resources for “experimentation” and to schools with older campuses. Appropriate evaluation and strategic scrutiny of these issues help determine how and in what capacity an institution could pursue climate neutrality. New construction, renovation, partial energy-retrofits, etc. are a few of the paths that an institution could follow to green its infrastructure. It is important to shed light on these nuances of green building practice to help institutions understand and evaluate the most optimal solution for their context. More often than not the higher capital investment in constructing/renovating new buildings, as well as lack of in-house expertise for assessing the best option for building green, act as deterrents in institutions’ plans of committing to sustainable building practice. To address and help resolve some of these challenges and quandaries faced by institutions, Second Nature plans to offer “Building the New Green OR Greening the Already Built: Evaluating the optimal strategy for your campus” session at the AASHE conference. | Dialogue and Discussion | 100 min | Tues | 301 | 12:10 PM |
| PAP10026 | Building Weatherization Planning through Cross-Campus Collaboration | Last May, more than 50 students took a break from studying for finals and partnered with the school’s Environmental Action Committee, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Green Program, and Office for Sustainability to pick up caulk guns to help improve the energy efficiency of a building on campus. This event was a truly unique opportunity for students to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions while learning how to weatherize a building. Over the course of two months, the team identified nearly 40 practical energy conservation measures for the building, which is a 12,800 square foot, 100 year old, brick building. Of these, they selected more than 20 that could be safely and effectively implemented with student labor. Projects included caulking storm windows, installing low-flow plumbing fixtures, replacing lamps with compact fluorescents or low-mercury super T8 linear fluorescents, sealing a chimney, installing door sweeps and door jambs, insulating steam pipes, adding smart power strips on computers and timers on water coolers, installing educational signage, and many others. In aggregate, the projects are expected to save the University over 9 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gases and $3,750 in utility costs annually. Attendees in this session will learn practical tools for developing and fostering collaboration across a wide range of stakeholders on campus to organize an event such as this in a cost-effective and timely manner. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 02:50 PM |
| PAP3368 | Calculating and Communicating the Carbon Benefit of Campus Trees | This dialogue and discussion session will facilitate creation of a peer-reviewed methodology for calculating and reporting the carbon sequestration of campus trees, to further the design of responsible policies for the inclusion of campus forests and trees in campus greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories and climate action plans. Emissions reduction policies are generally based on reducing emissions through efficiency measures, clean energy alternatives and avoided emissions through conservation. We seek to reconnect tree preservation and planting policies to carbon reduction efforts, clarifying the difference between baseline sequestration and sequestration as a carbon offset. The presenters will address the complexities of carbon offsets, focusing on carbon accounting and reporting practices that provide maximum accountability, transparency and actionable information for decision-makers. Jennifer Andrews of Clean-Air Cool Planet (CA-CP) will provide a an overview of current “best practices” in measuring and reporting campus carbon sequestration. CA-CP’s Campus Carbon Calculator™ is the leading tool for assessing campus GHG emissions, currently in use by more than 1500 campuses across the country. Chatham University is home to both an urban arboretum and a rural forest. Mary Whitney, Sustainability Coordinator, will provide model tree management policies for participant consideration, and introduce i-Tree, a state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed software suite from the USDA Forest Service that provides urban forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools. With session attendees, we will work through recommendations for campus tree policies that reflect good forestry practice, inform campus land use planning and stewardship, and respect the goal of real greenhouse gas reductions. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 03:50 PM |
| PAP3496 | Campus as a Learning, Living Laboratory for Sustainability | At the 2006 AASHE national conference, University of Arizona (UA) student Emilie Brill-Duisberg received the Student Sustainability Leadership Award for her work on implementing campus water harvesting projects which grew out of a water harvesting course she and other students helped initiate. This presentation provides an update on the evolution of this course and subsequent related campus water harvesting projects, and the impact these efforts have made on the campus’ emerging sustainability program. Now having completed its fifth year, this popular water harvesting class has evolved in its instructional content along with methods of implementing the required hands-on field work. Faculty, staff, and students collaborate in and ongoing process of figuring out how to best implement projects with student participation. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 107 | 12:30 PM |
| PAN3137 | Campus Organic Gardens On the Rise | Program organizers from several different colleges plan to lead an interactive discussion on different approaches to community and organic gardening on college campuses. Campus gardens are known for being one of the most valuable tools to teach the technical skills of organic gardening to students. Middlebury has a well established farm-to-table and farm-to-college program on its 3 acre plot of land which also supplies a CSA and donates 300-500 pounds of produce to a food shelf annually. Fort Lewis College has used its organic garden, greenhouse, and edible landscaping to provide hands-on learning opportunities and promote community collaboration since 2001. Saint Michael’s established their organic garden program two years ago. Their ¼ acre growing space acts as an education tool for the community to learn about sustainable agriculture as well as provide outdoor labs for several classes. And finally, there is ASU, poised at the end of its very first growing season and gearing up to take it to the next level. The ASU garden reinforces sense of place and allows for individual stake holders within the greater scope of the garden. Attendees of this panel will get an in depth look at the differences and similarities of these programs. The panelists will discuss the challenges and successes involved with organic gardening on campus and leave you with a road map to getting your own project established or improved upon. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 103 | 07:00 AM |
| PAP3079 | Campus Raised Organic Produce: Creation of garden on Auraria campus | Students, faculty, and staff of Auraria campus have been working for over a year to create ‘Campus Raised Organic Produce’ (CROP). Auraria is home of three institutions, The University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State College of Denver, and the Community College of Denver. The Auraria Higher Education Center operates the tri-institutional campus. CROP requires cooperation among the three institutions and AHEC, which offers unique opportunities and challenges. This is an introductory project that will report on the status of CROP, the process of creating a team of leaders, obtaining funding, activities to garner community support, and plans for the garden, greenhouse, and the food to be produced. With 99.8% of the food consumed in Denver being imported from outside of Colorado, and global food production accounting for 70% of water consumption, 25% of global warming, 85% of the six million tons of pesticides used annually, and nearly all of the 170 million tons of nitrogen, 50 million tons of phosphate, and 50 million tons of potash used annually, local agriculture plays a crucial role in a sustainable society. CROP is also justified by the health, educational, research, and outreach opportunities offered by an urban agriculture program. Once the campus garden is created it should help build a sense of community, bringing together members of the three institutions and AHEC with the common goal of producing fresh, local, healthy, organic food. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 107 | 02:10 PM |
| FR3489 | Campus Success through Collaboration and Student Engagement | Building student support for university sustainability programs is the fundamental element that will catalyze the necessary culture change to create an aware and engaged society and the resulting long-term programmatic success. With over 60,000 students and 15,000 staff, however, this is by no means an easy task. At Arizona State, there has historically been a disconnect between university goals and practices and the perceptions of the students. The majority of students, when asked, express an interest in “doing the right thing,” but most are unaware of the pertinent programs, even those as basic as recycling; wide-spread signage is not enough. Over the course of two years of move-in and move-out programs, we have implemented numerous methods for engaging students, only some of which proved highly effective while others were unsuccessful. The aspects that were most successful involved an unprecedented level of collaboration across multiple departments and were driven by an unexpectedly heavy interest and involvement by a small group of students. The student presence in planning for sustainability programs has not only been key to the success of these programs, but has also given root for substantially greater student involvement and initiative. These presentations will feature several of the student leaders who drove the success of the move in recycling programs, Ditch the Dumpster move out collection drives, and broader student engagement in sustainability at ASU. We will share specific solutions and problems encountered as a case study on the importance of student involvement in large-scale campus sustainability efforts. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 12:30 PM |
| PAN3386 | Campus Sustainability as a Driver of Social Justice | Oftentimes, we think of our sustainability efforts independent of social justice. This panel will discuss innovative ideas for combining recycling while funding social justice initiatives. The panelists, representing both private and public institutions of various size, will discuss their unique programs and provide ideas for how to use sustainability efforts as a driver for social change. Tod Scott, Waste Stream Manager at the University of Wyoming, leads a program that recycles unwanted textbooks to support literacy initiatives around the world. Rob Gogan, Waste Management and Recycling Director from Harvard University – RecycleMania’s Grand Champion in the Ivy League, organizes the largest garage sale in Boston, turning items left in dorm rooms into funding for Habitat for Humanity. Elizabeth Cole-Fay, project coordinator for sustainability at Rio Salado, discusses the challenges and some solutions regarding sustainability for an online college. Christian Blue, Regional Manager at Better World Books – winner of the EPA 2009 WasteWise Gold Achievement Award for paper reduction, will moderate. Upon completion of this seminar, participants will have several ideas ranging from easy-to-implement to more robust programs. All of these ideas translate into funding for social change and offer a measurable environmental impact. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 105 | 07:00 AM |
| DD3298 | Campus sustainability initiatives: what helps, what hinders? | As more and more campuses become increasingly adept at measuring their progress toward sustainability, it is just as important to also track a variety of institutional factors that might help or hinder those efforts such as breadth of stakeholder engagement, level of cross-functional collaboration, stakeholder support levels, engaging community partnerships, and use of assessment and planning tools, to name just a few. In this interactive session, participants will receive and discuss initial findings from a series of interviews with chief sustainability personnel from a variety of campuses. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to examine and demonstrate a practical tool that can be used to analyze their home institution’s own unique constellation of helping and hindering forces. | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Mon | 301 | 02:10 PM |
| CSW3871 | Campus Sustainability Plan 1.0 - a framework for transformative action | UCSC drafted its first comprehensive Campus Sustainability Plan (the Plan) during the 2009-10 academic year, building on a long history of environmental stewardship and nine years of active campus sustainability coordination efforts. The process combined facilitative and consultative leadership approaches, a focus on building strong relationships, and an effective outreach strategy. The Plan has built broad support for the campus sustainability movement and has catalyzed fertile cross-departmental dialogue and collaboration, integrated and streamlined diverse campus sustainability efforts, fostered innovation and creativity, and provided community members facing an increasingly uncertain landscape an avenue to contribute to positive change. Rooted in a detailed case study of UCSC’s unique campus sustainability and climate action planning processes, this experiential, interactive workshop will leave attendees with concrete tools, resources, and best practices to use at their own institutions to increase buy-in, engagement, and support for campus sustainability initiatives. It will model through hands-on activities how to use the planning process as a vehicle for institutional transformation. Topics covered will include: moving from a compelling and meaningful vision to concrete plans of action, successfully navigating the organizational ecology, building the sandwich of support (top, mid, bottom), fun and effective meetings, working with timelines and milestones, integrating metric tracking with operational goals, measuring success, and embracing celebrations as essential elements of community building and institutional change. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Mon | 304 | 12:30 PM |
| PAP2943 | Campus Sustainability Programs: A Case Study of Historical Fragmented Campus | For more than 30 years, SCAD has transformed historic properties into thriving environments for students, including former hotels, a hospital, a prison, a synagogue, a convent, a department store, a vaudeville stage and more. Of its more than 100 facilities around the world, SCAD has constructed only four. This legacy of sustainability has earned recognition from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the American Institute of Architects and many others. The University today is recognized as a leader in operations, teaching, and campus events related to sustainability. In addition, SCAD has institutional vision and mission statements that support the inclusion of sustainability as an institutional goal. But the university had not developed a campus sustainability program to help coordinate and guide further transitions. This paper argues that developing a campus sustainability program requires understanding the range of possible options, deciding what dimension of sustainability to pursue, accepting some trade-offs, and moving the University forward. Launching a sustainability program will help to put more emphasis on long-term environmental change and address a range of issues, to institutionalize environmental practices into everyday processes and actions, to increase awareness and collaboration across SCAD, and to shift focus from individual projects to continuous improvement towards a desired future state. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 107 | 04:30 PM |
| POS3281 | Campus SWM Preparedness: The Philippine HEI Experience | This study measured the preparedness of a Philippine HEI to implement an integrated campus solid waste management (SWM) program. Silliman University in Dumaguete City, Philippines served as the case study. Preparedness was taken as inhibiting and enabling factors for campus solid waste segregation. The campus practices on SWM were subject to an audit that were described by way of measured intensity and extent of actions, differentiated by quantified indicators that were classified according to the six E’s framework of integrated SWM. These six E components were engineering, education, enforcement, environmental organization, equity, and executive will. Measured intensities were then compared with these quantified indicators to determine comparable level of performance of each E. The cumulative performance of all E’s equated to the overall campus SWM preparedness. A descriptive methodology was employed, with data gathered using a mixed methods approach. Silliman University garnered an overall integrated SWM preparedness percentage of 42 percent. The strongest rating of 72 percent was amassed in the Equity component, due to the findings of a potential source of funding for a campus SWM program. The Enforcement component rated lowest with only 21 percent, due primarily to the lack of a formal, campus-wide directive or policy on solid waste management. The ratings for the other four E components were as follows: 48 percent for the Education component, 44 percent for the Environmental Organization component, 43 percent for the Executive Will component, and 32 percent for the Engineering component. | Poster | ONE HOUR FIFTEEN | |||
| POS2781 | Campus Wide Waste Audit | Diving into the Depths of the Desolate Dumpster 2.0: A Campus-Wide Waste Audit of Furman University Erika Baldwin, Will Stallings, and Weston Dripps Furman University, Earth and Environmental Sciences, 3300 Poinsett Hwy, Greenville, SC 29613 Abstract: The second annual campus wide waste audit for Furman University was conducted between January and March 2010. The audit focused primarily on assessing the university’s residential waste stream and as such included data samples from all fifteen waste collection containers serving student resident halls on campus. Trash samples were gathered over a twelve week period on Friday afternoons. In total, forty to fifty pounds of waste were assessed at each collection site. Waste was sorted into nine categories: white paper, mixed paper, plastic #’s 1-2, plastic #’s 3-7, cardboard, compostable materials, glass, electronic waste, and true waste. Weight and volume measurements for each category were measured and recorded. With Furman’s current recycling program, 24% of the materials sorted by weight and 45% by volume could have been recycled. At a typical recycling center, 73% of the materials sorted by weight and 78% by volume could have been recycled. A similar audit was conducted in 2009 and together, with waste stream data of other small liberal arts colleges, provided a means for comparison and analysis of the 2010 data. The 2009 and 2010 results from this audit are being used by Furman’s administration and facilities services to help develop a campus recycling master plan. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3321 | Campus-Community Partnerships for a Sustainable Future: Service-Learning Courses | It is important that universities not work in isolation on their sustainability initiatives, but extend beyond the walls of academe and link with others in the broader community. Service-learning partnerships/ collaborations between university students and their local communities to work towards sustainable futures provide a mechanism for doing so; service-learning is the way in which “scholarship of engagement” actualizes itself in the curriculum. It gives students a chance to see how their skills can be applied, and offers a reconfiguration of how we involve education and citizenship in the U.S. I will discuss service-learning methodology and its benefits to my UVM students as well as its benefits for the community. While service-learning courses may take more time (to build trust with the partner, arrange logistics, develop deep reflection activities), the enhanced student learning and skills development--as well as the benefits to the community--are worth the extra effort. I will provide case studies of various service-learning courses I have taught over the past decade at the University of Vermont based on the PARE model and using Clayton’s DEAL approach to foster deep reflection. Emphasis will be placed on partnerships with Intervale Center www.intervale.org, which has received international attention for its programs dealing with food and agriculture. While not a panacea or silver bullet, these service-learning partnerships for a sustainable future do offer great potential, especially important because the partnerships help provide experience and training for the next generation of sustainability leaders soon, rather than having to wait a generation. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 104 | 03:10 PM |
| PAN2320 | Canadian Universities and Colleges Advance Tomorrow’s Low Carbon Economy | Canadian universities and colleges, from St. John to Victoria are playing an instrumental role in not only demonstrating steps towards a low carbon economy, but also helping communities to adapt to a greener and equitable future too. A few have already met or surpassed the Kyoto target of an absolute reduction of 6 percent GHG emissions below 1990 levels by 2012 and demonstrated significant energy savings along the way. Now, many more are setting bold 2020 and 2050 targets, and pursuing strategies to generate low-carbon energy, realize zero waste and zero emissions, and to foster social and economic prosperity. This panel will demonstrate the mosaic of Canadian diversity as each member reflects on their new or well established journey to achieve a low carbon future. Panelists will share their story of a key project that demonstrates tangible steps in the transition to a low carbon future. They will describe what have been the challenges and enablers along the way. The focus is projects as follows: • Energy Efficiency in Existing Buildings • Energy Efficient Design in New Buildings • Low Carbon and Alternative Energy Supply • Community Development Perspectives on working with business and the community in adapting to a low carbon future and related education and research initiatives may also be shared. The moderator will set the tone for the panel by presenting highlights from a pan-Canada scan of the types of initiatives playing out on campuses and a brief summary of related trends, challenges and opportunities. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 203 | 03:50 PM |
| FR3335 | Carbon Offsets in a Local Setting: Final Results from the Green House Project | The Green House Project was a split-incentive and education program which targeted both student renters and their landlords (hence the “split”) in the Athens OH area in order to improve the energy efficiency of off-campus student rental units. The project was piloted in 2008-2010 as a potentially effective way of offsetting Ohio University’s greenhouse gas emissions while educating students and landlords on climate and energy issues. Over 75% of the housing stock in Athens is rental units. Of this, over 85% is occupied by Ohio University students, representing over 12,200 legally rentable beds. These residences often generate abnormally high utility bills, as the burden of costs is passed along to tenants. Meanwhile, most weatherization incentive programs do not apply to non-owner occupied units and appliances. The Green House Project concluded in May 2010, with over 20 participating units. Final results of the project will be presented as well as lessons learned for further research and implementation of community-based offset projects. Project materials including proposal, budget, timelines and communication products will be distributed to presentation attendees. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 04:10 PM |
| POS10053 | Case Study Approach to Developing Sustainability Curriculum | Case Study Approach to Developing Sustainability Curriculum We have made a commitment to incorporating sustainability throughout our curriculum, providing students with opportunities to engage with sustainability initiatives on campus and in the local community. During our recent sabbatical, we developed 5 case studies for the undergraduate Management curriculum and other disciplines, including Environmental Studies and Safety Studies. One case was developed with a large, local for-profit entity and the remaining cases were developed around recent campus initiatives. Each case includes course specific content objectives as well as the following sustainability and experiential learning objectives: Sustainability Related: To expose students to the role of sustainability in management decision-making at Keene State College and in the surrounding community To provide students with opportunities to apply management analytical tools to sustainability initiatives Experiential Learning: To provide opportunities for student engagement with a variety of campus and community sustainability stakeholders (e.g. College V.P. for Finance and Planning, Plant and Grounds Supervisor and Staff, City Public Works Director) We would like to present these dynamic cases and our experiences working with campus and community stakeholders in their development and dissemination at the AASHE 2010 Conference. We believe that our case studies would serve as models for curriculum development elsewhere. | Poster | Poster | |||
| CSW3384 | Catalyzing Just and Sustainable Food Systems in Complex Institutions | In this interactive session we will describe how our program, UBC SEEDS, acts as a catalyst to move UBC towards a just and sustainable food system. This community-based action-research project, the University of British Columbia Food System Project (UBCFSP), was initiated by UBC’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems and the UBC Campus Sustainability Office. The multi-stakeholder project has brought together campus food providers, producers, waste managers, planners, academics and over 1600 students. Using the classroom as a vehicle for collaboration, students have worked on interdisciplinary case studies with themes ranging from food policy and sustainable food procurement to waste management and climate change. The project emerged from the recognition that our food system faces increasing threats to its sustainability, at global, national and local levels. A fundamental assumption is that while universities play a significant role in adding to these problems, they also can mobilize to address them. This project has contributed to the creation of consensually-agreed upon principles of a sustainable food system and the design and implementation of targets, strategies and action plans that have increased the sustainability of our campus food system. We will address how the UBCFSP evolved and describe key challenges, findings, accomplishments, and future plans. We hope that by sharing best practices related to sustainability in UBC’s food system that we will teach other campuses how to move utopian ideas to practical implementation and commitment. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Tues | 112 | 09:30 AM |
| FR3456 | Catalyzing Student Sustainability Engagement and Leadership with Campus Living Laboratorites | Two new Student Affairs programs at Portland State University are creating systems that allow students to engage in campus sustainability through hands-on education. The Sustainability Leadership Center is a new and innovative department that provides sustainability leadership and engagement opportunities for students at PSU. By partnering with departments across the University, the Center is developing student leaders who create unique sustainability projects that create tangible change on the campus and in the community. Examples include the award-winning Take Back the Tap plastic water bottle reduction campaign, sustainable infrastructure projects, design charrettes, and the Student Sustainability Advisory Council. The Sustainability Living Learning Cluster (LLC) makes sustainable urban living a core experience for First Year Experience (FYE) students living and learning at PSU. The LLC equips students with practical and theoretical approaches to sustainable living, merging the living community with unique academic and field experiences. Students partner with the Office of Sustainability and engage in various activities and programs to increase sustainable practices on campus and in the community. Students live together on the same residence hall floor, take the same Sustainability Freshman Inquiry course, participate in various community activities, and develop leadership skills through a variety of experiential learning programs. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 110 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP3401 | Challenges and successes of an internal certification program and peer-to-peer educator network | Changing behavior at an organization is difficult, particularly when sustainability officers are time and personal limited. One way to communicate to a wide audience is to recruit people in every unit to be the eyes and ears disseminating information about environmental stewardship. Often called “Green Teams,” at Michigan State University these “Environmental Stewards” propel behavior change throughout campus with 600 stewards in 323 departments conducting peer-to-peer education. However, two important components of the program make it work: an internal certification program of different functional areas of the university and creation of relationships among stewards. This year, environmental stewards were charged with getting their department “Green Certified.” Green certification is a list of environmental best practices in the areas of waste, energy, water, and procurement. The program provides a means to encourage and track behaviors. Environmental stewards were engaged in developing the green certification surveys. In teams, the stewards developed separate surveys for offices, laboratories, information technology spaces, dining areas and kitchens, and campus living spaces. Stewards piloted the forms prior to the launch 2009. Over one-third of units applied certification standards in the first year of the program. Most of these units passed or changed practices to meet the criteria. The presentation will discuss the lessons learned from this process and provide (as much as possible) a blueprint for implementing these programs. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 05:00 PM |
| CSW3241 | Change Management for Sustainability | This workshop is structured to define the new frontier for managing institutional change for sustainability. At its heart, change management for sustainability is about making change easy, desirable and rewarding. This workshop will provide a roadmap for taking your organization towards sustainability by engaging in a deliberate change management approach. In the first workshop, two of the three change management cycles will be explored: Awakening The first step that must be taken by anyone who wishes to green their organization is to ignite the awareness that addressing environmental issues are in the organization’s own interest. That is, you must get it on the university’s agenda. Experience shows that this process of awakening can take many different pathways, it can draw upon many different rationales and it can begin with anyone. Pioneering The Pioneering stage is marked by a clear movement beyond the single point of instigation to a diffused state of ownership and initiative across the organization. It involves both the development of greater executive commitment along with the emergence of an organizational context that empowers and enables more people to undertake new green projects, to development capacities and confidence. We see a proliferation of green projects across the organization and an increase in both top down and bottom up leadership. The more sustainabliity is understood and corresponding new frontiers of greening the workplace are discovered, the organization will cycle through states of awakening and pioneering. These cycles will remain in effect for many years to come. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Tues | 205 | 09:30 AM |
| FR3804 | Change Starts at “Home:†Promoting Sustainable Living in Residence Halls | The Beatles once sang, “You say you want a revolution. Well you know, we all want to change the world.” SMU’s Residence Life program wanted to help change the world by starting a green revolution in our residential communities through peer educators called E-Reps. With a first year live on requirement, we saw the opportunity to introduce our students to the importance of committing to a sustainable lifestyle from the moment they arrived on campus. The E-Reps promote and encourage behavior changes that work within the confines of living in a residence hall. Over three years of research and re-design has been put into the current model, and our greatest level of success was found through collaboration with Facilities Management department and the SMU Sustainability Committee, which provides financial support for the program. This session will share the story of our journey and the current program structure. The objective is to provide ideas and suggestions that may work at your institution and to engage in discussion with colleagues about how to create your own residential education program on sustainability. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 112 | 03:50 PM |
| FR3858 | Changing Behavior, One Phase at a Time | After watching Colin Beavan’s Documentary “No Impact Man”, our Earth Week planning team tried to fit his “No Impact Experiment” into a week but due to overcrowding and the intensity it required at a busy time of year we abandoned the idea. After Earth Week, I decided to mimic the year-long phased approach of Colin Beavan except tailored to students, and after talks with the new Sustainability Outreach Coordinator, agreed on a partnership with her office to promote the Challenge. We call it the UVa Green Challenge. The idea is to offer 7 phases (Food, energy, Consumption, Trash, Water, Community Engagement and Travel) in which a student chooses new habits to try and adopt in a phase (and keep ones they like through subsequent phases). To help give students an incentive to explore more options and extend their comfort zone we have a points system that awards points for more difficult behavior changes or for more educational events attended. Do points alone get someone to take the challenge? The Challenge seeks to sign up friend groups as to add a social dynamic to the challenge in order to strengthen people’s commitments and make the challenge a fun activity with friendly competition. We will have completed our Food phase be entering the Energy phase by the start of the conference and can address progress of both, including outreach efforts of which the primary focus is in getting first years through their RA’s to sign up as halls or suites. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 110 | 01:00 PM |
| PAP3514 | Changing Hearts: Sustainability in the Long Term | For many, the environmental movement is a consumer fad with very little intellectual or emotional investment. Generally, sustainability is deemed a “good thing” but given low priority at both the personal level and the public policy level. In this paper, I argue that environmentalism must be modified to meet the needs of the general populace in order to gain momentum as a contemporary political movement. In other words, I question how the environmental movement can attract the massive number of active members necessary to change public policy. I contend that this movement will need to adapt to the public in two ways. First, I suggest that it should transition an anthropocentric, or human-oriented, angle when introducing people to the merits of sustainability. While biocentric ethics, or the recognition of the intrinsic value of all life forms, is an essential component of sustainability, I maintain that a clear emphasis on human life will be more compelling for potential new members. I demonstrate that the human impact of the BP oil spill has been a major impetus in rousing recent public interest in environmentalism. Second, I explore the unique capacity of faith communities in the United States to change hearts and unite believers into political action. I demonstrate that Christian communities in the past have changed public policy by relentlessly pursuing human rights violations, namely in the abolitionist and civil rights movements. Similarly, I hold that Christian communities should champion the cause of sustainability as part of a larger social justice issue. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 107 | 01:30 PM |
| CSW3440 | CHEFS: Advancing the Carbon Footprinting of Food in North America | Dining plays a central role in campus life, as has been reflected in a plethora of recent dining-related initiatives—from trayless cafeterias to composting to community gardens on campus. A perennial challenge, however, is the lack of tools and information about the impacts of various dining service choices. Clean Air-Cool Planet’s free Campus Carbon Calculator™ has been helping schools measure their carbon footprints since 2001. CA-CP now takes its focus on scientific rigor, transparency and comprehensiveness to the arena of dining services. The new Charting Emissions from Food Services (CHEFS) calculator is a simple, free, online way to gain information about the carbon footprints of dining-related purchases and operations. CHEFS was created with input from life-cycle experts Earthshift and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, developed and vetted in collaboration with founding sponsor ARAMARK, and has been piloted by more than two dozen institutions over the past two years. It will be publicly launched at this session. After a brief presentation about the tool, session attendees will be broken into groups to consider two important opportunities for post-conference action: how to collect, analyze and use data from their own campuses with CHEFS; or, how to further the body of desperately needed life-cycle data related to our food systems, through class, student or faculty research projects. The group discussions will focus on opportunities and process, potential barriers, and solutions—and the groups will report back about their best ideas and their identified next steps. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Mon | 205 | 09:30 AM |
| POS3198 | Chuck it for Charity: FSU's student move out collection initiative | Each spring over 6,000 Florida State University on-campus residents move out of the residence halls, leaving behind tons of unwanted “stuff” that is usually sent directly to the landfill. Chuck it for Charity is The Florida State University’s annual student move out collection drive in response to this issue that exists on every college and university campus. The model we chose is to collect reusable goods – clothes, food, books, room décor/house wares, personal hygiene supplies, school supplies, cleaning supplies, and bicycles – and donate everything back to Tallahassee area community agencies in support of their work and the people they help. The dynamic collaboration between on-campus and off campus organizations represents the best of campus-community partnerships and is a win-win for our community as a whole. Over the past two years, Chuck it for Charity has prevented 22 tons of material from being sent to the landfill and saved The Florida State University hundreds of dollars in waste disposal fees. The collected material has stocked Big Bend area food pantries, shelters, and teacher’s classrooms with supplies as well as help build the foundation for an on-campus bicycle reuse program. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3448 | Circles of Exchange: Growing New Connections | Nature is constantly “innovating” by creating new connections, sharing information (nutrients) and adjusting system conditions in an ongoing search for stability. Similarly, human communities can employ networks to make new connections, share knowledge, and find and create new sources of value related to living sustainably and resiliently in a given place. This paper explores and develops the idea of “circles of exchange” for facilitating the development of theoretical and applied (“how-to”) knowledge about sustainability on college campuses. Circles of exchange are self-organizing learning networks in which people identify problems, prototype solutions, develop feedback loops, and create more resilient human communities in an ongoing process of identifying what activities have the best local “fit” (i.e., place-based connectedness). Learning through action, reflection, and networked dialogue are key aspects of effective circles of exchange; and such circles are strengthened when knowledge and connections are created across disciplines or outside of formal disciplinary confines. The circles of exchange concept can exist outside academia as well. Sustainable and just economies can use circles of exchange to reduce the costs of accessing knowledge about living sustainably in a particular place. The development of networks that facilitate the identification and creation of knowledge can help people grow new connections among human and natural systems, and find new place-based value. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 112 | 12:30 PM |
| PAP3209 | Civic Engagement: Drury University’s Ozarks Center for Sustainable Solutions | Drury University developed a portal through which students connect directly with area businesses for internships and course-based civic engagement to promote sustainable practices and ethics throughout the region. The Ozarks Center for Sustainable Solutions (OCSS) at Drury offers technical assistance in pollution prevention, energy conservation and sustainability to organizations throughout Missouri. OCSS conducts waste stream assessments, implements research projects and sustainability programs, and is a resource for best practices. Since its inception in 2008, two full time staff and several student interns have helped clients reduce 60,000 cubic yards of waste, 1,000,000 kwh of electricity, 7,000,000 gallons of water, and over $700,000 in operational costs. For example, they performed a campus-wide energy audit for Drury and a greenhouse gas inventory for Springfield Public Schools, and developed a water conservation program for St. John’s Hospital complex. Also, in partnership with the Ozarks Public Health Institute and St. John's Hospital, the OCSS developed an indoor air quality analysis program for patients with asthma, which provides a much needed service to individuals suffering from asthma, while providing students with real-world environmental health experience. As a partner linking Drury’s academic programs with area organizations, OCSS has enhanced the opportunities for students from several majors, including economics, marketing, architecture, education, environmental health and environmental science, which has also improved student recruitment. Through the OCSS, Drury has continued to light the way for organizations throughout the region to minimize environmental impact and strengthen an ethic of sustainability. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 10:10 AM |
| PAP10007 | Clarifying Climate Confusion: Lessons from Climate Literacy | Described by one observer as "as imperative for survival," climate literacy is a Presidential Priority. Yet tremendous work needs to be done particularly in higher education, to increase the number of climate literate teachers, faculty, staff and ultimately citizens, and to thereby increase societal awareness of the basic dynamics of the climate system and the impacts that human activities are already having on the planet. Understanding the basics of climate science is an essential component to understanding the urgency, making informed choices, and developing effective solutions to global change. Climate Literacy, the Essential Principles of Climate Science, were developed through a community process that ultimately resulted in a document that has been reviewed and endorsed by over a dozen federal agencies involved with the US Global Change Research Program. The Climate Literacy Network, developed to support these federal efforts, has worked to build community and capacity to increase the quality and quantity of climate education throughout society. Projects include the Climate Literacy Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN), a reviewed and annotated digital library collection, and several regional climate education efforts. This workshop will review the development and content of Climate Literacy and related resources, and discuss how emerging best practices can be applied in higher education in support of Climate Action Plan and Presidents' Climate Commitment goals. Discussion will also focus on developing curricula, exhibits and other outreach efforts to make carbon neutrality and climate action plans relevant and accessible to non-technical audiences. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 05:20 PM |
| PAN3424 | Climate Action Implementation on research campuses: Lessons from large scale energy projects | For large research campuses achieving climate neutrality requires a combination of supply-side and demand-side energy initiatives. Panelists will focus on the implementation of Climate Action Plans underway at three universities. Cornell, Stanford, and UPenn released comprehensive Climate Action Plans in 2009 and have a variety of energy production, conservation, and distribution projects underway. Cornell recently completed a combined heat and power facility that integrates with an existing district energy system, and has begun planning for large-scale renewable production including a deep geothermal energy system and integration with an agricultural research project that aims to produce bio-energy from diverse waste streams. Stanford identified the opportunity to recover about 70% of the heat normally discharged from its cooling system and use it to meet up to 50% of the simultaneous heating loads. As a result, Stanford will convert from cogeneration to ‘regeneration’ with heat recovery, and existing steam infrastructure will be converted to a hot water system. Implementation of this decade long $250 million project is the hub of educational and research opportunities. UPenn is one of the first major research universities with quantitative results to prove demand-based ventilation as a model for laboratories and vivaria as an effective method in reducing institutional operating costs, carbon emissions, and ensuring a safe research environment. UPenn will share strategies they developed to answer the concerns of researchers, environmental health and safety staff, and certifying-body personnel. Additionally, UPenn has begun an alternative energy-sourcing initiative and is planning a 1 megawatt solar PV power purchase agreement. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 109 | 07:00 AM |
| PAP3381 | Climate Action Planning and Student Engagement | Sustainability and Climate Action efforts SUNY ESF first engaged students in a formal way in 2000. Students developed ESF’s first assessment of the energy required to educate and undergraduate student and associated environmental impacts as part of a course in environmental and energy auditing. Today the College’s administrative goals and planning frameworks are based on existing institutional ethos of 100 years of training students in the foundations of sustainability. This groundwork culminated in the drafting of the schools formal Climate Action Plan in 2009. “ESF Carbon Neutral by 2015”, a collaborative effort among students and faculty, was a thorough quantitative analysis of institutional energy use, GHG emissions, and sustainability efforts past, present, and future. The plan projected positive economic, energetic, and environmental returns on investment for 40 existing and future sustainability initiatives, and clear path toward carbon neutrality, reduced energy use, and significantly reduced fossil fuel dependence. This formalization and articulation of institutional sustainability goals has since proven to be a catalyst of awareness and action in the ESF community. The student club “Green Campus Initiative” saw a significant revitalization, engaging in several impactful projects in the two semesters following the release of the plan. Offshoots of the CAP cycled back into hands-on classroom training, where much of the original ground work had been laid, and the ethos solidified in the plan extended themselves into the realms of outreach and student research. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 01:30 PM |
| PAP3640 | Climate Neutral Research Campuses | Climate Neutral: Research Campuses Center of Excellence Provides Resources to Achieve Climate Neutrality Abstract A new climate action resource center illustrates the full range of campus climate action options with technical resource links and leading examples of implementation. Climate Neutral: Research Campuses has been developed by the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) for the Labs21 program. This public domain web resource defines a five step approach to pursue climate neutrality: 1) Identify baseline, 2) analyze options, 3) plan and prioritize, 4) implementation, and 5) measure and evaluate. Available resources such as the AASHE, NWF and APPA climate action guides are referenced for their valuable content. The core of the site is a matrix of 25 climate action options ranging from people and policy actions to renewable energy sources. For each option a technical page includes appropriateness for individual campuses, a leading example of implementation, and links to technical resources. This presentation will introduce the Climate Neutral: Research Campuses resource and walk though the technical content. Leading examples will be used extensively to illustrate the wide range of successful climate actions that have been implemented on campuses. For more information see: http://www.nrel.gov/applying_technologies/climate_neutral/ | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 12:30 PM |
| CSW3518 | Climate Neutrality & Land Grant Universities: Resources, Challenges, and Cooperative Solutions | This workshop will focus on the unique resources and challenges faced by the Land-grant Universities (LGU) as they commit to, and develop plans to become carbon neutral. There are 106 LGUs in the United States that were established and endowed through Acts of Congress in 1862, 1890 (Historically Black Land-grant Colleges), and 1994 (Tribal Colleges). Among these campuses there is a high degree of commitment to climate neutrality, with 36% already being signatories of the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). Their particular focus on agriculture, engineering, rural and indigenous knowledge, and Extension education in the community positions these campuses to contribute significantly to climate neutrality efforts. With leaders from several non-profits, agencies, and all three categories of LGUs, workshop participants will: - Develop a network among all LGUs to share information related to carbon inventorying, emissions reduction, mitigation/sequestration options, and development of "in-house" carbon offsets. - Evaluate resources that may be needed for the 68 LGUs that have not yet signed the ACUPCC. - Expand the ability for LGUs to partner on sustainability and climate related funding opportunities, rather than competing among themselves. - Investigate the potential to use the Cooperative Extension System to train students in energy auditing and utilize them for campus and community projects. - Share resources and ideas for linking within-state agricultural production with campus food services. - Evaluate the need for a targeted publication on extended campus land management as it relates to carbon inventorying, emissions, and sequestration potential. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Mon | 303 | 12:30 PM |
| POS3620 | Collaborating for success: Developing a Recycling Program in the Middle East | Qatar Foundation is an organization focused on building capacity for the State of Qatar and the Arabian Gulf region. It accomplishes this goal by supporting a higher education campus called Education City, where institutions such as Weil-Cornell Medical College, Carnegie Mellon University, Texas A&M University, Georgetown University, Northwestern University and Virginia Commonwealth University have been invited to set up satellite campuses to provide top education to citizens of Qatar and the region. During the 2009-2010 school year, student affairs professionals teamed up with students, facilities professionals and local agencies to create a pilot program for establish recycling in the Education City residence halls. During spring semester, the residents participated in the RecycleMania, a successful competition and educational program. This poster presentation will seek to showcase the challenges, achievements and future opportunities of the recycling program in Education City. We believe this experience is worth sharing as it may interest institutions with no recycling initiatives or little support from their communities, to get started with simple steps and pilot programs. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3111 | Collaboration among higher educational institutions for increased sustainability in Pittsburgh | The City of Pittsburgh has a climate initiative which outlines goals and directions to reduce emissions and increase economic and societal sustainability in the region. Pittsburgh has become one of the leading centers for sustainable initiatives with support from its numerous higher educational institutions. As a collaborative effort among such institutions, the Pittsburgh Higher Education Climate Consortium (HECC) has been initiated to actively engage all Pittsburgh region colleges and universities to collaborate, share information, and set goals regarding research agenda, education curricula, operations, outreach activities, and commitments that reduce greenhouse gas emissions to contribute towards the City of Pittsburgh’s overall greenhouse gas reduction goals. One of the short-term goals of HECC is to inventory the GHG emissions of participating institutions. Understanding current GHG levels is a necessary step towards developing policies and strategies to lower GHG emissions. To this end, GHG emissions of University of Pittsburgh have been inventoried and results are presented together with other campus sustainability initiatives and achievements. This will serve as a guideline for future emission reduction projects. Among significant sustainable initiatives is the newly commissioned steam plant that includes six ultra-low emission natural gas boilers. The University estimates that 46% of steam related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will be eliminated and NOx emissions will be significantly decreased to nine parts per million. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 04:10 PM |
| PAP3361 | Collaboration for Sustainable Development and Value Creation | This presentation describes the value creation potential for all stakeholders in collaborative partnerships between a university and its students with both private and NGO sector partners. The educational model focuses on experiential learning projects through which students apply their business skills in ways that make a direct and meaningful impact. In each of the projects described there are two common characteristics. Each project encompasses all three interactive systems associated with sustainable development—economic, social/cultural, and environmental. And, in most cases, students are contributing to a longer term project, so there contribution is handed off to the next group to continue. The three collaborative partners are Deutsche Bank, Newmont Mining, and Peace House Africa. The Deutsche Bank project involves issues around social entrepreneurship and microfinance. Students evaluate live loan applications and do performance reviews going on-sight. Newmont Mining projects focus on creating a stronger social license to operate in developing countries. Peace House is a secondary school for AIDs orphans where they are developing a Center for Innovation and Job Creation. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 12:30 PM |
| CSW2961 | Commitment and Action through Staff Engagement | Abstract: To achieve cultural change towards sustainability requires more than implementing resource efficiency initiatives. It requires the engagement of those who interact with the campus on a regular basis. This workshop investigates the questions: Where is the focus on staff and are they the key to succeeding in change towards sustainability? If so, how do you engage them in making the change? Using Macquarie University as an example, attendees will actively participate in answering these questions for their institution. Workshop overview: Introduction; Group discussion - what is engagement; Power point overview – why staff engagement?; Group discussion – Identify challenges/opportunities and responses/results to engagement initiatives undertaken at institutions; Power point overview – Two approaches to use when developing engagement initiatives; Small group activity – Design a themed staff engagement initiative using either Transport, Waste, Water, Energy, Research, Learning & Teaching or Procurement. Key outcomes: Demonstrating the role staff play in achieving commitment and actions on campus; Evoking discussion on pertinent areas of focus within institutions; Giving participants an overview of the dominant change related theories; Providing participants with ideas to take forward and develop into initiatives; Demonstrating that the workshop itself is an example of staff engagement that they can use to bring about collaboration. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Tues | 304 | 02:10 PM |
| PAN3071 | Community Colleges - National Initiatives and Resources for You | Community Colleges educate adults of all ages and backgrounds and are at the center of workforce development for a green and sustainable economy. The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) has taken a leadership role in sustainability education and green job training. Its Sustainability Taskforce, made up of presidents from around the country, has created a number of initiatives to catalyze strong workforce development as well as community awareness about our sustainability challenges and engagement in solutions. AACC has collected information via a national Technical Advisory Group related to a variety of industry sectors, including solar energy, wind power, green building, and energy efficiency. Topics in each of these areas include curricular materials, competencies and certifications, career pathways, innovative practices and professional development. This session will describe the informational resources and strategies available to all educators in K-12 and higher education that help you create stronger career pathways, a more vibrant green economy and more educated consumers. From the Sustainability Education and Economic Development initiative to the Sustainability Fellows and the online learning community, this session will explore innovative practices, curricular materials, international resources and more. There will be time for a discussion after the presentation. | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 302 | 02:10 PM |
| FR2841 | Community organizing for energy conservation: The Power Police | The Power Police is a project of the Energy Efficiency Student Alliance (EESA) and Energy Management at the University of Minnesota. The Power Police install powerstrips, digital timers, and light switch stickers in consenting offices during "building blitzes." The big idea is for students to help office workers save power - especially the "vampire" power that electronic devices draw even when they are turned off. In addition to saving electricity, these changes help put power conservation right in front of office workers in a way it has not been before, starting the process of culture change regarding electricity consumption and making people aware that small actions have larger impacts. Every dollar the University spends on energy that could have been conserved represents a dollar that the University could have used elsewhere. The project also aspires to change the culture of student environmental leaders. EESA is the coalition of student leaders of the organizations that contribute to the project. Student leaders came together on the project to address a few mutually-recognized isses: organizers not collaborating, not communicating; facilities management not communicating, not transparent; and student groups not taking action, just talking. The project has empowered annual savings of more than $1340 with a 2.5-year payback time. Power Police volunteers have blitzed five buildings, notified 291 office workers of their individual energy consumption, and collected 150 energy pledges for Facilities Management. EESA is now comprised of four student organizations and maintains a Google calendar, Twitter account, and a contact list for communication. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 10:30 AM |
| PAN3465 | Community Partnerships for Sustainable Materials Management | Can campuses help our neediest neighbors and reduce greenhouse gas at the same time? Yes we can. This session will offer several examples of how schools partner with other non-profit organizations on and off campus to distribute useful goods to those who need them, reduce trash, and conserve resources. Student organizations, area charities, and local governments can all play a helpful role in making productive use of excess goods at move-outs, move-ins and faculty & staff relocations. Collaborations with local town or city agencies can also help bridge the town-gown divide. The environmental benefits from reusing are hard to calculate, but are nonetheless immense. The EPA’s 2009 report, “Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas through Land and Materials Management,” estimates that 37% of US-released GHG’s result from manufacture of products and food. Sale and gifts of campus-generated used furniture, clothing, supplies and equipment displaces a significant fraction of GHG’s emitted by the manufacture of new goods that recipients would have bought. Programs redistribute goods in a variety of ways. Some campuses run fundraising sales to local community immediately after Move-out. Others collect and store goods for fundraising sales back to students at Move-in. If the campus has a Surplus Store, recovered goods may be re-sold back to campus departments and the general public year-round. Or goods can go straight to needy individuals and organizations immediately, like non-perishable food going to food banks, or clothing, buckets and beds getting shipped overseas for disaster relief. | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 207 | 12:30 PM |
| PAP3873 | Comparing Methods of Estimating GHG Emissions from Air Travel | This talk presents the results of different methods used to estimate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from official air travel by the University of Arizona, and discusses improving estimates through improved data collection, more accurate assumptions built into calculations, and the use of online mapping tools including the Great Circle Mapper (www.gcmap.com). Over 25,000 flight legs totaling approximately 50 million air passenger miles were documented in two air travel purchase transaction systems for the 2009 fiscal year. One of the two systems included complete and accurate departure and destination locations from airline vendor databases for approximately 11,600 flight-legs grouped into round-trip flights; the other included incomplete and inconsistent hand-entered destination information for approximately 13,700 round-trip flights. Using the former system’s dataset, the Great Circle Mapper performed a batch distance calculation on the approximately 11,600 flight legs. Geographic information in the dataset from the latter system was too incomplete to analyze similarly. Total GHG emissions estimated using both datasets represent over 15% of the University of Arizona’s total GHG emissions per ACUPCC guidelines (i.e., Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions) and over 50% of scope 3 emissions, underscoring the value of improving the accuracy of estimates. Results of different estimation methods are compared, and assumptions built into emission factors are evaluated for their potential to over- and under-estimate real-world emissions. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 10:30 AM |
| PAN3562 | Compostable Disposables and the Journey to Zero Waste | Since the ACUPCC was introduced many campuses have been making the switch to compostable disposables in food service operations. This panel will discuss the challenges various institutions have faced in sourcing truly compostable flatware and service ware, the difficulty in finding suitable compost facilities to accept this waste, funding the creation of an additional waste stream and educating the campus community about this new waste stream. The presenters will include a professional staff person from each of three institutions using compostable disposables in different states and utilizing different composting systems or services, and a representative of a compostable service ware manufacturer. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 106 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3500 | Composting in the Residence Halls: Stories of the Worm-keepers | Luther students have started disposing of fruit and vegetable waste in worm composting bins installed Jan. 15 in seven of Luther’s residence halls by students from the Luther Sustainability program. Students are asked to place their fruit and vegetable food waste, as well as shredded newspapers, paper receipts and old class notes in the compost bins where red worms will convert it to organic matter that will become rich, black loam soil in the Luther Gardens. Luther students have been designated as “worm keepers” for the bins in their residence halls. Their principal jobs are to make sure the worms have the proper amount of food and bedding. They will also educate their peers about the composting bins. Luther College worm-keepers and sustainability staff will provide an overview of the project and provide information on how other schools can start up similar initiatives. We may even show off some of our worms! | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 05:20 PM |
| POS3825 | Conducting a Waste Audit at a Large Urban Campus | In spring 2010, a comprehensive waste audit was conducted at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh by the students in Environmental Studies 390: Topics of Campus Sustainability. In order to fully address solid waste management issues on the UW Oshkosh campus, a waste audit was needed to determine current campus trend and practices. The class began the study by conducting interviews with stakeholders, surveys of students, faculty, and staff, researching trends, and benchmarking relative to other institutions. With this information in mind, the students completed a waste audit on Earth Day by first collecting 17 cubic yards of garbage from around campus with the help of Veolia (about 25-30% of the campus total), and then hand sorting the waste into labeled containers: waste, compostable, e-waste, paper/cardboard, and comingled recyclables. The volume and weight was recorded for each category. The results of this study were presented to key campus decision makers along with recommendations on how to improve the handling of solid waste at UW Oshkosh. Among the most important findings was the realization that close to 50% of the waste stream could be diverted from landfills, and 38% of the waste stream could be used in the campus’s new dry-fermentation biodigester facility to create renewable energy. The recommendations will be incorporated in the University’s developing solid waste management plan. This poster will present the methods, results, recommendations, and lessons learned from the audit. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3211 | Connecting Students and Communities through Climate Change Support Internships | Local governments are increasingly compelled to take action on climate change, but are extremely challenged to respond as a result of limited resources, staff capacity and technical knowledge. In the absence of outside support, many communities are challenged to take action to holistically reduce emissions in light of the upfront effort required to successfully conduct greenhouse gas inventories and to develop comprehensive climate action plans. Through a Bay Area Climate Corps program, Northern California students are being trained, managed and paid to deliver professional climate planning and related project implementation support to under-served communities. After initial technical skills training, students are placed alongside of municipal staff to develop a work scope that identifies specific objectives and deliverables to ensure that program interns effectively contribute towards realizing local climate protection goals. Students and municipal staff jointly plan and implement needed climate protection initiatives, while building internal support and capacity for climate change management as an ongoing function of local government. Internship outcomes directly accelerate the implementation of climate change programs in participating communities while engaging community members in local climate protection activities. By providing an effective introduction to climate change management for local governments, students serve as agents for seeding climate protection commitments in the community while gaining valuable skills and experience in the emerging field of climate change management. Strategic Energy Innovations staff will review this innovative program and discuss related college-community case studies. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 101 | 10:10 AM |
| PAP3260 | Connecting the Past to a Sustainable Future: Exploring Local Histories | When first year students arrive on campus, they learn how to introduce themselves. They repeatedly recite their hometowns and tentative majors. College students care about the places they consider home. They know those places well. However, students rarely know more about the history of their institution and its landscape than they learned on their first campus tour. At residential institutions, the campus can become a home. Students and faculty, many of whom traveled hundreds of miles to their university, can be unaware of the environmental and local history that surrounds them. Developing a sense of place on campus has been a spur to creating a sustainable and just environment. This paper explores the opportunities for environmental history courses to allow students to develop a sense of place that can foster sustainable campus communities. It highlights a local history project in which students engaged in archival research to better understand the world around them. It shows the ways in which students and student organizations have used these local histories to provide impetus for a variety of sustanability initiatives on campus. Through the Environmental History of North America survey course, students consider the impact of the instititution on the local environment and how the campus has changed over time. From daylighting a long-hidden creek to including local family farmers in sustainable food projects, understanding local history has led to significant change at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 112 | 01:30 PM |
| DD3528 | Core Competencies in Learning for Sustainability | Successful implementation of sustainability declarations and commitments such as the ACUPCC (particularly 1.c.iii: “Actions to make climate neutrality and sustainability a part of the curriculum and other educational experience for all students.”), the Talloires Declaration, the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development—and our ultimate goal of creating cultures of sustainability—will require a radical shift in the mission, purpose, and structure of higher education institutions. A better understanding of human capacities, capabilities, and competencies for facilitating this societal transformation towards sustainability along with an improved understanding of how we can promote their development through learning are both crucial to the success of this venture. In the summer of 2010, after an extensive literature review, a group of researchers at Western Michigan University in cooperation with AASHE, created an online survey to assess expert views on: (1) what constitute core competencies in learning for sustainability (content) and (2) what constitute high-leverage strategies and practices for promoting and facilitating the development of these competencies (pedagogy and practice). The research team will present the results of this survey during the first part of this session. Part two will use the survey data as the basis for a modified mini-Delphi experiment to explore the level of consensus among the group on these core competencies in learning for sustainability and high-leverage strategies and practices for facilitating the development of these competencies. The third component of this session will consist of a group reporting and discussion of the results from the modified mini-Delphi experiment. | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Mon | 103 | 12:30 PM |
| POS2980 | Corporate Climate Responsibility: Why Competition Will Save the World | Benefiting from worldwide media coverage, the Climate Counts Company Scorecard has rapidly emerged as a credible measure of corporate climate responsibility. The Scorecard is driving stakeholder dialogue and soul-searching in boardrooms – and it’s motivating action. 84% of companies improved scores from 2007 to 2008. Consumers on campuses and beyond have responded to the "choices and voices" approach of Climate Counts, which asks not just for an informed purchasing decision but also for direct communication to companies (via e-mail/Twitter/iPhone app) that climate action is critical. Global business has recognized that the consumer, although still drowsy, is awakening to climate change and to the responsibility of corporations to address their impacts. Demand for carbon accounting software, peer benchmarking, rating, and conscious consumer trends are at an all-time high. In fact, Climate Counts now has its own voluntary benchmarking program called Industry Innovators (i2) designed to evaluate companies motivated to build credible narratives around their carbon management work. Why? Consumers have nearly as much power in what they might say later as what they actually say now. Companies are trying to out-compete rivals to earn consumer attention for verified, credible leadership on issues like climate change in order to shore up long-term business continuity. What this means, though, is that credible climate leaders must develop compelling, innovative ways to lead consumers. Climate Counts will discuss why corporate leadership is essential to guiding consumers on sustainability and why “green” competition may be just what’s needed to stir consumers from their slumber on climate. | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR3823 | Create a Diversion | Eliminating landfill addiction at a University takes more than wishful thinking. At the University, it took the vision of the Boards of Trustees, the focus of the Office of Sustainability Initiatives, the hard work of Campus Services, the cooperation of Outsourcing companies, the participation of various schools and office buildings, and a company to truck the waste and convert it to compost. Composting takes food waste that would normally go to the landfill and turns it into a valuable resource. The University was interested in developing a strong composting program. After a lot of research, a company was found that would pick up the food waste daily and take it to be converted in to soil. The Resident Dining facility was chosen to be the test site. Composting began in 2009 focusing on pre-consumer waste. As the project proved to be a success, post-consumer waste was added to the program. Through trial and error, things are now running smoothly, as the employees have been trained and students are aware of the University’s goals. The Catering department is preparing to join this program. Compostable products will be the standard at all catering events. Some of the challenges include the logistics of bin placement and pick up at events. The University intends to expand the composting project to additional units on campus in the next few years. The resources needed, and the required logistics are being developed. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 107 | 05:30 PM |
| PAP3178 | Creating a B.S. in Sustainability Science: Lessons Learned | In less than 12 months, a B.S. in Sustainability Science degree proposal moved from conception to state approval at Kean University (NJ). It is the only degree of its kind in New Jersey and one of only a dozen in the nation. The inaugural cohort of students in the program will be admitted in autumn 2010. This presentation will be a case study of the challenges and opportunities that faced the members of the committee charged with developing the proposal. It will also highlight changes made to the curriculum after the proposal was approved in an effort to make the program attractive to the widest possible group of students. Lastly, it will address efforts to develop a partnership with numerous county colleges to expand the exposure of the program beyond just the Kean campus. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 06:00 PM |
| POS3353 | Creating a Bike Culture On Campus | Cycling is a dependable mode of transit and offers students, staff, and faculty a healthy choice that reduces the overall carbon footprint of campuses. The University of Minnesota Duluth is committed to campus sustainability and to reducing their transportation carbon footprint, but lacks a significant bike culture. As a Cycling Intern through the UMD Office of Sustainability, my goal was to help create a bike culture on campus, and to establish relationships with local planning organizations, bike shops, and community members. As a kick-off event, we held our first annual faculty and staff Bike to Work Day, a follow-up to the second annual Bike to School day. Sustaining these efforts will be part of the initiative, along with establishing a small bike maintenance spot on campus, creating incentives for faculty and staff to choose biking as a mode of transportation, and developing a freshman bike initiative program to encourage incoming freshman to leave their cars behind. All of these ideas will be drafted in the UMD Cycling Initiative; a comprehensive plan for developing a strong, ongoing, effort to create a long-lasting cycling culture centered on the UMD community. Major players include UMD students, Facilities Management, UMD Sustainability Office, and faculty/staff in Recreational Sports and Outdoor Programming. We plan to collaborate with the City of Duluth, and other engaged businesses and community members to establish bicycle infrastructure in the community. We will describe our efforts, detail results and underline successes and lessons learned. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAN3255 | Creating a Bridge to Green Careers: Best Practices for Campuses | More and more students want to leverage their education to land a green/clean/sustainable career upon graduation. With more than 50 industries and sectors making a concerted effort to shift their business practices, companies are going to need employees in all fields and professions. In the early stage of this transition, the paths to green employment are not clearly defined. Students need assistance finding the best path to their chhosen green career. In this panel you’ll hear about best practices that can be implemented throughout your institution to help students make a successful transition into the green economy upon graduation. Introducing students to green career options through curriculum, green career fairs, and special events helps them envision their future. Creating a variety of opportunities to gain relevant experiences through on campus sustainability projects and green community groups gives soon-to-be graduates real life experiences that can ultimately shape their career choices and develop accomplishments they can include on their resume. Developing relationships with green employers completes the bridge by creating collaborations, establishing internship programs, and providing entry level job opportunities. Ongoing conversations with green employers provide invaluable information about their hiring needs, which can, in turn, influence the institution’s curriculum to ensure that graduates have the training they need to succeed in the green workplace. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 102 | 07:00 AM |
| PAP3238 | Creating a Learning Community for Solutions to Climate Change | The rapidly evolving and interdisciplinary nature of climate change presents a challenge to colleges and universities as they seek to educate undergraduate students. To address this challenge, the National Council for Science and the Environment proposes to create a nationwide cyber-enabled learning community called CAMEL (Climate, Adaptation, and Mitigation E-Learning). CAMEL engages experts in science, policy and decision-making, education, and assessment in the production of a virtual toolbox of curricular resources designed for teaching climate change causes, consequences, and solutions. The community and content will range from general education to upper division courses in a variety of majors. At the center of the community will be the 160 colleges and universities represented in NCSE’s Council of Environmental Deans and Directors (CEDD). This group has taken up the challenge of climate change education as a priority. Members of CEDD represent recognized expertise in virtually all areas of this project. This transformative project will evaluate the various approaches to the successful integration of content and teaching practices. Second, it will evaluate which content and teaching strategies most effectively inform and motivate diverse learners about climate change causes, consequences, and solutions. CAMEL will expand understanding of how learning communities develop, and identify the factors that encourage or impede such community building. The goal of CAMEL is to provide the opportunity for every college student to become educated about climate change and the personal, professional, and societal options for meeting the major challenges posed by this urgent problem. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 09:50 AM |
| PAP3490 | Creating a Sustainable Future:Mind, Heart, Behavioral Change, Resilience | We are all, to greater or lesser extents, consumers of food, water, energy, goods, services, and creators of byproducts. The collective impact and global reach of our consumptive habits is at the root of many environmental, economic and social challenges. Creating a Sustainable Future is a place based course for enlivening the path of personal and life long sustainability in areas of voluntary behavioral change. The pursuit of sustainability must take into account the perspectives of the individual as well as available infrastructure and technologies. The course was developed for first year residential students at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The course uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches- from interviews and reflective essays to self-generated data analyses, development of personal action plans, and assessment of the future success of those plans. The course encompasses both global perspectives, through readings and case studies, and local applications. Suggestions from students are shared with campus operations staff to lower external barriers to behavioral change. Teaching about making choices for a more sustainable future brings new challenges for the instructor. We do not know what future technologies or policies will be and whether they will help or hinder the pursuit of sustainability. Furthermore, we do not know what and when environmental tipping points and climate change-related natural disasters will occur in the future. For these reasons, resiliency is included as part of the personal practice of sustainability. Insights from the first two years of the course are presented. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 04:10 PM |
| CSW3100 | Creating a Truly Sustainable Campus: Integrating Sustainability Into Curriculum and Operations Throughout an Entire College | The workshop will highlight the importance of taking an integrated approach to sustainability by bridging the divide between curriculum and operations. Algonquin College is currently integrating a broad-based sustainability strategy throughout the three campuses of the College, its programs and operations. This workshop will discuss successes and lessons learned pertaining to Algonquin College’s sustainability strategy, including discussing fundamental components to a successful sustainability assessment, developing an innovative sustainability plan and key steps to implementing sustainability into the operations and curriculum of a college. Topics will include campus sustainability indicators, future trends and measurement indicators, targets, commitments and partnerships. The session will explore the idea of leadership and creating an environment whereby a post secondary institution can be a leader in sustainability – advancing the process and momentum of thinking, living and educating sustainably. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Tues | 304 | 03:50 PM |
| FR3875 | Creating broad support for campus sustainability through collaboration | The success of a university sustainability program depends largely on collaborations among colleges, departments, offices and diverse interests both on and off campus. The University of Cincinnati (founded 1819 with a student population of 40,000) has had a long history of interdisciplinary initiatives, creating the first co-operative education program in 1906, and creating its sustainability committee composed of students, faculty and staff in 2003. This tradition of collaboration has made it easier to begin to integrate sustainable initiatives into every aspect of the institution and to gather support from corners of campus not usually associated with sustainability. In addition to joint efforts between the committee and the colleges, many projects are also being implemented through collaborations with Athletics, Housing, Student Government, Student Life, Campus Recreation, MainStreet, Center for Community Engagement, UC Libraries, as well as off-campus organizations like the City of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Civic Garden Center, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, etc. The sustainability movement is growing at UC because of this spirit of cooperation and pooling resources in times of financial uncertainty. Examples of collaborative efforts between the sustainability committee and various entities on and off campus include, but are not limited to, ongoing series of lectures, films and workshops; a bike sharing program; recycling and reuse drives; conservation challenges; volunteer opportunities; art installations; tree plantings and community education and outreach. The collaborative effort is the ideal model for the sustainability movement which touches all aspects of the large institution. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 03:00 PM |
| PAP3466 | Creation of Interdisciplinary Sustainability Undergraduate Curriculum | The University of Colorado Denver initiated a faculty led signature area in sustainability to explore the potential of either a major or minor in sustainability. This PowerPoint presentation will cover the method of collaboration between faculty from various departments in CLAS to plan for the new Sustainability Minor, in conceiving the courses, conducting sustainability research, writing the curriculum, gaining departmental support, working with CLAS Dean’s office to create a team teaching policy, and the role of the Director of the Signature Areas to move the project along through CLAS governance procedures. CLAS is at the end of the first year of the Minor in Sustainability and we can share how well the faculty and students in the program have helped promote the Minor to the campus. This presentation will include a review of the successes, the challenges, the administrative issues facing the College in implementing interdisciplinary programs, and in the strategies for delivering the courses in the Sustainability Minor for the coming year. Recommendations to other institutions considering adding sustainability to the curriculum and approaches to interdisciplinary programs will follow as a point of departure for discussion of the panel and questions from the audience. Handouts will be provided. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 02:10 PM |
| PAN3785 | Cultivating a Culture of Sustainability on Campus | Roundtable speakers will: 1) outline their thoughts on fostering the cultural changes that are imperative in successfully engendering deep sustainability in the higher education context; and 2) present replicable, practical steps that can be taken by their colleagues on their own campuses to promote cultural change for education for sustainability. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 207 | 09:30 AM |
| FR3437 | Cultivating Sustainable Campuses - One Conversation at a Time | Description: Our session will engage participants in our sustainability-themed discussion circles and will offer guidance on how to utilize these resources on campus. Presentation will highlight examples of colleges and universities from around the country that have used these materials to engage and activate students, faculty and administrators around topics of sustainability. Abstract: The Northwest Earth Institute is recognized as a national leader in the development of innovative programs that empower individuals and organizations to transform culture toward a sustainable and enriching future. NWEI offers eight study guides on sense of place, living simply, sustainable food systems, environmental health, climate change, and deep ecology. These discussion courses are offered in neighborhoods, workplaces, universities, homes, faith centers, and community centers and have involved more than 115,000 individuals (and 150 colleges and universities) throughout North America. Each program encourages participants to explore values, attitudes, and actions through discussion with other people. These discussion courses are done in small group settings and illustrated that when sense of community, self-reflection, interaction, and active learning come together, an increased sense of personal responsibility and investment in community follow. Participants will have a chance to experience a sampler of one of our courses and will also have an opportunity to brainstorm ways in which they can use this resource to engage and strengthen their campuses in issues of sustainability. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 01:10 PM |
| PAP3319 | Current Drivers and Barriers for Implementing Sustainability in German Academia | Sustainability was meant to be implemented into all levels of the educational system in Germany within the UN-Decade ‘Education for Sustainable Development’ (ESD), driven by the governmental level with research programs on sustainability and by setting binding educational standards for school-curricula. Still deficient remains the integration into universities and academic curricula. We argue that universities as institutions offer a lot of resistance towards sustainability. Barriers in the administrative subsystem seem to be resistance to institutional change, a general disregard for sustainability issues at the institutional level and lack of money to pre-finance investments. Evidence is given by the fact that only few German universities opted for certified ecomanagement. Nevertheless can cost-conscious executives initiate top down processes towards resource efficiency and sustainability rather easily. Within the scientific subsystem a concept of drivers and barriers gives a different picture: An important role plays the common misconception of sustainability, overexpressing its ecological and/or technical implications with a more or less disregard for its economic and social dimensions. Furthermore, sustainability is regarded by scientists as normative and therefore incompatible with their traditional concept of science and research. Its inter- and transdisciplinatory focus does not fit in established merit systems of academic disciplines. Its strength of committed individuals promoting sustainability becomes its weakness due to high fluctuation of academic staff with limited options for tenure. Despite this analysis sustainability can be a successful element of the institutional profile, especially to small to medium sized universities where institutional and academic barriers seem to be considerably lower. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 02:30 PM |
| PAP3104 | Curriculum in Action: Integrating Sustainability throughout the College Experience | Colleges and universities across the country wrestle with the issues of “Greening” their campuses, making social statements about sustainability, and informing their students about the fundamental scientific, social and economic principles behind sustainability. This takes place against a backdrop of shrinking budgets, demands for reduced time to graduation, and calls for a more focused, vocational curriculum. Loyola University Chicago faces these same challenges coupled with a rigorous, extensive core curriculum and a small urban campus. This panel shares Loyola’s approach to sustainability that focuses on our mission and strengths as a liberal arts based teaching and research institution. We strive to create a culture of sustainability and environmental awareness not just through the formal curriculum but also as a message woven throughout the entire undergraduate experience: curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular. Loyola offers >100 academic courses in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, business and fine arts that touch on sustainability and we developed courses such as Solutions to Environmental Problems (STEP) and Environmental Sustainability that incorporate experiential learning. However, we find co-curricular activities such as the Water Colloquium, the Green Learning Community, the “Footprints” radio show, and undergraduate sustainability fellowship programs reach large numbers of students. Further, by encouraging student initiatives, a rich offering of extra-curricular activities has developed that promote sustainability and environmental awareness. The panel looks at this landscape through the eyes of faculty, staff and students. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 04:10 PM |
| PAP3289 | Cutting Carbon through Energy Efficiency, Technology, and Behavior Change | A review of programs at the University of Florida addressing structural and behavioral energy savings. Buildings account for ~70% of the UF’s GHG emissions, and energy efficiency is a priority in the Carbon Action Plan. This presentation includes highlights and results of building recommissioning, lighting retrofits, and chiller plant optimization projects on campus. The presentation will begin with an overview of UF’s process for selecting, completing and evaluating building energy efficiency projects. This effort is supported by building level metering, UF’s internal carbon inventory tool, and online, interactive building dashboards. A complementary “Chomp Down on Energy” campaign was developed to target user behavior within campus buildings. Established with the principles of Community Based Social Marketing (CBSM), this effort encourages individuals to change their behavior to reduce energy consumption on campus. This program will expand over time to reach additional audiences and behaviors, including IT and laboratory staff on campus. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 104 | 12:30 PM |
| PAP1961 | Decision Making Process in Building LEED Residence Halls | This study assesses the decision making process of campus administrators in building LEED residence halls by reviewing four cases at the University of South Carolina (USC), the University of Georgia (UGA), Clemson University, and Emory University. For the purposes of this study, LEED is a numerical point system created by the U.S. Green Building Council to assess new and renovation construction of buildings that achieve sustainable features. To gain a better understanding of the decision making at each institution regarding LEED, this study uses a multiple case study to compare the decision making strategies at each institution. This study reveals that the decision making process to build LEED residence halls is a complex process that involves many actors and that it can come from either a bottom- up or top-down approach. In this study, there are many outside factors that influence the decision making of the people involved, but for the most part it is because they recognize it is the right thing to do. The conceptual framework of this study is the diffusion of innovation in which new ideas face scrutiny once created. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 107 | 04:10 PM |
| POS3375 | Demonstrating Carbon Sequestration with a Verifiable Land-Use Change | The use of degraded agricultural lands for carbon sequestration has the potential to store significant amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Through verifiable land-use changes, property owners could realize revenue by generating carbon credits and auctioning them to greenhouse gas emitting entities. At our university farm, we established a quarter-acre carbon sequestration test plot in summer 2009, replacing a non-native tall fescue pasture with a species-rich community of native trees, shrubs, grasses and forbs – a verifiable land-use change. The test plot is being measured against the current land use to determine whether a net increase in carbon sequestration occurs through increased soil organic carbon and carbon stored in herbaceous and woody biomass. Moreover, a theory-based hypothesis – that higher plant species richness results in more rapid and greater carbon sequestration by soils – is also being examined. Two levels of species richness, a two-species and six-species herbaceous mix, with four paired replicates within the test plot, have been established with some success. The entire test plot was also planted with five woody species. In association with this study, we have mounted the Environmental Studies course “Climate Change, Land Use Change”. The course has emphasized the science of climate change, climate policy and the physical, biological and economic aspects of carbon sequestration. We are attempting to assess the viability of using carbon sequestration and carbon credit generation as an attractive and viable land-use practice that has local and global environmental benefits, as well as economic benefits to farmers and rural landowners. | Poster | ONE HOUR FIFTEEN | |||
| FR3337 | Department Bike Share Program | The Global Institute of Sustainability at ASU established a Department Bike Share Program in May of 2010 to serve as a model for other departments interested in promoting sustainability. The Global Institute of Sustainability purchased a bicycle with basket from the University’s Surplus Property Department, had it repainted by a local paint shop, had it fitted with the latest security devices for the tires and seat, and then purchased a bike storage locker. Appropriate helmet and safety accessories were purchased from the University’s Parking and Transit Department. The University Architect reviewed and approved the locker and the proposed outside site. The ASU Police Department provided bicycle safety and security training. Students were actively involved in all phases of this process. The result is that the Global Institute of Sustainability’s faculty and staff can ride a distinctive department bicycle across the vehicle restricted campus instead of using an electric cart. Besides being a model of sustainability practice, the Department Bike Share Program promotes employee health and wellness and it reduces electric cart traffic. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 03:50 PM |
| PAP3485 | Design as a major that integrates art, science & sustainability | The development of sustainability as an academic discipline will require the creation of non-traditional majors that integrate knowledge fundamental to this endeavor. We describe collaboration at Pacific University between the Environmental Studies Department, the Art Department and the Center for Civic Engagement to develop a new major in Sustainable Design. The major is built upon core courses that include an introduction to permaculture and a course in ecological design. Permaculture is team-taught by an artist and a toxicologist who approach the teaching of design as an iterative and creative problem-solving process that mirrors the scientific method. Ecological design is taught by an ecologist who uses concepts of systems ecology to help students approach design with inspiration from the natural world. In both courses a scientific understanding of the way complex relationships between diverse organisms are balanced in an ecosystem mirrors an understanding of how systems thinking can be used to create dynamically balanced visual compositions, an essential skill for designers of all kinds. Students in this major are taught to identify problems that arise from unsustainable practices and to design solutions using concepts of balance, integration and resilience from systems thinking. At the university’s permaculture demonstration site, students design and build sustainability-themed independent research projects. Sustainable Design majors also engage citizens outside of the university by designing learning resources for primary and secondary school students and the public as a way to put sustainability theory into practice and directly benefit the community. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 02:30 PM |
| DD3499 | Designing Sustainability Curricula to Foster a New and Diverse Generation of Leaders | Utilizing case studies of sustainability curricula at multiple universities, we will engage in a dialogue on how to educate a new generation of leaders on interdisciplinary sustainability thinking for a society that is becoming increasingly diverse. We will discuss incorporating educational frameworks that include systems thinking, and are inspired by the socio-ecological concepts of resilience, diversity and adaptability. We will draw out cross-cutting lessons from case studies ranging from a sustainability studies minor for undergraduates at the University of Minnesota and sustainability minor at Dartmouth College, as well as a senior capstone course in the Mine Engineering department at Queens University and a sustainability science course taught from an interdisciplinary pedagogical approach for non-environmental majors at the University of Vermont. The discussion will then focus on understanding the role of problem-driven sustainability awareness and thinking in upcoming decades and translating this imperative along with the necessary tools and skill-sets to students. | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Tues | 301 | 02:10 PM |
| FR2900 | Destination Green | Transportation choices will continue to play an important role in the development of a carbon neutral society. Like many other institutions, single occupancy vehicles account for the third largest piece of the University at Albany’s greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, it is critically important that institutions of higher education assess their campus transportation patterns using available tools and plan coordinated offerings with local agencies. To assist in this goal, the University at Albany has developed a module that can be replicated at other institutions to develop comprehensive transportation management systems. This presentation will describe how a geographic information system (GIS) was used to develop maps showing the origins of the commuting population based on parking permit data and a global positioning system (GPS) helped monitor the on time status of the university bus fleet. This study also illustrates collaboration between the university and nearby state agencies to identify potential common commuting patterns. This project included a comprehensive transportation survey and focus group interviews to help identify reasons for resistance to the use of alternative transportation strategies. A copy of survey questions will be available electronically for interested parties. This report also highlights the use of in-house collaboration among university administrative offices and academic departments as well as collaboration between the university and community transportation agencies. These pieces were all combined to implement commitments to sustainable transportation initiatives at the University at Albany as well as foster discussion for regional programs. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 05:30 PM |
| FR3203 | Developing a "Farm to Fork" Menu on Your Campus | Developing a “Farm to Fork” Menu On Your Campus Kristina Johnson Davidson College, Davidson, N.C. ABSTRACT: Few things are as personal to people or as critical to environmental progress as the food we eat and the way we grow it. Yet, implementing a sustainable meal plan on campus can be a hard sell. Industrial food sources are often cheaper and their streamlined ordering systems more convenient than local, organic alternatives. Students at Davidson College have spent the last year in conversation with area farmers and our independent campus Dining Services. This presentation draws from their experience. From the do’s and don’ts of negotiating with Dining Services to contracting with local sources and gathering student support for change, the presentation will offer concrete advice for starting a food revolution on your campus. The talk will outline the main obstacles individuals can expect in jumpstarting a “Farm to Fork” initiative. But for every challenge, it will also provide practical ideas for insuring the long-term success of a more sustainable meal plan. Keywords: Local/organic food on campus, Dining Services, student initiative | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 02:30 PM |
| POS3070 | Developing a Local Food System at Southern Illinois University | If universities are to seriously seek strong overall campus sustainability, the efficiency and environmental impacts of individual campus sectors, such as resident dining, must be analyzed. At Southern Illinois University, recent initiatives have taken place to evaluate the social, economic, and environmental implications of food purchases in resident dining. These initiatives seek to: better understand and influence student perspective of local and sustainable food choices; decrease the carbon-footprint of University Housing Dining; narrow the geographic purchasing area of SIU to support local economies, decrease travel miles between farm and fork, and better comply with the recent Illinois Food, Farms and Job Act; and implement increased sustainability practices in resident dining in an economically feasible way. The origins and travel miles of each staple food item were spatially analyzed to measure the energy needed to transport current food purchases. A repeated measures survey design was used to gauge student perspective of local food options in the dining halls. Finally, maps and databases of local food producers within a 250 mile radius and throughout the state of Illinois were created. The potential economic impacts of the proposed shift from a national to local food supply were also examined. These studies were student-based and funded, supported by the SIU Green Fund. Maps and findings presented here integrate these data to display the current impacts and potential reductions in the foodshed footprint to 40% local foods, and ideally serve as a model that can be used on other campuses seeking environmental sustainability. | Poster | Poster | |||
| CSW3040 | Developing student led initiatives to supplement existing University action | The presenters will include members of the NAU Green Fund, Campus Climate Challenge, and other environmental themed student groups, as well as student leaders from the University of Arizona. The student presenters are the driving force behind many of the actions on campus that help to supplement what the Administration and College are working on. A brief history of the formation of Arizona’s first and only Green Fund, financed by a student fee and managed by a majority student committee. The history will include a step-by-step account of the actions taken and the challenges faced. Using the NAU Green Fund and Student Group activity as a model to evaluate and plan future activities. The focus will be on what has worked in the past as well as what projects are currently being implemented and what projects are in the planning and consideration phase. A question and answer period will be followed by a breakout session with the audience. Audience participation will be used to develop on existing ideas and the formation of new ones. Break out groups will work on a specific project and formulate a plan of action to accomplish it. Topics covered will include networking, forming a relationship with the Administration, forming and utilizing student groups, student leadership, and supplementing a Climate Action Plan with student action. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 100 minutes | Tues | 205 | 12:10 PM |
| DD3427 | Dialogue and Discussion on Collegiate Zero Waste Principles | Zero waste represents a new means of elevating sustainability education and student leadership development and two zero waste experts are excited to help advance a set of principles for higher education. Eric Lombardi, Director of Eco-Cycle, President of the Grassroots Recycling Network, and one of the world's leading zero waste experts will join Jack DeBell, a 25 year veteran of the University of Colorado's award-winning program in a lively and relevant session. The term "zero waste" is increasingly used without clear definition. Fortunately, several organizations including the Zero Waste International Alliance, the Grassroots Recycling Network, and the Recycling Organizations of North America have refined a set of global principles which can guide and evaluate zero waste policies and programs established by schools. These principles will show schools what is expected when they commit to achieving zero waste. Some of the principles include defining zero waste as ninety percent or greater diversion from a campus waste stream. Another principle to be discussed is recovering the highest value of energy and materials from discarded products and packaging ("highest and best use"). Another principle applicable to campus is extended producer responsibility (where companies doing business with schools are financially or physically responsible for goods they sell). After a brief overview of zero waste definitions and principles, breakout groups will help refine aspects to consider unique challenges and opportunities on campus. This will then be shared on the AASHE Discussion Forum with the goal of creating a set of unifying principles and clarifying definitions. | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Tues | 105 | 03:50 PM |
| FR1980 | Doing Makes All the Difference | This field report presents information relating to an interdisciplinary service-learning course, Environmental and Social Sustainability in Appalachia, offered through the University Honors Program during Winter Quarter and Spring Break, 2010. Initial classes involved faculty led discussion of sustainability generally and as sustainability relates to Appalachia specifically. Students then contributed to the learning by researching and presenting information on contemporary manifestations of environmental and social/economic issues in Appalachia. The service-learning component involved an alternative Spring break, a short cultural immersion in communities located in Southeastern Ohio, where all students engaged in both socially and environmentally oriented projects. Students came to understand the linkages that exist between environmental and social/economic challenges that Appalachian communities face and the benefits accruing to all when the university, its local partners, and communities together strive to create more sustainable conditions. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 01:00 PM |
| PAN3197 | Doing More with Less: Tapping Campus Partnerships and Online Resources | Tough economic times have brought new challenges in sustainability outreach and engagement. Facing tight budgets, sustainability professionals must think creatively to reach their campus community. Highlighted in this panel presentation are the challenges, strategies, and successes and of three large universities. North Carolina State University leveraged campus partnerships to dramatically increase presence and involvement at existing events. Similarly, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill worked with campus partners to bring sustainability messaging to a range of existing campus publications and promotions. Duke University tapped the power of online and digital media to connect and engage with the campus. Each university will highlight their successful strategies and the presenters will challenge the audience to consider and discuss the unique low-cost outreach tactics that might be a good fit for their own university. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 106 | 03:50 PM |
| PAP3843 | Drink Local, Drink Tap: Turning On a New Campus Water Culture | The privatized water industry has subtly grown during the past few decades, establishing itself in American culture as the sole source for clean drinking water. Most consumers are unaware that the strict federal laws regulating city water do not apply to corporations, a difference that produces cleaner tap water than corporate bottled water. In addition to the health issues related to drinking bottled water, there are many environmental and social problems including the amount of resources used to produce the product, the amount of waste products created, the worldwide privatization of municipal water supplies, and the human rights abuses committed by the corporations controlling these supplies. Most college campuses currently sell bottled water, although many higher education institutions currently have campaigns to eliminate sales of bottled water. Only a paucity of colleges and universities have successfully initiated campus-wide bans on bottled water. Our university is a small liberal arts school that has initiated several responses to sustainability issues including a ban on the sales of bottled water. With the hopes of reducing trash produced by the campus while helping people understand the greater impact of their actions, a small group of students and faculty challenged the social norm encompassing bottled water and successfully petitioned to ban the sale of plastic water bottles from Pacific University. This presentation will discuss the organization and implementation of this movement, what worked and what did not, the ongoing educational campaign to shift campus water culture, and what can be done on other college campuses. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 107 | 06:20 PM |
| DD1840 | Driving Down Energy Use While Your IT Load Increases | In January 2009 Stanford University undertook the challenge of reducing electricity and chilled water usage in the main 20,000 square foot datacenter. A year later, IT Load is up 10%, yet Electricity usage is flat from a year ago, and chilled water usage has been cut in half. Additionally, our PUE has dropped from 1.8 to 1.4, and the payback was less than a year. Several tactics were employed to achieve these goals, which I'll discuss in more detail, but they include: - Installing environmental monitors throughout the datacenter - Installing energy monitoring dashboard - Adding VFDs to 13 CRAH units - Connecting building control system to include the outside air economizer - Replacing ceiling tiles - Replacing floor tiles with passive air movement panels - Installing blanking panels - Adding a motion-sensor lighting system The talk will include the cost of each measure and the Utility incentives received for the project. This will detail the payback period for the effort. Out next effort is deploying passive rear-door cooling, which is currently in Pilot. If successful, we could potentially build out the rest of our datacenter without CRAH units, which would yield significant savings. By September we should have very good pilot results to share on this effort. | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Mon | 301 | 09:30 AM |
| POS3163 | E=(LG)2 : Writing Sustainability | E=(LG)2 is the only student-written and student-edited magazine in the country on sustainability. The magazine is based at Frostburg State University in western Maryland. According to the magazine website “E=Energy; E=Environment; E=Education; E=Everything,” and (LG)2 stands for the campus’ Learning Green, Living Green initiative. Students in the English department’s Editing and Production class produce the magazine each semester, studying grammar, soliciting submissions from the campus community, editing, and learning Publisher, layout and production techniques. In this panel, three former staff members and the instructor will discuss the process of putting together the magazine, writing, editing, choosing articles and art, and how lives have changed since working on the magazine. The panelists will show issues of the magazine from its website and describe their experiences and design choices. We also will discuss the challenges of getting involvement from the campus community and how the magazine fits into Frostburg State’s Learning Green, Living Green campus sustainability initiative. The students and instructor will take questions from the audience at the end of the session. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP2860 | Earth Day and Beyond: Sustainability and Campus Programs | Campus events have the opportunity to engage students along with staff, faculty and community members in local and global sustainability issues and activities that are both educational and entertaining. Options to develop these programs range from working with agents specializing in sustainability speaker series to networking with local non-profits to develop a more home-grown activity. This presentation will provide information regarding agencies that assist in planning sustainability focused events, green event production services, examples of incorporating campus and community resources and experts to green your activities, an introduction of national and international events schools can participate in, and funding models to help support these efforts. During the question and answer session, schools will be asked to share their successful events and/or ideas for future activities. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 02:10 PM |
| FR3436 | Eating Our Way to Green | No other sector of our economy defines our relationship with the environment and with each other more than food. From the point of production to the moment of consumption, food has tremendous impacts on the environment as well as on our communities. It is important, therefore, not to ignore the important role of food on campus. In this presentation, Northern Arizona University's committment to sustainable dining is presented. Areas of exploration include building sustainable dining contracts, corporate-higher ed partnerships, food selection, waste reduction, and energy and water use. Attendees of this presentation will gain an understanding of both the successes that can be realized in a higher education dining facility as well as the barriers that food service presents to sustainability. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 02:20 PM |
| PAP3821 | Eco-Reps: Do They Get Results? | Eco-Reps, college students employed to encourage fellow students to live sustainably, are a recent phenomenon. Most college Eco-Rep programs began within the last ve years. The speaker, who was an Eco-Rep at Skidmore College in the past academic year, will ask the questions: What is common among Eco-Rep programs? What is di erent? Which programs meet their goals, which don't, and why not? Some time will be devoted to discussing methods for Eco-Reps and other sustainability workers from di erent campuses to share strategies and experience. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 04:30 PM |
| DD3839 | Ecologically Engineered Ecosystems For Water Recycle In High Density Environments. | Universities consume a substantial amount of fresh water for sanitary purposes, heating, cooling and irrigation applications. Water rate increases, scarcity and regulatory compliances have created an awareness leading to water conservation initiatives. Current initatives focus on water consumption reduction. Leading institutions have failed to identify and implement water recycling initiatives. Environmental scientists have successfully challenged industry trends by combining ecological engineering with low-impact development for decentralized wastewater treatment and 100% water recycle. The technology embodies a completely new philosophy both technologically and socially while moving from ideas to implementation in sustainability commitments. Combining diverse ecologies with engineering solutions creates an ecosystem with a high level of biodiversity that establishes a stable, resilient system. The result is an odorless, noiseless, compact, botanical garden with a zero-discharge design that is easily integrated into an urban campus environment. This packaged solution recycles and saves 18 million gallons of water per year, by safely reusing treated wastewater for cooling tower makeup and irrigation. This solution offers an immediate operational savings while transforming the campus through cross-sector collaboration and economic sustainability by preserving our most valuable and increasingly scarce natural resource, serving as a model for Urban Planning and Public Policy Sustainability Curriculum. University endowment investment opportunities exist, enabling higher education to fulfill its role as it relates to social justice for immediate wide-spread global implementation. Partnering with Virginia Commonwealth University, Daniel Allison, will present his capstone project, for the Urban and Regional Planning graduate program requirements. | Dialogue and Discussion | 100 min | Mon | 301 | 05:00 PM |
| FR3120 | Economics, Business and the Environment: Team-Teaching Sustainable Enterprise | Business may be the fastest way to transform society towards sustainability so teaching about the process to business and economics students is vital as we try to head off catastrophic climate change. This Sustainable Enterprise course, taught by Economics and Management professors is designed to examine how changing the way we do business can be implemented as well as how students/employees can be plugged into the process. This session describes how such a course is organized, what resources to access, how the inaugural class went and how the course can be used as a lab to implement university-wide changes…especially since this course preceded the implementation of a year-long focus on sustainability at St. John’s University/College of St. Benedict (2010-11) | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 10:00 AM |
| FR3139 | Ecotech Institute: Training Tomorrow’s Green Collar Workers Today | Ecotech Institute is the first and only college entirely focused on preparing students for careers in renewable energy and sustainable design—solar power, wind turbine technology, sustainable interior design, environmental paralegal—the environmental jobs of the new green economy. After nearly 2-years of market research involving potential students, potential employers, government leaders and industry leaders, Education Corporation of America (ECA) determined that there was a real need and opportunity to create a college focused on technical skills training in renewable energy and sustainability. ECA collaborated closely with industry leaders, other educational institutions, and environmental leaders to first define the needed skills and programs that would meet the needs of both potential students and employers. Then, they worked with the same groups to develop the curricula to meet both academic requirements and the emerging needs of the clean energy industry. Ecotech Institute is launching in Denver-Aurora, Colorado with seven associate's degrees programs and one certificate program, all designed to provide graduates with skills that are highly valued by today's renewable energy employers. ECA expects to invest nearly $10 million to transform an existing large-footprint building in Aurora into a LEED-certified school complete with laboratories and classrooms. Once the flagship Colorado campus is fully established, Ecotech plans to expand across the U.S. to help fuel rapidly growing industries in the clean energy sector. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 110 | 12:10 PM |
| PAP3334 | Ecovillages as Campuses for Sustainability Education | Ecovillages are communities striving to create cooperative lifestyles in harmony with their local environments. From appropriate technologies to holistic health; from sustainable agriculture to group facilitation, ecovillages are integrating solutions within human-scale communities and creating new cultures and "stories" in which we can live well - and lightly. In the process, they are developing real-world models of sustainable development that make ideal "campuses" where students can learn about sustainability while striving to live it. This paper will provide an introduction to the growing ecovillage movement worldwide (e.g., Findhorn, Scotland; Auroville, India; Sirius, MA), the possibilities and challenges of using these communities as contexts for education and social change, and the work of Living Routes, which partners with UMass-Amherst to offer study abroad programs based in ecovillages worldwide. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 112 | 05:00 PM |
| PAN3323 | Eden Hall Campus: Laboratory for 21st century climate positive living | As the alma mater of Rachel Carson, Chatham University has long been committed to environmental education, advocacy and stewardship. In recent years, that commitment has included establishing a dorm focused on issues of sustainable living, hiring a Campus Sustainability Director, and becoming a Charter Signatory to the Presidents’ Climate Commitment. With the 2008 gift of the nearly 400 acres of largely undeveloped forest, fields and farm land now known as Eden Hall Campus (EHC), Chatham has taken its commitment to sustainability and the environment to an even higher level. Chatham selected BNIM and Andropogon Associates, Ltd., firms internationally known for their expertise in sustainable development planning and design, to help make EHC a learning community that will address the environmental, social and economic 21st century challenges of water, energy, waste, food sources, and ecology. EHC will be the home to a new Graduate School of Sustainability and the Environment. The sustainable master plan developed for EHC contains strategies for closed loop cycles of energy production, water treatment and reuse, as well as phasing, site development and design guidance for flexible built structures that are fitted to the particular site circumstances. A primary goal of this plan is to create a model of high performance regenerative systems that is replicable for other campuses around the world. The experts assembled will address the implementation and measurement of EHC sustainability strategies in the categories of: • Energy • Green Building • Rainwater and Wastewater Resource Management • Regenerative Site Development and Landscape Restoration | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 110 | 12:30 PM |
| PAP10059 | EDF’s University Sustainability Initiative: Campus, Classroom & Community | Dedicated to protecting the health and environmental rights of all people, including future generations, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is working with universities to (1) help increase their energy efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint, (2) develop and implement a cost-effective business case for campus sustainability, and (3) develop sustainability curricula and community outreach programs. Considering public universities in NC account for over half of the state’s building energy use -- universities must be engaged. This prompted EDF to launch the Climate Corps Public Sector program, a 10-week fellowship program that places graduate students with universities to conduct an energy assessment and prepare a business plan for upgrades. In 2009, the program piloted at NC Central University in Durham, and discovered the university could cut their energy costs by more than half, saving $13 million in 5 years. EDF is also partnering with NC A&T University in Greensboro to create a graduate-level “green e-business and commerce” course that asks students to develop a business and marketing strategy for sustainable campus IT practices. Student engagement and campus activities are a key component to instituting change on a college campus, and EDF is currently working with the national fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc to create a green partnership for leading an effort to reach out to other national fraternities, sororities, and social organizations on campuses as a way to engage students in sustainability at the organization, campus, and community level. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3403 | Educating Agents of Change: A Campus-wide Course on Global Sustainability | Professors often collaborate with colleagues across disciplines to create innovative sustainable practices, institutions, and technologies for a resource-constrained world. Yet how can one educate undergraduate students to become future agents of change when these issues are so complex and multidisciplinary in scope? Taking on this conundrum, three professors from three distinct colleges at the University of Virginia designed and teach a successful, interdisciplinary, campus-wide course that prepares students to understand, innovate and lead the efforts necessary to engage in this task. Global Sustainability provides foundational knowledge on the multifaceted aspects of both problems and solutions to issues of human settlement, buildings, energy, consumption, production, health, water, food, commerce, social equity and societal behavior. Participants deepen their understanding of global sustainability issues by working collaboratively to develop real world projects in the local community or with facilities management and other groups on campus. The “Think Global, Act Local” project fosters critical, creative, and practical thinking, provides the “hands-on” opportunity to develop an effective team organization, interpersonal and communication skills, and project management and budgeting techniques needed to move a project towards implementation. Students become familiar with the process of proposal writing, effective presentation and defense of proposal ideas, and the assessment of case studies. The course became the impetus for an upcoming Sustainability Minor open to students in all disciplines. The presentation provides an overview of course intentions, content and structure, as well as lessons learned and strategies for successful implementation. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 04:30 PM |
| PAP2741 | Educating for Sustainability through Campus and Community Service | In an interdisciplinary collaboration between a biologist and artist/designer at Daemen College, our service learning course engages students in environmental science through the creation of a campus outdoor education area and work with community partners. The campus Ecotrail has been designed to include interpretative signage, but it also demonstrates sustainable principles such as its use of recycled materials throughout, a rain garden, and creation of a living roof on the storage shed. The ongoing project involves students in creative problem-solving as they research effective practices at other sites and modify them to fit our needs and budget. Students have learned about decomposers and composting, native and invasive species, utilization of brush piles by birds and other wildlife, issues of soil compaction and stream flow dynamics and erosion. Pre-post assessments have indicated significant changes in reducing their environmental impact (p<0.001, n=101). Students apply their sustainability education in our work with non-profit partners in low income communities in Buffalo, New York. An Apollo Alliance weatherization project pairs students with tradesmen in fixing up homes and educating homeowners about energy efficiency. Students assist Buffalo ReUse in their community revitalization efforts through tree planting and community greening, as well as diverting demolition and construction materials to be sold and reused. From student reflections, it appears that the transition from learner to community participant and educator has reinforced students’ knowledge and commitment to minimizing their own impact. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 02:50 PM |
| PAN3007 | Educating for Sustainability, Peace and Reconciliation: | Case studies can engage students in real, difficult, and complex issues (Timpson & Doe, 2008). Funded with a small grant from the School of Global Environmental Sustainability (SoGES) at Colorado State University, six faculty members and two doctoral students, representing three different academic departments and sub-disciplines, spent the past twelve months coordinating the writing, trialing and evaluation of case studies at the intersection of sustainability, conflict, peace, and reconciliation. A peer review process was utilized so that contributors could be recognized within the academy for their scholarly work as per the 1990 Boyer Report. These materials, both written and videotaped, will soon be available through the website of Atwood Publishing. Case study analysis also incorporates what is required of citizens in a healthy democracy, i.e., the ability to listen to an explanation or an argument, to ask the questions that need to be asked, to explore alternative positions while accepting the legitimacy of different opinions, even those with whom there may be serious disagreements. There are important lessons here in empathy, respect, communication, and understanding. The “deeper learning” that is available with case study analysis contrasts with the breadth of content coverage that characterizes the typical lecture (Richardson, 2005; Ramsden, 1992). In recently published work, Timpson, Brantmeier, Kees, Cavanagh, McGlynn and Ndura-Ouédraogo (2009) had described these “citizenship” skills within the context of peace and reconciliation. In an earlier book, Timpson, Dunbar, Kimmel, Bruyere, Newman, and Mizia (2006) tied many of these same concepts to the teaching of sustainability. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 101 | 07:00 AM |
| PAP3087 | Educating for Sustainability? Investigating Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Programs in Canada. | Educating for Sustainability? Investigating Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Programs in Canada. This research investigates interdisciplinary undergraduate university programs in Canada that aim to integrate the concept of sustainability into the curriculum in order to educate leaders of the future. Six case studies of undergraduate programs that reference sustainability in their learning objectives were investigated in order to assess their potential for addressing challenges of social, economic and environmental sustainability. The research investigates the ways in which these programs are assessing their impact on students as well as the community they intend to engage in order to demonstrate the relevance of these new models of learning. While there is considerable work that evaluates sustainability education in Canada, most of this research is focused on evaluating the school, the program, and the student from within the university and only theorizes the outward effects of these programs. Only a few studies deal with the issue of social relevance by asking the question: How are these programs impacting the communities within their spheres of influence? Are the students becoming sustainability leaders in their communities? What measurable contribution are they making to solve real-world sustainability problems? With particular emphasis on objectives, tools and techniques focused on real-world impact, this pilot research maps out the evaluation mechanisms being used in 6 ‘sustainability education’ programs in Canada. The presentation will present the findings of this research and engage other potential collaborators in this investigation of assessment and program evaluation. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 01:10 PM |
| PAP3268 | Education for Health & Sustainability | In 2008 in response to growing concerns about global environment degradation a team from the School of Health & Social Development at Deakin University undertook a scoping study with the view to developing a research and teaching agenda in the area of climate change, sustainability and health. This research identified the need for: new interdisciplinary partnerships to address the issues of health & sustainability; community-based health promotion interventions with a climate change focus ; and curriculum initiatives featuring experiential, industry-based and life long learning approaches. This in turn led to a series of interdisciplinary curriculum and partnership development initiatives one of which engaged final year health promotion students in community-based work integrated learning projects that addressed health & sustainability concerns. The participants in the project reported a consistently high level of satisfaction with their involvement in the pilot curriculum(s). Preliminary findings indicate that the community projects (WIL experiences) were important in transferring learnt knowledge to practice. The participants feedback demonstrated that prior learning in classroom based studies was beneficial in terms of consciousness raising however the WIL experiences was necessary to develop further the core professional competencies for action in this area. The interdisciplinary exposure in the community-setting was also found to be highly valued by the participants. In the newly emerging area of practice which couples health and sustainability, WIL has the capacity to create new graduate pathways and support the development of interdisciplinary partnership. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 03:10 PM |
| PAP3270 | Education for Sustainability, Not Less Unsustainability: WCU's EFS Certificate Programs | This paper/presentation is for those who are drawn to the work of education for sustainability (EFS), yet who suspect that tinkering with or even overhauling what happens in formal education will never do more than help make industrial civilization somewhat less unsustainable. I will begin by outlining a conception of EFS that moves it from a tool of ‘less unsustainability’ to a more general and deliberate strategy of cultural creation and transformation. I will then show how this perspective has informed the development of the new certificate programs in Education for Sustainability at West Chester University (WCU), where the inaugural class will finish in August 2010. The undergraduate and graduate EFS programs at WCU begin with an unflinching look at the enormous scale and urgency of our planetary predicament. Students are then assisted in cultivating a deep time, planetary perspective on this news. They then take a course in systems and sustainability that emphasizes the practical necessity of “starting where you are.” Students come to recognize this work as essential but limited. A critical component of the Program is a course that emphasizes methods and strategies for generating the unprecedented personal and cultural transformation called for by the planetary crisis. In sum, the programs actively resist forms of delusional sustainability work that make needed transformations less likely by focusing energy and attention on the relatively comfortable work of ‘less unsustainability’ instead of the difficult, unprecedented work of making a sustainable future possible. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 01:30 PM |
| PAP10044 | Effective Peer-to-Peer Behavior Change Programs for Universities | A workshop which aims to prepare participants to design and develop effective peer-to-peer behavior change and sustainability leadership programs within a university setting. The majority of peer-to-peer behavior change programs at universities are based on the Community Based Social Marketing (CBSM) model developed by Dr. McKenzie-Mohr. The model is effective in addressing the barriers and benefits to sustainable behaviors and is commonly used by municipalities and governments. However, two universities in Canada use a hybrid CBSM model to deliver their peer-to-peer programs by incorporating adult education, sustainability leadership, organizational change management, experiential learning and culture change processes into program planning. This workshop will enable participants to utilize an altered CBSM model designed specifically for the university environment. Workshop topics will include: program design and development, volunteer recruitment and management, training, educational approaches, behavior change tools and educational campaigns, and quantitative and qualitative evaluative models for measuring success. The workshop will be interactive, allowing participants the chance to begin development of their programs within the session. Participants will also benefit from a post-workshop one hour mentorship session with the facilitators to further their ability to develop and implement a behavior change program at their institution. Finally, participants will receive an electronic peer-to-peer behavior change program guidebook after the workshop. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 06:20 PM |
| FR3429 | Effective Strategies for Implementing Sustainability Across a Large Catholic University | Sustainability in a Catholic institution starts with mission and values. Implementing a comprehensive sustainability plans requires integrating curricula, operations, research and engagement with the institutional mission. In a Vincentian institution like DePaul University, sustainability can only be effectively implemented if linked to the university core values of social justice, poverty alleviation, diversity and dignity. In this panel, we shall conduct a case study analysis of DePaul in its organizational change and plans for developing a sustainability initiative that reflects the university’s mission of educating for global social justice. We shall start the discussion with the set of pre-existing conditions that initiated the conversation around sustainability. We will address some of the primary challenges we faced such as overcoming institutional silos, persuading the administration of the need for a sustainability plan, and overcoming interdisciplinary “turf wars.” Next, we shall analyze some of the drivers that are present at DePaul, drivers that led to the creation of a “white paper’ on sustainability that argues for a plan that carries out our mission of educating for a just and equitable world. Aligning the Vincentian mission with sustainability was a key goal of the white paper that was submitted to the President of the University. In response, the President of the University appointed a task force comprised of 11 representatives from faculty, staff and student associations. The charge of the task force is to develop a university-wide plan to set priorities for future sustainability efforts. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 02:50 PM |
| FR3229 | Effectiveness of a Seagoing Immersion Program in Fostering Environmental Awareness | In Spring 2010, approximately 700 students, faculty, staff and life-long learners circumnavigated the globe as participants in the University of Virginia’s Semester at Sea study abroad program. Over the course of the semester, we visited nine countries, spending 2-5 days in each of 13 ports. A unique characteristic of this particular voyage was its theme of sustainability, evidenced in the catchphrase, “One Earth, One Future.” Students and faculty engaged in a variety of learning activities which increase our knowledge of the natural world and the interconnectedness of its social, ecological and economic systems. Approximately one-fifth of the 90 courses offered on the voyage dealt directly with sustainability-related issues, including Global Studies, a common course required of all participants. Port visits provided opportunities for “hands-on” learning and observations of alternative solutions to similar problems. Sustainability-oriented co-curricular activities (e.g., shipboard sustainability council, evening seminars) supplemented formal coursework and helped students “connect the dots” between what they were learning in class and what they were experiencing on land and the ship. The integration of a sustainability theme with shipboard living and learning experiences resulted in a positive shift in participants’ ecological attitudes, measured using the New Ecological Paradigm Scale (Dunlap et al., 2000). Age, gender, academic discipline, geographic region, and institutional type had little impact on these results. Similarly, the scores of students’ home institutions on the College Sustainability Report Card (www.greenreportcard.org) were of no value in explaining either absolute or changes in NEPS scores. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 110 | 05:20 PM |
| POS3175 | Effects of submetering on individual behavior at Lynchburg College | In order to manage energy and water use on a college campus, it is imperative to know how both of these are consumed and used throughout the campus. This can be accomplished through sub metering different buildings on college property, which means that a campus can receive utility usage information individually for each building. Sub metering the buildings on a college campus can reduce energy or water use in two ways. First, the information that is gathered from the meters will help to identify problem buildings that are using abnormally high amounts of energy or water. In these buildings, old or faulty equipment can be repaired or replaced. Second, as students see their own energy and water use on a more personal building by building level students are held accountable for their own energy and water impacts on the campus. This study involves surveys regarding individual water and energy usage that were administered both pre- and post-submetering on the Lynchburg College campus. We are attempting to assess the impacts that having access to energy and water usage information has on individual behavior. | Poster | ONE HOUR FIFTEEN | |||
| PAN2991 | Emerging Trends in Greening Athletics | Collegiate and professional sports stadium are slowly but significantly integrating sustainability into operational practices. Given the significant environmental impacts associated with sports, further advances are welcome and necessary. This panel will examine emerging sustainability practices across higher education and professional sports facilities. In depth discussion of a few notable stadium programs will serve as examples. The practices covered will include zero-waste/recycling, travel offsets, energy conservation/efficiency, renewable energy systems, scheduling, logo/trademark licensing, and green business models for sports venues. Presentations will focus on national trends and emerging practices. | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 302 | 12:30 PM |
| PAP10024 | Empowering students for sustainability | Three Utah State University students will be presenting on empowering students to become involved in sustainability activities both on and off campus. Special emphasis will be given to a) student leadership through student government, student organizations, and building partnerships with staff, faculty and administration b) diversity- empowering all genders, ethnicities, and economic levels for sustainability and c) tools for becoming involved in the political process- from campus to the global level. The presenters have served in student government and leadership on many levels and in a broad range of organizations. In addition to completing their degree requirements, they are serving as sustainability interns for the USU sustainability council. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 107 | 10:10 AM |
| POS3348 | Encouraging Sustainable Apparel Consumption among Undergraduate Students | The purpose of this two-part study is to examine relationships between knowledge of and attitudes towards sustainability in the apparel and textile (AT) industry and students’ apparel purchasing behaviors. In the first part of the study, 78 undergraduates enrolled in the AT discipline at a four-year institution completed a survey that assessed knowledge of and concern with AT sustainability issues, as well as engagement in sustainable apparel purchasing behaviors. Findings from the survey revealed that although positive relationships were present among the variables, the relationships were not particularly strong – signifying a gap between students’ knowledge of and concern with issues of sustainability in the AT industry and their actual purchasing decisions. To understand possible reasons behind these weak relationships, the second part of the study involved conducting focus groups with 30 students. The focus groups centered on the participants’ experiences with and barriers to sustainable apparel purchasing. Participants in the focus groups indicated having positive attitudes towards sustainable apparel but only limited purchasing experience. For the students, the primary factor making the purchase of this apparel difficult was the need for increased resources in terms of money and time – both of which the students lacked. The students also perceived inadequate availability of product options and insufficient information about sustainable apparel firms as factors limiting their engagement in sustainable apparel consumption. Given these findings, encouragement of increased engagement in socially responsible apparel consumption among undergraduate students requires future research and discussion focused on minimizing the perceived barriers. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAN3186 | Energy Competitions: Challenges and Opportunities | How can institutions of higher education leverage resource reduction competitions to engage, educate, and motivate student behavior change? Campus resource reduction competitions are a powerful platform to engage students in activities that increase awareness of conservation, and inspire long term changes in behavior which save money and reduce carbon dioxide emissions both during and after competition periods. School and industry leaders will present and discuss best practices and common challenges to running successful energy and water reduction competitions. The presentations will discuss competitions between different campus constituencies, such as between residence halls as well as between academic buildings and off-campus housing. We will explore experiences and challenges of designing and managing competitions to reduce electricity, heating energy and water along with the impact of supporting these competitions with real time data. The panel will also discuss innovate strategies to plan and organize supporting activities that engage a larger percentage of your campus community during the competition period. In addition the panel will discuss the current state of organizing and lessons learned from the Campus Conservation Nationals, the first national electricity and water reduction competition utilizing real-time data and socially networked technology. We will discuss how competitions might utilize different socially normative competition groups (such as head-to head rivals, geographically identified groups) to increase participation and savings. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 106 | 12:10 PM |
| CSW3836 | Energy Storage Can Benefit Your Campus, Finances and Community! | Overall, today’s electric utilities have twice the capacity they need, but they still run short of power to meet air conditioning demands during peak summer days. According to a recent National Transmission Grid Study, power usage is expected to grow by 20 percent in the coming decade while planned capacity will increase by only 6 percent. Shifting to energy from renewable sources and storing it for use during peak demand periods has become a popular way of addressing this disparity. Campus-wide physical plants with fuel choices and energy storage can provide physical spaces that are comfortable, productive and fiscally and environmentally responsible. For example, a growing environmentally aware university in downtown Pittsburgh recently faced several requirements. They needed additional capacity from the central cooling plant for LEED buildings that were scheduled to come on line, and they required a cooling system retrofit for the school’s sports building. Their downtown campus also offered minimal expansion space. The solution: The campus added a new energy storage system to increase cooling capacity without increasing peak demand, eliminated the need for new cooling towers, took advantage of discounted night time electricity prices, optimized the cogeneration system and extended the free cooling season. With energy storage systems, the university became a better energy steward and gained flexible operating choices while lowering operating costs and reducing demand. Campus leaders can now purchase more of the most cost effective energy option, based on gas and electricity costs. Attendees will learn about exploring similar options for their campuses. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 100 minutes | Tues | 303 | 12:10 PM |
| PAN3193 | Engaging faculty from a non-academic post | Campus sustainability programs often begin with operations-based projects led by a sustainability director housed in the business and finance division of the institution. The director frequently struggles to create student and faculty curricular learning from their post in the university. This panel, given by four sustainability officers from the Triangle region of North Carolina, explores how and how not to engage faculty. Successes and failures are detailed, with relevant examples from large public research-based institutions and small private liberal arts colleges. Project-based learning, service learning and research can offer successful initial curricular partnerships. Strategic faculty appointments to sustainability committees, targeted outreach programs, and engaging faculty in sustainability planning and implementation efforts offer faculty partnerships outside the classroom. Faculty-based sustainability committees or groups may comprise a next step, often in parallel with a designated faculty-liaison to the operations-based sustainability program. Peer to peer training, institutionalization of sustainability learning, and/or academic programming indicate deeper levels of faculty commitment to integrating sustainability. Possibilities for creating faculty leadership and fostering the necessary relationships and processes are discussed in this panel with a focus on action steps attendees can utilize in their home institutions. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 302 | 02:10 PM |
| FR2942 | Engaging in reuse: Design & implementation of a student swap shop | Meredith College, a small women's institution in Raleigh, North Carolina called for a campus swap shop as one of its long-term waste reduction strategies. This presentation details the planning, design and implementation of the swap shop. Elements of the successful project include campus and community partnerships, faculty use of project-based-learning to design and install the shop, and on-going management and tracking of the program. Connections with faculty, curriculum, Volunteer Services, Grounds Management, Residence Life, and off-campus partners are described. Lessons learned and on-going maintenance and engagement are also discussed. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 12:20 PM |
| PAP3661 | Engaging Staff and Faculty through Green Office Certification Programs | Pomona College, University of Southern California, and University of California - Berkeley have launched Green Office Programs, which certify campus departments/offices/groups as “green” for various behaviors and programs. These programs can help to recruit and create community amongst staff and faculty, to provide positive marketing and branding for campus sustainability programs, to distribute materials generated by sustainability programs (e.g. sustainability tour, light switch stickers), and, most importantly, to encourage sustainable behaviors and reduce overall environmental impacts. This panel presentation will describe each program, highlighting their common and divergent structures, details, and resources, particularly the tools used by each for collecting information for certification. Each campus’ sustainability director will describe how they recruit and excite participants, develop materials, collect information, and celebrate achievements. Attendees will learn how develop green office certification programs for their own campuses and will gain access to the calculator and materials used by the presenting campuses. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 101 | 09:50 AM |
| FR3507 | Engaging Students in Measuring Sustainability: Aligning STARS with People, Planet, Purpose | The role of higher education is to provide education and research as well as leadership by example. With regard to such an important issue as sustainability, it is vital that the campus itself be the example. The first step is an accurate assessment of the sustainability of the institution. It is only then that a college or university can begin to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability and provide education to other organizations, businesses, and communities in how to become more sustainable. The tool that shows the most promise to accurately and comprehensively measure and assess the sustainability of an institute of higher education is the AASHE’s STARS. The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS) was one of thirty-seven universities and colleges to participate in the pilot of STARS and is currently working on Version 1.0. This report will use these experiences as a case study to evaluate the STARS process and how it can educate students, faculty, staff and administration about real-world sustainability issues. The report explores how the STARS process, from data gathering and analysis to communicating and reporting results, can serve as an educational tool, a living laboratory for sustainability research. Several models of student involvement and different work approaches are discussed as well as suggestions for future implementations. The report concludes that STARS can help re-define the purpose of the university, and act as a catalyst in engaging the entire campus community in creating a more sustainable institution and a stronger sense of place. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 02:30 PM |
| POS10020 | Engaging Students in Sustainability Efforts on College Campuses | How many times has your office wanted student input on sustainability projects and didn’t know how to engage students? Perhaps you are having trouble rallying students around a proposed sustainability fee or other initiative and it seems as if you can’t please your student body. Conversely, how many times have students wanted support from faculty or administrators for towards sustainability or other initiative on campus but perceived impediments in those efforts? In this session we will explore what motivates student’s engagement in your newest sustainability project, whether an administrative, faculty, staff or student led initiative. Student engagement seems as if it should naturally come with the proposal of sustainable initiatives; but on some campuses progress can be met with resistance. As a student leader I have learned much about University structure and have used my knowledge of this system and the somewhat intricate web of student engagement from Campus Activities to Student Governments to move forward with many “green” projects. I have successfully introduced, implemented, and maintained a comprehensive University-wide recycling program using both University and community partners to finance the initiative and strive to expand the infrastructure of a recycling office operated by students. As the University's Office of Sustainability develops, many new and recycled ideas are used to engage much of our campus and community making initiatives more collaborative. These undertakings have provided an array of unique experiences and ideas other campuses can use to empower their student body. | Poster | Poster | |||
| CSW2260 | Engaging Students: Creating a Sustainability Internship Program | Most campuses engaged in sustainability efforts have ambitious goals yet lack the resources and personnel to reach these goals. Students can help with sustainability activities by participating in a carefully structured and administered internship program. Sustainability personnel gain much needed assistance while students from a variety of disciplines gain first-hand experience in sustainability tracking and reporting (STARS); educational campaigns; conducting research; and grant writing. This hands-on workshop leads participants through the process of creating a student sustainability internship program. Participants will identify potential faculty leaders to enhance collaboration across campus; evaluate campus needs that could be met through student internship positions; create an internship program structure and intern positions that support student participation; and plan how to interface with administrative requirements such as liability forms and creating grant money accounts. Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT) Sustainability Coordinator and Environmental Sciences Program Director, Carrie Wittmer, and Renewable Energy Engineering faculty, Dr. Claudia Torres-Garibay, supervise an 8-student Sustainability Internship Program. Workshop participants will be led through a series of steps resulting in the creation of a framework for an internship program proposal. Workshop leaders will be accompanied by OIT sustainability interns who will be available for questions and to assist participants. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Tues | 303 | 02:10 PM |
| POS2840 | Enhancing the human dimensions aspect of Conservation Biology, Ecology and Sustainability | As human civilization moves into a time of environmental uncertainty regarding environmental and biological threats such as global climate change, species extinction, human population growth and other issues, it is necessary to understand how students perceive such topics. Upon understanding their current knowledge, perceptions and attitudes on such topics and issues, educational programs aimed to increase knowledge of such areas can be designed. In particular, a science course to be designed and taught for the Frontiers of Science Institute held at the University of Northern Colorado during the summer of 2010 will seek to engage students using a variety of teaching techniques (lecture, debate, independent research, outdoor education, hands on learning, etc.) to develop a greater understanding and awareness of topics and issues within the fields of Conservation Biology, Ecology and Sustainability. This poster will seek to demonstrate the results of the study and generate discussion on the implications and future directions of the research. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP10008 | Ensuring a Sustainable Defense Community | In 2005 the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission recommended that the U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM), and U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) relocate operations to Ft. Bragg. As a result, by Ft. Bragg will become the largest Army base by 2011, and is projected to grow to more than 75,000 soldiers and employees. The projected impact on the community is expected to include 4,024 active duty soldiers; 9,502 dependents; 2146 Army civilians; 1,972 embedded contractors; and 3,268 economic migrants. Such growth would impact the community’s energy systems, water infrastructure, communication and information, transportation, housing, education, economic development, and environmental planning. To help build a stronger, more sustainable defense community, Fayetteville State University has entered into a Public-Private-Partnership with the US Army, Fayetteville’s Public Works Commission, the City of Fayetteville, and the Fayetteville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce to foster local innovation, and build a clean energy economy, through a state-of-the-art Campus for Advanced Sustainability. The Campus is designed to foster regional economic sustainability, and will provide global leadership in pioneering innovations to commercialize Clean-GREEN technologies for DoD and local marketplaces; Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) of electric power, water systems, information and communication; Environmental Stewardship; Energy Independence, and Public Policy Development. In partnership with UNC constituent institutions, the business community, city and state government, nonprofit organizations, regional K-20 education institutions and the US Army, the Campus will focus its research and development efforts in developing solutions for: Sustainability of Community; Sustainability of Defense; Sustainability of Homeland Security; and Sustainability of Energy. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP3372 | Environmental and Economic Benefits of Campus Biomass Combined Heat and Power | The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) campus is currently heated with fossil fuel based steam, and derives the majority of its electrical power from the power grid. The College has made the commitment to be carbon neutral by 2015. One of the primary CO2 reduction projects in our climate action plan was a a biomass combined heat and power (CHP) system to meet a significant portion of the energy needs of the campus. This project challenges traditional notions of power generation by locating the CHP system within new LEED Platinum building that will serve as the gateway to campus. The CHP system has been designed to provide heat and power significantly beyond the requirements of the new building, providing 65% of the total campus thermal energy and 19% of the purchased electricity used by the campus. Our undergraduate and graduate students have already engaged with the project, providing energy, economic and environmental assessments of the design. In addition, the array of technology in place (CHP, photovoltaic array, solar thermal, green roof, and rain gardens), together with existing campus systems will allow a wide variety training of our students and the community on the integration of sustainable energy projects in high use LEED Platinum buildings. The system has also been designed to reduce the risks, to help balance electrical and thermal production, and to enhance the educational opportunities. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 01:10 PM |
| POS10003 | Environmental Healthcare Sustainability: Issues and Challenges | This presentation is based on a curriculum taught to graduate healthcare administration students, though past students have also included lawyers and medical students. The presentation will examine social trends and drivers of sustainable health systems, with a special focus on hospitals, and will explore approaches for healthcare providers and systems to become better stewards of the environment. The advantages and disadvantages of ‘green initiatives’ in healthcare will be discussed and a business case for sustainable healthcare organizations will be examined. The design and impact of the built environment and physical infrastructure of healthcare delivery organizations will also be explored and the current state of evidenced based, sustainable hospital design will be analyzed. The relationship between hospital design, sustainability initiatives and quality of care will be examined as well. This conversation will explain why healthcare sustainability is important. Audience members will learn about frameworks for healthcare sustainability, identify stakeholders and gather evidence based resources for sustainability management. Healthcare professionals with an understanding of sustainable practices share a unique vantage point of challenges and solutions that cut across all aspects of business. They are positioned to identify problems and opportunities and to broker information. This presentation incorporates tools used to measure environmental health system impacts, focusing on innovative solutions that add business value and contribute to any healthcare organization’s overall strategic business success. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3820 | Environmental Journalism | This talk will be given with the goal of describing a college-level class in envi- ronmental journalism. Modern news networks have generally given little time to environmental issues (coverage of the recent Gulf Oil Spill is an exception). Examples will be drawn from journalistic reports on environmental events and issues, past and present. The speaker will examine early examples of environ- mental journalism, such as the New York Times report on the rst Earth Day in 1970, as well as modern examples such as articles on global warming and the Gulf Oil Spill. Reports will be presented with their historical context, and some reports will be contrasted critically. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 09:50 AM |
| FR2461 | Environmental Sciences and Sustainability: Creating Successful Cross-Campus Collaborations | Environmental sciences are intimately linked to sustainability efforts. In fact, environmental scientists document the planetary changes to biodiversity, water, soils, human health, and the atmosphere caused by human activity. Five years ago, the Environmental Sciences (ES) program at the Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT) had a limited focus and critically low student enrollment. In order to increase program enrollment, promote collaboration with other departments, and create more tangible ties to sustainability efforts on campus, a variety of new initiatives were implemented and have resulted in significant improvements to the program. These techniques can be used at other campuses to improve inter-departmental collaboration, offer more efficient course offerings, and create new and broader student opportunities. The OIT ES program provides a case-study for five interdisciplinary initiatives that can be replicated on other campuses. 1. The program offers an interdisciplinary emphasis area in Sustainable Technologies where students can take courses from engineering and management departments. 2. Civil Engineering students can complete a 5th year option in Environmental Sciences, completing a second degree in just one additional year of study. 3. Faculty collaborate between departments to co-list and co-teach a course for two programs. 4. Lower-division courses, such as Introduction to Environmental Sciences, are structured to meet required science elective credits for other majors. 5. Discussions are under way to create a Certificate Program in Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounting incorporating courses from a multitude of departments. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 10:30 AM |
| PAN3509 | Environmental Sustainability Living and Learning Community | The Environmental Sustainability Living and Learning Community (ESLLC) at the University of Denver provides first-year students the opportunity to activate their classroom learning through eco-curricular team learning, experiential education, and community engagement. One of the unique aspects of this LLC is its position as an academic program under the Office of the Provost—students participate in a series of courses on environmental sustainability during their entire first year, while also engaging in related extracurricular activities in a residential community setting. This panel will include the ESLLC program coordinator, who will discuss the structure and goals of the program; the faculty director, who will discuss the integration of the academic and experiential learning components of the program; and several former students from variety of majors—from business to mathematics—who will present examples of experiential learning and volunteer projects they completed while in the community. Broader issues to be addressed by the panel and the audience include: (1) how to develop a more integrative sustainability curriculum, (2) how to incorporate service learning in an environmental sustainability curriculum, (3) how LLCs can increase student involvement on campus and in the broader community, and (4) how a program such as this can be successful in raising persistence rates from first to second year. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 110 | 03:50 PM |
| POS3224 | Estimating Commuter Behaviors and Impacts from University Parking Records | The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh is drafting a campus-wide Transportation plan, and needs improved estimates of commuter activities for greenhouse gas emission inventories. UWO is located in downtown Oshkosh, WI, a city with car-friendly infrastructure and abundant street parking. The university is growing but the campus is restricted by the availability of land, thus parking on campus is limited. The Campus Sustainability Plan adopted in 2008 contains recommendations for managing the demand for parking as well as alternative transportation options. However, data on commuter behavior was limited, and university policies limit our ability to directly survey the student and staff population of 15,000 people. This project describes our efforts to estimate commuter activity from data obtained through the Parking Services Department. Home addresses were used to estimate distance travelled by commuting students and employees. Records of vehicle year and model were used to estimate fuel efficiency and compact car use. Through these analyses, the Campus Sustainability Office was able to better estimate the geographic distribution of commuters, their distances travelled, fuel consumption, and amount of compact car spaces to provide on campus. Mapping of commuter origins was also used to make recommendations for alternative transportation such as carpools via our Zimride network, preferred city bus routes, and possible vanpool clusters. | Poster | Poster | |||
| DD3842 | EVERYBODY WINS! Effective Statewide/Regional Higher Ed Sustainability Partnerships | EVERYBODY WINS! Effective Statewide/Regional Higher Ed Sustainability Partnerships *Meeting of minds and hearts across institutional and disciplinary boundaries. *Hierarchy leveled in shared projects. *More clout with governors, legislatures, local officials. *New funding opportunities. *Partnering with business, government and non-profits. *More colleagues who share your expertise and passion. *Bolder and more powerful sustainability initiatives. *FUN! These are some of the benefits of statewide/regional consortiums. How do you build a new consortium? How can we get ours to work better? Leaders of three very different consortia will put their models out for you to consider. Illinois Green Economy Network -IGEN with 48 community colleges, has federal stimulus funds to create job-centers statewide; Kansas Higher Education Sustainability Network has statewide annual conferences to build relationships and spawn projects; New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability-NJHEPS is building face-to-face communities of practice connected virtually to incubate new statewide initiatives. We will examine goals, organizational types, working principles, boundary decisions, stakeholder relationships, best practices, outcomes and future prospects. Attention will be given to synergies with AASHE strategic goals. | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Tues | 103 | 09:30 AM |
| FR3850 | Exceeding Expectations: Energy Efficiency in Historic Renovations | Institutions across the country are faced with historic buildings in dire need of systems, envelope and programmatic upgrades. While these renovations are vital toward preserving campus architectural legacy and character, they present special challenges as institutions seek to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. This presentation offers valuable strategies and lessons learned from the University of Washington’s ‘Restore the Core’ campaign to renovate fifteen historic buildings on campus. Clark Hall, built in 1896, is the fourth oldest building on the UW campus. The 2009 renovation effort achieved LEED Gold Certification and earned the maximum ten points for Energy Optimization. Energy strategies focused on improving the thermal envelope and restoring the original functionality of the building rather than introducing new or complex systems. Now, five years after the start of Clark Hall, the renovation of Anderson Hall aspires to even loftier energy goals, driven by updated energy codes and the newly enacted UW Climate Action Plan, a campus-wide initiative to achieve carbon neutrality. As part of this long-term vision, the approach to Anderson Hall will build on the same energy strategies and strive to equip the facility with future-ready systems to allow for new sustainable technologies as they become available. This presentation will include owner, architect and engineer perspectives regarding the planning, design and implementation of highly sustainable historic renovations. Their analysis and group discussion will provide valuable insight for institutions and designers seeking to meet new and ambitious sustainability standards while renewing heritage buildings. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 10:00 AM |
| FR3318 | Excellence in Education - the Duke Smart Home Program | The Duke Smart Home Program began in 2003 when a student had an idea to design a place where students could live and work together on projects of sustainability and new technologies. From that idea grew the Home Depot Smart Home in 2007, which became the world’s LEED Platinum “live-in” laboratory on the Duke campus in Durham NC. Today 10 students live in the Smart Home and more than 100 students are involved in this unique program. In 2009, the USGBC recognized the Duke Smart Home Program with the Excellence in Green Building Education award because of its innovative approach and successful implementation. The Duke Smart Home Program involves students, professors, industry, and the community in projects and events that promote a more sustainable way of life. www.smarthome.duke.edu | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 110 | 05:40 PM |
| PAP3486 | Expanding Campus Initiatives to Include a Water Action Plan | Colleges and universities are the model for environmental stewardship across the nation. At the forefront of sustainability, institutions that sign the ACUPCC have made it clear that a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is the touchstone of the movement. After years of drought in the south east, however, Agnes Scott College has recognized the need for additional commitments in water conservation and reduction. Despite the wealth of information for GHG emissions, there is not a standardized method for calculating a “water footprint” from which it would be possible to develop concrete reduction goals. The need to characterize and quantify water use is a critical first step. Beginning with a campus-wide water audit conducted by volunteer students, faculty and staff, the college has now continued with a student internship to research and write a comprehensive water action plan that will map campus water use and establish a strategic plan for reducing consumption. The goals of the water action plan are to: set short and long term water reduction goals, ultimately striving for “zero water waste”; categorize and prioritize water related retrofitting; and make recommendations for specific behavioral changes for the campus community. The water audit and action plan will provide a model for other institutions to use on their own campuses. This presentation will inform participants of how the water audit was completed, what actions were taken based on its results, and finally, how the college developed a detailed water action plan. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 107 | 12:50 PM |
| CSW3160 | Experiential Learning and Sustainability Education: Hands-on and How-To | Universities and colleges have the potential to address sustainability and social justice in unique and powerful ways. However, effective teaching about sustainability and the links between culture (how we live) and ecology (where we live) can be challenging confined to the lecture hall or seminar room. Courses at the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute are a blend of seminars and experiential field-based study, working with communities to teach American students about local cultures and ecosystems. This hands-on workshop will use case studies from over 10 years of teaching American undergraduate students on study-abroad in Thailand to outline key principles for effective teaching in partnership with local communities. Participants should come prepared to brainstorm together on how to transform their existing courses or develop new ones. From risk management to logistics to effective participatory community meetings, this workshop is designed to give participants concrete goals and ideas for addressing social justice, leadership and sustainability in their courses in the United States and abroad. From primarily campus-based courses to fully field-based courses, the principles of community-based sustainability courses can be transformative and empowering for the students, professors, their campus and local communities as well. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Mon | 205 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3161 | Experiential Learning and Sustainability Education: Lessons Learned | Universities and colleges have the potential to address sustainability and social justice in unique and powerful ways. However, effective teaching about sustainability and the links between culture (how we live) and ecology (where we live) can be challenging confined to the lecture hall or seminar room. Courses at the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute are a blend of seminars and experiential field-based study, working with communities to teach American students about local cultures and ecosystems. This paper will present key lessons learned in over 10 years of teaching American undergraduate students on study-abroad in Thailand, and outline key principles for effective teaching in partnership with local communities. This type of education is powerfully transformative — empowering local communities, building social capacity, and teaching students practical skills of leadership and collaboration. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 06:00 PM |
| PAP3048 | Extreme energy efficiency: building the sustainable Bagley Classroom at UMD | Extreme energy efficiency. Renewable energy production. On-site composting toilets. Passive heating. Unique building materials. Natural ventilation. The Bagley Classroom at the University of Minnesota Duluth is located on a 50 acre nature preserve within campus. The classroom was designed to meet LEED Platinum and PassivHaus standards. The building's flexible design allows for a variety of functions, and provides opportunity for students to learn about sustainable ideas and practices. The building demonstrates continued leadership for the University of Minnesota Duluth in green building. The Bagley Classroom building imposes a minimal impact on the environment. A green roof and natural landscaping help reduce the heat island effect and treat stormwater runoff. The innovative design remarkably decreases energy consumption due to the super-insulated building envelope. Passive solar heating satisfies most of the heating need, while a high-efficiency heat recovery ventilation unit continuously provides fresh air. Natural ventilation in the summer is enhanced by a chimney effect from the skylights and mechanical room vents. An on-site, grid connected solar photovoltaic system was designed to produce more electricity each year than the annual energy consumption of the building. A central composting system is connected to modern looking toilets. Reclaimed and regional timber beams and local woods adorn the interior. Triple-pane windows maximize views of Rock Pond and the surrounding forest. Abundant daylighting of the space eliminates need for lighting system use during the day. All of these features make the Bagley Classroom a low-waste, functional, maintenance-free, sustainable building. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 101 | 03:10 PM |
| POS10044 | Facilitating Effective Implementation of the ACUPCC | The American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) requires signatories to submit greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories and climate action plans (CAPs) for their respective campuses. Although almost 700 presidents have signed onto the Commitment since its creation in 2006, little research has been done to: (1) evaluate what constitutes “good” or “best” practices in performing these GHG inventories and CAPs, (2) how effective these GHG inventories and CAPs have been as tools for implementation and organizational change, and (3) how insights from such an evaluation of early adopters could be used to strengthen and advance the ACUPCC. In July of 2009, student sustainability researchers at Western Michigan University initiated a review of the first 100 ACUPCC signatories with climate action plans submitted by early fall of 2009. The review summarizes best practices to help institutions increase the effectiveness of their GHG inventories and CAPs. It also provides the ACUPCC with recommendations to increase the accessibility of their database, examines methods for inter-organizational cooperation and mentoring, and provides suggestions for improvement of the implementation framework. The first 20 minutes will be used to present an overview of this research by the two student researchers that led the project. In part two, groups will be given 30 minutes to capture members’ perspectives on the effectiveness of their institution’s ACUPCC implementation efforts. Group reporting from part three will be captured by the presenters and uploaded to the AASHE Forum discussion site. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAN3167 | Facing the Inevitable---Integrated Financial + Sustainability/CSR Reporting for Business | In the wake of the financial meltdown, stakeholder groups around the globe are pressing for mandatory integrated reporting that incorporates environmental, social and governance issues into financial reporting. New requirements have already been adopted in the UK, France, Denmark, Sweden, and South Africa, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission just issued guidance on including board diversity and climate change in the financial reports of businesses. A new global collaboration led by the Prince of Wales has also just been formed. This workshop will feature noted experts from the NGO community who will discuss this development and what lies ahead for business and other sustainability reporters. The implications for universities will also be discussed. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 203 | 07:00 AM |
| PAP10018 | Feeding Innovation in Sustainability: Ithaca’s Comprehensive Dining Energy Plan | Sodexo’s Facility Management team approached Ithaca College with a proposal to conduct a comprehensive energy audit of all food service facilities on campus (3 board dining halls, 1 food court, 7 retail outlets, plus catering). Staffers from Sodexo Facilities Management group, Ithaca College Dining Services, and Ithaca’s Office of Facilities have since embarked on a powerful collaborative effort to substantially reduce energy costs and dramatically improve the sustainability of dining operations. We will explain the business case for sustainability in dining services and the steps to take to conduct an energy and sustainability audit. We will offer a number of case studies of successful energy and resource reduction strategies that have been undertaken. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 107 | 04:50 PM |
| PAN3290 | Financing Renewable Energy Installations on University and College Campuses | When you evaluate the plans filed with ACUPCC for achieving Zero-Carbon by 2050, virtually every plan dependents on the installation and operation of on-site renewable energy. With today’s difficult economic climate, only those campuses that can successfully acquire financing will be able to harvest their carbon reductions through on-site renewable energy. The panel will discuss financing renewable energy Installations from Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBS), how to measure carbon offsets on your balance sheet, campus revolving loan funds, and what to look out for as you negotiate energy performance contracts, building off of American Council On Renewable Energy's (ACORE) publication, "Financing Sustainability on Campus." Hear from the Co-Chairs of ACORE's Higher Education Committee (HEC), a group of experienced university administrators, on Renewable Energy Finance, as they share their success stories, and explore the options that exist today to scale up renewable energy projects on campuses across the country. The presenters will attempt to outline the critical variables that most institutions will need to address when dealing with how to manage carbon in the future, a strategy that requires an integrated approach of campus physical, academic, and student body activities. This topic was presented on May 26th via webinar to over 90 organizations by the ACORE’s Higher Education Committee (HEC) with support from National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), International District Energy Association (IDEA) and APPA. Attendees rated the program “Very Helpful.” | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 207 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3266 | Financing Sustainability Audits, Outreach, and Education: The Greening Operations (GO!) Team | The Building Sustainability @ Cal Program (BS@C) works to reduce the environmental impact of campus buildings by educating students in green building topics, project implementation, and professionalism with the ultimate goal of creating a culture of sustainability on campus. BS@C facilitates a service learning class, hires student interns, and runs a sustainability student auditing and educational team at the University of California, Berkeley. The BS@C program is a unique collaboration of students, faculty, and staff that serves to mesh the academic and operational aspects of the university. In summer 2009, BS@C formed the Greening Operations (GO!) Team to address an unmet need for case-by-case sustainability audits, educational projects, and green event assistance. Over its inaugural year, this group of 10 students has performed audits, educational outreach projects, and green event assistance to a variety of buildings and campus groups. In effect, the GO! Team provides a venue for BS@C to increase its breadth of work across campus. In the 2009-2010 academic year, the group worked toward a functional structural model and experimented with recharge rates. For its past work and acknowledged future potential, the program was awarded a grant by the University to further perfect its financial and structural model in the 2010-2011 academic year. This presentation will provide an explanation of the structure of both BS@C and the GO! Team while discussing the financing of such programs in today’s economic climate. Presenters will also analyze the successes and challenges of the program’s experience through quantifiable and qualifiable impacts. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 10:30 AM |
| PAP3530 | First Impression: Freshmen Orientation Sustainability Efforts | Western State Campus of Colorado has declared 2010_2011 its “Year of Sustainability”. The ideal place to create an environmental commitment is with incoming students, thus laying the foundation to encourage cultural change campus wide. By incorporating “sustainability” ideologies and dialogue into a freshmen’s college orientation experience the institutional commitment towards sustainable practices becomes part of the first impression of every incoming student. We will discuss the methods we used to change our new student orientation and Week of Welcome including: speakers announcing our commitment to the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment, skits displaying the discord within the relationship between humans and the planet earth, empowering students with ideas regarding simple steps they can take, sustainability based leadership challenges, and an environmental service project at the end of each orientation. We will also discuss the collaborative planning process that brought together students, faculty, & staff from various departments and organizations on campus to help achieve our goals. These activities were interwoven with the rest of orientation, reiterating the concept that sustainability is something Western students strive for; something that is interwoven with our lives, a commitment and an obligation. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 101 | 01:30 PM |
| PAP10045 | First-Year Experience: A Cross-Campus Integration of Sustainability Education | This presentation will highlight a unique cross campus collaboration focused on the integration of sustainability education and service learning into Appalachian State University’s First Year Seminar Program and Residential Learning Community Program. During the fall of 2009, Appalachian State University offered a new residential learning community with a focus on sustainability and green living. At the same time, a first year seminar course titled Contemporary Green Living: Life Choices for Sustainability was created and populated with half of the students in the Living Green residential learning community. In addition to this collaboration, a service learning component was added to allow students opportunities to learn about sustainability while serving their local community. In the fall of 2010, every student in the Living Green learning community will be required to enroll in the Contemporary Green Living course. This presentation will highlight the goals and objectives of both the first year seminar course and the learning community while at the same time describing in detail many of the challenges and lessons learned during the creation and implementation of this collaboration. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 112 | 01:10 PM |
| PAP3177 | Food Composting on Campus: Opportunities for Leadership for Sustainability | According to a feature story in The Chronicle of Higher Education, "with great fanfare, universities are trumpeting their efforts to make society more equitable and environmentally healthy." An important question also in the title of the feature is, "Will they succeed?" Indeed, this nation has often turned to higher education when transformation of the nation on a grand scale was necessary. Of the many possible campus initiatives to catalyze a sustainable world, one that has yet to gain a firm hold is food waste composting. This is despite the perception that "composting, along with saving energy, conserving water, and reducing fossil fuel use – is one of the most Earth friendly things you can do." This presentation is a case study of the highly successful on-site food-composting project at Kean University (NJ). The type of technology selected for the project will be discussed as will the opportunities and challenges associated with implementing such a campus-wide project. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 107 | 03:10 PM |
| PAP3837 | Food Rescue | Food Rescue is a student-initiated food donation program that works to diminish food waste and redistribute leftovers from Pacific University campus events and dining hall meals to local community shelters and food box programs. The program took root during the Fall of 2009, thanks to a cohort of students, staff, faculty, Dining Services, and community partners. In the Spring of 2010, the program was incorporated and recognized as an official university program and hundreds of pounds of food started to reach people in need. As the program blossoms, Food Rescue continues to reflect the university's pledge “to cultivate a well-educated, engaged community committed to building a healthier future” both on campus and in a broader social context. The program also has a commitment to sustainability by operating as a zero-waste system. This presentation will discuss the environmental and social impact of Food Rescue and offer suggestions to start similar redistribution programs on your campus. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 107 | 02:50 PM |
| POS3394 | Food Systems Carbon Footprint Analyzed by Students and University Stakeholders | The University’s Sustainability Master Plan has targeted carbon neutrality across the institution by 2037. To help meet this goal, students in the Environmental Studies Senior capstone course worked with the University Office of Sustainability to calculate the University’s carbon and pesticide footprints of the ten most frequently purchased fresh produce food items. The NGO Clean Air Cool Planet was a key partner, providing access to a new food production carbon calculator for comparison to the students’ research. Other stakeholders included ARAMARK, FreshPoint food distributor, specific farms producing purchased foods, distribution centers, and university faculty and students. Faculty from Environmental Studies and the Business School partnered to help students create a project based on the foundations of collaborative learning partnerships with internal and external stakeholders. Students conducted a network analysis to identify and better understand interconnections among key stakeholders, which was organized into a concept map for project development, data gathering and analysis. Carbon from production practices, transportation, processing and storage was evaluated. The three primary student learning goals achieved were: ability to perform an environmental and sustainability analysis; experience with complex project management by identifying project goals, outcomes, development targets, stakeholders, and needed resources. This was accomplished through a complex network of people with the ability and will to build a shared vision, and motivation to move the project forward; and utilization of learning networks to generate an iterative process of adaptive management that provided the flexibility needed as challenges and changes became apparent. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3832 | Fostering change agents for sustainability | Graduate work on the effectiveness of a social psychology-based, experiential learning course on generating undergraduate civic leaders in sustainability behavior change is described. This presentation outlines the structure of the course, now in its 3rd semester at Tufts University, and presents the results of a statistical study showing increases in civic engagement amongst the participants. The course “Environmental Action: Shifting from Saying to Doing,” brings together techniques from clinical psychology, social marketing and debate, which, alongside multi-media, discussion-based classes and practical experience allow students to examine their and their peers’ personal behavior and learn how to create behavior change in themselves and others. Activities during the semester include: critical thinking research, personal challenges, guest speakers on environmental topics and a campus-wide social marketing campaign. By the end of the semester students have a new perspective on themselves, society, the environment and the tools and motivation to make a difference. Students in the first class were compared against students in a traditional environmental course to measure their environmental literacy, environmental attitudes, environmental responsibility, self-efficacy, critical thinking, and environmental civic engagement. Results were examined using mixed-model analyses of variance and simple t-tests. Students in the program course showed increases over the semester in environmental attitudes and civic engagements; students in the comparison group did not show such increases. This study showed that empowerment and practical experience is an important factor in environmental education, and enables students with the aptitude to act on their environmental concerns. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 01:30 PM |
| POS3006 | Fostering Student Leadership of Campus Sustainability Work | Our presentation will focus on our efforts to work collaboratively with our students on campus sustainability. Active student engagement in campus sustainability initiatives has been the cornerstone of our Frost Campus, Fleming College, sustainability efforts. We believe that providing students with opportunities to develop the leadership skills associated with assessing current practices and providing and helping to implement solutions to identified short-comings is a rich learning experience; one that helps to prepare them well for their future careers. We also believe that this student engagement in sustainability gives us a huge advantage – it pushes us to see the world through the eyes of the younger generation, challenging us to look for ways to make things happen in the institutional setting where the desire for change can often be derailed by the seeming obstacles of established systems and processes. Supporting student sustainability leaders with mentoring from senior administrators, faculty, and staff, and with college resources has yielded significant tangible results for ecological, social, cultural, and financial sustainability at Frost. Through the work of our students we have three annual Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework reports; were the first Ontario college to host the Sierra Youth Coalition’s provincial Sustainable Campuses conference (January 2010); banned the sale of bottle water, have an interior greening project; a successful Free Market project, and have benefited from a coalescing of awareness and a coming-together of people on campus around sustainability issues. | Poster | Poster | |||
| POS3920 | Fostering Sustainability, Community and Service from Middle-School through Higher Education | In a collaboration between the St. John’s University School of Education, the Office of Sustainability, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Grow NYC, Queens Botanic Gardens and the NYC Department of Education, a $90,000 grant from Learn and Serve America is being put to use to engage 180 students from five local middle schools in a 100-hour service project to spread sustainability initiatives. Students, faculty, staff and community partners (“the team”) worked together to write the grant, assess the needs of local schools and establish the campus programs, which included hands-on field and classroom break-out sessions, group seminars, recycled craft projects and planning sessions. After a week at the St. John’s campus receiving mentoring from the team in six sustainability areas—recycling, composting, organic vegetable gardening, pollinator gardening, the nutrition of fresh foods and service learning— teachers and students returned to their respective middle schools—armed with knowledge, equipment and funds—to turn what they learned into action. Throughout the summer the students will perform 100 hours of service learning, with the supervision and aid of the team, implementing projects in their schools and communities, then return for another week on campus to reflect upon and present their successes in multi-media formats, with the use of University technology and team support. Students who complete the program will receive $2,500 in University scholarships to encourage continued learning and participation in sustainability initiatives in higher education. | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR3362 | Fostering Sustainable Development: Nova Scotia Waste Resource Management Institute | A Waste Resource Management Institute(WRMI) is in development at Acadia University. Created in partnership with Nova Scotia Community College, Nova Scotia Department of the Environment and EduNova, the Institute will be a training and research facility in all areas of waste management. The Institute will leverage institutional, business and governmental experience in waste management, and technical expertise at NSCC and Acadia to provide world-class training in all aspects of leading-edge waste management systems. Program participants will benefit from a variety of learning experiences. Utilizing the Acadia campus as a living laboratory, participants will have the chance to explore best practices and challenges in an institutional setting, as well as work directly with experts in academia and in the private sector. The WRMI will also serve as a Research Centre to explore, test and refine new technologies and as a hub for a future international network on waste resource management. The Institute pilot program, Organics Diversion: Composting on a Community Scale runs in August 2010 and is targeted largely to participants from Caribbean nations. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 110 | 10:20 AM |
| CSW3488 | Framing Career Technical Programs within Social Frameworks | It is not enough to teach students how to be sustainable; we must also embed the questions and answers as to why it matters into our curriculum and institutional practices. Using systems theories, integrated design models, and interactive activities, this session will explore how the social sciences can help frame sustainability concepts and practices for career technical programs. This cross-disciplinary approach broadens our ability to examine concepts and practices through a wider value-added lens, allowing for a richer understanding of the cultural, structural, and infrastructural foundations that shape the societies in which we learn, work, and live. Based on experiences and curriculum from PCC’s National Science Foundation-funded Summer Sustainability Institute and our involvement in City Repair’s Village Building Convergence, we will focus on green building as a model, with all related disciplines benefitting from the collaborative process. From multi-disciplinary service-learning projects to curricular, co-curricular, and operations partnerships, we will consider the benefits and challenges to working outside the silos of specific disciplines. Participants will explore important questions, develop new tools, and receive samples of curriculum modules to use at their own institutions. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 100 minutes | Tues | 304 | 12:10 PM |
| POS3389 | Friday Night Lights: Dialing Down Energy Use | The phenomenon known as "Friday Night Lights" at Bowling Green State University was created in the fall of 2009. A student approached the Sustainability Coordinator with an idea he had heard from another school and a way to adapt it to our campus. He had both the energy and the enthusiasm to follow through with the idea as well. The ultimate conclusion was a continuing program which quickly became wildly and almost unexplainably popular with students as a green service and social opportunity during a "down" time on Friday evenings. The program engaged students across campus, saved significant money (close to $17,000) on energy usage, and generated a new interest in and awareness of sustainability efforts. All this was done at zero cost. This poster will chronicle the creation and implementation of the initiative, including: Student/staff collaborations; Mechanics of organizing a lights-off program; Student learning opportunities in sustainability; Issues experienced; Suggestions for creation of similar programs on other campuses; Details and sample calculations on energy saved; Promotional and marketing successes; Co-sponsorship opportunities; Awards and distinctions received. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3700 | From Controversy to Collaboration: Case Studies for Environmental Community Engagement | Campus sustainability professionals are well positioned to lead public engagement and environmental community relations efforts for their college or university. One obvious reason is that environmental impacts from the institution’s operations and activities are far-reaching and undoubtedly affect the quality of life in the surrounding community. But some projects that will reduce your college’s ecological footprint may nevertheless be controversial in the eyes of your neighbors. How can these tough tests become opportunities to build trust in your commitment to environmental stewardship? This panel will include case studies of projects that emerged from controversy and became examples of collaboration and community engagement. Panelists will share the lessons learned and tools used to gain public involvement and support. Case studies include siting and building a large compost facility and renewable energy project, and expanding an animal research laboratory. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 112 | 12:50 PM |
| PAN3227 | From Learning to Action: Sustainability Stories from the Field | As the integration of sustainability content into a wide range of higher education degree programs and disciplines explodes, how do students, faculty, and administrators ensure that this training yields actual student learning outcomes? What are the curricular elements that support growing student commitment and capacity? This panel will include presentations regarding how graduates of sustainability master’s and doctoral programs have applied the theory and concepts gained through that academic training. Panelists will discuss what was effective in these higher education programs that supported panelists’ ability to become practitioners of sustainability in a variety of settings. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 104 | 07:00 AM |
| PAP3060 | From Red To Green: Sustainability Planning In A Shifting Environment | Many colleges and universities are beginning the task of creating formal plans for how they will reach their sustainability, energy and climate neutrality goals. Many campuses are also still creating a structure for decision making and campus involvement as it relates to sustainability. The challenges come with using these structures to create plans that: meet multiple commitments, serve multiple purposes and include/engage the campus community. Additionally, this mobilization must exist within the framework of a rapidly changing sustainability culture. At NC State University, we re-defined our structure for sustainability and began sustainability strategic planning while also embarking upon climate action planning. This presentation will discuss the processes, successes and challenges of using a new group to create one over-arching plan to help guide sustainability and climate action on campus. Topics of discussion will include: organizing interested decision-makers, creating a plan that works within your framework, infusing climate neutrality with sustainability, working towards a moving target, balancing institutional priorities and engaging the campus community. Though the intricacies of each campus will always differ, the lessons to be learned from this endeavor can be applied to many colleges and universities as they start down the path towards planning for a sustainable future. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 05:20 PM |
| PAP3269 | Frugality: The Missing Link in the Discussion about Sustainability | Following a particular interpretation of the Brundtland Report, many politicians, economists, environmentalists and others have opted for a specific type of sustainable development that argues implicitly as well as explicitly that natural capital is equivalent to human-made capital. This so-called “weak” form of sustainability ultimately gambles on the ability of human ingenuity to solve any environmental mess through the benevolent use of technology. This paper examines how this attitude is hubris of the worst sort. The author goes on to maintain that a “strong” form of sustainability is more appropriate to meet the challenges of the future because it not only has a more realistic understanding of human ingenuity, but also a better appreciation of the ability of human-made capital to replace natural capital. In support of this argument, the author contends that any mention of sustainability must contain a discussion about the virtue of frugality. Thus, the paper explores the robust version of frugality found within various Christian theological traditions and the author concludes that the Christian notion of frugality, defined briefly as the voluntary sacrifice of the acquisition of material goods in order that some may be left for one’s neighbor, would have dramatic favorable environmental consequences. Furthermore, developing the virtue of frugality allows humans to guard against the hubris espoused by the weak form of sustainability that is so prevalent in today’s discourse about and practice of sustainable development. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 107 | 10:30 AM |
| PAP3435 | Furman University’s Approach to Integrating National and Campus Assessment Methodologies | With the advent of the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Ratings System (STARS) as an increasingly standard assessment protocol for campuses across the country, integrating national or external assessment protocols with campus-specific metrics is becoming a primary goal for sustainability professionals across higher education. As colleges and universities are completing climate action plans and sustainability plans in greater numbers, the coming challenge will be to effectively implement these plans and seamlessly assess university progress toward sustainability. Furman University presents a unique case study in addressing the challenges of implementing a sustainability master plan while completing STARS. Furman’s comprehensive and holistic sustainability master plan, approved in November 2009, Sustainable Furman (http://www2.furman.edu/academics/sustainability/Documents/sustainableFurmanweb2.pdf), encompasses goals related to the curriculum, co-curriculum, and sustainability service in addition to operational efficiency and renewable energy. This comprehensive plan is currently in the implementation phase, and a primary goal of the implementation process is to determine effective metrics for assessing progress toward each of the eight goals of the master plan, many of which mirror STARS categories. To create these metrics, Furman has begun to integrate sustainability master plan assessment and implementation with the assessment protocol of STARS, with two guiding principles: to create an effective and comprehensive assessment approach while streamlining data collection and analysis. Additionally, Furman has approached assessment as an opportunity for in-depth student engagement and research, and students have led much of the process. In this presentation, Furman will share its approach and lessons learned in the process of integrating assessment approaches. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 09:50 AM |
| PAP3469 | Gaian Methodologies - An Emergent Confluence of Sustainability Research Innovation | Gaian Methodologies flourish as a green and growing global research convergence. Sustainability extends beyond campus infrastructure; nature's design and organizing insights and patterns can inform research methods and guide research. Earth research insights are converging from the areas of complexity theory, ecophilosophy and ecopsychology, Gaia Hypothesis, healing, indigenous wisdom and ethno-ecology, and multisensory embodiment. Panelists explore the theory and practice of Gaian methodologies- the roots, stems, flowering, and growing seeds of this fertile research space. Cutting edge research institutions, hands-on educators, and mixed methods researchers will want to understand this emerging field and discuss and explore its trans-disciplinary and social justice possibilities. Ongoing research and a community of practice are forming around this at www.earthregenerative.org/gaiamethods. The Sustainability Officer or Professor is not just the Lorax of the physical plant but rather the herald of methodological innovation. Panelists bring dozens of years of experience in land-based community ethnography, ecological action research, and creative arts qualitative approaches to provide both academic constructs and scintillating examples of Gaian Methods in action. Gaian Methods catalyze a just and sustainable world by bringing the fruits of sustainability into the methods of the research lab and field course as well as campus design. The panel and discussion explore six main areas where Gaian Methods are infusing rigor, connection, and justice into higher education. The panel team is committed to generating an engaging and energizing experience for all participants. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 112 | 02:50 PM |
| PAP10023 | Garbage on the Green Creates Recycling Awareness on Campus | In a campaign to create awareness about waste reduction and recycling, the University of North Florida Environmental Center created Garbage on the Green. This all day event incorporates an exhibitor lineup of related Jacksonville organizations and a public waste audit. Students, staff, faculty and the public are exposed to and interact with various organizations from recycling companies to non-profit environmental groups to local material re-use centers. This engagement enlightens the community to recycling options and purchasing alternatives as well as educates on living that uses less, wastes less and recycles more. The most important aspect of this event is the waste audit that is performed in the open on the green to engage the campus community. Volunteers are recruited to perform the waste audit in which a 24-hour waste stream is collected from four representative buildings in order to calculate an estimate of waste diverted from the landfill (recycling) and potential waste to be diverted from the landfill (recycling placed in trash receptacles). Other aspects of the event that attract various campus groups are the Recycled Art Contest, Campus Litter Clean Up, student musicians and a taste of organic food. On a campus in the beginning stages of sustainability programs, Garbage on the Green is a widely attended event bringing together multiple disciplines of departments in an effort to save money, clean up litter and promote an already established yet underused recycling program. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 05:40 PM |
| POS3827 | Gardening with seniors: Benefits across socioeconomic status | Recently, researchers have become interested in the psychological benefits of engaging in nature-based activities. Thus far, research has shown that gardening can increase well-being and sense of community (Armstrong, 2000) and engaging with nature significantly improves directed attention (Berman, Jonides & Kaplan, 2008). This past research has focused on benefits to young and middle-aged adults; however, older adults may stand to benefit the most from nature-based activities. Thus, this project examined the effects of gardening on older adult’s well-being and cognitive functioning. For this study, we used a campus-to-community model and designed a gardening workshop involving Furman’s organic farm. The two-week workshop consisted of four one-hour sessions. Each workshop was hosted by the organic Farm Manager and covered topics such as weeding and soil composition. These sessions were followed by time gardening in the Furman Farm. Half of the participants were of high socioeconomic status (SES) whereas the other half were of low SES. Before and after the workshop, participants completed well-being questionnaires and computerized tasks of cognitive functioning. We expect that this study will show that gardening significantly improves older adults’ well-being and cognitive functioning. In addition, we expect to find that a gardening workshop with peers will have a greater benefit for low SES older adults compared to high SES older adults. This finding would provide support for the notion that gardening may be a low-cost intervention with multiple benefits to a population who is traditionally underserved. | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR3191 | Garnet & Gold Goes Green: Expanding on FSU's gameday recycling program | Garnet & Gold Goes Green (G4) provides Florida State University fans the opportunity to recycle their beverage containers with the intention of decreasing the large amounts of waste and litter surrounding Doak Campbell Stadium during game day. Entering its sixth season, G4 is a collaborative program between the FSU Sustainable Campus Initiative and FSU Athletics and partners with student government and university business partners to help spread a cohesive green message. G4 is also a part of Tri-Eagle Sales' "Be a Good Sport" program which encourages fans to celebrate safely and responsibly. G4 volunteers act as the friendly face of recycling to the thousands of fans who attend FSU football games each year. During the past five seasons, almost 400 volunteers have recovered over 36 tons of material and served 1,590 community service hours. This case study will explore how the Garnet & Gold Goes Green program has evolved from a pay-to-participate program to a full-fledged, student coordinated volunteer experience that has spread to other campus-wide sporting and philanthropy events; how new program partners are identified; how increasing numbers of volunteers are recruited and managed; and how the G4 message is branded for all game day waste reduction efforts. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 110 | 10:30 AM |
| POS3196 | Garnet & Gold Goes Green: FSU's game day recycling program | Garnet & Gold Goes Green (G4) provides Florida State University fans the opportunity to recycle their beverage containers with the intention of decreasing the large amounts of waste and litter surrounding Doak Campbell Stadium during game day. Entering its sixth season, G4 is a collaborative program between the FSU Sustainable Campus Initiative and FSU Athletics and partners with student government and university business partners to help spread a cohesive green message. G4 is also a part of Tri-Eagle Sales' "Be a Good Sport" program which encourages fans to celebrate safely and responsibly. G4 volunteers act as the friendly face of recycling to the thousands of fans who attend FSU football games each year. During the past five seasons, almost 400 volunteers have recovered over 36 tons of material and served 1,590 community service hours. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3847 | Geospatial sustainability: what is geospatial about sustainability, and what does it mean to students' learning of sustainability? | In this presentation I will promote the concept of geospatial sustainability with respect to sustainability curriculum. Geospatial sustainability highlights the geographic nature of sustainability with the help of digital and analytical tools. Put differently, I will elaborate on the potential of Geographic Information System (GIS) - computer applications for capturing, storing, managing, displaying, and analyzing geographically referenced data - in enhancing sustainability education. I draw from experiences with incorporating principles of sustainability into GIS curriculum over the last two years or so. After covering some basics and background of this presentation (what is GIS? what has been done, and what was learned from curriculum development), I will address three questions, that is (1) what is geographic about sustainability? what is the value of paying attention to the spatial dimension of sustainability? (2) how can sustainability issues be analyzed using GIS? Here I will present the framework of spatial analysis for sustainability borrowing from the notion of geographic matrix advanced by Berry (1964) (3) what are roles and implications of GIS for sustainability education? | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 05:00 PM |
| PAP3312 | Getting Specific with Sustainability Policies | Broward College has recently completed a collaborative process to formulate sustainability policies specific to different divisions of the college. As a recommendation from the Collegewide Sustainability Committee and with strong support from the Board of Trustees, the faculty, staff and administrators in Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, Information Technology, Procurement, Building Construction, and Landscape worked together to discuss what sustainable practice met to their areas. The process helped raise the level of awareness and understanding of sustainability of the college community, and built support for the policies from within each division. Both the process and the policies will be presented. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 112 | 03:10 PM |
| PAP10048 | Getting started with effective interdisciplinary instruction | College courses often reflect the disciplinary expertise of the professor, leaving little room for interdisciplinary connections even when the desire is there. So how can professors “stretch” sustainability instruction to make it more interdisciplinary without radically changing course requirements or moving beyond comfort zones? This session will introduce frameworks and instructional resources to help instructors integrate interdisciplinary perspectives into environmental science, economics, and other courses. The session will highlight ways to “stretch” science to cover policy and economics (and visa versa), drawing upon interdisciplinary sustainability concepts. Participants will preview hands-on activities that enable professors to introduce these connections effectively and thus enhance—rather than radically change—existing courses. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 10:10 AM |
| FR3254 | Getting Your Head into a Beehive | "Getting Your Head into a Beehive: Stories About Teaching Sustainable Beekeeping at Northern Arizona University" In this report from the field, I'll describe the challenges involved in teaching three-day summer short courses for the Master of Arts in Sustainable Communities Program (SUS) at Northern Arizona University. In June 2009, and again in June 2010, I taught two hands-on workshops about sustainable beekeeping to a dozen graduate students. These workshops are offered as part of SUS's "Summer Institute." Their primary goal is to show students how to go about translating abstract, academic concepts of sustainability into concrete actions on the ground, to "walk the talk." The first day begins with a four hour evening class held indoors and follows the traditional lecture and discussion format. The next two days take place entirely outdoors. We work on connecting ideas from our readings and discussions into hands-on actions. In 2010, we planted corn, beans, squash, and Rocky Mountain beeplant ("The Four Sisters") in a student-created organic community garden on campus. We also worked with a "top bar" beehive in downtown Flagstaff. The hive belongs to a student who completed the 2009 workshop. Her honeybees help to pollinate one of Flagstaff's community gardens. For most students, this was their first experience inside a beehive. With additional comments offered by one of the graduate students to took the 2010 workshop, I'll describe the major challenges we encountered (bureaucracy, tools, weather, etc.), and our key successes in reconnecting higher educated minds to the hands and body. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 110 | 12:40 PM |
| POS3340 | GIS and Sustainability: Project based Introductory GIS Course Curriculum | An introductory level GIS course was modified to incorporate a sustainability focused term project. Students in the class learn the basics of GIS through lectures, intense classroom discussions, and structured laboratory exercises. Incorporating a term project requirement is an effective way for students to gain valuable experience in project development, management, completion and presentation. During the fall of 2009, the students and the instructor worked closely with various sustainability council members, facilities managers, and administrative officials to identify areas of need where GIS can help address campus sustainability initiatives. At this time, Furman University was going through the process of developing strategies to collect baseline data relating to campus sustainability, to estimate its carbon footprint, and to effectively visualize some of the complex data as necessitated by Furman’s sustainability master plan. Student projects included studies of campus electricity usage, campus irrigation, faculty drive-time, linking local farmers and consumers, a bicycle path proposal, and sources of woodchips for biomass combustion. Results were used by the council in their study of cost and benefits of achieving carbon neutrality. The pedagogical challenges in conducting a course with 16 different term projects include data availability, instructor time, and compromise on course content. Under these circumstances, extra care needs to be taken in every step of the project to make sure data is handled appropriately, and the assumptions and analysis procedures used are sound. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAN3443 | Global Green in the 21st Century: Macalester College, Student Networks, and LEED Platinum | This panel presents different sustainability initiatives that build on the institution’s academic mission with a special emphasis on internationalism, multiculturalism, and service to society. The College’s Sustainability Manager will discuss a progressive campus Sustainability Plan; a student will discuss the innovative sustainability student worker network; and an architect will discuss the ideas behind the conception of a new kind of campus building. Part I: Growing out of a campus-wide, participatory planning process and climate action planning for the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, a comprehensive Sustainability Plan was adopted in 2009. Part II, The Sustainability Student Workers Network, a group of sustainability student workers in departments across campus, was started in Fall 2008. Momentum behind this network has come from all directions and the meetings create a space to support collaboration, skill-sharing, and coordination between student workers, their departments, and other groups across the campus community. Students involved in the network will share the process, successes and challenges of this structure. Part III: Connecting the world to the college, and the college to the world and the local community, the new LEED Platinum Markim Hall is home to the Institute for Global Citizenship. It is building that demonstrates responsibility with resources and sustainability while using 75% less energy than a typical campus building in this climate. Highlights will include the use of environmental goal setting, integrated design, energy modeling, detailing strategies, and ideas embraced by the entire team, further improving the performance of the building. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 110 | 07:00 AM |
| PAP3865 | Global Greening: Study Abroad and Sustainability at New York University | New York University has established its academic and cultural identity around the "global network university" model.1 With twelve different study abroad sites and the highest number of students studying abroad of any US college or university, NYU has the unique opportunity to lower its ecological impact by fostering an international community of sustainability. This situation elicits a critical question: How does such a university most effectively cope with a highly decentralized global network that is diverse in its cultural, political, and infrastructural contexts? This paper explores the extensive network of NYU global programs, in conjunction with its sustainability endeavours, providing guidelines that students and sustainability offices can use at their respective institutions. The authors hypothesize that with effective communication and collaboration between parent university and satellite sites, NYU can extend its vision for a sustainable future. Furthermore, the paper identifies and expounds two principal categories in study abroad greening, behavioural and technical, to evaluate the quantifiable potential for each. The authors propose initiatives such as a pre-study abroad orientation course, a student liaison program, and eco-audits. As a case study, NYU-Shanghai is used. Chosen as a quality, established, and highly applicable site in the climatic discourse, Shanghai highlights many of the aforementioned nuances of coordinating with sites abroad. As such, the study serves as a tool for universities to pragmatically take a bold step, and shift from a local to global perspective in the sustainability discourse. 1 President John Sexton, New York University. <www.nyu.edu/about/leadership-university-administration/office-of-the-president.html> | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 06:20 PM |
| FR3320 | Go Green: Institutionalizing Sustainability at Eastern Michigan University | The purpose of this presentation is to examine efforts to start a campus sustainability drive at a mid-sized university. This talk will present the ongoing efforts to institutionalize sustainability at Eastern Michigan University. EMU is the only university in Michigan to not have any major efforts towards sustainability. Reasons for this include budget constraints, competing agendas, a lack of cross-campus communication and cooperation, as well as institutional resistance towards change. It is the belief of the presenter that there is no need to ‘reinvent the wheel’ of campus sustainability. Based on the hypothesis that the roots of sustainability are already present, the presenter has initiated a project to catalogue current efforts towards sustainability and benchmark those efforts against the STARS program, as well as comparable Michigan universities. These results will show that EMU is significantly behind its peers, yet has many ongoing initiatives, as well as enthusiastic supporters, attempting to bring it into alignment with the major trends in sustainability. The second part of the project is to draw up recommendations for a campus-wide sustainability drive, the end result of which will be to incorporate a commitment to sustainability in Eastern Michigan University’s mission statement and daily operations. This example can be used as a case study for others interested in starting sustainability efforts at their own organization. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 05:20 PM |
| FR3863 | goBEYOND: Student-led Initiatives to Bring Campuses Beyond Climate Neutral | How can we do more to solve the problems of climate change than we do to cause them? This is the question that inspired a small group of students to create the goBEYOND Campus Climate Network. goBEYOND is a youth-led project which works to educate, inspire, engage and support our peers in taking climate action at their colleges and universities. Educational institutions have the potential to use their research, education and economic capacity to facilitate climate solutions in their local communities. They can empower people, organizations, and networks with the knowledge and research they need to develop strategic climate action plans. The goBEYOND Campus Climate Network was founded to help educational institutions in British Columbia achieve this potential by networking campus sustainability groups to share ideas and knowledge across the province. We have developed programming in four key areas : Education, Planning, Challenges and Training. The Education Pillar aims to work with faculty to establish curriculum that is engaging, community-oriented, and creates regional climate solutions in all spheres. The Challenges Pillar looks to foster behaviour change through personal and residence based challenges to reduce one’s carbon footprint. The Planning Pillar works to cultivate collaborative planning processes within and amongst post-secondary campuses. The Training Pillar works to give students the skills they need to implement action and create change on their campuses and in their communities. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 12:50 PM |
| PAP3123 | goCARTS: Driving Learning Through Climate Action Plan Implementation | Ithaca College has pledged to achieve climate neutrality by the year 2050. Climate neutrality means zero NET emissions. Interim goals include a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2015, and another 25% reduction by 2025. The early years of our climate action plan require heavy investments in energy efficiency, in studying ways to reduce emissions, and in educating and engaging our students and ourselves to take action. This innovative demonstration project will create courses to address the goals of the key areas called out in our Climate Action Plan Implementation: resource and environmental management, transportation, and facilities. Each course will create a cross-functional team of faculty, staff and students, and each course will combine disciplines in unusual ways to form Climate Action Research Teams (CARTs). The specific objectives for this project are: to test the viability of climate action as an organizing principle for an integrated curriculum; to provide access to hands-on campus projects that result in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions; to provide challenging student research opportunities; to organize and focus campus activities relating to implementation of the Climate Action Plan; to provide new teaching options and projects for interested faculty and staff; and to broaden campus participation in the implementation of our campus Climate Action Plan. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 05:40 PM |
| PAP3294 | Going Global: Green Guide for Sustainability at Dalhousie, Africa, and beyond! | The College of Sustainability at Dalhousie University is a new interfaculty unit responding to global concern regarding environmental, economic, and social issues and the achievement of sustainable prosperity. The first of its kind in Canada, it uses unique curriculum and pedagogical models to offer students the opportunity to meaningfully engage with professors, peers, and groups on campus and in the community to address real-world sustainability problems. The College also produces a Green Guide to living sustainably annually for the campus community. Acknowledging that everyone needs to be informed on issues of sustainability to create global change the College is now making the Guide accessible to a much wider community. The College is working in collaboration with Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology on a Kenyan version of the guide, one that addresses the challenges of meeting development goals while protecting and conserving natural resources in a sustainable manner and creating a web based phone application version of the guide to be downloaded onto personal digital devices. This will enormously expand its potential global reach and reduce environmental impact. The Green Guide projects ultimately seek to encourage a broader dialogue on sustainability issues with the aim of inspiring a global movement towards sustainable living. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 10:30 AM |
| CSW3256 | Going Green Can Benefit Your Campus Educationally and Fiscally | Going green can be good for you. A successful campus-wide sustainability effort can serve an institution both educationally and fiscally. As part of a campus-wide sustainability plan to become zero waste by 2020 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2025, the college recently completed a new campus building that was certified Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED certification independently verifies that a building project meets the highest green building and performance measures. The new building, Markim Hall, is the home of the college’s Institute for Global Citizenship. The $7.5 million, 17,000-square-foot facility includes sustainability features that address energy and water use, indoor air quality, materials used in construction and in furnishings, native landscaping, innovative storm water management, and public education. The result: Energy simulation models predict that Markim Hall will use nearly 80 percent less energy than a standard building in an equivalent climate. Markim Hall represents only one component of a campus-wide sustainability program at the school. Presenters will describe how lessons learned at Markim Hall and throughout the campus can help other institutions build support for sustainability among students, faculty, staff and visitors. Presenters will also describe the fiscal, environmental and educational benefits schools can gain as a result of campus-wide sustainability efforts such as this. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Mon | 203 | 09:30 AM |
| FR3192 | Got stuff? Chuck it for Charity: A student move out collection initiative | Each spring over 6,000 Florida State University on-campus residents move out of the residence halls, leaving behind tons of unwanted “stuff” that is usually sent directly to the landfill. Chuck it for Charity is The Florida State University’s annual student move out collection drive in response to this issue that exists on every college and university campus. The model we chose is to collect reusable goods – clothes, food, books, room décor/house wares, personal hygiene supplies, school supplies, cleaning supplies, and bicycles – and donate everything back to Tallahassee area community agencies in support of their work and the people they help. The dynamic collaboration between on-campus and off campus organizations represents the best of campus-community partnerships and is a win-win for our community as a whole. Over the past two years, Chuck it for Charity has prevented 22 tons of material from being sent to the landfill and saved The Florida State University hundreds of dollars in waste disposal fees. The collected material has stocked Big Bend area food pantries, shelters, and teacher’s classrooms with supplies as well as help build the foundation for an on-campus bicycle reuse program. This case study will explore the campus-community partnership model we have built and lessons learned (logistics, volunteer recruitment, communications, and funding) during the busiest week of the academic year. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 04:30 PM |
| PAP3433 | Grünen der Universität: Sustainability Perceptions and Practice at a German University | North Americans often perceive that governments, institutions and individuals in Europe have a very high degree of consciousness and action with regard to environmental protection and sustainability. This paper explores that view by examining sustainability perceptions and practices at the University of Applied Sciences – Munich (Hochschule München or HM), a leading applied science university (Fachhochschule) in Germany. The author served as a fellow at the HM in spring and summer 2010 teaching and working to enhance sustainability efforts. Overall, contrary to expectations, the HM was found to lag many North American institutions in terms of its sustainability planning and practice. While the HM has several advanced sustainability features, such as energy efficient buildings, an excellent public transportation and bike infrastructure, and several innovative courses supporting environmental entrepreneurship and leadership, sustainability is generally not identified by students, staff or administrators as a leading issue within the university. No sustainability focused student organizations exist, and the school lacks a sustainability plan, baseline data, goals, personnel, and connections to other universities in Germany and abroad. Several barriers are discussed, including budget and governance issues, teaching loads and program design, along with societal differences such as a lower emphasis on grass roots organization and involvement and an assumption that sustainability planning and initiatives are the responsibility of government. Several ideas for enhancing sustainability initiatives are presented, with a focus on the engagement of students in the development of information and ideas to enhance campus sustainability through project based courses and student practicums. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 12:50 PM |
| PAP3503 | Green Art + Environmental Design: Collaborations through Research Service Learning | Art and environmental design should be powerful and integral aspects of sustainability education, though they are often excluded from comprehensive discussions that include science, technology, economics, society and politics. Successful, research service learning projects at the University of Virginia prove the value of art and architecture in exploring agency and fostering environmental stewardship in sustainability education. For example, students in art, architecture and engineering collaborated with an environmental NGO to create a floating, off-the-grid, environmental classroom on a toxic urban river. The Learning Barge engages 19,000 people yearly through school trips and public workshops relating human actions with the estuary ecosystem, climate change, pollution prevention and ecological restoration. The field station teaches through example by harnessing sun and wind energy, collecting rainwater, filtering greywater in an onboard wetland, and utilizing green technologies. Students designed and fabricated everything from pouring concrete into native plant filtration gardens to sewing deck cushions ‘collages’ from recycled fabric. The Fun Bus, a public art project in partnership with City Parks and Recreation, combines visual elements of natural and urban life, and sustainably transports inner city kids to art, science, and nature-related educational events. These research service-learning projects help university students connect sustainability education with their lives as accountable citizens making a positive difference in the world. They also foster a commitment to environmental ethics, aesthetics and sustainable practices by connecting 'good form' with form that contributes to 'the common good.' | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 10:10 AM |
| PAN2985 | Green Billion-Dollar Challenge: Innovative Endowment Investing in Energy Efficiency | Facing burdensome budget cuts and unstable energy costs, many colleges are grappling with how to finance urgently needed, but capital-intensive, energy efficiency retrofits. In response to this need, the panel will advance the hypothesis that innovative endowment investments in revolving loan funds can provide a viable and vital large-scale funding solution. Panel presentations and discussion will include: -- Examining the revolving loan fund model that has been successfully implemented to finance energy efficiency improvements at more than two dozen colleges across the country. Several case studies will provide insights on how different types of schools were able to overcome obstacles and activate previously untapped funding for energy/cost savings. -- Exploring various funding options for creating large-scale green revolving loan funds based on a new financing model for low-risk/high-yield endowment investment in energy efficiency. Along with highlighting financial mechanisms, panelists will address questions about endowment investments likely to be posed by senior administrators and trustees, as well as how to respond effectively. -- Encouraging colleges to invest a combined total of $1 billion in robust energy efficiency retrofits on campus by 2013, as part of the Green Billion-Dollar Challenge. Participants will gain an in-depth understanding of the steps needed to create and operate a green revolving loan fund and to secure sufficient capital through endowment investment and alumni giving strategies. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 302 | 09:30 AM |
| FR1820 | Green Building Management Degree Program at SCCC: Lessons Learned | Sullivan County Community College (SCCC) is a small community college in the Catskill Mountain region of NY, located less than two hours from NYC. SCCC is committed to educating the “green” leaders of tomorrow. Recognizing the need for a trained workforce to manage and maintain buildings that incorporate green technologies and LEED certified building standards, SCCC launched a first-of-its-kind A.A.S. degree program in Green Building Maintenance and Management in Fall 2008. In addition to learning the most current theories, students acquire hands-on training related to photovoltaic cells, wind turbines, geothermal HVAC systems, and other components of high-performance commercial buildings. All aspects of sustainable construction are included in the program, including the principles of ecological design and biomimicry; the building hydrologic cycle; energy and atmosphere; green building product selection and specification; sustainable landscaping and site selection; building automation and control; LEED building assessment system; and economic analysis. In less than two years, the program has grown to over fifty students and the program’s first students will be graduating in May 2010. This presentation will focus on SCCC’s approach to sustainability education, details of the curriculum itself, and lessons learned during the implementation of this innovative degree program. The presenter, Helena le Roux Ohm, was responsible for developing and implementing the aforementioned curriculum, and has served as the primary instructor for the program since 2008. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 110 | 05:00 PM |
| POS10005 | Green Campus 101- Empowering Tomorrow's Energy Efficiency Leaders | Colleges offer prime opportunities to address energy issues, as demonstrated by the Alliance to Save Energy’s Green Campus Program. This session will showcase transferable best practices of a student-driven campaign to foster diverse partnerships, perform effective community outreach, pilot emerging technologies for measurable energy savings and address the workforce education and training of the next generation of energy efficiency professionals. The presentation will begin with an overview of the program's 19-campus network that spans across University of California (UC), California State University (CSU), and California Community College (CCC) systems, including how each student team operates in conjunction with their counterparts at other schools, as well as overall program structure. This will segue into an overview of the energy-related projects conducted by the students, including energy efficient technology pilots, energy curriculum development, student referendums, and office energy assessments. More in-depth campus case studies will be provided for several examples which will, among other things, outline the specific partnerships leveraged between students, faculty, staff, and administrators. Finally, members of the Green Campus Program will be on-hand to answer questions and address concerns unique to specific schools. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAN3874 | Green Careers Seminar | During these times of increasing awareness of global environmental sustainability issues, we need talented Environmental Professionals to enlighten policy makers, embolden advocates, and change behavior. While this is not a new sector of professionals, it is sector of much growth. Students, new graduates, young professionals, and career changers have much to benefit from engaging in a career in the Environmental & Sustainability sectors. Purpose: The AASHE Green Careers Seminar is conducted to help aspiring environmental and sustainability professionals learn what employers look for in prospective staff: Education, personal attributes, training, specialized experience, etc. Inside tips like “If I were starting all over again, here’s what I’d do to become a successful Environmental Professional.” This seminar presentation will help prepare upcoming professionals for a career of working for a better environment. Additionally, this seminar will help attract more attendees to the AASHE conference as well as help to boost the visibility and membership within AASHE. Presentation Structure: We will recruit and coordinate a variety of competent and enthusiastic speakers that span several business sectors including, but not limited to, private, non-profit, and government to participate in a 2-hour panel discussion. History: The Environmental Career Center (ECC) has previously hosted this seminar at AASHE conferences in Indianapolis in 2009 and Raleigh in 2008. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 203 | 11:15 AM |
| FR3113 | Green Certifications as Stealth Training Tools | Faced with a large, decentralized campus and a mandate to encourage a culture of sustainability, UC Berkeley launched new green department and green event certifications in April 2009. We wanted to go beyond posting generic tips to develop a way to identify new sustainability champions and to provide specific assistance to interested departments and event planners. UC Berkeley green department and green event certification recognizes campus departments and events that have taken extra steps to be more sustainable. The program identifies a set of conditions and actions that can be followed in order to be certified. The certification process is designed to provide resources, guidance, and recognition to faculty, staff, and students. The certifications also create new partnerships, influence individual and departmental behavior, and provide a forum for detailed dialogue between departments and the Office of Sustainability (hence the “stealth” training aspect of the program). While the programs are primarily about decreasing environmental impacts at work, an important side benefit is teambuilding. One of the requirements for becoming a green certified department is the formation of a Green Team with representatives from across the department. On a one-time, smaller scale, taking actions to certify an event can have similar positive outcomes. UC Berkeley has certified nine green departments, whose 2,900 staff represent almost 20% of the total campus. We have also certified 25 green events, attended by almost 13,000 people, where 72% have composted and 60% have purchased at least 10% sustainable food. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 04:50 PM |
| FR3078 | Green Fee: Three ideas to spur campus sustainability | A student Green Fee was inititiated in the Fall of 2008 at Bemidji State University. This session will describe Green Fee Mini-Grants, Sustainability Employment, and an off-the-grid bus stop shelter project. The primary purpose of Green Fee Mini-Grant is to provide financial support to purchase tangible items that promote campus sustainability. The primary purpose of Sustainability Employment is to provide student employment for Bemidji State University students to assist faculty, staff, and administration to promote sustainability on campus. The bus stop shelter project was a collaboration between faculty, students, staff, and community members to increase student ridership on the local public transit system. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 110 | 12:30 PM |
| PAP3434 | Green Humility: How Awareness of Past Missteps Improves Sustainability Planning | Campus sustainability plans do not emerge overnight, and rarely are they crafted easily from whole cloth. Instead, schools hailed for efforts leading to a successful record of environmentalism can find itself struggling to move to the next level and implement campus-wide sustainability. What can schools learn from past struggles in order to better realize a greener future? Maryville College (MC) in east TN will unveil its first strategic sustainability document in fall 2010. Better crafted, with clearer objectives and action steps than past visioning exercises on campus, the MC Strategic Plan for Sustainability is tied to the College’s overall strategic plan, insuring greater institutional buy-in and implementation of this plan. Upon reflection, many of the better features of the plan exist because of the honest lessons learned (sometimes painfully) from past struggles to infuse sustainability on campus. Revealing past inconclusive meetings among MC sustainability advocates, disappointments over smaller-than-hoped-for green project outcomes, and frustrations with campus energy output monitoring can, now, all show to be positive stepping stones that aided the development of the current MC Strategic Plan for Sustainability. MC sustainability plan team members will review the process used to construct their document. They will discuss components of the current plan, and trace objectives and actions items to past greening efforts to show how any college sustainability effort – whether successful or not – can provide lessons that help create a better final document. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 112 | 02:30 PM |
| PAP3420 | GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SUSTAINABLE CAMPUS DESIGN | GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SUSTAINABLE CAMPUS DESIGN:IZMIR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CAMPUS, TURKEY The concept of sustainability plays an important role in university campus design. This study specifically focuses on sustainable water resources management among extensive sustainable campus design principles. Water is a non-renewable asset for our increasingly arid geography due to reasons such as global warming. The sustainable environment includes water resources related issues such as reclamation of rainwater/stormwater, treatment of wastewater, protection and enhancement of groundwater quality, protection and rehabilitation of natural water bodies (creeks, streams, rivers, lakes and others) and creating sustainable landscapes. Green infrastructure prevents runoff problems due to conventional drainage such as flood and water quality degradation; and provides natural drainage and infiltration, improves water quality, prevents floods and enhances ground water. In this study rainwater/stormwater is treated as a non-renewable resource instead of wastewater. This water resource can be captured and reused for different purposes such as irrigation, groundwater recharge, green corridors and landscape amenity by integration of rainwater/stormwater features into the site in an aesthetically pleasing way. This study develops strategies for use of green infrastructure systems and recommendations to guide the implementation of these strategies. As a case study, the current state of stormwater sustainability at Izmir Institute of Technology (IYTE) Campus, located in Gulbahce-Urla (Izmir), is discussed and initial green infrastructure best management practices (BMPs) for IYTE Faculty of Architecture grounds is developed as a pilot study of an ongoing masters thesis. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 107 | 12:10 PM |
| POS10036 | Green Orientation: Starting Freshmen on a Sustainable Track | Green Orientation is an institution-specific program designed to orient freshmen to their role in the school's sustainable practices. After Green Orientation, freshmen should be equipped with the knowledge and tools to be critically-engaged and environmentally responsible members of the campus community. Many colleges have varying forms of green orientations, but this year, Whitman College pursued a required attendance orientation to ensure a base line of knowledge for all freshmen. This workshop-style presentation is aimed at helping Sustainability Officers recognize their school's assets for getting the orientation off the ground. Focus will be given to what information to include and what not to include, as well as the best way to communicate information in a concise, easy to understand format. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3311 | Green Power in an Educational Setting: Challenges and Opportunities | The Green Power Partnership (GPP), a voluntary environmental program launched by EPA in 2001 helps organizations get support from EPA in reducing their carbon footprint, lowering the transaction costs of buying green power, and improving their environmental performance. Among the 1, 235 participants, there are 96 higher education institutions and 65 other educational institutions. This is an ever-increasing list due to the several motivations behind becoming a green-power-partner. An institution’s green energy policy can be leveraged to maximize its economic, environmental, social and educational benefits. However, before signing a heavy-load commitment of this nature, it is crucial to weigh the benefits against short-and long-term costs. This paper will provide an overview of the specific green power initiatives in the 12 higher educational institutions in Pennsylvania who are currently participating in the Green Power Program. The research will examine three major questions: a. What motivates higher-education institutions to participate in the GPP program? b. What is the basic institutional framework that is required to achieve the short-and long term goals of the program? c. What type of cost-benefit analysis do colleges and universities consider while devoting their financial and intellectual resources to embrace this new way of thinking and learning to reduce their carbon footprint? | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 10:10 AM |
| FR3330 | Green Tailgating: Generating Sustainable Team Spirit! | The "greening" of university football game "tailgating" events and athletic competitions, which are known to generate literally tons of bottles and cans as well as waste, continues to spread, resulting in increasing waste reduction and recycling. Bowling Green State University's green tailgate initiative is entering its second full year, having recently received a generous grant from the state Department of Natural Resources in the area of special venue waste reduction and recycling. This report will provide information on how this initiative was organized, implemented, staffed, and funded with a virtually nonexisent budget, through co-sponsorship, volunteer efforts, collaboration, creativity, and community commitment. Topics reported upon and updated include: Staffing through volunteers; Generating student support; Marketing/promotion/advertising efforts; Collaboration with university and external community; Educational messages to students and community; Measuring and Assessing success; Equipment/container choices; Grant support and funding; Expanding concept to other athletic events. BGSU's success has included a combination of waste stream reduction savings, commodities sales, and labor/cleanuup savings. Information shared is geared to help both institutions who have already attempted green tailgating, and those trying it for the first time. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 110 | 09:40 AM |
| POS2420 | GREEN TEAMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION—PROBLEMS AND PROMISES | Abstract Many businesses and other organizations have formed Green Teams, action- oriented small groups of passionate individuals who assume responsibility for promoting sustainable behavior and processes in their organizations. The setting of higher education, however, presents unique challenges and rewards for Green Teams. This presentation will focus on 1) forming Green Teams, 2) creating a structure within which they can flourish, 3) identifying obstacles and developing strategies to overcome them, 4) sharing helpful tips based upon actual experiences, and 5) furnishing important resources. The intended result is to equip any group to have a successful Green Team within a higher education setting. | Poster | Poster | |||
| POS10027 | Greening a University Tradition | During the Fall of 2009, the University of North Texas began a concerted effort to increase the sustainability of our athletic events. Many faculty, staff and students became involved in this effort to green one of the universities most popular traditions. This presentation explores how the enthusiasm of staff and students can be leveraged to support and perpetuate campus sustainability. This discussion will guide attendees through the challenges and sucesses of increasing the sussainability of a university tradition by examining our efforts to engage students, staff, and community members in creating a "green tailgating" event. We will discuss the benefits of using these types of events to create an educational moment, the tools needed to track and market these types of efforts, and the service learning perspective we took in our approach. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3867 | Greening Campus Sustainability Organizations Themselves: Creating a Green Organizational Culture | Traditional organizational structures are an impediment to the full realization of the mission of most campus sustainability offices. At the University of South Carolina, applying green values across the campus has gone beyond transforming the curriculum and the daily lives of students, faculty, and staff. Recent efforts have focused on transforming the culture of campus sustainability organizations themselves, following green principles of decentralization and grassroots democracy. This paper will outline the nature and preliminary impact of this transformation. USC’s primary sustainability-related organizations are the Office of Sustainability, Learning Center for Sustainable Futures, Environmental Advisory Committee, and School of the Environment. Restructuring has created a “green structure” which combines the efforts of the first three organizations. Campus sustainability efforts have been organized into three campaigns: Promote Campus-wide Integrative, Ecological Thinking; Build Campus Capacity for Transformation; and Promote Sustainable Management of Campus Resources. Within each campaign are 6-8 projects, such as “Train Campus Sustainability Leaders,” and “Research and Action on Sustainable Landscaping.” Each project is comprised of team members who are a mix of students, faculty, staff, and community members. Graduate and undergraduate staff and interns of the Learning Center assume most of the project coordinator roles. The new structure is designed to achieve multiple goals, including providing an entry point for anyone interested in becoming active on sustainability issues, offering coordination and support for the multiplicity of ongoing sustainability efforts, and creating a model for the kind of organizational culture ultimately necessary for a sustainable future. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 12:30 PM |
| FR3292 | Greening Events- Beyond the Basics | Working with offices and organizations throughout campus and the community for planning, publicity, and hosting events has enriched a number of sustainability programs at the University of Florida. Unique partnerships have enabled UF to host carbon neutral and zero-waste events. These programs leverage campus and community resources for mutual benefit. -Neutral Gator, a non-profit organization, creates local carbon offsets for campus events including athletics and commencement. From calculating emissions to certifying offset projects, this session will give an overview of the process behind the program. -Gator football games bring an estimated 90,000 people to campus on game days and UF’s Tailgator Green Team supports and promotes recycling throughout campus. Relationships with business partners and the University Athletic Association allow for the diversion of more than 50 tons of recyclables throughout the football season. -Zero-waste events at UF offer campus faculty and students researching waste alternatives a unique living laboratory opportunity. Organic waste is collected and taken to a biodigester to produce energy from waste. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 02:40 PM |
| PAN3116 | Greening for a Grade: Leveraging Action-Based Learning for Sustainability Progress | This panel will include perspectives from diverse institutions and presenters on how action-based course projects can catalyze and leverage campus sustainability initiatives. The presenters will provide practical guidance on course structure, project setup and execution, and follow-through. Special attention will be given to how these projects can help build stakeholder support for sustainability efforts, and how to balance the needs of students, instructors and operational managers. Bowen Close, Director of the Sustainability Integration Office at Pomona College, will provide a framework for bringing campus sustainability into the classroom while producing benefits for both students and the institution. Alaina Bernard, Assistant Director of Land Management at the University of Central Florida, will discuss how to integrate service-learning sustainability courses into the campus and course culture through partnerships and on-campus projects. Richard Johnson, Director for Sustainability at Rice University, will analyze course and project structure, and how coursework can leverage a campus sustainability office’s efforts. Mike Shriberg, Education Director for the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan, will moderate the panel, summarize key lessons learned and provide tips on group process facilitation. Additionally, all presenters will address how to use classroom-based projects as a bridge between the operational and academic sides of the campus. Overall, this session will provide an honest, diverse and practical treatment of possibilities and pitfalls with integrating sustainability-oriented, action-based learning into courses and campus-wide sustainability planning and implementation. | Panel | 100 min | Tues | 302 | 12:10 PM |
| CSW3149 | Ground Source In-Depth: Two Systems, Three Years of Data | Ground Source Heat Pump systems, in which the relatively constant temperature of the earth is used to heat and cool a building, can be a significant energy efficiency strategy for buildings in any climate. Despite the possible energy savings, often on the order of 50% over conventional chillers and boilers, the cost, operational unknowns, seeming complexity, and construction challenges associated with these systems can make them difficult to implement. Our Panel uniquely offers multiple perspectives on two successful ground source systems put into service at the same time (January 2006). Both projects earned LEED certification at the Gold level and both were subjected to intensive energy modeling and commissioning. Both systems thus had well documented performance expectations, received skilled tuning and performance optimization, and have now accumulated three years of operation and performance data. The projects are also different enough to serve as a sample of the common types of ground-source heat pump systems. The Northwest Center for Engineering, Science and Technology at Portland State University features an open loop ground source system to match the significant cooling loads of this 140,000 square foot engineering lab building. The system used for the Morken Center for Learning and Technology at Pacific Lutheran University conditions 54,000 square feet of office, classrooms and computer labs in a closed loop system. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 100 minutes | Mon | 205 | 05:00 PM |
| PAP10047 | Group Processes as a Tool for Creating Sustainable Campus Communities | Ecological sustainability is intrinsically linked to diversity in our ecosystems. A sustainable society consciously includes the diverse voices and perspectives in our cultural ecosystems in making decisions and implementing change. Both exemplify that diversity creates resilience and resilience is imperative to sustainability. Group processes have been successfully used by organizational development consultants for years to transform businesses, organizations, and communities in a positive direction because they have tapped into this underlying principle. In this workshop we will explore how group processes can be used as a tool on university campuses for community building, participatory decision making, and transforming culture in a sustainable direction. For the majority of the workshop we will be experiencing a group process ourselves, known as the World Café. As defined by its creators, “the World Café is an innovative yet simple methodology for hosting conversations about questions that matter. These conversations link and build on each other as people move between groups, cross-pollinate ideas, and discover new insights into the questions or issues that are most important in their life, work, or community.” The workshop will also include examples from campuses and communities where these processes have been successfully used to bring about positive, sustainable change. Resources will be provided with an overview of many different group processes and what situations are most appropriate for each one. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 104 | 10:30 AM |
| PAN3464 | Growing GRASS and other sustainability initiatives at University of Louisville | This panel will focus on the sustainability challenges that face a large commuter-based urban university and discuss efforts to overcome these obstacles. Using a three-pronged model of Encouraging Involvement, Inclusion & Safety, and Building Community, the presenters offer best practices and a practical, educational framework to enhance sustainability in the classroom, residential living, and campus community as a whole. As a growing metropolitan research university, the University of Louisville works through a multi-stakeholder Sustainability Council to promote cross-campus collaboration. The Council is helping convert existing campus infrastructure into one that promotes sustainability. All construction and major renovation projects are designed to LEED Silver specifications, and nearly $22 million has been invested in energy efficiency retrofits. UofL also works with its dining services contractor to source one-quarter of its food within 250 miles and to implement a new food waste composting system and an educational organic campus garden. With renewed interest in sustainability campus-wide, UofL is implementing initiatives in waste reduction and recycling, and designing strategies for changing behaviors around commuting and energy use. The faculty at UofL is taking steps to integrate sustainability across the curriculum and to turn campus into a living laboratory for sustainability. The discussion will focus on methods of engaging and educating a decentralized and apathetic student body through interactive activities. We will recount the revitalization of the student-led environmental effort through UofL’s environmental club GRASS, the Housing Green Committee, sustainability positions in the Student Government Association, and collaborative efforts of other student groups on campus. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 205 | 07:00 AM |
| PAP3220 | Gusts and Breezes of Change: Outcomes of a Faculty Curricular Workshop | We will describe the process and outcomes of a full-day workshop for eleven Missouri State University faculty that was modeled after AASHE’s “Sustainability Across the Curriculum” leadership workshops. The workshop was held off campus on a Saturday and included two community resource presentations: a water education specialist and another university’s sustainability director. Faculty from the following departments participated: Agriculture, Anthropology, Biology, English, German, Physics, Psychology, Recreation, Religious Studies, Sociology, and Theater. Participants were charged with significantly changing an existing course, developing a new course, or developing a professional certificate. In addition, faculty were required to disseminate curricular changes to the university community through “green lunch” presentations, pod-casts, or formal seminars. We will summarize the workshop process, including the application criteria and the agenda and activities. We will also present the curricular outcomes – which primarily resulted in the explicit incorporation of sustainability into current courses, but also included new courses (e.g., “Green Theater”). In addition, we will present the results of the pre- and post-workshop attitudes of the participants on the issue of incorporating sustainability into the curriculum. Common beliefs prior to the workshop were that including sustainability in the curriculum would mean adding more environmental science. However, post-workshop attitudes were that sustainability was equally tied to cultural and societal issues. Faculty also reported a great deal of satisfaction with interacting with colleagues from other disciplines, which broadened their perspectives on interdisciplinary approaches to teaching sustainability, and improved their confidence about integrating sustainability into courses. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 12:30 PM |
| PAP3202 | Harnessing Human Power at the UC Berkeley Recreational Sports Facility | As energy usage across the world continues to rise, there is a strong need to develop new methods for energy conservation and power generation, particularly approaches that have less environmental impacts. Although human power is not ideal in terms of life cycle costs, there are promising application areas for human power in emerging regions where electric power is either not available or not affordable. There is also untapped potential for harnessing human power at most fitness facilities. This paper focuses on the feasibility of capturing this energy at fitness facilities, particularly the Recreational Sports Facility (RSF) at University of California, Berkeley, which averages over 2,800 patrons per day. In particular, we estimated that patrons using 28 elliptical machines would supply approximately 10,000 kWh into the electric grid over a year. This amounts to only 0.7% of the RSF’s total energy needs, but is valuable nonetheless. An additional benefit in human power generation is its positive social impact. A survey of the RSF users has evinced remarkable enthusiasm for implementing energy generation technology into the facility, both as a power generation tool and as an educational resource. This paper will also address the social benefits of human power generation technology in the gym. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 101 | 04:10 PM |
| PAP3013 | Harvesting the Wind: Productive Student Engagement in Campus Sustainability | While students are generally recognized as critical to the success of campus sustainability endeavors – many student groups are prime movers, in fact – their rapid turnover and apparent distractability can be immensely frustrating to time-crunched staff. Staff desperately need competent, smart assistance, but often recoil from the thought of losing a “good” student after only a few months, not to mention investing in a student who may drop out after only a few days or weeks. What to do? Reporting from the trenches as the current advisor to the principal campus sustainability group at UT Austin, I will describe the history of UT’s student-run Campus Environmental Center, and discuss strategies for student engagement that have succeeded and failed throughout this history. The successes and failures point the way to a core methodology for student engagement that will enrich the staff and student experience on a large university campus. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 09:30 AM |
| FR3369 | Healthy People, Healthy Planet: Aligning U.Va. Dining’s Nutrition and Sustainability Efforts | Since the advent of U.Va. Dining Service’s Green Dining Campaign in 2006, food, environment, and health have all been linked to ongoing conservation efforts. The group’s formal motto is “Sustainable dining practices foster the health of the environment in which we live, produce, and consume our food.” Those practices that successfully maintain a healthy environment include encouraging the use of reusable materials; composting pre- and post-consumer food waste; donating waste veggie oil to a biofuel processor; purchasing seasonal local produce; and more. That’s not the full story, though: As environmental sustainability matures into an established and accepted component of U.Va. Dining’s operations, research increasingly makes an additional connection between the human and environmental health benefits of a low carbon dining program. This presentation will illustrate the methods by which Dining’s sustainability and nutritionist representatives are collaborating to ensure the lasting health of our environment, of the students, and of the staff. Such methods include the introduction of a Meatless Monday station; a largely organic dining hall salad bar; reduced portion sizes; and phasing in water-based, chemical-free cleaning solutions. With this blossoming partnership Dining is appealing to a broader range of student consumers, thus giving them greater traction to make steady progress towards becoming a more completely sustainable operation. These healthy initiatives are ensuring that both inputs – into our bodies; into the soil – and outputs – food waste; animal waste – related to U.Va. Dining are safe and, ultimately, enriching to the quality of life of our planet’s inhabitants. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 02:10 PM |
| POS3811 | Heifer International’s Alternative Spring Break: Experiential Immersion Course | Heifer International (HI) facilitates an Alternative Spring Break (ASB) in Perryville, Arkansas, teaching individuals across the country about the organization’s mission to “work with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth.” Virginia Tech partnered with HI to enhance an immersion program to teach college-students how to involve HI’s mission into their daily life through sustainable practices. Utilizing the experiential learning model, students visit the Learning Center at Heifer Ranch to think globally and act locally by “experiencing some of the challenges of global hunger and poverty—and come away with a re-energized determination to be a part of the solution.” A major solution to these challenges is habitual modification to practice sustainability daily, particularly in regard to food consumption. Sustainable food system education is appropriate and necessary for the contemporary higher education environment as the tenants of sustainability— environmental health, economic profitability, and social justice—with an addition of health, are important issues for all students to consider and are themes that cross curriculums. Students enrolled in the course Engaged Learning Environment I: Agriculture Community Development Models which included a trip to Heifer Ranch for an ASB experience. To measure the effectiveness of Heifer’s ASB on student’s practices, students completed pre-post surveys about their perceptions, attitudes and knowledge about sustainable food systems, 3-day dietary recalls, and journal entries before and after the ASB experience. Preliminary results supported changes in student’s perceptions toward sustainable dietary practices. | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR3287 | High-Impact Experiential Approach to Sustainability in Northeastern University's Curriculum | The NU Core, Northeastern's first institution-wide general education program, includes requirements for substantial out-of-classroom experience and for integration of that experience with the in-class curriculum. Inherent in the NU Core is the flexibility to incorporate sustainability across both aspects of the curriculum. While we are also using more traditional approaches to incorporate sustainability across the in-class curriculum, Northeastern's century-long tradition of cooperative education (co-op, where students alternate 6-month periods of full-time work with in-class time), along with more recent extension to other forms of experiential learning, provides a high-impact approach to educating students who can solve pressing sustainability challenges. We are designing a green guide to our thousands of co-op opportunities within the Unites States, as well as developing additional job opportunities focused on environmental practices and developing sustainability components to existing co-ops. International co-ops involving sustainability are a special focus area, given increased student interest in global study and the global nature of sustainability issues. Recently developed co-ops include: wind farm turbines in Scotland; a water distribution system for rural Uganda; and, revised environmental practices in a Chinese plastics factory. Undergraduate research includes projects on micro-fabrication of novel fuel cells, innovative water disinfection methods, the effect of global climate change on Antarctic marine organisms, and damage to plant life on the Boston Harbor Islands caused by invading exotic species. Faculty-led study abroad experiences include "Environment, Sustainability and Development in Latin America" and "The Netherlands: Sustainable Urban Design." | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 110 | 05:10 PM |
| PAN3204 | Higher Ed in the Green Economy | This panel presentation will address the role of higher education in the emerging green economy. The lessons learned greening our own campuses are helping us to understand the common barriers to green economic growth. Many of the same financial, leadership, cultural, managerial and human resources issues impeding progress on our campuses also impede progress in other organizational settings. This panel will make the case that we have gathered a wealth of insight and knowledge that has value well beyond the walls of our own campuses. Building upon these practice based insights, the panel will explore how the higher education sector can become a more effective engine for the green economy. A case study of the Illinois Green Economy Network, a partnership of 48 community colleges, government agencies, businesses and universities will be presented to illustrate how some of these campus related lessons are being used to inform collaboration between higher education institutions in driving the growth of the green economy. Whether you are from the university or community college sector, if you are interested in a conversation that places the higher education sector within this broader context of the emerging green economy, this panel presentation is for you. | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 302 | 09:30 AM |
| PAN3512 | How Academia Can Support Appalachian Coalfield Communities Transitioning Towards Sustainability | The Appalachian Transition Initiative (ATI) is a collaborative effort to develop a just, sustainable and desirable future in Central Appalachia. ATI is a partnership with over 40 different nonprofits, businesses and universities working in concert. The academic wing focuses on community based research and how student researchers can provide data and analysis to empower coalfield communities. The Central Appalachian Prosperity Project works alongside ATI to reach out to policy makers at a national level. For 35 years, the Clearfork Community Institute in the coalfields of Eagan, TN, exhibits the value of how participatory action research in academia can transform community empowerment. Academic institutions such as The University of Vermont, Berea College in Kentucky and Virginia Tech all have partnerships with ATI organizations and conduct research on the socio-economic and ecological dynamics of Appalachian communities. We will present how community partners employ participatory action research with university partners in order to transition towards a resilient and diverse economy. A discussion will follow that will reflect on academia’s role in community development and how colleges and universities can turn research into actions that can sustain political, social and economic equity, as well as ecological integrity in the community. | Panel | 100 min | Mon | 302 | 05:00 PM |
| PAP2481 | HOW INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS ARE RELATED TO GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS | Increasingly, institutions are reporting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as a measure of sustainability. Higher education institutions are taking a leadership role as demonstrated by the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) where they commit to accounting for their emissions and developing a climate action plan with emissions reduction goals. Recently reported data for 135 colleges and universities reporting GHG emissions to the ACUPCC, was studied to see what institutional factors were associated with them. GHG emissions from these institutions were found to be a function of the size of the institution (full-time student enrollment and square feet), the amount of laboratory and residential space, whether there is a medical school, and the extent of commuting to campus by faculty, staff and students. Laboratory space was found to have 10 times more effect on emissions per square foot than space such as classroom and office, while residential space had about 2 times the effect. The magnitude of the parameters change somewhat when looking at schools that have gross emissions of 50,000 metric tons of CO2-equivalent or less. These results have implications for institutions of higher education at the policy level in that those institutions that are more research intensive and have more residential nature are more likely to have higher emissions. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP3740 | How much have students learned?: Outcomes Assessments for Sustainability Education | With the increasing attention on sustainability curricula, more emphasis should be placed on the assessment of what students actually learn from such curricula. AASHE’s STARS has helped to focus campuses on assessing sustainability education, but it currently emphasizes input measures. This presentation will describe and evaluate two strategies that go beyond assessing inputs (e.g. number of courses that address sustainability) and instead assess outcomes (or their proxies) for whole sustainability programs (not just single courses). First, Green Mountain College has developed an eportfolio system for directly measuring sustainability education outcomes across a four year college experience. We will explain how this system was developed, and discuss the strengths and challenges of implementing an eportfolio system. Second, we are developing a pilot project in partnership with the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) that will provide data comparable across institutions regarding proxy measures of the quality of sustainability content and pedagogy. We will introduce the assessment questions that will be used by a NSSE consortium on sustainability and review the benefits and costs of using an existing assessment tool such as NSSE to evaluate the quality of sustainability education. We will briefly touch on other assessment possibilities still in the exploratory phase such as developing sustainability problem solving exercises modeled on collegiate learning assessment problems. Given the importance of outcomes-based assessment in higher education and the need for good mechanisms for assessing and tracking curricular integration, sustainability advocates should further develop such assessment tools. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 04:50 PM |
| PAP10052 | How Passion Inspired the Evolution of Energy Reduction to Sustainability | The business case for Sustainability is more compelling than ever in tough economic times. Energy costs serve as one of the largest budget items and represent enormous potential savings for universities without compromising core mission or cutting FTEs. The Facilities Department successfully implemented an Energy Conservation program that resulted in over $55 million in cost savings through innovative design, deferred maintenance and operational improvements. Capturing even greater cost savings would require engaging and inspiring the community of 8,000 faculty, staff and students to make responsible choices around personal energy consumption. An Energy Awareness Committee (EAC) representing 23 departments was formed, including representatives from research labs, clinical areas, IT, administration and students to help inform and inspire people to reduce personal energy consumption. A Lab sub-committee developed best practices that will result in energy cost savings of $2/per square foot annually ($750,000). EAC members were so passionate about what they were doing they began to focus on re-cycling, purchasing, dining services and transportation. Information, tools and best practices were provided, including a sustainability pledge, handouts, meeting agendas, posters, quizzes, a website, and a Children’s Art Contest featuring a Family Sustainability Discussion Outline. The success on the medical school campus inspired people on the main campus to form a committee there. The sub-committees from both campuses are now collaborating and sharing best practices across the entire university. Our commitment is to share best practics in a way attendees can implement some of the strategies on their campuses. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 104 | 12:50 PM |
| PAP2987 | How Three Institutions Achieved Progressive Measures of Environmental Sustainability | Purpose: The purpose of this study was to use a comparative case study to examine how higher education institutions achieved progressive measures of environmental sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: The study compared three institutions who have achieved progressive measures of campus sustainability. Carleton College, St. Olaf College, and the University of Minnesota, Morris were chosen as participants. During site visits, fieldwork and other data collection strategies, including document review, were utilized. In addition, interviews were conducted with administration, faculty, staff, and students. Findings: These institutions utilize a facilities-driven approach, use partnering change agents to achieve green initiatives, foster a culture of environmental awareness, promote activism through educational programming, utilize measured accountability means, and model a financial commitment to sustainability and also utilize alternative funding mechanisms for sustainability projects. Research limitations/implications: A limited number of cases were chosen to accommodate data collection. The study was delimited in time and place and also to the six comparison categories of sustainability for each institution. Also interviews were delimited to selected subjects on each campus. The research will add to literature regarding creating sustainable campuses and also provide a foundation for further study in the progress and impact of campus sustainability efforts. Originality: Although there are a number of individual case studies describing “what” institutions have done, little research exists using a comparative case study method to examine “how” the institutions achieved their green success. The findings of this study will serve as a guide for campus community members who are interested in creating a sustainable campus. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 112 | 03:10 PM |
| PAN3251 | How to Conduct an Eco-Charrette for Existing Buildings | If you want to make your existing buildings as energy efficient as your new “silver” certified buildings, where do you start? We chose one of the largest, most complex buildings on campus; a 500,000-square-foot mixed-use student union, hotel, bookstore, conference center, bowling alley, and restaurant center as the subject for a two-day eco-charrette. One of the largest student unions in the country, this building has over 14,000 visitors per day in the heart of campus. Working with our fundraising intern, we were able to secure a $50,000 grant to fund a two-day eco-charrette with 55 students, faculty, staff and outside experts. After a national search, we selected a team that included one of the authors of the green building rating system for existing buildings. Student sustainability interns and a graduate Sustainability Leadership class provided input before, during and after the charrette. Representatives from the Association of College Unions International and the Green Building Council Green Campus Campaign participated to see how this process might inform similar pilots at other student unions across the country. Charrette participants concluded that it should be feasible to certify the pilot building using only no cost or low cost measures. The building is now fully metered for the first time and we are polling other institutions to create a national energy benchmark for student unions that will facilitate their certification efforts as well as ours. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 207 | 07:00 AM |
| POS10055 | How to engage people in behavioural change for sustainable development | The University of Ottawa, Canada, has been advancing sustainable development through its communications and outreach strategies. Considering the budget, and the problem faced by any institutions of its size, the university’s communication on sustainable development covers a range of issues and events that can serve as the vehicle of change in raising awareness about food, water, waste, transportation, energy, and future prospects. The University is also concerned about how its messages are crafted to explain problems and pertinent issues, to share the results of its intellectual work, to encourage participation in different events, with the support of research on how the target audiences prefer to receive messages. Communicating about sustainable development, mostly creating publicity for the idea, with a more substantive focus on behaviour, is the fundamental form of social mobilization by the university to enable it to address new challenges in the community. But extending communication about sustainable development issues to also include other actors—from NGOs to interests groups to churches to corporations— has become an excellent entry point for advocacy and outreach initiatives. Communication is the key that is helping the University advance sustainability as a concept and practice in the quest to change aspects of human behaviour. This paper presents the University of Ottawa’s Eco Network, a social networking group of volunteers engaged in delivering messages of change directed at impacting broad areas of human culture on campus. | Poster | ONE HOUR FIFTEEN | |||
| PAP3307 | How to Involve 14,000 People in Campus Energy Conservation | The third annual Indiana University Energy Challenge took place March 25 – April 22, 2010. This month-long competition to conserve energy and water has grown considerably since its inception in 2008. The Energy Challenge began as a competition between 10 residence halls and has expanded to include all 11 residence halls, 26 Greek houses, and eight academic buildings. In total, 14,000 faculty, staff, and students participated in the latest Energy Challenge. This year, the residence halls, Greek houses, and academic buildings collectively saved 1,026,319 kilowatt hours of electricity and 2,530,959 gallons of water. This is enough energy to power over 1,000 average American homes for one month and enough water to fill more than four Olympic sized swimming pools. An estimated 1,596,952 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions were diverted from the atmosphere as a result of the competition. The Energy Challenge is an opportunity for participants to make small behavioral changes and learn-by-doing, a powerful educational tool. Savings are reported weekly and posted on the Energy Challenge website (energychallenge.indiana.edu) which gives participants immediate, tangible results throughout the challenge. In addition to the website, Facebook, local newspapers, and grass-roots efforts within the buildings contribute to the success of the competition. This fall, another 10 academic and administrative buildings will be added to the first ever Fall Energy Challenge in October 2010. With a student population of 42,000, the Energy Challenge is well on its way to becoming part of the Indiana University tradition. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 101 | 03:50 PM |
| PAP3835 | How to Kick the Bottle with Bottled Water Alternatives | Learn how to replace bottled water with alternatives in order to cut solid waste, reduce upstream water consumption, save money, ensure human health, and protect the public water supply. Many people perceive bottled water as healthy and safe and tap water as polluted and risky. In reality, bottled water is weakly regulated and quality is not guaranteed, whereas tap water is highly regulated, quality is tested, and reports are publicly available. Much bottled water is actually tap water in a container. Bottled water also cost s a great deal more. At American University, water coolers and single serve containers from vending machines and retail locations cost an average of nine hundred times more than tap water. AU is kicking the bottled water habit by increasing the visibility, availability and convenience of tap water. Components of the initiative include retrofitting campus water fountains with water bottle fillers; replacing water coolers with inline filters; office by office educational presentations about tap water versus bottled water; installing educational signage; and ensuring that re-usable serving vessels are available for events and convenient mobile drinking water usage. Learn how American University is saying “bon voyage” to bottled water. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 107 | 05:40 PM |
| PAP3293 | How to Launch an Office of Sustainability at Warp Speed | How does one start an office of sustainability at a Big Ten university campus with 40,000 students? This paper will describe how one director of sustainability catalyzed change through rapid network development. In the first year, the two-person office developed a network of dynamic implementation that includes a 40-person Campus Sustainability Advisory Board, seven Working Groups with over 100 participants, a Student Sustainability Council representing seventeen student organizations, twenty Green Teams in various departments, 92 sustainability interns and outreach programs to Athletics, Alumni and the community. Some major initiatives include a themed semester “sustain.ability: Thriving on a small planet;” an Energy Challenge that involved 14,000 participants, including all eleven residence halls, 26 Greek houses and 8 major academic buildings that saved over 2.5 million gallons of water and over 1 million kilowatt hours of electricity in four weeks; e-waste days that diverted over one million pounds of e-waste from landfills in two years; an eco-charrette to turn one of the largest student unions in the country into an example of greening existing campus buildings; establishment of a sustainability research grant program; sustainability curriculum development workshops; a computer power savings program that will save $500,000; and a program to educate incoming freshmen about sustainability. Representatives of this group convened a 2020 Vision retreat and formulated a vision and 20 goals for 2020, which were unanimously endorsed by the Advisory Board. Learn how to thrive within your means through creative networking, utilizing the campus and community as a learning lab. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 02:50 PM |
| FR3105 | How to Sell a Sustainability Major: Career Targeting and Reverse-Engineering | In 2008, Philadelphia University became one of the first universities in the nation to offer an undergraduate degree program in Environmental Sustainability. Thanks to our diverse mix of professionally-oriented majors, we were able to develop a Bachelor of Science program that gives students a broad overview of the various professional components of sustainability thinking: from green architecture to sustainable management practices to industrial ecology. Our university’s strong focus on career preparation, however, also challenged us to develop a curriculum that would launch students on a specific career trajectory. Given this framework, we chose to build our sustainability major in reference to a specific job title that worked for our region’s geographic area and our university’s academic profile and faculty expertise. Once we had identified the career target, we then engaged in a process of reverse-engineering to define the curriculum for the major. This approach not only led to a coherent curriculum, but it also facilitated the marketing and recruitment for the major, since we were able to talk about career opportunities in addition to our innovative program. This field report will share our approach to building a sustainability major, and encourage our colleagues to think about how they can apply our experiences to the development of their own unique and practical sustainability degree programs. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 110 | 05:30 PM |
| PAP2200 | How Universities use the LEED Green Building Rating System | Universities face mounting pressure to uphold public trust, account for outcomes, and cut costs. Adopting environmentally sustainable practices is one way to achieve such goals. Today, universities across the US are adopting environmental sustainability as a pervasive, unifying, motivating force. They are placing environmental issues front and center – integrating them into the curriculum and using them as guiding principles in purchasing and in facilities planning, operations, and maintenance. In the past decade, universities have earned certification of more than 470 buildings through the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC’s) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. The LEED® Green Building Rating program provides a recognized system for assessing aspects of a building’s design related to human and environmental health. A building can earn one of four LEED ratings (Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum). LEED measures projected performance and gauges the building owner’s contribution to the environmental movement. University officials are embracing the system for many reasons. Green buildings can improve human health, boost productivity and morale, conserve natural resources, and reduce operating expenses. Green design also responds to ethical imperatives, helps build capacity of the green building industry, lessens demand for non-renewable resources, and protects habitats and waterways. This paper is geared toward university administrators and everyone interested in LEED. It reports original, quantitative research about what types of universities have used the system successfully, what LEED categories they most frequently use, and what levels of certification they typically earn. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 112 | 04:50 PM |
| PAN3398 | How We Live and How We Learn: Sustainability at U.Va. | U.Va.’s Presidential Committee on Sustainability, Office of the Architect and Utilities staff focus on achieving university-wide curricular and operations goals. Simultaneously, individual Schools have set sustainability goals, such as Darden’s vision to be zero waste, carbon neutral institution by 2020, and a top ten business school for teaching and research on sustainability by 2013. This panel discussion will feature leaders of both curriculum and operations/planning actions who will discuss the collaboration and goal-setting process, specific goals identified, and successes and setbacks in implementation, including: 1. Curriculum: a. Creation of a sustainability concentration at Darden, related co-curricular conferences and competitions, student research involving community organizations, and harnessing students’ knowledge. b. Development of cross-disciplinary courses, The Bay Game, a multi-stakeholder simulation on Chesapeake Bay issues, and the sustainability-focused Semester at Sea. 2. Planning: a. Commitments to use space efficiently and limit physical growth and associated embodied and operating carbon emissions. b. Development of an overall sustainability plan including strategies for waste reduction, water conservation and management, nitrogen reduction, and culture shift through communication campaigns within both the University and surrounding community. 3. Utilities: a. Gaining commitment from all constituents and developing mechanisms for sustainability actions both at work and home. b. Promoting leadership from all groups, especially including student leadership. c. Revolving fund for retrofitting existing facilities with energy efficient systems. d. Detailed analyses of alternative energy sources. All panelists will cite successful examples of cross-university collaboration and stakeholder engagement, as well as intentional connections made between academic learning and operational changes. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 107 | 07:00 AM |
| PAP3409 | Hydration Stations: How perception influences Portland State University’s water sustainability | While universities often talk about sustainability, how do we actually measure the impact of our actions? How are the outcomes of campus initiatives influenced by students’ perspectives? The social and environmental consequences of bottled water are both immense and well documented (Barlow, 2002; Shiva, 2002). To promote campus sustainability, Portland State University recently installed water bottle refilling stations as a free, local alternative to commercially produced bottled water. Anecdotal reports about the Hydration Stations were enthusiastic, but motivations for student use proved illusive. Research shows the relationship between one’s perception of water and their water drinking behavior is poorly understood (Doria, 2006); only one study has explored stakeholder perceptions of drinking water in U.S. schools (Patel, Bogart, Uyeda, Rabin & Schuster, 2010). Our study investigates the relationship between students’ perceptions of water their and beverage drinking behavior, focusing on sources like tap, bottled, and filtered water. We measured weekly water consumption at a refill station equipped with a flow-meter, and surveyed the attitudes and behaviors of a random population of 8,000 students. 919 subjects responded and the data were analyzed using a variety of statistical methods, including multivariate analysis. Results allowed construction of grouped attitudinal profiles (i.e. bottled and tap users), and uncover key factors that influence student behavior. This presentation will highlight the importance of addressing student beliefs in behavior change campaigns, demonstrating how the measurement of “green” initiatives can create research-based interventions to further promote sustainability in higher education. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 107 | 01:10 PM |
| POS3223 | Idea and Practice of Sustainability: A First-Year Student Experience | Sustainability provides an interdisciplinary framework for studying the most compelling struggles of our time. In academia, sustainability offers structured and spontaneous opportunities for the curriculum to infiltrate campus operations and student life. In 2008, I piloted a first-year seminar (FYS) on sustainability at Hartwick College that sought to imagine the ideas of sustainability and weave them into campus best management practices. Students opted to live in campus dorms or on Hartwick’s Pine Lake Environmental Campus, an off-site living and learning community that serves as a laboratory to explore an independent, intentional way of life that gives new meaning to undergraduate living. The FYS introduces students to research and praxis including systems science, organizational dynamics, cost-benefit analyses, and concerns of equity, inclusivity, and access. Each student selects a project that focuses on aspects of campus sustainability. They conduct research, prepare a needs assessment, identify barriers to implementation, perform an economic analysis, and draft a final design proposal. Over the span of two years, students presented the administration with a five-point agenda for institutionalizing sustainability as a key value in a Hartwick education. Projects further reduced the College’s ecological footprint through energy and water conservation, a biodiesel initiative, and an organic garden and composting operation. Integrating sustainable living and learning practices into the first-year curriculum transforms the undergraduate experience by involving students in the immediacy of problems and solutions, challenging them to reflect on their own actions and behaviors, and promoting their development as engaged citizens capable of leading institutional change. | Poster | Poster | |||
| POS10033 | Ideas to Implementation-Catalizing Student, Staff and Faculty Efforts | This session will describe a decade-long award-winning initiative that partners students, faculty and students to catalyze sustainability efforts on our 60,000 person campus. Using the campus as a living laboratory, students gain credit and collaborate with staff and faculty to explore and exemplify sustainability in campus operations. Staff members request and receive research pertinent to their area of operations, students earn academic credit, instructors become more involved with the community and sustainability issues are addressed by some of the brightest minds in the world. Since 2000, SEEDS has engaged almost 4000 participants and coordinated over 600 student reports. Projects have benefited the University in a variety of ways. SEEDS has saved the University almost $200,000 in consulting fees. Our life cycle assessment of academic buildings has calculated the material consumption and impact of over 53% of our infrastructure. Design/build projects have created two campus food gardens, social spaces and a trailer for the transport of our campus farm products to an on-campus market. Projects related to carbon sequestration in our university forests and the innovative design of a new student association centre with a living wall and rooftop garden are contributing to UBC’s 2015 commitment to reduce our 2007 GHG levels by 33 percent. We will describe the principles and processes that led to the success of the program, the framework that supports it, its impacts and its replicability on other campuses. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP10039 | Ideas to Implementation-Catalizing Student, Staff and Faculty Sustainability Efforts | This session will describe a decade-long award-winning initiative that partners students, faculty and students to catalyze sustainability efforts on our 60,000 person campus. Using the campus as a living laboratory, students gain credit and collaborate with staff and faculty to explore and exemplify sustainability in campus operations. Staff members request and receive research pertinent to their area of operations, students earn academic credit, instructors become more involved with the community and sustainability issues are addressed by some of the brightest minds in the world. Since 2000, SEEDS has engaged almost 4000 participants and coordinated over 600 student reports. Projects have benefited the University in a variety of ways. SEEDS has saved the University almost $200,000 in consulting fees. Our life cycle assessment of academic buildings has calculated the material consumption and impact of over 53% of our infrastructure. Design/build projects have created two campus food gardens, social spaces and a trailer for the transport of our campus farm products to an on-campus market. Projects related to carbon sequestration in our university forests and the innovative design of a new student association centre with a living wall and rooftop garden are contributing to UBC’s 2015 commitment to reduce our 2007 GHG levels by 33 percent. We will describe the principles and processes that led to the success of the program, the framework that supports it, its impacts and its replicability on other campuses. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 05:00 PM |
| PAP3805 | IIICE: A New Model for Sustainability in Higher Education | A new model for sustainability in higher education has been created recently by the University of South Florida based on Integrated, Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Community Engagement (IIICE). The IIICE model combines four major initiatives—a new School of Global Sustainability, institutional offices of Sustainability and Community Engagement, and a Global Academic Partners program, which links USF faculty and students with universities in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. This presentation will describe each initiative and how all four collaborate to rethink and rework the role of sustainability in institutions of higher learning. While relatively new, the collaboration has already made significant impacts on student success and research innovation, including the development of a service-learning curriculum based on sustainable healthy communities, worldwide public-private partnerships with applied research internship opportunities in sustainability science, and substantive organizational and policy shifts that are paving the way for long term institutional sustainability. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3481 | Impact of Educational Context on Teaching Sustainable Design and Construction | Teaching sustainability is critical to the education of Construction Management (CM) students and professionals. The authors have participated in and taught classes focused on the integration of sustainable principles and practices in a variety of educational contexts. These include: University graduate and undergraduate for credit courses, continuing-education classes, travel courses, as well as material preparation for partnering with overseas Universities in the area of sustainable building. This research addresses the opportunities, challenges, and lessons learned from these different educational offerings and environments. Highlights include the role culture plays in teaching sustainability in different countries and to different audiences; the importance of case studies and experiential learning exercises such as charrettes and real-world as well as local project examples; and the value of problem-based service-learning. Our research examines teacher preparation concerns that arise, particularly in classes introduced in countries that have not embraced sustainability or sustainable design and construction in education. We review necessary modifications to teaching material regarding regional climate, culture, and experience of both teacher and student. We promote domestic and international educational partnerships to further the dissemination of environmental learning. We develop an adaptable educational framework to guide and support sustainable construction coursework across a wide range of educational contexts. Finally we identify assessment tools, which encourage dialogue and evaluate impact within and across classrooms to support and advance the roles of teachers and students in sustainable education. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 09:30 AM |
| PAN3660 | Implementation of a Custom Sustainability Action Plan at Lynn University | This discussion with outline the comprehensive masterplanning exercise and the Sustainability Implementation process that Buro Happold provided Lynn University, a private, coeducational institution located in Boca Raton, Florida. Lynn University is experiencing facility degradation, increased competition amongst pier schools, and financial challenges. They have also realized the current facility and staff practices are unsustainable, and a new economic model needs to be adopted. At the heart of this new ethos and vision for the school, is a new commitment to high-performance, efficiency, conservation and stewardship. This presentation and discussion will outline the key factors driving the Masterplan, the framework outlined for establishing an economic, social and environmentally sustainable campus and the status of implementation and outreach. Key to this process will be the discussion of a custom Sustainability Implementation Tool for the campus, and the unique partnership with an energy service provider, the university and a 3rd party verifier. The sustainability framework outlines five major disciplines: Energy, Water, solid waste, landscape/ecology, and community. We will discuss the existing facilities and practices, the goals, vision and strategies, the implementation tools and the current status of the campus. Financing challenges will be discussed, with unique frameworks for implementation of sustainably. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 201 | 07:00 AM |
| FR3041 | Implementing a Climate Action Plan with a Campus-wide Committee | The University of Wyoming Campus Sustainability Committee (CSC) was established in 2006 by President Tom Buchanan after students from the Campus Sustainability class (ENR 4600/5600) garnered support and proposed such a committee to the administration. The committee serves in an advisory capacity to all campus departments, colleges and other entities in an effort to advance environmental and economic sustainability. Members are appointed by the President. Staff, faculty, students and administrators comprise the committee. Outside of student organizations, the CSC is the university’s only committee or other entity devoted to sustainability. No central office or paid sustainability positions exist at University of Wyoming. In 2007, President Buchanan signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). In 2009, the CSC submitted its Climate Action Plan (CAP) - a joint effort of University administrators, faculty, staff and students. The committee is now implementing the CAP using the same collaborative approach it used to create it. This field report will describe the strategies used to engage and coordinate campus stakeholders and the challenges and advantages associated with cross-campus ownership of and responsibility for CAP implementation. Special attention will be paid to the lessons we’re learning from drawing on a variety of expertise, perspectives and interests throughout the campus community and from working through an appointed team of otherwise occupied faculty, staff and students. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 05:10 PM |
| FR3860 | Implementing a Local Food Fundraiser on your Campus | This session will provide tools to plan and measure the success of a campus-wide fundraiser. The Local Food for Local People food drive has successfully raised over $1,000 in each of the past six years. As an organization, we successfully raised money on campus to buy food from local farmers and ultimately gave it to local food banks. Students can make it fun and easy to implement on any campus, and even more successful with collaborations across campus. We had help from Environmental Science Club to Little Sisters of the Gold Rose. Our session will teach attendees about what went well and what did not in our fundraiser, how to move beyond the idea stage (and implement it on campus) and how to collaborate across campus to have the most effective fundraiser. The fundraiser addresses many aspects of sustainability, primarily the food chain—local farmers feed local people who are usually without access to healthy food. It confronts the idea of sustaining the environment while introducing the community to a new idea of the food system. In addition, it teaches students to be aware of such topics and encourages them to reach out to other students. Ultimately, all of the following aspects are addressed in effective ways: education, fundraising, humanitarian work, health, local economies, social justice and sustainability. Our presentation would be extremely relevant to the conference because it relates to a plethora of sustainability topics, including those listed above. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 03:10 PM |
| FR3343 | Implementing and Studying an Innovative University Food Waste Reduction Program | This session will describe the processes of planning, implementing, and studying an innovative food waste reduction program at Loyola Marymount University (LMU). With the challenges of limited space and the proximity of the university to its neighbors, LMU is limited in its ability to employ campus food waste composting models that currently exist. In keeping with its innovative spirit, LMU is in the process of implementing and studying a new technology. As a university that takes pride in its research programs, LMU is taking this opportunity to conduct a research project around this new sustainability program that will engage staff, faculty, and students. The university is utilizing an automated system called the Somat® eCorectTM that is essentially a food waste dehydrator. The system reduces the volume of food waste by up to 90%, and the end product consists of dry, nitrogen-rich organic matter. Unlike traditional composting methods that take several weeks for processing, this system takes less than one day. The end product from the Somat® eCorectTM is not “compost” as it is traditionally defined. Thus, it is of interest to university faculty to study this end product and learn more about its physical, chemical, and biological properties. LMU is also conducting a cost-benefit analysis to demonstrate the economic viability of this new program. As a partnership between the Facilities Management Department and the College of Science and Engineering, this unique project demonstrates the strength that universities have to solve real world problems while providing educational opportunities for students. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 110 | 10:10 AM |
| PAP3534 | Implementing Sustainability Teaching, Research, and Service at Florida A&M University | The Environment and Sustainability Council is embarked on a comprehensive and integrated approach to institutionalize sustainability at Florida A&M University (FAMU), an 1890 land-grant institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge, resolution of complex issues and the empowerment of citizens and communities. President James Ammons charged the Council in 2008 ‘to develop and implement an integrated strategic plan, interdisciplinary in scope, to make FAMU a well recognized green and sustainable campus’. The Council, comprised of students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, and community partners, serves in a leadership role facilitating collaboration and dialogue among the university community on environment and sustainability issues. The strategic plan will also serve as the basis for the University becoming a President’s Climate Commitment signatory. In this presentation first we will share the integrated strategic plan components within the framework of sustainability ethics, infrastructure, and curricula. Then we will discuss ongoing and proposed integrated activities for the purpose of institutionalizing sustainability at FAMU: the Annual FAMU Focus on the Environment; Sustainability Across the Curriculum; Sustainability Degree Programs; Annual Faculty Preplanning Conference and Workshops; City of Tallahassee Environmental, and County of Leon Sustainability Advisory Boards; FAMU Freshmen Quality Enhancement Program on Critical Thinking; 5th Annual Florida Campus and Community Sustainability Conference – November 2011; and the Green Coalition. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 10:10 AM |
| PAP3383 | Improved Methods for Measuring the Efficacy of Waste Diversion Programs | Campus recycling and other waste diversion programs have been growing rapidly over the past several decades. However, surprisingly little empirical evidence exists for assessing the efficacy of these programs in terms of measuring the components of waste as a means of determining actual rates of compliance. Psychological research has contributed a great deal to the body of research surrounding areas of education, message framing, feedback, choice, and consequences as they relate to sustainable behaviors. Yet, the effects of these contributions remain poorly understood in terms of modifying the components of waste, including the amounts of various materials and their location within the waste stream. The current project presents several novel measures that provide the ability to conduct a much more refined analysis of how various building users utilize existing recycling and waste reduction programs, as well as the ability to quantify changes resulting from modifications to these programs. Results are presented from several studies including waste analyses of academic buildings and on-campus dining facilities. All provide compelling evidence that simple modifications to the facility users’ environment (e.g. everything from the location of recycling containers in a building to the design of food service facilities) can have dramatic effects on the amount and location of materials within the waste stream. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 112 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3347 | Incorporating a permaculture curriculum into an academic environment | Permaculture is a design system that integrates the principles of ecology to focus on developing sustainable human settlements by mimicking natural systems. Permaculture is all-encompassing and focuses on all human domains including the built environment, energy, agriculture, education and culture, finance and economics, and health and spiritual well-being. Typically permaculture is taught in an intensive 2 – 3 week session with a minimum of 72-hours of instruction. Students who complete the 72-hour course receive certification from the Permaculture Institute. Students learn a set of ethics and design principles that can be applied to the sustainable design of any human system. We have developed a 2-semester permaculture design course at a small liberal arts college that covers the full 72 hours of instruction. We use both classroom instruction combined with experiential learning that takes place at our organic certified university farm, and on-campus garden sites. Student projects include cob buildings, greywater systems, hydroponic systems, forest gardens, and intensive agriculture. Students must also complete a client design project which involves working with local community members on developing a sustainable design for their property. We have taught the course for 2 years and have had 24 students take the course each year. Course development and the challenges of modifying the curriculum to fit into a liberal arts school and tools used for student assessment will be discussed. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 01:10 PM |
| FR3720 | Incorporating Sustainability into the Curriculum at a Small University | After attending an AASHE sponsored workshop on implementation of sustainability across the curriculum in January 2010, we felt prepared to develop our own version of a faculty workshop that would encourage the incorporation of sustainability into our curriculum. The effort is named the Headwaters Project. Our campus is located near the headwaters of three different Ohio river systems and we view our students as being in the headwaters of their careers. We describe our planning, recruitment, and implementation and review our initial assessment. Our one-day workshop included a variety of mental and physical activities to engage participants in thinking more broadly about how they might incorporate sustainability into their teaching. We included discussion, two mini field trips (in the rain), outside resource people and guided reflection time. Participants are developing and teaching new or modified classes during the upcoming academic year. We meet before classes begin in the fall to discuss our progress and we will meet again at the end of the year as a group to evaluate our effort. Eleven faculty members are participating from a range of disciplines. Because of limited funding, our workshop was one day long. Most participants felt that this was not long enough because more time was needed for discussion and reflection. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 10:10 AM |
| PAN3419 | Infusing Sustainability into the Curriculum through Mellon Post-doctoral Fellowships | This panel features three post-doctoral fellows from select institutions of the Associated Colleges of the South (ACS) who received funding from the Mellon Foundation to host two-year post-docs in environmental studies. Dr. Laura Henry-Stone is based at Washington and Lee University in Virginia; Dr. Amelie Davis is at Furman University in South Carolina; and Dr. Brett Werner is at Centre College in Kentucky. A primary goal of the ACS environmental program in supporting these post-docs is to enhance the environmental and sustainability curriculum and research opportunities at ACS campuses. With this goal in mind, each post-doc will discuss his or her approach to integrating sustainability themes and concepts into coursework u sing the campus as a learning context, focusing on successes inside and outside of the classroom, collaborations across campus, and areas for improvement, particularly regarding institutional challenges. Dr. Henry-Stone and Dr. Davis will each present her integration of sustainability assessments into coursework, and Dr. Werner will focus on a course-based student sustainability project. Each will speak to how their work complements the sustainability initiatives of their particular ACS campus. Panel moderator Dr. Weston Dripps, also from Furman University, will assist in drawing together common lessons from these diverse experiences as well as speak to his experience using campus as a living/learning laboratory. The session will conclude with a brief hands-on activity designed to help participants incorporate a campus-based, sustainability activity into one of their courses or other educational work on campus. | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 106 | 05:00 PM |
| PAP3349 | Innovations in environmental curriculum: from environmental problems to sustainable solutions | Traditional environmental sciences curricula have focused on the application of established disciplinary expertise to air, water, soil, and political environmental problems. Commonly the focus had been on the identification, and more recently, the remediation of environmental problems at local, landscape, and regional levels. Efforts in establishing environmental programs progressed to efforts to green the curriculum across the campus, bringing environmental perspectives to virtually every discipline. Next steps in this process include bringing improved integration of faculty, staff and students across the campus to engage in hands-on problem-solving focused on community sustainability and to repair the disconnects that have occurred between social sciences, natural sciences and humanities curricula. Through these efforts we bring to our academic environmental programs a single central mission: the preservation and enhancement of a sustainable society including its linked natural ecosystems. This goal is based upon our efforts to improve the connection between natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities curricula and use these interactions to tackle the basic issues associated with building and maintaining sustainable communities and societies. While maintaining a focus on basic environmental systems (hydrosphere, lithosphere, ecosphere) we also examine the resiliency and sustainability of these systems in supporting linked natural and social food, water and energy systems. An emphasis on these systems brings an immediate connection between students and the critical functions of natural and social systems in maintaining a sustainable supply of these resources and in assuring their equitable distribution. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 03:10 PM |
| PAP2520 | Innovative Campus Sustainability Initiatives at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida | Eckerd College signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) in 2007. The College has data on campuswide greenhouse gas emissions since 2002. We will present this data, analyzed using the Clean-Air-Cool-Planet calculator, to show yearly changes in campus emissions. In 2009, Eckerd College released its Climate Action Plan to promote climate protection through various sustainability initiatives. Numerous projects were planned as short, medium, and long-term goals in the official Action Plan. We will report on Eckerd’s progress in completing the projected goals. Some of the major projects, including installing a chiller loop and motion sensors in classrooms, have been attributed to our three percent reduction in electrical consumption between the 2007-08 and 2008-09 fiscal years. We will present and discuss the college’s progress and future planned campus sustainability initiatives. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 107 | 01:30 PM |
| FR3215 | Installing an Organic Garden on Campus | Beginning an organic garden on a college campus poses more challenges than one initially assumes, as the community of LaGrange College quickly learned; issues that arose included administration buy-in, construction, location, funding and support from the college community at-large. Upon tackling such issues, the faculty and students successfully installed four organic box gardens in February 2010. And when the garden becomes productive in the summer, what does one do with this produce when the bulk of the college community is absent? This session will provide tips on how to navigate issues surrounding the installation of a garden so that any institution can create a productive garden for their community. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 01:20 PM |
| PAP3824 | Institutionalizing sustainability in community colleges: role of the college president | The purpose of this completed doctoral research study was to describe and improve understanding of the meaning of institutionalized sustainability and the role that a college president plays in institutionalizing sustainability on a community college campus. The following questions guided the research: What does it mean to have sustainability “institutionalized” at community colleges that are judged to be exemplary in this regard? What are the important influences to achieving institutionalization of sustainability in community colleges? What role has the college president played in addressing influences to institutionalizing sustainability at community colleges that are exemplary in this respect? This study involved visiting three community college campuses, and collecting data. For each of the cases, interviews were conducted with the college president, and with a sustainability champion. Four of the same themes describing the meaning of institutionalized sustainability were evident for all of the colleges: widespread use of sustainability practices, sustainability incorporated across curriculum, frequent assessment of sustainability impact, and knowledge of sustainability of leaders. A key finding of my study in regard to the second research question was the discovery that two themes concerning the institutionalization of sustainability were shared by two of the colleges: lack of financial resources, and cross disciplinary sustainability initiatives. Three general themes emerged concerning what role the college president played in addressing institutionalizing sustainability in community colleges: support sustainability at every opportunity, incorporate sustainability into strategic plan, and sign on to national sustainability initiatives. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 01:10 PM |
| PAP3452 | Institutionalizing sustianability within Student Government | Institutionalizing Sustainability and infiltrating into your universities Student Government can open up many doors and opportunities for campus, local, and national sustainability campaigns. In 2009, the University of Florida founded Gators Going Green, an agency within the executive branch of Student Government. This agency has taken the forefront of campus sustainability, connected all parts of the university, administration, and community. All campus sustainability student organizations are brought underneath one umbrella to collaborate and strengthen individual projects, as well as establish campus wide initiatives. It provides the tools and resources for each student’s ideas to become reality and allows the student voice to be heard in up and coming sustainability efforts. Institutionalizing sustainability also provides the financial resources as well as a more established base within the university climate. The first half of the presentation will focus on the development and initial steps to connecting with your student government, as well as focuses on the perks of working with the institution and taking grass-roots campaigns to the next level. The second portion of the presentation centers on how to best utilize the new connection within Student Government and how to formulate the most beneficial projects for your campus, and how to access these new resources on the campus, local, and even national level. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 10:10 AM |
| POS10014 | Institutionalizing Zero-Waste Events | University events that generate the most waste tend to include food or drink. Universities, their departments, and student groups host events with food and drink for many reasons. Food and drink can serve not only practical purposes (such as providing meals or snacks) but also can provide atmosphere or help draw a larger audience. Decisions on how to serve food and drink, as well as matters of convenience, can substantially affect event waste volume and its subsequent environmental footprint. For the past two years, Carnegie Mellon's Net Impact chapter has spearheaded the institution of zero-waste campus events. Beginning first in the Tepper School of Business, which hosts 10 student-oriented food events per week -– each with 20 – 200 attendees –- Net Impact has demonstrated that simple changes in food delivery can dramatically reduce waste, preserve convenience, and negligibly affect event cost. With the support of many university organizations across campus including the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research, the Green Practices Committee, the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs, members of Net Impact and other environmentally oriented students, Carnegie Mellon is expanding the ethic and practice of zero-waste events throughout the university community. This presentation will feature descriptions of zero-waste events at Carnegie Mellon and how collaborations across campus were realized from student groups to administrators, facilities management, faculty, staff, and dining services. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP10040 | Integrated Design: Linking Curriculum, Sustainability and Buildings that Teach | Through a “cross-campus, multi-disciplinary” process, the Science and Technology Center was conceived as an interactive and sustainably-focused facility where the building becomes an integral part of math and science curriculum based upon a collaborative learning pedagogy. The unique design abandons typical linear science building configurations to instead focus lab and classroom spaces around common student areas. The building is divided into three community pods separated by two innovative Wintergardens. These inside garden spaces provide views into adjacent labs and create places for social gathering, “humanizing” the sciences. The design process brought together science, math and engineering faculty with the design team to create an integrated set of sustainable strategies. The steeply sloping site moves water through extensive natural cleansing systems. Photovoltaic panels provide renewable energy while green roofs provide valuable learning spaces for students to monitor water quality differentials. Users have control over operable windows for ventilation and exterior blinds for sun shading. The Wintergarden spaces use only waste heating and cooling from the labs and the windows automatically open and close based on environmental conditions. Faculty worked with the design team developing individual lounge furniture themes that responded to specific adjacent programs and student spaces. This included historical versions of periodic tables, circulatory system images and a biomimic response to nature. The session will describe the road-map used through the programming, design and execution that brought together faculty and administration in a unique collaborative effort resulting in one of the country's most advanced, sustainably-focused community college science facilities. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 107 | 03:50 PM |
| POS10054 | Integrating Social Sustainability into Capital Improvement Plans | Social sustainability is at the core of many campus sustainability plans in theory, but to what degree is it in execution? This presentation will review a proposed method of measuring social sustainability of capital improvement projects on campus, and provides an answer to the question: How socially sustainable is our capital improvement plan? Based on the award winning Social Impact of Building, or (SIB) Rating System, the presentation will focus on the measurable social factors that capital improvement projects can impact, and outlines key elements of budgeting, scheduling, and planning needed for integration of social equity into the capital improvement plans of any campus. The rating system provides a tool that any project team can use to identify areas of social impact, and then develop strategies to increase the sustainability of the project from a social perspective, and finally to measure success. Designed to be integrated with the LEED rating system, SIB is a framework that attendees can use to measure the social impact of any capital improvement project on campus. Following the introduction of SIB, group discussion will revolve around other efforts to integrate social sustainability into campus sustainability plans including the ACUPCC, STARS, and university wide strategic plans. At the conclusion of the reporting period, the collection of measurable strategies for integrating social equity into campus wide plans will provide a catalyst for any university that is ready to transition their pledge for social equity into actionable, measurable goals. | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR3853 | Integrating sustainability into the curriculum: A report on ongoing initiatives | To address growing national concerns about sustainability, many institutions of higher education are establishing programs which focus on sustainability and related issues. At Delta College, we have undertaken an integrated approach which involves all academic divisions. Rather than develop an isolated sustainability curriculum focused within a specific discipline, we have developed a college-wide curriculum which includes all divisions (and will eventually include all programs) with the goal that students in any academic area of study may be better prepared to address the issues around sustainability. We began by establishing a sustainability task force, comprised of faculty, staff, administrators, and students, which made recommendations to the president. Among the recommendations was the creation of an office for sustainability, co-directed by an academic officer and an operations officer, and this, in turn, resulted in establishing an Academic Sustainability Team (AST). After benchmarking other institutions and reviewing literature for best practices, the AST constructed the Sustainability Related Course (SRC) form to document the relative sustainability content of courses across the curriculum. Courses deemed eligible for het SRC designation appear on the student’s transcript as such. In this presentation, we will share our approach, as well as the SRC form and the ways in which we have marketed the SRC to students and the local community. We also will describe the struggles and successes inherent in such a large-scale multidisciplinary collaboration, and we will offer strategies for implementing similar processes at other institutions. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 09:30 AM |
| POS3376 | Integrating Teaching, Research and Operational Sustainability: Utilization of Bio-Energy at UNBC, Canada’s Green Universityâ„¢ | Located in the centre of Canada’s most western province, the University of Northern British Columbia is poised to be a leader in demonstrating and developing renewable energy technology. To complete Phase 1 of a campus wide bioenergy plan, in Spring 2009, UNBC installed a wood pellet heating system that showcases the use of bio-energy as a sustainable, carbon-neutral energy source. The system has displaced the use of natural gas in the I.K. Barber Enhanced Forestry Laboratory (EFL) building and is the first university owned and operated wood biomass heating system in Canada. The EFL contains a greenhouse, research labs and office space. The pellet heating system has an energy efficiency of over 85%, compared to 75% for the existing natural gas system and has resulted in a savings of 140 tonnes CO2e/year. Ash production represents 0.25% of pellets consumed. Beyond the system’s operational function, the facility has provided a valuable demonstration site for teaching and interdisciplinary research. For example, through various course projects and summer research projects, students and faculty are studying the energy and mass balance of the pellet plant, including the generation of ash residuals and emissions production. On-going research opportunities include investigating the utilization of ash materials as soil amendments to return biomass nutrients to surrounding agricultural and forest soils. Renewable energy projects, such as this one, represent a fundamental element in UNBC’s transition to becoming Canada’s Green University™. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3085 | Interdisciplinary Environmental Education Programs: Three Approaches to Sustainability | In 2009, the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors of the National Council for Science and the Environment completed an extensive research project that explored the field identity of interdisciplinary environmental (IE) degree programs and core competencies for their graduates. This study represents the first national empirical study of IE programs and involved the program leaders of 286 baccalaureate and graduate degree granting programs at 238 colleges and universities. The results demonstrate that a consensus exists on a field identity for IE programs: an applied, interdisciplinary focus on the interfaces of coupled human-natural systems with the goal of preparing graduates to be sustainability-oriented problem solvers. The study also revealed that three ideal approaches to IE program curriculum design are advocated by program leaders: (1) a coupled human-nature Systems Science approach, (2) a Policy and Governance approach, and (3) an Adaptive Management approach. This paper will discuss the characteristics of the three educational approaches, how they relate to the consensus on field identity and each other, and how they may be understood in terms of curriculum design, competency for IE program graduates and sustainability education on campuses. NOTE: This abstract is one of four paper proposals submitted by representatives from CEDD/NCSE. We propose a paper session that will present information on various CEDD/NCSE educational initiatives that support and facilitate sustainability education across campuses. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 06:20 PM |
| CSW3189 | Internal Energy Auditing to Meet Portfolio-Wide GHG Reduction Goals | Universities worldwide are committing to greenhouse gas reduction goals and implementing climate action plans. Optimizing building efficiency is often identified as a central strategy to achieving these ambitious goals. To address these needs, collaboration across the campus is key in developing an implementation plan for building energy audits. As part of this school’s climate action plan, stakeholders from various departments within the university developed an implementation plan that called for building energy audits (per ASHRAE Level II standards) for a portfolio totaling more than 20 million square feet by the end of 2011. In 2009, the school’s Office for Sustainability teamed with the Facilities Management Group to offer audits on a fee-for-service basis as a cost-effective alternative to commercial energy auditing firms. In this session, leaders of the auditing team will present the primary aspects of this internal model. First, the team will address the key institutional drivers and resources that led to a successful and strong commitment for energy auditing requirements. Second, the team will discuss the benefits, financial model, and lessons learned in creating an internal auditing service meant to identify and implement energy conservation measures within a decentralized environment. Finally, the team will present case studies and discuss the greenhouse gas-related deliverables from the process. The intent of the session is to allow attendees to take lessons learned back to their schools and to implement building energy audits as a crucial component of their climate action plans. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Mon | 205 | 12:30 PM |
| FR3122 | International Collaborative Approaches to Tackling Climate Change Through Higher Eduction | Following the success of the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), Scotland's universities and colleges have publicly declared their intention to address the challenges of climate change and reduce their carbon footprints by signing the Universities and Colleges Climate Commitment for Scotland (UCCCfS). Launched in January 2009 and developed through collaboration between key sector agencies, the UCCCfS represents a significant collective effort by Scotland's universities and colleges to address environmental, social and economic challenges threatening our society through climate change. This approach has been formally recognised by the Scottish Government, which has endorsed the UCCCfS in Learning for Change, the Government's action plan for the UNDESD. As part of the ongoing success of the ACUPCC and the UCCCfS, we have agreed an international collaborative approach to tackling climate change through further and higher education. Together with the organisers of the ACUPCC, the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) has agreed to work with Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS) to share our good practice and develop the Universities and TAFEs Australia Climate Commitment (UTACC) for Australia's universities and Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutions and to work closely in sharing best practice with one another across the globe to the international challenge of climate change. This Field Report will outline our collaborative approach to Global Campus Sustainability through the Climate Commitment model, demonstrating the success of our approach and the potential for further growth and collaboration with conference delegates. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 06:00 PM |
| PAN3441 | Interregional Infusing Sustainability Across the Curriculum: Experiences from Furman and Middlebury | This panel examines the experiences of infusing sustainability across existing curriculum. Furman and Middlebury are pursuing general education requirements, concentrations and majors at the undergraduate level. To integrate sustainability further into the curriculum, these two private liberal arts institutions have initiated professional development workshops for faculty of all disciplines interested in integrating concepts and skills related to sustainability into existing or new courses. These workshops are designed to assist faculty in developing creative approaches to incorporate sustainability into existing courses and create a ‘learning community’ in which participants share experiences and collaborate through more informal networks. To date, over 80 faculty have participated in workshops on the two campuses. The Furman-Middlebury approach is unique in that: 1) it focuses on infusing sustainability in existing courses 2) includes assessment of faculty and student experiences 3) encourages campus based discussion about learning outcomes for sustainability 4) has unique resources for faculty participants including the use of a new approach (software and connections) to promote resource sharing. It also has an interregional United States connection between the northeast and south that creates opportunities to explore sustainability from different perspectives over time. This panel provides an overview of the range of experiences on both campuses and lessons learned regarding the creation of sustainability learning communities on campuses. | Panel | 100 min | Tues | 207 | 12:10 PM |
| PAP3622 | Interweaving Academic Reading Skill Development with Global Warming and Sustainability Education | There are still people who do not know much about, or even deny the existence of, global warming. Education may, therefore, play a role in our efforts to reduce the pollution that causes it. This presentation will review the design, textbook, and activities (including simulated greenhouse gas reduction treaty negotiations) of a credit-level community college class whose purpose is to help students hone their reading comprehension and study strategies while focusing on one content topic, which, in this case, is global warming. The presentation will also cover new student projects to be implemented in the fall 2010 semester that focus on environmental sustainability on campus and which are being planned in consultation with the college's energy manager. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 05:40 PM |
| PAP3212 | Involving the Entire Community: Missouri State University and Sustainability | On June 15, 1995, Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan signed into law Senate Bill 340 which gave Missouri State University a statewide mission in Public Affairs. In late 2007 the University chose as its public affairs theme for 2008-2009 year – sustainability. The year included convocation speakers, a week-long public affairs conference, and many other activities. Early in 2008 a sustainability statement was adopted by the entire university. That could have been the end of the story but it was only the beginning. A sustainability committee made up of administrators, faculty, staff, students and community members was formed to ensure that the sustainability statement remain a driving force in university decisions. The area has a number of community organizations and government agencies who are involved with this issue. This community wide commitment gives us an opportunity to share successes and challenges. A sustainability fair was held in 2009 to inform the campus and southwest Missouri community about issues, solutions and challenges on the Missouri State University campus. The fair included displays and presentations from area businesses, student organizations, research projects, class projects, and community organizations. A sustainability fee was also passed by the students in 2009 with the first distributions in 2010. The successes and challenges of involving all constituencies on campus – custodial, residence life, food services, academic units, design and construction, student government association and maintenance - at Missouri State University will be presented. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 01:30 PM |
| DD3346 | Is it Time for a Revolution? | We've come a long way baby... but are we moving fast enough? Although great strides have been made in the sustainability movement in higher education, is the pace of program development, emissions reductions, educational reform, and campus leadership sufficient enough to provide solutions to climate change, peak oil, ecosystems' imbalance, and the need for sustainability education? Will these solutions - and the young leaders needed to make community and international change - come soon enough? Leaders across the globe, from Bill McKibben and 350.org <http://350.org> to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are sending a clear message - the time for a radical shift in education, policy, and lifestyle is now. Colleges and universities can serve as effective catalysts for change through institutional leadership, activism and educational reform, but to do so we must critically evaluate the effectiveness of the current sustainability movement in higher education and adopt strategies that will provide viable solutions, today. Is the current movement providing the best strategies given the time frame we are operating under? Do we need to operate with more of a sense of urgency? Are our basic frameworks, just, non-biased, and based in holism? Do key environmental leaders need to take the movement to a new level that will show the promise of progress in the near future? If so, what strategies should we be using? These questions and more will be explored during this highly interactive and spirited discussion session. | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Tues | 201 | 03:50 PM |
| PAP1960 | Is this Interdisciplinary Education? | Following the 2009 essay that Janet Moore and I wrote for the Vancouver Sun, this paper proposes a teaching/learning model and rationale for universities to address their role in weak national environmental performance. In 2009 we wrote that Canada was recently ranked second to last, just above the United States, in a 2001 study of 29 OECD countries on environmental progress across 25 indicators. Since that study things have only deteriorated. We propose that universities have contributed greatly to this abysmal record because virtually all of our leadership originates in the university system; our politicians, managers, policy makers, designers, teachers and CEO’s all come from an education system that teaches us how to manage the familiar engines of harm, rather than to see how our disciplines relate to the natural world, to society, to the carbon cycle, and to each other. We suggest the following for university presidents, administrators and faculty as a way to accelerate the transition to a carbon constrained world. 1. Universities need to become learning organizations that create change, by becoming change agents themselves. 2. Universities need to create more experimentation in and between disciplines. 3. Universities need to reflect the values represented by their region and community. This paper presents a model of interdisciplinary learning and teaching that unites these ideas. The Simon Fraser University Semester in Dialogue in Vancouver brings together students, guests and teachers from different disciplines to engage in project-based learning, interdisciplinarity and distributed leadership around a shared public issue. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 02:30 PM |
| FR3426 | It Won't Decay, Don't Throw It Away! | Building on the success of an electronic waste collection campaign the previous year, Indiana University organizers expanded the planning, promotion and implementation of the 2010 Electronic Waste Collection Days to increase participation at the University and Departmental levels. In partnership with Apple Inc., 834,126 pounds of electronic waste were collected at Indiana University Bloomington and Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis in May 2009. Open to the public, the student led initiative attracted participation from private households as well as local non-for-profits and small businesses. Students expanded the project in 2009, coordinating cross-functional teams distributed over multiple campuses. Offering additional support and outreach to regional campuses, five Indiana University campuses participated across the state. Particular attention was paid to adherence to university policies and maximizing resale opportunities to support reuse prior to recycling A month long “dock-side pick-up” campaign at Indiana University Bloomington resulted in over 33,000 pounds of electronic waste being collected from individual academic and business units and processed for the larger event. Creative outreach activities including the first annual E-Waste Art Contest were designed to increase participation of student populations. Preliminary 2010 results estimate 600,000 pounds of electronic waste and associated heavy metals and toxins being diverted from landfills and processed through certified recycling contractors. Based on insights gained from two years of research and events, student leaders are proposing formal recommendations for increase electronic waste collection on all Indiana University campuses. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 110 | 09:50 AM |
| PAP10056 | Key Ingredients for Institutional Success in Implementing Climate Change Solutions | The goal of achieving carbon-neutrality within institutions of higher learning is clear and measurable. In accordance with ACUPCC guidelines, climate action plans describe priorities, milestones, and the scale of the overall problem that each institution faces. There are, however, additional factors that must be addressed if an organization is to achieve a solution to a problem as daunting as climate-neutrality. The technical facets of the climate action plan will become meaningless unless the functional elements of a high-performance organization are already in place. In this session, the presenter will discuss the key ingredients common to highly effective organizations capable of solving a problem with the scale, complexity, and long-term social and economic implications of climate change. Essential factors for success include agreement on priorities as the plan is implemented; creating a bona fide value system about engagement and shared responsibility throughout the organization; openly discussing expectations; recognizing the true costs associated with GHG emissions; and establishing performance goals to ensure individual accountability. Case studies will illustrate how organizational factors influence the efficacy of campus sustainability initiatives. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 104 | 01:10 PM |
| CSW3261 | Kick-Start Your Sustainability Program Using Student Funding and Energy! | North Seattle Community College (NSCC) has burst on to the college sustainability scene over the last year by establishing a model for a vigorous Sustainability Program. While other programs boast the introduction of smaller measures of success, in just the 2009-2010 academic year, NSCC students have: • Set up a $200,000 Sustainability Fund; • Utilized students to conduct over a 1000 hours of sustainability assessment work for the college through their courses; • Organized a full-day Sustainability Planning Charrette for the College with top students, faculty, administrators, and staff to create a 5-year Strategic Sustainability Plan with a 1-year action Plan, which will be integrated into existing Long Range Campus Planning; • Started initiatives for a campus-wide composting program, paper reduction for students and staff, and a community garden, among many, many others. And greatest of all—much of this work has been done by a student-hired 20 hour per week Sustainability Coordinator. North Seattle Community College has established a model Sustainability Program by utilizing students for research, assessment and planning to reach NSCC’s sustainability goals. Learn about the 4 critical elements of a vibrant student-driven sustainability program and how you can energize your sustainability efforts by using student funding, energy, and your existing curriculum to drive change at your college! | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Tues | 303 | 03:50 PM |
| PAN3370 | Leading the Way: How CUNY is shaping sustainability in NYC | As this nation's largest urban university, the City University of New York (CUNY) plays a transformational role in New York City’s sustainable future with an educational footprint that spans 23 academic institutions and over half a million students, faculty and staff. Sustainable CUNY is leading CUNY’s efforts through three key pillars: the CUNY Sustainability Project, city-wide Sustainable Energy projects and SustainableWorks NYC, CUNY’s sustainable business and technology incubator and accelerator. Through these pillars, Sustainable CUNY is having a significant impact on the city’s green workforce, the emergence of a marketplace for smart solar and the policy decisions of some of the city’s public agencies, utilities and corporations. This presentation has two primary objectives: 1) Overview the various areas in which CUNY is having an impact on NYC, including the city’s green jobs market, the way power and energy will be used in America’s largest city in the future and the policy changes that have resulted from CUNY’s efforts. 2) Provoke a wider discussion on the key role universities can have in mobilizing change beyond the borders of their campuses and the partnerships that are necessary to accomplish this. This includes addressing how universities can work with the business community to define what skills will be needed from future graduates and finding green jobs and internship opportunities for students. How universities can help identify barriers, shape policy and work with industry to test new technologies in market settings and inspire through example and project-based demonstrations will also inform this discussion. | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 103 | 09:30 AM |
| FR3045 | Lean and Green | The University of Oklahoma Lean Institute has recently launched a new training and certification program that applies techniques from Lean Manufacturing as tools for environmental conservation and sustainability. Since one of the primary focuses of Lean is on waste elimination, only minimal adjustment to Lean philosophies is necessary to position these tools to help all kinds of organizations address the root causes of environmental waste within their processes. This training program and the ideas of Lean are applicable to processes from virtually any field, with successful applications ranging from administrative processes to manufacturing and city infrastructure operations. This session is a brief introduction into how the Lean and Green program works, outlining some of the initial successes that have come out of it. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 110 | 10:00 AM |
| PAN3131 | LED University - Sharing the Experience, Expertise and Excitement of LED Lighting | The LED University® program helps colleges and universities around the world begin deploying LED lighting to significantly reduce energy use for lighting while dramatically lowering maintenance costs. According to the Department of Energy, 22 percent of energy used in the U.S. goes into lighting and with students and staff active well into early morning hours, universities are heavy consumers of electricity for lighting. U.S.-based LED manufacturer Cree created the LED University program in 2008 to assist campus sustainability, facilities and energy offices with identifying, deploying and evaluating initial LED lighting projects. During this panel discussion, representatives from universities participating in the LED University program will talk about the energy and maintenance cost savings as well as the illumination improvements they are realizing by switching to LED lighting indoors and out on their campuses. They will try to help guide the audience to applications that provide the greatest return on investment and high performance LED fixtures for a range of applications. Participants can benefit from significant energy and maintenance cost savings as well as ongoing media coverage and promotion of their LED lighting efforts. Most importantly, participants have ready access to peers at other universities who are developing LED lighting expertise for a wide range of applications. Attendees of this session will learn how their universities can cut energy use for lighting by 50 to 80 percent, dramatically reduce maintenance costs for lighting and significantly enhance security on campus with LED lighting. | Panel | 100 min | Mon | 201 | 05:00 PM |
| PAP3171 | Lessons from a Capstone Course Focused on Campus Sustainability | With the first offering of Lynchburg College’s “Capstone Course in Environmental Studies” in Spring 2010 came the challenge of determining what would constitute an appropriate capstone experience for junior and senior environmental studies major. Given the instructor’s interest and involvement in campus sustainability efforts, she decided to challenge the students to develop a sustainability plan for the college. Though the outcomes weren’t exactly as she had envisioned, they were certainly beneficial to the college, and learning outcomes were also achieved. In this presentation, students in the course will describe the projects they developed and what they learned along the way. Additionally, the instructor will offer “lessons learned” from the implementation of a capstone course in environmental studies. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 12:30 PM |
| PAN3541 | Lessons from COP15 and Moving Forward on Climate Education | Our institutions provide hope in a time of discouragement. The UNFCCC 15th Conference of the Parties in December 2009 resulted in the Copenhagen Accord, a document which failed to live up to international expectations for a climate treaty. Where do we go from here as educators, and what is the role of sustainability-focused institutions in providing leadership during this crucial moment in the Earth’s history? The international community can learn from the success of the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) in creating peer incentives for committing to climate neutrality and creating individualized and effective climate action plans. Focusing on the implications for higher education from the 2009 U.N. Climate Change Conference and 15th “Conference of the Parties” (COP 15), an interdisciplinary team of Dickinson College students and faculty who attended the climate negotiations as part of a 'Kyoto to Copenhagen' course will discuss how higher education and its community members (professors, administrators, students) can show climate leadership on campus as individuals and as an industry, and the importance of using our success in climate change reporting (greenhouse gas inventories) and emissions reductions plans to strengthen national and international progress on these issues. Connect your campus directly to the politics, lessons, pedagogical strategies, mitigation techniques, and policy strategies of the COP15 by engaging students with peer experiences, interacting with delegation members during the conference, and using these tools to translate international climate negotiations into campus mitigation techniques. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 203 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3378 | Lessons from the Heap: Five Years of Move-Out Reuse Efforts | Inspired by increasing global demand for sustainable practices, colleges and universities around the world are taking the lead in developing systems and policies that achieve a higher environmental standard. One of the most visible and actionable components of a sustainable system is a waste management strategy that incorporates waste reduction and streamlined recycling and reuse. On campuses around the country, the end of the year poses a formidable waste minimization challenge as students quickly vacate dormitories. The transient nature of student life, with annual cycles of moving, makes durable goods less desirable and disposal of items before the end of their useful life a more common occurrence. Examining five years of data from one institution’s move out recycling and reuse evolution, this paper examines the lessons to be learned from the items students discard and the challenges in collecting them for reuse. We present the change in methods of collection and redistribution on campus over time to highlight the evolution of the program, as well as data on items collected each year indicating behavior shifts among the student population. Through this analysis we were able to review the success of methods as they evolved, and identify opportunities to avoid premature disposal from both an institutional policy perspective as well as through student behavior change. Armed with this wealth of information, the move-out recycling efforts will continue to evolve and inform stronger campus waste minimization efforts. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 06:20 PM |
| POS3283 | Let's talk about poop! | This study examines the effects of the installation of pet waste bag dispenser stations on the compliance of dog owners to pick up after their pets. Our study site is a 1.6 mile walking and jogging trail utilized by Furman University students, staff and faculty as well as Greenville South Carolina community members that borders the Furman University campus lake. We collected data on the distribution and frequency of “offenses” (a.k.a. dog feces) along this trail in order to determine the most appropriate locations for and the effectiveness of 6 pet waste bag dispensers donated by the local Walmart store. Data was collected daily, at 4PM for 16 days prior to and 14 days following the installation of the dispensers. The goal of the study was to determine the effectiveness of the bag dispenser stations and provide suggestions for future improvement in terms of compliance with pet waste pickup and bag dispenser stations location. After installation the average number of “offenses” decreased significantly compared to pre-installation; from 6.69+/-4.56 to 2.43+/-2.03 feces collected (independent-samples t-test with unequal variances, t(21)=3.36, p<0.01). We also summarily examine the spatial distribution of “offenses” pre- and post-installation, the effects of weather on the number of “offenses”, the environmental effects of non compliance with pet waste pickup, and the importance of dispenser stations as an educational tool as part of Furman Lake restoration efforts. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3809 | Leveraging Sustainability to Bridge the High School-to-College Curriculum Divide | Bringing sustainability into the curriculum is one of most timely challenges facing today’s faculty and instructors. While some schools and campuses are designing new courses to address sustainable concepts and connections, others are taking a holistic look across existing academic programs to identify how and where to integrate green content and considerations. As individual institutions are engaging in this process, precious few have the time or perspective to identify linkages and commonalities between similar courses at other institutions and across different levels of instruction. Through the Bay Area Clean Energy Careers (BayCEC) consortium, a pilot program introduces clean energy concepts into the high school instructional arena, as part of a broader program designed to inspire interest, continued instruction and professional development in clean energy as students advance onto higher education and post secondary training programs. The BayCEC high school program is a first step in establishing career pathways for the green/clean economy, providing for an introduction to clean energy basics through to preparation for professional certifications. Staff from the BayCEC consortium will offer insights into the opportunities and challenges for designing and articulating an integrated green jobs curriculum, appropriate for different grade levels and academic programs. Inherent to this discussion, session presenters will address the noteworthy decision points and lessons learned from this innovative approach to bridging the curriculum divide and overcoming the institutional and instructional silos that oftentimes exist. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 05:40 PM |
| POS3216 | Linking Geology and Sustainability in Iceland | Iceland provides an interesting case for the benefits of study abroad despite the carbon costs. First, geologically, Iceland is uniquely located on the mid-Atlantic ridge plate boundary, is geologically diverse and volcanically active, and has the largest glacier in Europe. Second, climate change is resulting in rapid glacial recession, which may lead to increased volcanic activity. Iceland generates geothermal power, produce fish-based fertilizer, and have well developed agriculture. The challenge, from a pedagogical standpoint, is to clearly link basic Earth processes to issues of sustainability. We recently led a 12-day field trip to Iceland during which we began to develop this approach. Field stops focused on geologic phenomena were coupled with field stops at geothermal energy plants, agricultural fields and greenhouses, and a fishing village. Students were able to observe first hand the links between volcanic activity and geothermal power, hay production and fish harvest, and vegetable production and local hydrothermal activity. As Iceland produces much of its own beef, lamb, and vegetables, cooking with the students presents an opportunity to develop these links. Challenges to developing a sustainable society and impacts of globalization also were pointed out, such as aluminum smelting plants made possible by cheap electricity, the continued need for petroleum products, and the need for wood products on a deforested island. Our future objective is to clearly develop these links prior to going on the trip via a different approach to assigned reading and pre-trip lectures. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP10012 | Live, Work and Learn Locally—Creating a Sustainable Campus Community | Innovation occurs when students, faculty and staff can work shoulder to shoulder. For a commuter campus surrounded by high-priced real estate, the battle is getting the best and the brightest in the same place at the same time while reducing our carbon footprint. UTown@UBC represents UBC’s vision for a University community in which living, working and learning can flourish in an integrated, sustainable environment. It’s a collection of 5 emerging neighbourhoods, offering a mix of housing options, improved public transportation, shops and services, daycare, K-12 education and access to cultural/recreational amenities in a pedestrian-friendly setting. This presentation will demonstrate how UTown@UBC is acting as a model green community that is changing a traditional commuter campus into a community of scholars who live, work and learn on-site. We are experimenting and modeling sustainable practices—particularly in regard to community and infrastructure development. By sharing our performance, we hope to drive further innovation and research in the industry. • Learn how UBC’s homegrown Residential Environmental Assessment Program (REAP) is guiding green building practices for all homes built on campus. • Study how UBC’s stormwater management approach is changing the way we traditionally utilize stormwater by treating it as a resource rather than a waste-product. • Look at how UBC is supporting transportation alternatives through a concerted campus-wide effort to reduce the number of cars that travel to and from campus every day. • Identify ways UTown@UBC is creating a culture of conservation and sustainable behaviour from a grassroots level | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 104 | 04:50 PM |
| PAN3200 | Local Carbon Offset Projects: Lessons Learned from Yale, Furman, and Duke Universities | Universities and Colleges across the nation are currently addressing climate change by making significant commitments to reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions. To meet their aggressive reduction targets campuses are identifying opportunities to avoid emissions, increase efficiency, and invest in on-site renewable energy technologies. However, even after implementing these strategies for achieving their long-term emission reduction targets, a wedge of emissions remains. Hence, more and more campuses have begun to explore carbon offsets as a way to take responsibility for the remaining carbon emissions that cannot be reduced through direct on-campus efforts. Because the carbon offsets market is still relatively new and loosely regulated there has been growing concern about the quality of offsets presently being sold to consumers. Moreover, universities view carbon offset projects as an opportunity to achieve meaningful local and regional environmental, social and economic co-benefits. As a result, several institutions have begun to explore opportunities for investing in local carbon offset projects in their surrounding communities and states. Discussions will address the campus and community impacts of local carbon offset programs, and highlight how students and community members can be involved. Innovative examples will be shared including the development of a Community Conservation Corps; collaborations through The Duke Endowment Task Force on Sustainability; and pilot projects related to innovative treatment of animal waste, sequestration, energy efficiency/conservation, and community gardens (rain, butterfly, and food). Panelists for this panel include representatives from: Yale University, Furman University, and Duke University. | Panel | 100 min | Mon | 303 | 05:00 PM |
| PAN3601 | Local Organic on Campus: Commitment, Education, Outreach | The Sustainability Coalition, a student group at Western State College of Colorado (WSC), is committed to promoting local organic agriculture both on campus and in the greater community of Gunnison, Colorado. On the WSC campus the coalition serves local organic food at college events to display the availability of local products and provide education about the benefits of eating sustainably. We also run a community garden on campus, and are developing a high-altitude, cold-climate permaculture demonstration project featuring a ca. 800 sq.ft. strawbale greenhouse. We have also brought a composting unit to the on-campus dining operation, reducing waste and enabling our campus to incorporate dining waste as compost into local agriculture projects. In an effort to reach out and provide education to the community, the coalition is also working closely with a new community garden development project to spread awareness of, and access to, local food production and gardening opportunities. We are also partnering with the Gunnison Farmers Market with a weekly-themed sustainability education table, and we are responsible for recycling and compost at the market. All of our projects serve as learning opportunities for students and community members to help us move towards a more sustainable and resilient local agricultural system. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 113 | 07:00 AM |
| PAP3288 | Lunch Ladies and LEED: Dining Facilities in Sustainable Design - A Case Study of Fort Lewis College's Student Union Center | Dining facilities demand excessive energy, are water intensive and produce much waste, complicating design, construction and operational program requirements when creating a sustainable building. At Fort Lewis College in Durango, the students, operators, administrators and design team have envisioned a new student union to be built in late 2010 that includes a foodservice facility which is energy-efficient, cost effective and environmentally responsible. Key members of the design team will discuss how challenges with energy modeling and promoting energy and water efficiency were overcome, including new technology for lessening ventilation energy needs and innovative design for plug load reduction that incorporates form, function and operations. Obstacles faced during LEED certification will also be addressed; most notable are inventive strategies for reducing the large amount of process water required for dining facilities. A representative from the college will discuss the benefits that the new student union will bring to the campus, as well as how sustainability has interconnected dining services, the student body and the local community. Local and sustainable food procurement practices will also be a topic of discussion, along with student involvement in composting and waste reduction; both aspects essential to design integration. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 107 | 02:30 PM |
| PAP3082 | Maintaining Momentum with Energy and Water Conservation Projects and Campaigns | The Auraria Campus, in downtown Denver, home to the Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State College of Denver and the University of Colorado Denver is now a leader in water efficiency. By replacing over 300 toilets, over 150 urinals and 250 faucets across campus the Auraria community is now saving nearly 3 million gallons of water annually. This project was made possible with cooperation of the Sustainable Campus Program (SCP), a student initiated and student led group, Auraria Facilities Management, and Denver Water. This past year the student fee based, SCP also sponsored an energy efficiency project which replaced old metal halide fixtures with new energy efficient fixtures in the PE building. Over 10 years, this replacement will save Auraria Campus over 700,000 Kwh in electricity, nearly 600 MTCO2e of GHG emissions, and $117,000 in utility costs. Additionally, the SCP has launched a significant behavioral changes campaign by designing and purchasing thousands of stickers for light switches and computers stickers reminding users to turn things off when not in use. These energy and water efficiency projects are welcome additions to the SCP’s work that has already been completed including launching a campus wide single stream recycling program which is currently reducing campus waste to landfill by 35%, and a program offsetting 100% of campus electricity use with a Renewable Energy Credit purchase, ranking Auraria 10th nationally on the EPA’s Green Power Partnerships for Universities and Colleges. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 112 | 06:00 PM |
| CSW3132 | Maintaining Progress: Moving from a GHG Inventory to a Climate Action Plan | Many individuals and institutions understandably struggle with how to move from a campus GHG inventory, which is simply a list of what you “use”, to a campus climate action plan, which is a map of “where you need to go” decades into the future and a plan for to “how you will get there”. These two campus sustainability officers with years of experience in the environmental policy arena of public administration will use this presentation to give tips and advice to students and staff to bridge the gap between an inventory and a climate action plan. Topics to cover include: • How to insure you have in your GHG inventory what you need to move forward • How to create and maintain a sustainability council / coalition that will provide you with the expertise and leverage you need • How to talk about sustainability to diverse audiences • How to run a meeting and how not to run a meeting • How to balance a focus on projects that will be effective with projects that help you build a coalition | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Mon | 304 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP3233 | Making SENS at the University of Saskatchewan: Innovation, Collaboration, and Transformation | The School of Environment and Sustainability (SENS) at the University of Saskatchewan emerged in 2007-2008 from the university integrated planning process, which considered the coordination of academic priorities with financial and capital resources. The School represents a novel academic structure ― the interdisciplinary graduate school. SENS was envisioned as a way to support innovative collaborations across and among disciplines, enabling sustainable communities and environments through collaborative research and teaching, graduate student engagement, and community involvement. SENS offers course- and thesis-based Master’s degrees and a doctoral program. The University of Saskatchewan is the only medical-doctoral university in Western Canada to offer all three types of graduate programs in environment and sustainability. SENS demonstrates interdisciplinary innovation and collaboration at the University of Saskatchewan. The School’s faculty come from a diverse range of disciplines, including education, law, history, toxicology, biology, engineering, and geography. Based on activities of the School, with input from senior administrators, faculty, staff, and students, this presentation describes innovations in curriculum, research, and outreach related to sustainability. New governance processes, specifically designed by SENS, are discussed. Successes and challenges of efforts to date are conveyed. Ultimately, SENS strives to create and integrate multiple understandings of natural and human environments and to be internationally known for innovative, provocative, and wide-ranging approaches to environmental sustainability. We conclude that SENS has made significant progress during its short existence toward realizing this vision and, thereby, toward transforming institutional culture at the University of Saskatchewan. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 05:00 PM |
| FR3498 | Making the Geoscience Curriculum More Sustainable | Sustainability is an increasingly important theme in geoscience education and our department is helping to modify the traditional geoscience curriculum so that it more fully addresses sustainability issues. At Eastern Connecticut State University, we offer a Certificate in Environmental Management and Policy, a series of courses addressing water issues, a Sustainable Energy Minor, a Sustainable Energy Management track for the Bachelor of General Studies program, and an Energy Science in the BS Environmental Earth Science major. As part of this effort, we have developed several new advanced geoscience courses. These courses include “Energy Issues in Geoscience”, a majors course that deals with climate change, carbon sequestration, nuclear power, peak oil, and renewable energy. Another new course for geoscience majors is “Methane Hydrates” which explores the role of methane hydrates in climate change and in reducing global carbon emission. Some of our majors have also completed research projects and internships involving renewable energy, conservation, and carbon-reduction strategies. In addition, members of our department have worked with geoscience faculty at other institutions to offer a series of workshops and technical sessions that offer information and encouragement for geoscientists interested in energy education. We believe that for sustainability to have a strong and lasting impact in higher education, each academic discipline will need to modify its curriculum to incorporate sustainability. Our efforts at Eastern are part of this broad effort. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 09:40 AM |
| PAP3066 | Measuring and managing sustainability using SAS at Duke University | Higher education institutions face many complexities tracking and reporting emissions and other sustainability measures that extend beyond the capacities of spreadsheets and manual reporting tools. Institutional sustainability performance today requires tracking and measuring metrics in a more timely fashion, from disparate areas of the campus, which requires the vital steps of gathering, integrating, analyzing and reporting data. Through the insight achieved from data integration, advanced analytics, and timely reporting, educational stakeholders are able to take decisive action and make immediate impacts on this global imperative. SAS, together with input from our partners like Duke University, is developing a hosted solution for higher education specific sustainability management. This solution helps measure institutional sustainability activities using education-oriented methodologies and protocols. For Duke, the solution will help automate data collection and reporting efforts for the University's greenhouse gas inventory and AASHE STARS assessment. The solution will provide the tools to analyze building energy use and unique data that Duke has gathered through an online carbon calculator for the campus community. The solution will make it easier for Duke to manage data collection and respond to assessments, allowing sustainability staff to focus more of their time on achieving sustainability successes on campus. SAS and Duke University will demonstrate the SAS Higher Education Sustainability Management solution and how Duke uses it to create an integrated, consistent and transparent source of reporting and analysis; fostering alignment across all areas of the institution from student engagement and education to University administration and local communities. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3845 | Measuring Change in Pro-environmental Behavior: SJSU’s Ecological Footprint Challenge | In 2009, the Sustainability Initiative at San Jose State University created two unique programs to engage its 25,000 students, faculty, and staff in understanding and taking action on the impact of their lifestyles on natural resources. The Ecological Footprint Challenge was a year-long effort to reduce participants’ impact on Earth by 10%. The Challenge invited the entire campus community to take a custom-designed online quiz about their lifestyle during October 2009. After taking the quiz, each user was presented with the size of their ecological footprint—the number of usable acres required to support their lifestyle. They were then encouraged to reduce their footprint by 10% over the next six months, with prizes being awarded to student, faculty, and staff members who had the most reduced and lowest overall footprints. Throughout the year, monthly workshops were held that related to various aspects of sustainability (e.g., electronic waste) and at each workshop participants learned about personal actions they could take to reduce their footprint. In April 2010, participants were asked to re-enter their footprint data. 740 participants entered both baseline data and final data in April 2009. The average footprint reduction goal of 10% was met for this population, with significant changes occurring food buying habits. An additional benefit of the Challenge was the creation of a 1,400 member virtual campus community interested in sustainability issues. Analysis of specific quantitative Challenge data along with an exploration of program outcomes will be included in the panel. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 02:30 PM |
| CSW3822 | Measuring Sustainable Dining with the Real Food Challenge Calculator | There’s no question that determining the sustainability of a college dining hall—and other foodservice operations—is difficult. Between dealing with confusing and often competing claims about food sustainability to actually quantifying those claims, finding a way to measure real food is essential. This workshop focuses on The Real Food Challenge Calculator, a tool that not only measures real food, but also puts students at the helm of campus food sustainability. Designed by a group of leaders from the Real Food Challenge—a national student network and campaign to shift at least $1 billion of college and university food spending toward real food over the next 10 years—the Real Food Challenge Calculator is student-driven tool that operationally defines and tracks real food purchases made by an institution. The Calculator consists of a guide that lays out standards that identify real food and a template that determines percent real food—local, fair, sustainable, and/or humane food—from all food purchases made during a study period. Students work with dining services, faculty, and administrators to assess invoices and other records to determine which food purchases are real and how much their institution spends on them. Results from an assessment are also applicable to other campus sustainability measurements, like the AASHE STARS program. Workshop attendees will learn how to navigate the process of tracking real food purchases using the Calculator, examine results from 12 completed assessments at universities across the country, and discuss future plans for the Calculator. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Tues | 303 | 09:30 AM |
| CSW3783 | Meeting Greenhouse Gas Reductions by Implementing a Comprehensive Energy Management Strategy | Whether your campus is a signatory to the ACUPCC, subject to state GHG emission reduction goals, or is simply committed to reducing the overall campus carbon footprint, reducing GHG emissions is critical to most campuses. Taking a hard look at the campus carbon footprint and instituting a comprehensive energy management strategy represents an opportunity to reduce emissions, save energy and money, and drive behavioral changes campus-wide. An effective energy management strategy integrates several important program components including energy procurement, energy conservation, load management, renewable and alternative energy, enhanced on-campus awareness, RECs, and outside partnerships. A proactive approach to energy procurement that is closely managed within the school’s tolerance for risk can reduce the use of traditional fuels and achieve significant cost savings that can fund other sustainability programs. Implementing conservation measures and strategies can result in dramatic reductions especially when coupled with the use of renewable and alternative energies. Managing these energy reduction strategies with electronic energy use data management systems that are widely available and transparent allows for real-time, proactive energy management and campus-wide buy-in. The key to a strategic energy management program is to examine all aspects of energy consumption holistically and to continually adjust and balance energy use, opportunities for conservation, and the use of renewable and alternate energy. This session will discuss energy management strategies employed at university campuses and relate the implementation to achieving the goals of reducing GHGs, conserving energy, and saving money. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 100 minutes | Tues | 201 | 12:10 PM |
| PAN3213 | Meeting People Where They Are: Tactics for Campus Culture Change | Sustainability often gets associated with placing recycling bins or hosting an earth day event, but these small tasks often mask the complexity of developing a comprehensive program at an institutional scale. To make meaningful progress towards a broader vision of campus sustainability poses an even greater challenge and one that requires participation from all members of the community-- from the custodial staff to the members of the accounting department to senior administration managers. While a Sustainability Office may get credit for progress, the true measure of sustainability on a campus will be how thoroughly all of the members of the community buy-in to the notion that everyone's job is a green job. This presentation will provide perspectives from three institutions about their experience and efforts to build sustainability as a core value of their institutions, including information on how to find and engage stakeholders, keys to communicating with senior leadership, examples of applied research in behavioral change on campus, and elements of an effective communication campaign. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 302 | 07:00 AM |
| PAP3744 | Migrating Paper Processes into SharePoint | Our college uses SharePoint as a web platform for migrating manual paper-heavy planning processes online. Two primary examples of processes we have moved online in this way are Grant Applications and Curriculum Proposals, to manage proposal development and review for these areas. These systems are built in SharePoint 2007 using collaboration tools such as forms, approvals, and discussions. SharePoint provides collaboration features including document versioning, content-change alerting, and status workflows to notify all stakeholders. The processing effort for grant and curriculum proposals is now much more efficient. For example, reviews can take place online in a shared environment rather than asking large committees to mark up paper copies which later have to be rekeyed. In addition, there is a greater awareness and acceptance of how these processes work. Training and documentation for the applications is straightforward and intuitive. Users can check the current status of proposals online at any stage, and proposals are archived online at the end of their life cycle, providing a status history for future reference. The online applications add value by reducing the manual production of paper documents that included copying, collating, and distributing packets. There is a significant reduction of paper on the order of tens of thousands of sheets per year. These types of applications can be built by anyone familiar with Microsoft SharePoint 2007, using its out-of-the-box toolset. No custom development is required, and most components of the applications can be re-engineered by simply reviewing the user interfaces. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 03:10 PM |
| POS10010 | Mind the Gap: Campus Sustainability at Home and Abroad | Undergraduate students are participating in experiences abroad in ever-increasing numbers (more than 250,000 in 2007-08). Simultaneously, there has been tremendous growth in the campus sustainability movement nationwide. These two concepts have been growing, seemingly in isolation of one another. In the discussion of campus sustainability, study abroad has been largely ignored. Study abroad is a part of the undergraduate experience, and as such we argue that it should also be part of the sustainability discussion at our institutions. The purpose of this dialogue is to examine the ways in which study abroad and campus sustainability are connected and have the potential to enhance one another. Our goal is to provide a framework for administrators, students, and faculty to incorporate sustainability into international experiences, from program development and marketing, to student preparation and expectations management, as well as study abroad curriculum development. Students studying abroad are representatives of their home institutions, and we, as the stewards of these study abroad programs, need to provide them with the tools to be responsible environmental ambassadors abroad. If sustainability is truly an interdisciplinary field, how can sustainability be incorporated into study abroad programs, which are rooted in a variety of disciplines such as art, architecture, history, language, science, engineering, public health and social justice? We hope that this presentation is a jumping-off point for institutions with study abroad programs, looking to bridge the gap between on-campus sustainability and international experiences. Dialogue and audience participation will drive the discussion. | Poster | Poster | |||
| DD3495 | Mobilizing the Mission: Sustainability on Faith-Based Campuses | For faith-based colleges and universities of all denominations, the institutional mission is a powerful but often untapped resource for building a widespread sustainability movement on campus. Most religious denominations place a strong emphasis on social justice concerns, and many faith-based campuses have extensive engagement programs in local communities as well as in developing countries whose citizens are already being impacted by climate change. The challenge is to articulate the profound connections between social justice and sustainability in ways that effectively invite and engage the campus community, and to overcome perceptions that sustainability is solely about the environment and is an “optional cause” or a political issue. We will describe several initiatives in which we have attempted to communicate the connections between environmental and social concerns, their successes and shortcomings, as well as their applicability to other universities. As the main component of this dialogue, participants will collectively share stories of their experiences and brainstorm new ways to productively engage our institutional missions. We will discuss strategic partnerships, both on and off-campus, that can help our programs have a broader reach. We will also discuss networking and collaborative approaches which can be critical for the success of smaller schools. This discussion will produce a collection of stories and best practices that will serve both to support our individual efforts and to build a network of colleagues and potential collaborators. | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Tues | 105 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP10031 | Move Out Madness – End of Year Waste Reduction and Donations | There’s so much going on, it’s Madness! Learn the details of a successful program designed to capture useful stuff left behind by students in undergraduate residences and in off-campus rental housing. We’re figuring out how to get furniture, food and household goods from students who no longer need them to other community members who do. MoM incorporates an off-campus collection drive, residence collection drive, peer-to-peer donation blitz, and electronic waste collection event. A core team of seven people from different campus and community organizations collaborate to build on a campus history of high volunteerism and caring for our earth. Learn of potential new partners for your end of year events, creative ways to engage students, new models of material sharing, and cost-saving approaches. This is a campaign that builds on its past successes, and keeps expanding year after year. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 10:10 AM |
| PAN3538 | Moving Campuses Beyond Coal | Across the country, 63 institutes of higher education currently burn coal in an on-campus facility to generate steam, electric power, or both. Many of these schools have signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, which all but acknowledges that transitioning these boilers to clean energy will be a necessary step in reducing carbon emissions school-wide. In some cases this can be accomplished with a minimum of investment; in others, schools must first solve technical, financial and political challenges. Six schools – including the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) – have made public commitments to move beyond coal by transitioning their coal plants to cleaner energy. Additionally, the Sierra Club and the Sierra Student Coalition have launched a joint campaign to encourage the remaining 57 to follow their lead. Presenters will discuss the process of their universities moving beyond coal from three unique perspectives: administration, student body, and the environmental community. | Panel | 100 min | Mon | 207 | 05:00 PM |
| POS10050 | Moving Ideas into Action: Creating a Year of Sustainability | A critical step to creating more sustainable higher education campuses is to enable cultural change through education. One method for accelerating cultural change is to have a campus endorse a thematic year in which all staff, faculty and students, regardless of major or department, participate in educational events and sustainable exercises. The mission of Western’s Year of Sustainability (YoS) is to implement social change toward a common goal toward sustainability throughout the Western State College of Colorado community. We will present a case study from student, faculty, and administrative perspectives on creating and implementing a thematic year of sustainability and report on the initial implementation challenges and successes. Our presentation and subsequent group discussion will focus on identifying barriers and opportunities to creating momentum for such events at participants’ home institutions. Questions each group will consider include how might each campus develop a cultural change toward sustainability and to what degree could having a thematic year forward their campus goals (e.g. campus mission, strategic plan, President Climate Commitment etc.). | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3316 | Moving to Single Stream Recycling | Moving to Single Stream Recycling Eastern Connecticut State University was an early signatory of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, (ACUPCC). In accordance with the President’s Climate Commitment, the University Green Campus Committee developed a Climate Action plan which includes a section on solid waste and recycling. After the plan was developed, the University went from a conventional recycling program to a single stream plan. We believe that this shift will have a positive effect on the campus recycling rate and further help us achieve our climate commitment goal to become carbon neutral by 2050. Here we seek to describe the campus promotional campaign, collaboration efforts and outreach plans aimed at maximizing participation in the new single stream recycling program. First, as part of the Student Orientation And Registration, (SOAR) program, all incoming freshmen attend an information session about single stream recycling and conservation policies. Starting in the fall semester, posters, presentations, and events reinforce the message that our goal to be carbon neutral will require the participation of students, faculty and staff from all departments. We are developing a promotional theme unifying all sustainability efforts that will be integrated into the single stream recycling campaign. Contests to help develop the promotional materials will engage students in the process as we move from idea to implementation with regard to our climate action plan. Throughout the fall semester, data will be collected on a regular basis to help determine the effectiveness of our campaign efforts. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 09:30 AM |
| PAN3397 | NACUFS Sustainability Guide - Sustainable Solutions in Collegiate Foodservice Operations | On most campuses, Dining Services is the team relied upon to just get it done – somehow, some way… This often holds true for moving forward with green initiatives too – even when the course of action may be unclear or untested. But there is no need to move forward alone. The NACUFS Sustainability Guide provides valuable information, examples and resources for Dining Services to use as key sustainability decisions are being considered and evaluated. The NACUFS Sustainability Guide can help you effectively integrate sustainability solutions into your foodservice operations by providing insight and guidance in such critical areas as transportation and distribution; food and equipment procurement; chemical reduction; preventive maintenance; facility construction; and energy and water conservation. Available exclusively from NACUFS, this valuable guide is published digitally on a user-friendly CD-ROM that is fully searchable and easily navigable. A panel consisting of NACUFS members and industry experts that participated in the development of this manual will discuss their experience and role in the development of this information-rich guide, and the processes used to gather information, data and experience in a way that gives the reader the information needed to successfully develop and implement a sustainability initiative. Join us as we share more about how to get this guide, and how to use this guide to bring your Dining program to the lead as a campus catalyst for sustainable change! | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 106 | 07:00 AM |
| PAP3214 | National Council for Science & the Environment (NCSE): Building Community, Creating Solutions | NCSE has many programs and offers high-quality resources for those working to advance sustainability at colleges and universities: •NCSE provides more than 150 University Affiliates with resources to strengthen their academic environmental programs. NCSE presents a unified voice in promoting federal funding for higher education (e.g. Higher Education Sustainability Act) and is a gateway for public and private sectors to access the academic community’s expertise. •Council of Environmental Deans and Directors brings together academic leaders to improve the quality and effectiveness of interdisciplinary environmental programs. Council of Energy Research and Education Leaders fosters interdisciplinary collaboration among academic energy programs to advance energy education, research, and communication. •EnvironMentors prepares high-school students from under-represented backgrounds for college programs in environmental and related science fields. Working together, students and mentors develop rigorous research projects. •Encyclopedia of Earth is a free, fully searchable digital resource about the Earth, its environment, and their interaction with society. It has been built by a global community of scholars, educators, and professionals who collaborate to produce quality information. •National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment brings together diverse institutions and individuals from academia, environmental organizations, business and government agencies to discuss critical issues such as oceans, biodiversity, climate, energy and health – each with a sustainability lens. NOTE: This abstract is one of four paper proposals submitted by representatives from CEDD/NCSE. We propose a paper session that will present information on various CEDD/NCSE educational initiatives that support and facilitate sustainability education across campuses. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 03:50 PM |
| PAP10034 | Nature as Guide for Vibrant Learning: Multi-Dimensional Sustainability Pedagogy | In this workshop, participants will explore how to design academic learning experiences (courses, workshops, conferences) inspired by nature. Principles of living systems and metapatterns of nature will be introduced as guidelines for designing learning experiences that feel alive, vibrant, and sustain learning verve. The facilitator will share a conceptual framework and practical examples on how to design for living systems awareness across multiple dimensions of knowing, including the cognitive-rational, expressive-extrarational, rhythmic-temporal, structural-spatial, and practical-applied dimensions. Reinforcing living systems-based sustainability concepts across multiple dimensions can greatly enhance the quality and effectiveness of sustainability education in academia and sustain change-makers for a healthier world. The workshop will culminate in a dynamic sequence of non-verbal movement exercises allowing participants to directly experience living systems awareness in the group. Barbara Widhalm, PhDc, California Institute of Integral Studies, is currently completing her dissertation research Nature as Guide for Vibrant Learning for the Transformative Learning and Change program. Drawing on 18 years experience as a sustainability practitioner, educator, and program developer, she has integrated her ecological design and transformative learning background into a pedagogical framework for sustainability educators. A “Biodanza” movement facilitator in training, she is passionate about integrating expressive ways of knowing into academic learning. Barbara currently serves as a National Science Foundation project manager for the Environmental Control Technology program at Laney College. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 06:00 PM |
| FR3565 | Navigating by the STARS: Using STARS to Re-Organize Campus Decision-Making | This session examines the evolution of sustainability efforts in higher education from principle-based proclamations such as the Talloires Declaration, to goal-based agreements such as the Presidents Climate Commitment, to metric-based strategies for implementation such as the Sustainability Tracking and Rating System (STARS). We examine the various effects these steps have had (and are likely to have in the future) on the institutional decision making structures in a private liberal arts college--and the overall sustainability of campus operations. We pay particular attention to the changing role and position of sustainability committee structures in the overall decision making structure of the institution brought about by these evolving sustainability strategies from principle-based to metric based. We also present findings on changes in campus perceptions of sustainability by examining the effects of sustainability metrics on campus debates over "green washing" (sustainability-focused public relations campaigns) and "green bashing" (green critiques leveled at campus operations made with little or no systematic evidence). | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 03:00 PM |
| PAP3722 | Net Zero and Water Regenerative Campus | Net Zero and Water Regenerative Campus A recent report stated that Stanford University uses 2.7 million gallons of water per day. University medical centers can use over 600 gallons per day per patient bed. The typical response to this trend is to make the campus “less bad” on the environment and to look at the plumbing fixtures. In reality the plumbing fixtures use a small percentage of the total water usage. Can a campus look beyond being “less bad?” Could a campus have a goal to be NetZero water? Can their water loops be closed and thereby operate off the grid? By doing this the campus can reduce their water footprint to zero? Can they go beyond NetZero and have regenerative water loops that actually repair some of the damage the campus has done to the natural soil and water streams flowing through the campus? Can they mine the waste streams and remove nutrients that can be used to repair the soil on campus? This session will look at new standards and technologies in process, rainwater, graywater, urine recovery and blackwater systems now under consideration by organizations such as the USGBC that go beyond “less bad” operations to regenerative. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 107 | 06:00 PM |
| PAP10011 | Nine Elements of a Sustainable Campus | Unity College in Maine is assessing its efforts according to President Mitchell Thomashow’s Nine Elements of a Sustainable Culture – as highlighted in Kyoto Publishing’s recent Climate Neutral Campus Report. Though not an official policy or tracking tool, the Nine Elements provide a framework for thinking about and discussing campus sustainability. These elements are organized under three “challenges:” Infrastructure, Community, and Learning that closely align with the STARS credit categories. The Nine Elements are: • Infrastructure: 1. Energy 2. Food 3. Materials • Community 4. Governance 5. Investment 6. Wellness • Learning 7. Curriculum 8. Aesthetics 9. Interpretation Taken individually these elements serve as prompts to action on important campus sustainability issues. Taken together, they develop a full rubric for a sustainable culture in higher education that can be applied at any institution. President Thomashow (AASHE Board member and ACUPCC Steering Committee member) of Unity College, will outline the Nine Elements, highlighting examples from their small, rural college, and drawing on the experiences of the higher education community in Maine and beyond. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 03:10 PM |
| PAN3329 | No half measures, making an institution wide commitment to sustainability | In Boldly Sustainable, Peter Bardaglio and Andrea Putnam argue that “halfhearted measures won’t work,” that colleges and universities need to make an authentic commitment to sustainability that involves the curriculum, research, campus operations and community outreach. Panelists will share experiences of one institution’s journey toward a comprehensive, institution wide commitment that encompasses each of these domains of a college’s activities. Specific elements of the commitment that will be addressed by panelists include integration of sustainability across the curriculum, a residential learning community for first year students, use of the campus as a living laboratory, and partnering of the college with community groups to promote sustainability and justice in south-central Pennsylvania. Following remarks by the panelists, the audience will be engaged in conversation to explore questions about how to make connections and create synergies across different domains of action at a college or university, setting priorities in a time of financial constraint, best practices, creating an environment and culture for sustainability, and growing and nurturing support and ownership among key constituencies for institution wide commitment to sustainability. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 108 | 07:00 AM |
| PAP3380 | No Money, No Travel, No Problem! UNC Focus Forward 2010 | Summer 2008. The Sustainability Committee of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, decided to host a traditional one-day, drive-in conference focusing on some of the best sustainable practices being developed by the sixteen institutions that make up the University of North Carolina system. The Conference, UNC Focus Forward, was going to be the first organized attempt to bring together the “movers and shakers” on each campus to share their successes (and failures) in building a more sustainable campus. But on the way to implementing the conference, the economy collapsed, travel was frozen, and hosting a traditional conference in the spring of 2009 was dead. End of story? Flash forward to spring 2010 when the UNCG Sustainability Committee “virtually” hosts UNC Focus Forward, an online conference focusing on some of the best sustainable practices in the 16 campus UNC system schools. The conference had both in-person and virtual presenters who presented to a virtual audience from across the state. This presentation will provide a “behind the scenes” look at the process used to surmount the obstacles inherent to a traditional conference and highlight the benefits of presenting a sustainable event. In bringing together students, staff and faculty from various institutions to learn about best practices regarding sustainability, UNC Focus Forward provided a sustainable collaboration that not only is impervious to budgetary “hiccups, ” but also models sustainable practices. WARNING: This is not a technical “how to” presentation but one where technophobes will feel right at home. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 104 | 01:30 PM |
| POS2740 | North American Sustainability Issues: Educating Students through Exchanges and Research | The Consortium for North American Sustainability (CNAS), a partnership among six institutions from the US, Canada and Mexico, aims to provide students with a deep understanding of how local and North American issues intersect to shape sustainable communities. We have created our North American Sustainability Scholars certificate program which is a student mobility program that incorporates shared experiential curricula and community-based research projects. Students complete a foundational online course on sustainability issues, develop appropriate research techniques and cultural awareness, and engage in online discussions on transnational issues prior to an exchange semester at a foreign partner institution. During the exchange, students apply these research skills in projects with faculty and organizations addressing regional sustainability issues. Through the multi-semester program, students compare and contrast factors affecting environmental sustainability across the three nations and learn effective regional approaches through case studies and hands-on experience. Funding for program development and student exchanges has been provided by the Fund for the Improvement for Postsecondary Education-North American Mobility Project. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAN3228 | Notes from the Field: Living Learning Center | The Living Learning Center at Tyson Research Center; a 2,000 acre field campus owned by Washington University in St. Louis is on track to become one of the first certified Living Buildings in the world. Due to its aspiration to meet the Living Building Challenge, the systems employed, materials used and design the LLC has become an integral part of Washington U’s sustainability efforts. It is a teaching tool for students, faculty and staff. The building modifications and improvements during the performance period have only added to its pedagogical use. As a function of the Living Building Challenge requirements, the concept of waste is eliminated. Rainwater is used for potable consumption or utilized on site for native landscaping and groundwater recharge. Human waste becomes a nutrient that is converted to a stable fertilizer. Sunlight is converted into electrical energy. Carbon offsets help allay the CO2 impact of construction that has not already been addressed by the types of materials used and their proximity to the site. Compromised indoor air quality is also not an issue during occupancy. Food waste brought into the “system” is composted and other product packaging is separated and recycled. Buildings like LLC are laboratories to both challenge and explore possibilities of building sustainably on larger scales. Our presentation will look in detail as to how these systems have been functioning and how the lessons learned have been reported out to the broader campus and community. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 110 | 09:30 AM |
| FR3299 | Office Supply Tote Program | The University of Notre Dame has partnered with Office Depot to launch the first reusable Tote Program in the Midwest and only the second in the nation. The majority of office supply orders on the Notre Dame campus are now delivered without unnecessary packaging. Instead of being encased in corrugated cardboard and plastic packing pillows, office supplies arrive in brown paper shopping bags that have been shipped inside reusable green plastic bins called totes. This innovative program will save 9.6 tons of cardboard and plastic annually. The Tote Program is the result of multi-year negotiations between Notre Dame and Office Depot. The project team overcame several challenges to launch the project that included working with a traditional distribution facility, using a third party transportation company, and determining a process cycle that eliminated the need for space to store the totes. In addition, communication and marketing of the program were critical to its successful launch. The program is a step toward sustainable procurement at Notre Dame and is a great example of potential partnerships between campus divisions and external entities. It is also a model waste reduction program as the thousands of cardboard boxes and plastic air pillows that have been made unnecessary will reduce campus-related carbon dioxide emissions by 53 metric tons annually, the equivalent of 5,500 gallons of gasoline. This session will discuss the challenges in implementation of the Tote Program and how they were addressed at Notre Dame. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 110 | 06:10 PM |
| POS10011 | Organic Recycling - It's Here! | Noting the growing success of food waste diversion and composting, NatureWorks LLC(www.natureworksllc.com) and one of its key partners (R3/Bunzl Distribution) will showcase commercial success of organic recycling (or composting) in Seattle and among various other regions/end users. We will highlight additonal opportunities to improve respective college and university carbon footprint through expanded use of compostable food serviceware and packaging. Many colleges/universities can improve their carbon footprint by converting to compostable food packaging (such as the University of Washington demonstated in 2009). NatureWorks - the world's largest producer of Ingeo(tm) biopolymer will showcase its resins and resulting food packaging applications (including the Sun Chips 100% compostable snack bag) where today brandowners, retailers; food service suppliers/operators (such as Compass/Foodbuy) and other end users are diverting both food waste and compsotable packaging from landfills. We will also highlight composting options besides municipal compost facilties that are gaining greater acceptance such as portable composters and in-vessel composting that address organic recycling. | Poster | Poster | |||
| POS10004 | Organizational Change and Environmental Sustainability | We will present information related to making change stick in university settings. Tradition is a powerful force yet change efforts, such as new ways of acting to reduce an organization's carbon footprint, occur by helping to create a new, supportive, and sufficiently strong organizational culture. This session differentiates among various types of change, planned change being the most important for environmental sustainability efforts. Planned change is best thought about in terms of a progression of stages from increased urgency, building a guiding team, getting the vision right, communicating, empowering action, creating short wins, and making the change stick. We will discuss best practices such as telling vivid stories, creating continuity of behavior and making new norms and values visible. We will show many examples of actual work at universities - both the gold and garbage of change efforts. | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR3049 | Park(ing) Day: Turning a Parking Garage into a Park | SF State inaugurated its first campus PARK(ing) Day event, transforming the top level of the parking structure into a temporary “park” in order to promote alternative commuting options. PARK(ing) Day is a national event, where metered parking spots are turned into temporary public parks. SF State greatly expanded on the PARK(ing) Day theme, transforming 25 parking spaces into a park-like environment. Three local design and architecture firms donated their time to lead a design charrette for the park’s layout. SF State worked with local organizations to get donations such as hay bales and carpet tiles. Our own greenhouse donated plants and trees and Housing donated old sheets for a banner. A local nursery donated 40 trees, which were later planted on campus. Students participated in every part of the process: the Athletics Department, Design and Industry Department, ECO Students and campus sororities volunteered and even got to play some competitive four-square in the park. The event was Zero Waste as all items were reused. SF State used the event to find ways to promote alternative transportation. MUNI, BART, Translink, Commuter Check Direct, and ZipCar all tabled. Anyone who signed a pledge to change his/her commuting from driving to taking public transportation/walking/biking was entered into a raffle. SF State has reduced its commuting emissions by 50% since 1990. Fun educational events like PARK(ing) Day are a great way to raise more awareness about alternative transportation and can be easily replicated on other campuses. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 12:30 PM |
| POS3263 | Partnering with Local Government to Promote Sustainable Development | Research partnerships between colleges and local government can be an effective way to promote sustainability at the community level. This project applied principles of conservation development to the analysis of undeveloped land in the City of Lynchburg, Virginia. Lynchburg covers approximately 50 square miles of land in three watersheds that drain into the James River. Because of state restrictions on annexation, the City cannot expand into the surrounding counties. Therefore, in order to accommodate increasing population while maintaining and protecting the quality of the city’s environment, Lynchburg must carefully evaluate use of its remaining vacant properties. Geographic Information Systems data were used to assess environmental characteristics of vacant land (such as floodplains, slopes, land cover, and wildlife corridors), and to make recommendations for prioritizing areas for conservation and development. Student researchers learned to use GIS software and participated in meetings with local planning officials and staff about environmental planning initiatives. The study was conducted in collaboration with the Lynchburg Department of Community Development and will inform the City’s decisions about future land use as revisions are made to its Comprehensive Plan. The project provided students with an exceptional opportunity to apply their knowledge of sustainable planning to a significant community issue. | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR3366 | Partnerships for Change: The Nova Scotia Community Emissions Challenge | As part of the Arthur Irving Academy for the Environment’s mandate to foster sustainability both on campus and in the community an emissions reduction outreach program targeted to Nova Scotia municipalities is in development, with a launch planned in fall 2010. Based on the principles of community based social marketing, the community emissions challenge program has been developed to help municipalities and community residents measure, manage and reduce their household greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The program features an online personal emissions calculator designed to calculate and track actual individual and community GHG emissions, a website and an accompanying community awareness program involving education and engagement activities. This program is based on several assumptions. First, that people can only manage what they can measure, and second, that a friendly competitive environment will serve as an incentive for community engagement and individual action. The program is managed by a team of partners including Acadia University, the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities, the Nova Scotia Climate Directorate, and Nova Scotia Power Incorporated | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 04:20 PM |
| FR3395 | Partnerships for Net Zero: CSU's Collaboration in Fort ZED | Colorado State University (CSU) is a key partner in making "FortZED," an initiative to turn downtown Fort Collins, Colorado and the campus of CSU into the largest net zero energy district of its kind in the world. The project is made possible with a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy and matching funds that total over $11 million. CSU is collaborating on an innovative “jump start” to FortZED, along with the City of Fort Collins, Larimer County, and New Belgium Brewing, a leader in sustainable brewing. This project entails testing and demonstrating the integration of renewable energy, energy demand management, back-up energy generation, and smart grid technologies to showcase how peak energy demand on campus can be reduced. On the CSU campus, projects include integrating two new solar arrays into the grid; shedding of electrical load in five campus buildings and facilities; and installation of grid-parallel generation facilities. Come learn about the leading-edge technologies and approaches to energy management being piloted at CSU by this project, one of only 9 of its kind in the nation. The presentation will also explain how CSU is working with the community to realize the broader goals of FortZED and what messages for success other colleges and universities pursuing net-zero energy and carbon neutral campuses can apply to their own campuses. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 09:40 AM |
| FR3052 | Pathways to a Sustainable Transportation Plan | Transportation accounts for a large proportion of a University campus’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. At Northern Arizona University, a student-led survey indicated that transportation is the second largest GHG contributor and therefore an area ripe for reform. Transportation on a campus includes commuting, transportation around campus, air travel, and the campus fleet. Each of these areas must be considered together and holistically if a campus seeks to develop a comprehensive, sustainable transportation plan. This presentation will explain how a campus can approach transportation holistically using campus master planning, fleet management, community partnerships, and other important tactics. While Northern Arizona University has not yet implemented all possible transportation solutions, it serves as a prime example of complete transportation planning at a university. This presentation helps to establish a best practices toolkit for those interested in applying sustainability principles to their institution’s transportation plan. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 02:40 PM |
| PAP3150 | Performance Matters, Tangible Progress on Mitigating Climate Change | The University of Calgary (U of C) is a signatory to the University and College Presidents’ Climate Change Statement of Action for Canada. This session will highlight how the U of C is translating this commitment into tangible action to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and operating costs. Following a brief overview of the U of C’s GHG emission footprint and Climate Action Plan two key mitigation initiatives will be discussed. Participants will learn how, commencing summer 2011, the U of C will produce electrical power on campus avoiding reliance on the provincial coal-fired electrical grid. Participants will also learn how the U of C is accelerating existing building energy conservation including a review of tools to identify key leverage points for conservation, metrics to demonstrate the value proposition of conservation programs, financing structures to enable action, staff capacity building to support success, and engagement strategies for building occupants. Despite a 30% growth in building area since 1990 the U of C will exceed Canada’s Kyoto Commitment a year ahead of schedule. In addition, a 50% reduction in GHG emissions from building operations is anticipated by 2020. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 03:10 PM |
| POS3539 | Pipelining Talent for Sustainable Careers: Linking it all together | Business schools play a key role in producing leaders for tomorrow’s global market today. As sustainability emerges as a distinct market force across industries and functions, schools are experiencing increased interest from corporate recruiters and prospective students regarding this “megatrend” and must decide how best to prepare their cohorts to evolve with it. Should sustainability be its own corporate function, on par with and distinct from traditional functions such as accounting and operations? Should every employee be responsible for driving sustainability? With such a spectrum of career path possibilities, what competencies should schools focus on developing? Responding to this situation, a student club continued (for its 3rd year in a row) a multi-pronged approach to cultivate such talent at the Tepper School of Business. The idea: enable a pathway adaptable enough to variant recruiter and student interests (from sustainability as a “function” to a “lens” for any function), via admissions through extra/curricular programming and on to the career center. While the School already had electives and speakers, a gaps remained: links knitting the pipeline together. Progressing towards its vision, in AY09/10 the club: • generated material for the School's career center to send to corporate recruiters, as well as a list of target companies for campus-wide recruitment efforts • drove curriculum change via a proposal for a “CSR” concentration, new course focus-groups, and a new faculty "Group of Champions", as well as • demonstrated to prospective/admitted students how to “do well by doing good”. | Poster | Poster | |||
| DD3533 | Pipelining Talent for Sustainable Careers: Role of Curriculum | Business schools play a key role in producing leaders for tomorrow’s global market today. As sustainability emerges as a distinct market force across industries and functions, schools are experiencing increased interest from corporate recruiters and prospective students regarding this “megatrend” and must decide how best to prepare their cohorts to evolve with it. Should sustainability be its own corporate function, on par with and distinct from traditional functions such as accounting and operations? Should every employee be responsible for driving sustainability? With such a spectrum of career path possibilities, what competencies should schools focus on developing? Responding to this situation, a student club continued (for its 3rd year in a row) a multi-pronged approach to cultivate such talent at the Tepper School of Business. The idea: enable a pathway adaptable enough to variant recruiter and student interests (from sustainability as a “function” to a “lens” for any function), via admissions through extra/curricular programming and on to the career center. Within this pipeline, curriculum was a critical link; and while the School already had electives and speakers, a gap remained: a well-knit, ever-refining toolbox. Progressing towards its vision, in AY09/10 the student club: • submitted a proposal for a “CSR” concentration which the School formally accepted, • identified core courses that could each further incorporate a sustainability “lens”, • convened student focus groups for pre-rollout input on two new sustainability-specific courses (“The Sustainable Business” and “Sustainable Operations”), and • convened a faculty “Group of Champions” for input/support. | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Tues | 105 | 02:10 PM |
| PAN3162 | Planning and Integrating Sustainability at Universities | Sustainability faculty from DePaul University (lead), U of Wisconsin, and the Illinois Institute of Technology business school will discuss how sustainability is being integrated into community outreach, curriculum, and governance in those and other institutions. Also participating will be an NGO president, and former vp of EHS at Baxter International who is author of The Sustainability Handbook--the Complete Management Guide to Achieving Social, Economic and Environmental Responsibility, which is being used in many business schools. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 110 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3188 | Planning sustainable campus urban forests: Indiana University-Bloomington and Tree Campus USA. | Many universities are creating or updating their campus master plans with an eye toward sustainability, going beyond traditional development-based plans centered on new building construction and instead focusing on protecting green space and emphasizing the importance of green infrastructure. Included in such strategies are trees and forested areas for the production of vital ecosystem services. The 2009 Indiana University–Bloomington (IUB) Campus Master Plan, the fourth such plan for the university over the past 100 years, is taking the IUB "Woodland Campus" a step further. The master plan lays out 10 campus “neighborhoods” with varying degrees of tree canopy cover and green space in order to prioritize tree planting. Currently the core campus has a tree canopy cover of 20% and the plan sets a goal of eventually doubling that. Offering support for this ambitious plan, IUB was recognized as a Tree Campus USA in the first year of the program (2008) and re-certified in 2009. The purpose of this presentation is to 1) discuss the significance of sustainable urban forests on college campuses, 2) demonstrate the benefits of having a campus master plan for developing sustainable urban forest management on college campuses, and 3) detail how Tree Campus USA can be used to encourage and fulfill sound plans promoting student involvement. With a focus on IUB, we demonstrate strategies for fulfilling tree and green space management goals of campus master plans via the Tree Campus USA program and its requirements, including service learning opportunities. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 101 | 09:30 AM |
| POS3451 | Platinum Heritage at Champlain College, Burlington, VT | Champlain College – a private college in Burlington, VT with an enrollment of 3,000 undergraduates – has made its location in a residential heritage neighborhood an asset for both the College and the community, demonstrating social and environmental sustainability in actions and relationships. Recently completed, the Champlain College Welcome and Admission Center at Roger H. Perry Hall carefully restores a historic house while adding substantial space, respects the historic neighborhood, provides a community easement for use of the surrounding site and targets a LEED Platinum certification through an integrated design strategy that includes ground source heat pumps, green roofs, and extensive storm water management extending beyond the project area. An integrated design team weighed options that considered the carbon footprint of different construction strategies, evaluated alternative on-site energy options and the most effective way of providing long-term flexibility in building spaces. Although, the College elected to pursue certification with the U.S. Green Building Council, multiple guidelines and systems including STARS, Athena Eco-Calculator, AIA Committee on the Environment Top Ten award criteria, The Natural Step and the Living Building Challenge, were reviewed in an all-day eco-charrette and key ideas were drawn from many different sources. These ideas and goals included long-term plans to use the building as an educational tool, continuing documentation of operational costs, long-life and loose-fit, social connectivity, creating places of delight for all building occupants, capturing views and daylighting, biophilic design, regional materials, and healthy (reduced) cleaning requirements. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP10058 | Portland Community College – Walking our Talk on Sustainability | This presentation will describe actions being taken to implement the Portland Community College (PCC) Climate Action Plan. The panel will describe the background and structure of the PCC Climate Energy Leadership Taskforce (CELT) which is leading the effort to insure that sustainability is part of the culture at PCC – educationally and operationally. CELT has been charged with the responsibility to research and recommend carbon emission reduction strategies for the college and to develop an implementation plan for achieving these. Operational efforts will be highlighted through a discussion of PCC’s commitment to the reduction of our green house gas emissions: 10% below 2006 emission levels by 2012, 40% below 2006 levels by 2030 and 80% below 2006 levels by 2050. Academic efforts will be highlighted through a discussion of the Sustainable Practices for Academic Resources Council (SPARC), a council comprised of faculty and staff from across the disciplines that serves as an active body, uniting efforts to infuse sustainability throughout our academic programs and curriculum. Upcoming sustainability planning efforts at PCC intended to complement those efforts already underway will also be discussed. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 10:30 AM |
| CSW3830 | Portland Community College-Measuring Progress of Climate Action Plan Implementation | Portland Community College (PCC) developed a Climate Action Plan (CAP) adopted in September 2009. The PCC CAP sets forth broad objectives and specific strategies for achieving the college’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals. PCC’s CAP is a working document. Existing actions are evaluated on an on-going basis, new actions will be identified every three years, and established objectives will be re-examined every five years. As a major part of its CAP, PCC developed an objective map for six core action areas: Buildings and Energy, Transportation, Consumption and Solid Waste, Food and Agriculture, Sustainability in Education, and Community Outreach. These six core action areas are complemented by a commitment to tracking progress and financing of CAP action items. In order to ensure on-going planning and implementation of the CAP, sub-committees were formed for each core action area. These sub-committees are tasked with documenting progress in each of the core action areas. This presentation will provide a brief overview of how PCC is tracking its progress in implementing CAP action items. This will include an overview of how PCC uses a wiki to communicate with sub-committee members from across the district. This session will provide a more focused description of food and agriculture, consumption and solid waste, and transportation core action areas of the CAP. Specific topics covered will include CAP action items related to food services, waste reduction, recycling, gardening and composting, and transportation and parking. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 100 minutes | Mon | 304 | 05:00 PM |
| PAP3416 | Portland State University’s Sustainability Journey: War Stories and Lessons Learned | This paper tells the story of building academic sustainability programs at Portland State University over the last decade, distilling key scientific and organizational principles that have underpinned program development. With the explosion in academic sustainability programs in the U.S. and overseas, significant resources are being committed to this emerging academic field. As both enrollment and budget pressures grow, universities, their communities and governing and funding organizations can learn valuable lessons from Portland State University’s successes and perhaps even more from our continuing struggles in sustainability programming. While any university must find its own best path to advancing sustainability scholarship, some overarching principles can assist that journey, avoid wasting valuable resources, and improve progress toward addressing sustainability challenges. We address the early, later and future stages of program development, a story that is essentially one of adaptive management as the uncertainty that pervades the field of sustainability requires that targets and methods be periodically revised to reflect new information. The initial phase involved engaging faculty and students with community partners in the early planning process, developing principles, credibility and commitment by all parties, building internal capacity with multidisciplinary institutions and activities, and some early projects that demonstrated our capacity to deliver quality research and instruction. Next we describe the significant transformation of the sustainability program leading up to and resulting from the $25 million Miller Foundation Challenge Grant. Finally, we summarize our learning from the first two phases to distill key lessons in academic sustainability program development. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 12:30 PM |
| PAP3402 | Poverty and Homelessness: Improving Disadvantaged Communities through Sustainable, Urban Gardening | This is a multidisciplinary, community based TLO (Transformational Learning Opportunity) that will offer students the opportunity to learn about poverty and homelessness through a partnership with the Clara White Mission for the Homeless (located in downtown Jacksonville, FL) while also allowing those students to actively engage in educating this homeless population on environmental sustainability issues as it relates to usage of agricultural resources for food production and the effects of consumer preferences in the pre and post production periods. Students will design and implement a sustainable organic garden, which will be located at the mission, in connection with the Culinary Arts training program offered by Clara White. This CBTLO will involve UNF students interacting with Clara White Culinary Arts program participants as they implement a model organic garden and develop a detailed plan of how the Clara White Mission could implement organic gardening to sustain their various food assistance programs. The Mission will also have tools to teach sustainable gardening and food resource methods to the peripheral community as well as culinary training participants. Thereby creating an environment where community members will learn more sustainable food creation and usage methods. Student participants in the TLO will work directly with a faculty mentor in their respective disciplines and contribute to a detailed written plan of how the Mission should proceed with successfully expanding the model. This project covers community collaboration, environmental justice and sustainability, career development in urban agricultural sustainability and economics, and social justice. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 107 | 12:50 PM |
| PAP3478 | Practice, Professional Societies, and the Future of University Sustainability Education | This presentation discusses a new and novel direction for sustainability education taken by the University of Arizona’s recently launched Practice School of Sustainability. Sustainability certificate programs have proliferated in higher education, with significant diversity within and across traditional disciplines regarding required coursework and hands-on experience. The UA’s Practice School of Sustainability is working with professional societies to establish “bodies of knowledge” that set standards and add credibility for the next generation in sustainability certification programs that cut across traditional disciplines such as engineering, architecture, business, and agricultural sciences. Additionally, the Practice School includes a practicum experience for students to apply coursework-based knowledge to interdisciplinary projects on-campus, locally, and internationally. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 01:30 PM |
| POS10022 | Predictive Modeling of Greenhouse Gas Emissions | Climate action plans currently developed by institutions of higher education across the country need to provide various mitigations strategies to achieve carbon neutrality in the “near future”. These strategies are typically developed in response to projected levels of greenhouse gas emissions due to campus activities. Projections of greenhouse gas emissions are often based on linear models that consider greenhouse gas emissions observed in the past 10 to 20 years and use linear regression, based on annual growth to estimate future growth. Much of the growth that drives greenhouse gas emissions on university campuses is due to an increase in the student population, which over time results in an increase in the building space and the associated infrastructure needed to accommodate this population. In this workshop we will consider other types of models, usually used in modeling population growth, to better forecast the long term greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, we will explore nonlinear regression models in addition to the most commonly used linear model, as well as exponential and logistic models that have been validated previously for population growth. The first part of this workshop will focus on modeling greenhouse gas projections. Participants will then break into groups to analyze various campuses’ data using a tool provided by the presenters for comparison of the different models discussed. In the final 30 minutes, participants will come back together to discuss the most appropriate model to use when considering strategies for both short-term and long-term mitigation of emissions. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP10025 | Principles and Practices for Effective Leadership & Engagement | Sustainable communities evolve as people align together around shared commitments and shared values about the way we want to live and the future we hope to create. Creating sustainable communities on campus and beyond requires, at all levels, effective leadership and the ability to meaningfully engage students, faculty, staff, external partners, etc. in the effort. Effective involvement occurs when people choose long-term commitment to an aspirational cause, when they are co-creators of a future they hope to achieve, when they are equal partners engaged in community-based problem solving, and when they gain awareness of their inherent power and ability to act and subsequently experience outcomes that prove their contributions are valued and make a meaningful, positive difference. How do we build the social fabric that creates a sustainable future? What types of conversations and approaches are most effective in engaging others? How can we generate the energy and commitment necessary to create ecological, economic, and social sustainability? To achieve this level of energy and commitment, leaders become social architects, creating relevance and igniting the aspirations of others. Relying on an emergent design, they focus less on specific solutions and more on process, less on control and more on relationship building, less on directing and more on catalyzing, less on dispensing expertise and more on listening, asking the right questions, and facilitating effective conversations. In this interactive presentation, you will explore principles and practices of engagement that you can use to tap and ignite aspiration and commitment in others. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 112 | 06:20 PM |
| PAN3218 | Promoting and Practicing Sustainability | The panel will present short papers on how we promoted sustainability across the curriculum, set up faculty workshops, but also trained students and faculty to go and participate in helping an impoverished community in Bolivia with major water quality issues. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 107 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP10010 | Promoting Bicycle Commuting on Campus | This will be a presentation at the introductory level detailing possible steps that campuses can take in order to increase their population of students, faculty, and staff who use a bicycle to commute to and from campus. In doing so, the presenter will demonstrate how bicycle commuting can be an alternative suitable for many collegiate communities. We shall discuss the common misconceptions, challenges, and opportunities that bicycle commuting involves, particularly on a college campus. In particular, this session will focus on two broad concepts. First, individuals who study and work on a traditional college campus have many advantages when it comes to alternative commuting options. However, many people need help and education to perceive that something like a campus recreation center can be used solely for showering after riding one’s bicycle to work. Shower facilities, secure bicycle parking options, and the ability to flex one’s schedule are major concerns for many would-be bicycle commuters, but are also options that are more likely and prevalent on college campuses. Second, while there are numerous advantages, there are also a host of things which can be done to increase bicycle commuting on an individual campus. These include adopting the Bicycle Commuter Benefit, sponsoring safety and commuter classes on campus, and encouraging the participation of student groups. Participants will leave this session with a firm grasp of how to begin implementing effective change on their campuses with regards to alternative transportation. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 01:10 PM |
| FR3742 | Promoting sustainable behavior with motion sensing power strips and desk lamps | The paper presents the outcomes of a pilot program at the University of Michigan intended to influence people’s attitudes and behaviors relating to energy consumption, through the adoption of motion sensing power strips and/or desk lamps. Universities and other institutions throughout the world are developing ‘sustainability’ programs to address the burden of their escalating energy expenses and reduce their environmental footprint. Most sustainability programs today understand that -- beyond conventional energy audits and systems upgrades -- more attention needs to be given to the behaviors of building occupants in order to achieve long-term and sustainable energy reduction outcomes. The field of environmental psychology, which is concerned with how people (and organizations) relate to their environment, has traditionally taught that there is a causal relationship between an individual’s attitudes and their behavior vis-à-vis their environment. Recent evidence shows that while attitudes do causally influence behavior under certain circumstances, the reverse is also true – i.e. people’s behaviors shape their attitudes. That is, the attitude-behavior relationship is bi-directional and mutually reinforcing. By distributing free power strips and task lamps to faculty, staff, and graduate students at the University of Michigan, it was hoped that in addition to the direct energy savings produced by these devices, attitudinal changes would also ensue, thereby further predisposing the participants toward additional forms of conservation behavior. Results of the pilot project are presented, and ramifications for conservation policies and strategies are discussed. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 10:20 AM |
| POS3432 | Promoting Sustainable Communities: The Randolph College Permaculture Program | Randolph College has a thriving permaculture and organic garden program, well-integrated into the college curriculum and offering semester and summer internships. The garden includes an orchard of heirloom fruit and nut trees, unique hybrid species of grapes incorporating wild Virginia strains, several bedding plots maintained by both student interns as well as community members, an egg-producing flock of 40+ chickens, a small flock of ducks for insect control, a composting system, and water management such as swales, rain barrels, and retention ponds. We are also constructing an apiary. Students cite the hands-on learning and community structure as major reasons for their enthusiasm about the program, and have been active in designing research and community projects centered on the organic garden. The organic garden and permaculture program infuses experiential learning into the academic program, and serves as an interdisciplinary “living laboratory”. Several departments across campus use the garden for teaching and research. The organic garden and permaculture program has established links within the community for service learning opportunities as well. Such collaborations provide excellent opportunities for students to apply environmental science techniques in projects that directly benefit the community. Student comprehension of such techniques (their usefulness as well as limitations) is greatly enhanced by practical application in the field, and their personal satisfaction is also bolstered by knowing that their work is of use to a worthy organization. Through this community outreach, our efforts are also promoting sustainability in our surrounding region. | Poster | Poster | |||
| POS3415 | Protecting the Climate and Reducing Waste through Campus Paper Policies | The RePaper Project, a project of the Environmental Paper Network, recently released a new resource that complements the theme of conference. “Paper Steps on Campus: Nine Steps to Protecting the Climate and Reducing Waste through Campus Paper Policies” (April, 2010), acknowledges the global nature of the paper industry and its relatively large impact on the environment and regional/ international economies. The guide is intended as a useful tool for higher ed institutions to affect change through their procurement policies. The guide was compiled in partnership with the National Wildlife Federation and Recycling Organizations of North America, It is an essential resource for colleges and universities instituting sustainability initiatives on campus. Far beyond simple paper recycling advice, it is a comprehensive tool for campuses committed to pushing their climate and sustainability practices to the next level. Paper Steps on Campus creates yet another opportunity for the collegiate community to be a leader in sustainability. Implementing environmental paper policies will not only improve a campus’s carbon footprint and reduce waste, but will also, through ethical procurement policies, support businesses developing innovative marketplace solutions necessary for the low-carbon economy 21st century. The Guide is best presented as a 4x4’ display. Full color graphics from the guide will be enlarged to highlight descriptive text. Ordering information will easily be detached from a brochure hanger on the display. Representatives from the organizations assisting with the Guide will be available to intepret the display and encourage schools to order their free copy. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP10042 | Pulling it all together: a comprehensive approach to climate neutrality | Reaching the goal of climate neutrality requires universities to do many things at once. As such, the University at Buffalo has chosen an explicitly comprehensive and integrated approach to climate action planning and implementation. This involves creating a governance structure that “cuts across the silos” and invests the mission in every unit of the institution; understands the task both in terms of institutional policy and individual behavior, structure and culture, top-down and bottom-up; builds on a history of activism in energy conservation and sustainability; aligns campus capital planning with climate action planning; takes carbon monitoring and management seriously; looks to maximize learning – i.e. research and teaching – opportunities in any project; integrates climate action throughout the work of the university; and ultimately accepts the task because it is the right thing to do. This approach, admittedly, is an experiment. Other universities have concentrated responsibility for pursuing climate neutrality in centralized offices or institutes. While this focuses accountability on some, it may let everyone else off the hook for climate action. But our approach is not without its pitfalls. Perhaps if everyone is doing sustainability work, no one is doing it. If everyone is in charge, maybe no one is. This session is intended to tell our story in all of its complexity and engage campus leaders in a conversation about how they are approaching this task in the peculiar organizational and management environment of higher education, not to mention in a time of crisis. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 12:50 PM |
| POS10040 | Purchasing The Sustainable Way | Tackling the task of sustainable procurement in higher education requires a concentrated employee training program, collaboration amongst departments and a guiding team approachable for knowledge and resources. Universities can transform how they do business, incorporating economic and environmental sustainability by formalizing and documenting their sustainable purchasing processes. Sustainable decisions can be reinforced and encouraged when economic sustainability is used as the “selling point” to department heads and decision makers. The University of North Texas in Denton, TX is in the process of implementing some of these strategies to increase sustainable procurement. Collaboration amongst Housing, Dining, Business Services, Purchasing and Projects have shown measurable success, although wider realization is desired. This presentation would delineate these procedures as well as outlining future strategies. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3447 | Pushing energy sustainability through innovative partnerships | We will share the challenges and rewards of working toward energy sustainability through an innovative partnership. In April 2010, we began working with the Jackson Hole Energy Sustainability Project (JHESP). JHESP is made up of the Town of Jackson, Teton County and the Lower Valley Energy Authority. Their goal is to reduce energy use through an array of conservation measures, or demand-side management (DSM), through major community participation. JHESP’s short-term goal is for 80% of their citizens to engage in some kind of energy conservation measure, whether big or small, which is nested in larger long-term goals for a more sustainable energy future. Our team is made of two professors of sustainable business practices in the College of Business, and a professor of energy economics who works in the College of Business and the School for Energy Resources. The University of Wyoming team provides knowledge and skills to determine how best to communicate with various constituents in the community to achieve these goals. Through our partnership we hope to collect a variety of types of data and to learn: • The market segments for DSM • How we can reach each segments with most effectively • How we can induce long-term change • The specific actions various market segments might be interested in taking The unique nature of the partnership within the context of Wyoming’s unique natural and cultural heritage may provide guidance to other consortia working to achieve major changes in the ways in we generate and manage energy. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 10:30 AM |
| PAP3064 | Putting it all together: The Push for Renewable Energy inside & outside the classroom | In this session, the importance of collaborative campus sustainability efforts will be highlighted. On Earth Day, 2010, Green Mountain College opened its new Combined Heat and Power Biomass Plant. This presentation will tell the story of this facility from its inception in an Honors Seminar Class, a feasibility study paid for by students, community-wide demonstrations to close down an old oil-burning facility, and finally, the introduction of the plant into more than 10 classes as it was in its final construction stages. We will highlight the need for student awareness and activism in campus sustainability initiatives, and look at how to combine student energy with administrative and faculty support to align academic and co-curricular activity with campus infrastructure improvements. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 101 | 12:50 PM |
| POS10030 | Putting the Pieces Together: Engaging Your University Community for Sustainability | This presentation will focus on recruiting and retaining “people resources” for your sustainability program. As each of our institutions strives toward a future of sustainability, we are all faced with the difficulty of drawing in the resources of entire campuses and engaging entire communities in a common cause. We will discuss the contributions of several unlikely allies in our campus sustainability program at the University of North Texas, and demonstrate how we have created a system which utilizes the maximum talents of the individuals involved to change the campus culture. | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR4301 | Q and A Field Reports | Q and A Field Reports | Field Report | 10 minute | 07:00 PM | ||
| POS3410 | Ralphies Green Stampede: Innovative Zero Waste Events at CU-Boulder | In 2008, Folsom Field became the first major sports stadium in the nation, professional or collegiate, to collect all materials in recycling or compost containers, eliminate trash cans and transform its materials collections systems into a zero-waste process. In addition to reaching diversion rates of eighty percent, Ralphies Green Stampede focuses on vendor contract reform to lower waste and design for recycling and composting. Underpinning the entire effort is a broad commitment across campus departments. Combined, Ralphies Green Stampede represents a fundamental transformation in institutional culture at the University of Colorado. With two seasons completed and plans for a third season underway, CU’s staff are ready to present their innovative approach. The goal of this session will be to enable other schools to benefit from CU’s experience with operational, outreach, and contractual aspects of the program. Operational aspects of Ralphies Green Stampede will include collection containers tested, collection methods employed, materials processing and transportation to market. Outreach aspects will include everything from training volunteers, working with the ROTC, and promotion to fans and the media. The contractual aspects of CU’s approach will include developing requests for proposals, evaluating bid responses, and working with vendors. The session will be actively moderated so that audience and speakers are fully engaged in questions, answers, and discussion. Collaborations will be encouraged not only among attendees but with several initiatives by the EPA and the NCAA. These recent national programs will be detailed as a means of continuing schools’ involvement. | Poster | ONE HOUR FIFTEEN | |||
| POS10037 | Re-invigorating sustainability programs by learning to see value vs. waste | Many institutions have established sustainability programs: from recycling to dining to green cleaning. But what happens when the initial success has slowed and a program needs improvement? A collaborative method of rapid improvement is helping institutions get sustainability programs to the next level. This approach is called Lean - a non-proprietary, proven method that helps increase program value by helping teams recognize when hidden wastes, costs, and even misdirected efforts start to hamper a program’s potential impact. Boston College is an institution that has well-established sustainability programs and now wants to get to the next level of excellence, increase campus impact, and further reduce energy and other costs. The College has started to apply lean thinking and tools to accomplish this. Boston College is using lean to: • Learn how to identify the “customers” of campus sustainability programs • Identify the value customers expect from a program • Uncover waste and problems that get in the way of a program’s success • Empower people with a rapid improvement skill set to sustain continual improvements on campus Participants will reflect on Boston College’s experience, offer their own suggestions for identifying “value vs. waste”, and continue the conversation by considering the tough questions: can we learn how to see and reduce waste and problems in our own established programs? Is my program truly creating value? Can this “value vs. waste” approach help recoup investments made in sustainability programs? This session will help all participants see their own programs through a different lens. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP10037 | Recreation as a viable Partner in Sustainability Efforts | Over the last 10 years the Student Recreation Center at Washington State University (WSU) has been utilized over 6 million times by students, staff, and faculty. 89% of the freshman class and 83% of the student population as a whole visits the facility each year. 350 students are employed annually through the department of University Recreation (UREC). Students are key stakeholders who are interested in the university’s sustainability practices and at UREC we are using that captive audience. The past three years sustainability has become a major factor in departmental decisions for both facility operations and programming. Outcomes of UREC sustainability initiatives include: Specific benchmarks for the facility related to recycling, waste production, electricity/gas usage, and reduction of goods consumption have been created and reported; Implementation of educational campaigns aimed at individual behavior towards recycling, waste reduction, and water use in order to change culture; Integration of sustainability education in staff training programs; Purchasing practices support vendors who minimize impact on the environment; New facility design and existing facility improvements to minimize impact of recreation activities on the environment; Advertising campaigns to increase sustainability awareness among facility users; and Financial benefits of decreased resource use. In this workshop we will discuss how sustainable practices were implemented at University Recreation and how their effectiveness is evaluated. We will examine the opportunities to design a sustainability program at your institution’s recreation department including financial and operational implications and will discuss strategies for implementation and evaluation. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 112 | 05:40 PM |
| POS3477 | RecycleMania: The Race to Zero Campus Waste | Join a dynamic panel of representatives from campuses large and small, public and private, who will discuss how they have used this EPA-sponsored, Keep America Beautiful-administered tournament to promote recycling and reduce waste. The presentation will provide a brief overview of RecycleMania, as well as pertinent information for interested schools to participate in the 2011 tournament. RecycleMania uses a competitive framework to communicate the resource conservation message of recycling and waste reduction to campus community members. Program administrators provide an online forum and database for participating schools to report their recycling and waste data over a ten week period. This information is in turn used to rank schools in multiple categories based on lowest overall waste generation, per capita recycling tonnages and percentage of waste stream diverted to recycling. While schools strive to out-perform each other in pursuit of a high ranking, the underlying purpose of RecycleMania is to provide a promotional tool for campus recycling coordinators to engage their students and staff on resource conservation issues in a way that taps into the natural school spirit found on college campuses. In addition to giving an overview of the tournament, the presenters will discuss topics such as how your school can get involved, how to track and report weight data and promotional support available to participants. New website filters enable comparison of tournament schools by athletic conference, state, or type of school. | Poster | ONE HOUR FIFTEEN | |||
| PAP3513 | Redefining the possible: Community engagement, operational congruency and curriculum integration at York University | York University, one of Canada’s largest post-secondary institutions, is set in a rapidly changing region of urban Toronto. York has a deep commitment to social justice and environmental sustainability, enshrined in a mission statement to thrive as a “community of faculty, students and staff committed to academic freedom, social justice, accessible education, and collegial self-governance.” Over the past 50 years, York has developed innovative sustainability-related research and curriculum, often receiving top ranking in comparative assessments of sustainability programs. The two University campuses are endowed with rich ecological features, and York has made remarkable advances towards sustainability in its campus operations and development. The York student body is also highly diverse and intensely engaged with the most pressing contemporary concerns ranging from the local to global scales. With such a rich array of sustainability initiatives, however, the challenge for the University is determining how to coordinate the University’s diverse, long-standing and broad-based experiences creating a just and sustainable world through a pan-university approach. In 2008 the York President’s Sustainability Council was struck to undertake this very challenge. This presentation will both profile York University’s sustainability achievements and explore some of the most complex facets of developing a coordinated, socially just approach to sustainability in a large urban post-secondary institution specifically in relation to community engagement, operational congruency, and curriculum integration. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 104 | 09:50 AM |
| POS10002 | Reducing Campus E-Waste through Recycling Programs | College campuses are perhaps the most telling evidence of our culture’s love affair with sophisticated technology. From laptops and cell phones to digital cameras and portable gaming devices, electronic devices are omnipresent both inside and outside classrooms. Campus facility managers and sustainability officials are increasingly challenged with the issue of proper electronic waste disposal. Many campus administrators are now carefully examining ways to efficiently and cost-effectively dispose of e-waste on a campus-wide scale. Many universities have found that on-campus recycling programs can be a component of an overall e-waste management strategy that allows facility managers to provide an environmentally sound method for disposing of products that are potentially hazardous to the environment. This session will explore best practices of achieving zero-waste through on-campus recycling programs and leveraging existing infrastructure; discuss how to integrate recycling initiatives programs into other campus sustainability efforts; and attendees will learn to incentivize participation among the campus community and merchandise results to garner ongoing support and program growth. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP10019 | Refining and Assessing Workshops for Infusing Sustainability across the Curriculum | While the call for curricular attention to sustainability has been made often and widely, real obstacles exist to infusing sustainability issues across the curriculum. Faculty development seminars have been an effective means to overcoming those obstacles. In this workshop, we wish to discuss and explore how we at the University of Scranton have fine-tuned our sustainability curriculum development seminars, as well as solicit ideas from others on how to build the best and most effective faculty development programs. Much of the literature on infusing sustainability into the curriculum highlights key obstacles, but overlooks one that merits particular attention, namely, the fact that faculty members often lack the pedagogical tools and strategies necessary to infuse sustainability into their courses successfully. We will discuss how the University of Scranton has addressed this obstacle by developing and presenting a “typology” of pedagogical strategies that faculty might use in its faculty development workshops. We will begin by providing some context and background on the University of Scranton’s curriculum initiative, present the pedagogical typology that we have developed, and then elicit discussion and suggestions on how the typology might be expanded or refined. In the second half of the workshop, we will present tools for assessing sustainability infusion initiatives and engage attendees in a discussion of the value and challenges of assessment. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 02:50 PM |
| PAN1000 | Regional Collaboration on Integrating Sustainability into the Curriculum | This panel will focus on a successful model of ten institutions collaborating on a faculty development workshop for integrating sustainability into the curriculum. The project is supported by the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) and includes nearly 40 faculty members from ten different colleges and a wide range of disciplines. Project participants began their work together at a three day conference at Luther College in June 2010. The workshop fostered cross-disciplinary associations and nurtured connections between faculty from different colleges. During the workshop, participants worked in small cross-college groups by disciplines to examine the overlap between sustainability concepts and key ideas and skills within the discipline. Faculty also engaged in facilitated work on pedagogical strategies for incorporating sustainability into introductory courses in each discipline. Participants will continue their work in an intentional and structured way until a culminating conference in April 2011. The goal of this cross-disciplinary and cross-college collaboration is to develop, assess, and then disseminate well thought-out pedagogical strategies and practical activities for integrating sustainability into introductory courses across the disciplines at our institutions and beyond. The panel will include brief presentations from four participating faculty members as well as an overview of the collaboration including funding, planning and logistics, and lessons learned. Significant time will be reserved for Q&A and discussion. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 106 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP10002 | Relationship Economics: Causal Measurement Connects Sustainability Initiatives to Critical Outcomes | To establish the first comprehensive and fully integrated university-wide sustainability system, a robust causal measurement system was created to guide strategic decision making, prioritizing the implementation of sustainability programs and initiatives to optimally impact the University’s specified critical outcomes. Many sustainability programs are designed without a clear understanding of how the various efforts will help the institution meet key strategic goals, or which actions will result in the greatest investment returns. As a result, such efforts tend to be disconnected from core programmatic activities. Further sustainability program goals are often based upon untested assumptions about what the constituents of that institution may need or want. The array of desirable outcomes can include increased yield, attracting and retaining talent (faculty/administrators/students), alumni and trustee funding and support, and increased grant funding, among other financially tangible measures. The University of Chicago is the first higher education institution to create a comprehensive cause and effect model of sustainability applied and linked to tangible University goals. This workshop will discuss the detailed steps in the creation of this measurement model, the development of, and causal linkages between, individual and grouped categories of potential and realized efforts and initiatives and university selected performance outcomes, and the power and utility of the causal measurement system to track and guide critical sustainability program implementation decisions across time. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 101 | 10:30 AM |
| PAP3108 | Reporting or Auditing: The Challenge of Implementing STARS | During the pilot development phase of STARS, much of the threaded e-mail exchange focused on the difficulty of the post-facto gathering of information needed to report and audit institutional achievements in each of the STARS categories. As a Pilot School we were able to self-score and were not bothered by any fine-grain differentiation of the character or number of achievements that might comprise the score in a given category. Nonetheless, it was not easy; we had to cajole, coax or otherwise tease-out data-sets from numerous personnel in the many business affairs and academic affairs offices. What became clear was that such work would be better handled as a running day-to-day operational practice. Now, as a STARS Charter School, we plan to do just that; we have established a ‘Get-on-the-Map’ web interface by which the administrators, faculty, staff and students of our university can share information about their achievements —individually or within their cultural campus group. Once submitted, we then can aggregate this material in an annual reporting of the community of achievements and, by spreadsheet, an auditing of the numbers of steps taken in a give STARS category to demonstrate fully our compliance with requirements for achieving points in the rating system. This paper will illustrate the structure of our web interface, describe the reporting and accounting functions using the spreadsheet tools we have assembled, and comment on the next-steps in our use of the STARS reporting and auditing framework for tracking and assessing our continually-unfolding story. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 02:10 PM |
| POS3301 | Research and Teaching Opportunities With an On-Campus Ecological Wastewater Treatment System | Advanced wetland treatment systems combine the energy efficiency of natural ecological processes with the small footprint and stringent effluent standards of conventional wastewater treatment systems and provide multiple teaching and research opportunities. Furman University recently constructed an advanced system which mimics natural tidal wetland processes and can treat up to 19 m^3 of wastewater per day generated from a new science facility and adjoining buildings. In this system, biofilms on wetland aggregate are submerged and exposed by filling and draining wetland cells 12-16 times per day. On each drain cycle oxygen is provided to the biofilms, allowing faster ecological treatment rates than earlier designs. After ecological treatment, the effluent is filtered, disinfected with ultraviolet light and chlorinated before being reused for toilet flushing and cage washing. The system is enclosed in a greenhouse that supports research and educational activities. Students and faculty are studying the biogeochemical functioning of the system in order to better understand the role of plants in removing nutrients, and will be testing additional methods of nitrate removal using mesocosm experiments. Additional research is focused on the energy and materials consumption of this system relative to standard wastewater treatment systems and other types of constructed wetland systems, as well as efficiency of recycled water use. The system is used in classes to demonstrate an alternative method of treating wastewater that would be effective in rural areas and developing countries. Research data will be used in the future in upper level classes. | Poster | Poster | |||
| POS10025 | Rethinking Diversity: Defining, implementing, and measuring social sustainability in universities | The overarching objective driving this session is the incorporation of social sustainability into U.S. higher education. As a movement gaining in momentum and popularity, sustainability has the ability to promote social justice as a central tenet and as a paradigm that can transform the current crisis of inequality we now face. The scope of this session will address the incorporation of social sustainability into three areas: the work of student life administrators, institutional diversity policies and mission, and curriculum. Best practices in all of these areas will be described and discussed to offer participants tangible outcomes that can be transferred to their home institution. Context of the organization as well as key areas critical to organizational change will be examined. The session will be presented in ways that attend to the needs of different learning styles, including interactive lecture, small group discussion, and presentation of case studies. The key objectives of this session aim to facilitate discussion and increase awareness around social sustainability across different areas of higher education. | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR3015 | Retrofitting Existing Buildings for Energy Efficiency and Demand Response | Compared with new facilities, existing buildings often have legacy equipment which waste energy, require more maintenance, and incur more downtime. They are often incapable of communicating and interacting with the Smart Grid. A complete rip-out and replace retrofit strategy is cost prohibitive and very disruptive to ongoing operations and occupants. New non-invasive technologies now allow for retrofits which take minutes to install, and deliver substantial savings with investment payback of less than 18 months. This presentation will cover actual case studies and savings data related to HVAC, Lighting, Steam, and Compressed Air retrofits. Highlight - Pneumatic Retrofit Case Study: Stanford University, Western Michigan University, California State University - Sacramento facilities retrofitted to enable energy efficiency and auto-demand response. Project cost 80% less than conventional retrofit solution, and took only minutes per zone compared with hours or days for conventional technology. Investment payback period of 18 months or under. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 09:30 AM |
| POS10013 | Ridesharing for the Facebook Generation | While the benefits of carpooling & ridesharing have been clear for decades - travelers find affordable rides, drivers share the high cost of gas, and campuses reduce congestion, parking demand and pollution - the popularity of ridesharing has been limited. Previous systems have failed to provide a social context, and as a result they have received a lukewarm adoption. The concept of online social networks has changed the game. Hear from John Zimmer, the co-founder of Zimride about how to employ Social Networks to increase your programs viability. | Poster | Poster | |||
| POS3411 | Room Temperature Biologial Sample Storage Programs at Stanford | Researchers at Stanford University and the School of Medicine can make a direct contribution to energy and resource conservation targets by replacing aging biological sample storage freezers with more efficient models or removing freezers entirely by taking advantage of dry room temperature storage technologies. Often irreplaceable, biological sample collections in Stanford’s 350 laboratories are growing at an alarming rate, requiring hundreds of freezers across campus, which consume energy, research dollars, and valuable space. A pilot project launched in the fall of 2008 revealed that Stanford could cut electricity usage by 40 million kilowatt-hours, reduce its carbon footprint by approximately 18,000 metric tons, and save more than $16 million in operating costs over the next ten years by transferring biological samples from frozen storage to room temperature storage. Appropriate for approximately 25% of the total Stanford sample collection, adoption of room temperature storage through a broad implementation program could recover the initial investment within three to five years. To combat institutional inertia, Stanford’s Department of Sustainability and Energy Management developed educational campaigns highlighting the benefits of dry storage, including higher sample density and reduced degradation vulnerability due to infrastructure failures such as natural disasters and power outages. In partnership with the School of Medicine, Stanford launched a “Cash for Clunkers” incentive program for freezer replacement—typically offering $5,100 to $7,600 per retired freezer. This poster will highlight the pilot program conclusions, implementation strategies for the current replacement initiative, and provide the 2010 program results. | Poster | Poster | |||
| POS10047 | ROOTS in Sustainability: Research, Outreach, Operations, and Teaching Students | As the University of North Texas implements more sustainable decision making policies and practices concerning academic research, undergraduate and graduate level curriculum, and daily operations of campus life, the Office of Sustainability works to effectively convey and promote information and actions the university takes to reach carbon neutrality and expand sustainability programs. Research, Operations, Outreach, and Teaching Students (ROOTS) outline our approach to sustainability administration on campus to promote awareness and lifestyle change, as well as education and research program development. Carbon neutrality may only be reached at the organizational level if individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds and education fields can also reach individual carbon neutrality. By working together with students, staff, faculty, and administration, the Office of Sustainability is connecting groups and units across campus to increase collaboration and communication about campus sustainability activities. ROOTS creates a comprehensive approach to economic, environmental, and social solutions for a sustainable campus and community. Importantly, marketing awareness campaigns, online and social media, co-curricular programs, events, and student organizations define the core areas the Office of Sustainability focuses on to promote sustainability awareness, education, and research in the community. | Poster | Poster | |||
| POS3230 | Safety and Sustainability through Student-Contracted Mass Transit | In 2008, the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh student governance body, the Oshkosh Student Association (OSA), created a contracted mass transit service. “Titan Transit” extended the current city service from 6pm to 10pm, and provided a late night bus service to 3am on weekends. Four routes were designed to fit the needs of students to reach housing, entertainment, employment, shopping and academic destinations. The routes and hours were determined from a student survey and consultation with city and campus transportation staff. Titan Transit is solely funded by student segregated fees, at a cost of $9 per student. The OSA hires a local transportation company to operate Titan Transit, providing about 8,900 rides per year. The evening service is free to University students and staff (ID required), and is available to the general public at the same rate charged by city transit. The late night bus service is free to all and does not require the rider to present an ID. We will discuss, using two years of ridership data, how OSA has decided to make changes to the service, including a decision to focus on 3 routes. The service has addressed four specific goals for the OSA: extend the 6am-6pm city bus service; increase the safety of night travel; provide low-cost alternative transportation; and provide a sustainable method of transit to reduce our University’s reliance on automobiles. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAN3431 | Same Goal, Different Models: Leading Sustainability in Different Colleges in a Multi-College District | As the sustainability movement in higher education has gained momentum, various approaches to leading efforts to integrate sustainability into the fabric of an institution have emerged. At some colleges, sustainability initiatives are led by a team; at others, they’re overseen by a designated sustainability chief. Within these two models, there are varied distributions of responsibility, authority, and financial support. At some colleges, the sustainability officer or members of a sustainability team have other duties and do sustainability work in addition to them; at others, they work exclusively on sustainability initiatives. In some cases, the sustainability team or officer reports directly to the president; in others, they do not. Some function as decision-makers, others as advisors. Although designating and funding a full-time chief sustainability officer who reports directly to the president does demonstrate a deep commitment to sustainability, full integration of sustainability into an institution’s culture and ways of doing business is a difficult feat for a party of one. Indeed, such a model could even hinder that goal. This session presents the sustainability leadership models deployed at three urban community colleges, how those models have evolved over time, and the advantages and disadvantages of each in making sustainability a way of life for the college. | Panel | 100 min | Mon | 203 | 05:00 PM |
| POS3391 | Sand, Clay, and Straw: Green Housing by Students for Students | Hartwick College, a small liberal arts institution, has shown leadership in engaging students in the design and construction of natural buildings for student residences. Ten years ago, students in a Religious Studies course designed and built a Strawbale House at the College’s Pine Lake Environmental Campus. We report on a second natural building, a Cob House, which was recently completed. Both buildings were designed and built primarily by students and constructed using a high proportion of new and salvaged materials originating within a 100-mile radius of the building site. The Cob House’s wood-framed walls are in-filled with cob, a mixture of local sand, clay, and straw. Though Cob construction requires little technical knowledge, it is labor-intensive, making it well-suited for work by students with varying skill levels. Most framing lumber was salvaged or locally milled, and wood flooring was milled by a family-owned company. Six energy-efficient thermopane windows were manufactured by a local company and four were salvaged. Kitchen and bathroom sinks were also salvaged. Exterior earthen plaster was made on-site from local materials. The roof was shingled entirely with salvaged slate. Two students will reside in the Cob House and despite a tiny footprint of 505 square feet, the building feels spacious because of an open floor plan, ten-foot ceilings, and large windows. The heating stove burns compressed wood pellets made from waste from regional wood-milling facilities. These efforts demonstrate how Hartwick College combines pedagogy with experiential learning to create model green homes that are economical and functional. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3449 | Saving Environmental Law Clinics: The Benefits of A Real-Word Education | There are over 30 environmental law clinics located in U.S. law schools offering students the real-world experience of representing people who otherwise could not afford to enforce their environmental rights under state and federal laws. Students participating in these clinics represent environmental advocacy organizations in a broad range of environmental matters. Clinics offer students an opportunity that is unparalleled in the law school curriculum to practice legal skills and to explore environmental law. Today, however, an increasing number of law schools face criticism over use of financial resources and student attorneys to engage in environmental litigation. The work of some clinics has run afoul of powerful industry groups and lawmakers. This past year alone, the University of Maryland and Tulane University were the targets of political battles in their respective state legislatures, as bills were introduced to penalize these institutions financially for the work of the clinics on behalf of non-profit environmental organizations. To date, most clinical educators defend campus-based environmental law clinics on two grounds. First, environmental clinics provide a public service component to a school’s curriculum. Second, participation in an environmental clinic provides educational benefits that cannot be recreated in a classroom. This paper offers a third benefit – the work of an environmental law clinic can be easily transformed, or integrated, into broader campus environmental initiatives. With student and faculty collaboration, the work of these clinics can promote campus-wide awareness of current sustainability and social justice issues in the local community. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 06:20 PM |
| PAP3444 | Scientific Laboratories Becoming More Efficient through Behavioral Changes & Equipment Solutions | Laboratories at the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU-Boulder) typically use 5-7 times more energy than classroom or office space. Like many universities, until recently, CU laboratories have not been a focal point of conservation efforts because of the impression that such efforts may interfere with research. The Laboratory Water & Energy Efficiency Program (LWEEP) at CU-Boulder was created in summer 2009 to work with laboratory members on implementing changes to reduce resource use in labs without compromising research. Changes range from upgrading inefficient equipment and placing equipment on timers to changes in the way a lab uses equipment and considers future purchases. Since laboratory equipment frequently can be large consumers, even simple changes such as powering down equipment when not needed or raising the temperature of Ultralow Temperature freezers by 10˚C can provide significant energy savings for little to no implementation cost. The problem is knowing what ideas are feasible, since each lab is an unique environment, and convincing lab members to change their behavior. LWEEP is overcoming these problems by establishing an Eco-Leader in each campus lab. A Lab Eco-Leader is a lab member who has the expertise to know what is possible in a particular lab and also has an interest in promoting and maximizing resource conservation in that lab. Additionally, whenever possible, LWEEP makes its programs beneficial for labs as well as beneficial for resource savings. This presentation will discuss what progress has been made since LWEEP’s beginnings. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 112 | 12:30 PM |
| DD3788 | SCORE: A Sustainability Rapid Assessment Launchpad to AASHE STARS | Dartmouth College used SCORE, a sustainability ‘rapid assessment’ tool, in conjunction with AASHE’s STARS Pilot assessment tool to analyze the College’s sustainability progress. SCORE, based on The Business Guide to Sustainability by Hitchcock and Willard (Earthscan, 2006, 2009), evaluates the degree to which sustainability has been integrated into an organization’s policies, practices, and activities across all functional areas. SCORE allows an organization to benchmark its activities against similarly committed organizations, although it is not an “external ranking” tool like the GreenReportCard or STARS. Rather it is an “internal decision-making” tool for identifying areas of opportunity, best practices, and prioritizing next steps. It also serves as a springboard to STARS when there are institutional barriers to implementing a full STARS assessment. This session begins with a brief overview of SCORE that highlights the similarities and differences between SCORE and STARS and Dartmouth’s experience using both in developing their Sustainability Roadmap. Next, breakout groups of attendees will spend 30 minutes reviewing specific examples from SCORE and STARS and discussing questions such as: What are the advantages and disadvantages of ‘external ranking’ tools versus ‘internal decision-making” assessment tools? What are the most appropriate uses of each type? How could using ranking and decision-making tools together increase integration of sustainability into higher education institutions? For the final 30 minutes, the breakout groups will report back the results of their discussions. | Dialogue and Discussion | 100 min | Mon | 103 | 05:00 PM |
| PAP3371 | Service Learning Involving Community Partnerships and Community Sustainability Planning | In Canada, communities are increasingly developing sustainability plans in order to access federal funds made available through a municipal gas tax rebate program. While larger communities are well positioned to develop these plans through hiring sustainability coordinators or consultants, other communities lack financial resources and have, instead, turned to local NGO’s and educational institutions, in some cases, for support in developing community sustainability plans. This case study explores how a partnership between a local NGO, the community, and students from the Environment and Sustainability Studies (ESST) program at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, supported the development of the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP). In this project, students were partnered with local community organizations where they developed a collaborative approach to supporting the development of a community sustainability plan. Critical and comparative analysis of sustainable plans elsewhere, the development of an on-line community and school survey, and facilitation of community meetings where key areas of student engagement. Highlighted in the discussion are the value of partnerships and the role of service learning and its impact on community sustainability | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 104 | 02:50 PM |
| PAP3520 | Service-Learning and Sustainability: Engaging Students in Sustainability Action | Service-learning engages students in service in order to improve understanding of course concepts with hands-on learning. Campus sustainability programs often seek to engage students in sustainability action projects in order to improve campus and community sustainability. If properly structured, sustainability initiatives and service-learning embedded in courses across the curriculum can significantly benefit from one another and result in improved sustainability on campus and in the community. At Georgia Southern University, we have implemented service-learning requirements in a variety of courses across disciplines and levels, and have developed campus sustainability projects to take advantage of this pool of student service hours. Several guiding principles inform the development of campus-wide projects. 1) Establish a need for the project; 2) keep it simple so that little training is required, yet the task provides a great return on investment; 3) provide incentives for students (and courses) to participate; 4) form partnerships with the appropriate non-academic departments involved with the project and solicit their input; 5) publicly celebrate the success of the project so the university community knows what has been accomplished. Combining service-learning and sustainability projects accomplishes multiple goals: it provides a workforce to accomplish sustainability objectives and improves student attitudes and behaviors towards sustainability, student learning, and campus/community sustainability. Increases in energy and water efficiency, for example, may also provide economic benefits over time, and aid universities in attaining the goal of modeling sustainable practices. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 03:10 PM |
| POS3526 | Service-Learning in the Classroom | One pedagogical method of integrating sustainability into the classroom is through service-learning. A service-learning partnership was created between an upper-level environmental studies climate change class at Ursinus College (UC) and the UC Science In Motion (SIM) program, a state-funded initiative to make a selection of lab activities, equipment, and expertise available to teachers at secondary schools at no cost to the schools. The complexity of the science surrounding global climate change makes effective communication about this issue to the public difficult, likely hampering the willingness to consider more sustainable lifestyles on both individual and community levels. The college students worked to construct an appropriate lab activity that would foster scientific knowledge and abilities in high school students particularly in relation to basic climate change science; prior to the partnership discussed here, there were no labs in the UC SIM program that incorporated the concepts of climate change. In addition to the typical load of coursework, the college students worked in small groups on this project throughout the semester, collecting the supplies, testing and adapting the labs, creating a video to guide users through the lab, visiting a local high school, and editing and writing the worksheets and teacher guides. Over 500 high school students have now used this lab and a second set was created because of its popularity. The college students learned content and skills from the assignment and appreciated the positive impact the lab could have on climate change science education, finding the activity both motivating and rewarding. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3239 | Setting Ambitious Climate Action Targets | UBC adopted a Climate Action Plan in 2010 to advance towards a low-carbon future, committing the university to aggressive greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets. Compared to 2007 levels, GHGs will be reduced 33% by 2015, 67% by 2020, and 100% by 2050. The new Climate Action Plan positions UBC as a climate action leader. The Plan’s success can be attributed to the planning framework UBC put in place. The committee structure ensured clear lines of accountability and responsibility, and reinforced the Plan’s priority through all levels of the university. The comprehensive engagement model mobilized students, faculty, staff and community. The process provided the opportunity to “make a difference”, a key plank in UBC’s overall mission to promote the values of a civil and sustainable society. UBC’s participatory, consultative approach fostered strong buy-in and allowed diverse voices to influence its climate agenda. This approach captured grassroots passion along with academic and operational expertise to form a strong plan. The Plan sets out actions for key sources of emissions: Campus Development and Infrastructure, Energy Supply and Management, Fleets and Fuel Use, Business Travel and Procurement, Transportation and Food. Several upcoming projects will achieve the short-term target of 33% reduction by 2015: a new biomass gasification co-generation plant will generate clean heat and electricity; retro-commissioning will improve energy efficiency in academic buildings; and the district heating system will be converted from steam to hot water. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 12:50 PM |
| PAP3815 | Sharing a Passion and Connecting Students to Sustainability Experiences | The Department of Nutrition and Dietetics exemplifies what it takes to launch a sustainability program by tapping into a passion. Its undergraduate dietetics program was added to the existing dietetic internship and graduate program at Saint Louis University at a time when the department committed itself to a sustainability curricular thread for program coursework and internship experiences. To reconnect students to their food system and introduce sustainability the department built teaching gardens, developed a “gardens to table” summer culinary camp for children and introduced gardening and composting experiences for dietetic interns. As time passed the department seized the opportunity to manage the school cafeteria, Fresh Gatherings, and turned it into a locally sourced café using compostable paper goods and utensils, composting solid food waste and initiating a vermiculture program. A grant from Jefferson County – St. Louis Solid Waste Management made it possible to implement the plan to train Fresh Gatherings customers to separate their waste and divert solid food waste to vermiculture and compost in the teaching gardens. The department teaches a sustainable food systems course, recently improved access to the teaching gardens for children with special needs and plans to partner with the Department of Engineering during the next school year to create a sustainable system to regulate the temperature in the vermiculture greenhouse. We seek to share the “first steps” of sustainability with those interested in doing the same and to encourage others to jump into the ring regardless of availability of funds to offset costs. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 107 | 03:10 PM |
| FR3407 | Small is Beautiful: Climate Action Planning Opportunities for Small Colleges | Randolph College is a Charter signatory of the ACUPCC. Developing a Climate Action Plan (CAP) is a major undertaking. Many institutions hire consultants to carry out the task, but other institutions, like ours, have financial considerations that prohibit hiring staff or consultants. Developing, implementing, and assessing a CAP is taken on voluntarily--at Randolph College, by the Environmental Council. In 2008, we completed an initial greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and identified our major emission sources—electricity use and natural gas consumption. Our CAP, developed during 2010 and under review by our Board of Trustees, coordinates with our Campus Facilities Master Plan, and is an integral part of the Randolph College Sustainability Proposal. The challenges and opportunities of pursuing sustainability initiatives at small colleges differ in significant ways from those faced by large universities. Many resources and assessment procedures are designed for large research universities, not small liberal arts colleges. Larger universities may have a more formidable task in assessing and reducing their emissions, but also generally have greater financial resources available. Planning climate action at a small college has distinct advantages, however, especially as we operate in an environment “where everybody knows your name”— the director of Buildings and Grounds, the head of Dining Services, the college president, and even our Board of Trustees know our climate action team well. This close-knit and supportive community is a major factor in the successful planning and implementation of our CAP. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 05:50 PM |
| POS3467 | Social Sustainability in Practice: Pay 30 Forward at Rio Salado | Rio Salado College believes that investing in volunteerism is good business. In July 2009, Rio launched Pay 30 Forward to promote social sustainability at Rio Salado. The program honors Rio’s more than 30 years of service to the communities we serve and embodies our core practices of learning, innovating, and partnering. The purpose of the program is to encourage all Rio employees to volunteer at least 30 hours in the local community. The program is a simple, yet innovative initiative that serves as a catalyst for a more just and sustainable world. The program also ensures the passion for social change that each of our employees exemplifies extends beyond the work day and impacts the communities where we live and work. In the inaugural year, Rio’s employees recorded almost 1500 hours of individual service hours and conducted numerous college-wide community service campaigns. When the state legislature announced devastating K-12 budgets cuts, Rio’s employees responded by organizing a teacher supply drive that provided essential classroom materials for teachers in Title I schools. Rio also raised funds for the purchase of reusable water bottles to be distributed to those in need on extreme heat advisory days. The program not only fosters college-wide volunteer service campaigns that strengthen our community, but also allows employees the autonomy to select a volunteer organization that best fits their talents and abilities. Conference attendees will learn strategies to implement a similar program on their campus. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3296 | Solar High Tunnels: Food Production and Renewable Energy | Over the last decade, growers in the Northeast have been utilizing high tunnel structures, or field greenhouses, in their food production systems. These structures allow growers to extend the fall growing season and to start spring crops early. Current heating strategies range from no artificial heat at all to any variety or combination of fuels including corn, vegetable oil, biodiesel, biomass, geothermal, heating oil and propane. However, very few have explored the effectiveness of solar thermal heating systems. Completion of the solar high tunnel project on the College’s farm marks the beginning of a three-year study, which aims to evaluate the integration of renewable energy and food production systems by comparing two high-tunnel structures: one with solar thermal root-zone heating and one without. Both food production data and energy production data will be collected and disseminated throughout the course of the project. The project serves multiple functions, both for the College and for the farming community. At the College, students, staff, and faculty from both the Sustainable Agriculture & Food Production program and the Sustainable Energy & Design program collaborated to research, design and construct/install the structures and systems. The solar high tunnels will also serve as a living laboratory, allowing faculty to integrate the experiment into course work and allowing students to engage in the actual research. The collected data will also be made available to the wider farming community, which will help growers navigate the decision making process when designing their own systems. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 104 | 03:50 PM |
| FR3173 | Spotlight on Sustainability: A Student Lab Theatre | Hundreds of small theatres and classrooms across the United States, and hundreds more around the globe, rely heavily on high-wattage incandescent theatrical lighting equipment to illuminate the platform or stage. Above a typical stage may hang dozens or even hundreds of fixtures each drawing five to ten times the electricity of a standard 100w household light bulb. Used during each performance and rehearsal and often even for cleaning, these lights constitute a large electrical draw for such spaces and create a great deal of excess heat. And while compact fluorescent bulbs are quickly replacing the incandescent bulb in homes, theatres have been slow to adopt new technologies. The University of Illinois’ Department of Theatre, in cooperation with the Student Sustainability Committee, implemented a $30,000 retrofit of existing lighting equipment in the student-run Armory Free Theatre as an important step towards bringing sustainable practices to theatre spaces everywhere. We retrofit the theatre with low-energy lighting sources including LED, HID and emerging plasma sources. The space is an ideal showcase for sustainability due to its relatively manageable size and its broad cross-campus student audiences. Those who attend our typically “sold-out” performances see theatre and learn about emerging sustainable practices. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 107 | 05:10 PM |
| CSW3313 | Standards of Sustainability Practice for Student Affairs Administrators | This concurrent workshop session introduces the Standards of Sustainability Practice for Student Affairs Administrators. The workshop begins with an introduction to the key concepts and definitions of sustainability and how they relate to the work of student affairs administrators. Next, a background on the development of the Standards of Sustainability Practice for Student Affairs Administrators will be presented with a special emphasis on the important connections of key informing measures such as, AASHE STARS, CAS Standards, and concepts of best practice in Student Affairs from NASPA and ACPA. The bulk of the workshop will educate participants on the use of the Standards of Sustainability Practice for Student Affairs Administrators and allow for discussion and feedback on how best to use the Standards. In addition, exemplars of practice for creating sustainability in student affairs will be presented for workshop participants to consider in application to their own work. Workshop participants will be given a number of resources, including early access to a limited distribution of the Standards of Sustainability Practice for Student Affairs Administrators and materials to help generate ideas and future programs to connect their work in student affairs to sustainability. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Tues | 304 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP3141 | Stanford’s Y2E2: Built to Conserve, Inspire, and Teach | In May 2010 Stanford opened the Science and Engineering Quad 2 (SEQ2) to pedestrians—a major milestone in the construction of a four-building space designed to match the historic main quad in scale and orientation, but reflect the university’s emphasis on cross-disciplinary research and education in a sustainable environment. The first building to fully occupy, the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment + Energy Building (Y2E2), celebrated two years of operation this spring and continues to exemplify the benefits of high-performance design. Y2E2 launched Stanford into a new era of building design and operation, paving the way for almost one million square feet of new construction inspired directly by its success. The building houses cross-disciplinary research teams and teaching laboratories focused on sustainability, while the building itself serves as a full-scale research subject. Offering unparalleled academic collaboration and direct feedback to inform the next generation of high performance buildings, Y2E2 represents a test bed of technological innovation. Having met and exceeded its water and energy conservation targets—the building currently uses 42% less energy than code and 90% less potable water than equivalent structures—this presentation will detail successful design strategies, the challenges of predicting occupant behavior, review the current campus construction inspired by Y2E2, and discuss the LEED-EBOM certification progress. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 02:50 PM |
| PAN3563 | STARS 101 | Since 2006, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), a membership organization of colleges and universities committed to building a sustainable world, has engaged in a broadly participative process with the higher education and sustainability communities in developing the STARS system. STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System), is a comprehensive, voluntary, self-administered campus sustainability performance measurement tool. STARS translates disparate sustainability indicators into a single metric that will enable benchmarking within institutions over time as well as comparisons across campuses. STARS covers all sectors of the university, including curriculum, research, operations, and administration. STARS is designed to: • Provide a guide for advancing sustainability in all sectors of higher education. • Enable meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions by establishing a common standard of measurement for sustainability in higher education. • Create incentives for continual improvement toward sustainability. • Facilitate information sharing about higher education sustainability practices and performance. • Build a stronger, more diverse campus sustainability community. STARS 1.0 launched in January 2009. Since then all interested colleges and universities in the United States and Canada have been able to participate resulting in over 140 Charter Participants to date. In this session, participants will get the inside scoop about the STARS program from those who are leading its development and implementation. Participants will also hear how first-hand how institutions are implementing STARS on their campuses and learn in-depth details of how to use the STARS online Reporting Tool. | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 201 | 09:30 AM |
| DD3834 | STARS Town Hall Meeting | This interactive session will feature a small panel of STARS Steering Committee members, Technical Advisors, and STARS staff who will address key topics related to STARS. More importantly, this session will present an opportunity for the audience to provide feedback on STARS. The panel will address some “big ideas” or “hot topics” that have arisen and then pose questions to the audience to seek feedback on how the program can improve. Topics of discussion will include, but are not limited to: whether third-party verification should be included in STARS, if a STARS Accredited Professional program would be beneficial, and ways to improve the STARS credits and data collection process. The panel will engage the audience throughout the session to get feedback that will help inform how the program moves forward with these ideas. This will be a great opportunity to learn more about STARS and to have your voice be heard in how the program can improve. Additional presenters will be identified in the upcoming weeks. | Dialogue and Discussion | 80 minutes | Tues | 201 | 09:30 AM |
| POS3086 | State Policy Influence on ACUPCC Climate Action Plans | Climate change policy in the US has been highly variable, with little structure at the federal level and great variability among states. The lack of overarching national climate change policy and the patchwork of state-level policies likely affect the strategies and ability of signatories to the American College and Universities Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) to reach climate neutrality goals. Strong state-level policies likely foster more coherent strategies to deal with climate change in the academies of that state; this should be apparent in college and university Climate Action Plans (CAPs). This study uses two indices of strength for climate action policy, one for state-level climate policy and one for ACUPCC signatory CAPs, to illustrate the relationship between state climate mandates and the strength of signatory CAPs. We believe the positive correlation of state policy with CAPs reflects how states provide guidance and support for its member academic institutions; states with aggressive climate change amelioration policy foster strong CAPs among its academic institutions. The lack of comprehensive national policy and variability among state policies cause ACUPCC signatories to have similarly variable CAPs on the national scale, a conclusion borne out by geographic and statistical analysis. Given that state policies seem to inform voluntary climate change policy in ACUPCC-CAPS, it follows that a comprehensive federal framework would foster more coherent climate policies among states. | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR3240 | Stimulating Behavioral Change through Visual Media Campaign | Auraria's Sustainable Campus Program (SCP) is funded and led by students at Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State College of Denver and the University of Colorado Denver which all share the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver. The effectiveness of some of the SCP's initiatives have been dependent upon student participation and awareness. Therefore, a visual education/outreach campaign was launched aimed at educating and inspiring the student body to become active players in creating behavior change at the individual level. This project is a partnership between student groups and cross-disciplinary faculty members. The campaign involves a series of visual media. It began this spring with the launch of stickers for light switches encouraging energy efficiency, as well as for computers informing students about campus renewable energy offsets. Over the summer, a “Student Green Living Guide” will be compiled emphasizing the importance of sustainability and providing suggestions for sustainable living. In the fall, informational posters will be designed and posted in targeted locations (i.e. bathrooms, food courts, parking lots, water fountains, etc.), motivating students to consider daily choices that support sustainability. Recognizing that behavioral components are key to successful outcomes, it is expected that greater efficiency and waste reduction will be produced through encouraging student involvement. It is also anticipated that more students will become educated on the spectrum of what sustainability entails and how it relates to them. By understanding how their individual choices affect their world, change will be more potent and valuable. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 107 | 05:20 PM |
| PAP3781 | Strategies for "Greening" the General Education Curriculum | Strategies will be provided with goals, objectives, and activities for "greening" the general education curriculum. This infusion approach results in a paradigm shift in student behaviors related to sustainable energy, renewable resources, and practices that reinforce energy efficiencies. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 12:30 PM |
| PAP3459 | Strategies to Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Lab Buildings on Academic Campuses | Laboratory buildings, because of programmatic and safety requirements, remain one of the highest consumers of energy on academic campuses. As campuses develop and implement plans to achieve carbon neutrality commitments it is imperative that the energy use of this building type is addressed. Panelists will share strategies to reduce the energy footprint of laboratory buildings focusing on areas with the highest potential for significant reductions. They will address the institutional barriers these strategies face and discuss how they influence the approach to building design. The following energy saving ideas incorporated into the design of the new Molecular Engineering Building (currently under construction at the University of Washington) will be discussed in detail: • Implementation of NATURAL VENTILATION in non-technical spaces is a highly unusual strategy due to stringent safety codes and standards for laboratories. Panelists will discuss implications on energy use and the potential for this strategy to set the standard for future campus developments and research facilities nationally. • Linking WIND MONITORING TECHNOLOGY to a traditional variable stack velocity system creates new efficiencies by adjusting the speed exhaust is released to the outside environment based on localized weather conditions. Panelists will discuss what building and climate types benefit from this system. • AIR CHANGE RATES are the most influential factor in building energy use – up to 50% of energy loads. Panelists will discuss the implications of reducing air change rates while maintaining the highest safety standards using strategies including night-time setbacks, chemical monitoring and chilled beam technologies. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 107 | 02:50 PM |
| PAP3813 | Strengthening community through partnerships around local food and sustainability | Strong communities are places where people depend upon each other and work together for the common good, where all community members are appreciated and supported (particularly the poor and underprivileged), and where local environments are used carefully and thoughtfully to support long-term sustainability. The Prince George Growing Community Gardens (GCG) is a collaboration between University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) faculty and staff, UNBC students (initially through the Prince George Public Interest Research Group) and members of the Prince George Christian Reformed Church. The GCG project seeks to promote the development of strong community values through three primary outreaches: 1) the project seeks to be a place of community learning through research and education addressing questions of appropriate and sustainable food production, nutrition, and healthy living within a community context; 2) the project seeks to break down cultural divides between rich and poor, young and old, faith-based and non-faith based, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal by creating partnerships of common interest and commitment; and, 3) the project seeks to be a place of community outreach and support to low-income and underprivileged members of the Prince George community, empowering such community members to live more active and health lives. The end result will be re-vitalization of community connections that can help to create cooperation and compromise leading to greater regional sustainability. This presentation will describe the first year of the project (from inception through Harvest Feast), which has brought both unexpected opportunities and challenges. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 112 | 05:20 PM |
| PAP3074 | Strengthening the SEAMS Between Us: Sustainable, Equitable, Actualized Meaning-making & Solidarity | There are myriad reasons why culturally or ideologically diverse individuals (and the groups with whom they affiliate) choose not to interact. This disconnect is a critical component in why the social justice considerations of sustainability encounter profound obstacles, particularly as separation maintains and reinforces power systems of inequity. It is essential, therefore, to examine and evolve human modes of communication and connectivity (or lack thereof), in our endeavors toward greater justice and sustainability in social, economic, and ecological realms. This workshop is constructed around the presenter’s dissertation research, which was to ascertain, if there are internalized characteristics and externalized communicative & connective capacities through which we can understand ourselves and others more compassionately, so as to build bridges across difference and to move forward in the partnership of a more sustainable existence. Using a three-part research model, case study interviews were conducted with practitioners, discussion groups were held with diverse community entities, and an action research pilot curriculum was facilitated with college students (the design of which was informed by the first two phases of research). The workshop will combine direct presentation of the research’s emergent themes in social justice, sustainability education with interactive discussion and activities from the undergraduate course. Tied explicitly to this year’s conference theme, this session aims to provide useful information and a practical template for diverse campuses (and the broader communities of which they are a part) to engage in Sustainable, Equitable, Actualized Meaning-making and Solidarity. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 107 | 09:50 AM |
| PAP3502 | Structuring Campus Sustainability Programs to Foster Sustained Student Leadership | This paper details the recent creation of a self-sustaining environmental initiative undertaken at the University of Arizona to transform the campus through collaborative projects and programs and foster the continued development of student leaders. Following a student-led effort earlier this year to establish a sizeable tuition-based fund for programs and projects, the UA Campus Sustainability administrative structure was enhanced to include greater student involvement, and expand financial & other support for students and student groups working with staff and faculty on sustainability projects. Benefits of the new UA Campus Sustainability structure and funding include significant seed money for student-led and student-involved projects that reduce the campus’s environmental footprint, enhancing the institutional memory and organizational stability of student groups, and creating a pipeline of informed student leaders to continually carry the campus forward. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 12:50 PM |
| PAP3279 | Student Agriculture at Whitman - A New Approach to Student Initiatives | A group of Whitman students with a lofty goal, a student-run organic farm to provide produce for campus dining halls, developed a novel approach to generate student and faculty support, as well as institutional funding, for an institutionally-unpopular project. The presentation will focus on sharing the planning, structure, and progress of the Whitman Farm Project as a model for progressing student initiatives by utilizing an incremental timeline and credited student research internships to promote institutional buy-in. Although of special interest to student groups interested in organic produce and sustainable agriculture, this presentation is geared towards a broader audience of students who have large projects that they have not been able to get off the ground. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 107 | 02:30 PM |
| PAP3377 | Student Driven Campus Biodiesel | The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) started producing biodiesel for its fleet four years ago. The project was initiated by an undergraduate student had been making biodiesel with his mother to fuel their cars. The College President agreed to fund the equipment to initiate biodiesel production, and the student provided the labor. The College has expanded the program, and it is currently managed by a graduate student, who helps standardize schedules and production. Faculty from SUNY ESF and Syracuse University has engaged students to design new production facilities and to study potential expansion of the system. Engineering students, science majors and others have provided energy, economic and environmental assessments of the expansion. We use the project to engage students across disciplines to work together to develop sustainable energy projects. We continue to evaluate the potential to form a small student centric biodiesel business to demonstrate sustainable business principles as part of our sustainable energy curriculum. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 101 | 04:30 PM |
| FR3806 | Student Engagement: Supporting and inspiring sustainability leadership on campus | Involving students in Campus Sustainability provides a wonderful opportunity to increase project reach, raise awareness and support the development of sustainability leaders. As Universities continue to grow efforts to create more sustainable campuses it can be challenging to effectively speak to the entire campus community. Collaborating with interested individuals and groups expands project scope, increases information accessibility and improves communication. The University of Alberta’s Office of Sustainability believes that cross-campus collaboration is an essential component of engaging students, staff and faculty. As a Canadian public institution with 37 000 students and 14 000 staff across five campuses, collaboration and stakeholder engagement can have many barriers. However, working with a variety of stakeholders such as student organizations has proven to be a powerful means of engaging the campus community. The contributions that students make to the Office of Sustainability at the University of Alberta have been vital to the creation, operations and programming of the office. This presentation will highlight examples of the ways that we have included students’ ideas, leveraged the activities of student groups and incorporated student feedback into our organizational practices and operations enabling us to better liaise with the campus community. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 01:30 PM |
| PAN3061 | Student Green Fee Management and Project Implementation | Over the last decade, "green funds" have emerged at many colleges and universities as an alternative financial mechanism for funding sustainability initiatives. The creation of these funds is generally initiated by student groups as self-imposed mandatory fees and approved by senior administrators or boards of trustees. These green fees are intended to fund projects that would not be financed by an institution's general funds as well as foster collaborative activity across the campus. Once the green fees are approved and collected the real work begins. Who should allocate the investment of these fees? How should projects be selected? Who should manage and maintain green-fee-funded projects? What needs to happen behind the scenes? How is continuity and institutional knowledge managed over time? This panel will discuss how students can initiate and drive a campaign to institute a student fee, how to transition from campaign to running the program after passage, the lessons learned in developing and maintaining green funds, internal administrative hurdles to be overcome, and the role that sustainability directors, students, and staff play in implementing green fund projects. Attendees will learn how to use funds from a small student-fee increase to save energy and money, leverage more funding, and create jobs while driving campus sustainability initiatives. Each panel member has played a key leadership role in developing and administering their school's green fund and will share their insights and experiences. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 302 | 03:50 PM |
| POS3683 | Student Housing as a Catalyst for a Sustainable Campus | The design of sustainable student housing can positively impact the experience of living and learning on a higher education campus. Incorporation of sustainable design features serve as an educational tool fostering behavior that will reduce student’s carbon footprint and promote environmentally friendly lifestyle choices. In addition, promoting sustainable programs and initiatives within the residence halls will impact the way students view the rest of their campus and advance the development of campus wide sustainability strategies supported by the student population. Using Stony Brook University as a case study, we will explore the impact sustainable living environments have throughout the campus. Many of the sustainable programs and initiatives began within the residence halls, including a comprehensive Living Learning Center focused on Environmental Studies. We will also look at the new 600 Bed Residence Hall registered under USGBC’s LEED New Construction Rating System and designed to achieve LEED Gold Certification. This project mirrors the campus’s commitment to sustainability and will further promote sustainable living and learning at the University. Recent reports from the Princeton Review, have confirmed the “increased interest among students in attending colleges that practice, teach, and promote environmentally responsible choices.” Sustainable buildings on campus serve as living laboratories and offer hands-on learning experiences to encourage the next generation of leaders to become the driving force behind sustainability world wide. | Poster | ONE HOUR FIFTEEN | |||
| PAP3527 | Student Internships as the Driver for Campus Sustainability | In its first six months of existence, the Indiana University Task Force on Sustainability established the Internship Program in Sustainability. Utilizing campus as a living laboratory, the program enlists undergraduate and graduate students in research and implementation projects mentored jointly by faculty in academic areas and staff in operations. Now in its sixth season, the program has provided paid employment 101 students from academic disciplines as diverse as environmental science, physics and painting. The internship program, which serves as the major driver for sustainability efforts on campus, has become one of the most competitive at the university with acceptance rates ranging from 6-12 percent each term. To manage an average of 150 applications per term, online systems for applications, references and evaluation were created this spring. Since the establishment of the IU Office of Sustainability (IUOS) in March of 2009, internships have been determined based on the strategic goals of the Office and the Campus Sustainability Advisory Board. Office projects fall into one of three categories: internal or office development, sustainability assessment and consulting with auxiliary units, or ongoing campus projects. Internships housed in the Campus Sustainability Advisory Board are determined by the academic and operations co-chairs of each of the seven working groups: Academic Initiatives, Energy and Built Environment, Environmental Quality and Land Use, Food, Resource Use and Recycling, Sustainable Computing, and Transportation. Interns are enrolled in a seminar designed to provide students a background in sustainability and a forum for collaborating. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 107 | 01:10 PM |
| CSW1000 | Student Sustainability Education Programs - Where do we go from here? | With now over 50 student sustainability education "Eco-Rep" Programs across the US and Canada, several of which are 5-10 years old, it is time to step back, reflect on where we've been, and where we're going. This workshop will present the opportunity for program coordinators and participating students to hear about recent research in the field, hear from current practitioners, and participate in a dialogue about the future and evolution of these programs. The workshop will include the findings of a recent dissertation study that focused primarily on Eco-Rep program evaluation, development of program sustainability indicators, and elements of successful programs. > Questions that we will discuss include: How can we broaden our audience and collaborate across campus? How can cross-institutional Eco-Reps collaboration benefit and strengthen programs? What skills do student peer educators need and how can we provide them? How can we best use student facilitation within programs? What tools and practices, such as social marketing and social media, do students need to know about? How can our program goals and objectives evolve with institutional/societal needs? | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Mon | 201 | 12:30 PM |
| DD3482 | Student Sustainability Fees: What Do We Do When They Pass? | In our March 2010 student government elections, after a wide-reaching and creative campaign, Western Michigan University (WMU) students voted to support a fee to finance campus sustainability initiatives. In April, the WMU Board of Trustees approved the introduction of the Fee for Fall 2010, at a rate of $8.00 per semester and $4.00 per summer session. The Fee, collected from 23,000 students per semester, will generate roughly $500,000 each year for campus sustainability efforts. Many other campuses across North America have passed “green fees,” but WMU’s structure is unique with respect to how the money will be allocated and used. The majority share will create a “Sustainability Fund” for student-initiated projects and events aimed at strengthening our campus culture of sustainability and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. Students will have access to funding through a structured application process, giving them the financial resources to implement large scale sustainability projects of their own design. To focus these initiatives further, the Office of Sustainability will conduct an annual student survey to determine student sustainability priorities. Another share of the fund will go towards a highly focused, paid internship program through the WMU Office of Sustainability. In part one, two students who led the campaign will present a 20-minute overview of the WMU Sustainability Fee. In part two, groups will discuss their own experiences—successes and messes with implementing sustainability fees. Group reporting from part three will attempt to capture “best” practice experiences implementing sustainability fees. | Dialogue and Discussion | 100 min | Tues | 105 | 12:10 PM |
| POS2660 | Student Sustainability Internship Program: Creatively Involving Students in Sustainability Efforts | Sustainability initiatives on college campuses, whether education campaigns or tracking and reporting for STARS, require significant time commitments that often cannot be met by sustainability personnel. Simultaneously, students are seeking sustainability-related professional experiences to prepare themselves for careers that promote environmental, social, and economic responsibility. To meet both demands, an 8-student sustainability internship program was created at the small, rural campus of the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls, OR. The program has succeeded in receiving grants to support student work, allowed students to interact with top-level administrators, promoted collaboration between academic departments, inspired interactions with local and state organizations, and provided valuable student leadership for sustainability efforts on campus. Student and faculty panelists will provide a diversity of perspectives on the internship program. Whitney Medina and Dereck Ruf are third-year interns and seniors in the OIT Renewable Energy Engineering program who will highlight their experiences with submitting and receiving grant proposals for leading campus sustainability tours and creating a Home Energy Assessment Program. Spencer Jones, a second-year intern and sophomore in the REE program, will speak about his efforts to evaluate sustainability related and focused courses for STARS. Dr. Claudia Torres-Garibay, Assistant Professor of Renewable Energy Engineering at OIT and one of the program coordinators, will address how this co-curricular activity supports student academic work as well as inter-departmental collaboration. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3484 | Students and Faculty Lead Local Green Building Projects: A Sustainable Model | An interdisciplinary university institute focused on sustainable design and development brings together students and faculty to perform green building research and LEED project coordination for campus building projects and many other regional projects. The institute has created a self-sustaining economic model that provides multiple benefits to students, faculty, departments and communities. Graduate and undergraduate students in interior design, landscape architecture, construction management, engineering, and business, under the direction of institute faculty and staff, become integral members of design teams, project charrettes, and construction site meetings. Students become versed in all aspects of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) process which has led to significant green building jobs upon graduation. The university institute is paid to perform the green building research and LEED work by project owners or project architects, allowing the institute to pay its staff and the student interns. Further, faculty gain excellent experiences in sustainable design and construction to use in classroom teaching. The institute has performed work on over forty regional green building projects including twelve which have achieved LEED Silver or Gold certification and two (an office park and a children’s discovery center) which have attained LEED Platinum certification. This paper illustrates the process used to establish the program, presents case study examples of LEED certified projects performed by the students and faculty, and outlines how other universities can set up a similar program which can benefit students, communities, and universities for years to come. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 01:30 PM |
| PAP3170 | Students teaching students to save energy in their homes | Many students living on their own for the first time are on financial aid or work to cover living expenses; making ends meet can be tough. Yet most are not knowledgeable of even basic habits and tools to reduce energy bills. Making things worse, student rental properties are often not energy efficient; and students have to pay energy bills that are higher than they could be. In Spring 2010, with a grant from Wells Fargo bank, the CU-Boulder Environmental Center launched the $CORE (Student and Community Outreach on Rental Efficiency) program. Different from traditional conservation outreach consisting solely of information, the $CORE program is peer-to-peer education in students’ own homes. $CORE teams conduct walk-through audits and give hands-on education about how to reduce energy bills and carbon footprints. $CORE teams also install free materials such as CFLs, low-flow showerheads, water pipe insulation and weather-stripping. In Spring 2010 $CORE completed 64 visits, reaching over 200 student renters and installing 557 CFLs, 68 showerheads, 96 pieces window film and 32 feet water heater pipe insulation. We estimate savings of 45 tons CO2/yr, and more than $5,000/yr in student bill savings. Post-visit surveys showed very high levels of enthusiasm and satisfaction with the program. We have a goal of completing 120 visits next academic year. With adequate funding the $CORE program can be fairly easily replicated by other schools. To this end, the CU Environmental Center is developing a program model, How-to Guide and short film to share with other schools. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 09:50 AM |
| FR2988 | Supporting University Sustainability through Student Fellowships | Pacific Lutheran University supports student sustainability fellowships to promote not only specialized education, but cross campus collaboration. Student Sustainability Fellowships are intended to provide opportunities for students of any discipline to participate in furthering sustainability efforts on PLU’s campus. Fellows are matched with both staff mentor and faculty adviser to carry out their research. Faculty bring academic rigor to the decision-making process of sustainable practices at PLU, and the staff can contribute valuable knowledge of and experience within the management and operations. This team will meet regularly, and work together from the very different perspectives that they hold. Projects require examination of existing practices and use of resources on PLU’s campus and examine best practices at other institutions of higher education and facilities in the local area. Following their research, they propose strategies and solutions to address sustainability practices PLU’s campus and identify potential resources for the project. The fellowships are intended to continue the collaboration between students, faculty and staff around issues of sustainability while building the skills of the students. In only the 4th year of fellowships, the 3 annual fellows have made significant changes on campus such as the creation of a section of campus dedicated solely to habitat restoration, establishing a STARS data collection plan, and improving campus dining and admissions sustainability efforts. Almost more impressively, the relationships built across campus seem to be holding well after the completion of the fellowship, and even past the students’ graduation. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 12:50 PM |
| PAN3580 | Sustainability = Survival | We are all working to do our best to move toward sustainable practices that are supported via our purchasing. So we will have a panel made up of managers of sustainability, purchasing, certification and suppliers, This panel will give a short presentation and then the group will breakout into rounds to discuss and address specific activities: Practical ways to embed sustainability in procurement functions b) Where in the supply chain should you focus your efforts? c) Powerful techniques to incentivize suppliers d) Where can you get meaningful support? We have co-hosted this program at Harvard, University of Miami and Nebraska with great success, If this program is picked we expect to have representatives on the panel from Rutgers, Northwestern, Illinois, and University of the Americas. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 201 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3851 | Sustainability Across the Curriculum Project at Lane Community College | The goal of Sustainability Infusion Project at Lane Community College was to infuse sustainability concepts through all instructional disciplines. 105 instructors participated from more than 15 different disciplines including Adult Basic Education, Math, and Business. This paper will describe how the project was structured, how it was funded, how it was evaluated, the content of the training, successes and challenges, and resources for replicating this project. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 12:30 PM |
| PAP3282 | Sustainability and informal learning in a UK university | This paper reports on research undertaken in the UK to identify the ways and extent to which aspects of the university campus impact on students’ understanding of sustainability through informal learning experiences. Education for sustainability is a global issue for Higher Education and there is increasing recognition of the need to embed sustainability not only within formal curricula, but to address informal learning experiences embedded in the ‘hidden curriculum’ of the campus environment (Jackson 1968). The case study for this research was the University of Plymouth. The annual People and Planet Green League for environmental performance 2010 rank the University first out of 133 institutions. The University also retains the accolade of being the league's top overall performer since it began. In addition, Plymouth has achieved numerous other awards for sustainability and corporate social responsibility, both which feature throughout the institutions’ policies and strategies. The research used an ethnographic approach to gather student perspectives on sustainability at the university and involved students’ videoing evidence of sustainability on campus and participating in interviews. The findings suggest that despite the high external profile of the university as a sustainability champion, in reality, the informal learning experiences of students were limited. There was strong evidence of inconsistencies between external and internal representations of sustainability at the university and of a focus on environmental performance at the expense of wider dimensions of sustainability. The paper concludes by suggesting how the quality of informal learning for sustainability in campus environments can been enhanced. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 05:20 PM |
| PAN2800 | sustainability and the arts of democracy, innovating engaged learning | this four person panel showcases an innovative engaged learning project. attached to graduate and undergraduate courses with parallel content, the project brings first year students, graduate students, faculty, and community partners together in seven diverse community based action research teams to work collaboratively on issues of sustainability and learn the arts of democratic organizing. graduate and undergraduate panelists will evaluate the impact of this work on their research, on their educational pathways, their sense of power and possibility in the world, and on their contribution to deepening the cultures of democracy and sustainability on campus and in the community. one panelist will discuss her team’s success in organizing the greater flagstaff community food task force which will assess food security and facilitate policy changes that support sustainable, organic, local and ethical food. another will discuss her team’s work in flagstaff’s poorest neighborhoods. collaborating with the city, county, community centers and private sector energy efficiency firms, they built relationships across social divides to increase access to weatherization and energy retrofitting kits. a third will discuss public achievement, a civic agency initiative. elementary school children choose community issues that concern them and college student coaches teach public skills to address them, transforming school culture as they do. a fourth will discuss her team’s success in gaining approval to work collaboratively with campus dining services to develop a new regionally sourced, fair trade sustainability cafe. a faculty facilitator of this project will moderate. | Panel | 60 Mins | Mon | 112 | 07:00 AM |
| PAN3276 | Sustainability and the Humanities: Links to the Global Campus | This panel will focus on the fertility of exchange between sustainability and traditional disciplines in the humanities and on how cross-pollination between the two creates unique educational experiences in higher education that link the humanities to the global classroom. Papers from history, philosophy, religious studies, and communications will address how cross-disciplinary explorations of sustainability reorient and revitalize traditional approaches in the humanities at the same time that the enduring questions and conceptual rubrics from the humanities provide intellectual space to explore sustainability issues with depth and complexity. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 203 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP3127 | Sustainability and the Moral Ecology of College Culture | To prepare for the ecological revolution of the 21st century, American college students need to know more than the traditional disciplines can teach them, even in interdisciplinary formats. They need to understand the moral ecology of everyday life in America, and the daily practices that reinforce or resist the common sense of an unsustainable society. The Campus Ecology class at St. Olaf College does just that. A course created by a senior student in 2004, the class helps students see the ethical and aesthetic (and practical) connections between their daily lives and the environmental crises of the planet. It’s also resulted in a book, The Nature of College: College Culture, Consumer Culture and the Environment (Milkweed Editions, forthcoming), which traces the environmental impacts of Jo and Joe College as they perform the routines of everyday life, from the dorm room to the bathroom, from the clothes closet to the cafeteria, from the parking lots to the party house. This presentation, therefore, considers the advantages of connecting sustainability issues to the everyday lives of students, and shares the kinds of learning goals, readings, assignments, and practices (individual and collective) that can make sustainability not just an academic subject for students, but a normal part of their daily lives. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 10:10 AM |
| PAP3253 | Sustainability at Sea: Greening an Around-the-World Educational Voyage | The spring 2010 voyage of Semester at Sea (SAS) provided an unusual opportunity for students and faculty to work together to achieve measurable improvements to the sustainability of this unique study abroad program.The voyage theme, “Sustainability: One Earth, One Future” fostered collaboration among the shipboard community to build upon initiatives begun by the Institute for Shipboard Education (which administers the SAS program) and v.Ships (the ship’s management company). Prior to sailing, the MV Explorer, a 25,000 ton, 600-ft long converted passenger ship, received ISO 14001 certification for its environmental management performance. On board the MV Explorer, the 37 faculty members included sustainability in the 90 courses offered to the 584 undergraduates (representing 239 colleges) and 23 lifelong learners, and extracurricular programs focused on sustainability as well, e.g. performances by the student-organized Improv group and evening seminars. (The effectiveness of the academic program in promoting an ecological worldview is explored in a separate presentation.) A Sustainability Council consisting of students, faculty and staff was established, which partnered with students in the Investing in a Sustainable Future class to consider ways of reducing energy use, conserving water, minimizing waste, and improving sustainable food choices. Specific recommendations arising from the Council and class included employing Skysails to increase fuel efficiency, provisioning from local suppliers at ports-of-call; increasing vegan and vegetarian and reducing meat options; metering water use by halls/cabins; and adding sustainable-themed posters and signs. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 03:10 PM |
| PAP3053 | Sustainability Commitments and Actions at University of Hawaii Maui College | The new energy goals set forth by the Hawai’i Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI) in 2008 have set the stage for making Hawaii a global model for energy independence and sustainability. Maui County’s goal of achieving 95% of the energy requirements from renewable sources by the year 2020, exceeds the ambitions of the state to meet 70% of Hawai‘i's energy needs from renewable energy by 2030. As the sole higher education institution on Maui, The University of Hawaii Maui College (UHMC) has made a commitment to participate in achieving the Maui County and HCEI goals through campus sustainability projects and by developing educational programs to address the workforce development needs critical to achieving the HCEI and Maui County energy goals. These new programs are being established while UHMC transitions from Community College status to meeting Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Senior accreditation requirements. Sustainability programs at the Associate degree level are being enhanced while Baccalaureate programs are being developed. Both credit and non-credit programs are being offered to provide a variety of training opportunities at multiple levels. This paper will inform the audience about initiatives on campus that will contribute to Hawaii’s clean energy efforts with the goal of making UHMC a model of sustainability on Maui and in higher education. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 09:50 AM |
| PAN10030 | Sustainability Commitments, Actions & Economics: Managed Print Services | Cleveland State University committed to a goal of developing, designing and implementing an enterprise wide document output strategy that is consistent with the Unviersity’s mission and commitment to environmental stewardship, improves the quality and delivery of output, and reduces energy, greenhouse gas emissions and solid waste. The Unviersity’s current state of document output included 2,597 devices of various types and capability, or a 1:1 ratio of users to devices, that were energy inefficient, and required significant levels of support, maintenance and various consumables that generated solid waste. The University’s managed print services program is an enterprise-wide initiative that centralizes the management of all printers, copiers, scanners and fax machines to: 1) reduce print output costs; 2) improve quality of service; 3) provide new, efficient technology with enhanced functionality; 4) reduce energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and landfill waste. Results & Impact of Managed Print Services. The management print services program will generate guaranteed savings of $500,000 annually by: • Consolidating print assets to reduce energy, carbon footprint and solid waste • Improving user to device ratio from 1:1 to 10.2 to 1 • Reducing the high cost of non-energy star compliant printers • Reducing single function stand alone fax machines • Reducing analog lines associated with multiple fax machines • Reducing the cost of printer and fax supplies and paper consumed • Standardizing equipment types to reduce supplies and maintenance | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 205 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP10017 | Sustainability Coordinators in Higher Education- Research and Solutions | Environmental sustainability is a growing subject at universities across the United States. Many universities have decided to hire a “Sustainability Coordinator” as a full-time faculty position in order to maximize cost/benefit projections, provide direction to student groups interested in sustainability, and provide overall focus for the sustainability of the university. Research will be conducted in order to determine the reasons why some universities have chosen to hire a Sustainability Coordinator while others have not. After conducting research, the data will be used in order to save time and resources for the institutions who are interested in hiring a sustainability coordinator by producing a number of guides for potential implementation created based on demographics of the schools. These demographics include school size, school type, private, public, junior college, and potentially more. These guides will aid universities by providing information regarding the steps, factors, and obstacles associated with hiring a sustainability coordinator for that particular demographic. Research for this project will be conducted through in person interviews, conference calls, mail surveys, and brainstorming groups at national conferences to gain data on individual perspectives on Sustainability Coordinators from various universities. The study will seek to include a survey size of at least 100 universities of different types across the United States. The conclusive data is intended to be made available through online resources for universities to utilize should they consider hiring a Sustainability Coordinator. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 06:00 PM |
| POS3472 | Sustainability courses for students with busy schedules: “The Environment Today†| Carnegie Mellon University has instituted environmental education across its curriculum over the past five years. The latest course addition, "The Environment Today," was spearheaded by student organizations at Carnegie Mellon. Its innovative weekend-course design builds upon an already popular series of weekend courses at the university. Student groups collaborated with the Vice Provost for Education and faculty across campus to launch this undergraduate course. Offered once a year, "The Environment Today" surveys timely sustainability issues to provide students the foundations of ecological thinking: (1) systems thinking –- connections and influences between ideas, people, and communities; (2) life cycle thinking -- respect for the role of time in nature and legacy effects from human activities; and (3) awareness of self as an agent of action and awareness of the influence of uncertainty in decision making. During its first semester of availability (spring 2010), the course theme was “Water and Energy.” Over 100 students participated in the 3-credit course (16 seat hours) that simultaneously demonstrated sustainability in action as a near-zero-waste event. By design, the course’s topical focus will change annually, allowing a typical 4-year undergraduate to enroll four times for 12 units without repeating material and continuing to expand the student’s horizons. This poster describes the design of the course as well as the many collaborations across campus that made it possible. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAN3143 | Sustainability Education at the Edge: A cohort model for doctoral study | The challenge for the field of Sustainability Education is how to develop and support “agents of change” who can profoundly impact and transform our educational systems and communities to produce a more informed, engaged, proactive citizenry, and ensure a sustainable future for both the human and more than human world. This is the purpose and vision of the PhD program in Sustainability Education at Prescott College. In its 6th year of operation, this program explores a range of perspectives from Education for Sustainability, the act and practice of learning how to achieve global and local sustainable communities, and Education as Sustainability, the process for transforming education to create a more informed and transformed populace to support a more sustainable, secure society. The program emphasizes the 4 “Es” of contemporary sustainability: Ecology, Economy, and Equity, through the lens of Education and an emphasis on bio/cultural diversity and social justice to examine issues of interdisciplinary concern that are often overlooked in more focused disciplines. The cohort-based process allows students to form a strong, tight-knit learning community supported by open dialogue that invites diverse perspectives and feedback within the cohort and with faculty. Contact is maintained by frequent email, phone, video, and internet course management interactions as well as colloquium gatherings in Prescott or other locations. Faculty will introduce the program; second year students will give a brief (5 min) presentation of their degree plans and how they will engage in research. There will be time for questions and dialogue. | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 105 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP3091 | sustainability in Australia's Higher Education Curriculum | An increasing number of Australian tertiary education institutions, including VET Colleges and Universities are introducing new courses on sustainability and adjusting existing ones. The Australian Government has set Sustainability Skills development as a key priority. This paper will demonstrate and discuss the “Sustainability in Australia’s higher education curriculum” website. The development of this site is currently the subject of an Australia-wide survey of activity involving some 45 higher education institutions. The results will be available on an easy, accessible web-resource covering short courses, majors and submajors, degrees and/or double degrees, community learning projects, effective approaches to teaching sustainability, postgraduate studies and pathway programs between VET and higher education. This session will provide an opportunity for colleagues to review the Australian initiative, suggest links to their work and identify enhancements. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 03:10 PM |
| PAP3265 | Sustainability in Christian Higher Education: A Look at Pepperdine University | It has been assumed by many that Christian universities and colleges have little to offer discussions about sustainability because far too many Christians have disregarded the magnitude of environmental problems for far too long. While in some cases, at least, this may be true, many Christian schools are now joining the discussion and have the potential to offer novel insights. This paper explores the development of the sustainability statement for one such place of Christian higher education: Pepperdine University. The paper first briefly analyzes the rich depths of Christian theology for possible components that make up the Christian “virtue” of sustainability. In particular, this definition focuses on the notion of the “abundant life” and extends it to both humans and non-humans. The second part examines the Christian concept of justice, looking at definitions of distributive, retributive, and restorative justice. Putting these two parts together, the author argues that sustainability can be conceived of as a virtue that ultimately affirms both the God-given dignity of human and non-human creatures. The third part of the paper asserts that places of Christian higher education have a specific moral obligation to educate their students about sustainability, one that may in fact be different than secular places of higher education. Finally, the paper reviews the process of getting the sustainability statement approved by the various stakeholders at Pepperdine. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 107 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP3460 | Sustainability in Civil and Environmental Engineering Courses at CU-Boulder | Recent modifications have been made to two first-year courses for civil (CivE) and environmental (EnvE) engineering majors and the senior capstone design course in EnvE. A pre-survey was used to assess students’ attitudes regarding sustainability. The seniors were more familiar with the term sustainability (95% very/somewhat familiar vs. 66%/33% EnvE/CivE first year students, respectively). Students were less familiar with the term sustainable development. Only 58% of the seniors had a previous sustainability related course. The students strongly agreed that sustainability was a key component of civil and/or environmental engineering (55-80%), but these values dropped significantly for the statement “sustainability is a key component of all engineering disciplines.” After the pre-survey, first-year students had a module on sustainable engineering and a written homework assignment worth 12% of their grade. The students did a good job identifying economic, environmental, and social aspects of sustainability in an engineering case study. In later course assignments a greater percentage of the students discussed sustainability in 2009 compared to the 2008 students who did not have a sustainability module. All of the senior design projects incorporate sustainability aspects. Projects with CU include a 2010 evaluation for the new LEED platinum dormitory and 2003 projects to evaluate food waste composting from the dorms and an IPF for solid waste. Collaborations between courses and on-campus sustainability activities should be increased. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 12:50 PM |
| PAP3055 | Sustainability in the Core Curriculum | Architecture education today is driven by sustainable methods and ideology. And yet, there is a disconnection between sustainable theory and real-life practice for most architecture students. In design projects, sustainable solutions are well examined and thoughtfully critiqued. But, outside of the classroom, student behavior tends to revert to habits that were developed during childhood. The phenomenon is not isolated to architecture students. This presentation proposes an educational curriculum for sustainability that is focused on undergraduate university levels. The curriculum presented contains a core requisite of environmental information and behavior awareness applications both general and directed toward particular environments: urban, suburban, rural. In addition to core classes, the proposal offers assistance for sustainable integration into the current curriculum. Finally, outlines of sample projects for each environment type will be discussed. The combination of core and integrated curriculum with school and community projects are assigned points that enable schools to earn a Sustainability in Education rating similar to LEED ratings for the built environment. Marketing plans and plans to apply for Government support for marketing the program, training educators and supplying learning tools for students are outlined. Discussion encourages critique and additions to suggested content, philosophy, pedagogy, marketing strategy and financial support for the program. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 05:00 PM |
| POS3506 | Sustainability in the Curriculum | Red Rocks Community College has made a commitment to the national challenge of creating and sustaining a green workforce. In conjunction with our partners, the National Science Foundation, Colorado School of Mines, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Jefferson County Schools, we have created a two-prong approach to this task. First, we have created degree and certificate programs in Renewable Energy (Solar Photovoltaic, Solar Thermal, and Wind Energy Technology), Energy and Industrial Maintenance, Energy Operations and Process Technology, Environmental Technology, Water Quality Management, and Energy Audit. Secondly, as educators we know that no matter where our students go after they attend college, the issues of Energy, Environmental Stewardship, and Renewable Resources will face them. We realize these issues will affect how productive they can be on the job or at home. Therefore, we have made the commitment to teach these issues across the curriculum. We have developed the GreenApps program to help faculty write and develop projects and lesson plans incorporating sustainability across the curriculum. We are also developing new courses that specifically address these issues, like Physics 107: Energy Science and Technology. | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR3140 | Sustainability Initiatives at Education Corporation of America | As part of our research and preparation for opening our first Ecotech Institute in Aurora—the first and only college entirely focused on preparing students for careers in renewable energy and sustainable design— Education Corporation of America (ECA) took a hard look at our own environmental footprint. We discovered that many of the best business practices we were implementing, such as cutting-edge server virtualization and zero-client computing, turned out to be remarkably “green.” To take sustainability to the next level, ECA has hired a Manager of Environmental Operations and is systematically reviewing every budget item in accordance with the first of our new guiding principles: When making a decision, all things being “equal,” we will choose the more environmentally-responsible option. Toward this goal, ECA is using Ecotech as a sustainability incubator and is applying what we learn at our other campuses as well as at our corporate headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama. ECA owns and operates schools that specialize in preparing students for success in some of the most rapidly growing career fields. In addition to Ecotech, ECA’s other schools include: • Virginia College in fourteen cities • Virginia College online programs, with over 6,000 students worldwide • Golf Academy of America, preparing students for careers in the $76-billion business of golf • Culinard, the Culinary Institute of Virginia College | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 06:10 PM |
| POS3201 | Sustainability Internship Course Best Posters | In a Sustainability Internship course offered at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus, students designed posters telling the story of their experiences interning at non-profits, local government offices, businesses and in campus departments. See the "best of" our poster collection that includes projects such as designing green building projects, planning for large scale campus composting, strategic regional planning for sustainability, scaling up communications about renewable energy and sustainable community economic development in Mulobere, Uganda. During their semester-long internships, students also participated in a weekly classroom-based course that offered preparation for a first professional experience, a space for conversation and reflection among the students, guest speakers on green jobs, natural step and corporate social responsibility, campus sustainability strategic planning and other timely topics. Learn about the logistics of the course, which will be offered each fall and spring semester, and the support and interest of the sustainability practitioners in the Twin Cities community. | Poster | Poster | |||
| POS3274 | Sustainability Internship: Developing a Sustainable Design Document for the University of Minnesota | Sustainability requires collaboration. The University of Minnesota’s Sustainability Studies minor internship promotes collaboration between students and professionals to work together to further sustainable efforts. My specific assignment was with the Capital Planning and Project Management (CPPM) department at the University of Minnesota to create a collaborative link between the academic and operational sides of the University. The department of Capital Planning and Project Management (CPPM) is the University’s direct connection to the architects and engineers who work on University projects. CPPM requires procedures and policies that enforce sustainable design and construction practices, a critical success factor for the U’s building projects. As a student intern, I worked with Nick Deffley of CPPM to develop the Sustainable Design Procedures, Goals and Essential Features section of CPPM’s Construction Standards. For this internship, I did research on sustainable design guidelines and construction standards at other higher education institutions. I then wrote and oversaw the review of the guidelines with CPPM staff. My internship work provided a unique opportunity to have a lasting impact on the University of Minnesota through development of workable set of documents that are integral to construction standards for sustainability to be followed by the University of Minnesota. | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR3069 | Sustainability Leadership –The Ohio State University Sustainability Plan and Process | As interest in organizational impacts on climate takes hold, sustainability must be seen as increasingly comprehensive and not just focused on individual buildings. In the university world, how is the campus impacting greenhouse gases, water and energy? How does it support ecological function? How does the institution best educate future leaders, contribute to new knowledge in sustainability and lead by example? This approach views a university campus as a complex physical framework and operational framework. This Session will summarize the process and eventual outcome of the Sustainability Plan developed for a major University in the United States. And, it will provide insight into what it will take to conduct a similar process elsewhere that will result in a robust and readily implementable Sustainability Plan. The Heapy Engineering, Mithun Architects and Yudelson Associates consulting team worked with The Ohio State University to help set a specific course toward climate neutrality. This effort started with benchmarking peer institutions, identifying Sustainability Best Practices, reviewing University Design Standards, then strategizing with teams of University stakeholders on setting achievable sustainability goals. For each topic area, including Research, Curriculum and Energy/Carbon issues, potential campus-wide goals, standards and strategies were investigated with additional focus on Water, Ecological Function, Food, Materials Flow and Waste Management. This culminated in the development of a comprehensive plan necessary to sustainably operate a campus system that daily serves over 50,000 students and 20,000 staff. This Sustainability Plan also includes a Climate Action Plan written to meet the requirements of the ACUPCC. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 05:40 PM |
| PAP3458 | Sustainability Leadership In Action at the University of Washington | Sustainability leadership at the University of Washington is demonstrated through institutional collaboration, leadership excellence and a long-standing commitment to environmental stewardship. The University of Washington is a charter signatory of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment and submitted a Climate Action Plan in September 2009 that involved an extensive process, managing various stakeholders and environmental interests. What was created was a “plan-to-plan,” addressing the factors of mitigation for carbon emissions related to buildings and transportation, research and curriculum approaches for climate change education, and creating integrated strategies to engage students and faculty, with administration, to solve UW climate issues. The work continues on as the Climate Action Plan Implementation Plan is being submitted in September 2010. Academic and Research - In August 2009, the College of the Environment was inaugurated. The UW, through leadership from the Provost, created a college, the highest level of academic organization with the leadership of a dean. Student Campus Sustainability Fund - University of Washington students recently approved an increase in student activities fees by $339,000 that will finance campus sustainability projects. Husky Green Award – UW launched a recognition program that was inaugurated at this year’s Earth Day 40th Anniversary. UW Facilities Services and the Capital Projects Office follows sustainable practices for energy and resource conservation. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 12:50 PM |
| PAP3258 | Sustainability learning outcomes for an interdisciplinary general education curriculum | Over the past 15 years sustainability has emerged as a prominent theme within Portland State University’s interdisciplinary general education curriculum. For example, a web-based survey of faculty found that 35% of the 400 courses in the upper-division portion of the curriculum addressed some aspect of sustainability and sustainability is an option for students’ first-year seminar course. To date, sustainability has emerged in the general education curriculum on a course-by-course basis driven by faculty interest. However, as the number of sustainability course offerings has increased so has the need to for explicit student learning outcomes in sustainability to maintain the curriculum’s overall coherence. As a first step in developing these outcomes, syllabi were collected from 55 faculty who indicated that their courses addressed sustainability. Of these, 22 contained either explicit sustainability learning outcomes (e.g., Students will apply basic physical laws and biological principles to analysis of resource use.) or implicit sustainability learning outcomes (e.g., To introduce students to feminist perspectives on the causes of and solutions to the problem of global warming.) Perhaps not surprisingly, most of the sustainability learning outcomes addressed increasing student knowledge and developing students’ abilities to explain and describe interconnections among concepts and perspectives. Fewer of the outcomes addressed skills that students might apply to sustainability efforts (e.g., developing and evaluating competing strategies) and only one addressed the affective domain of values and attitudes. Portland State’s ongoing curricular development work will pay attention to these underrepresented domains. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 03:10 PM |
| PAP3861 | Sustainability planning within broader university planning - collaboration around collective goals | Vancouver Island University (VIU) is located on Canada’s West Coast and includes campuses in four communities as well as other research and teaching sites. Previously called Malaspina University-College, the BC Government introduced new provincial legislation in 2008 to establish Vancouver Island University as a special purpose, teaching university. This new designation means increased access to undergraduate and graduate level university degree programs to complement existing undergraduate, vocational, trades and developmental programs. The transition from University-College to University has many facets, including most recently, initiation of the VIU’s first comprehensive, integrated strategic plan. The strategic planning process involves staff and faculty at the university doing detailed planning over a full year, in committees including: campus development, academic, enrollment, IT/IS, regional engagement, and others; resulting in a complete VIU University Plan. In 2010, VIU created a new Sustainability Office, as part of an increased university commitment to sustainability. The Sustainability Office is responsible for operational improvements to reduce the university’s footprint, as well as comprehensive strategic planning towards long term successful sustainability outcomes for VIU. This presentation will discuss how these two initiatives are being aligned. How will an emerging commitment to sustainability at VIU inform the broader integrated planning process? How will multiple committees involved in developing new University vision and objectives integrate sustainability within and across their committees. How iterative and collaborative must the two processes be to ensure a VIU University Plan that includes sustainability as a strategic driver? | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 112 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3531 | Sustainability Programs in Higher Education: Finding the Common Ground | Within the past decade, sustainability has gained immense popularity within the higher education realm. From pledging to reach carbon neutrality, to participating in a national recycling competition, colleges and universities have used sustainability as a tool to reduce their carbon footprint and to also become recognized leaders in mitigating climate change. To accomplish this vision, schools have signed up for various commitments including Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment, & Rating System (STARS), American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES), and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Recognizing the similarities between these four distinct programs and the ways in which they can complement each other, can help universities more effectively realize their sustainability goals. This paper will demonstrate the overlaps between the four programs and identify credits that make each initiative unique. Furthermore, case studies of American University and New York University will be used to illustrate the ways in which these schools have used the various commitments to advance towards their sustainability goals. Documenting for the various programs may be overwhelming; however, this paper will provide guidelines to assist sustainability officers to efficiently submit information and implement strategies to reach each institution’s greening visions and commitments. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 03:50 PM |
| PAP3333 | Sustainability Standards for International Education | International Education exposes students to the world. It also exposes the world to the environmental, economic, and social impacts of travel and program activities. With over a quarter-million U.S. students currently studying abroad each year, international education is increasingly becoming a key player both in terms of its global environmental and social impacts and its potential to create positive change. This paper will present an overview of sustainability initiatives in the field of international education and detail new standards of good practice for program design and management, student learning, staff training, office management, and promotion. These standards are being incorporated into The Standards of Good Practice and Code of Ethics documents developed by The Forum on Education Abroad and offer support and guidance for international educators to measure and reduce global environmental and social impacts and become key agents for positive change. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3327 | Sustainability Studies: an Entrepreneurial Approach | With budgets tight and competition stiff for new initiatives, it is challenging to move Sustainability Studies forward as a curriculum option. At University of Vermont, we are working on several fronts to push against these barriers. First, we have introduced Sustainability Studies as a concentration within Environmental Studies, with options to choose from among several dozen courses across college units to build a specific focus within the field. We are supporting non-binding Continuing Education course initiatives in sustainability-related fields such as transportation, energy, waste policy, etc. by partnering with faculty and staff professionals on a per class basis. Second, the Office of Sustainability, the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Environmental Program are offering a year-long Sustainability Faculty Fellows Program with faculty incentives and training in infusing sustainability across the disciplines. We are leveraging this opportunity in Environmental Studies to pro-actively develop appropriate courses for Sustainability Studies in a range of departments across campus. Third, the Student Government Association has passed a well crafted resolution in favor of a Sustainability Studies general education requirement and has presented it to the Faculty Fellows as well as the Provost’s office General Education Committee. This aligns with current interest in a “Health and Environment” requirement, though term definition is standing in the way of implementation. Our entrepreneurial approach engages multiple partners to create new curriculum options without hiring additional tenure track faculty or asking for significant funding. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 09:50 AM |
| PAP3244 | Sustainability Teaching and Learning at the University of British Columbia | The University of British Columbia recently established the UBC Sustainability Initiative (USI), an innovative strategic management group that unites and promotes sustainability efforts across UBC’s Vancouver campus. The USI is a direct outcome of UBC’s Sustainability Academic Strategy (a mid-level UBC strategic plan) and it consists of three offices that work together in a highly collaborative and integrated way: Teaching and Learning, Research and Partnerships, and Campus Sustainability. The mandate of the Sustainability Teaching and Learning Office (STLO) is to coordinate, support and enhance undergraduate and graduate sustainability education at UBC. This presentation will review the policies, plans and actions that led to the creation of the STLO in June 2010, and will detail the office’s priorities for its inaugural year. The STLO will work with UBC’s Sustainability Teaching and Learning Fellows (a new program for faculty launched in September 2010) to develop new courses, create pathways for undergraduate students in any discipline to study sustainability, and collectively define a strategic vision for sustainability education at UBC. The STLO is also responsible for maintaining up-to-date sustainability education resources for students online, which include a comprehensive list of over 350 sustainability-related and sustainability-focused courses offered from a host of disciplines across campus (see: www.sustain.ubc.ca/teaching-learning). | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 02:50 PM |
| POS10038 | Sustainability through a Holistic Approach to Student Wellbeing | The Wellbeing program at Washington State University (WSU) views student health using a holistic model. One of the eight dimensions in that model used to illustrate individual and community wellbeing is environmental. As all eight dimensions rely and relate to each other, the program has found a way to support and implement sustainability messages and initiatives on campus with several entities. Wellbeing has successfully collaborated with groups such as University Recreation, Student Union, Center for Civic Engagement, Residence Life, Financial Aid, Student Government, and the Counseling & Testing Center to enhance programs through staff expertise, increase financial resources and to extend the reach of educational campaigns. Using this holistic and collaborative approach to environmental health education has helped the program achieve success on several levels. Created strong relationships with collaborators- making future collaboration more likely; Each campaign/ initiative meets the needs/mission of each participating department- everyone wins; Resources are distributed between departments- everyone brings something to the table; More students are reached as each department serves a different population of students- broadening our access; Messages and education related to sustainability is in every initiative as either the main purpose or as a secondary theme. The workshop will highlight initiatives including the WSU Green Bike program, Eco Adventures and the Set the Trend campaign to demonstrate this model. Groups will discuss how to establish effective collaborations across their campus using this model and will leave with program development strategies and evaluation methods. | Poster | ONE HOUR FIFTEEN | |||
| FR3249 | Sustainability, Actions & Economiocs: Student Engagement-Green Roof Project | The University combined design standards with its commitment to sustainability at Cleveland State University’s LEED certified Recreation Center. The Center was initially designed with a rooftop garden; however, the garden was unable to be installed because of budgetary constraints. Led by two environmental science students under CSU’s Student Environmental Movement (SEM), and supported by the University, the green rooftop garden project was revitalized and converted to a student led project which led to the raising of $250 thousand for the installation of a 7,000 sq. ft. green roof on the east roof of the Recreation Center. The garden was completed in 2009. Results & Impact of Green Roof Project. 1) Decrease speed and increase filtering of storm water runoff 2)Increased valuable habitat in Cleveland's urban environment 3)Pollutant removal from air and water 4) Increased energy efficiency | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 09:50 AM |
| FR3275 | Sustainability, Facebook, and Free Food: The Importance of Student-led Initiatives | The first time my residents met me, I was elbow-deep in a recycling bin. Their recycling bin. It was an experience I’ll never forget as an SMU E-rep. The five of us served as student representatives who connected the efforts of SMU’s sustainability committee the students themselves. Dividing up all of the residence halls, we each became the student representative of a particular community, educating our residents about the environmental theme of the month through poster campaigns and actual hands-on programming. And it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. With their busy schedules and varied interests, students can be hard to motivate at times. We know better than anyone how they spend hours in the classroom, in the library, or at work, and shoving more knowledge down their throats can be a daunting task, even if it is about the importance of recycling. That’s where being a student comes in handy. This past year, we found that we as students had the advantage because we lived in the same residence halls; we could answer our residents’ questions via email or Facebook, post blogs, and make posters. We knew they wanted to know, what would interest them, and even what kind of free food they wanted! The experiences of the E-reps at SMU provide another example of how student-led initiatives can form the backbone of a university’s sustainability efforts. They not only help encourage student leadership, they encourage student involvement, and they create a campus-wide partnership to engage in sustainable efforts. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 12:40 PM |
| CSW3812 | Sustainability-Based Integrated Planning: Indicators & Alignment of Values, Principles, & Practices | S-BIP is a holistic, systems thinking approach to the alignment and application of sustainability-based values, principles, and practices with that of integrated planning (IP - as advanced by the Society for College and University Planning -SCUP) and the AASHE STARS framework. IP is in simple terms, the sequential, yet strategic alignment of institutional mission, vision, and values, with that of learning objectives, academic programs, curricular and co-curricular activities, and assessment, with that of campus planning, facility design, and operational systems, with that of adminstrative processes, budgetary decisions, and financial advancement. AASHE STARS is a comprehensive set of triple bottom line indicators for sustainabilty-based performance. This session is for individuals and campuses seeking an adaptable model of best design and management practices for comprehensive greening of the institution in an ecologic, social, and financially responsible manner. Through a highly interactive session, participants will leave with detailed frameworks, and concrete ideas for application to their home campuses. Participants should bring their campus mission, vision, and values statements to the session for maximum benefit. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Tues | 205 | 03:50 PM |
| POS10023 | Sustainability: A Catalyst for Individual and Institutional Transformation | Any institution or individual deeply committed to Sustainability discovers that it isn’t just another program or initiative; it becomes a journey and a way of life that inspires people to: • Become more mindful of their choices • Cultivate a deeper experience of connection to each other and the environment • Bring out the best in themselves and the people around them • Learn about concrete actions they can take that will make a positive difference • Transcend the human quest for convenience to focus on serving the Greater Good • Rise above the need for instant gratification and live in a way that honors future generations This interactive session will focus on understanding and maximizing the Psychology of Sustainability and offer best practices and lessons learned while engaging faculty, staff and students in a collaborative cross-campus process. The “Power of One” campaign emphasizes that each and every person can make a difference. An actively engaged Sustainability Awareness Committee (SAC) representing 23 departments aligns individual passion with organizational mission and empowers Sub-committees to make recommendations and implement changes regarding: Public Awareness, Energy Reduction, Purchasing, Personal computing, IT, Sustainable Labs, Recycling, Transportation and Dining Services. Participants will learn how to move beyond awareness campaigns that merely inform people, to creating experiences and messages that inspire people to make responsible choices and meaningful behavioral changes. | Poster | Poster | |||
| POS3152 | Sustainability’s Petri-Dish: Community Colleges as Incubators for the Sustainability Curricula | The advancement of sustainability curricula at the community college is obviously important due to the diverse and large student population that these institutions serve. In addition, community colleges provide a dynamic laboratory for experimenting with different mechanisms that can be used to integrate sustainability into curricula and transform higher education. North Seattle Community College has been at the forefront of this effort in Washington state. As part of a faculty learning community project with Evergreen State College’s Curriculum for the Bioregion sustainability initiative, we infused sustainability concepts into disciplinary science-major courses (biology and chemistry) at two levels: (1) a research-based class activity on Ocean Acidification designed for incorporation into general chemistry (2) a research project on Climate Change and Campus Wetlands that was the focal point of a “linked course” (general chemistry and biology). The second activity is currently included as the environmental science quarter of a new year-long quarter sequence focused more holistically on the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. We describe these activities, and the pros and cons of these two different mechanisms for integrating sustainability into curricula. We attribute the success of these projects to highly motivated faculty, key partnerships, administrative support and especially to the flexible, adaptive and responsive nature of the community college. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3833 | Sustainable Building Energy Systems: Independent Evaluation for Improved Decision-Making | Southern Research Institute – an affiliate of UAB – operates the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Technology Center for the U.S. EPA. The GHG Center evaluates technologies that provide improved energy efficiency, GHG emission reductions, and economic savings in building applications. The GHG Center’s independent, rigorous evaluation, in collaboration with the U.S. EPA and other stakeholders, allows end-users to make informed implementation decisions. The GHG Center has evaluated: combined heat and power (CHP) – fuel cells, microturbines, and engines; geothermal water heating; and solar thermal cooling. The Center has evaluated eleven combined heat and power technologies located at commercial and institutional facilities. By achieving potential system efficiencies of up to 70-90%, CHP systems provide significant GHG emission and energy cost reductions. When compared to standard systems, installation of the verified technologies has resulted in nationwide CO2 emission reductions of over 53,000 tons/yr. The GHG Center has also evaluated the EarthLinked Geothermal Water Heating system - designed for hot water heating applications of 2,000 gallons per day or more. A verified reduction in electricity consumption compared to standard electric hot water heating systems of 75 +/- 6% was documented. This translates into major operating cost and emissions savings, offsetting over 21,000 lbs/yr CO2 for a 3-ton system. The increased utilization of such technologies could have a significant impact on GHG emissions with a positive economic return for campuses and their residential, food service, pool, laundry and healthcare facilities. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 101 | 02:50 PM |
| PAP3012 | Sustainable Collaborations: A Model for Interdisciplinary Team-Teaching of Sustainability Curriculum | This qualitative study examines the experiences of higher education faculty participating in an interdisciplinary team-taught sustainability curriculum program. Warren Wilson College, a small, private, liberal arts college was awarded a grant from a national foundation to develop, implement, and evaluate environmental curriculum that might teach sustainable development competencies. Limited empirical research and findings on team-teaching, interdisciplinary collaborations, and faculty development leave questions for educators about the most effective means to implement innovative options for education of sustainability competencies. This study is based on assumptions that the educational process itself, that is, the pedagogy of sustainability concepts, must also be sustained by its participants. The purpose of this study is to generate theory, grounded in the data, about the faculty development process and/or conditions necessary for sustained faculty collaborations to offer interdisciplinary team-taught sustainability curriculum. Through a process of grounded analysis involving thematic coding, constant comparison, and data saturation, primary themes will be constructed into a model for faculty development that may serve as a means for sustainable, renewable, and ongoing faculty participation in an interdisciplinary team-taught sustainability curriculum program. Data collection for the study is on-going from 2008-2011, and the study is in the early stages of data analysis. Lessons from the piloted curriculum will be shared with session participants. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 09:50 AM |
| PAP2180 | Sustainable Communities through partnership of private, public, and Academic Institutions | World Commission on Environment and Development defined sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Many communities are finding that conventional approaches to economic development, transportation planning and development of the built environment are creating a variety of environmental issues like congestion, sprawl, air pollution, overflowing landfills, resource stress and other environmental and social problems. If we continue with the same approaches that created these problems, we will further degrade of our own quality of life and have increasingly insurmountable environmental problems for future generations. Communities are now demonstrating that it is indeed possible to have a balance of economic development and sustainable development. The population of Texas is projected to nearly double by 2050. Acommodating this population growth will require North Texans to collectively address many important issues. Vision North Texas -a private-public partnership, headed by Charter Sponsors the Urban Land Institute, the North Central Texas Council of Governments, and the University of Texas at Arlington, is making an important contribution to the future quality of life, economic desirability and long-term sustainability of the 16-county North Central Texas region. It is increasing public awareness about important regional land use issues that affect mobility, air quality, water supply and other resources. In addition, it is serving as a forum for discussion, education, research and decision about public and private sector actions to address these concerns. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 01:10 PM |
| POS10043 | Sustainable E-Waste Education and Research | This presentation provides a review of two recent electronic waste (e-waste) education and research initiatives as part of a Sustainable Electronics Initiative at the University of Illinois Sustainable Technology Center: A newly created class challenges students and faculty researchers to learn more about the growing problem of electronic waste. Students work in multi-disciplinary teams to create innovative new uses for e-waste, essentially turning e-waste into e-opportunity. Winning student designs submitted to the International E-Waste Design Competition (www.ewaste.illinois.edu/www.sustainillinois.edu) will be shown. A newly created Design for Energy and Environment Laboratory (DEE) Lab will also be discussed.. DEE lab offers teams of students from the sciences (engineering), design, business and other disciplines the opportunity to work under the guidance of research faculty on sustainable product development problems for industry. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAN3129 | Sustainable Engineering and Community Development | Sustainability is clearly coming to the fore of undergraduate education in the United States and abroad. In higher education and in the broader discourse, however, engineers and engineering often seem absent from the discussion, except perhaps as advocates of particular technologies, or (worse) when disasters occur. In reality, however, engineers are—in substantial numbers—involving themselves with communities wanting to develop sustainable technologies and economies. Significant environmental challenges, from the gulf oil spill to climate change to the development of alternative technologies, will require engineers’ involvement as solutions move forward. How are engineers involved in such conversations? In what ways can engineers be more involved not just in technological development and problem-solving but also in working alongside local people to define their own problems and with communities to find appropriate solutions? What curricular initiatives exist to prepare engineers to meet these challenges? This panel addresses the ways in which engineering is central to sustainability, and how engineers are becoming more involved in sustainable community development. The first presentation (Nakagawa) focuses on a mining engineer’s involvement in a community development project in Southern Colorado related to geothermal energy; another presentation (Munoz) focuses on a humanitarian engineering project in Honduras; and the final presentation (Schneider) discusses best practices and guidelines from the recent book Engineering and Sustainable Community Development for engineers interested in sustainable community development. | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 106 | 12:30 PM |
| PAP10041 | Sustainable Graduates – Achieving Global Learning Outcomes Through Innovative Curricular Design | In spite of challenges that many are facing with integrating sustainability into curricula, Northern Arizona University (NAU) has tackled this on an even larger scale by purposefully infusing environmental sustainability, global engagement and diversity education into the degree program of every undergraduate major. With NAU’s 23,000 students and a heavy emphasis on research, reaching consensus to establish these outcomes for every student has required a remarkable campus-wide commitment. That commitment involved shifts in knowledge, dispositions, attitudes and behaviors. To do so, NAU is continuing to use a Positive Deviance approach to help departments interact across disciplines and discover unexpected successes that may be hidden in plain sight. Instead of making curriculum changes in a piecemeal way, one course or academic discipline at a time, this approach fosters the strategic integration of the global learning outcomes into the curricula of NAU’s ninety-six undergraduate majors. This interactive session will explore NAU’s innovative approach and examples of implementation challenges and successes. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 10:30 AM |
| PAP3264 | Sustainable Scientists: Integrating Lab Users into Sustainable Laboratory Solutions | Research laboratories are typically the most energy-intensive spaces on university campuses. While energy usage is largely driven by ventilation needs, plug loads and user behavior are significant factors. Barriers to energy conservation in the latter areas include the absence of readily available efficiency data when purchasing laboratory equipment, the inconvenience of performing energy-saving preventative maintenance on appliances, and a lack of awareness among researchers. We initiated a unique program designed to address these challenges in the University of Notre Dame’s College of Science in Summer 2010, drawing on existing laboratory efficiency programs at Harvard and UC Santa Barbara as well as the expertise of Labs21. Our four-step assessment process includes collecting data on lab practices and equipment, metering selected appliances for multi-day periods, conducting energy-saving maintenance procedures, and presenting recommendations to the lab members in order to improve ongoing practices. We are utilizing metering data both to develop purchasing guidelines and to track the conservation impact of preventative maintenance procedures, two areas where quantitative analysis is scarce. This presentation will describe the collaborative process of developing and promoting the program, lessons learned from implementing it, and the results of our metering experiments. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 10:10 AM |
| PAP3417 | Sustainable Transportation at Stanford University: The Role of TDM | Stanford has achieved various transportation related sustainability milestones in 2010 through its Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Program. This year, the university estimates an employee drive alone rate of 48%, dropped from 72 percent in 2002. Additionally, the university has achieved up to an 18 percent reduction in peak hour commute traffic, a 14 percent reduction in the number of commuter parking permits sold, and a 120 percent increase in the number of commuters committing not to drive alone to work. All efforts have contributed to a reduction of the university’s auto-commute related emissions down to 1990 levels. This presentation provides an overview of the comprehensive Stanford University TDM program that led to these achievements. The program is an example of how a university, or other employer, can offer internal and external programs to create a wide variety of alternative transportation options and associated incentives to its commuting population that can have a significant impact on commute mode splits and the organization’s carbon footprint. The overview will include the various aspects of the university’s TDM program, covering program elements that encourage the use of alternative transportation, marketing efforts, increased land use opportunities through reduced parking demand, and metrics upon which program success is measured. The presentation will cover TDM’s role in the compliance with California’s emission reduction requirements, with an overview of Stanford’s initial efforts to quantify carbon emissions from air travel. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 12:30 PM |
| PAP10033 | Sustainable Transportation Planning at an Urban University | As an urban campus, Portland State University is ideally situated to take advantage of Portland's mass transit infrastructure. Additionally, the popularity of biking and the high cost of parking have allowed the university to successfully encourage students and employees to use modes of transportation other than driving alone. Over the last ten years, the percentage of trips made to PSU by students and employees in single occupancy vehicles (SOV) has decreased from 45% to 25%, while trips made by bike has increased from 3% to 10%. Strong partnerships with public agencies, parking pricing strategies and development of bicycle repair and parking facilities were some of the ways that these changes in commute behavior were achieved. The university now plans to meet the aggressive goals called out in the university's recently completed Climate Action Plan and Campus Framework Plan. These plans call for the demolition of parking structures, decreases in SOV trips to 15%, increases in trips made by bike to 20% and having a quarter of the student population living on campus, all by 2030. Ongoing analysis and evaluation of university efforts to meet the goals of PSU's long range plans will be done to ensure that they are met. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 01:30 PM |
| FR3517 | Sustainable Transportation: Solving Infrastructure Challenges and Achieving Emission Goals | One of the most powerful campus initiatives to catalyze a just and sustainable world relates to how people get around on a daily basis. The transportation infrastructure at many of our campuses is overloaded and costly. While incentivizing students, staff and faculty to “get out of their cars” is challenging, building new parking garages doesn’t seem like a sustainable path either. At the University of California, San Diego, a Green Initiative Fund project is under way to address this problem by improving the campus’ sustainable transportation options. Some innovative students in conjunction with a Silicon Valley Start-Up called Gettaround have developed a concept called person-to-person car sharing. By taking advantage of the existing cars on campus a much broader and visible car sharing program has been enabled at no monthly cost to the school. This presentation will include implementation strategies and initial metrics. Not only have students and faculty rallied around this concept, new sustainability leaders have arisen on campus and the results are impressive The statistics on car sharing show that when individuals switch to car sharing they reduce their vehicle miles traveled (VMTs) by 44% and their greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by 40%. Imagine what the long term impact will be! | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 03:10 PM |
| FR3838 | SustainaUnity: Campus Collaboration with Sustainability | In 2008, University Unity Project was started by Student Council to bring the University of Virginia together. Each year the student body voted on a theme around which to unite, with last year’s theme being “Environmental Sensitivity and Sustainability”. As a co-chair of the project for last year, I would like to share my experience of collaborating with people from all corners of the University. Process: My co-chair and myself began by talking to as many people as possible and established relationships with leaders in faculty, administration, and the student body. Over ten hours a week were spent with different people collecting honing and revising what we wanted to accomplish. Early on we abandoned ambitious ideas for large, technical improvements and decided that we could have a much bigger impact focusing on education and engagement by trying to connect people’s existing passions with sustainability. We did this by organizing and promoting over 40 activities and events for Earth Week 2010 through various organizations. Results: We found the week to be a success although certain events did not see the attendance that we had hoped for. The spread of events was overwhelming for some and the fact that those who wanted to go to multiple events could only sacrifice a limited amount of time from school in a week. We also found that simply offering an event that combines people’s interests isn’t enough…engaging people’s passions with sustainability across such a diverse university was much more complex than we had anticipated. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 110 | 01:10 PM |
| POS10042 | Sustained! Keeping student environmental organizations running | In a dynamic and transient campus environment, leadership changes and long-term plans often get lost in the tussle of action and planning. To enact lasting change on a college campus, campus organizations need to keep leadership development and transition at the forefront of their operations. Now in its sixth year of existence, the University of Missouri’s campus environmental organization, Sustain Mizzou, continues to grow while maintaining a stable organizational structure. This presentation, using Sustain Mizzou as a model, will address member recruitment and retention, leadership development, and effective relationships with campus administration. Keeping institutional knowledge within a group and seamlessly transitioning leaders will provide a foundation for the future of your group. By nurturing leadership potential among new members and providing them with opportunities for responsibility, an organizations will be in a better position to outlast any individual leader. Changing campus culture requires an evolutionary approach. To influence environmental policies, student leaders need to cooperate with the student body and the administration. We will share how our relationships work at the University of Missouri, and we will address our new place in campus environmentalism after the implementation of a sustainability office. We hope that other campuses will be able to utilize these principles to better their efforts in the environmental movement. | Poster | Poster | |||
| POS10009 | Sustaining Sustainability: Paradigms for Motivation and Collaboration | Sustainability cannot exist outside of the context of the community or society engaging with its pursuit. It is a value, just like equity, liberty, or efficiency, that requires groups efforts and projects to enact in the actual world. If a community seeks to pursue sustainability, it needs to present a message about the nature of the value sustainability holds in order to unite its members and motivate them to act. The messages stem from how the community understands sustainability and how it approaches the topic. A paradigm of sustainability is the inception of any action in its pursuit. How do the paradigms through which we present a message of sustainability effect projects and efforts based on that message? What paradigms can we develop to maximize success and appreciation? | Poster | Poster | |||
| POS10017 | Sustenance and Sustainability in the Dining Program | Dining Services within small institutions play an important role in overall community health. They provide physical nourishment as well as an educational gathering place where learning continues outside of the classroom. Students, Staff and Faculty all have very personal opinions and thoughts when it comes to not only what they eat, but how and where they eat and the impact of these decisions on their life and the lives of others. In this dialogue and discussion session, we explore the challenges of gathering input from the campus community regarding dining and sustainability and how to make the best decisions when choosing which ideas to implement. We will explain the journey Marymount University traveled the last few years in making a more sustainable dining program and give attendees a short case study to discuss based on the challenges we have encountered. At the end of the session all participants will leave with ideas from different institutions on how to support a healthy change in dining services for the greater good of a more sustainable program. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3760 | Synergy between students, academia and industry: Prospects for curriculum enhancement | In the 2010 Worldwatch Institute Report, David Orr asks the question, ―What kind of education will enable the rising generation to deal with increasingly complex and portentous global issues?(p. 76). The curriculum needs fundamental change that prepares students to understand sustainability and interdependence of life (Orr, 2010). This paper reports a qualitative study that focused on ecological or sustainability literacy and curriculum direction from multiple stake holders: students (the learner), academia (the learned), and industry professionals (the practitioner) from diverse institutional backgrounds. The data was collected through focus group interviews and individual interviews. The participants of the research included students from two mid-western campuses, academic experts from six university campuses from east coast to west coast, and industry experts involved in sustainability consulting, sustainable product and production companies, and non-profit sustainability-related organizations. The three groups and diversity within the groups offer multiple perspectives that complement each other to create a holistic perspective. This paradigm provided a synergistic outcome that can be applied to any course or program to create enhanced multi-dimensional curriculum content and a pedagogy that ensures effective learning for this generation. Findings of the study identify appropriate content, effective pedagogy, and place an emphasis on life-long learning. These elements are essential to prepare students to understand sustainability and make decisions for a sustainable world. This paradigm aims to provide a structure to make the fundamental change in the curriculum that Orr (2010) is seeking. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 12:50 PM |
| PAP3144 | Tackling Barriers for LEED EBOM in Unique University Buildings | Colorado State University has a long history of leadership in environmental stewardship. A grant from the Governor’s Energy Office provided the perfect opportunity for CSU to extend that leadership into the area of sustainable building operations and maintenance. Much focus has been put on LEED certification for new construction on university campuses, but we must also find better ways to maintain and operate existing buildings. Barriers that keep colleges and universities from doing this include lack of experience, time and money. The existing expertise in Facilities Management and the Institute for the Built Environment (IBE) at CSU worked together to identify opportunities and barriers to LEED EBOM implementation for five unique building types on campus. In addition to studying how to implement sustainable operation and maintenance in various university buildings, this presentation will explain how the university was able to keep the overall project budget low by using in-house expertise to complete the project. Student interns at IBE and Facilities Management gained valuable educational experience by working on the project, as well as educational benefits to CSU faculty and staff involved in the project. Although this project will still be in progress at the time of presentation, we will show educational, financial and cultural benefits that other universities and colleges could replicate. This presentation will explain how these two departments, with the involvement of students, created a project to display how modifying building occupant behavior in various buildings could improve utility savings. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 104 | 04:10 PM |
| PAP10013 | Tales from Year One: Launching a Sustainability Office in Lean Times | In July of 2009, Appalachian State University created the Office of Sustainability on recommendation from the University’s Sustainability Council and with broad support from the campus community. In establishing this office, the University reconfirmed its commitment to being a leader in campus sustainability. These new commitments have ushered in a renewed sustainable era and have come at a time of significant financial challenges to the University system and the community. This presentation will focus on the formation, and the 1st-year activities, of our Office of Sustainability. What went well? What went not-so-well? See how our focus took a dramatic shift as we began to engage our community. Learn that the strategic and institutional activities that highlight the 1st year are not necessarily capital intensive. In this presentation, we will share specifics of our 1st year experience including our wide ranging instructional commitments, an overview of our Sustainability “budget”, strategies to gain the trust and access to high-level decision makers, development of a sustainability marketing campaign, formation and reformation of a broad-based Sustainability Council, and creation of University-wide sustainability Mission/Vision/Values statements. Finally, hear about the plateau that we are witnessing one year into our Sustainability evolution, and hear our plans to continue our progress even as the financial crisis lingers. A key to these strategies is discovering and enabling resources that we believe to be inexpensive, motivated, productive and widely distributed. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 104 | 05:40 PM |
| POS3115 | Tapping into Sustainability | Think Outside the Bottle is a campaign working to promote, protect and ensure public funding for our public water systems. We’re working with tens of thousands of public officials, faith groups, restaurants, celebrities, campuses, and individuals to support public systems by option for tap over bottled water. The campaign has shifted the misleading marketing practices of some of the largest transnational corporations in the world, and has worked with over 100 cities and 3 states to end government spending on bottled water. Learning Objectives will be: 1.To educate students and administrators about the social and environmental impacts of bottled water. 2.To explore different organizing strategies for building support for public water systems on campuses and in communities. 3.Breakout sessions will include skills trainings on: a.Petitioning b.Awareness event planning c.Movie screenings d.Administrative Actions e.Bottled Water Spending Audits | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR3501 | Teaching and Learning about Sustainability in Jamaica | Eastern Connecticut State University has been offering a degree-completion program for Jamaican teachers for several years. Recently, we have begun to explore using our connections with these Jamaican teachers to develop sustainable energy education opportunities to benefit US students as well as Jamaican students and teachers. During Spring Break 2010, two Eastern teachers brought ten Eastern students to Jamaica to study sustainability issues and to complete a “hands-on” service-learning project. The project included the installation of small wind turbine that supplies renewable energy to a high school in an underserved coastal area. As we review the effectiveness of this initial project we are considering how to shape a long-term program that will maximize the educational and practical benefits for all participants. Currently, we are planning to develop a sustainable education workshop for Jamaican students; Eastern students will develop and offer this workshop in Jamaica. The workshop will include an energy audit of the local school, a survey of Jamaican sustainability options, and the installation of a low-cost solar-powered data-logger to collect environmental data. The environmental data gathered by the data-loggers will be posted online and will serve both an educational role and a mechanism for building a long-term relationship among the participating institutions. We are seeking to involve the Jamaican government, businesses, and universities in this program. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 12:10 PM |
| PAP3354 | Teaching campus sustainability after sustainability has lost its buzz | We began teaching Campus Sustainability at the University of Wyoming in 2005 when the campus sustainability movement was taking off. Students were highly motivated about sustainability and the class and were enthusiastic in discussing and reflecting on the readings, field trips and guest speakers provided by the instructors. Half of the course was devoted to individual or team sustainability projects, with the instructors providing contacts, feedback and advice. Most of the teams went well beyond the requirements for this project and successfully completed substantive projects, including a bike library and the creation of an official Campus Sustainability Committee, both of which are still functioning. Since that original course, sustainability has lost some of its luster for the students; in our most recent course, students complained they were “sick of hearing about sustainability.” Recent students also seem to have less inherent motivation for their projects. In the summer of 2010, the instructors took part in a course redesign workshop series to address the new situational factors. We revisited our learning goals, making them more specific and adding emphasis to foundational knowledge of sustainability concepts. Using the model of L. Dee Fink for “Significant Learning,” we worked to better integrate the learning goals with learning activities and forward-looking assessments. We will share how we reinvigorated the syllabus to focus on core concepts and in- and out-of-class activities to encourage students to wrestle with concepts in sustainability and succeed in this project-based course. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 01:30 PM |
| FR3780 | Teaching Campus Sustainability: A Service Learning Class Focused On AASHE STARS | Sustainability directors are charged with educating the university population and helping the institution make real progress toward sustainability goals. Teaching a service-learning class is a feasible way for campus sustainability professionals to accomplish these dual responsibilities in tandem. This case study describes the evolution and recent projects of the University of Vermont’s Campus Sustainability Course, which has successfully met the triple goals of teaching second and third year undergraduate students valuable skills and knowledge, tracking the institution’s sustainability performance, and bringing informed student stakeholders together with campus officials to discuss priorities. The Campus Sustainability class has been offered through the Environmental Program and taught by affiliates of the Office of Sustainability (OoS) since its inception in 2006. For the past three years it has been officially recognized as a service-learning course by the UVM Office of Community-University Partnerships for Service-Learning. This study highlights the spring 2010 course, in which 24 students gathered campus-related data for the Operations section of AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS), and presented results to related campus officials, with positive results for advancing sustainability initiatives and an enthusiastic response by students. The presentation will include an overview of the class, student feedback on the experience, lessons learned, and a reflection by the course instructor on how this model can be applied in other higher education settings. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 01:20 PM |
| PAP3476 | Teaching Climate Change Across the Disciplines | Global climate change has far reaching implications for the environment, social justice, and economic wellbeing, now and in the future. Effective teaching that enables students to think critically about climate change causes and consequences, apply their knowledge to assess solutions, and contribute to public discourses and decision-making requires that teachers be able to make extensive and deep connections across disciplinary knowledge areas that span the sciences, social sciences and humanities. While many college faculty members have competency for teaching about aspects of climate change that are closely related to their area of disciplinary expertise, few are comfortable teaching the broader connections that are necessary for their students to attain a holistic understanding. Dickinson College, with support of a Global Climate Change Education grant from NASA, organized and hosted two faculty development workshops in the summer of 2010 for faculty members at 4- and 2-year colleges in the mid-Atlantic region. The approaches to faculty development used in the workshops and evaluation of lessons learned will be presented. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 02:10 PM |
| POS3206 | Teaching Skills for Sustainable Development, Countering Assumptions | An eight-week pilot was conducted in an apparel and textiles (AT) course in which three skills considered paramount to education for sustainable development (ESD) (collaboration/cooperation, communication, and conflict resolution) were emphasized. Forty-six students worked in groups of 3-4 to create a final project. Students received lesson plans related to ESD skills in concert with course-specific content. At the end of the eight weeks, students were required to submit a reflective assignment about their group experience and the ways in which they had applied the skills. The overarching research question guiding this qualitative inquiry was: What are the barriers to the integration of skills for ESD in AT courses? Reflections were analyzed for common themes and concept mapping was used to diagnose group functioning. Findings reveal that students perceive good collaboration as surviving the assignment, rather than a journey in learning. The journey is of little worth. Further, successful conflict resolution is perceived as the absence of conflict, denoted by 100% agreement and the expeditious resolution of minor conflicts. This indicates the need to emphasize the process of collaboration, specifically offering opportunities to hone key communication and conflict resolution skills such as expression and dialogue. Correspondingly, the concept mapping analysis revealed engagement as the chief indicator of high functioning groups, found only in a minority of groups. This reinforces the aforementioned findings as well as implies the need for course designs that include mechanisms requiring and fostering engagement. Findings from the study were used to revise the course design. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3075 | Teaching Sustainability 101: Learning and the Models of Teaching | Just what is our responsibility to our students, the larger society, and the health of the planet? As faculty, we are hired to be experts. As teachers, we are presenters, facilitators, evaluators, advisors, and more. As citizens, we have additional responsibilities. In the classroom, all these roles often combine in a complex set of dynamic challenges yet instructors often lack exposure to the repertoire of approaches that they need. Other questions also arise: Do our courses represent conventional thinking about particular subject matter or do we push for much deeper understanding, different ways of looking at the world? Along with mastery of core knowledge, should we also be teaching students how to learn and solve problems, especially those complex and often conflicted issues that are associated with sustainability and social justice (Timpson et al., 2009; Timpson et al., 2006)? The models of teaching represent a range of classroom approaches that provide instructors with a diverse repertoire of proven practices to address these kinds of questions and complex issues (Timpson & Doe, 2008). During Fall semester 2009, a case study approach served as a framework for a graduate course that asked students to address some aspect of sustainability in their content areas through the lens of fourteen different “models,” e.g., approaches that embodied mastery or discovery, that focused on cooperative learning, simulations or experiential learning. Many of these case studies have now been compiled into a volume that will soon be made available for downloading through Atwood Publishing. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 12:50 PM |
| DD3870 | Teaching Sustainability at the Graduate Level | The M.A. in Sustainable Communities program at Northern Arizona University, one of the earliest graduate programs in the country organized around the theme of sustainability, is an interdisciplinary, issue-focused, activist-oriented graduate program with over a hundred graduates. In the more than a dozen years since the program began, we’ve learned a lot about what it means to “teach sustainability.” And we’ve learned that doing so takes us into uncharted territory where we are the ones drawing the maps. Among our findings is that both a strong theoretical component and a strong activist component are necessary. In this session, we’ll share some of our most salient lessons and open the conversation to an exchange of ideas. | Dialogue and Discussion | 100 min | Mon | 105 | 05:00 PM |
| PAP3641 | Teaching Sustainability: Effects on Teacher Candidates, Urban Students, & Cooperating Teachers | Teaching Sustainability: Effects on Teacher Candidates, Urban Students, & Cooperating Teachers This research project explored the reciprocal benefits of adding an integrated service-learning component to a required reading/language arts methods course with a sustainability focus. The undergraduate teacher candidates implemented a 16-hour language arts/sustainability unit developed by the professor designed to teach teacher candidates (n = 9), urban fourth grade students (n = 83), and their cooperating teachers (n = 3) best practices in teaching comprehension and composition of expository, science texts. A wide variety of data were collected and analyzed from the three constituencies using a grounded theory approach. Findings verified that this program positively affected all populations’ knowledge and attitudes towards sustainability in a positive way. Additionally trends such as successful integration of language arts with science (sustainability) and viewing themselves as teachers who were capable of changing students’ ideas about caring for the world around them were noted among the teacher candidates. Analysis of writing samples completed by the fourth graders documents increased knowledge and interest in science and improved rubric scores in reading and writing. Observations by the teacher candidates and cooperating teachers noted improvement in comprehension skills. Long term knowledge about sustainability was also documented using pre, post, and post-post interviews. Transcribed interviews and ongoing observations with the cooperating teachers revealed they learned prereading activities such as graphic organizers, the benefits of high expectations, and the value of cooperative learning. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 102 | 02:30 PM |
| FRpos1234 | tester | tester test | Field Report | 10 minute | 07:00 PM | ||
| POS10026 | The Big Why | This session will explore the larger questions behind the sustainability movement in higher education. Clearly the movement is about more than recycling, green buildings and carbon neutrality, but how can sustainability become integral to the educational mission and purpose of institutions? How will the current momentum of sustainability evolve into a moral imperative for higher education? What if sustainability is just a passing urgency? If we're really at the crux of our own survival, then why do these questions linger? | Poster | Poster | |||
| CSW3492 | The Charrette: A Roadmap for Planning a Sustainable Campus Community | A charrette is a collaborative project management system for planning healthy community transformation. While it is often used for urban development, the methodology is applicable for any “community” setting. In this session, we will demonstrate how to effectively use the charrette process to create a sustainability plan for a campus. Attendees will play the role of project team members as they practice how to define guiding principles, create an objectives, measures and strategies draft, and do a stakeholder analysis and engagement plan. Our objective is to set the framework for a charrette, give hands-on, practical experience with the process, and provide tools that attendees can immediately put into practice at their individual institutions. Guiding the session will be Leslie Lindo, Program Coordinator for University Sustainability Practices at Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability. To provide real-life experiences with implementing charrette strategies, Leslie will review how she used this process to establish the first sustainability committee at the ASU West campus and work with the team to create a plan that will transform their campus into a sustainable community. Joining her will be Norman Christopher, Executive Director of the Sustainable Community Development Initiative at Grand Valley State University, who will share his challenges and successes with their Seeds of Promise Initiative to promote collaboration and community stakeholder partnerships. | Concurrent Session Workshop | 80 minutes | Mon | 303 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP3583 | The Educational Energy Audit – Combining Student Learning & Energy Efficiency | In October, 2009, The Loyalton Group, energy consulting partner for Sodexo and their clients, conducted an energy audit at Wilson College, in Chambersburg, PA. Beyond the regular energy audit and carbon impact report that was delivered to the college, the two companies partnered with Professor Edward Well’s, the Chair/Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Wilson College to include a student learning experience for Dr. Well’s ENV 215 class. The class was also charged with developing the college’s Climate Action Plan. The audit was completed with on the spot training sessions for the students, plus a wrap up session. They participated in all facets of the audit process and received solid, real world experience. The audit also provided valuable data to the class as they prepared and delivered Wilson College’s Climate Action Plan in January 2010. The audit team was comprised of: • Mr. Jim Ackles, VP, Facility Solutions at The Loyalton Group • Mr. Ted Schnittgen from Impact Industrial Services (lighting auditor) • Mr. Dan Golliday, Sodexo Facilities General Manager and staff • Dr. Edward Wells and the Students of Class ENV 215 I recommend that we take 2 15 minute segments. In the first, Jim Ackles will present an overview of the audit process and results. In the second, Dr. Wells will present a session on how the campus and students perceived the value of the learning experience and the college’s CAP that resulted. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 101 | 01:10 PM |
| PAP3801 | The End of Nature: Creating Sustainability Curriculum for Every Major | This session will begin with the presentation of the sustainability course developed for the University of Cincinnati as a collaboration between the University and design and consulting firm, emersion DESIGN. The two-part lecture, discussion, and service course is open to all majors, and is designed to teach "Sustainability 101" - what every college graduate needs to know about saving the world. The course fulfills part of the University's President's Climate Commitment, to create a sustainability course open to all majors, and integrates volunteer opportunities with ACUPCC campus activities into course learning. This integration provides opportunity for student leaders to make the connection between course work and implementation of sustainability commitments. Discussion and dialog with attendees will revolve around sharing best practices from their own "Sustainability 101" curriculum. Discussion will focus on integrating sustainability into every student's curriculum in a way that resonates with students regardless of their selected major, and the overlap of sustainability education with implementation of sustainability initiatives on campus. Following the discussion and reporting periods, the strategies outlined for catalyzing sustainability interest in incoming students, and case studies of sustainability education will be available for other universities to build their own Sustainability 101 courses. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 111 | 06:00 PM |
| PAP10001 | The End of Oil: A Model Course for Sustainability Education | Because energy is central to all socio-ecological systems, a course on energy can easily become a course on everything. Therein lies both the promise and the challenge of a course like “The End of Oil” that I have taught for some years. I will offer my conceptual framework, printed and online materials, and pedagogical processes associated with this course to others in a workshop and discussion format. Through this workshop, I hope to engage others in the process of developing their own similar or related courses to offer at their home institutions. In an effort to engage students in sustainability oriented praxis, The End of Oil integrates critique of many facets of unsustainable, globalized industrial society with action projects and reflective writing and discussion. The course emphasizes critique of industrial political economy in a world where wealth and power have become increasingly concentrated. It also emphasizes the need to engage in sustainable community development and localized production, distribution, and consumption of essential goods and services. Underlying these emphases is the notion that addressing the emerging energy crisis means doing much more than looking for technological solutions and substitute sources of energy. The climate crisis, the current economic crisis, continuing resource wars, and looming shortages of fresh water and food point to a need for deeply systemic change. In The End of Oil course, the study of energy in society offers one point of entry for comprehending and beginning to address these converging sustainability crises. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 02:30 PM |
| FR3014 | The Environmental Caucus: Breaking Down Silos to Create a Culture of Sustainability | In 2008, the Environmental Caucus formed to facilitate creative and strategic communication across campus. The caucus is a voluntary association of faculty, staff, students and administrators, not an appointed body or an administrative, academic or financial unit. Like an ecological system, the caucus is a set of components functioning together as a whole. Its informal structure allows flexibility to create efficient and effective linkages. All participants have an equal voice in problem-solving – first year students and university vice-presidents, utilities managers and business professors, residence life directors and research scientists, graduate students and librarians. This unique structure has enabled the Caucus to break down silos and build relationship in ways unlike any other campus organization – and to address perplexing and long-standing problems that existed between units. The Caucus meets monthly, drawing 25-45 diverse people to each meeting from every college and operational department. Action teams work on specific goals outside of meetings, including interested community partners. In its first year, the Caucus sparked the completion of the Climate Action Plan, launched the Green NAU website, reactivated the Ponderosa faculty group working to infuse sustainability across the curriculum, energized student groups to a historic level of activity, and worked collaboratively with almost every operational department on specific campus initiatives. This field report will address how the Environmental Caucus crafted a central coordinating structure to create a vibrant culture of sustainability and how this structure might apply to other college campuses. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 110 | 01:20 PM |
| FR3859 | The Forgotten Art: Art Toxins and Safety | Environmental health and safety plays a key role in sustainability initiatives. Toxic materials must be regulated, stored, and disposed of in accordance with national and state regulations. In institutions of higher education, environmental health and safety rules are common knowledge among science labs, but the same toxic materials are also found in many art studios. Some pottery glazes can contain arsenic or lead and paint solvents can be made of toxic materials such as benzene, which is a known human carcinogen. A myriad of health and environmental concerns can arise from virtually all art crafts and the dangers have been recognized since the 18th century. Despite the use of these toxins and their known environmental and health concerns, too often art safety education gets overlooked. This presentation will provide some basic background on the toxins in art, basic art safety advice, and highlight some schools and resources that have properly addressed the issue of art safety in an effort to uncover forgotten Art. The information presented is based on a literature review done as part of a sustainability internship. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 107 | 05:00 PM |
| POS3010 | The Goggles Project | In 2005, Dr. Tarah Wright commissioned a two year study investigating Canadian universities’ stances on sustainability. The findings were so provoking and the topic so timely, that we could not let the results simply end up as a bound report sitting on shelves. Thus was born Rethink University and The Goggles Project - a conceptual platform to engage higher education stakeholders in conversations about sustainability. The Goggles Project uses a quirky troupe of travelling players who both collect and disseminate powerful thoughts on the role that universities can play in creating a sustainable world. Follow our playful and funny troupe of thinkers from another time and place as they travel to campuses across the country to teach Rethink 101. The troupe engages their audiences, asking them to consider how universities may have contributed to unsustainable behaviour in the past, examine new ways of thinking about higher education for the future, and develop new perspectives on the foundations and purpose of the university given our desire for a healthy, prosperous and sustainable planet. This poster presentation will provide highlights of the Goggles Tour 2010. In addition, ASSHE participants will be asked to wear their own goggles and upload their own ideas to our interactive website. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3008 | The Goggles Project - Promoting Sustainability in Higher Education through Guerrilla Theatre | In 2005, Dr. Tarah Wright commissioned a two year study investigating Canadian universities’ stances on sustainability. The findings were so provoking and the topic so timely, that we could not let the results simply end up as a bound report sitting on shelves. Thus was born Rethink University and The Goggles Project - a conceptual platform to engage higher education stakeholders in conversations about sustainability. The Goggles Project uses a quirky troupe of travelling players who both collect and disseminate powerful thoughts on the role that universities can play in creating a sustainable world. This Session will show footage of our playful and funny troupe of thinkers from another time and place as they travel to campuses across the country to teach Rethink 101. The troupe engages their audiences, asking them to consider how universities may have contributed to unsustainable behaviour in the past, examine new ways of thinking about higher education for the future, and develop new perspectives on the foundations and purpose of the university given our desire for a healthy, prosperous and sustainable planet. Further, the session will introduce and engage the audience in the Goggles Project website, inviting participants to wear their own goggles and imprint on our interactive website. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 02:30 PM |
| POS3219 | The Green Auto Show | Recognizing that vehicle choice by young buyers has a profound and lasting effect on consumption of fossils fuels, pollution, and our nation’s national security, Presbyterian College sponsored a Green Auto Show (GAS) that focused on vehicles that attained an EPA highway mileage of 35 MPG highway. In addition to the 23 vehicles on exhibit, special energy and conservation displays and learning centers accompanied the event that attracted approximately 800 people from the college and surrounding community. Pre-event programming included creative advertising, displays, and films. | Poster | Poster | |||
| POS3396 | The Green Building Boom at Bowling Green State University | This poster will highlight and set forth details on the numerous green construction projects occurring at Bowling Green State University. Currently, six (6) new buildings are simultaneously under construction. All six of the projects are planned as "green"/environmentally friendly buildings, with four of them aiming at various levels of LEED certification. Included in the poster will be information on the following buildings: The Stroh Convocation Center is currently set to achieve a LEED silver rating; The Wolfe Center for the Arts has already been recognized for its architectural design, and is also currently slated for a LEED silver rating. The McDonald Dining Center is currently planned to be the first free-standing LEED Platinum rated dining center in the U.S. Two new residence halls which will contain numerous environmentally-friendly and sustainable features are also under construction. All buildings are set for completion at various times during the fall of 2011. The poster will include artist's renderings of each of the buildings as completed, as well as details on the sustainability features planned for or included in each design. It will also include information on how the "green building boom" furthers and fits into BGSU's commitment to sustainability for the future. | Poster | Poster | |||
| POS3107 | The GREEN Room at Furman University | The Green Room Energy and Environmental Initiative (GREEN) Showcase room is a green model residence hall room at Furman University intended to foster and promote eco-friendly lifestyle choices and product selection among students. The development of the room is a collaborative project among Kappa Delta Sorority, the student Environmental Action Group, the University Office of Housing and Residence Life, the University Shi Center for Sustainability and Environmental Education, and the National Wildlife Federation. The room has been designed and fitted with energy saving features and environmentally friendly products and sustainable materials to help students realize that choices they make in their individual rooms can and will impact their individual contributions to, and thus the university’s, ecological and carbon footprints. Two students from Kappa Delta Sorority are selected each year to live in the room and serve as environmental stewards for the project. The two students document their experiences via a public webpage and blog, and host monthly open room tours for students and guests to visit and learn more about the room. The project is in its second year. | Poster | Poster | |||
| FR3305 | The Green Spring Break: Lessons in Sustainable Service | The presence of “alternative” spring breaks based in service across the U.S. seems firmly entrenched in higher education, and their popularity is increasing as students become more service-oriented. Newer is the concept of exclusively “green” or sustainability service spring break trips. BGSU’s Sustainability Coordinator and the Office of Campus Activities collaborated this past spring break of 2010 to offer and conduct a “green” service spring break trip to Pensacola and the Perdido Key area of Florida on the Gulf of Mexico. This report will provide institutions with the details of that experience, as well as suggestions for creating and implementing a similar green service trip of their own. Among the areas reported upon are: • Use of third party planning “outfitters”; • Choosing a sustainability service project; • Marketing to students; • Being sustainable while serving; • Transportation issues; • Incorporating a curriculum and learning outcomes; • Bringing lessons learned back to campus; • Co-sponsorships and funding assistance/managing a trip budget. BGSU’s service with the Florida State Park system was extremely successful. Unfortunately, the recent oil spill has devastated much of the service area. However, this has prompted many trip participants to request and organize a trip dedicated to assisting with oil spill cleanup efforts. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 01:00 PM |
| POS3231 | The Greening of an Intensive English Program | Our poster discusses what sustainability is and why we include environmental topics in our English as a Second Language curriculum. We explain our new summer certificate program focusing on sustainable business practices as well as our center-wide “Green Day.” We give examples of “green” curriculum for different skill areas and for business English. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3814 | The impact of “No Impact Week†in ENVS 101 | The syllabus for ENVS 101 (People and the Environment) at Denison University typically involves the examination of issues like climate change, food security, impacts of agriculture, water quality and scarcity, energy dependency, alternative energy, and sustainability. The ENVS 101 courses usually involve field trips and hands-on activities that allow for an in-depth look at the issues. In the spring of 2010, ENVS 101 encouraged students to look in depth at sustainability by living one week with “no impact”. Following the reading of “No Impact Man” by Colin Beavan, I asked my class to embark on their own “no impact” experiment during the third to last week of classes. Using guidelines set by Mr. Beavan and the website, as a class, we developed a plan for a “no impact” week and blogged about our experiences on Denison’s homepage. Student blogs about their experiences and the discussions following the project were diverse but overwhelmingly positive. Despite my conflicted feelings regarding the project, students appeared to appreciate the opportunity to live sustainably. Additionally, responses from the entire campus community, as well as outside the community, further reinforced the positive impact of this project. This presentation will illustrate the process I went through as the instructor to facilitate this project. I will also present student experiences through clips of their blogs and final papers. Finally, I will discuss the aftermath of the project and how I might adjust the project for future use. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 05:20 PM |
| POS2440 | The Journal of Sustainability Education | The Journal of Sustainability Education (JSE) serves as a forum for academics and practitioners to share, critique, and promote research, practices, and initiatives that foster the integration of economic, ecological, and social-cultural dimensions of sustainability within formal and non-formal educational contexts. The JSE was launched through a collaborative initiative by the third cohort of Prescott College's PhD program in Sustainability Education. After two years of research, planning, and development, the inaugural issue of the JSE was published in May of 2010. Specifically related to this year's AASHE theme, the on-line, open access JSE offers one model of how institutions of higher learning and their constituents can actively contribute to the field of sustainability. This panel's presenters are members of JSE's founding cohort and Advisory Board. They will share the process of creating the Journal and engage in a discussion with attendees about the many opportunities to become involved with, as well as contribute to, the JSE. Opportunities for participation include (but are not limited to) becoming a member of the Advisory and/or Peer Review Board(s) and submitting pieces for publication: Scholarly Peer-Reviewed Features (Original Research, Theoretical/Conceptual, Program Analysis), Book and Media Reviews, Reports/Briefings, Editorials/Opinion Pieces, and Images of Sustainability Education. We encourage participants with diverse interests and perspectives on sustainability to attend. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3271 | The Power of Engagement: Connecting Community Service with Sustainable Choices | This presentation focuses on increased understanding of critical environmental issues with a commitment to action for students and community members engaged in three service learning projects in an environmental literacy course. Community Gardening, the No Child Left Inside movement and a Campus Tree Identification Project involving Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology were topics used to create and implement a sustainability curriculum component for a newly adopted Service Learning Certificate. University students, from different academic majors, selected one of these three projects involving a variety of partners within the community including a park district and refugee settlement organizations. These three projects were used to enhance learning, action and commitment to sustainable decisions, while establishing collaborative connections across campus and within the local community. Course themes related to sustainability and community service emerged like connections between health, food production, outdoor activity, waste reduction and recycling, water use and energy conservation measures. Students also contributed and participated in a multidisciplinary curricular learning experience involving campus tree identification and use of GIS technology with 6th graders from an urban school. As with many other aspects of our daily lives, students began to re-examine their personal choices to find more sustainable ways of living, including what, where and how their food is grown. Results will be shared as to actions and outcomes of engagement in community service learning, in the context of an environmental literacy course underscoring the complexity and interconnectedness of key sustainability issues. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 02:30 PM |
| FR3047 | The Regional Sustainability Index | ABSTRACT: The Regional Sustainability Index Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important factor in the economic development of regions in many states. However, there is not a tool available to assist organizations in terms of understanding their overall level of sustainability, nor for regions to compare themselves to others competitively on this topic. We have developed a scorecard called the Regional Sustainability Index (RSI) that compares performance of organizations on triple bottom line categories in the New North, an eighteen county economic development region located in northeast Wisconsin. Utilizing student teams from an undergraduate business courses in Environmental Management, we have assessed more than fourteen hundred businesses in a two-year span. Results indicate that less than ten percent of firms surveyed scored in the sustainable category and over seventy percent were not sustainable. The importance of this project is that it provides a baseline for regional businesses, is an applied academic exercise for students that requires judgment and critical thinking skills, and establishes the university as a regional resource for sustainability. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 110 | 12:20 PM |
| PAP3421 | The Role and Responsibility of Higher Education in “The Great Turning†| In the face of Peak Oil and Climate Change, many communities are initiating systemic change, some of them using Transition Town or Eco-Community models. Others are just beginning to awaken to the challenges before us. Colleges and Universities can provide leadership and context in the transition to sustainability through traditional and non-traditional channels. This paper will examine three community initiatives of the UMass Dartmouth Office of Campus and Community Sustainability and their impact on the region and on the campus. These initiatives include: • The Cove Street Sustainability Center, sited in a refurbished mill on the New Bedford Harbor. Beginning with a weatherization training workshop, the center will house the community sustainability initiatives of the university, including a community market, a sustainability business incubator, and a sustainability extension service. • A green STEM pipeline, connecting up regional educational institutions’ curricula in energy, farming, remediation, and other green skills. • The Southeastern Massachusetts Council on Sustainability, co-convened by UMD and the regional planning agency. With working groups on energy, food, economic development, natural resources, and transportation, the Council is developing a coordinated sustainability plan for the region. Research projects envisioned by the council include a regional foodshed and energy analyses. These initiatives and others have involved the university and the surrounding institutions in increasingly structured collaborations and have resulted in significant teaching, research, and service learning opportunities for faculty, staff, and students. They’ve also spread sustainability literacy and have inspired hope among university and community members alike. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 112 | 12:10 PM |
| FR3524 | The Role of Organizational Structure in Sustainable Student Collaborations | Student organizations from across Indiana University’s Bloomington campus have banded together as the Student Sustainability Council to jointly represent IUB students on sustainability-related matters. Council member organizations vary widely in their mission and structure. Some are dedicated to niche activities directly related to environmental stewardship; others are broad governing bodies exercising university-wide authority. Some are comprised of a few, dedicated recruits; others are populated by scores of students with relatively meager commitments to the group. For all their differences, the leaders and ranks of these organizations have seen fit to devote resources to the Council and, in so doing, to the cause of sustainability. Attempts to manage and coordinate members of such diverse organizations leads to two principal challenges. The first challenge is facilitating effective communication between expert and lay organizations. Although all Council members recognize the urgency of confronting environmental problems, not all are similarly versed in the jargon and scientific underpinnings of the topic. The second challenge is ensuring that groups maintain sovereignty over their issues while simultaneously acting with partners in addressing those issues. Many organizations are, through their participation on the Council, expanding their reach and achieving greater influence through collaboration. An equal number of organizations, however, are voluntarily sacrificing ownership of an issue for the sake of a shared approach. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 110 | 12:50 PM |
| PAP10003 | The Six Competencies of Integrated Sustainability Planning | Building an integrated planning process is critical to the success of sustainability efforts on any campus. However, it’s much easier said than done. In order to bring planning efforts from across a campus into a coherent document that can guide decision making, sustainability professionals need to be competent in working with people and creating effective processes. This session provides an overview of the six competencies of an integrated planner identified by work with planners and sustainability professionals across the country. Whether you are new to the campus sustainability efforts or an experienced planner, you need to be able to identify and use the six competencies of integrated planning—People, Language, Process, the written Plan, Planning Context and Resources. Effective integrated planning requires: the ability to understand and identify the players (People); the ability to use a common planning vocabulary to communicate (Language); the capacity to work with others to facilitate an integrated planning process and manage change (Process); the ability to produce an integrated plan that can be implemented and evaluated (Plan); the ability to collect and filter relevant information (Planning Context); and the ability to identify alternative and realistic resource strategies (Resources). The six competencies will be illustrated through active learning in small groups that will help you return to your campus with an increased capacity to bring people together around an integrated planning process. Includes a self-assessment tool to use in deciding how ready your campus is for integrated, sustainability planning. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 112 | 02:50 PM |
| FR3310 | The Student Green Fee: Lessons Learned from the First Year | The number of universities with some form of “Student Green Fee” are increasing each year. Bowling Green State University joined the ranks of these institutions and just completed its first academic year administering its Student Green Initiatives Fund. The entire process, from student conception of the idea through Board of Trustee approval and appearance on students' bursar statements took only six months. This report will set forth the lessons learned through experience by BGSU, especially having the benefit of hindsight, after having gone through this process and its first year of administering the fund for green projects. Further, the report will provide suggestions, project ideas, resources and practices utilized during this first year, and will assist institutions in both creating a green fee as well as administering and nurturing it thereafter. Some topics included are: • How to start from square one with creating a “green fee”; • Assisting students and helping them to be part of the creation process; • Drafting a proposal for creating a “green fee”; • Selection of appropriate fee amounts and details; • Creating a project/funding selection process or policy; • Marketing a “green fee” to students; • Implementing, monitoring, and assessing the “green fee” mechanism. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 110 | 05:50 PM |
| POS3303 | The Student Sustainability Initiative: Linking Students and the Administration | The University of Michigan has recently expanded its commitment to sustainability, establishing an Office of Campus Sustainability in 2009 and launching a campus-wide assessment to understand current sustainability practices and develop a road map for the future. Most recently, the university held a day-long sustainability seminar for over 200 faculty and announced that all future buildings would be built to a LEED Silver minimum standard. This September the University will host its first “EarthFest,” a week long celebration of sustainability on campus and an opportunity for students to learn how to make a difference in energy, water, waste, and resource issues. Much of this progress has been driven by the UM Student Sustainability Initiative (SSI), a coalition of 30+ campus environmental groups that came together in 2008 to advocate for a campus sustainability office. Following that success, the SSI has continued working with student groups and University administration to achieve “big wins” for sustainability. Students from the UM SSI will discuss their involvement in the process and lessons learned as they balance the interests of students, staff, and administration. | Poster | ONE HOUR FIFTEEN | |||
| POS10007 | The Sustainability Hut at the University of Florida | The Sustainability Hut at the University of Florida is a moveable education tool that aims to educate our campus community about sustainability. This session will include highlights and lessons learned through the development of the hut. Throughout the year, student volunteers bring the hut to University events and high traffic areas on campus, such as sporting events and residence halls during the EcoChallenge, in order to engage the community in activities that promote sustainability. UF’s Office of Sustainability developed the hut as a response to research on campus that demonstrated a deficit in awareness of sustainability. This research spurred the Office of Sustainability to create the hut and its accompanying activities, with Community Based Social Marketing (CBSM) in mind, to promote sustainability. The hut organizers, Office of Sustainability interns, recruit and manage volunteers and resources. The activities at the hut focus on various topics including: water, waste, food, energy, and transportation. Activities are designed to be both quick and impactful- leaving participants informed and empowered to make a difference. When participants complete an activity, he or she wins a prize such as a Frisbee made out of recycled material or a coozie reminding participants to “recycle this can”. The hut has been extremely successful at reaching new audiences on campus and has received recognition from UF’s student body. It is a clear demonstration of sustainability’s importance on UF’s campus. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3341 | The Sustainable Living Center at Maharishi University of Management | The Sustainable Living Center is unique in combining certification standards for LEED Platinum, the Living Building Challenge, Building Biology, and Maharishi Vedic Architecture. This 7,000 sq.ft., one story “building that teaches” will feature classrooms, a greenhouse, a research lab, a mini-kitchen, a recycling center, and offices while being off the grid in all ways. Electricity will be provided by a wind generator and rooftop PV panels backed up by batteries and a biodiesel generator. The 18 inch thick walls will be insulated by cellulose and locally sourced compact earth blocks. In the summer, night-time flushing ventilation will cool the thermal-mass walls. Air will also be dehumidified with a liquid desiccant, which will then be re-dried by heat from rooftop solar thermal tubes. These tubes will also warm the building in the winter with in-floor radiant heat. Rain collected on the roof and stored in an underground cistern will provide all water needs. Waste will be treated by an on-site aerojet aeration system and constructed wetland. All building materials will meet the required certifications for non-toxicity and safety. An east-west monitor will provide indirect day light for all parts of the building, including interior rest rooms. Maharishi Vedic Architecture prescribes many of the features in the other certifications, but goes further to include aspects such as orientation, placement, and proportionality that help to bring inhabitants into harmony with the environment. Already well underway, construction of this building will be completed by late 2010. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP10053 | The Zero Waste Campus | Whether it is a single-stream or multipart recycling system, the staple environmental achievement for a post-secondary institution is typically its tailored recycling program. The success of a waste diversion program is usually the result of hard-working personnel and engaged students and campus community members. Often the programs begin with the classic recyclables, organics, electronic wastes and battery recycling streams. This is the first step to achieving a waste diversion rate of 100%; but there is much more to the story than that. This presentation will reveal what the University of Ottawa has been undertaking to move beyond the basic public recycling programs and shift towards a zero waste campus. Moreover, the successes and failures of different projects and initiatives, the progress of continuous improve programs, and social marketing exercises to change user behaviours and perceptions of waste will all be examined under the context of the University’s new strategic vision goal of reaching a 100% waste diversion rate. Key concepts: Zero waste, waste diversion, social marketing | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 09:50 AM |
| PAP3423 | Thinking Globally and Acting Locally: Sustainability Vision for Higher Education | Many universities are undertaking sustainability initiatives to reduce the environmental footprint of their activities, but a major challenge is defining what would be required for an institution to become sustainable. While many organizations have created checklists for rating institutions, we argue that a more holistic, systems-level approach is needed. We define two societal grand challenges that must be addressed before global sustainability can be achieved: (1) Maintaining or restoring natural ecosystem function while providing essential human services; and (2) Sustainably raising the quality of life for the world’s poor to acceptable levels. We discuss our vision for moving from these challenges to specific goals and criteria for measuring progress (metrics) that can be used by institutions through their own missions, considering both local and global impacts. The approach moves beyond many current efforts that focus primarily on reducing operational energy and water use and waste to a vision that advances the institution’s mission by creating strategic leadership value for the future. The goals include: (1) designing and implementing operations that maintain or restore ecosystem function and promote a high quality of life for all people, (2) creating new programs that enhance sustainable knowledge or outcomes, and (3) establishing any new structures or processes that are needed to support the first two goals. We give examples from our own experience at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, propose holistic metrics for measuring progress, and identify open questions and challenges in applying these ideas to real-world systems. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 104 | 12:10 PM |
| POS10059 | Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: A Global Sustainability Minor for UVA | The sustainability movement is gaining traction at the University of Virginia. The emergence in recent years of new student groups, courses, faculty interest and events centered on sustainability show us that our students want more, from courses that teach the technical side of sustainability to simply an easier way of finding existing sustainability courses. Students realize that in order to move forward in their careers and lives that they need to have skills necessary to make positive changes in the world. To make sustainability more than just a passing phase, a group of students has come together with the goal of starting a global sustainability minor. This minor could be the catalyst for new courses and really expand what sustainability means to both the University and its students. Within one semester, our small team has completed extensive research of sustainability minors across the country, courses offered here at the University, funding, interested faculty members, appropriate deans, and gauging what students want. Much of our research was completed by meeting with administrators and small groups of faculty, as well as by holding large information sessions for students. Through these efforts we have tailored the minor to meet the needs of the entire community. Thus far, we have secured funding and are working towards the final proposal to be promoted by the faculty and eventually approved before the school's dean. The dean has shown her support for the initiative and we hope to have the minor up and running by spring 2011. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3846 | To Tear Down or Retrofit - Reducing Building Energy Footprint | Given data on building energy consumption, institutions can leverage available standard tools to estimate their energy reduction potential. However, many campuses, especially those with a central power plant, are not in such a position. We present the method used by Smith College, in formulating our Sustainability and Climate Action Management Plan, to estimate campus building thermal energy footprint and guide planned retrofits. With a lack of metered energy data, the presence of a significant number of old and historically significant structures, and a degree of deferred building maintenance, we saw an opportunity to explore the intersection of research, student learning, Facilities Management and the Physical Plant in achieving carbon neutrality. In estimating campus heat loss during the heating season, buildings were categorized according to construction type, current wall and attic insulation levels, and the quality of sealing. Once categorized, these buildings were modeled using architectural CAD drawings, wall details, window placement and specifications, heating and electrical scheduling information, and site conditions. Facilities Management staff desired a software platform that was transferable, user friendly, and inexpensive with reliable material and equipment libraries. We elected to use the DOE EQuest energy simulation tool. Considering building specific physical constraints and planned renovations, different thermal envelope improvement scenarios were then considered to estimate the energy reduction potential for envelope improvements. The method we detail can be used to inform institutional decision-making relative to investments in renewable energy, infrastructure, and thus carbon offsets to further reduce carbon footprint. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 101 | 02:30 PM |
| PAP3849 | Towards Place-based Engagement in the University District of Portland | The City of Portland’s EcoDistrict Initiative is an emerging concept for modeling sustainable development within the Portland Metro region. The EcoDistricts Initiative is a multi-sectoral collaboration which seeks to “use social and economic capital to support environmental performance and to implement district scale policies, finance, partnerships, and technologies”. Five sites have been identified to pilot district-scale sustainable development; the University District, as one of the five pilots, provides an ideal opportunity to integrate scholarly research and educational programs into the process of development. Utilizing the resources of Portland State University can begin to foster development of a “living lab” to test innovations and enhance our understanding of the design, research and implementation of best practices for sustainable development. Our research focused on uncovering a methodology for uniting the Portland State University community members and other occupants of the district (residents businesses, and visitors) around a collective vision for the sustainable development of the University District. The first step was to engage stakeholders in a baseline assessment of conditions within the district. We employed several strategies to conduct the baseline assessment: online and intercept surveys, focus groups with Portland State University students and faculty and Downtown Portland residents, and undergraduate and graduate level courses participated in research activities as an initial application of the “living lab” strategy. The findings from this research were used to craft a long-term plan for engagement and research in the district, which focuses on place-based and urban sustainability issues. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 04:50 PM |
| PAP10006 | Training the next generation of environmental problem solvers | a) Background The most critical issues facing the world stem from complex interactions between humans and the environment. The School of Global Environmental Sustainability (SoGES) at CSU established 2008 is facilitating innovative, interdisciplinary research and education to address global environmental problems. b) Conclusions SoGES supports research working groups that cross organizational boundaries to generate cutting-edge solutions to real-world problems. Eight working groups and three resident fellows, composed of faculty from across the university, funded by SoGES, tackle tough issues with environmental, economic and social implications. The School will also offer its Global Environmental Sustainability (GES) course in the fall 2010. GES 192, is a 3-credit course that offers an introduction to sustaining ecosystems and people in a changing world. An Interdisciplinary Studies Program is also being developed that will offer students from across all colleges the opportunity to advance their literacy in GES. The SoGES Student Sustainability Center is the hub of student activity surrounding sustainability at CSU, including efforts in curriculum, research, and environmental projects. SoGES engages students and faculty in translating and unifying disciplinary research into action and provides an arena for SoGES affiliates to test ideas for sustainable solutions to pressing problems. SoGES will catalyze the creation of new knowledge and technologies, inform policy and regulation, prepare a new generation of leaders, and contribute to public environmental literacy by integrating the strengths of people and programs across the University. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 104 | 02:30 PM |
| PAP3168 | Transformative Learning for Sustainability | The journey toward a sustainable world is a tremendous technical and political challenge, but it is also a challenge of values. Sustainability implies a fundamental transformation of values at both personal and societal scales. For higher education, one significant site of engagement is the classroom, where students can be invited to examine, challenge, and transform personal and societal values associated with (un)sustainability. At the core of such education for sustainability is transformative learning, or learning that involves experiencing a deep, fundamental shift in the basic premises of thought, feelings, and actions. Featuring a large introductory ecology course as a case study, this project examines the process and potential of transformative learning for sustainability. Research questions include querying in what manner this transformative process occurs, whether a shift in values leads to a shift in behavior and action, and what learning activities and pedagogical techniques are most effective in catalyzing transformation. Through interviews, focus groups, analysis of student journals, and quantitative measures of values and behavior, this project explores students’ lived experiences inside and outside the classroom. Results from this project illuminate the link between transforming the self and transforming society, suggest the importance of reinforcing students’ transformative experiences beyond a single course, and underscore the role of self-reflection and peer support in the transformative process. This project is also a work in progress. Ultimately, it is part of an ongoing conversation with educators concerned with helping bring about a sustainable world. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 12:10 PM |
| PAP3005 | Transformative Learning in Interior Design: Sustainability as a Professional Responsibility | In a profession that holds the power to create and modify the built environment, interior designers have an obligation and responsibility to meet the needs of the present without compromising the quality of life for future generations. A course offered in the fall semester of 2008, ID 630 Topics in Advanced Interior Design Theory: Sustainable Design and Interiors, was designed to help students develop greater awareness of the impact of the built environment on the natural environment and the potential of the design professions to promote a more ecologically and socially responsible future. The course used reading, writing, and discussion to help students develop an understanding of sustainability from technological and cultural points of view. One of the expectations was that each student would develop a personal ethical position on issues related to sustainability that would influence his or her future as an interior designer. Student anticipation and reflection writings from this course were analyzed using the frameworks of critical reflection and Transformative Learning Theory. The research sought to answer the following questions: What discussions facilitated critical questioning around student assumptions about design and sustainability? Were students able to envision a positive future? Did students develop an understanding of their impact on environmental and social problems? Did students’ sense of self in a global context change? Using Transformative Learning Theory in higher education can facilitate perspective transformation. This presentation will focus on findings relevant to classroom practice in the aforementioned course and a variety of disciplines. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 112 | 01:10 PM |
| FR3106 | Turing Your University From Conservative to Conservationist | SMU once had a mock Earth Day. You heard me. Big wigs from oil companies would come out to give speeches on how global warming isn’t real. Students wore tie dye t-shirts that said: Save the Planet, Spay or Neuter your hippie. The event was advertised on Styrofoam signs. S-t-y-r-o-f-o-a-m: Captain Planet’s kryptonite. The university now has a Sustainability Committee. The goal of this group is to enhance communication among student, faculty and staff regarding environmental efforts on campus, to evaluate the needs of the university and provide suggestions for improvements in sustainability and resource conservation, to educate current and incoming students, faculty and staff about sustainability best practices and green options at SMU, to facilitate life-long environmentally conscious behavior, and to build mutually beneficial relationships with the local community. The committee is housed under the Provost’s Office. Along with having administrative support for environmental initiatives we also have two active student environmental groups and a supportive student senate. How did this group change its climate for the better? How can your school do the same? Find out in this brief presentation. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 02:50 PM |
| FR3829 | Turning Indicators Into Reality: Methodology and Results on Assessing the Sustainability of Large Campuses | Large university campuses are often comprised of thousands of students and hundreds of employees spread out over dozens of different departments and administrative units. Much of the administration is decentralized, with individual departments having autonomy over day-to-day operations. The size and complexities of large campuses, such as UBC, makes assessment of their sustainability quite difficult. A campus-wide sustainability assessment might not give an accurate picture of the strengths and weaknesses for specific departments, faculties or research institutions or identify ways to improve. Using the AASHE STARS indicators as a foundation, along with other sustainability frameworks, a methodology of assessing the sustainability of large campuses was developed. The assessment indicators were divided into three levels of evaluation: the individual, department and campus level. The individual level indicators are measured through the use of surveys. The department level indicators are measured through the use of a check list to be completed by an individual or group in the department. The campus level indicators are measured directly by the institution responsible for enhancing sustainability. During the summer 2010, we have piloted the first two levels of our method in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the UBC-Vancouver campus. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 05:00 PM |
| PAP3208 | UCF, an In-House Energy Service Group that Saves Millions | The University of Central Florida (UCF) surpassed its goal and decreased its energy consumption by 25 percent per square foot in fiscal year 2008-2009. This saved the university close to $600,000 and about 4 million kilowatt hours in one year alone! UCF exceeded its aspiration of reducing energy consumption by 20 percent one year ahead of schedule. David Norvell, the Director of Sustainability & Energy Management at UCF, will share how UCF accomplished that goal with its unique approach. With the 3rd largest student enrollment in the nation, UCF has significant impact and influence as a leader and catalyst for positive change in the community. UCF utilizes its technical and operational strengths to demonstrate practical solutions to achieving climate neutrality. As a result of its 2007 greenhouse gas inventory, and the realization the energy consumed by campus buildings was the largest component, UCF placed a greater emphasis on this source. UCF subsequently assembled an in-house team composed of engineers, marketing professionals, and technicians that follow a private industry, energy services model. This team is responsible for not only conceiving all campus energy efficiency projects but also managing and even self-executing a portion of these. Through the marketing efforts, many energy and water conservation competitions are also used to reduce the depletion of our natural resources. Discussion will include indentifying projects, financing strategies, and associated payback periods. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 112 | 04:10 PM |
| PAN3866 | UCLA Action Research Teams: Model for Collaborative Sustainability Research | The UCLA Action Research Team (ART) program is part of the student-led Education for Sustainable Living Program, run on several UC campuses across California under the umbrella group the California Student Sustainability Coalition. Over the past three years, the ART program at UCLA has become one of the most robust programs in the state and can serve as a model for other campuses seeking to start a collaborative student-staff-faculty sustainability research program. At UCLA, the ART program has moved from a small group of students working independently, to a program of more than 70 students participating in a 20-week program working collaboratively with campus staff and earning up to 6-units of upper division class credit through the Institute of the Environment. This growth in size, rigor and institutionalization has been achieved through several means, including: 1) exceptional student leadership, 2) well defined roles for academic advisors, student directors, team leaders/members and campus stakeholders, 3) stakeholder engagement facilitated by the UCLA Sustainability Committee and Institute of the Environment faculty, 4) project topics chosen collaboratively between students and campus stakeholders, 5) key recurring stakeholders such as the UCLA Sustainability Coordinator and continuity of key projects over multiple years, 6) increased awareness of the ART program’s value and validity through year-end presentations of findings and media coverage. Several case studies of UCLA ART projects will be presented from both the student and staff/faculty perspective as evidence for the merits of, and difficulties facing, this type of student-led, collaborative, experimental program. | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 106 | 02:10 PM |
| PAN11000 | UNCF Building Green with Black, Tribal and Hispanic Serving Institutions | United Negro College Fund Panel | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 106 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP10057 | UNCP Initiative - Performance Contracting as a Catalyst for Sustainability | Higher Education Institutions have increasingly used Energy Savings Performance Contracting (ESPC) as a tool to implement energy saving measures and infrastructure improvements in facilities. The continued erosion of State funding, increasing energy and maintenance costs, growing deferred maintenance issues, and the desire for Sustainability have all contributed to the growth of ESPC as a solution. On balance, these programs have saved the taxpayers significant costs, leveraged private capital to work for the public good, and reduced the carbon footprint. Much more can be done. The University of North Carolina at Pembroke has initialized Performance Contracting. This program will provide three views of the project and unique ideas for others to consider. William Steve Martin, AIA UNCP, Assistant VC Facility Management, Planning & Construction Goals for UNCP and for the UNC System Hurdles to sustainability – budgets, status quo, independence of students and teachers Stakeholder Focus – each functional unit optimizes their own goals Lessons Learned Chris Halpin, PE, CEM, CEP, LEEP AP, President of Celtic Energy, Inc. Consulting Key Components of the RFP Contractor Selection – important to chose a good partner Baseline Development – the foundation M&V – establishing a sustainable partnership Frank Shepard, PE, LEED AP, Siemens Industry, Inc. What’s feasible with a Paid from Savings Project Contractor hurdles to Sustainability Financing – merging the Capital and Operating Budgets Attendees will hear how this team has worked together to make this a successful project. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 113 | 02:30 PM |
| PAN3345 | Universities as catalysts for Sustainable City Design | The Sustainable Cities Initiative (SCI) is a ground breaking new sustainability-based service learning program located at the University of Oregon. We tackle issues of sustainable city design with a cross‐disciplinary approach integrating research, education, service, and public outreach. SCI tackles issues related to climate change, healthy communities, sprawl and its impacts on land and energy consumption, economic development and ecological health and restoration, by advancing a three-prong strategy of research, civic engagement and community collaboration. SCI advances this strategy through innovative new programs such as the Initiative's Sustainable City Year (SCY) integrating research, service and coursework to bring the University’s public research mission directly to communities. The City of Gresham, Oregon, is the first community selected for this ongoing program. This a unique program of interdisciplinary research directs already existing classes from across campus and engages them in the service of a single city over the course of an entire academic year. During the fall term of the inaugural 2009-10 year, SCY has combined the efforts of over twenty courses, fifteen professors and over 350 students in the service of Oregon’s fourth largest city. Presenters at the AASHE conference in Denver will discuss techniques SCI has used to engage the University of Oregon in the community to serve as a catalyst for sustainable development; focusing on the success of SCY’s inaugural year with the City of Gresham. Our methods are easily replicable for other universities and we hope to spark this type of interdisciplinary collaboration nationwide. | Panel | 80 minutes | Tues | 103 | 02:10 PM |
| POS3199 | University of California, Berkeley Recycling and Waste Receptacles Redesign | The University of California at Berkeley (UCB) adopted the goal of diverting 50% of its waste by June 30, 2008. This goal was met primarily because a large quantity of building material waste was diverted. In order to increase waste diversion due to daily use (e.g. beverage containers, newspapers) recycling options should be as convenient as waste disposal. There are over 300 litter receptacles on the UCB campus; however, less than 1/3 of the outdoor campus litter collection areas also include recycling. This suggests that recycling is currently treated as less important than the disposal option. This project aims to increase waste diversion on the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) campus by increasing the number of recycling containers and improving the signage of those bins based on student input. Our goal has been to make recycling items as easy as disposing them. The bins will also be redesigned with increased ergonomic considerations so as to reduce the number of injuries workers have incurred during routine waste collection. The placement of additional receptacles will serve as an educational tool to stimulate awareness and thought on the part of the campus population as to how they dispose of their used beverage containers and mixed paper. Placing recycling bins and waste bins together will result in a paradigm shift on campus: instead of just disposing of trash, people can handle their waste, separating out recyclables from waste headed to the landfill. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAN3537 | University of Minnesota System-Wide Sustainability | Put a cougar, a bulldog, a gopher, and an eagle in one room – do you find sustainability? You betcha! The University of Minnesota community has created new, regional models of urban and rural sustainability, rooted in unique strengths of each campus. The five campuses developed separate programs, which are now converging. While our initial system-wide policies focused on waste abatement and energy, they evolved to incorporate the full scope of sustainability. Like our mascots, each sustainability program has it’s own look and attitude, reflecting our regional environmental settings. Minnesota is COLD, so energy efficient building design is challenging. Nevertheless UMD constructed our first Gold LEED building and Crookston built our first Gold residential hall. Rain gardens are part of UMD’s protection of Lake Superior. Morris' large, open windy spaces are ideal for wind turbines and the locally available farming plant wastes are readily converted to biofuel. With 24 million square feet of urban space, the Twin Cities campus focused on a significant energy reduction program, saving $2.5 million and 25,000 tons of carbon. How does the nation's coldest climate city become it's best bike city? It helps that 48% of the 65,000 faculty, staff and students live within 5 miles of campus. We reflect the small town heartland, the global waterway, the green urban jungle and the prairie grass roots of our communities. In sustainability programs in Minnesota, the staff are strong, the faculty are good-looking and all of the campus sustainability programs are above average. | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 112 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP3582 | University of Northern BC Campus Bio-energy System | The University of Northern BC (UNBC) is located in Prince George, BC - Canada. The main campus of UNBC was opened in 1994 and currently hosts a student enrollment, faculty and staff of 5000 persons. The province of British Columbia has passed legislation (Bill 44) requiring that all public sector operations must be carbon neutral starting in 2010. This affects approximately 150 Universities, Colleges, Health Authorities and School Districts in BC. All public sector institutions must pay a carbon tax of $25 per tonne on all CO2e emissions starting on January 2010. UNBC has operated a small biomass system heating a forest research laboratory building since May 2009. UNBC is currently building a new campus Bio-Energy Facility that will reduce their dependence on Natural Gas by 85%. This project will reduce the Greenhouse Gas emissions of UNBC by 75%. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 101 | 04:50 PM |
| POS3072 | University of Northern Colorado Environmental Studies Club | In the 21st century, awareness and activism regarding environmental topics has become increasingly important. This is especially true on university campuses within the United States and worldwide where faculty and students alike are working to raise consciousness. The Environmental Studies Club is a student-led and faculty-endorsed organization on campus. The student participants aim to educate and involve the UNC and greater Greeley community in environmental understanding. Our club has evolved over the years and has recently focused on issues including waste reduction and promotion of recycling on campus, ecosystem and population education, and overall enthusiasm surrounding environmental concerns and opportunities. This poster aims to inform the greater community of the recent and ongoing efforts of this local student-organized program. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3406 | University of Toronto Mississauga’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory: A Case Study | This presentation provides a case study of the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM)’s greenhouse gas inventory, in a Canadian regulatory context. This presentation will cover the rationale for completing a greenhouse gas inventory and processes and methods that were used for the inventory (including how boundaries of the system were defined). Also included are lessons learned and next steps for moving forward from the results of the inventory. A brief review of greenhouse gas related regulations in different provinces and territories will be included. The session will conclude with a brief overview of strategies that UTM is using to reduce its carbon footprint. This presentation will be of interest to anyone looking for guidance on best practices for completing a greenhouse gas inventory, particularly those from Canadian institutions who are interested in the regulations and challenges unique to Canada. These practices are applicable to consultants, planners, facility managers, and the private sector. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 02:50 PM |
| POS2120 | unPLUg: How an Energy Competition Can Permanently Change Behavior | Many colleges have implemented residential hall competitions to reduce energy; however do these competitions create long-term change in behavior? Too often after the tally is counted many will return to their previous habits. At Pacific Lutheran University, this problem was solved by making the energy competition unPLUg last the duration of the academic year. Eight halls pitted against each other in a bracket system, with the winners advancing on for the prize. The actual competition took place in October, February and April. As expected these months reflected significant reductions, but the most interesting results came in off-months, usage was still down. The four week competition time was long enough to begin changing habits, and by reinforcing this with follow up competitions and a constant awareness campaign unPLUg was able to create lasting impressions. A yearlong challenge creates unique obstacles, such as maintaining interest, creating the right incentives, and ensuring campus wide involvement. As an example even creating a fair and accurate metric for measuring usage was a challenge. With unPLUg, the energy usage was calculated on a per student basis and compared with the same figure from that period a year prior. This allowed for variances in hall populations and environmental factors. By anticipating and accounting for these issues PLU was able to create an interesting and fair competition that involved, and kept involved, a great deal of the students, as well as generate a 7% energy drop. | Poster | Poster | |||
| POS3457 | UNT Dining Services: Going Green One Plate at a Time | At UNT Dining Services we understand that sustainability is a delicate balance between improving lifestyle choices and a feeling of well-being, and preserving natural resources on which we and future generations depend. To accomplish this goal Dining Services actively engages procedures, policies, and practices that foster a sustainable food system at the University of North Texas. This poster will outline many of the steps that we have taken to reach our goal of carbon neutrality. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3179 | USEPA MOU Program with Colleges and Universities | The presentation will review a unique program of Region 2 of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). The partnership program is designed to create initiatives to catalyze a just and sustainable world. The USEPA Region 2 Green Team, working with representatives from colleges/universities, develops voluntary memoranda of understanding to reduce campus environmental impacts, which in turn reduce construction and operation costs. The Green Team tailors information for each project on the technologies and practices that can help project sponsors: 1) improve energy and water efficiency, 2) increase recycling and reduce waste; 3) incorporate the use of clean vehicles and fuels; 4) promote re-use of environmentally-friendly building materials, maintenance products, and landscaping practices; and 5) save money. Since 2006, 6 colleges/universities have signed agreements. So, too, have the New York Mets and the New Meadowlands Stadium Company (principal owner of the new Giants/Jets stadium). | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 04:10 PM |
| PAP10054 | User Participation Saves Cost in Green Building Operations | This session explores how users have become participants in reducing energy/operational costs at Western Washington University’s new state-of-the-art 120,000gsf Academic Instructional Center (AIC), one of the largest naturally ventilated classroom and laboratory facilities in the country. Facilities staff and faculty stakeholders were intimately involved in the planning and design of the AIC to ensure an understanding of the trade-offs and benefits of natural ventilation. AIC design strategies feature: integration of thermal mass, optimal daylight harvesting without heat gain, acoustical isolation between classrooms and floor levels, user climate control, and specific room ventilation requirements based on occupant loads and solar orientation. Interior spatial requirements to achieve a ‘stack’ effect resulted in the added benefit of creating a variety of collaborative learning spaces. The presenters will share the AIC “Building User Guide” developed to inform and re-align expectations of the green features and how to achieve optimal performance. Located in classrooms and collaborative spaces, the guide augments building signage and illustrative information kiosks that describe the AIC’s green philosophy, design logic and how to operate windows, room controls, lighting and ceiling fans based on the weather and season. Post-occupancy feedback will be shared including a comparison of the AIC energy usage to other campus classroom and laboratory buildings; feedback on user control / comfort; and lessons learned from the first year of operation. The AIC case study will examine the challenges and benefits inherent to natural ventilation systems and how these strategies translate to different climates around the country. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 101 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3317 | Using campus green space for learning about learning and teaching | This action research project explores the student experience of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) embedded into a postgraduate course on teaching and learning at the University of Plymouth, with particular attention to the experience of being in a green space for a learning session. Understanding the student experience is centrally important to successful learning design, and further course revisions will benefit from heeding the evaluation of the current ESD course elements. The University of Plymouth has recently been ranked number one in 2010 for environmental performance, involving 133 UK universities, in the People and Planet Green League, and overall top performer since the League began 4 years ago. The authors, who teach the course, have been integrating ESD approaches and content since summer 2009, referencing recent literature in experiential learning, ESD, and campus-based learning (Gray-Donald & Selby, 2004; Centre for Sustainable Futures, 2008; Sterling, 2001) that underscores the importance of the natural environment and green spaces to support transformative learning. Two student cohorts experienced teaching sessions in a small campus garden recently revitalized with the intention that it be used as outdoor classroom and learning resource for the University and local communities. The garden is one of the only green spaces on this city-centre campus. The study outcome includes recommendations for course improvement and suggestions for other ESD curriculum projects at Plymouth. Plus this fall, one of the authors will be bringing the results to a sister course that she will be teaching at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 03:50 PM |
| PAN3054 | Using Case Studies to Explore a More Just, Sustainable World | What leadership role can higher education play to challenge what is unsustainable? Case studies represent one proven way to engage students in meaningful discussions about important and complex issues. Drawing on principles of curriculum development, case study materials were written and trialed for use across various disciplines (Timpson, et al., 2006; Timpson & Doe, 2008). In the proposed panel presentation, four cases will be described. Each blends sustainability with a broader concern for social justice and offers tools for action. For his case study on post-genocide reconciliation in Rwanda, Bill Timpson will “connect the dots” of colonization, resource exploitation, tribal divisions, and violence. Margit Hentschel will describe her work on climate change with Alaskan Native Villagers who are losing their coastal homes and wanting to apply sustainability tools to community relocation design. Leila Graves and Jungsook Shim will illustrate how school gardens in the United States and South Korea teach on healthy sustainable food systems. Suzan Aldoubi will present the challenges and opportunities for introducing environmental program initiatives in Saudi Arabia. Traditional approaches to university instruction often suffer from the pressure of reductionism - the analysis of something into simpler parts for purposes of explanation. In turn, case studies invite a more holistic approach to problem-solving, offering rich context and heightened realism. William Perry’s (1981, 1999) work on cognitive development during the college years serves as a useful framework for understanding and guiding our work with case studies. All materials will be available soon to download on Atwood Publishing’s website. | Panel | 80 minutes | Mon | 203 | 02:10 PM |
| FR3400 | Using experiential learning to create community linkages | The University of Toronto Mississauga environment program offers a practicum course that features environmental sustainability campus based initiatives for small groups of students. This structure engages students to undertake primary and secondary research with the local community. The course is taught through a partnership between faculty and staff and has produced excellent work that can be applied on campus. Over the past 3 years the course has delivered high level reports to campus administrators including waste audits and recommendations, reports on bird fatalities and new campus developments, outdoor education promotion, marketing plans for carpooling and cycling promotion, report on paper reduction strategies, and more. This short presentation will detail how the students learn group dynamics, enter into their first research experience, and deliver a professional project to campus administrators as their professional clients. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 10:20 AM |
| FR3051 | Using STARS as a Co-Curricular Opportunity for Students | The STARS system offers an excellent opportunity to engage students in campus sustainability. By using student teams to collect, verify, and submit STARS data, higher education institutions may not only efficiently gather the necessary information needed to complete STARS but can create a co-curricular learning outlet for our emerging sustainability leaders on campus. STARS is an excellent template for understanding the diverse aspects of campus sustainability across all sectors of an institution. This holistic approach to sustainability tracking in turn serves as a learning tool to educate students on the complexity of the sustainability concept. In addition, the STARS system helps to create buy-in by educating STARS interns on the diverse sustainability activities occurring across the campus. These features make STARS an exceptional tool for students interested in becoming sustainability-related professionals. At Northern Arizona University (NAU), student teams are used to gather and report on STARS data (to be submitted January 2011). While the University has an Office of Sustainability that could certainly have taken on the task of STARS implementation on its own, the institution collectively determined that student engagement was both the most efficient and most responsible course of action. This model of STARS implementation presents some challenges and yet the rewards have already been tremendous for the students and institution alike. In this presentation, the student team approach to implementing STARS is presented using NAU as a case study with particular attention paid to the challenges and rewards associated with this type of approach. | Field Report | 10 minute | Mon | 108 | 02:20 PM |
| FR3125 | Utilizing a Community Partnership to Distribute Mattresses in the Community | With hundreds of lightly used mattresses to remove from campus, the university took the opportunity to partner with a community non-profit organization to keep them out of the landfill and meet a need in the community. Lightly used mattresses are a challenging item to re-purpose due to sanitizing and handling requirements. There are many individuals and non-profit organizations in the community who need mattresses but cannot afford to purchase new ones. This session will provide an overview of how the university utilized a community partnership and a resource (the mattresses) to maximize the benefit to the community. It will describe how the project was developed and implemented (meeting the sanitizing and handling requirements) and how students will have an opportunity for service learning with the community partner to facilitate the mattress distribution. The session will conclude with lessons learned that may prove helpful to other institutions interested in similar community partnership projects. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 04:00 PM |
| PAP3002 | Values and Attitudes: Okanagan College's Journey to Sustainability | This presentation will demonstrate how a commitment to sustainability was developed over a five-year period, culminating in a $28 million dollar investment in a new Centre o f Excellence in Sustainable Building Technologies and Renewable Energy Conservation at a small campus that thought it might be headed for closure just five years ago. The commitment began in 2006 when the College’s Mission, Vision and Values were formulated to require all new construction meet LEED Gold standards as a minimum level. This led to the construction of the Centre for Learning, a $28 million building that has surpassed LEED Gold standards. Perhaps coincidentally, the Province of B.C. subsequently passed legislation requiring all new public buildings to meet LEED Gold standards, and all Post Secondary Organizations are required to be Carbon Neutral by 2010. Subsequent to this benchmark being established, the College developed a “grass roots” environmental focus, culminating in the “Three Steps Forward: Our Path to Sustainability” initiative, which articulated how staff and students would demonstrate leadership in sustainability. The College was then successful in obtaining a further $28 million to construct the Centre of Excellence, focussing further on sustainability and bringing international attention. The selection of the Design Team along with the buy-in from the users was critical to the success of this new building, and the presenters will show how the Design Team, the Construction Manager and College have worked together to create a team focussed on attaining Living Building Challenge status for the new building. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 09:30 AM |
| PAP10051 | Vernadsky’s biosphere and noosphere: A ready-to-use conceptual framework for teaching sustainability | Although the world recognized the importance of education for a sustainable future and we now live through the sixth year of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014), a common conceptual approach to teaching sustainability does not yet exist. We face a paradoxical situation. Students often are frustrated by information regarding the developing ecological crisis and feel hopeless about their uncertain future, while educators are not only confused by the overwhelming flow of information on sustainability and sustainable living but often are lost, trying to adapt multiple and various approaches to teaching sustainability. The notion of sustainability education is still vague and indistinct due to its broad, multi- and interdisciplinary nature. Moreover, the name of Russian scientist Vladimir Vernadsky (1863-1945) − the author of the theory of the biosphere and the noosphere, which is a scientific foundation for Earth System Science and the concept of sustainability − is often unknown to many western educators. According to Vernadsky, the noosphere is a new evolutionary stage in the development of the biosphere when human-and-nature interaction will be consciously balanced. Using the Systems Thinking approach and based upon Vernadsky's original work, an extensive literature review, and the author’s positive teaching experiences in applying Vernadky's ideas to the teaching of sustainability, the present research shows that Vernadsky's theory of the biosphere and the noosphere represents a ready-to-use conceptual framework for universal sustainability education that can be effectively implemented by educators at all levels and in various settings. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 109 | 12:10 PM |
| FR3207 | Watershed Awakening: Connecting College and Community to a Shared Place | Frustrated by the local faith community’s lack of concern for watershed issues , the Department of Environmental Quality approached Calvin College, a faith-based college, to assist them in their efforts to restore a much-maligned stream ecosystem. Since all people reside within a watershed, we used this commonality to integrate community partner organizations, students, faculty, and churches to change the behavior of residents in the watershed. Using community-based research, academically based service-learning and educational workshops targeted at the local faith community, we have focused our efforts to increase social equity within the watershed and improve the quality of this urban waterway, which is an important contributor to the health of the Great Lakes. This presentation will describe the history of this initiative, now known as Plaster Creek Stewards, the challenges we’ve faced and the exciting and hopeful outcomes that have emerged in our efforts to deepen commitments to sustainability. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 04:40 PM |
| PAP3504 | We to Me: Identifying the Ecological Self in Post-secondary Sustainability Curriculum | Post-secondary students have become skilled purveyors of the fundamentals of good sustainability. Beginning with their early years in pre-school, they are trained to memorize and recite key concepts of the environmental curriculum, and apply large-scale thinking to environmental problems such as global deforestation and the oceans’ crisis. The widespread use of e-learning and simulation programs place them deeper into this virtual world of the commons, and often, further away from their own personal connections with, and responsibilities toward, planet earth. Student papers and classroom statements are often focused on the “we” without any idea how to truly connect it to the “me”. Ecological self studies invite students to investigate their past experiences with nature, and to begin to look at their lives as very relevant curriculum in the study of sustainability. Where much of sustainability education focuses on the macro viewpoint, ecological self studies offer students a micro look at how they fit into the larger picture, and how their life paths have affected, and do affect, the way they see and interpret current sustainability information. Expanding on concepts from ecological identity scholars, and featuring exercises from the presenter’s workshop The Earth & I, this session will introduce participants to the parameters associated with identifying an ecological self. Highlighting the methodology of narrative inquiry, the session explores how methods such as autobiographical writing, artistic expressions, drama, or music composition can give voice to students and allow them to discover the importance of the “I” in post-secondary study of the environment. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 101 | 02:50 PM |
| FR3056 | Wear the Sun! Sixteen Texas State University Students Change Campus | “Wear the Sun!” Yes, wear the sun. Reduce the amount of your use of electricity, hence coal. Save the fibers in your clothes by choosing to line dry your wet wash. These themes kept percolating during the fall 2009 Business Law Honors Class. Sixteen students voted to take “2 classes in 1” and only get credit for one. Contract, torts and courts were the basis of the required material. In a 15-1 vote, students chose to tackle sustainability issues around the campus and community. Research of the sixteen students focused on line drying. A grant proposal was written and presented in December 2009 to the Environmental Services Committee. Within two hours, students were notified that their $1000/minute grant had been approved for filming during the spring semester. An additional $1500 was given to buy drying racks to be used in residence halls for a 2010-11 pilot program. Writing the script, selecting the actors, finding the costumes, locating the sets and places to film, planning to edit and produce the video were necessary in the planning for the line drying video. With the campus-wide Common Experience 2010-2011 theme of Sustainability, the video will travel throughout the 33.0000+ student-filled campus. The August 18, 2010 premiere to 200+ professors of University Seminar 1100 class will launch the special viewings as the sixteen make a greener campus and world. | Field Report | 10 minute | Tues | 108 | 12:40 PM |
| POS10021 | We’re on board with ACUPCC: Now what? | Almost 700 institutions of higher education are signatories to the ACUPCC and it is encouraging to note that this momentum appears to be building. Community or 4-year colleges, that have either committed to the ACUPCC or contemplate this commitment, may often find that creating an institutional development plan for achieving climate neutrality requires methodical organization and mobilization of multiple resources. Individual institutional goals, culture, and management practices may have a significant impact on development of this climate neutrality plan. This Dialogue and Discussion session aims to create a report on Moving Ideas into Action based upon input provided by session participants. The overall strategy of this interactive group exercise is to highlight solutions, provide an outline for creating a how-to-guide for moving ideas into action and measureable action plans. Presenters will share success, challenges, and opportunities experienced by Hillsborough Community College’s Sustainability Council. The genesis and metamorphosis of the College’s commitment to ACUPCC and development of its Climate Action Plan will be shared. Discussions among participants, for breakout interactive exercise, will focus on several issues including organizing a team, involving leadership, marketing of sustainability efforts within and outside an institution, building community partnerships, and impacting institutional culture and management practices. The nature of community colleges versus 4-year colleges’ student bodies, and the impact of administrative transitions on commitment activities will also be discussed. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3338 | Who's Responsible for My Waste? | Changing behavior requires a change of attitude. A change of attitude requires awareness and recognizing the need to change. Why should I empty my own trash can? We pay people to do that. Out of sight, out of mind. As long as my trash is emptied, I don’t care where it goes. How many times have we heard those words? In the field of waste management, there are many hurdles to cross…attitude is one of the biggies. At Missouri S&T, we implemented a program to change behavior and encourage our employees and students to be more aware and proactive in waste generation practices. The program consists of providing employees with a rectangle recycle bin and mini trash can. Rather than the custodial staff emptying office trash, each employee takes his own waste to the conveniently located recycling bins and trash cans. This greatly enhances awareness levels of what we personally generate. Our Chancellor and his office staff agreed to try the mini-bin program. After using it for a month, they recommended moving the program forward with a few modifications Next we introduced our Administrative building to the idea that we are each responsible for the waste we generate. Waste audits have shown that habits don’t change simply because there are more recycle bins available. Procedures have to change to really make the difference. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 109 | 10:30 AM |
| PAP3322 | Why Ohio U Won’t Cede or Sell Its Renewable Energy Credits | Increasingly, colleges and universities are being approached by third party developers to install alternative energy systems on campus with little to no upfront capital investment. The catch? As part of the power purchasing agreements, the environmental benefits of these systems, quantified and monetized as “Renewable Energy Credits” or REC’s, are sold off in the marketplace. Signatories to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment are presented with a particular dilemma – if REC’s are ceded to third party developers, they cannot be counted against the institution’s carbon footprint. Nevertheless, many institutions have embraced this financing strategy; others, such as Ohio University, have deliberately avoided it. Ohio University has also refused to sell the REC’s associated with renewable energy systems that we already own and operate. In this session, arguments in favor of retaining ownership of REC’s will be presented, including those associated with institutional sustainability commitments such as the ACUPCC, impacts on statewide and nationwide alternative energy deployment, LEED implications, and the potential risk to our communications with campus and community stakeholders. Short-term versus long-term ceding of REC’s will also be discussed. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 102 | 12:10 PM |
| PAP3662 | Why Sustainability Needs Aesthetics | Sustainability is not value-neutral. It requires a recalibration of values in order to be able to correct our current unsustainable practices. The deposing of aesthetics--and in particular, of beauty--is part of the legacy of turning the natural world into a machine by emptying it of any value not available to human use. Now, as we struggle with the vast ecological repercussions of this way of thinking about nature, we must consider anew the role of beauty as an ecological value. Aldo Leopold knew this early on and called for a new kind of science. This paper expands on Leopold's insight and argues that if we don't include beauty in our efforts to achieve sustainability, we risk repeating the very patterns that have led to the great ecological crises we now face. | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 111 | 04:30 PM |
| POS3455 | WMU EcoMug: An Initiative to Reduce Disposable Cups on Campus | Western Michigan University spends over $32,000 annually on foam cups, paper cups, and plastics lids. There are additional "upstream" environmental and energy costs associated with manufacturing these products and "downstream" costs associated with the collection, transport, and disposal of them. In 2001, students began the EcoMug program for Environmental Studies 4100: Appropriate Technologies and Sustainability, Campus as a Living, Learning Laboratory with the goal of eliminating disposable beverage containers from campus. Subsequent classes, Students for a Sustainable Earth, and the Western Student Association have worked to improve and expand the EcoMug program. WMU’s current EcoMug is a 15 oz., dual-wall, recyclable, stainless steel, ISO 14001 certified travel mug. In the winter of 2009, the Western Student Association passed a resolution to provide EcoMugs to all incoming first year students, including transfer and international students. The WMU administration committed over $35,000 to the project in 2009-2010 and has agreed to continue and improve the program for 2010-2011. Concurrently, WMU Dining Services has begun to phase out disposables. WMU Dining services also offers a discount to EcoMug users as an incentive, and WMU’s Office of Sustainability has negotiated discounts with a network of local businesses. During the 2010-2011 school year, the WMU Office of Sustainability will implement a variety of new incentives and promotions to support further campus-wide behavior change as well as institute additional steps to evaluate the effects of the program. | Poster | Poster | |||
| PAP3308 | Working with Athletics | This session will explore concrete ideas for how a campus' sustainability officer can work with the Athletics Department, how Athletics often leads the way in innovation, and how to use sustainability to begin building a bridge between the often at-odds Academy and Athletics (and Operations/Facilities). | Paper | 20 minute | Tues | 104 | 02:10 PM |
| PAP3102 | ZotWheels - UC Irvine's Automated Bikeshare Program | ZotWheels bikeshare is the first automated bikeshare program in California and only the second at a university in the United States. ZotWheels was designed and implemented by Parking and Transportation Services (P&TS) at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) to provide students, faculty, and staff access to immediate low-cost transportation at fully-automated, self-service bike stations. Bikeshare aims to change the way the campus community attends class, meetings, or runs short-distance errands by eliminating the use of a personal or fleet vehicle. The addition of automated bikeshare complements P&TS’s array of sustainable transportation options allowing UCI to meet emissions reduction targets. ZotWheels is a membership-based program in which UCI community members fill out an application online, sign a liability waiver, and take an online bicycle and pedestrian safety course. Members are charged a $40 membership fee which gives them unlimited use of bicycles for one calendar year. Four stations with up to 12 bikes each are available at central locations around the campus. The ZotWheels system is self-contained with networked computers that link real-time data to the system’s main database. Many universities and other institutions are interested in automated bikeshare as an emissions reduction strategy and as a way to encourage healthy commute options in their communities. The panel presentation will be an opportunity to learn about ZotWheels’ design and implementation and the day-to-day management of the program and how the bikeshare concept might be applied at other campuses. | Paper | 20 minute | Mon | 113 | 12:50 PM |
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