Colorado School of Mines

Welcome AASHE Conference Attendees from the Colorado School of Mines

Dear Colleagues:

Colorado School of Mines is pleased to welcome all the attendees and presenters of the 2010 AASHE Conference to our beautiful state of Colorado. I hope you will enjoy our mountain scenery and take advantage of the wonderful hospitality of the people of Colorado.  Colorado School of Mines, a world renowned science and engineering research university located in Golden, is a leader in our focus areas of Earth, Energy and Environment. At Mines, we believe we have multiple roles to play in addressing sustainability issues.

As part of our educational mission, we are integrating sustainability principles into as many courses as practicable, as well as ensuring that the curriculum for engineering students is broadly multidisciplinary, including the life sciences, liberal arts, economics and business classes. Through our engineering design courses, students are exposed to “hands-on” projects that include consideration of the environment, public policy, local communities and economics. We are justifiably proud of our many students who are pursuing a special focus on sustainability through such programs as the McBride Honors Program for Public Policy for Engineers, an energy minor, and our humanitarian engineering minor. Through these programs, we are graduating young scientists and engineers who can think beyond what is simply the most technically sound solution and incorporate economic, social and environmental ramifications into their decision making process.

Through our research mission, and working in partnership with other universities and national laboratories, Mines is helping advance the applicable science and develop new technologies that will enhance sustainability. Many of our internationally-recognized research centers, including the Advanced Water Technology Center, the Colorado Fuel Cell Center, the Renewable Energy Materials Research Science and Engineering Center and the Center for Environmental Risk Assessment, are focused on finding transformational solutions in the renewables arena, as well as new technologies to improve energy efficiency and conservation, address water treatment and waste, and other critical areas.

We are also constantly seeking new ways to address sustainability on our own campus. In addition to setting high standards for new construction and building renovation projects, we have made concrete progress in areas such as recycling, fleet fuel reductions, water conservation, and automated building controls. Our campus-wide sustainability committee is continually working to evaluate alternatives for future improvements.

We believe that sustainability - like higher education - represents a bridge from the present to the future. It is our responsibility as scientists, engineers and educators to address the grand challenges implied by our civilization’s quest for a sustainable, comfortable and material standard of living. To not do so misses a critical, and arguably irrecoverable, opportunity.

Colorado School of Mines celebrates our shared commitment with AASHE and its member universities to building a better world. On behalf of Colorado School of Mines, please accept our best wishes for a productive and enjoyable conference.

Sincerely,

Bill Scoggins
President, Colorado School of Mines