University of Maryland, College Park Recognized for Climate Leadership

The University of Maryland, College Park receives Second Nature’s 2nd Annual Climate Leadership Award. Award recipients were recognized at the 5th Annual American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) Summit in Washington, DC on June 23rd, hosted by George Washington University.

After becoming a charter signatory of the ACUPCC in 2007, former University President Dan Mote convened a 55-member Climate Action Plan Work Group with broad student, faculty, and staff representation to develop the University’s plan for reaching carbon neutrality and enhancing educational and research activities. The University Senate and President approved the Climate Action Plan in 2009 and created a permanent University Sustainability Council to oversee implementation of the Plan and to advise the President (currently Wallace Loh) on sustainability issues. The Council also oversees the University Sustainability Fund, which this year provided $150,000 to nine projects that seek to reduce the environmental impact of the campus. The Council is chaired by the Vice President for Administration and has representation from all other Vice Presidents, students, faculty, and staff.

The University of Maryland has made great strides to address the mandates of the ACUPCC, including achieving significant GHG emissions reductions and integrating sustainability across the curriculum. Campus emissions decreased by 8.5% between 2005 and 2009 despite campus growth. Remarkably, emissions decreased 6.6% between 2008 and 2009 alone. The University is currently conducting its annual emissions inventory and expects a reduction of 40,352 MT-CO2e in 2010 due to the University’s purchase of 66,000 RECs, which represents a 14% reduction of the 2009 carbon footprint, this put Maryland #6 on the EPA Green Power Purchasers list. Successes in the area of emissions reductions and resource conservation inspired the new campus sustainability motto, “Terps leave small footprints.”

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University of Maine Recognized for Climate Leadership

The University of Maine receives Second Nature’s 2nd Annual Climate Leadership Award for Climate Leadership. Award recipients were recognized at the 5th Annual American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) Summit in Washington, DC on June 23rd, hosted by George Washington University.

President Robert Kennedy, Vice President for Administration and Finance Janet Waldron, and Executive Director of Facilities and Planning Elaine Clark – along with faculty, staff, and students – are all active participants in the University of Maine Sustainability Alliance, which has been responsible for the development of the university’s climate action plan. The office of the Vice President for Administration and Finance also coordinated the creation of the award-winning and sustainability-focused campus master plan. UMaine’s senior administration is currently working to harmonize the implementation of these two plans and to create an overarching sustainability plan to guide university decision-making and development.

UMaine is proud of several new graduate programs that will provide its students with exceptional opportunities to become environmental leaders. These include the Sustainability MBA and an M.S. degree (and undergraduate minor) in Renewable Energy and the Environment which will take advantage of the tremendous Offshore-Wind Laboratory that will be completed later this year. The University also offers an M.A. in Global Policy, with a concentration in International Environmental Policy. UMaine is confident that these programs (along with its Student Innovation Center) will create a dynamic community of learners focused on renewable energy, sustainability, and innovation.

During 2009-2010, UMaine received nearly $50 million in external funding to support sustainability-related research. In addition to creating solutions to environmental problems in Maine (Maine’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative), UMaine researchers are working to deepen the understanding of climate change (UMaine’s Climate Change Institute), and to develop new technologies that will catalyze significant change in the renewable energy industry (UMaine’s Offshore Wind Laboratory and Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative).

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University of California, Irvine Recognized for Climate Leadership

University of California, Irvine receives Second Nature’s 2nd Annual Climate Leadership Award. Award recipients were recognized at the 5th Annual American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) Summit in Washington, DC on June 23rd, hosted by George Washington University.

UC Irvine’s award-winning sustainability program builds on the University of California’s (UC) comprehensive Policy on Sustainability Practices encompassing Green Building Design, Clean Energy, Climate Protection, Sustainable Transportation, Sustainable Operations, Recycling and Waste Management, Environmentally Preferable Purchasing, and Sustainable Food Services. With the support of Chancellor Michael Drake, Wendell Brase, UC Irvine’s Vice Chancellor for Administrative & Business Services, leads UC’s systemwide Climate Solutions Steering Group and UC Irvine’s Sustainability Committee. Brase is frequently invited to speak at regional and national conferences addressing carbon reduction on university and college campuses.

In 2007, UC committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 2000 levels by 2014, 1990 levels by 2020, and net zero emissions as soon as possible. UC Irvine developed its own strategy to achieve these GHG reductions and is on track to meet 2014 and 2020 goals. Since 2007, the campus has reduced CO2e emissions by 34,060 metric tons by employing a Strategic Energy Partnership Program (SEP), on-site renewable energy, transportation demand management, and a Green Building Program. Eight UC Irvine buildings bear the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Gold rating for new construction, the most at any U.S. campus. Staff bring the innovation and commitment instrumental to the success of all of these efforts.

This year, UC Irvine completed Phase I of its SEP, the most far-reaching energy efficiency and conservation program attempted by any California campus. This program resulted in annual savings of 16,000 metric tons of GHG emissions, which will be sustained year after year. UC Irvine is now implementing Phase 2. During the two-year implementation period, the campus expects to save 17 million kWh and 150,000 therms of natural gas, exceeding the benchmark achieved in Phase I. This goal, if achieved, will again surpass the energy-efficiency savings of all other California campuses.

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Frostburg State University Recognized for Climate Leadership

Frostburg State University receives Second Nature’s 2nd Annual Climate Leadership Award. Award recipients were recognized at the 5th Annual American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) Summit in Washington, DC on June 23rd, hosted by George Washington University.

Frostburg State University (FSU) President Jonathan Gibralter’s long-time commitment to sustainability has led to leadership roles in organizations at both the state and national levels, including ACUPCC’s Leadership Circle and 2011-2012 Steering Committee, the 2007-2008 Maryland Commission on Climate Change Greenhouse Gas and Carbon Mitigation Working Group and the 2010 Second Nature National Transportation Policy Task Force. His knowledge from these experiences has helped him identify opportunities for FSU, and his advocacy has served as an inspiration and a call to action to the FSU campus.

FSU’s success in making sustainability a central part of its identity and educational mission is best conveyed by the name of its sustainability initiative, “Learning Green, Living Green (LGLG).” The institution has taken a comprehensive, holistic approach to addressing climate change that has involved everything from expanding its academic offerings to helping students understand how their daily activities impact the environment.

LGLG and a faculty-led Sustainability Studies Committee, which oversees FSU’s interdisciplinary sustainability studies minor, have spearheaded a variety of activities that focus on environmental education. Each spring as part of Earth Week, LGLG hosts Focus Frostburg, a day of learning on sustainability that brings together the entire campus community. In 2010, attendance exceeded 1,000, with over 20 presentations and exhibits. Recent events include standing-room-only lectures by environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill and Ethan Nuss, field director of the Energy Action Coalition, and community screenings of the films “GasLand” and “Shale Gas and America’s Future,” two documentaries on natural gas drilling, an issue that is shaping Western Maryland’s future.

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Delaware State University Recognized for Climate Leadership

Delaware State University (DSU) receives Second Nature’s 2nd Annual Climate Leadership Award. Award recipients were recognized at the 5th Annual American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) Summit in Washington, DC on June 23rd, hosted by George Washington University.

Leadership at DSU, inclusive of President Harry Williams down to the Deans of the colleges, has spearheaded the development of a culture of teamwork to change the patterns of past waste and lack of concern regarding the university’s impact on the environment to one of striving to be an example of sustainability stewardship. Staff are encouraged to make recommendations on how to be better stewards of the earth’s resources, and the formation of a 16 member steering committee was just the beginning. Subcommittees quickly followed and teams of faculty, staff and students now assemble regularly to ensure the direction of the University’s green efforts.

DSU staff participate in a variety of sustainable efforts including; climate action conferences, webinars and numerous conference calls with sustainability groups from within the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) and other organizations. Most notably being a participant in a panel hosted by ACUPCC and the UNCF at the United Nations COP16 in Cancun, Mexico, in December 2010.

DSU is proud of the formation of a student organization, the Green Ambassadors. Students were supported in their work towards organizing Earth Day 2011, to attend Power Shift 2011, become ecoAmbassadors as part of the newly launched EPA campus based program, work with the College of Agriculture replacing desolate areas on campus with sustainability gardens, and one student was the national award winner for sustainability efforts on campus by AASHE. None of this would have been allowed without the support of university leadership.

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Green Mountain College Recognized for Climate Leadership

Green Mountain College receives Second Nature’s 2nd Annual Climate Leadership Award. Award recipients were recognized at the 5th Annual American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) Summit in Washington, DC on June 23rd, hosted by George Washington University.

The story of Green Mountain College’s (GMC) sustainability achievements began in 1995, when it adopted an environmental liberal arts mission. The faculty created a 37-credit general education curriculum that focuses on teaching all students how to take responsibility for the health of their natural and social environments. In 2006, GMC became the first College in Vermont to sign the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), embracing the challenge to accelerate the College’s progress towards climate neutrality and sustainability. Its first GHG inventory, completed in 2007, drew attention to the significant emissions from its #6 fuel oil heating plant. That year, students in an honors seminar explored alternatives and paid for a biomass feasibility study using their Student Campus Greening Fund. In 2008, President Paul J. Fonteyn and the College’s Board of Trustees, recognizing the foresight of these students, invested in the conversion of the heating plant into a combined heat and power system powered by woodchips.

Simultaneously, the Campus Sustainability Council (CSC) addressed transportation issues, thermal conservation and waste reduction. Over the past decade GMC has invested an average of $1.2 million/year in projects to improve its energy efficiency, including window replacements, steam line upgrades, and lighting retrofits. The 2009 carbon inventory showed a 19.8% reduction in carbon emissions per student from the 2007 baseline.

This year, GMC achieved climate neutrality using the standards of the ACUPCC. Construction of a biomass plant, multi-year investment in energy efficiency projects, and an innovative partnership with its local utility enabled the College to become climate neutral. ACUPCC guidelines served as a roadmap to the goal. GMC students advanced carbon reduction strategies across the College’s operations; faculty integrated carbon inventories and climate action planning into the curriculum.

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Colgate University Recognized for Climate Leadership

Colgate University receives Second Nature’s 2nd Annual Climate Leadership Award. Award recipients were recognized at the 5th Annual American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) Summit in Washington, DC on June 23rd, hosted by George Washington University.

In 2010, Colgate University reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent (from 17,323 MTeCO2 in 2009 to 14,451 MTeCO2 in 2010). This reduction is mainly the result of conservation and efficiency projects through a:

•   24 percent decrease in fuel oil consumption (nearly 88,000 gallons less in 2010 compared to 2009)

•   4 percent decrease in electricity consumption (1.3 million kWh less in 2010 compared to 2009)

•   33 percent decrease in paper use (43,000 lbs less in 2010 compared to 2009)

•   4 percent decrease in landfill waste (34 tons less in 2010 compared to 2009)

Combined, conservation and efficiency saved the university nearly $300,000 in operating costs while enhancing its liberal arts education as student participation was integral to these results through academic research, governance, and co-curricular club activities. Additionally, student-driven behavior change programs such as Eco-Olympics and the Green Living Program were designed by students and implemented for the first time in 2010.

In 2010, Colgate used 23,000 tons of locally-grown wood chips to provide heat and hot water to campus. Their wood-fired boiler displaced over one million gallons of fuel oil, avoided over 13,000 metric tons of emissions, and saved the university over $2 million in energy costs. CU is also experimenting with cropped biomass in the form of an 8-acre willow plot in the hopes of cultivating some of its own energy.

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Mount Wachusett Community College Recognized for Climate Leadership

Mount Wachusett Community College receives Second Nature’s 2nd Annual Climate Leadership Award. Award recipients were recognized at the 5th Annual American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) Summit in Washington, DC on June 23rd, hosted by George Washington University.

With President Daniel Asquino leading the college for more than twenty years, Mount Wachusett Community College (MWCC) was at the forefront of the national climate movement when it converted its all-electric campus to biomass heating in 2002 to save on energy costs and reduce its carbon footprint. The tremendous success of that initiative – implemented at zero net cost to the college through grants and energy rebates – led to other renewable solutions including solar and wind energy.

This year, MWCC activated two new 1.65 MW wind turbines. The Vestas V82 turbines are expected to generate 97 percent of the college’s annual electricity demand, plus return an additional 30 percent of power back to the grid. With the college’s biomass heating, 100KW photovoltaic array, and solar domestic hot water technologies incorporated into the mix, MWCC anticipates operating as a zero net energy campus and nearing carbon neutrality.

MWCC’s wind energy project is an integral component in the Massachusetts Leading by Example Program initiated by Gov. Deval Patrick to achieve statewide goals for clean and renewable energy. The $9 million project, a collaboration between the college and key state agencies, is being funded through $3.2 million in U.S. Department of Energy grants, $2.1 million from a low interest Clean Renewal Energy Bond (CREB); and $3.7 million from Massachusetts Clean Energy Investment Bonds.

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Montgomery County Community College Recognized for Climate Leadership

Montgomery County Community College receives Second Nature’s 2nd Annual Climate Leadership Award. Award recipients were recognized at the 5th Annual American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) Summit in Washington, DC on June 23rd, hosted by George Washington University.

Since joining the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment in 2007, sustainability has become a core value at Montgomery County Community College (MCCC). Sustainability efforts are led by a team of faculty, students, administrators, support staff, alumni and community members that comprise the President’s Climate Commitment Advisory Council. Chaired by College President Dr. Karen Stout, the Council developed the College’s first-ever Climate Commitment Action Plan, outlining short and long-term strategies to reach carbon neutrality.

The plan, which is divided into key categories –including transportation, campus operations, curricular and co-curricular activities, and community outreach – was reviewed by the Environmental Protection Agency and was endorsed by the College’s Board of Trustees. The new and current strategic plan, “Great Expectations: Keeping the Promise of Student Access and Success,” focuses on campus renewal and sustainability as one of MCCC’s strategic goals.

The College introduced a new general education core curriculum that shapes students’ experiences through 13 learning competencies. One competency is civic responsibility, which requires students to analyze society’s environmental impact on the non-human world and future generations to better ensure sustainability.

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Bunker Hill Community College Recognized for Climate Leadership

Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) receives Second Nature’s 2nd Annual Climate Leadership Award. Award recipients were recognized at the 5th Annual American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) Summit in Washington, DC on June 23rd, hosted by George Washington University.

Mary Fifield, BHCC College President working with the Executive staff have established one of the College’s goals to be “Cultivating College-­‐Wide Sustainability Initiatives” in an effort to develop new degree programming, integrate sustainability within existing programs and to promote conservation of natural resources. In addition, the College made another unprecedented commitment to sustainability by establishing an executive cabinet level position, the Director of Sustainability, who has college-­‐wide responsibility for integration of sustainable best practices.

The BHCC Board of Trustees has also taken an active role and recently conducted a presentation at the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) annual convention in Toronto, Canada called “Commitment to the Environment: Start a Sustainability Program at Your College” that included a customized Climate Action Planning Template tool to assist other colleges in their climate action planning process.

BHCC has provided large-­scale sustainability professional development training for faculty and staff. The trainings were facilitated by  Debra Rowe, President of the U.S. Partnership for Education/Sustainable Development and Leith Sharp, founder of Harvard University’s Green Campus Initiative. Learning activities included the “What’s Your Carbon Footprint” quiz, themed workshops, launch of the Climate Impact Decision Assist research tool (CIDAT) and tour of local recycling facilities. BHCC is also a member of AACC‘s Sustainability Education and Economic Development (SEED) Center, a leadership initiative and resource center that provides strategic guidance and detailed resources for community colleges to ramp-up their programs to educate America’s 21^st century workforce.

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