This article looks at infrastructure development among colleges and universities participating in STARS. Data related to building construction and maintenance, GHG emissions, and energy consumption can shed light on how campuses are developing, whether improvements are being made over time, and how infrastructure relates to campus sustainability on a grand scale. The analysis was conducted on 237 STARS rated institutions in Spring 2013, and focused on data submitted within the Buildings, Climate, and Energy subcategories.

Building Operations & Construction
Two credits in STARS depict how colleges and universities address building operations and new design and construction. OP 1: Buildings Operations & Maintenance and OP 2: Building Design & Construction award points based on the proportion of sustainable building space on campus. Points are awarded at incremental values based on earned LEED ratings. STARS awards minimal points for space that is not certified, but is designed or maintained in accordance with green standards.

Comparing Building Operations & New Construction - all Institutions
When comparing building operations and new construction side-by-side, a significant disparity on green building standards can be found. In the area of existing building operations, only one percent of total building space earned a LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (EBOM) rating. The majority of building space was identified as being “maintained in accordance with green standards.” For new construction, over one-third of new building space earned a LEED rating while one-quarter was identified as being “designed and constructed in accordance with green standards.”

What can account for the disparity between the rate of LEED EBOM and LEED for new building certifications? One explanation may be that new building certifications are more established, with EBOM coming on the scene later. Other possible considerations: Is it more difficult or costly to attain a strong LEED EBOM rating? How does deferred maintenance and aging campus infrastructure play a role? We welcome readers’ feedback.

Perhaps the more important question is, how do these campus infrastructure trends affect the state of campus sustainability on a larger scale? In higher education, building operations tend to generate the greatest proportion of greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. For this reason, a review of Climate and Energy credits may shed additional light on the question.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions
OP 5: Greenhouse Gas Emissions is the central credit in the Climate subcategory, with up to 14 points available for reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions per weighted campus users (WCU) compared to a 2005 baseline (see page 109 of the STARS Technical Manual to see how WCU is calculated).

STARS data reveal that over time, average emissions per WCU decreased from 6.5 to 5.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Sixty percent of rated institutions reduced their net greenhouse gas emissions relative to WCU between the 2005 baseline year and performance year (institutions select performance year based on when the most-recent data are available). While a drop in average emissions per weighted campus users does seem promising, can this be considered enough in the grand scheme of things? It is after all total emissions that cause harm to our environment and society.

The graph above depicts total GHG emissions reported for the 2005 baseline year and performance year among all STARS institutions. Scope 1 & 2 emissions decreased slightly between the baseline and performance years, while carbon offsets generated on-site increased marginally. Purchase of carbon offsets grew ten-fold between 2005 and performance years (though still covered only a fraction of total emissions).

Despite a promising reduction in GHG emissions per weighted campus user, STARS data depict a more modest reduction in total emissions. Does this demonstrate a sustainable rate of reduction? It may be too soon to tell, but it’s clear that more needs to be done in the area of climate mitigation.

Energy Consumption
OP 7: Building Energy Consumption is one of two central credits in the Energy subcategory of STARS. Institutions are awarded up to 8 points for reducing total building energy consumption per gross square foot (GSF) of building space compared to a 2005 baseline.

Energy consumption per GSF dropped from .18 to .16 MMBtu between the 2005 baseline and performance year for all STARS institutions. Overall, 68 percent of rated institutions had reduced energy consumption per GSF of building space during that time.

Once again, a review of total energy consumption presents a less-optimistic reality. STARS data reveal that total energy consumption (above-left) actually increased between 2005 and the performance year, despite a decrease in consumption per GSF. A slight increase in energy consumption can primarily be explained by growth in campus building space (above-right). The analysis reveals that a lot more needs to be done to achieve a sustainable rate of energy reduction.

Sustainable Development
Among STARS institutions, few existing buildings are earning EBOM ratings, though most are being maintained in accordance with green practices. A much higher rate of new building construction results in earned LEED ratings. Despite these findings, STARS data suggest that an increase in building space resulting from new construction and major renovations is a significant obstacle for achieving sustainability in the higher education sector. More should be done to plan for growth more effectively while cutting emissions and consumption.

Tackling the Problem
Emissions and consumption rates must be reduced by significant amounts regardless of the size and growth of our built environment and population. AASHE’s Climate Action Planning How-to Guide provides specific recommendations for GHG mitigation strategies related to all of the following and more: energy conservation and efficiency; on-site renewable energy technologies; maximizing space utilization; and designing and building only the greenest, most energy efficient new buildings. The Operations section of AASHE’s Resource Center also provides relevant suggestions and resources.

What else can colleges and universities do to encourage sustainable campus growth? What are some successful outreach strategies that campuses are using along with mitigation strategies? We welcome feedback on additional suggestions and ideas.

Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth

by Mark Hertsgaard

http://www.umbc.edu/undergrad_ed/book/ For twenty years, Mark Hertsgaard has investigated global warming as a journalist, but the full truth did not hit home until he became a father and, soon thereafter, learned that climate change was bound to worsen for decades to come. Hertsgaard's daughter is part of what he has dubbed "Generation Hot" — the two billion young people worldwide who will spend the rest of their lives coping with climate disruption. Drawing on reporting from around the world, Hot is a call to action that injects hope and solutions into a debate characterized by doom and gloom and offers a blueprint for how all of us can navigate an unavoidable new era. Why NSBE? The opportunity to participate in a Essay Contest. Reading and discussion that is good preparation for English 100, which uses the book in assignments throughout the semester. Related campus-wide lectures throughout the year Preparation for other classes, which discuss topics addressed by the book.	NSBE 2013 Nominated by Mary Rivkin Associate Professor Education
	Purchase the book here.

For More Information:
Jill Randles
Assistant Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education
jrandles@umbc.edu | (410) 455-3715

Clowns instead of traffic police. A vaccine against crime. BOGOTÁ CHANGE is the story of two charismatic mayors, Antanas Mockus and Enrique Peñalosa who, with unorthodox methods, in less than 10 years turned one of the world's most dangerous, violent, and corrupt capitals into a peaceful model city populated by caring citizens. The film uncovers the ideas, philosophies, and strategies that underlie the changes in Bogotá which are now being exported to cities worldwide. The film discusses many civic issues related to the development of Bogota, Colombia, as well as sustainability aspects such as public transportation. (English and Spanish soundtrack with English subtitles.)

Join OCSS, seb, Transit, and ReSET in the Sports Zone of The Commons on March 27th during one of the three documentary screenings: 11:40AM-1PM, 2:40PM-4PM, 4:40PM-6PM. Free Popcorn.

In light of Recyclemania, the event will be "waste free" with compost bins available for food waste. Come to learn about composting and sustainable initiatives on campus, stay for the film!

A documentary reaction will be held on March 29th @ UC, Room 312 from 12-1:30PM where free lunch will be served.

For more information, visit http://my.umbc.edu/groups/ocss.

See you there!
Off-Campus Student Services

Eco-Education

A first-year seminar class offered this semester is giving students the chance to explore environmental issues from a humanities perspective. The class, Sustainability in American Culture, focuses on eco-literacy; that is, an awareness of how cultural influences can affect our relationship with the environment.

“In a humanities course, it’s possible to think about thing like culture, discourse and language and how those things shape our thinking and how our thinking shapes our interaction with the environment and the natural world,” said Rita Turner, ’11 Ph.D., language, literacy and culture, who is teaching the class. Turner’s dissertation is based on developing curriculum to cultivate environmental awareness in high school and college students, so when she heard that the university was testing the idea of having graduate students teach first-year seminars she jumped at the chance to use her materials.

The class allows students to approach environmental issues from multiple perspectives, rather than just learning the science of the environment. For example, students read about how everyday items are produced, wrote creative pieces from the perspective of nonhuman beings in the environment and created digital stories about places.

“We look critically about what’s said in the media, how our attitudes are shaped, what metaphors we use to talk about the natural world and what rights we have,” said Turner. By discussing popular discourse on the environment, Turner hopes to empower her students—many of whom are science majors who plan to work on environmental issues —to understand and critique the range of factors that contribute to our attitudes about the environment.

“I like the fact that we can step into the gray areas instead of being in the black-and-white place that we normally are when it comes to classes and answers,” said Heather Harshbarger ’14, chemical engineering.

“I was surprised at how much information the class covered,” said Jennie Williams ’14, social work. “Not only did the curriculum focus on conservation, but it also explored consumerism, corporate power, political influence and even art and creative reflection in nature.”

Williams, an avid recycler and vegetarian, said that she was aware of environmental issues before taking the class but that it has expanded her view of these issues. “I have definitely become more aware of consumerism in the American culture and it has motivated me to stay active in education and projects of environmental protection,” she said.

Turner said that teaching the class has helped her to hone the curriculum that she will present with her dissertation, and she looks forward to being able to share what she learned in a real classroom with her dissertation committee. Teaching the class has reinforced her belief that students should learn to think critically about the environment. “This sort of humanities piece of the puzzle is missing, and I feel like there’s a real need for that,” she said.

(12/6/10)

AASHE’s Presidential Voices interview series features conversations with heads of higher education institutions who are inspiring sustainability leaders. To recommend a president or chancellor for this series, contact Judy Walton, chief publications officer, at judy@aashe.org.

Beverly Daniel Tatum, Spelman College President since 2002, is our guest for this interview. Spelman is America's oldest historically Black college for women, and a leading liberal arts institution. It has been recognized for its environmental efforts with a Green Key Award from the U.S. EPA. In 2010, Dr. Tatum signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). Most recently, she spearheaded a Wellness Revolution at the college to empower and educate Spelman women on the value of lifelong wellness as a means of building strong, sustainable communities. Dr. Tatum is a member of the President’s Board of Advisors to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. She earned a B.A. degree in psychology from Wesleyan University, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan. She also holds an M.A. in religious studies from Hartford Seminary.

Judy Walton: Why is sustainability important to Spelman, and how does it fit the college’s overall mission and tagline, “A Choice to Change the World?”

Beverly Tatum: Sustainability should be important to everyone because it’s essential to the viability of the planet on which we live. It was listed as a key priority in my 2007 convocation talk, and sustainability goals are incorporated into Spelman’s Strategic Plan for 2015. Sustainability is also listed up front on our About Us page.

When we talk about the mission of Spelman, we talk about preparing young women to be leaders; we talk about educating the whole person—mind, body, and spirit—developing her intellectual, academic and ethical leadership potential. You can’t talk about ethics without talking about responsibility, and you can’t talk about responsibility, in a holistic way, without talking about responsibility for the environment of which we are a part. So when we think about preparing students for the future --preparing them to be ethical leaders – certainly an awareness of sustainability is critical and an important part of what we mean when we say, “A Choice to Change the World.”

As I have said in other contexts, we are changing the world all the time, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. We’re not always conscious of the way we’re changing the world, but each of us in our daily interactions is making an impact. When we think about our environmental impact we want to be conscious of this in order to be good stewards of the planet on which we live and to make sure that the change we’re making is a positive one as opposed to one that’s detrimental to the long- term health of ourselves and those we care about.

JW: What key initiatives have led to Spelman’s recognition as a sustainability leader among HBCUs?

BT: We talk about sustainability at Spelman in the context of three areas of focus: One is traditional environmental sustainability. The second is personal sustainability, which has to do with our own personal health and wellness. The third focus area is communal sustainability -- the health and well-being of our campus as an institution. Each focus area has an initiative associated with it on our campus.

When we talk about environmental sustainability, we highlight Spelman’s Climate Action Plan and its status as a signatory of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. As part of this commitment, we’ve set a target date for achieving carbon neutrality – we chose the year 2056, which is the 175th anniversary of the College.

We’re also committed to building green. In 2008, The Suites residence hall opened – the first-ever LEED Silver certified residence hall at a historically Black college or university. That commitment has been strengthened by a policy adopted by our board of trustees in 2010 stating that all new construction and renovations will be completed at no less than LEED Silver standards. The renovation of Laura Spelman Rockefeller Hall concluded in the fall of 2012 and we’re delighted that it has received LEED Gold certification. In support of our Wellness Revolution, we are planning a new project – Read Hall, which will of course be completed using LEED standards.

Also under the environmental sustainability umbrella we include curricular innovation and research. Along with everyday opportunities for conservation, we want to provide curriculum to further integrate sustainability across courses and disciplines with the goal of graduating empowered women who embody all three dimensions of Sustainable Spelman. We have faculty and staff Green Leaders who are working on environmental and sustainability solutions regionally, nationally and globally.

When we speak about personal sustainability we highlight our sustainability pledge as well as our Wellness Revolution and all it represents. Whether we’re talking about stroke, heart disease, breast cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, or HIV/AIDS, all these illnesses disproportionately impact Black woman. However, with changes in our diet, behavior, exercise and stress reduction, we can positively impact the current statistics. But we have to be knowledgeable about how to make those changes. Through the Wellness Revolution, we aim to educate the Spelman community on how to start and sustain healthy habits for life-long wellness.

Through communal sustainability we aim to make sure that Spelman College as an institution remains viable for many years. This requires all of us to abide by our standards of excellence which are captured by what we call the 3 C’s: civility, commitment, and consistency in excellence and performance.

JW: AASHE Bulletin recently featured Spelman’s plan to eliminate intercollegiate athletics in order to dedicate resources to a campus-wide fitness/wellness initiative. What was behind this decision, and how do fitness and wellness relate to sustainability?

BT: As I mentioned, personal sustainability is a key priority here at Spelman. When we decided to discontinue our participation in intercollegiate athletics in May 2013, we were not rejecting sports, or even competition -- just the limited benefit that our NCAA participation offered a few student athletes in favor of a program of activity that would support lifelong fitness for all 2,100 of our students.
The intent of our wellness program is to transition our students from high school sports to lifelong fitness. Just as we develop habits of the mind – such as critical-thinking skills that will be used for a lifetime -- we want to develop habits of the body that will support healthy and sustainable living for a lifetime.

If the health status of African-American women is an indicator of the health status of blacks living in America, the news is not good. According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 44 percent of Black women over age 20 have high blood pressure, and Black women are more likely to suffer from ailments such as diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer and stroke and to die from them early in comparison to women of other ethnicities. All of these illnesses are linked to obesity and lack of physical activity.

Given these statistics, the need for a Wellness Revolution at Spelman is urgent, because it is our population -- young black women -- that is among the most at risk for negative health outcomes. Committed to educating the whole person - mind, body and spirit - we have an opportunity to change the health trajectory of the young women we serve. We are taking this opportunity seriously through the development of a creative wellness program. Wellness and societal sustainability go hand-in-hand.

JW: As a leader of one of the premier HBCUs, and a 2005 recipient of the prestigious Brock International Prize in Education, what strategies do you recommend to make campus sustainability a more diverse, inclusive movement?

BT: At Spelman we are leading by example and certainly we take pride in the various presentations that members of our campus community have given at professional events, national conferences and in the media. Along with Art Frazier, our director of facilities (who presented at AASHE 2012), we also have faculty members like Fatemeh Shafiei, chair and associate professor of political science and Jerry Wever, assistant professor of anthropology, who provide insight on the various sustainability efforts at Spelman to the broader community. Through these opportunities and others, such as our student Green Ambassadors, we have been able to tell the Spelman story in a way that we hope inspires others.

JW: How is Spelman tracking its sustainability progress?

BT: Our Climate Action Plan that I described earlier contains benchmarks and timetables, and includes a completed STARS checklist detailing our progress. For personal sustainability, we’re tracking participation in healthy living behaviors such as exercise. As part of our wellness program, our wellness coordinator tracks student, faculty and staff participation. When asked what will be the measure of success for our wellness program, I like to say, “when we have a culture of movement at Spelman College.”

JW: As an institutional leader, what are your biggest challenges in advancing sustainability initiatives?

BT: As at many institutions, two of the biggest challenges to advancing initiatives are limited resources and complacency. When advocating for any initiative, securing resources can be a challenge and that has to do with being in a tough economy. Our primary responsibility is to ensure that we’re able to deliver stellar academic programs and keep students in school, which requires scholarship support for most of them. Regarding complacency, we have to work diligently to ensure that everyone understands why it’s so important to mobilize and be actively engaged, in both supporting and promoting sustainability.

JW: What would you like to accomplish next in terms of sustainability at Spelman?

BT: As it relates to environmental sustainability, the first major milestone is our Climate Action Plan, which I described earlier. Now that we have a plan, we need to follow it. As relates to personal sustainability, we are focused on the Wellness Revolution (which I also described earlier) and creating the physical space needed to fully implement the vision for the program. That involves the completion of Read Hall using LEED standards. We are actively engaged in raising funds for that project. Regarding communal sustainability, we will continue to educate the community about the importance of the 3 C’s at Spelman and what each of us can do to ensure the long term health of our institution.

JW: How do you spend your free time?

BT: I like to exercise, read, and focus on my personal sustainability. I also enjoy time alone and time with my family.

David Lansing, Assistant Professor in Geography and Environmental Systems, has received a notification of a grant award in collaboration with UMD College Park from USDA entitled "Watershed Diagnostics for improved Adoption of Management Practices: Integrating Biophysical and Social Factors".

1/2/13 Garth Lindner and Molly Van Appledorn,, PhD students in Geography and Environmental Systems, have received funding from Maryland Sea Grant toward their PhD research. Dr.

Lisa DeRose joined CUERE as a staff research assistant beginning 11/26/12.  She holds BS and MS degrees in Geology.  We are very excited to have her join the CUERE team.

  10/1/12 Dr. Dawn Biehler, Assistant Professor in Geography and Environmental Systems, is a co-PI on a NSF  Coupled Natural and Human Systems grant entitled "Urban Disamenities and Pests: Coupled Dynamics of Urban Mosquito Ecology and Human Systems Across Socioeconomically Diverse Communities". This project will test whether urban social and economic decay and urban infestations of mosquitoes feedback upon one another and, if so, how to break this vicious cycle.  A link to the complete project summary can be found here http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=1211797

10/1/12 The Baltimore Ecosystem Annual Science meeting will be held on October 24-25.  Details can be found on the project web site. http://www.beslter.org/bes_am_asp_2012/bes_am_reg_intro.html

  8/23/12  Dr. Chris Hennigan has joined the Department of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering as an Assistant Professor.  He holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Georgia Tech and recently completed a post-doctoral position at Carnegie Mellon in the Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies. Dr. Hennigan's research interests include air quality, atmospheric chemistry, and climate change. More detail can be found at his web site  http://userpages.umbc.edu/~hennigan/

7/1/12  Dr. Andrew Miller (GES) and Dr. Upal Ghosh (CBEE) have both received promotion to the rank of full professor.

Tanvi Gadhia

UMBC Environmental Sustainability Coordinator

Room 930, Administration Building

1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250

410-455-3896 | tanvig1@umbc.edu

http://sustainability.umbc.edu/

http://my.umbc.edu/groups/sustainability

By Mark Orlowski
Founder & Executive Director
Sustainable Endowments Institute

Whether your college is striving to reach its carbon-reduction goals or is considering divesting from fossil fuel companies, green revolving funds (GRFs) offer a compelling investment opportunity. With a median annual return (ROI) of 28 percent, GRFs are transforming campus energy efficiency improvements from perceived expenses to high-return investments. One of many GRF examples documented in Greening the Bottom Line 2012 is a project at George Washington University. GW is generating $100,000 per year in savings since investing $141,000 in 2010 to upgrade the lighting in their academic center. This project has already more than paid for itself and, over its projected eight-year lifespan, the original $141,000 investment will realize at least $800,000 in total savings (even more, if energy prices rise).

With more secure benefits than a volatile stock market, GRF investments provide your school’s trustees with a new sustainable path for fiduciary responsibility. In addition, many other sources of funding--ranging from cash reserves to utility rebates to alumni donations--offer additional options for capitalizing your GRF.

Green revolving funds are not only investing in energy efficiency projects, but also in renewable energy installations and waste reduction programs. To access information on 84 green revolving loan funds at 80 institutions containing more than $118 million, see AASHE's Campus Sustainability Revolving Loans Fund Database. While the GRF size, structure and project priorities vary considerably, by connecting the dots, we see that these investments not only advance sustainability, but also have financial benefits and educational advantages.

Financial Benefits
As reported in Greening the Bottom Line 2012, schools are using a variety of creative approaches to invest in and benefit from green revolving funds. Examples include:

• Innovative Endowment Investment: California Institute of Technology (Caltech) reports a 24 percent return on investment (excluding utility incentives) on their green revolving fund, the Caltech Energy Conservation Investment Program. The GRF capitalization was structured as an endowment investment, not as a payout from the endowment. This enables Caltech to avoid any issues related to donor restrictions on endowment gifts.

• Higher ROI on Cash Reserves: Financial payoff and functional flexibility are encouraging new commitments such as the University of Vermont’s board of trustees creating the Energy Revolving Fund with $13 million invested from the university’s cash reserves. With a 5 percent interest rate, the UVM revolving fund currently generates double the return on investment of other existing cash reserve investments. In addition, by investing in campus energy efficiency projects, the university is helping to generate on-site jobs that have a multiplier effect in the local economy.

• New Fundraising Opportunities: Agnes Scott College is in the forefront of showing how GRFs can offer a winning fundraising strategy. President Elizabeth Kiss and her development team at the Georgia college, raised over $400,000 in seed capital from both alumni and foundation donors within a few months. The successful method emphasized their fund’s strong ROI and its potential to turn the campus into a living laboratory for sustainability. “For me, it was critical that our GRF linked up with these broader themes of what kind of college and learning community we aspire to be,” said Elizabeth Kiss, President of Agnes Scott College. “The most powerful teaching you do is by being a role model.”

Educational Advantages
By connecting the dots, we can see how green revolving funds engage members of the campus community by advancing not only budget and climate goals, but also offering exciting educational opportunities. Examples include different dimensions of experiential education:

• Social Entrepreneurship: Just as business entrepreneurs identify opportunities to create for-profit ventures, social entrepreneurs envision and implement innovative approaches to meeting social and environmental needs. For example, in a class at Dartmouth College, students researched and developed a proposal for the Dartmouth Revolving Green Fund. After submitting the proposal to the administration, they received feedback. In response, two students working as independent consultants spent the summer improving the proposal to address the administrators’ concerns. The final version was favorably received and the students' efforts resulted in Dartmouth establishing a $1 million green revolving fund. Along with the academic benefits, students gained valuable skills to apply to future jobs or to starting their own organizations.

• Job Skills: In some cases, green revolving funds offer job skill opportunities by having students actually undertake the work to install the needed improvements with supervision by professors and/or facilities managers. For example, at Whitman College in Washington State, students spearheaded, and did the hands-on work, to create a rooftop garden funded by a loan from the college’s Sustainability Revolving Loan Fund. The loan was paid back in less than a year by selling the garden crops to Bon Appétit, which provides food service at the college.

• Leadership Opportunities: At many schools, students are invited to submit project proposals for consideration and selection by a GRF committee. Students even serve on the decision-making committee that selects and prioritizes project investments. In some cases, students can play even a larger leadership role in selecting projects for GRF funding. For example, at Bethany College in Kansas, six students join with the director of facilities, the vice president for finance and operations, a professor, a campus pastor and a local business owner to form the GRF Committee. Serving on the committee offers students a unique voice in setting sustainability priorities and allocating investment of limited financial resources.

What’s Next?
If you want to make the case to connect the dots and put green revolving funds to work at your school, two resources are already available and two upcoming events are planned to expand access and learn from GRF leaders and experts.

Co-published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute (SEI) and AASHE, Green Revolving Funds: An Introductory Guide to Implementation and Management provides practical guidance for designing, implementing, and managing a college or university GRF. Based on interviews with presidents, facility managers, sustainability directors, and chief financial officers, the 27-page publication features a 10-step road map for a successful fund, a section on the "anatomy" of a GRF, solutions to common obstacles and resources available through the Billion Dollar Green Challenge.

Once established, GRFs can benefit from the Green Revolving Investment Tracking System (GRITS) developed by the Sustainable Endowments Institute. This secure, account-based web tool is designed to manage every aspect of an institution’s green revolving fund including aggregate and project-specific energy, financial, and carbon data. The GRITS project library allows institutions to view completed GRF projects from other colleges, inspiring staff, students and administrators to both share best practices and adapt relevant projects for their own campus.

In order to extend access to green revolving fund benefits, the Sustainable Endowments Institute is convening a gathering in April at the Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Inspirational leaders from the nonprofit, government and foundation communities will develop collaborative strategies to provide low-cost capital for under-resourced institutions (such as community colleges and minority-serving institutions) to seed their own green revolving funds.

On April 17, the Sustainable Endowments Institute in partnership with AASHE is hosting the Financing the Future of Energy Efficiency Summit at the University of San Diego. Featuring a keynote address by Rip Rapson, President of the Kresge Foundation, the Summit will bring together leaders in financing sustainability with presidents, trustees, and senior officials in finance, facilities and sustainability at colleges, universities, foundations and other nonprofit institutions. Breakout sessions will meet needs of institutions just starting to consider their options as well as advanced strategies for those already leading GRF initiatives. We welcome your participation!

From the 2013 Legislative Testimony, Dr Freeman Hrabowski, III, UMBC President

SUSTAINABILITY

Our campus community is working to address global warming every day. Through our research and academic programs, we are producing knowledge and a new generation of informed citizens and leaders to move Maryland and the nation toward dramatically reduced emissions of greenhouse gases. We are part of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. Our Climate Change Task Force has developed an action plan and is actively implementing projects to reduce our carbon footprint on campus and beyond. Through climate change initiatives, the campus has reduced its net emissions by 13.3% over the past five years, a major reduction considering the 15% increase in enrollment and 2% increase in campus square footage during this time period. The additional square footage includes a LEED Gold Certified addition to Patapsco Residence Hall, complete with our campus’s first green roof, as well as Phase 1 of our new Performing Arts and Humanities Building built to LEED Silver standards.

As of 2012, 20% of UMBC’s electricity comes from renewable resources, utilizing our long-term contract with the University System of Maryland. A Chilled Water Optimization project significantly improves the efficiency of the Central Plant and cooling for most of the campus, reducing annual energy usage by 5,700,000 kWh and reducing annual Greenhouse Gas emissions by 3,100 metric tons eCO2. Relative to a baseline year of 2007, this represents a 7% reduction in electricity and 3.5% reduction in carbon footprint.

UMBC hired its first full-time Environmental Sustainability Coordinator in 2012, and the Student Government Association is funding five sustainability interns this year. Student participation in a new composting program and in Recyclemania, a 10-week national competition involving 400 colleges and universities, has boosted the campus’s recycling rate to 28%. The university has also made significant advances in green transportation initiatives, including optimizing UMBC transit service routes and schedules, a new carpooling policy, improved vanpooling and public transit options, and improvements to make the campus more bike- and pedestrian-friendly.