Kathleen Ng, Environmental Officer at McGill University, talks to AASHE about the 10-year anniversary of McGill's environmental policy, and her own experiences working on sustainability at McGill. Ng completed her BSc in Physiology with a minor in Management from McGill, and went on to pursue a Graduate Diploma in Management at McGill. Ng also completed an International Master's in Practicing Management, studying in the UK, India, China, and Brazil. In addition to serving as Environmental Officer for McGill, Ng is currently pursuing an MA in Practicing Management at Lancaster University.

If you are interested in participating in the AASHE Interview Series, email Niles Barnes at niles@aashe.org.

This year marks the 10-year anniversary of McGill’s environmental policy. How has this policy helped spur the passing of subsequent policies, including the sustainability policy and paper-use policy?

The environmental policy demonstrated the University’s commitment to the protection of the environment at the time, and my position was created to help with its implementation. As the portfolio evolved, we began to identify further opportunities for the University to mitigate its impact, which included the paper use policy (to reduce unnecessary paper consumption and encourage more enlightened paper purchasing practices), and the sustainability policy (which extends beyond the scope of the environmental policy).

What was the primary impetus for creating the environmental policy? Who was involved in the process of drafting and approving the policy?

From what I understand, the environmental policy served to fill a vacuum created when the University signed the Talloires and Halifax Declarations, but the perception at the time was that there was little action documented towards achievements of those goals. The Environmental Working Group, a multi-stakeholder working group of staff, students and faculty, helped draft the policy, which was submitted across campus for consultation before getting final approval by the McGill Senate.

Has the environmental policy been analyzed over the years to identify any areas or points that could be amended based on changes in the University (e.g. infrastructural, demographic)?

The Environmental Working Group became known as the Sub-Committee on Environment (a working group of the Senate Committee on Physical Development) after the approval of the policy. This group worked to identify areas and initiatives for potential action by the University. Fortunately, the environmental policy had been designed with a long-term focus, avoiding specifics in order to be as broad-reaching as possible. Instead of amendments, the paper-use policy and the sustainability policy were drafted separately since they were not already explicit in the original environmental policy.

How have the Sustainability Office and other departments at the university informed and educated the campus community over the years about the environmental policy?

By virtue of its composition, the multi-stakeholder Sub-Committee on Environment assisted in helping stakeholder groups stay connected over the years. For instance, the annual Rethink conference is a forum to which staff, students and faculty are invited to learn about ongoing campus initiatives and to bring forth additional ideas that could be implemented. These discussions allowed for the implementation of the Farmer’s Market, the Sustainability Office, and the Sustainability Policy. This is in addition to the usual media outreach (websites, promotional material, Facebook page, a listserve, working with Public Affairs, etc.) and activities (leadership workshops with the First Year Office, new student, faculty and staff orientations, and other events).

In general, what are the primary strategies you / your office use(s) to reach out to and engage students, faculty, and staff in sustainability initiatives?

While all the strategies mentioned earlier have been useful in helping us reach out to the community, I believe the real catalyst in engaging students, faculty and staff was the establishment of the Sustainability Projects Fund. The Fund was established to foster a culture of sustainability on campus, and is jointly funded by students and the administration dollar for dollar. With CA$800,000 a year for three years available already, this resource greatly empowers the community to act on their ideas to make our campus more sustainable.

How do you keep university leadership involved in and up-to-date on sustainability initiatives?

There are formal and informal channels. Examples of the former include the preparation of reports on request or on a proactive basis -- from briefing notes for the Principal, to reports for the Senate Committee on Physical Development, to a presentation to Senate about where we are with regards to policy implementation. We prepare responses to requests from ratings and rankings agencies such as Canada’s Greenest Employers, the Sustainable Endowments Institute, and the Conférence des Recteurs et des Principaux des Universités du Québec (the Association of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities). Information is also shared informally, through social events and communications networks.

How did you get started in campus sustainability, and what campus sustainability success are you most proud of?

I had been contemplating leaving my job in Human Resources for a change of scenery to teach English in Japan, when one of the managers working for my supervisor, the Executive Director of Human Resources, told me of a great opportunity. He had an opening in his office and thought I would be perfect for the job. After an interview with him, his staff, the Chair of the Sub-Committee on Environment as well as a couple of student representatives on the Committee, I was hired, and here I still am!

I am very proud of the leadership of this University with regards to supporting sustainability efforts, and the dedication of our students and staff who are contributing to campus sustainability. Over the years, we have strengthened the links between the “islands of sustainability” across different units and stakeholder groups, and it is especially rewarding when their combined efforts result in a visible success, such as the initiatives stated above. The development of this community is our strength: my goal is for the Sustainability Office to be obsolete, at which point sustainability would be ingrained in the culture on campus to the extent that an external catalyst is no longer necessary.

In what area(s) do you see the biggest room for growth in the campus sustainability field?

One of the areas I feel is least understood is the outcome of campus sustainability efforts, which can be highly contextualized. Most campuses begin with the low-hanging fruit usually in operations (utilities and energy management) before moving further into the aspects relating to education, research, and the social dimensions of sustainability.

How are you incorporating the social dimensions of sustainability into your work?

Previously, we had focused our attention on the social dimensions of sustainability in operations-related activities: for example, purchasing from a local NGO that provided job skills to immigrant and abused women, or sending IT equipment to an ISO14001-certified NGO that sought to re-integrate dropout and at-risk youths into society. Currently, we are also strengthening our relationships with units affiliated with the social dimensions of sustainability - such as the Social Equity and Diversity Education office, the First People’s House, and Student Services. We are looking for further opportunities for engagement and action. This included funding Aboriginal Awareness Week in September 2011 through the Sustainable Projects Fund.

How are you tracking progress toward sustainability?

In addition to the aforementioned reports, we participated in the development of and pilot of AASHE's STARS program, having become a charter participant in 2009. While there are aspects of STARS that could be improved, I recommended that McGill participate since, among other reasons, STARS was the most comprehensive, transparent and organic system available with widespread brand recognition.

Is there a particular insight (learning experience or “ah-ha” moment) you have had working on campus sustainability?

I think that there is a tendency for campus sustainability practitioners to take on too much, just because we are so passionate about what we do. This in itself is not sustainable (I speak from experience, having suffered a 3-month-long burnout), and I emphasize that the importance of delegation, working collaboratively rather than on our own islands of sustainability so that efforts could be better sustained in the long term. Refl’action – reflection and action!

Are you involved in efforts to advance sustainability in curriculum? How?

Due to the number of projects already on my plate, my colleague, Lilith Wyatt, has really taken charge of this dossier. Her efforts range from working with student interns for applied student research, to working to include campus sustainability efforts in the library database, to working with Teaching and Learning Services towards developing potential programs to advance sustainability in the curriculum.

How do you spend your free time?

When I’m not working, volunteering at the YMCA as a personal trainer, or working towards my latest degree, I try to be a bonne vivante and enjoy life as much as possible – hiking, biking, sampling local cuisine, scuba diving, travelling, seeing friends and family, walking the dog, la dolce vita!

Vanessa Arcara, a recent master’s graduate from Bard College’s Center on Environmental Protection, gave a well-received session on Tuesday titled “Moving Millennials: Engaging youth with food & agriculture policy.”

Arcara made it clear that her talk is intended for a gamut of sustainability change-makers on campuses, from students, to operational administrators, to faculty, and more: “We’re here to reach students and not just be another sound bite, and this information can be transferable to other environmental sectors as well.”

The presentation seamlessly segued from Plenary Speaker Leith Sharp’s talk on strategically communicating and effecting change on campuses, but looking specifically at one, influential audience: millennials. The essence of her presentation was concerned with analyzing how we communicate to college students or young Americans about food policy from a values perspective, and what types of projects encourage students to engage in civic action.

Holding a series of focus groups and interviews of various undergraduate students, Arcara found that millennials tend to hold core values that are in line with what sustainability professionals desire from change agents and change-makers. These values include community, equity, global consciousness, and personal growth. Thus, successful sustainability campaigns should be built around core values.

After discussing the findings from her research around values to which students associate, Arcara posed several recommendations to serve as tangible take-aways for the audience. One of these recommendations included the creation of a visual aid to depict engagement pathways, or opportunities that students can get involved in in varying degrees. However, the visual representation of these pathways help to increase the chance that students will want to commit for a few reasons.

For one, the options are laid out clearly and if put into a diagram or visual aid of sorts, could be distributed as an electronic or print hand-out that will also make the project more memorable and the chances of engaging more students higher. Another reason is that a visual aid helps take out the “scare” factor of signing up for another club, another project, another research project, which is often what sustainability professionals are up against when trying to engage students.

Arcara pointed out that there’s a remarkable opportunity to do a better job, mainly because the student demography has not yet reached a huge involvement.

To contact Vanessa Arcara and hear more about her research or above-mentioned recommendations to effect more meaningful change in sustainable food policy, you can email her at vanessa.arcara@gmail.com.

Vanessa Arcara, a recent master’s graduate from Bard College’s Center on Environmental Protection, gave a well-received session on Tuesday titled “Moving Millennials: Engaging youth with food & agriculture policy.”

Arcara made it clear that her talk is intended for a gamut of sustainability change-makers on campuses, from students, to operational administrators, to faculty, and more: “We’re here to reach students and not just be another sound bite, and this information can be transferable to other environmental sectors as well.”

The presentation seamlessly segued from Plenary Speaker Leith Sharp’s talk on strategically communicating and effecting change on campuses, but looking specifically at one, influential audience: millennials. The essence of her presentation was concerned with analyzing how we communicate to college students or young Americans about food policy from a values perspective, and what types of projects encourage students to engage in civic action.

Holding a series of focus groups and interviews of various undergraduate students, Arcara found that millennials tend to hold core values that are in line with what sustainability professionals desire from change agents and change-makers. These values include community, equity, global consciousness, and personal growth. Thus, successful sustainability campaigns should be built around core values.

After discussing the findings from her research around values to which students associate, Arcara posed several recommendations to serve as tangible take-aways for the audience. One of these recommendations included the creation of a visual aid to depict engagement pathways, or opportunities that students can get involved in in varying degrees. However, the visual representation of these pathways help to increase the chance that students will want to commit for a few reasons.

For one, the options are laid out clearly and if put into a diagram or visual aid of sorts, could be distributed as an electronic or print hand-out that will also make the project more memorable and the chances of engaging more students higher. Another reason is that a visual aid helps take out the “scare” factor of signing up for another club, another project, another research project, which is often what sustainability professionals are up against when trying to engage students.

Arcara pointed out that there’s a remarkable opportunity to do a better job, mainly because the student demography has not yet reached a huge involvement.

To contact Vanessa Arcara and hear more about her research or above-mentioned recommendations to effect more meaningful change in sustainable food policy, you can email her at vanessa.arcara@gmail.com.

Vanessa Arcara, a recent master’s graduate from Bard College’s Center on Environmental Protection, gave a well-received session on Tuesday titled “Moving Millennials: Engaging youth with food & agriculture policy.”

Arcara made it clear that her talk is intended for a gamut of sustainability change-makers on campuses, from students, to operational administrators, to faculty, and more: “We’re here to reach students and not just be another sound bite, and this information can be transferable to other environmental sectors as well.”

The presentation seamlessly segued from Plenary Speaker Leith Sharp’s talk on strategically communicating and effecting change on campuses, but looking specifically at one, influential audience: millennials. The essence of her presentation was concerned with analyzing how we communicate to college students or young Americans about food policy from a values perspective, and what types of projects encourage students to engage in civic action.

Holding a series of focus groups and interviews of various undergraduate students, Arcara found that millennials tend to hold core values that are in line with what sustainability professionals desire from change agents and change-makers. These values include community, equity, global consciousness, and personal growth. Thus, successful sustainability campaigns should be built around core values.

After discussing the findings from her research around values to which students associate, Arcara posed several recommendations to serve as tangible take-aways for the audience. One of these recommendations included the creation of a visual aid to depict engagement pathways, or opportunities that students can get involved in in varying degrees. However, the visual representation of these pathways help to increase the chance that students will want to commit for a few reasons.

For one, the options are laid out clearly and if put into a diagram or visual aid of sorts, could be distributed as an electronic or print hand-out that will also make the project more memorable and the chances of engaging more students higher. Another reason is that a visual aid helps take out the “scare” factor of signing up for another club, another project, another research project, which is often what sustainability professionals are up against when trying to engage students.

Arcara pointed out that there’s a remarkable opportunity to do a better job, mainly because the student demography has not yet reached a huge involvement.

To contact Vanessa Arcara and hear more about her research or above-mentioned recommendations to effect more meaningful change in sustainable food policy, you can email her at vanessa.arcara@gmail.com.

Vanessa Arcara, a recent master’s graduate from Bard College’s Center on Environmental Protection, gave a well-received session on Tuesday titled “Moving Millennials: Engaging youth with food & agriculture policy.”

Arcara made it clear that her talk is intended for a gamut of sustainability change-makers on campuses, from students, to operational administrators, to faculty, and more: “We’re here to reach students and not just be another sound bite, and this information can be transferable to other environmental sectors as well.”

The presentation seamlessly segued from Plenary Speaker Leith Sharp’s talk on strategically communicating and effecting change on campuses, but looking specifically at one, influential audience: millennials. The essence of her presentation was concerned with analyzing how we communicate to college students or young Americans about food policy from a values perspective, and what types of projects encourage students to engage in civic action.

Holding a series of focus groups and interviews of various undergraduate students, Arcara found that millennials tend to hold core values that are in line with what sustainability professionals desire from change agents and change-makers. These values include community, equity, global consciousness, and personal growth. Thus, successful sustainability campaigns should be built around core values.

After discussing the findings from her research around values to which students associate, Arcara posed several recommendations to serve as tangible take-aways for the audience. One of these recommendations included the creation of a visual aid to depict engagement pathways, or opportunities that students can get involved in in varying degrees. However, the visual representation of these pathways help to increase the chance that students will want to commit for a few reasons.

For one, the options are laid out clearly and if put into a diagram or visual aid of sorts, could be distributed as an electronic or print hand-out that will also make the project more memorable and the chances of engaging more students higher. Another reason is that a visual aid helps take out the “scare” factor of signing up for another club, another project, another research project, which is often what sustainability professionals are up against when trying to engage students.

Arcara pointed out that there’s a remarkable opportunity to do a better job, mainly because the student demography has not yet reached a huge involvement.

To contact Vanessa Arcara and hear more about her research or above-mentioned recommendations to effect more meaningful change in sustainable food policy, you can email her at vanessa.arcara@gmail.com.

Below is a repost of a blog by Eva Resnick-Day, a student organizer with the University of Pittsburgh/Pittsburgh Student Environmental Coalition. Resnick-Day helped organize other students attending the AASHE 2011 Student Summit to attend a rally during President Obama's visit to Pittsburgh that protested the Keystone XL pipeline.

This past Friday, the only thing I was worried about was coming up with a good presentation for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Conference. While relaxing on my porch after a strenuous week of midterms, our student government president happened to walk by and inform us that the White House had just contacted her about President Obama coming to Pittsburgh on Tuesday. We had been planning to confront the Organizing for America office the following Friday to tell Obama to stop the [Keystone XL] pipeline, but if Obama was in town, we had to send the message to him directly. I, however, had a midterm during the exact hour that Obama would be coming and resolved to recruit a few friends to greet him.

On Sunday at the AASHE conference, we grabbed Bill McKibben right before his speech and let him know that we planned to greet Obama on Tuesday. At the end of his speech to a national conference of hundreds of climate leaders, he said the best thing they could do was attend the rally to meet Obama with a strong message to say "NO" to the Keystone XL pipeline at 11 a.m. on Tuesday at 313 Oakland Ave. My heart skipped a beat - Bill McKibben, one of my idols, had just announced my house address to a national conference. What’s more, he then told us to stand up so everybody knew who to find. I hesitantly stood up with two of my friends, Nikki Luke and Seth Bush, who looked around nervously.

What happened after was chaos.

Within five minutes we were interviewed by the City Paper, the Tribune Review, and asked by dozens more what our plans were. The problem was, we didn’t have a plan. And I had a midterm when Obama was coming. Here’s the thing: if Bill McKibben calls you out at a national conference to organize a rally, you are going to organize a rally, whether you have a midterm or not.

"...If Bill McKibben calls you out at a national conference to organize a rally, you are going to organize a rally, whether you have a midterm or not."

Immediately I entered frantic planning mode. We held a Tar Sands breakout group at the conference, and about 50 people showed up from all over North America. One individual was from Alberta, Canada, where the tar sands are located. It was incredibly inspiring to see our make shift event turn into a dedicated rally so quickly. Then organizing commenced: creating a plan, logistics, press releases, media teams, outreach, and dealing with secret service shutdowns of the pedestrian route we had planned to take. All of this consumed my life, while I remained unsure whether I’d even be able to attend the rally myself. After a group of my classmates all sent emails pleading for a different exam time, we were eventually granted an extension where we’d be able to take the test at 2 p.m. instead. Obama was scheduled to arrive in Pittsburgh around 11:15 a.m.

The rally could not have gone better. About a hundred people showed up including my favorite professor and mentor. We marched from my house about 3 miles through the busiest street in Pittsburgh, with media chasing us as we hustled to reach Obama in time. The police were accommodating and directed us to a point where Obama would drive by. The crowd’s energy and knowledge about the pipeline was palpable. As Obama waved and acknowledged our message, I was on the megaphone losing my voice leading the chant, which I had come up with that morning: “Obama: YES! Pipeline: NO! That’s the way it’s got to go.”

I cannot explain the rush this gave me. After all the emotion, I had to rush back to campus to make it in time for my exam which, in case you were wondering, went surprisingly well. What a day. Steven Colbert’s guests refer to going on his program as the “Colbert bump.” I believe we have just experienced the McKibben bump, and boy, am I grateful.

This is a rough transcript taken live during the presentation. Learn more about the AASHE 2011 Transcription Project!

Session began with introductions of around the room and then intro by the session organizer:

Todd Cohen
SEED Program Director
American Association of Community Colleges (AACC)

What we want to do is highlight the good work that colleges are doing in this space. The reason I consider them great is that they are doing this kind of work in a systemic way. It's not about an individual recycling program or a cool sustainability class. They are embedding sustainability through basically everything they do. Operations, community, academic, etc.

Key Topics We'll Cover:
- Infusion across curriculum
- The link to green jobs placement
- Particular challenges faced by two year institutions

Linda Petee
Sustainability and Risk Management Coordinator
Delta College
University Center, MI
16k students; Employ about 900 dedicated faculty and staff

SEED has been a wonderful resource for us. Our president sits on their task force. She's been a great leader in pulling us all together. Look at the SEED website: www.theseedcenter.org

Delta sustainability highlights:
- ACUPCC charter signatory
- STARS silver rating
- 1st Community college recognized nationally for green cleaning (2008)
- 2010 Second Nature Climate Leadership Award winner

Institutional Integration Tools
- Triple Bottom Line - we put everything we plan to do up against the triple bottom line
- President's Climate Commitment - it's been wonderful for us
- STARS - if you are not a member, I would highly recommend it

2007/2008 Task Force created by president led to...
- Green Summit event
- Recommendation to create a Sustainability Office
- Academic Sustainability Team
- In 2009, Board of trustees adopted sustainability as a Guiding Principle.
- Integrated Sustainability into our AQIP accreditation process as Action Plans and a Distinguishing Objective.
- Incorporated into our Institutional Planning Process

Details on AQIP Integration:
- We are using two voluntary reporting structures (ACUPCC and STARS), so they assigned them to AQIP processes as Action Projects and Distinguished Objective. Those projects and objectives are being rolled into our 2013 Accreditation Process.
- Institutional Planning then wraps around the AQIP initiative with sustainability wrapped into our strategic planning, curriculum development, building operations, and community partnerships

Here's an example:
An institutional planning topic one year was using resources efficiently, so we set 3 goals in each area (curriculum development, building operations, and community partnerships). People in each area got to choose their own goal. Buildings and operations staff chose to focus on greening our cleaning. That instigated a review of the products we use and our processes.

Academic Programs
- Created three levels of academic sustainability coding in our course catalog: Sustainability Related, Sustainability Focused and a Sustainability Certificate Program (still in the works). Examples of Sustainability-related courses are Accounting/Carbon Counting, Journal of Creative Sustainability.
- Have specialty degree programs:
1. Alternative Energy / Wind Turbine Technology - started with a $200k donation to buy a wind turbine
2. Chemical Processing - have a state-of-the-art processing plant on campus. Green chemistry, designing out hazardous waste are incorporated.
3. Global Peace Studies - social justice, international business, international relations, global environment

Partnerships: Industry
- working with a lot of local industries to meet needs of local industry
- fast start training programs in Solar Manufacturing, Chemical Processing and Advanced Battery Manufacturing.

Life Long Learning - offering courses like "Green Team: Establishing a Green Workplace".

Partners:
STARS - All this ties into benchmarking with STARS.
GreenForce Initiative of World Wildlife Federation - works on preparing graduates for the green economy
SEED Center

Challenges:
- finding quick funding
- there is no one size fits all - moving quickly in industry and tech was easier and different than moving it forward in humanities

Valarie Avalone
Director of Planning
Monroe Communtiy Community College
Rochester, NY
37k students (18k are credit and rest are non-credit)

As director of planning, I'm not a sustainability staffer, but I have the ability to see into and influence all of the campus. We haven't created an office of sustainability, but we are at the tipping point.

Our economy used to be driven by the big three - Kodak, Bausch + Lomb and Xerox
We are now small and medium manufacturing. The largest employer in our area is the University of Rochester and the Medical Center. As a result, we've been more stable than other areas. We have a suburban campus and an urban campus and two training centers.

First officially addressed sustainability in our 2007-2011 Strategic Plan which was put together in 2006. Only got it into the facilities section, but it was a starting point. We participated in the STARS pilot program with AASHE and signed on to the ACUPCC. Since I'm the institutional planner, they turned to me and said "how are we going to do it?" I composed a team of people for operationalizing sustainability. Came up with 2 year plan with low hanging fruit to get early successes in order to build momentum and get the word out.

We used the champions we had on campus already:
- One faculty member pushed hard to establish a Sustainability Certificate. Launched in 2009. 15 credit embedded certificate. Students must be co-enrolled in another program. Requires science and humanities and service learning. Benefits from integration between the courses - for example, have a topical focus across all the courses. One year the topical focus was the gulf oil spill and each course tried to incorporate it into some element of their semester. This year the topic is alternative energy - because of local hydrofracking and wind farm controversies in the area. Certificate gives our students a background that employers are looking for. It's giving them an edge.
- The faculty member then pushed for an AS Degree in Sustainability. Should roll out next year. Students will be able to transfer to a 4 year school with an Envirionmental Sceince/Studies program (have articulation agreements already in place).
- Did a lot with workforce non-credit courses. First they were stand-alone but have become stackable. We're seeing students that take 1 course getting $5 over minimum wage. (course examples, Building Analyst, Basic Air Sealing, Envelope Professional) Currently developing a certificate in solar thermal technology.
- Using their facilities as learning laboratories. They have a co-generation plant - student tours and courses related to it. They've installed greenhouses and green walls as part of biology courses. Built a LEED Gold field house for athletics.

Challenges:
- Competing priorities
- Funding challenges - decisions we make are very pragmatic. only address things we know are needs in our area.

Partnerships:
- Center for Energy Efficiency and Building Science - help with BPI training
- Pathstone - Green for Gold - private non-profit in their area working on training people with significant barriers to employment (convictions, poverty). preparing construction, deconstruction and renewable energy job training

Remmele Young
Executive Director of Government Relations and Sustainability
Houston Community College

75k students - currently growing quite a bit, even with budget cuts (-$30 million) Located in the city of Houston. Service area includes 600 square miles. There are 6 campuses each with a President. In Houston, energy is king. We have lots of energy companies. Also have Technical Medical Center that employs 100k people.

HCC is a member of both SEED Center and ACUPCC. Committed to reducing carbon and preparing students for life long learning opportunities.

HCC infuses sustainability in curriculum:
- Solar Energy courses
- Wind energy course
- Thermal Infrared Camera Technology

Jobs training for:
- solar energy installers
- troubleshooting and maintenance
- horticulture - water harvesting, xeriscaping, aquaponics
- solar heating design and planning
- cost benefit analysis (ROI)
- thermal energy technicians

As CC's, we think a lot about big industry like the energy companies, but we don't think a lot about creating things for ourselves. I thought the horticulture and aquaponics was a great example of that.

Leverage existing relationships
partnering with industry - hosted an Energy Symposium with Chevron, Shell, ExxonMobil and Executive Citizens for Affordable Energy
partner with local HVAC union
partner with City of Houston on an apprenticeship program
partner with government: US Department of Energy, State Energy Conservation Office

Challenges:
- Budget constraints
- Added / perceived added cost
- Inadequate human resources
- Policy considerations - federal and state legislature helping/hindering
- People - some people are gung-ho, some people are not
- Existing culture - in a large organization can be difficult; but sometimes scale also helps you do things a lot better

Overcoming those challenges:
- Demonstrating cost/benefit value
- Educating others about the benefits
- Identifying champions of the cause
- Working to shape policy considerations
- Getting Board-level buy-in and approval to advance the initiative (this can make funding available in some cases)

Operations initiatives:
- Commissioned a comprehensive energy analysis that positions us to implement conservation measures
- Developed a Climate Action Plan
- Performed an inventory of all GHG
- Implemented LEED Silver or equivalent building policy
- Incorporated system wide recycling
- Provide periodic reports on our sustainability progress

Questions & Answers

Question: Do you have an overarching sustainability plan for the Houston Community College System and then each campus has one underneath that?

Remmele: That's something we need to do. Take our over-all system plan and take that to the Presidents of each college to see if they are tailoring it for their campus - because they are different. The presidents are very well aware of what is going on and we talk about it with them.

Comment from Elizabeth Cole-Fay in the Maricopa Community College District: We've found having a district can be an impediment. We've had some schools pushing our district more than our district driving it forward. We're just now pushing forward district-wide policies. We had colleges in the system that waited until the district forced their hand.

Question: I have faculty-member disdain for administrative processes but I think I need to look more at embedding into the system. I'm looking for more advice about AQIP and the evaluation process. Anything?

Remmele: Do you have any faculty representatives in meetings with administrators?

Valarie: First, build some relationships across the aisles. But, I've been in a position to build them in every area over time. Once you have someone involved, you have to motivate and let them have control. As we produce more and more links to training programs and curriculum, the deans of curriculum and faculty senate chair have joined the sustainability committee.

Audience comment: You have to speak the language of the system. You have to make the business case. Sometimes is using the semantics of business first, not semantics of sustainability.

Audience question: I too am a faculty member at a small liberal arts college. We too have similar needs. So far we've come out with a sustainability studies minor and set up an ecological council. If I want to establish more credibility, what is the marketability value of being recognized by those systems like STARS and AQIP?

Valarie: If you are looking at accreditation, you have to look at your accreditation agency (there are 6 across the nation). We don't have AQIP and can't incorporate it the same as Delta CC. That said, it does bring credibility to belong to some of these organizations. SEED has been a great connection because there was no additional cost.

Linda: I'm not a number-cruncher business case maker, but I can find specific things that we can do and go to the people involved and say "let's do this." Find the ones that respond with passion and enthusiasm and wiggle your way in their. The personal relationships helped me a lot in bridging to the faculty side. Also, go to the accreditation people at your institution and ask them about it. As for STARS, for us, STARS was huge. We did the pilot and now are in 1.0. It is so comprehensive. It gave me a reason to knock on doors all over the institution from HR, diversity, operations and so on. And after I knock on their door and ask them to tell me what they are doing, I now can bring them ways to go further.

Remmele: Return on investment doesn't always mean dollars and cents. It's incumbent on us as educators to educate people about sustainability. There are champions already in your institution that are passionate and willing to volunteer to work with you in your institution - the same way they already go around pulling recycling out of trash cans and taking it to the recycling. Get those people together.

Todd: One thing we are doing under SEED in partnership with Second Nature, we are providing leadership training for Presidents. Presidents talking to other presidents. Will be a session at AACC conference. Encourage you to get your presidents to attend that.

Georges Dyer (Second Nature): We are just launching a new initiative with recently retired presidents. One is from Butte College in CA.

Audience comment: I would like to see more break-out sessions for community colleges at the AASHE conference. This is my third AASHE conference and the sessions aren't long enough and detailed enough about community colleges. The STARS meetings were so much about 4 year institutions.

Audience comment: There should be more community colleges on the AASHE board.

Audience Comment: 90% of sessions are not related to what we deal with. I spent more time this year talking to community college people out in the hall way than in sessions.

This session was presented at AASHE 2011 on Tuesday, October 11th. Thanks to Russ Pierson for taking copious notes to share with those that could not be in attendance. Join the AASHE 2011 Transcription Project and help spread the great ideas presented at the conference!

Presenters:
Mark Orlowski, Sustainable Endowments Institute
Heather Henriksen, Harvard University
Rob Pratt, GreenerU
John Onderdonk, Caltech

Session Abstract:
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 investments in revolving loan funds can provide a viable and vital large-scale funding solution. Panel presentations and discussion will explore:

-- 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 Billion Dollar Green Challenge. The Billion Dollar Green Challenge is an initiative coordinated by the Sustainable Endowments Institute in partnership with more than a dozen other organizations including AASHE, American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, Clinton Climate Initiative, National Wildlife Federation, Second Nature, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Challenge is scheduled for launch in Fall 2011.

Mark Orlowski
Founder & Executive Director
Sustainable Endowments Institute

The challenge: to invest one billion dollars. www.greenbillion.org

Report/survey released: Greening the Bottom Line

Founding circle of 32 institutions, representing $65 million. 18 states and British Columbia

Benefits of Green Revolving Funds:
• Reduce energy consumption and operating expenses thereby generating savings to finance future projects
• Effective tool to meet ACUPCC requirements
• Educational opportunities and community involvement
• Opportunity to attract capital from a variety of resources.

Low-risk, can beat the stock market. Median annual return: 32%. Low-risk investing in campus infrastructure.

These are actually a hedge against future energy cost increases.
Reallocate endowment into green fund. Donor restrictions on where money can be spent, but not usually where it can be invested. Utility rebates.

Benefits of Joining
• A "Think Tank" on Green Revolving Funds
• Web platform for managing fund
• Planning and analysis
• Free consulting services
• Connections to peer support
• Media attention and recognition. Chronicle of Higher Ed, BusinessWeek, etc.

15 partners and funders

Heather Henriksen
Director of the Office of Sustainability
Harvard University

"Universities have a special role and special responsibility in confronting these challenges of climate change and sustainability ..."

Harvard's fund is one revolving fund model
Fund helps meet sustainability commitments

Green loan fund
$12 million revolving loan fund
Upfront capital for environmental projects, have come from President's Office
29.9% ROI

Sample projects:
Highlights the behavior piece.
Makes the case for staffing in sustainability.
Focus on HVAC, lighting, electrical.

Loan products:
Full cost, 5-year payback, $500K
Incremental cost, 10-year loan up to $500K
Soft cost/feasibility study, focused on LEED costs in early days, 2-year payback up to $150,000
Renewable Energy, payback loan over 5 years, unto $500,000. Project payback not a factor.
Enhanced Metering, new one

Governance: Green Loan Fund Review Committee
• Strong governance vital to success
• University-wide
• Review applications
• Ask clarifying questions
• Prepared for executive approval if no member disapproves
• Application forwarded to Finance

Case Study: Rockefeller Hall
• Only borrowed $150,000, but enabled a lot of new tech, 43% less water, etc.

Review Scope:
• Loan fund allocation
• Loan limits and payback period
• Reporting requirements
• Administrative fee
• Outreach strategies and governance.

Up to half the fund may be allocated to longer-term projects, higher loan amounts.
Administrative fee built in early, but will be ended soon.

John Onderdonk
Manager of Sustainability, Cal Tech
CalTech Energy Conservation Investment Program
Measurement and verification

Purpose: finance energy efficient infrastructure projects.

Projects must:
• Exhibit verifiable savings
• Contain a measurement and verification plan (before, during, after)
• Have a simple payback of 6 years or less

Started with a $25K LED lighting project. Simple, straightforward.

Paybacks: program gaining momentum, tracked on a quarterly basis.
Grow pattern is visible and measurable
Returns, diversity of projects both growing

Examples:
Hot/Cold Aisle Data Center Retrofit
• 3% creep in inefficiency returning into new system.
• 3-5% in project costs in measuring and verifying
• 180 GPM chilled-water flow reduction with zero impact on operation.
• A broken valve was found in followup verification

RCx-AHU Optimization
• Quick visuals demonstrate projects working
• $500K investment, $240K rebate, $200K annual savings

Downs-Lauritsen
Return fan installation, new dampers and controls
• $50K per year operating savings
• Replaced one constant speed fan with three VFD fans

Active Energyy Management Dashboard software
• Links with Google Earth
• Students, users able to pull down own data into Excel
• Developed a heat map concept, blocks in graphics represent size, track efficiency

Maximum Use and Re-Use of Data
• Constant HVAC staff training
• Codify field operations
• Record training of sequence
• Connect back to operator front end

Rob Pratt
Energy Efficiency Financing Innovation on College Campuses
Rob.Pratt@greeneru.com

Goal is to help colleges aggressively pursue energy efficiency. Energy efficiency really is the first fuel. Addresses energy cost, deferred maintenance issues, carbon emissions.

Energy Efficiency
• Should be at top of college's to do list
• Good news: most energy efficiency projects can be paid through energy savings
• Bad news: delay means colleges are throwing money away

Financing a key:
• Colleges know they should do it but concerned about cost
• Innovative financing mechanisms and tools can help
• The roadmap
- strategize priorities thrughvcareful audit
- utilize innovative financing approach suite to your school
- build support with key campus stakeholders
- complete through major, phased program

Energy Efficiency is the best investment. Your CFO should be on your side!

Traditional financing approaches:
• Operations budget
• Electric or gas utility rebates
• Performance contracts (ESCO financing, 10-20 years)
• Tax exempt bond financing
Use them if they work

Additional approaches:
• Revolving loan funds
- Billion dollar challenge
- Great way to communicate momentum, establish fund
• Student fees for sustainability investments
• Green donors- often non-traditional, new monies
• Endowment financing
• Leasing arrangements
• Power purchase agreements. Currently most often used for renewables; efficiency is the new frontier.
• State financing authorities
• 0% or low interest financing availability (states or utilities)

The Power of Innovative Finance
Sample installation:
Business as usual: $8 million program over 5 years
Using innovative means, you could reach $24 million:
- pay utilities just as you would have without savings. Turbocharged program.
- endowment financing as investment
- reinvested savings
- green donors. Include naming rights, $3 million.
- utility rebates
- operations

Question & Answer

Q: Is it too late to be in the Founding Circle of the Green Billion Challenge?

A: The Founding Circle has closed, but there may be early adoption opportunities.

Q: What's the cost of participating in the Challenge?

A: 8 foundations have provided seed monies. Administrative fee tied to size of fund, no more than $2500 annually. Currently waived. Data sharing is also a "cost component."

Q: How to identify projects?

A: Work with consultant and engineering firms to come in and study the building. Identify possibilities, triage results. Zero cost feasibility study contract, then they are awarded the project.

When Alma College in Alma, Mich. realized that its move toward sustainability was not sustainable, it took a hard look at its relationship with the surrounding community. Separated by the Pine River to St. Louis, the site of a former chemical plant that is now in the midst of a Superfund clean up process, the college has long served as a resource for grant writing and environmental science and policy research to the community. With the formation of a Community Advisory Group, the college helped turn a $32 million clean up into a $100 million one. The college was also instrumental in helping St. Louis get a new water supply, and fought alongside the town against a 25,000-head factory farm facility. They won.

But all of this is not good enough, said the college's Murray C. Borrello, who presented alongside President Jeff Abernathy at the AASHE 2011 conference on Monday. "We needed to step it up a notch."

For years, the college literally built its buildings with their backs to the community, said Abernathy. Alma experienced a loss of major industry with the 1999 shut-down of the chemical plant, and the current economy has shuttered storefronts left and right. In the last few years, a plane crash killed several town leaders and its iconic Opera House burned down. With the town in bad shape, the college asked itself: How can we now step it up as a single community working to create a sustainable future?

Alma's first move was to relocate its campus bookstore and ice cream store downtown to help create "a seamless learning environment and restore investment and vitality to downtown," said Abernathy.

Next, the college built off this symbol of solidarity with the community by redefining its campus boundaries, linking its strategic plan with the county master plan. “We don’t want to think of ourselves as the ones who know better," said Borello. "We do have common futures that we need to connect with and collaborate to see through."

Collaborative work across the county has sparked further progress. A $1 billion investment on the part of two firms has led to a new wind farm that will include 133 turbines by June 2012. The college has also moved some of its administrative offices into a former pharmacy downtown. And perhaps most symbolic of all, the college has begun renovations to turn the beloved Opera House into student downtown loft apartments by 2014. The plan, said Abernathy, is to attract business investment to help with the renovations.

The Superior Street downtown loft apartments as they will look in 2014.

In a small Midwestern town that leans largely on the conservative side, this town-gown partnership has evoked the kind of bipartisan sustainability leadership that can successfully move the sustainability movement forward. For Borello, who directs the environmental studies program, the collaboration is a chance to show students who don't believe in climate change how sustainable development is not just about helping the environment, but also about saving money and creating jobs.

"What will your voice be and how will you cultivate the voices of those around you?" asked Mitchell Thomashow during the closing moments of his plenary session today. The former Unity College president and current Second Nature Presidential Fellow urged attendees get the word out about their campus' sustainability accomplishments as one of the most effective ways toward a sustainable future: "Every sustainability project should have an interactive, dynamic explanation."

Using his experiences at Unity College as a narrative, Thomashow shared his vision of a sustainable campus. "Everything you do on campus relates to everything else going on on campus," he said. "What you are doing impacts everyone all the time and that’s why you’re so darn busy." Thomashow began by emphasizing the need for a sustainable approach to economic decisions. Frugality, living within our means and protecting our futures will help curb energy and health care costs. "It's important that [campuses] are making the links to accessibility and affordability."

Broken into three main categories, Thomashow's nine elements of a sustainable campus include:

• Infrastructure (energy, food, materials)
• Community (governance, investment, wellness)
• Learning (interpretation, aesthetics, curriculum)

Infrastructure
Unity College earned national attention in 2008 with the Unity House, a net zero building that was the first college president’s house to earn LEED Platinum certification. "Structures like LEED buildings are metaphorically rich, institutional landmarks," said Thomashow. "If you see windmills on a campus, solar panels, you think something interesting is happening on that campus." He stressed the ability of energy landscape demonstrations to attract students and change the regional landscape.

The transformation of Unity's expansive lawns to food-producing edible landscaping during Thomashow's presidency allowed the campus community to think about where their food comes from and how much energy is used in its production and distribution. It also got students involved in the campus and took care of the community through harvests sent to the local food pantry. This is an inexpensive campus sustainability initiative, said Thomashow: "I know this because we did it and we don’t have any money."

Community
Thomashow was able to get Unity's board of trustees on board with sustainability initiatives with something he calls "real-time frugal sustainability." The money saved with efforts like the president's net zero house encouraged campus decisions toward a culture of sustainability. Today, said Thomashow, sustainability is now embedded within the campus culture.

Every college is a mini-investment of sorts and campus leaders can't be afraid to make a mistake, said Thomashow. "As long as you are aware of the possibility of being wrong, and able to self-correct. That’s why you have a convergences like [AASHE 2011], so people can share what they've learned." Self-correcting questions include:

• Is your college working with schools, communities and businesses to transform the region into a thriving sustainable community?
• Is the campus an incubator for new sustainability research and design initiatives?
• Is the endowment invested in ecologically and socially responsible businesses?
• Is the college considering sustainability workforce training?

Thomashow closed this portion by reminding attendees to take care of themselves. "How many sustainability coordinators are burnt out all the time?" he asked. "It doesn’t make sense. We forget the whole purpose of this. It’s about human life and well-being. So you gotta live a good life and we have to find ways to do this together."

Learning
The best sustainability curriculum is one that provides hands-on experience of living in, implementing and designing a sustainable campus, said Thomashow. He urged campuses to get students mobilized to help with workforce issues and provide the kind of hands-on learning that creates future sustainability coordinators including service learning opportunities and campus-wide sustainability master plan collaboration.

"By catalyzing the emotional responses to the planetary challenge," said Thomashow, art is also an essential element of sustainability teaching. Through imaginative and evocative campus exhibits, art projects and installation, campuses have the opportunity to serve as exploratory canvases of environmental art, recycled material sculptures, soundscape designs and native plant arrangements.

Calling campus sustainability "a phenomenal case study," Thomashow thanked attendees for being the agents of [sustainability] change: "We didn’t have these jobs five years ago, so you are figuring it out for the first time."