Amid tuition increases, student protest rallies and faculty taking job offers elsewhere, the staggering cuts to the state budget was a running narrative during this year’s California Higher Education Sustainability Conference. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a budget in June that cut higher education by $1.3 billion and it was announced recently that students in all 23 California State University campuses will be paying 12 percent more this fall than they did last year.

It would be easy to associate the words “defeat,” “surrender” and “paralyzed” to California’s higher education situation. But the words ringing through the conference, held July 10-13 at California State University, Long Beach, were “opportunity” “proactive” and “empowered.”

The budget cuts have created motivation during a time that many would consider no longer possible to move forward with sustainability efforts. “Budget cuts support sustainability because the resources that we are draining down the electricity wires or pouring down the drain or sending off to landfills suddenly matters,” said Matthew St. Clair, sustainability manager at the University of California Office of the President, during a Tuesday session. “Suddenly, the University of California cares about its $300-350 million-a-year energy bill in a way that it never has before.”

Now more than ever, it is also important for campuses to look at ways that sustainability is directly supporting budget cuts. Since 2004, new buildings in the UC system have been required to outperform the state energy code by at least 20 percent. To do so, campuses have registered in a priority savings program that provides assistance and credits. By the end of 2010, the system received or was slated to receive $8 million toward projects from utilities for energy-efficient design.

Another example is an energy savings goal passed by UC Regents in 2003. From its start in 2004 to 2010, system-wide energy efficiency projects avoided $21 million in utility costs.

St. Clair also pointed out that the budget crisis has motivated the UC system toward fundamental, systematic strides in sustainability. He detailed the UC system’s Working Smarter Initiative, which has created $157 million in system-wide administrative efficiencies over the past year and is on track to achieve $500 million in positive fiscal impact over five years.

On a campus level, state budget cuts have left campuses like the University of California, Davis in the lurch with—among other things—building operating costs. The university is building a new veterinary medicine building that will seek LEED Gold certification. It is scheduled to open its doors in 2012 with an annual operating cost of $1.4 million. State-funded buildings used to get $9 per square foot in operating costs. That budget has been cut.

“So we’re going to build a $60 million dollar building and open the doors and we have no way to pay for the energy, the water, the sewer, waste pick-up, building maintenance, custodial and grounds,” said Sid England during the “Turning Crisis into Opportunity” conference session. England, the assistant vice chancellor of environmental stewardship and sustainability at UC Davis, said that for the first time, the costs may fall to the dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine.

With the budget crisis forcing creative thinking, the dean has come up with $2 million in one-time funds to reduce the $1.4 million annual cost to something lower for an already ambitious LEED Gold science building. The university is currently examining several areas for reductions including energy, behavior modification outreach, infrastructure improvements and even the consolidation of building space on campus.

Stepping back, California is not the only state that is or will be experiencing a higher education budget crisis. From 1980 to 2000, California experienced the same change in demographics that the U.S. is projected to go through from 2000 to 2050, said Dr. Manuel Pastor during the conference’s opening keynote speech. By 2042, the U.S. is expected to be a majority minority nation and by 2020, youth will make up the majority of the population.

“The bigger the demographic gap between old and young, the less the state is willing to spend on education,” said Pastor, a professor of American studies and ethnicity and director of the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity at the University of Southern California. In California, 63 percent of voters are whites over 65 years old and 70 percent of youth under 18 years old are people of color.

This changing demography is a challenge to the economic future, said Pastor, as it is a shift toward more inequality in the economy. We think of creating a more sustainable planet in terms of how we organize our campuses and utilize public transit, said Pastor, “but there is a connection between issues of social inequity and our environment. One of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions is the way in which we have sprawled across the landscape. Much of that sprawl has been the desire to separate between race and class.”

We need to be dealing with issues of race, inequality and justice as part of dealing with issues of climate and sustainability, said Pastor. He emphasized the green jobs movement as having the ability to marry the issues of economy, equity and environment in a way that can resurrect our economy.

Urging the higher education community to continue its advocacy work toward sustainability policy changes, Pastor encouraged conference attendees to build alliances with people who may not have been initially be on their side, but who might be ready to listen as a result of economic or changing demography concerns: "There is an immediate need to think long term."

For more conference coverage, see "Greening California's Colleges and Universities" on the California State University website.

Amid tuition increases, student protest rallies and faculty taking job offers elsewhere, the staggering cuts to the state budget was a running narrative during this year’s California Higher Education Sustainability Conference. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a budget in June that cut higher education by $1.3 billion and it was announced recently that students in all 23 California State University campuses will be paying 12 percent more this fall than they did last year.

It would be easy to associate the words “defeat,” “surrender” and “paralyzed” to California’s higher education situation. But the words ringing through the conference, held July 10-13 at California State University, Long Beach, were “opportunity” “proactive” and “empowered.”

The budget cuts have created motivation during a time that many would consider no longer possible to move forward with sustainability efforts. “Budget cuts support sustainability because the resources that we are draining down the electricity wires or pouring down the drain or sending off to landfills suddenly matters,” said Matthew St. Clair, sustainability manager at the University of California Office of the President, during a Tuesday session. “Suddenly, the University of California cares about its $300-350 million-a-year energy bill in a way that it never has before.”

Now more than ever, it is also important for campuses to look at ways that sustainability is directly supporting budget cuts. Since 2004, new buildings in the UC system have been required to outperform the state energy code by at least 20 percent. To do so, campuses have registered in a priority savings program that provides assistance and credits. By the end of 2010, the system received or was slated to receive $8 million toward projects from utilities for energy-efficient design.

Another example is an energy savings goal passed by UC Regents in 2003. From its start in 2004 to 2010, system-wide energy efficiency projects avoided $21 million in utility costs.

St. Clair also pointed out that the budget crisis has motivated the UC system toward fundamental, systematic strides in sustainability. He detailed the UC system’s Working Smarter Initiative, which has created $157 million in system-wide administrative efficiencies over the past year and is on track to achieve $500 million in positive fiscal impact over five years.

On a campus level, state budget cuts have left campuses like the University of California, Davis in the lurch with—among other things—building operating costs. The university is building a new veterinary medicine building that will seek LEED Gold certification. It is scheduled to open its doors in 2012 with an annual operating cost of $1.4 million. State-funded buildings used to get $9 per square foot in operating costs. That budget has been cut.

“So we’re going to build a $60 million dollar building and open the doors and we have no way to pay for the energy, the water, the sewer, waste pick-up, building maintenance, custodial and grounds,” said Sid England during the “Turning Crisis into Opportunity” conference session. England, the assistant vice chancellor of environmental stewardship and sustainability at UC Davis, said that for the first time, the costs may fall to the dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine.

With the budget crisis forcing creative thinking, the dean has come up with $2 million in one-time funds to reduce the $1.4 million annual cost to something lower for an already ambitious LEED Gold science building. The university is currently examining several areas for reductions including energy, behavior modification outreach, infrastructure improvements and even the consolidation of building space on campus.

Stepping back, California is not the only state that is or will be experiencing a higher education budget crisis. From 1980 to 2000, California experienced the same change in demographics that the U.S. is projected to go through from 2000 to 2050, said Dr. Manuel Pastor during the conference’s opening keynote speech. By 2042, the U.S. is expected to be a majority minority nation and by 2020, youth will make up the majority of the population.

“The bigger the demographic gap between old and young, the less the state is willing to spend on education,” said Pastor, a professor of American studies and ethnicity and director of the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity at the University of Southern California. In California, 63 percent of voters are whites over 65 years old and 70 percent of youth under 18 years old are people of color.

This changing demography is a challenge to the economic future, said Pastor, as it is a shift toward more inequality in the economy. We think of creating a more sustainable planet in terms of how we organize our campuses and utilize public transit, said Pastor, “but there is a connection between issues of social inequity and our environment. One of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions is the way in which we have sprawled across the landscape. Much of that sprawl has been the desire to separate between race and class.”

We need to be dealing with issues of race, inequality and justice as part of dealing with issues of climate and sustainability, said Pastor. He emphasized the green jobs movement as having the ability to marry the issues of economy, equity and environment in a way that can resurrect our economy.

Urging the higher education community to continue its advocacy work toward sustainability policy changes, Pastor encouraged conference attendees to build alliances with people who may not have been initially be on their side, but who might be ready to listen as a result of economic or changing demography concerns: "There is an immediate need to think long term."

For more conference coverage, see "Greening California's Colleges and Universities" on the California State University website.

Important climate research from a team of scientists at Stanford University was announced in June. The research indicates that "many tropical regions in Africa, Asia and South America could see "the permanent emergence of unprecedented summer heat" in the next two decades. Middle latitudes of Europe, China and North America – including the United States – are likely to undergo extreme summer temperature shifts . . ."

Stanford released an article summarizing the research along with a short video featuring one of the researchers on its website here. The video clip is also included below. The complete research report is available in PDF form here, Observational and model evidence of global emergence of permanent, unprecedented heat in the 20th and 21st centuries

Important climate research from a team of scientists at Stanford University was announced in June. The research indicates that "many tropical regions in Africa, Asia and South America could see "the permanent emergence of unprecedented summer heat" in the next two decades. Middle latitudes of Europe, China and North America – including the United States – are likely to undergo extreme summer temperature shifts . . ."

Stanford released an article summarizing the research along with a short video featuring one of the researchers on its website here. The video clip is also included below. The complete research report is available in PDF form here, Observational and model evidence of global emergence of permanent, unprecedented heat in the 20th and 21st centuries

Similar to the highlights of campus sustainability case studies that have been profiled (here and here) we also hope to highlight the excellent student research on campus sustainability that AASHE has available in our resource center. AASHE's student research database (main interface accessible to AASHE members-only) includes papers from undergraduate and graduate students on a wide variety of topics related to campus sustainability. Many of the papers were submitted for our annual student research on campus sustainability award. Although we can only recognize a few papers as "official winners" for that program, there are many exemplary research papers in the database worthy of recognition and wide dissemination.

The issue of reducing bottled water consumption has been gaining traction with many campuses experimenting with restricted sales or with campaigns to reduce bottle water use on campus. Max Liboiron, an undergraduate at New York University wrote and submitted an excellent research paper in 2010 entitled, "H204U: The Culture of Water Consumption at New York University". Included below is the abstract. The full paper may be accessed here.

Abstract:
While an abundance of information about the negative environmental impacts of bottled water exists, there are few, if any, bottom-up studies of why and how people choose and understand the water they drink, be it bottled, tap or filtered water. H204U is an interdisciplinary qualitative study funded by New York University's Sustainability Task Force to investigate the culture— the meanings, metaphors, influences, rhetoric and practices— of bottled and tap water consumption so environmental initiatives can effectively target certain populations and behavioural thresholds.

The findings show that there is a gap between popular discourses about bottled water, dominated by environmentalism, marketing, and water quality, and the reasons people choose one type of water over another. Thus, its findings challenge popular assumptions about bottled water consumption, including: availability is more influential than convenience for bottled water drinkers; while a mistrust of public municipal water sources is popular in discourse, water quality is rarely a threshold attribute; environmental values and the consumption of bottled water are not mutually exclusive; and bottled water marketing has a influential, though indirect, effect on how bottled and tap water is experienced.

Finally, the project finds that there are two types of initiatives that can impact bottled water consumption: initiatives that change behaviour and can be quantified, and those that attempt to change the terms of the overall discourse of water consumption, perhaps legitimizing common practices but also potentially shifting or expanding the spectrum of how water is understood. The paper ends with concrete operational and communicative recommendations modeled for New York University, where approximately a million bottled waters are consumed every month.

Similar to the highlights of campus sustainability case studies that have been profiled (here and here) we also hope to highlight the excellent student research on campus sustainability that AASHE has available in our resource center. AASHE's student research database (main interface accessible to AASHE members-only) includes papers from undergraduate and graduate students on a wide variety of topics related to campus sustainability. Many of the papers were submitted for our annual student research on campus sustainability award. Although we can only recognize a few papers as "official winners" for that program, there are many exemplary research papers in the database worthy of recognition and wide dissemination.

The issue of reducing bottled water consumption has been gaining traction with many campuses experimenting with restricted sales or with campaigns to reduce bottle water use on campus. Max Liboiron, an undergraduate at New York University wrote and submitted an excellent research paper in 2010 entitled, "H204U: The Culture of Water Consumption at New York University". Included below is the abstract. The full paper may be accessed here.

Abstract:
While an abundance of information about the negative environmental impacts of bottled water exists, there are few, if any, bottom-up studies of why and how people choose and understand the water they drink, be it bottled, tap or filtered water. H204U is an interdisciplinary qualitative study funded by New York University's Sustainability Task Force to investigate the culture— the meanings, metaphors, influences, rhetoric and practices— of bottled and tap water consumption so environmental initiatives can effectively target certain populations and behavioural thresholds.

The findings show that there is a gap between popular discourses about bottled water, dominated by environmentalism, marketing, and water quality, and the reasons people choose one type of water over another. Thus, its findings challenge popular assumptions about bottled water consumption, including: availability is more influential than convenience for bottled water drinkers; while a mistrust of public municipal water sources is popular in discourse, water quality is rarely a threshold attribute; environmental values and the consumption of bottled water are not mutually exclusive; and bottled water marketing has a influential, though indirect, effect on how bottled and tap water is experienced.

Finally, the project finds that there are two types of initiatives that can impact bottled water consumption: initiatives that change behaviour and can be quantified, and those that attempt to change the terms of the overall discourse of water consumption, perhaps legitimizing common practices but also potentially shifting or expanding the spectrum of how water is understood. The paper ends with concrete operational and communicative recommendations modeled for New York University, where approximately a million bottled waters are consumed every month.

1. Zipcars: Starting on Thursday, June 22nd, UMBC will have zipcars available on campus!

• This new website provides a central location for access to information on all transportation alternatives inclusive of transit, carpooling, parking, and zipcars. The link is http://www.umbc.edu/tag.We look forward to the campus community experiencing these valuable new resources!

The below article was written by Diane Van Der Ploeg, President of Butte College.

At Butte College – located in Oroville, California, about 75 miles from Sacramento – we began installing solar panels on campus several years ago, and we now have 25,000 of them. Thanks in part to a generally sunny climate in our part of California, our solar panels will generate a combined 6.4 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually. That’s enough to power over 900 homes or take over 600 cars off the road.

Our solar project was completed in three phases – the first concluded in 2005; the second in 2009; and the third this week. In order to get financing on the best possible terms, we relied on lease revenue bonds, where energy cost savings are used to satisfy the debt obligation, for phase one. We relied on bank financing for phase two. For phase three, the largest phase, we used a combination of federal Clean Renewable Energy Bonds and our own funds.

Because our solar panels will produce more electricity than we need, we’ll not only eliminate our utility bill, we’ll also be able to sell the excess electricity back to the power grid. Over time we will see substantial financial benefits – we estimate we could recoup as much as $50 million to $75 million over 15 years – that we can use to help improve academic offerings or expand student enrollment. At a time of tight budgets for states and colleges all over the country, finding innovative ways to save money wherever we can is crucial.

Yet these cost benefits are not the only, or even the primary, reason for our decision to pursue an aggressive renewable energy strategy. We believe that institutions of higher education have a particular responsibility to seize the mantle of environmental leadership. As educators, we are well positioned to demonstrate how we can better manage our use of the earth’s limited resources so that they’ll continue to be available for future generations and how we can reduce carbon emissions in the face of mounting evidence of the threat of global climate change.

When we boost our renewable energy portfolios, improve energy efficiency, reduce waste, recycle, and provide transportation alternatives to commuting by car, we serve as a model for our students and the broader communities we serve. We ask our students to carry that lesson with them after they graduate by signing a voluntary pledge to take the environment into account in their working lives and improve the environmental practices of the organizations where they work.

The below article was written by Diane Van Der Ploeg, President of Butte College.

At Butte College – located in Oroville, California, about 75 miles from Sacramento – we began installing solar panels on campus several years ago, and we now have 25,000 of them. Thanks in part to a generally sunny climate in our part of California, our solar panels will generate a combined 6.4 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually. That’s enough to power over 900 homes or take over 600 cars off the road.

Our solar project was completed in three phases – the first concluded in 2005; the second in 2009; and the third this week. In order to get financing on the best possible terms, we relied on lease revenue bonds, where energy cost savings are used to satisfy the debt obligation, for phase one. We relied on bank financing for phase two. For phase three, the largest phase, we used a combination of federal Clean Renewable Energy Bonds and our own funds.

Because our solar panels will produce more electricity than we need, we’ll not only eliminate our utility bill, we’ll also be able to sell the excess electricity back to the power grid. Over time we will see substantial financial benefits – we estimate we could recoup as much as $50 million to $75 million over 15 years – that we can use to help improve academic offerings or expand student enrollment. At a time of tight budgets for states and colleges all over the country, finding innovative ways to save money wherever we can is crucial.

Yet these cost benefits are not the only, or even the primary, reason for our decision to pursue an aggressive renewable energy strategy. We believe that institutions of higher education have a particular responsibility to seize the mantle of environmental leadership. As educators, we are well positioned to demonstrate how we can better manage our use of the earth’s limited resources so that they’ll continue to be available for future generations and how we can reduce carbon emissions in the face of mounting evidence of the threat of global climate change.

When we boost our renewable energy portfolios, improve energy efficiency, reduce waste, recycle, and provide transportation alternatives to commuting by car, we serve as a model for our students and the broader communities we serve. We ask our students to carry that lesson with them after they graduate by signing a voluntary pledge to take the environment into account in their working lives and improve the environmental practices of the organizations where they work.

Andrea M. Webster, a graduate student in the environmental studies program at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF), is featured in this installment of the AASHE Bulletin Sustainability Student Diary series. She shares her “Next Steps,” created to guide efforts in the campus sustainability sector toward ensuring that all stakeholders are included in the decision-making process. AASHE welcomes questions and invites feedback on each Sustainability Student Diary entry. Submit diary entries of your own for consideration to bulletin@aashe.org.

As a student who plans to work in the campus sustainability field, I am studying diversity and social justice issues to further my own understanding of the subject matter and to help define an area of the sustainability field that remains unclear for many practitioners.

Most campus sustainability officers understand sustainability as having three interconnected foci – environmental, economic, and social; unfortunately, only the ecological component has been widely adopted. The economic piece has progressed in part, due to the business sector’s acknowledgement of sustainability within its realm. The social side, however, lacks clear definition and a widely understood connection to sustainability. While many campus sustainability officers will say that social factors are included in the definition of sustainability, few can say why or how.

To help arrive at a clear definition and understood connection, important questions need to be asked. To start, why should diversity be included in sustainability? Most, if not all, sustainability advocates would agree that the movement should not be a passing fad; it should be integrated into all decision-making processes and policy-setting agendas. A major goal of sustainability is to ensure that our actions will enable humanity to exist as long as possible. Humanity is made up of people of all colors, and we should include all of them when we teach and practice sustainability. How can we be sure that we are making the correct decisions if all stakeholders are not included in the decision-making process?

In my work with the campus sustainability sector, I plan to use the following “Next Steps” to guide my efforts.

Next Step #1: Equal Access to Sustainability Education

Many campuses have made high-level commitments to increase the sustainability of operations and education, but none have taken a stand to say: “We are committed to sustainability, and we are committed to enabling under-represented students to participate in what we’re doing.” AASHE advanced this effort by supporting the sustainability education of under-represented students through membership discounts to HBCUs and MSIs. Next, individual institutions should make commitments to encourage low income and racially diverse students to participate in sustainability courses and activities on campus.

Next Step #2: Providing Support to Under-represented Students on Campus

In addition to making sure that we openly invite a diverse student body to campus, we should likewise ensure that we are providing adequate resources to keep students on campus. This can be in the form of student organizations (e.g., a Community Pride group, Black Student Union, etc.); campus programming; making sure that all offices on campus are staffed in a similar manner to the diverse makeup of the student body; and preparing all campus members, especially faculty and staff, to be more comfortable dealing with and discussing LGBT, ability, race, class, and sexual orientation. Sustainability practitioners can work with existing diversity offices that are already familiar with these initiatives.

Next Step #3: Evaluating this Support and Making Changes

An important part of making any type of change on campus is evaluating that change. Campus climate surveys offer one method of assessment. Merely offering this survey, however, is not enough. Campuses need to assess the responses and make a plan to address the issues raised in the outcomes. AASHE’s STARS program offers credits for measuring campus climate and for using the results to shape policies on campus. This is certainly a step in the right direction.

In addition to the steps and suggestions listed above, as a future staff person, I plan to always remember that everyone has a different identity than my own. This understanding will help me to relate to others, to choose my words more carefully, and to know when a situation I am participating in or witnessing could be offensive to others.

There was an article published in The Chronicle of Higher Education in October 2010 that referred to both diversity and sustainability as fleeting and competing trends. The president of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education wrote an appropriate response: “The combination of diversity and sustainability is not an either-or proposition but a both-and.” Sustainability is an umbrella movement that includes diversity, as well as environmental protection, economic stability, and other social issues.

We haven’t forgotten about diversity; we are revitalizing discussions and actions around it. Now we just need to spread the understanding of its purpose within sustainability initiatives and learn to include and apply it.