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.

This article is authored by Sarah Wald, an Assistant Professor of English and Environmental Studies & Sustainability at Drew University. Photo courtesy of Lynne DeLade.

In spring 2011, I taught Drew University’s first senior capstone course in our new Environmental Studies and Sustainability (ESS) major. Six graduating seniors with majors or minors in ESS ran Drew through STARS. At the end of the semester, the students organized a Sustainability Forum where they presented the results of the STARS survey, including Drew’s strengths and weaknesses, and provided their recommendations for making Drew University a more sustainable institution.

Having students complete STARS advanced its effectiveness as an outreach and advocacy tool. The report received more attention than it would have otherwise. Both the student newspaper and the Drew University website covered the forum. Drew University President Robert Weisbuch introduced the forum and the University Sustainability Committee, which promoted the event, considered the students’ recommendations during their next meeting. The event itself was well-attended by students, faculty, and staff.

Pedagogically, STARS was also invaluable. The students learned to work (and to write) collaboratively. Professionalization occurred as students contacted and then worked directly with staff to find the information they needed. This was a project that required students to take initiative. Moreover, students applied the knowledge they gained in previous courses as they decided whether or not Drew met the criteria for each credit and debated how important that credit was to Drew’s overall sustainability goals. Students consistently distinguished between institutional changes that would increase Drew’s STARS rating and the changes students felt were most essential to the University’s sustainability.

In terms of the class structure, the first several weeks we read widely about sustainability and students worked collaboratively to develop their own definition of sustainability. During the bulk of the semester, students set up meetings with staff, read available university documents, and utilized resources on the AASHE website to complete STARS. Following the Sustainability Forum, the students wrote to AASHE assessing STARS as a sustainability ratings system.

We wrote the report section by section (Education & Research, Operations, Planning, Assessment & Engagement). Based on AASHE’s recommendation, we started the curriculum assessment early. Gathering the appropriate faculty together to agree on a definition of sustainability-focused and sustainability-related courses was time-consuming as was soliciting faculty responses to the on-line survey the students composed. In the Operations Section, students divided credits based on which faculty or staff member needed to be contacted (to avoid six students contacting the same staff person). In the Planning, Assessment, and Engagement section we decided it made the most sense to divide the work by sections such as Investment or Public Engagement. Ideally, we will use STARS as a capstone project again in three years, when the students who attended the Sustainability Forum as first year students can assess the progress we’ve made during their tenure at the University.

I learned several lessons from incorporating STARS into our ESS capstone classes.
1) Beginning with articles and book chapters about sustainability and then reading about different sustainability ratings systems provided an intellectual framework for the class to which we consistently returned. Discussing an environmental justice approach to sustainability helped students understand why sections like Diversity and Human Resources were important to STARS.
2) Start with the Education and Research section. While it was not more work than the other sections, we needed a longer period of time to complete the tasks.
3) Work with your sustainability coordinator. Our sustainability coordinator was invaluable in helping us identify who at the University would have the data we needed.
4) Value staff time and discuss with students the need to be respectful of staff’s busy schedules and gracious for their assistance.
5) Make the pedagogical goals of the project clear. We started the class with the learning objectives for the capstone and returned to them throughout the class.
6) Engage students in a discussion as to how to best publicize their results and recommendations. The most exciting and effective ideas for our forum, including a raffle tied to a sustainability quiz, came from students.
7) Empower students. The class would not have been successful without the ownership students felt over the project. Because students believed they could use STARS to create institutional change and promote a cultural of sustainability at the University, they took the work they did seriously and were creative in leveraging STARS to advance campus sustainability.

This article is authored by Sarah Wald, an Assistant Professor of English and Environmental Studies & Sustainability at Drew University. Photo courtesy of Lynne DeLade.

In spring 2011, I taught Drew University’s first senior capstone course in our new Environmental Studies and Sustainability (ESS) major. Six graduating seniors with majors or minors in ESS ran Drew through STARS. At the end of the semester, the students organized a Sustainability Forum where they presented the results of the STARS survey, including Drew’s strengths and weaknesses, and provided their recommendations for making Drew University a more sustainable institution.

Having students complete STARS advanced its effectiveness as an outreach and advocacy tool. The report received more attention than it would have otherwise. Both the student newspaper and the Drew University website covered the forum. Drew University President Robert Weisbuch introduced the forum and the University Sustainability Committee, which promoted the event, considered the students’ recommendations during their next meeting. The event itself was well-attended by students, faculty, and staff.

Pedagogically, STARS was also invaluable. The students learned to work (and to write) collaboratively. Professionalization occurred as students contacted and then worked directly with staff to find the information they needed. This was a project that required students to take initiative. Moreover, students applied the knowledge they gained in previous courses as they decided whether or not Drew met the criteria for each credit and debated how important that credit was to Drew’s overall sustainability goals. Students consistently distinguished between institutional changes that would increase Drew’s STARS rating and the changes students felt were most essential to the University’s sustainability.

In terms of the class structure, the first several weeks we read widely about sustainability and students worked collaboratively to develop their own definition of sustainability. During the bulk of the semester, students set up meetings with staff, read available university documents, and utilized resources on the AASHE website to complete STARS. Following the Sustainability Forum, the students wrote to AASHE assessing STARS as a sustainability ratings system.

We wrote the report section by section (Education & Research, Operations, Planning, Assessment & Engagement). Based on AASHE’s recommendation, we started the curriculum assessment early. Gathering the appropriate faculty together to agree on a definition of sustainability-focused and sustainability-related courses was time-consuming as was soliciting faculty responses to the on-line survey the students composed. In the Operations Section, students divided credits based on which faculty or staff member needed to be contacted (to avoid six students contacting the same staff person). In the Planning, Assessment, and Engagement section we decided it made the most sense to divide the work by sections such as Investment or Public Engagement. Ideally, we will use STARS as a capstone project again in three years, when the students who attended the Sustainability Forum as first year students can assess the progress we’ve made during their tenure at the University.

I learned several lessons from incorporating STARS into our ESS capstone classes.
1) Beginning with articles and book chapters about sustainability and then reading about different sustainability ratings systems provided an intellectual framework for the class to which we consistently returned. Discussing an environmental justice approach to sustainability helped students understand why sections like Diversity and Human Resources were important to STARS.
2) Start with the Education and Research section. While it was not more work than the other sections, we needed a longer period of time to complete the tasks.
3) Work with your sustainability coordinator. Our sustainability coordinator was invaluable in helping us identify who at the University would have the data we needed.
4) Value staff time and discuss with students the need to be respectful of staff’s busy schedules and gracious for their assistance.
5) Make the pedagogical goals of the project clear. We started the class with the learning objectives for the capstone and returned to them throughout the class.
6) Engage students in a discussion as to how to best publicize their results and recommendations. The most exciting and effective ideas for our forum, including a raffle tied to a sustainability quiz, came from students.
7) Empower students. The class would not have been successful without the ownership students felt over the project. Because students believed they could use STARS to create institutional change and promote a cultural of sustainability at the University, they took the work they did seriously and were creative in leveraging STARS to advance campus sustainability.

As the pros and cons of a “plugged in” generation continue to be debated, another crucial component of the discussion is centred around the life-cycle of the electronics that are driving our work and play: Where do our much-coveted electronics go once we find a “smarter” phone, a faster computer, a higher definition television?

Discarded electronics–whether at the end of their life or still reusable–are termed electronic waste or e-waste. While the percent of e-waste compared to total solid waste generated may appear minimal (around 2% in the US, 1% in Canada), e-waste is on the rise, as is the amount of recyclable electronics that are not being recycled. E-waste typically contains lead and other materials that can have adverse effects on ecological and human health. A fundamental social justice issue is also present, as cities in emerging or developing countries have come to play host to developed countries’ e-waste.

In addition to the various businesses and organizations that offer rewards for donating retired electronics as well as legislation to encourage e-waste recycling (e.g. New York City, Seattle, and Montreal), higher education institutions are taking a lead in curbing e-waste as well on their campuses. Campuses participating in AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Reporting System (STARS) receive a credit for having an e-waste recycling and/or reuse program in place.

Given the increasing interest among higher ed institutions to address e-waste, AASHE has launched a new member-only resource–E-waste Programs, Policies, and Events–to serve as a tool for campuses looking to start or expand on their own e-waste recycling initiatives. While some schools like Wheaton College have day-long events, others, including Drake College, have a designated term–the summer–during which e-waste is collected. Schools such as Bard College have institutionalized policies, and still others have created comprehensive programs to collect e-waste routinely throughout the year. A few examples of schools with such programs include University of Massachusetts (Amherst), which implemented in Spring 2011 an e-waste initiative consisting of collection bins placed in all 42 residence halls on campus. Additionally, entrepreneurial students at Babson College created a program such that the Babson Energy and Environmental Club (BEEC) receives some money for each electronic they collect and donate for resale in developing markets.

Students, faculty, and administrators thus have an opportunity to significantly reduce the ecological impact of their campus by ensuring that electronics are being diverted from the landfill in conjunction with private sector initiatives and municipal policies.

Have an e-waste initiative at your campus that should be in our resource? Email resources@aashe.org with the name of the school and a link to a page or article describing the initiative.

As the pros and cons of a “plugged in” generation continue to be debated, another crucial component of the discussion is centred around the life-cycle of the electronics that are driving our work and play: Where do our much-coveted electronics go once we find a “smarter” phone, a faster computer, a higher definition television?

Discarded electronics–whether at the end of their life or still reusable–are termed electronic waste or e-waste. While the percent of e-waste compared to total solid waste generated may appear minimal (around 2% in the US, 1% in Canada), e-waste is on the rise, as is the amount of recyclable electronics that are not being recycled. E-waste typically contains lead and other materials that can have adverse effects on ecological and human health. A fundamental social justice issue is also present, as cities in emerging or developing countries have come to play host to developed countries’ e-waste.

In addition to the various businesses and organizations that offer rewards for donating retired electronics as well as legislation to encourage e-waste recycling (e.g. New York City, Seattle, and Montreal), higher education institutions are taking a lead in curbing e-waste as well on their campuses. Campuses participating in AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Reporting System (STARS) receive a credit for having an e-waste recycling and/or reuse program in place.

Given the increasing interest among higher ed institutions to address e-waste, AASHE has launched a new member-only resource–E-waste Programs, Policies, and Events–to serve as a tool for campuses looking to start or expand on their own e-waste recycling initiatives. While some schools like Wheaton College have day-long events, others, including Drake College, have a designated term–the summer–during which e-waste is collected. Schools such as Bard College have institutionalized policies, and still others have created comprehensive programs to collect e-waste routinely throughout the year. A few examples of schools with such programs include University of Massachusetts (Amherst), which implemented in Spring 2011 an e-waste initiative consisting of collection bins placed in all 42 residence halls on campus. Additionally, entrepreneurial students at Babson College created a program such that the Babson Energy and Environmental Club (BEEC) receives some money for each electronic they collect and donate for resale in developing markets.

Students, faculty, and administrators thus have an opportunity to significantly reduce the ecological impact of their campus by ensuring that electronics are being diverted from the landfill in conjunction with private sector initiatives and municipal policies.

Have an e-waste initiative at your campus that should be in our resource? Email resources@aashe.org with the name of the school and a link to a page or article describing the initiative.

This special STARS edition of the AASHE Bulletin Sustainability Student Diary series follows three students who experienced the STARS reporting process at Unity College in Maine. As part of a "STARS: Sustainability Assessment" course at the college, the students chronicled their efforts on Unity's Sustainability Monitor blog. Below are republished excerpts. AASHE welcomes questions and invites feedback on each Sustainability Student Diary entry. Submit diary entries of your own for consideration to bulletin@aashe.org.

Timothy Godaire

May 1, 2011
As a student enrolled in the STARS: AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking course, and an intern in the Sustainability office, I am on the frontline of the sustainability efforts and energy tracking taking place on campus. This work has provided me a unique opportunity to influence the procedure the college uses to track energy usage and implementation of energy conservation measures on campus. My work involved the untangling of years worth of energy data in several different formats, and organizing it all in easy to understand workbooks.

As part of my internship, I have established and institutionalized an Excel workbook to track campus utilities, BTU’s and emissions by building on campus. I have also created a data file to track these values from year to year. These two data files allow our sustainability coordinator to monitor energy usage on campus, and to understand the implications of various energy conservation measures. These efforts began in the fall of 2010, and were critically important to the STARS reporting taking place this semester.

In the STARS class, we were able to choose the credits that we wished to pursue. I immediately thought of the energy and climate credits because of my experience with energy tracking on campus. My data management work made the STARS reporting for the energy credits much easier since I had already found, sorted and organized the data. These efforts have been instrumental in the creation of institutionalized energy tracking. The STARS class is enforcing the importance of tracking the campus-wide sustainability efforts to staff, faculty and students.

Previously, energy tracking has not taken precedence over other sustainability efforts, and consequently has hindered our ability to assess building performance, building efficiency and occupant behavior and energy use. This is especially challenging when nearly every electrical meter has multiple buildings feeding into it. Our recent efforts to understand campus-wide energy use by tracking utility data is a transition to better understand our sustainability efforts and to begin to quantify those efforts.

The STARS reporting is allowing us to evaluate our efforts, and where improvements can be made. When the time comes where we can quantify the energy use per building, we will be able to implement educational, behavioral change programs. This is the “real” work of the sustainability office; to provide education to the campus community on how to live, work and act more sustainably and live an ecologically aware life. The culmination of our work in the office and with STARS is preparing us, personally and as an institution, to address the imminent global environmental and energy issues of the 21st Century.

Shayne Van Leer

April 29, 2011
Unity College is filling out AASHE’s STARS for the first time...STARS is currently being conducted by our sustainability coordinator and three Unity College students. This assessment is popular among colleges because of its comprehensive focus on sustainability. Not only does it focus on the institution’s environmental performance, it also focuses on the institution’s social performance. The college’s performance includes Operations, Planning, Administration and Engagement, and Education and Research.

With that mind, as I started collecting data and filling out the credits, I noticed that there was a trend towards an institution’s policies. By this I mean that some credits were worded as, “Does your institution have an institution-wide stated preference for…..?” My response to this is; does an institution have to have a “policy” to be sustainable?

Here at Unity College all of the paper we purchase is 100 percent recycled content, all of the cleaning products that our maintenance department uses are Green Seal certified. Unity College does not have a “stated” preference for these things but we do have a preference for these things. In reality, in both situations an institution would be equally sustainable with or without a policy. However, with STARS, Purchasing credits require a purchasing policy to receive full credit.

Yes, there is a benefit to having a written policy; a policy would bind departments to purchasing things like recycled paper and Green Seal certified cleaning products. Here at Unity College things are a little different. Sustainability is intertwined into everything we do. Working towards sustainability is ingrained into our everyday lives. From class projects to classes, from faculty and staff to entire departments, sustainability is part of our job description, culture and our way of life.

In my personal opinion I feel that Unity College would not benefit from having a formal purchasing policy because we follow an unwritten rule of purchasing 100 percent recycled paper and Green Sealed cleaning products. However, if someone wanted to take the time to write a policy it would help us receive credit on the STARS application, but would not further sustainability at Unity College.

Hannia Candelario

April 30, 2011
The Environmental Stewardship Core Curriculum is a primary component of the Unity College education. There are four courses that are distributed through the four years and they prepare Unity graduates for leadership roles in environmental issues, on levels ranging from local to global...

...What draws attention to these classes is the ability that they give students to go after what they are passionate about. As part of my work for the STARS credit report, I took a deep look at the structure and function of academics here at Unity College. I was in charge of collecting information on the Education and Research credits; as I talked to the school’s registrar, teachers and faculty about the co-curricular education credits, it struck me to find out that many schools in the nation are just starting to put together a sustainability curriculum. STARS gives a lot of credit to sustainability education and the fact that all of us at Unity are required to take these classes makes me feel that we are being trained at a deeper level to become environmental stewards. We are a community that is aware of the problems today’s societies are facing and we are being trained on how to approach them while also increasing sustainability awareness on campus.

This special STARS edition of the AASHE Bulletin Sustainability Student Diary series follows three students who experienced the STARS reporting process at Unity College in Maine. As part of a "STARS: Sustainability Assessment" course at the college, the students chronicled their efforts on Unity's Sustainability Monitor blog. Below are republished excerpts. AASHE welcomes questions and invites feedback on each Sustainability Student Diary entry. Submit diary entries of your own for consideration to bulletin@aashe.org.

Timothy Godaire

May 1, 2011
As a student enrolled in the STARS: AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking course, and an intern in the Sustainability office, I am on the frontline of the sustainability efforts and energy tracking taking place on campus. This work has provided me a unique opportunity to influence the procedure the college uses to track energy usage and implementation of energy conservation measures on campus. My work involved the untangling of years worth of energy data in several different formats, and organizing it all in easy to understand workbooks.

As part of my internship, I have established and institutionalized an Excel workbook to track campus utilities, BTU’s and emissions by building on campus. I have also created a data file to track these values from year to year. These two data files allow our sustainability coordinator to monitor energy usage on campus, and to understand the implications of various energy conservation measures. These efforts began in the fall of 2010, and were critically important to the STARS reporting taking place this semester.

In the STARS class, we were able to choose the credits that we wished to pursue. I immediately thought of the energy and climate credits because of my experience with energy tracking on campus. My data management work made the STARS reporting for the energy credits much easier since I had already found, sorted and organized the data. These efforts have been instrumental in the creation of institutionalized energy tracking. The STARS class is enforcing the importance of tracking the campus-wide sustainability efforts to staff, faculty and students.

Previously, energy tracking has not taken precedence over other sustainability efforts, and consequently has hindered our ability to assess building performance, building efficiency and occupant behavior and energy use. This is especially challenging when nearly every electrical meter has multiple buildings feeding into it. Our recent efforts to understand campus-wide energy use by tracking utility data is a transition to better understand our sustainability efforts and to begin to quantify those efforts.

The STARS reporting is allowing us to evaluate our efforts, and where improvements can be made. When the time comes where we can quantify the energy use per building, we will be able to implement educational, behavioral change programs. This is the “real” work of the sustainability office; to provide education to the campus community on how to live, work and act more sustainably and live an ecologically aware life. The culmination of our work in the office and with STARS is preparing us, personally and as an institution, to address the imminent global environmental and energy issues of the 21st Century.

Shayne Van Leer

April 29, 2011
Unity College is filling out AASHE’s STARS for the first time...STARS is currently being conducted by our sustainability coordinator and three Unity College students. This assessment is popular among colleges because of its comprehensive focus on sustainability. Not only does it focus on the institution’s environmental performance, it also focuses on the institution’s social performance. The college’s performance includes Operations, Planning, Administration and Engagement, and Education and Research.

With that mind, as I started collecting data and filling out the credits, I noticed that there was a trend towards an institution’s policies. By this I mean that some credits were worded as, “Does your institution have an institution-wide stated preference for…..?” My response to this is; does an institution have to have a “policy” to be sustainable?

Here at Unity College all of the paper we purchase is 100 percent recycled content, all of the cleaning products that our maintenance department uses are Green Seal certified. Unity College does not have a “stated” preference for these things but we do have a preference for these things. In reality, in both situations an institution would be equally sustainable with or without a policy. However, with STARS, Purchasing credits require a purchasing policy to receive full credit.

Yes, there is a benefit to having a written policy; a policy would bind departments to purchasing things like recycled paper and Green Seal certified cleaning products. Here at Unity College things are a little different. Sustainability is intertwined into everything we do. Working towards sustainability is ingrained into our everyday lives. From class projects to classes, from faculty and staff to entire departments, sustainability is part of our job description, culture and our way of life.

In my personal opinion I feel that Unity College would not benefit from having a formal purchasing policy because we follow an unwritten rule of purchasing 100 percent recycled paper and Green Sealed cleaning products. However, if someone wanted to take the time to write a policy it would help us receive credit on the STARS application, but would not further sustainability at Unity College.

Hannia Candelario

April 30, 2011
The Environmental Stewardship Core Curriculum is a primary component of the Unity College education. There are four courses that are distributed through the four years and they prepare Unity graduates for leadership roles in environmental issues, on levels ranging from local to global...

...What draws attention to these classes is the ability that they give students to go after what they are passionate about. As part of my work for the STARS credit report, I took a deep look at the structure and function of academics here at Unity College. I was in charge of collecting information on the Education and Research credits; as I talked to the school’s registrar, teachers and faculty about the co-curricular education credits, it struck me to find out that many schools in the nation are just starting to put together a sustainability curriculum. STARS gives a lot of credit to sustainability education and the fact that all of us at Unity are required to take these classes makes me feel that we are being trained at a deeper level to become environmental stewards. We are a community that is aware of the problems today’s societies are facing and we are being trained on how to approach them while also increasing sustainability awareness on campus.

Sustainability in higher education continues to be an emerging and dynamic field, and, to some, unexplored terrain. Thus, the sharing of knowledge and information is a compelling and propelling force to the higher education sustainability movement, which continues to gain momentum.

In order to emphasize and recognize the institutions that are willing to go above and beyond to not only share their successes but also the lessons they learned during the journey in spite of the end result being different of what was desired, AASHE has created the “Oops” Award for Honest Disclosure of Lessons Learned, as part of the Awards Program (which also includes awards for students, institutions, green building and faculty achievements).

Oftentimes, stories of projects that don’t go as planned can be really helpful, but campuses can be hesitant to tell such stories. The transition towards sustainability requires a willingness to try new things and inevitably this involves some mistakes. Campuses willing to go out on a limb to try something new deserve credit and recognition.

The “Oops!” Award for Honest Disclosure of Lessons Learned, recognizes the best case study of a project that did not go as planned and that offers important lessons from which others can learn. This is an opportunity for your institution to be recognized for disclosing its process for implementing a given sustainability initiative, help peer institutions avoid or prevent similar obstacles, and encourage them to be conversational about their own methods as well.

Winners of the award will receive a complimentary conference pass to AASHE 2011 where the award will be presented. In addition, the winner of this year's award will be featured in Sustainability: The Journal of Record and invited to a VIP reception during the AASHE 2011 conference

To apply, please fill out the application form found here by June 17, 2011.

If you have any questions / comments, please email Niles Barnes at niles@aashe.org.

Sustainability in higher education continues to be an emerging and dynamic field, and, to some, unexplored terrain. Thus, the sharing of knowledge and information is a compelling and propelling force to the higher education sustainability movement, which continues to gain momentum.

In order to emphasize and recognize the institutions that are willing to go above and beyond to not only share their successes but also the lessons they learned during the journey in spite of the end result being different of what was desired, AASHE has created the “Oops” Award for Honest Disclosure of Lessons Learned, as part of the Awards Program (which also includes awards for students, institutions, green building and faculty achievements).

Oftentimes, stories of projects that don’t go as planned can be really helpful, but campuses can be hesitant to tell such stories. The transition towards sustainability requires a willingness to try new things and inevitably this involves some mistakes. Campuses willing to go out on a limb to try something new deserve credit and recognition.

The “Oops!” Award for Honest Disclosure of Lessons Learned, recognizes the best case study of a project that did not go as planned and that offers important lessons from which others can learn. This is an opportunity for your institution to be recognized for disclosing its process for implementing a given sustainability initiative, help peer institutions avoid or prevent similar obstacles, and encourage them to be conversational about their own methods as well.

Winners of the award will receive a complimentary conference pass to AASHE 2011 where the award will be presented. In addition, the winner of this year's award will be featured in Sustainability: The Journal of Record and invited to a VIP reception during the AASHE 2011 conference

To apply, please fill out the application form found here by June 17, 2011.

If you have any questions / comments, please email Niles Barnes at niles@aashe.org.

In August of 2009, I wrote about the findings from the report of the American Psychological Association's (APA) task force studying the interface between psychology and global climate change. That report was in a way, a call to action for additional research and work to better understand the role of human behavior in climate change, the reasons people are not acting and ways to get people to act. The report made clear the many ways psychology as a discipline has important contributions to make in understanding climate change and helping to reverse it.

Jumping forward two years and the May/June 2011 issue of American Psychologist (APA's official journal) is a devoted special issue and follow up to that earlier report.

The special issue includes seven articles written by researchers from colleges and universities around the world, including many from the APA Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change. For campus sustainability advocates interested in research on psychology and climate change, the articles are fascinating but can also can provide important concrete lessons for improving initiatives and programs on campus. Robert Gifford's article, "The Dragons of Inaction: Psychological barriers that limit climate change mitigation and adaptation", provides what he calls "dragons of inaction" essentially a taxonomy of seven psychological barriers that limit sustainable behavior change at both an individual and organizational level.

The seven article's include:

• Psychology's contributions to understanding and addressing global climate change.

• Human behavioral contributions to climate change: Psychological and contextual drivers.

• The psychological impacts of global climate change.

• Adapting to and coping with the threat and impacts of climate change.

• The dragons of inaction: Psychological barriers that limit climate change mitigation and adaptation.

• Contributions of psychology to limiting climate change.

• Public understanding of climate change in the United States.

Abstracts to all of the articles are available for free here. If you are on a campus, your library may be able to provide access as well.