This week's guest blog article is by John Clinton, Associate Professor of Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management at Milano-The New School for Management & Urban Policy in New York City, and Milano team leader for the Solar Decathlon project.

Complex engineering problems, aesthetic design, and, of course, energy efficiency solutions all characterize the Solar Decathlon. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Decathlon is an international competition among colleges and universities to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. This year’s 20 finalists include entries from across the U.S. and, for the first time, China (Tongji University).

Along with the imaginative and analytical discipline essential to design-development and execution, a seemingly mundane challenge can pose one of the thorniest issues for Decathletes: how to integrate the efforts of hundreds of students in dozens of courses taught by a score of professors over the lifespan of a two-year project, with many of the participants cycling out at the conclusion of an academic semester. Given the tension between continuity and adaptability, how can anyone know what others are doing, let alone break new ground in technology applications, marketability, and aesthetics?

For The New School-Stevens Institute of Technology Solar Decathlon team, (which includes the Parsons School of Design and the Milano School of Management and Urban Policy), an additional consideration has been the decision to take a community-based approach. Our partnership extends beyond our schools to include the Washington, D.C. Deanwood neighborhood advisory commissioner, the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development, and Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C. With these partners, we are working to create a simple, affordable, ultra-efficient home that holistically and systemically addresses sustainable living.

While we are convinced that such an approach is necessary to achieve the social impact we seek, broad partnerships of this sort inevitably heighten process and structural challenges. So, our solution to what is essentially an organizational problem has been that seemingly mundane tool: the org chart.
We engaged several graduate students from the Milano Organizational Change Management (OCM) graduate program to collect data through survey questionnaires from a wide-ranging array of academic teams across the three schools. They identified and canvassed 22 teams in all, subsequently interviewed university-based project leaders, and also gathered input from community partners.

Thanks to the architecture faculty member who is the overall project leader, and especially the elected student project leadership of this student-driven project, the critical need for the OCM organizationally-centered work was underscored. Both faculty and student leaders emphasized the integrative potential of the OCM work—an important message for all team members to absorb.

In addition to identifying the 22 student workgroups and clarifying relationships among internal and external stakeholders, the group implemented an organizational chart created by collaboration across all of the schools to promote continuing collaboration. The chart eased the entry of each new group of students as they entered the project, helping them understand the many players and project components, and facilitated internal communication, so that work teams could readily direct inquiries and engage in joint efforts.

Several additional OCM students focused on process issues and devised forums for integration, brainstorming, and communication strategies. A key task was to provide methods for relationship-building in order to improve understanding of the goals of key stakeholders in the organizational chart and the interactions and settings necessary to achieve them.

Unlike more typical projects in which the various professions work in isolation, we learned quickly that curricular attention to human relationships and communication, employing the tools of managing change processes and organizational dynamics, were important contributors to complex, interdisciplinary collaboration. That is a lesson we are now infusing in sustainability curricula across the institution.

As we enter the final stages of the Solar Decathlon competition, we continue to derive lessons for curricular innovation to be shared with the entire university community. Equally, and as importantly, we believe we are preparing our students for the challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration that characterize sustainability work beyond the classroom walls.

Susie Choi, co-program coordinator for the Green Events Consulting team at Stanford University (CA), is featured in this installment of the AASHE Bulletin Sustainability Student Diary series. She shares why and how the team began working to green campus events, with a peek at their efforts to green the Stanford Association for International Development annual conference. AASHE welcomes questions and invites feedback on each Sustainability Student Diary entry. Submit diary entries of your own for consideration to bulletin@aashe.org.

Green Events Consulting (GEC) is a student initiative that was established in fall of 2010 under the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU), Stanford University’s student government. GEC’s goal is to promote sustainability on campus by helping student groups make their events as “green” as possible, focusing on the four major event-planning areas: advertising, food, purchasing and waste disposal.

We carry out our mission by assigning consultants, students we have recruited and trained for this position, to student groups participating in our program; these consultants take student groups step-by-step through the event-planning process so that they will make sustainable decisions and purchases. By advising these groups, we hope not only that their specific events will become cleaner, but also that the students themselves will learn about and understand the importance of sustainability.

GEC came about because we realized that although students are interested in hosting green events, they are unaware of the resources present on campus, the thought of implementing a more sustainable event is daunting, and they do not know where or how to start. We created our program to help students overcome these problems that we identified. GEC wants to serve the Stanford community and help students implement their ideal event, and we offer ourselves as an educational resource.

Student groups that are participating in our program include: Dance Marathon, Stanford Association for International Development, Alternative Spring Break, Relay for Life, Sigma Gamma Rho, Stanford Alpine Project, and Stanford Educational Studies Program.

We recently worked with the Stanford Association for International Development (SAID) to green its annual conference, which was on the topic of innovation in bottom-up development. There were approximately 300 attendees, and the conference was a half-day event. As mentioned earlier, we focus mainly on making the advertising, food, purchasing and waste disposal aspects of an event as sustainable as possible; in order to do so, we worked with SAID’s leadership team for the month and a half leading up to the event date.

Our work mostly involved gathering details about the event, learning what decisions if any had already been made by the team, and then pinpointing areas that could be improved. Some areas of focus included: purchasing compostable rather than disposable utensils, implementing composting at the event and purchasing organic food from local caterers. We also encouraged e-fliering and use of media outlets (e.g. Facebook and the student group’s website) as alternatives to paper fliering.

In order to come up with specific recommendations based on these general ideas, the consultants working on the SAID project conducted research and then found various options of compostable materials and caterers, as well as their prices and the cost differences between the sustainable and non-sustainable alternatives. With this data, the consultants then went back and forth with SAID’s leadership team to determine what options would be best for the event and to settle on the amount of food or the number of plates, for example, that SAID would purchase.

The bulk of GEC’s role involved pinpointing areas of the event to improve, conducting research to find sustainable alternatives, communicating with the student group regarding those alternatives and their implications, and then finalizing recommendations for the event based on what was agreed upon between SAID and GEC. The consultants also attended the event to ensure that all recommendations were implemented, to monitor waste stations and educate event attendees about the conference’s green status. The consultants also made note of any changes that could be made to next year’s event.

This account of GEC’s experience with SAID offers a glimpse into the program’s consulting process and how it assists student groups. We look forward to continuing to make a positive impact on our campus by helping other student groups on their path towards sustainability.

AASHE Note: For a comprehensive look at the team's green approaches to event planning, check out its 2011 Executive Summary Handbook of sustainable event recommendations for student groups. This guide brings additional student perspectives to Stanford’s official green event guidelines published by the Office of Sustainability in early 2010, Greening Events at Stanford: A Practice Guide for Sustainable Campus Events.

Below is the final installment of a four-blog mini-series, reposted from the Sustainability Education blog of Living Routes Director Daniel Greenberg.

While air travel certainly accounts for the lion’s share of environmental impacts associated with education abroad, if you’ve ever been to a study abroad fair you know there’s more to the story. In my last three blog posts I shared about how to green the field of study abroad in the following areas:

1. Program Design and Management
2. Student Learning
3. Staff Training and Office Management

To conclude this mini blog series, I will address the question of how study abroad organizations can minimize resource use and waste during promotion of their programs, using Living Routes, the nonprofit I direct, as a case study. As before, these recommendations stem from my work with The Forum on Education Abroad‘s Subcommittee on Sustainability Standards and our revisions to their Standards of Good Practice and Code of Ethics documents. We came up with three broad suggestions and lots of embedded ideas.

1. Direct students to websites whenever possible and create/use promotional brochures and giveaway items that are “resource-light” and made from recycled and/or compostable materials.

I find it sad when students leave study abroad fairs laden with reams of program materials and pockets bulging with plastic schwag, most of which will end up in the trash before the week is over. While offering boxes at the exits for students to deposit materials for re-use and recycling is helpful, the best strategy is to reduce these materials at the source. Most students research their options online anyway, so all they really need to walk away with is a bunch of URLs. Also, if your office or organization does not yet have a Facebook Page, it’s time to consider creating one.

At Living Routes, we’ve pared our marketing materials down to a tri-fold brochure and half-sheets on each of our programs. But I’m most proud of our “Sustainable Schwag.” Since, 2007, we’ve been working with Upasana Design Studio in Auroville, an international “ecovillage” in South India where Living Routes runs semester and January programs. After the tsunami in 2004, members of Upasana worked with village women to develop the Tsunamika doll, which is hand-made from scrap fabric and is a symbol of hope and resilience. We attach a small card (100 percent recycled, of course) with basic information about the dolls and Living Routes programs and have given thousands away at fairs and events. People love them because they’re so beautiful and unique and we love supporting this great organization doing really valuable village development work.

2. Practice sustainable event management.

Study abroad fairs, conferences, even information sessions can all benefit from considering their environmental impacts. A few good resources to get you started include Yale’s Office of Sustainability’s Sustainable Event Guidelines and Sustainable Communities' downloadable brochure on How to Plan a Sustainable Event. Here’s a few ideas from these resources:

• Choose a site that people can walk, bike or take a bus to.
• Work with suppliers that are committed to sustainable practices.
• Hold the event during the day to utilize natural lighting.
• Promote the event electronically and offer online registration.
• Create name tags and signage that are re-usable.
• Use local foods, provide vegan/vegetarian options, and compost organic waste.
• Educate participants and vendors about the event’s sustainability practices.

3. Seek ways to minimize the environmental impacts of staff travel.

While it is unreasonable to expect education abroad professionals not to travel, we should always be careful to minimize non-essential travel and to combine trips whenever possible. Consider virtual meetings via teleconferences, Skype, and webinars, especially in lieu of long-haul flights. And when you do travel, measure your carbon footprint and consider purchasing carbon offsets to address these impacts. While there are dozens of carbon calculators to choose from, for air travel, I recommend the ICAO’s recently released Carbon Emissions Calculator. I will address carbon offsetting in a future post, but there are many options for offsetting carbon emissions if you choose to go this route. I also found some good ideas in Taiga Company’s blog post on green travel.

In addition to being Skype addicts and using webinars to offer virtual information, orientation, and re-entry sessions about our programs, Living Routes has pioneered the practice of virtual tabling at study abroad fairs. I will offer a how-to guide in a later post, but the basic idea is to set up a computer through which students can videoconference with staff members in our office in Amherst, MA. It does have a habit of freaking out some students (Agh! You can see me?!), but we have found it to be a fun way to connect with potential students, reduce our environmental impacts, and save time and money to boot!

I hope you have enjoyed this blog series about sustainability in study abroad and have found some of these ideas useful. I’m always interested in further developing this topic so please add your ideas, suggestions and questions in the comments. Thanks!

In community,
- Daniel

Once after keynoting an event for a local university, a former English professor emailed me the following message:

“Remember, Walt Whitman promised that the natural environment--whenever threatened--is saved by the poet, not the scientist.”

This statement may not sit well with some, particularly those who have spent the majority of their academic careers studying the detrimental impacts that our civilization is having on the planet. However, messaging and marketing must supplement science as we try to promote change within our institutions. There is too much at stake for it not to.

Before I go on, let me say that I am not a PR professional nor do I have any formal marketing training. However, the good news is that I have been fortunate to work with experts in those fields and they have been kind enough to share some key elements with me. I hope I can do them justice by sharing a few tidbits with you.

Accentuate the Positive
Save the doom and gloom for the pundits on the cable news networks. Fear based messaging usually only appeals to those on the fringe. Remember your trying to build consensus and break down silos and research shows that this is best done by highlighting the opportunities around sustainability. Also, never underestimate the power of a local success story. Even if your efforts to date have been minor (such as changing a few lights bulbs) you can still build a story upon them, especially if a few dollars have been saved.

Make it Personal to Make it Relevant
I always like to start meetings and talks with a personal story. For campus audiences I like to use a story from my undergrad days. For many of us our time in College was a very enjoyable experience and you likely will not need to go too far back into your memory bank to pull out a story that the audience can relate to. For some, College was when they were first introduced to the concept of sustainability. If this was the case for you, tell this story. You may think that your story is irrelevant because campus life has changed so drastically since you were napping in the Quad. Turns out some things never change.

Beyond that I also like to use a prop. On of my favorites is a package of disposable cups designed to look like reusable coffee mugs. The package boast an “EcoSmart label” but upon further inspection it turns out that the cups use only 12% post consumer recycled material. The audience gets a good laugh out of this but more importunity they begin to understand the risks associated with greenwashing, which will become a serious issue as more and more campuses are embracing sustainability.

Embrace social media
Its unlikely anyone can question the power of social media as a tool for change, the recent events in North Africa and the Middle East have made the case clear. For some, social media can be intimidating, for others it’s a distraction. But the need to understand and effectively use social media is clear. Take for instance this simple fact - today’s college freshmen have been using facebook since their days in middle school. Also remember facebook started on a college campus and was specifically designed for college students. Students can now pass short blurbs of information on from their computers, televisions, phones, and iPads and soon they may be updating their status through their cars. If you believe this Superbowl commercial, one day they may even be able to control their status through jedi-type mind tricks.

One of the most effective and creative ways that I have seen social media used is through the use of Twitter. I was giving a talk to a student government group once and while I was in the midst of my talk I noticed that the entire group seemed to be on their phones. I figured there must be some party that night and everyone was passing directions via text. Turns out, they were using Twitter to comment on my talk. Some were even suggesting recommendations on how the campus could become more sustainable. After the meeting I was able to review what was tweeted through my twitter account because a hashtag had been assigned by the group. I can’t stress how valuable this was. I was able to gather stakeholder input from students who otherwise wouldn’t speak up, I had a unique source of collective notes from the meeting, and I was able to see where my message hit home and where it missed the boat.

A few other things to consider. Keep your messages concise. Cross promotion and visuals are key. Repetition is required. Try not to get too technical and always end each message with a call to action.

Creating an effective message is not easy and this is about the time when people start asking themselves “how am I going to manage all this.” Keep an eye out for my next post where I plan to share effective strategies for managing the sustainability workload.

Brad McAllister, one of this month’s guest bloggers, is a partner and managing director at WAP Sustainability. He holds a B.S in ecology from the University of Georgia and an M.S in environmental science from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Brad is an adjunct professor of Enterprise Sustainability at the Institute for Sustainable Practice at Lipscomb University and a member of the Climate Project.You can read Brad's earlier posts here and here.

STARS is an ever-evolving system which provides colleges and universities with a tool to track their progress toward sustainability and provides the public the opportunity to see what is happening in higher education with regard to sustainability. Built into STARS is a process for ongoing development so that the program is current and best meets the needs of STARS Participants and the public. Seventy Technical Advisors provide input and make recommendations for continuous improvement. These Technical Advisors, professionals from higher education institutions, businesses, and non-profit organizations, are organized into nineteen work groups, each work group having responsibility for one of the STARS subcategories, such as Curriculum, Energy, and Investment. These work groups provide input to the STARS staff and make recommendations for the STARS Steering Committee’s consideration and approval.

There are three levels of periodic changes in the STARS development process: Administrative Updates, Minor Substantive Changes, and Major Revisions. Administrative Updates are made no more often than quarterly and include changes such as making clarifications to credits and correcting typographical errors. Minor Substantive Changes are made no more often than once a year, and these may include changes to criteria and reporting fields which do not change the scoring of credits. STARS 1.1 was released in February 2011 and is the first set of Minor Substantive Changes made to STARS. Major Revisions are made no more often than once every two years, and these may include adding or removing credits, restructuring STARS, and changing scoring of credits. The STARS staff and Technical Advisors are currently developing STARS 2.0, which will be the first set of Major Revisions and will be released sometime after mid-2012.

Some of the priorities the STARS Steering Committee has identified for the development of STARS 2.0 include redefining “institutional boundary,” credit reallocation and point weighting, and making the Education and Research category more robust. The STARS technical development policy provides for a public comment period for Major Revisions. A public comment period on proposed changes for STARS 2.0 is planned for fall 2011.

Below is the third installment of a four-blog mini-series, reposted from the Sustainability Education blog of Living Routes Director Daniel Greenberg. Stay tuned for the final installment next week.

Behind every student studying abroad, there are dedicated staff from his or her home institution assisting with everything from program applications, financial aid, credit transfer, visas, medical preparations, cultural orientations, packing lists, and even (occasionally) luggage tags. So, when we consider ways to make education abroad more sustainable, let’s remember those who stay behind to help create these life-changing opportunities.

In this third installment of a four-part blog series, I will focus on sustainability standards for staff training and office management that were developed by a subcommittee of The Forum on Education Abroad and offered as revisions to their Standards of Good Practice and Code of Ethics documents.

The general question we tried to answer was:

How [can a study abroad] organization create and maintain policies and relationships that support environmentally responsible office and on-site program management?

We came up with three general suggestions and lots of ideas.

1. Maintain clear environmental standards (e.g. recycling, purchasing, travel, energy conservation and efficiency) and conduct regular staff trainings in order to monitor and best implement these standards.

Creating environmental office standards is not unique to study abroad and there are many excellent resources available. A good place to start is the World Resources Institute’s Working 9 to 5 on Climate Change: An Office Guide. In addition, while more focused on entire campuses, the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) developed by AASHE also has a lot of great ideas. Two other resources of note are an Australian guide to buying and using environmentally friendly office equipment and the City of Portland’s Office of Sustainable Development’s Green Office Guide. For a broader view on these issues, check out Wikipedia’s entry on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). I have yet to come across specific examples of environmental standards or staff trainings within study abroad offices, so please let me know if you find any (or are now inspired to create some!) and I will include them in a future blog entry.

2. Collaborate with sustainability initiatives (on- or off-campus) when appropriate.

According to AASHE’s just released 2010 Higher Education Sustainability Staffing Survey, there has been “an exponential growth of campus sustainability in recent years.” While this is wonderful news, it should be noted that most initiatives focus on campus facilities and operations. Off-campus student travel is largely off-the-map when it comes to greening colleges and universities. Collaborating with your school’s Sustainability Office or Coordinator (if there is one) helps fill a gap many didn’t even know exists and connects you to a local network of resources and support. Perhaps there are grant or carbon offsetting opportunities that would apply to students going abroad. If your school doesn’t have a Sustainability Office or Coordinator, reach out to eco-minded faculty or campus groups. Ask your students if you don’t know of any.

Thinking more broadly, I invite you to join the Sustainability Abroad Listserv, which currently has 431 subscribers who support each other in this nexus between sustainability and education abroad. I also encourage you to subscribe to the Global Editions of the AASHE Bulletin and the Chronicle of Higher Education. And of course, subscribing to this blog couldn’t hurt (hint, hint).

3. Work towards minimizing the environmental, economic and social impacts of office activities.

Many common suggestions (e.g. recycle, carpool, use CFLs and low-flow faucets) can be found in the above resources, but here are a few that are more unique or relevant:

• Form an office committee to research, lead and monitor your sustainable practices.

• Pose weekly or monthly “Green Challenges” to staff (and students abroad!) encouraging them to climb stairs instead of riding elevators, eat locally-produced food, or bring reusable rather than disposable containers to work.

• Communicate electronically when possible. For example, at Living Routes, the study abroad organization I direct, we encourage students to apply for programs and read PDFs of handbooks online.

• If you want to go even further, consider using a non-printable PDF format developed by World Wildlife Fund. We considered this at Living Routes, but there was concern that it would annoy students. I’d be interested in hearing experiences of others who have tried using this format.

• Solicit returning students to host talks or discussions on interesting environmental topics.

• Keep a donated bicycle at the office as alternative transportation.

• Set up staff volunteer days toward conservation activities, such as trail building or weed removal. For example, staff at Living Routes recently enjoyed helping develop a permaculture garden at UMass-Amherst.

Sustainability in study abroad is still a very young field, so new resources and ideas are showing up almost daily. Please add your thoughts, questions and any resources or practices you are aware of in the comments so we can continue to learn together.

Results shown are in US Pounds. To view measurements in Metric Kilograms, view the overall rankings on the Results page.