ACPA Conference - Higher Ed Sustainability Act

ACPA Session: Higher Education Sustainability Act: Implications for Your School

I attended a session on sustainability in higher education. The presenter provided some info about the Higher Education Sustainability Act which provides $50 million for sustainability project within higher education. It is the first federally funded grant of it's kind in 20 years. It was supported by the House, Senate as well as the former president.

Courtney Smith, the presenter, explained that there are three facets of sustainability including social, economic and natural aspects. All of which are intricately woven into each other like a web. She stressed that sustainability was much more than just "going green," including technology, economics, development, business, agriculture, and global thinking. She asked if higher ed might just be the answer to help move the sustainability agenda along through partnerships and campus practices. There are a lot of barriers to reaching sustainability including cost, time, apathy, resistance to change, proof of validity (for some folks), and others.

The activity was to break into groups and prioritize a list of things related to sustainability if money wasn't an issue. Some of the items on the list were:

• Training for faculty, staff and administrators on the concepts of sustainability, techniques, and assessment tools.
• Address the environmental side: educate and develop programming related to recycling, green buildings, ag concerns, energy efficiency, transportation, waste, renewable energy, etc.
• Address economic sides: educate and develop programming related to social and ecological consequences of economics--what does the business of higher education take, make and waste?
• Address the social justice side: teach the concept and connection to sustainable practices and the inclusion of economics and environment and fair use
• Sustainability curriculum: new degree programs, integrate as a component of all degrees
• Support institutions to work with community partners from business, government, and non-profit sectors to design and implement sustainability programs for application in the community and workplace.         
• Fund research and development of sustainability tech and practices
• Fund there new policies: initiatives incorporating environment, economics, and social equity.

Each group talked about what our priorities were and why. Some people shared some stories about successes and failures. One of the items that was shared was from someone at Ohio University about the use of aerobic equipment to actually put energy back into the grid. This really struck a chord with me because I had hear about other universities doing that (Oregon State, University of Florida), but also because I will be working on a physical exercise module this summer and I thought it would be really cool to bring sustainability into that module by focusing how students can enhance their health while contributing to the university's sustainability plan.  

In the end, she encouraged everyone to do something at our universities and college to push the sustainability agenda. She recommended reading the following:

Campaign for Environmental Literacy http://fundee.org/

She recommended a book called Advancing Sustainability in Higher Education, 2007, by Litten and Terkla.