Villanova University Plans “Year of Sustainability”

Introducing our first EarthFirst U college contributor Joseph Negri who will be blogging about environmental issues from the campus of Villanova University. Take it away Joseph! -Dorothee

In April 2009, Villanova will host scholars, environmental activists, and government officials from around the world at the International Sustainability Conference, an event that will combine educational and environmental concerns. Speakers will focus on the impact of sustainability on various academic disciplines such as law, economic development, and engineering. The four-day event will include a keynote address by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and a presentation of Kaiulani Lee’s “A Sense of Wonder”, a play about environmentalist Rachel Carson. Participants will be asked to donate to TreeVitalize, and a Philadelphia-based program that attempts to offset the carbon production of Pennsylvania.

The upcoming International Conference will wrap up a full year of events meant to promote public awareness about environmental issues. Villanova’s President’s Climate Committee began this “Year of Sustainability” in September as a part of a larger effort to enforce their policies. According to the Climate Committee, Villanova has two main goals concerning sustainability.

From Villanova’s Environmental Sustainability Policy :
Goal 1: Villanova University will strive to practice the principles of environmental sustainability and wise use of resources within the University community. Villanova University will make reasonable efforts to conserve resources.

Goal 2: Villanova University will engage in appropriate learning opportunities with the intention of creating a community whose members (students, faculty, staff, and graduates) are environmentally literate and responsible.

The effects of these policies can be seen on Villanova’s campus on an everyday basis as well as during these major events. The Villanova University Shop now sells environmentally friendly products that limit on campus waste. Vantage Clothing Company supplies the shop with organic cotton Villanova gear. Reusable water bottles are being sold as part of the “Refill not Landfill” campaign that seeks to limit the number of plastic bottles used on campus. All of these products are reviewed by the Green Purchasing Committee that is constantly looking for new ways to bring green products to Villanova.

As the Year of Sustainability continues, Villanova will enact more eco-friendly policies and plan more public awareness events. The university hopes that the changes occurring on campus will spread to the greater community and result in an environmentally conscious world.

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Green College Spotlight: College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine

Last year, Grist.org named College of the Atlantic it’s #1 greenest college in the nation, and it’s easy to see why.  Despite being a tiny school with just one major – human ecology – it’s a model for institutes of higher learning across America, with its progressive programs, innovative ideas and incredibly ambitious goals.  It was the first college in the U.S. to pledge carbon neutrality, and more than 270 other schools have followed its example.

Back in 2006, College of the Atlantic’s newly installed president, David F. Hales, announced the school’s intentions to cut back on their carbon footprint, stating at his inauguration, “Just as all greenhouse gas emissions adversely affect the atmosphere, all emission reductions benefit it,” Hales said in a statement. “What we put into the atmosphere in Maine can be offset by reducing emissions here and elsewhere, so that we are able to reduce our college’s negative global warming impact to zero.”

Considering that the school is dedicated to ecology, it’s no surprise that it’s often called ‘the greenest of them all’.  All 325(!) students are personally committed to making the college as green as possible, and not just by planting lots of trees. They actively work to reduce waste, maximize energy efficiency, use low fossil-fuel transport, eat local and organic and educate the public about sustainability.  A free bike program provides bicycles, helmets, lights and reflective vests to all students, faculty, staff and visitors, and the entire fleet is comprised of restored and repaired older bicycles.  The college’s small fleet of watercraft used in academic programs as well as for recreation run on ethanol. COA also operates an 81-acre farm called Beech Hill, which includes 5 acres of certified organic farmland, several acres of heirloom apple trees and 65 acres of forest.

Even the head custodian at COA is dedicated to environmental responsibility, making sure that all products used on campus are safe and natural.  Paper products are 100% recycled, low-VOC paints are used and even the brooms are made from dye-free corn fiber with removable bamboo handles.

College of the Atlantic has proven that even on a very small scale, it’s possible to achieve carbon neutrality by making smart decisions about even the littlest things in life.  It’s an example that all of us can follow, and clearly, they’ve already inspired many others.

Link [College of the Atlantic] + [Washington Post]

Green College Spotlight: Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio

Oberlin College is one of the nation’s leaders in sustainability initiatives at places of higher learning. The students at Oberlin aren’t just dedicated to recycling, gardening, composting and other green efforts often undertaken at colleges and universities – they’ve thrown themselves into living lives that have a positive impact on the environment, down to their practically Olympian competitions to have the shortest shower.

The shining star of the college’s environmental efforts is the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies. The building is an ongoing experiment in sustainable practices, and is constantly studied and improved as new green technology becomes available. Built by William McDonough & Partners, an architecture firm headed by the co-founder of the Cradle to Cradle design philosophy, the building is geothermally heated and uses only about 20% the energy of a typical similarly sized structure. The Lewis Center also features daylighting, recycled materials, a complex ventilation system and a green roof.

Outside the Lewis Center, you’ll find several more green buildings, including the SEED House, or Student Experiment in Ecological Design. Eight students live in the SEED house, and those students strive to be as environmentally conscious as they can be. Inside, you’ll often find worm compost bins, unplugged appliances and students layered under several blankets as the thermostat is never set higher than 60 degrees. One thing you won’t find is a television. The New York Times spent a day at the SEED House – check out the video below.

Professor of Environmental Studies David Orr explained the students’ impressive level of dedication to the New York Times:

“This is a generation that is watching the world come undone.” Projects like the Oberlin house, he said, are “helping them understand how to stitch the world together again.”

Link [Oberlin College] + [YouTube] + [New York Times]

Green College Spotlight: Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont

Tucked into a small, rural Vermont community is liberal arts gem Middlebury College, a highly selective private school that prides itself on its environmental activism. Middlebury established the first Environmental Studies major back in 1965, and has since helped pave the way for colleges across the country to be more environmentally conscious from its sustainable agriculture and recycling programs to the green building techniques used in recent construction.

Middlebury’s dedication to environmentally responsible practices is apparent in nearly every aspect of daily operations. In fact, they’ve incorporated environmental stewardship into the college’s new mission statement, which reads in part, “The College’s Vermont location offers an inspirational setting for learning and reflection, reinforcing our commitment to integrating environmental stewardship into both our curriculum and our practices on campus.”

Middlebury was one of six colleges to receive a grade of ‘A-‘ from the Sustainable Endowments Institute on its College Sustainability Report Card 2008, the highest grade rewarded. It has also been named as one of the greenest colleges in the U.S. by Forbes, Grist, Alternet and The Daily Green.

The honors are due in part to the students’ incredible drive to be environmentally responsible. Middlebury spawned the ‘Step it Up’ protests against global warming, and lobbied hard for the $11 million biomass plant now being built, which will help the college meet its goal of being carbon neutral by 2016. They’ve demanded green programs at the school and have gotten them, from the sustainably sourced wood used for heating to the wind turbine that powers the college’s recycling facility. Produce from local farmers plus the harvests reaped from the school’s on-campus organic gardens provide a quarter of the student meals at the dining hall. Check out the video below showing the students participating in ‘The Green Finger Project’, where they write what they’re voting to protect on the palms of their hands.

Majors at Middlebury include classical studies, geography, history of art & architecture, international studies, molecular biology & biochemistry and political science, among many others. Prospective students wishing to take a tour of the campus can get that info, along with more about the admissions process, at the school’s website.

Link [Middlebury College ] + [YouTube]

Green College Spotlight: Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, NC

Warren Wilson College, nestled in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, has received numerous accolades for their environmental policies, including being named ‘Greenest College of the Southeast’ by Blue Ridge Outdoors for the second consecutive year, making the Daily Green’s list of greenest colleges and being named one of the Top 10 Eco-Friendly Colleges in 2007 by the Sierra Club.

Located in the small town of Swannanoa just outside Asheville, Warren Wilson isn’t just a college – it’s a 300-acre working farm and 700-acre forest that operates as a research laboratory for sustainable practices. Two of its buildings are LEED gold certified. LEED, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification, is the green rating system of the U.S. Green Building Council. By the end of this year, the college hopes to have 5 LEED certified buildings including an ‘EcoDorm’, for which it’s seeking the Platinum certification, which is the Green Building Council’s highest rating. Check out a video explaining some of the green aspects of the EcoDorm below.

Environmental sustainability is a major theme at Warren Wilson, seen everywhere from the compost bins and biodiesel car fleets to the organic gardens and use of passive and active solar heating. Staff use solar-charged electric golf carts to get around, there’s a vegetarian café on campus and students enjoy a ‘free store’ where donated goods find new homes. There’s a deep-rooted awareness of conservation and sustainability on this campus, where students, faculty and staff do everything they can to minimize their impact on the environment.

Warren Wilson has put an emphasis on making sure that it, as a school, is the best example it can be for students seeking leadership in sustainable initiatives. They’ve taken things like biodiversity conservation into account when planning their land use, have an Environmental Leadership Center, a Recycling Crew, and a Campus Greening Seed Grants program that allows students and a staff co-sponsor to apply for grants up to $500 to put environmental restoration projects in motion on campus. Their college press uses 100% post-consumer chlorine-free paper and soy inks. A campus shuttle gets students to nearby Asheville for social and shopping excursions, since first-year students aren’t allowed to have their own vehicles.

They’re not done by any means – Warren Wilson has made a commitment to continue growing as an environmentally responsible college as technology and sustainable practices evolve. This liberal arts college, offering majors like Art, Biology, Environmental Studies, Global Studies, Humanities, Outdoor Leadership and Social Work has a lot to offer for students who have set themselves on a greener path.

Check back with EarthFirst.com every Monday for a new green college feature!

Link [Warren Wilson College]

Princeton Review’s Green College Ratings to Debut This Summer

College students everywhere now have a new guide to choosing the right school: the Princeton Review, a popular annual guide for college students to gain information about schools, now includes ‘green ratings’. The 2009 guide is set to be published later this month. Other factors ranked by the Princeton Review for the 600 colleges included in its guide include everything from financial aid to selectivity to quality of life.

From GreenBiz.com:

The Review added the green dimension to its ratings system after it found that 63 percent of college applicants surveyed said they would value having information about a college’s commitment to the environment and that such data could affect their choice to apply or attend a school.

The green rating is based on responses to a battery of questions that are designed to provide a comprehensive measure of a school’s performance as an “environmentally aware and responsible institution,” the Review said on its website.

What an awesome resource – this is definitely something that more and more college students want to know about. It could also foster some competition between schools to get greener, and of course we LOVE that! Exciting time to be entering college.

Link [GreenBiz.com]

5 Eco-Minded Scholarships You Can Apply For Right Now

If you’re interested in environmental activism and need more money for college (who doesn’t, with how expensive it’s gotten?!), here’s some good news. We’ve caught wind of 5 eco-minded scholarships that can help you pay those bills and get in some good deeds while you’re at it. They include the Blade Your Ride Scholarship, The Goi Peace Foundation 2008 International Essay Contest for Young People, the Solix Resettles Blue Mountain Essay Contest, Annie’s Homegrown Sustainable Agriculture Scholarships and the Nicodemus Wilderness Project Apprentice Ecologist Initiative.

The scholarship amounts range from $475 to $10,000. The contest entry requirements vary; check out the NextPath education finance newsletter page for more info.

Link [NextPath]

College Green: The University of New Hampshire Will Get 85% of Its Electricity From Landfill Gas

I went to the University of New Hampshire in my first year of college way back in 96/97. It’s a great campus and I’ve been excited to read about their forays into sustainability over the years.

Here’s a wonkish video outlining UNH’s green initiatives, including their use of landfill gas that will provide 85% of their energy needs. Although I remember the food being good when I was a skinny 18 year old freshman eating in the dining halls, I missed out on their recent embrace of Slow Food- locally sourced minimally processed natural foods.

Go Wildcats!

Via [Environmental Leader]

Photo credit: Flickr user craptastic

Awesome! Rainwater Harvesting Vertical Garden

Now here is a really cool and smart bit of green designing! Ontario College of Art and Design student Michael Tampilic created this rainwater harvesting vertical terrace, which has been entered into the Rocket 2008 Industrial Graduation Show and Competition. The way it works is pretty brilliant: it connects with your gutter downspout and stores water in a tank, which waters the greenery you plant in the planter boxes. Cotton wicks transport the stored water to the plants.

From Rocket 2008:

Vert is a rain terrace: a rainwater harvester and vertical garden. This project establishes sustainable water practices through the harvesting of rain, and brings the advantages of a living wall to the backyard through vertical gardening. Vert alleviates a homes reliance on public utility systems while beautifying unused vertical space.

How cool would it be to have one of these to grow food in? Talk about a smart use of space and water! Vertical gardening is definitely a smart idea for urban areas, and with this cool design, you can harvest your own herbs and veggies even if you live in a tiny apartment, as long as you have just a bit of outdoor space and a gutter downspout available. Plus, it’s pretty. We likey.

You can read more about how it works at the Rocket 2008 website.

Link [AzSustainably] + [Rocket 2008]

Moore College of Art & Design Turns Trash into Fashion

Would you wear a gown made of electrical tape and used shower curtains? How about a cocktail dress made of candy wrappers? Moore College of Art & Design held their eleventh annual Trash Fashion Show last Thursday, showing off over 20 eco-friendly designs made entirely of trash and reused items.

The event had students constructing garments made of items like soy packets, phone wire and old CDs. Students weren’t allowed to use anything new or store-bought; it all had to be trash and was held together by fishing line, glue guns and staplers. It was designed to get people to think about how items that are thrown away could be used differently.

While the contest was held in honor of Earth Day, and a similar one-time challenge was seen previously on an episode of the popular Bravo series ‘Project Runway’, things like this shouldn’t be seen as a stunt. There are plenty of things that are currently being thrown away that could function beautifully as materials for clothing, and if designers started taking it seriously, we could end up with some fabulous eco-fashion made of all kinds of recycled materials.

Link: [Moore College of Art & Design]

College Students: Pick Schools According to their Eco-Friendly Practices

College students, you’ve now got a great new tool at your disposal: a website that can help you choose a sustainable school. You may be wondering what exactly makes a school ‘sustainable’, and why you’d be interested in that information. The Daily Green has it:

Colleges can be as large as small cities, and therefore use a tremendous amount of resources, plus they have strong potential to mold the minds of the next generation of leaders.

In 2007 Grist released an editorial ranking of top green colleges, and this year the Kentucky-based Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education launched a pilot program to rate 90 U.S. and Canadian colleges on environmental impact.

It’s called Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS), and is designed to be a voluntary, self-reporting framework for gauging progress toward sustainability. It is associated with the group’s Chill Out Competition to reduce global warming contributions, and the comment period ends May 30.

Until that ranking becomes available, prospies may want to check out this informative post on the blog of major student loan lender NextStudent. It’s a summary of 12 of the greenest colleges in America, including many that have been honored in the past by other groups

Among the top sustainable colleges are College of the Altantic, Middlebury College, Evergreen State College, Oberlin College, Harvard University and Warren Wilson College. Highlights of their eco-friendly practices include solar panels, energy efficiency programs, waste reduction, composting and organic farming. If you’re interested in a ‘green collar’ career or just want to be part of an institution that promotes earth friendly initiatives, this info could be really helpful.

Link [Daily Green] + [NextStudent]

Photo credit: Warren Wilson College

Awesome News: America Catching On to the Bike-Sharing Coolness

America lags behind Europe in so many ways, and bicycle use is just one. But now Washington DC is starting a bike-sharing program, allowing people to rent out bicycles whenever they want with the swipe of a membership card.

The New York Times has it:

A new public-private venture called SmartBike DC will make 120 bicycles available at 10 spots in central locations in the city. The automated program, which district officials say is the first of its kind in the nation, will operate in a similar fashion to car-sharing programs like Zipcar.

The district has teamed up with an advertiser, Clear Channel Outdoor, to put the bikes on the streets.

“There’s a lot of stress on our transit systems currently,” said Jim Sebastian, who manages bicycle and pedestrian programs for Washington’s Transportation Department. Offering another option, Mr. Sebastian said, “will help us reduce congestion and pollution,” as well as parking problems.

Rentable bicycles are a great transportation option for college students, getting them to and from important destinations like school, their dorms or apartments and the dive bar down the street that doesn’t check ID’s. While you can still get ticketed for riding a bicycle drunk in some states (a B.U.I.?), it’s definitely a safer route home than getting in the car, even if you do wake up to find asphalt and bike tire tread marks on your face the next day.

Bicycles for rent is already a big trend in cities like Amsterdam, Paris and Florence. When I was in college, I would read longingly about an art student exchange program in the latter city and the romantic descriptions of grabbing a bicycle off a public rack downtown to grab lunch from the corner market and enjoy a picnic on the steps of the Uffizi. Of course, that was before I actually visited Florence and realized people drive like insane sign-ignoring speed demons. At least in America, you’re not as likely to be clipped in the ass by an impossibly tiny car that goes by so fast you can barely catch a glimpse of it.

Link [New York Times]
Photo credit: Flickr user ark