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November 2006 Breakout Sessions |
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Greening the Campus:
Exploring Practices,
Curriculum, and Management in Higher Education
Purchase College (SUNY)
Performing Arts Center 
735 Anderson Hill Road
Purchase, New York
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A1. Faculty: Initiatives for Sustaining Campus Greening
Jack Byrne View Presentation Biography and Abstract
Campus Sustainability Coordinator
Middlebury College
Tarah Wright View Presentation Biography and Abstract
Assistant Professor and
Director of Environmental Programmes
Dalhousie University |
A2. Facilities: Sustainably Managing the Campus Operations
Diane Fiorito
View Presentation Biography and Abstract
Region 2 Audit Policy Program Coordinator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Robert Gogan, Jr. View Presentation Biography and Abstract
Supervisor of Waste Management
Harvard University
Kevin Lyons View Presentation Biography and Abstract
Director of Purchasing
Rutgers University |
A3. Students: Creating Measurable Change on Campus
Maura Cowley View Presentation Biography
Northeast Regional Organizer
Sierra Student Coalition
Julie Beth Zimmerman P3 Design Competition
Biography and Abstract
Office of Research and Development
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency |
A4. Administrators/Business Officers:
Making the Business Case
John Cusack View Presentation Biography and Abstract
Executive Director
New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability |
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B1. Faculty: Infusing Sustainability into the Curriculum
Peter Bardaglio View Presentation Biography and Abstract
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Ithaca College |
B2. Facilities: Green Buildings and Understanding the LEED Rating System
Steve Bellona View Presentation Biography and Abstract
Associate Vice President for Facilities and Planning
Hamilton College
Murray Levi View Presentation Biography and Abstract
Vice President and General Manager
LiRo Architects + Planners, P.C.
Chair, Programs and Education Committee
United States Green Building Council, New York Chapter |
B3. Students: Organizing and Sustaining Campus Relationships
Dan Worth View Presentation Biography and Abstract
Executive Director
National Association of Environmental Law Societies |
B4. Administrators/Development Officers: Funding Campus Greening Initiatives
Josephine Merck Download Transcript Biography and Abstract
Environmental Activist and Painter
Trustee
Merck Family Fund
Natural Resources Defense Council
Mark Orlowski Download Transcript Biography and Abstract
Founder and Executive Director
Sustainable Endowments Institute |
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Breakout Session Speaker Biographies and Abstracts
A1. Faculty: Initiatives for Sustaining Campus Greening
Jack Byrne
Jack Byrne is currently the Campus Sustainability Coordinator at Middlebury College. He is a co-founder of the non-profit, Foundation for Our Future, which facilitates and supports learning communities that help people understand and practice sustainability at a personal, family, community and global scale. He serves on the Commission for Education and Communication of the Word Conservation Union and has been involved in the development of the World Conservation Learning Network. He also managed a US Department of Education project, Education for a Sustainable Future - a national and international collaboration to develop and disseminate a comprehensive kindergarten to high school curriculum and on-line courses on sustainable development. He consults for corporations interested in ensuring economic prosperity, environmental health and enhanced quality of life in the communities they serve. He serves on the Board of the Foundation for Our Future and is a consultant for WorldViews LLC which advises major corporations on how to educate their workforce on issues of sustainability.
Jack was a founder and the first Executive Director of River Watch Network, a national organization supporting community-based watershed conservation. His experience includes work in the public and private sectors in organizational development, fundraising, collaborative processes, learning technologies and project management. He has served on a number of local and national boards, task forces and commissions; has written numerous articles and papers, and given many presentations on environmental, future scenarios, and sustainable development topics to a variety of audiences. He recently co-edited a high school textbook for advanced placement science courses, Pro/Con Environment, published by Groliers in 2002 and an article in the Spring, 2003 issue of Planning for Higher Education entitled “K-12 Sustainability Education: Its Status and Where Higher Education Should Intervene.” Jack holds a Masters Degree in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School and a Bachelors of Science in Biology from the Honors College at Kent State University.
ABSTRACT
Faculty play a critical role in building and sustaining momentum for greening initiatives at Middlebury College. They also have a unique opportunity to affect greening initiatives beyond the campus and into the future through their students. This presentation will look at some of the current trends and forces that are driving the focus on greening initiatives and how faculty and others are responding at Middlebury. A case study about the role of faculty in a carbon reduction initiative will also be presented and discussed.
Tarah Wright
Dr. Tarah Wright is the Director of Environmental Programmes in the Faculty of Science at Dalhousie University, and a Senior Research Associate with University Leaders for a Sustainable Future in Washington DC. Tarah focuses her research in the emerging field of higher education for sustainability (HES) and has published papers covering a wide range of issues in sustainability and higher education. Tarah, her husband Daniel, and their 18 month old daughter Lilly make their home in the city of Halifax, in the Acadian Forest Bioregion.
ABSTRACT
Internationally, sustainability is considered an essential component to the future well being of humanity and the planet. Universities have been recognized as one of the key institutions that can contribute to a better understanding of environmental issues, as well as create sustainable solutions for the future.
"Greening" within the university has manifested itself in may facets of the institution including curriculum, policy, and physical operations. While university sustainability cannot be achieved by one sector of the university alone, faculty members can have a significant influence on greening activities.
This interactive presentation will discuss ways in which faculty members can contribute in a meaningful way to facilitating change toward sustainability within their institution.
A2. Facilities: Sustainably Managing the Campus Operations
Diane Fiorito
Diane Fiorito has been the Audit Policy Coordinator for Region 2 of the Environmental Protection Agency for approximately four years. In this capacity, she and other team members receive and review disclosures and determine their eligibility for Audit Policy coverage, as well as providing information about the policy via email, regular mail, phone calls and meetings. Prior to holding this position, Ms. Fiorito worked in the Air Compliance Branch where she was an expert in the asbestos regulatory area for seven years. She has a Master of Science degree in toxicology from St. John’s University and a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Queens College.
ABSTRACT
Environmental Results from the College and University Compliance Initiative:
The presentation will concentrate on lessons learned from the initiative, including the most common violations, changes in participants’ knowledge of various environmental regulations, money saving activities, changes implemented or planned at these facilities, pollutant reductions, and costs to conduct audits and correct non-compliance.
Robert Gogan, Jr.
Rob Gogan is Recycling and Waste Manager for Harvard University Operations Services. He has overseen recycling at Harvard since 1990 and has promoted sustainability on campus since enrolling in the doctoral program at the School of Education in 1985. Rob also runs Harvard’s Surplus Distribution program, which in 2005 donated over $2 million in furniture, clothing, books, computers, food, cosmetics and other reusables to non-profit groups, neighbors and the needy. Rob helped start the Resource Efficiency Program, which saved Harvard over $125,000 in energy and waste disposal costs in undergraduate residences each year since FY 2003. Over 10,000 readers get Rob’s monthly Harvard Recycling Update, which includes news of Harvard’s recycling and surplus programs plus the Campus Nature Watch, a compendium of flora and fauna sighted on Harvard’s grounds. Rob’s immediate goals are to recover half of Harvard's waste for recycling by the end of 2005, reduce the University's waste stream to below 450 pounds per capita at all campuses in 2007, and to beat Yale in the RecycleMania campus recycling contest! Rob lives with his wife Frann Addison and sons Josh and Zach (19 and 16) in Acton, MA. He commutes to Harvard via bicycle, bus, commuter rail, walking, and snow permitting, cross-country skis. He and his family sail Boston Harbor and Cape Cod harbors in a zero-octane Micro cat yawl sailboat.
ABSTRACT
Recycling is the gateway to sustainability. Solid waste is the most visible, tangible result of unsustainable activities on campuses. This presentation will describe the historical and legal context for campus waste management practices using Harvard University as a case study. We will examine waste audits, reporting standards, and the RecycleMania contest. We will also discuss best management practices to enable campus environmental professionals towards zero waste through waste reduction, re-use and recycling.
Kevin Lyons
Dr. Kevin Lyons is the Director of Purchasing at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and is a Research Professor in Supply Chain Environmental Management also at Rutgers University. Dr. Lyons is responsible for all procurement and contracting for the institution and he also conducts research on developing and integrating global environmental, social, economic, ethical criteria and data into supply chain/procurement systems and processes. His work includes environmentally preferable products and services research, designing and implementing local, national and international environmental economic development systems, waste-to-energy systems and environmental and sustainable social policy and financial impact forecasting (e.g. SOX Environmental Impact Reporting).
His current research involves developing and designing product life-cycle assessments, cost benefit analysis and financial impact analysis which consider health risk analysis, product waste impact profiles via electronic product ordering systems and product waste profiling, up-to-downstream waste tracking (via integrated eProcurement/ERP, GIS, EMS and LCA Systems) and Supply Chain Archeology research. He is currently conducting research for the New York City Transit Authority/MTA and for the UK Government on integrating sustainable development criteria in Government capital construction, performance-based and standard contracts and regulations. He is also involved in an extensive archeological research project (involving consumption patterns and waste) called Supply Chain Archeology.
Dr. Lyons teaches two courses at Rutgers, ‘Ecological Business Management’ and ‘Supply Chain Archeology/Green Purchasing’ and he has authored many articles and books including Buying for the Future: Contract Management and the Environmental Challenge (Pluto Press, London, January 2000). He received his Ph.D. in Supply Chain Management/Environmental Management from the University of Sunderland, Sunderland, England.
ABSTRACT
If institutions utilize their supply chain and procurement process they could realize that designing, planning and managing their operations and facilities in an environmentally responsible way can also meet best practices and is economically beneficial. In this panel presentation, the participants will see how Rutgers developed specifications and competitive contracts that met our ‘green’ standards as well as the bottom-line. Dr. Lyons will guide the audience through the ‘green’ contract development, implementation and supplier performance process which will include contracts related to construction, energy, goods and services and operations.
A3. Students: Creating Measurable Change on Campus
Maura Cowley
Maura has been the Northeast Organizer for the Sierra Student Coalition (SSC) since August of 2006. She began organizing while attending Penn State University, where she served as the president of the university's environmental activist organization for two years. During that time, she coordinated two successful campaigns and had the privilege of working with some top-notch student organizers. Together, they organized Penn State's Farm to College campaign, which asked the university to purchase locally grown produce. Following the campaign, Maura was hired by Penn State to implement the school's Farm to College program. While she was wrapping up the Farm to College program, Maura began coordinating a campaign asking Penn State to commit to a comprehensive energy policy which included renewable energy purchasing, energy efficiency and conservation and on-site renewable energy generation. The campaign was supported by over 4,500 students at Penn State and received local, regional and national media attention.
Maura graduated from Penn State in August of 2006 with majors in political science, anthropology and economics. After graduating, she jumped right into her job, which was created as a result of the SSC/Climate Campaign Merger. She is very excited to be working with dedicated and talented student leaders from across the Northeast on the issue that she believes truly is the
challenge our generation- global warming.
Aside from working with students to win rocking victories, Maura also enjoys traveling, spending time with friends, reading and hiking.
Julie Beth Zimmerman
Julie Beth Zimmerman is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia in the Civil Engineering department and also serves as a program director in the Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She will be joining the faculty of Yale University in January with a joint appointment in Environmental Engineering Program and the School of Forestry and Environment. Dr. Zimmerman is co-author of the 12 Principles of Green Engineering, initiated EPA’s P3 (People, Prosperity, and Planet) Award: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability, and serves on the steering committee for the U.S. Partnership for the UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development. Her research and teaching interests include pollution prevention, green engineering, green chemistry, and sustainability.
Dr. Zimmerman received a joint PhD from the University of Michigan in Environmental Engineering and Natural Resource Policy in 2003. Her award winning thesis focused on environmentally benign design and manufacturing. Her specific emphasis was on designing environmentally preferable machining fluids using renewable resources and evaluating their machining, environmental, and economic performance. Her policy research focused on exploring the government's role in enhancing industry's efforts to advance sustainability through the implementation of science and technology.
ABSTRACT
To respond to the scientific and technical needs of the developed and developing world in moving toward sustainability, EPA launched the P3 Award capturing the three components of sustainability: People, prosperity and the planet. This national student design competition enables college students to research, develop and design solutions to scientific and technical challenges to sustainability and has support from more than 35 partners in the federal government, industry, and scientific and professional societies. Challenges from a wide range of categories are considered including agriculture, the built environment, ecosystems, materials and chemicals, energy, water and information resources.
Interdisciplinary teams of undergraduate and/or graduate students are strongly encouraged, including representatives from multiple engineering departments and/or departments of chemistry, architecture, industrial design, economics, policy, social sciences, business, etc. Up to 50 awards will be made for a maximum of $10,000 per team in the autumn of 2007. The money will be used for research and development of the team’s sustainable design during the academic year. In spring 2008, all teams will be invited to bring their designs to Washington, D.C. to compete for the P3 Award. Judges for the competition will be comprised of a panel convened by the National Academy. Winners of the P3 Award will be eligible for additional funds from EPA to match contributions from industry or non-governmental organizations to help further develop the design, implement the project in the field, and move the design to the marketplace.
A4. Administrators/Business Officers: Making the Business Case
John Cusack
John Cusack is Executive Director of the New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability (NJHEPS), a consortium of over 40 NJ colleges and universities encouraging and facilitating the practice of sustainability concepts in higher education. He is also the President of Gifford Park Associates (GPA), a consulting firm specializing in the relationships between environmental and financial performance. Clients have included the environmental performance rating agency/research firm Innovest Strategic Value Advisors (where he was start-up CEO from 1998-2001), the Chicago Climate Exchange, Toyota North America, Marsh & McLennan, the Environmental, Insurance & Treasury departments of the State of Connecticut, utility firms, venture capital funds, the US Government, the government of the United Arab Emirates, and a number of startup companies and financial funds operating in the areas of carbon finance & clean technology.
Prior to starting GPA in 1993, for over 14 years he was a senior executive and corporate staff member at Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) and Combustion Engineering (C-E), where he was founding President of ABB Sanitec Inc., Managing Director of ABB Flakt Sanitec Gmbh, Director of Technology Marketing & Development for ABB Environmental Services, Director of Technology Marketing, BioTechnology & Environmental Services for C-E Lummus Crest, and Manager of Strategic Technology Programs in C-E’s corporate R&D group.
He has guest lectured on sustainability and environmental finance/risk issues at Yale, North Carolina, RPI, NYU, Columbia, NJIT, INSEAD, Erasmus, Oregon, Tufts, Pace, Iona, and other colleges and universities, and has testified at a congressional briefing on climate change. He presently teaches an Environmental Finance course as an adjunct professor at the Iona College Hagan School of Business. He is an active member in NRDC’s Environmental Entrepreneurs affiliate.
He serves on the boards of the NJ Corporation for Advanced Technologies, the Environmental Business Association of New York State, the NJ Sustainable State Institute, and the Center for Economic and Environmental Partnership. He has an MBA from the Stern School of NYU, an MCE in Environmental Engineering and Science and an BCE in Civil Engineering from Manhattan College, and completed the C-E Management Development Program at the Hartford Graduate Center of RPI.
ABSTRACT
Higher Education business officers and CFO's have traditionally viewed green/sustainability initiatives as expensive cost centers and difficult to justify from a financial and business standpoint. This view is rapidly changing, as evidenced by the recent book published this past spring by the National Association of College & University Business Officers (NACUBO) entitled Renewable Energy- the Business Case for Renewable Energy, and NACUBO co-sponsoring a sustainability track at the national “Campus of the Future” conference held in July of 2007. The New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability (NJHEPS) was a co-sponsor of this book, and Mr. Cusack will build on his experience as NJHEPS Executive Director, as a co-founder and startup CEO of the environmental performance rating agency/investment research house Innovest, and his role in assessing organizational risk management at Marsh Inc., to discuss how this book and other projects of NJHEPS, other higher education sustainability organizations (like AASHE and NECSC), and the increased focus of the financial/investment world on sustainability issues are making higher education administrators realize that "being green" can often be quite profitable, reduce costs, reduce/manage risks and serve as a competitive advantage in attracting students, faculty and financial support from alumni, corporations and foundations.
B1. Faculty: Infusing Sustainability into the Curriculum
Peter Bardaglio
Dr. Peter W. Bardaglio is provost and vice president for academic affairs and professor of history at Ithaca College. Before joining Ithaca College in July 2002, Bardaglio served as interim vice president and academic dean and professor of history at Goucher College. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. in history from Stanford University, and his A.B. in history and English from Brown University. His book Reconstructing the Household: Families, Sex, and the Law in the Nineteenth-Century South (University of North Carolina Press, 1995), was awarded the 1996 James Rawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians for the best book published on the history of race relations in the United States. He has also written numerous articles and essays on U.S. racial ideology, 19th-century southern women and families, and the Civil War. His recent work has focused on higher education issues such as campus sustainability, liberal education, and change leadership.
ABSTRACT
This presentation will examine issues involving the integration of sustainability into the curriculum and how it promotes important changes in student learning and faculty teaching. Focusing primarily on Ithaca College, it will explore a highly innovative approach to educating undergraduates for global sustainability, a unique collaboration between Ithaca College and EcoVillage of Ithaca funded since 2001 by the National Science Foundation. The goals of “Applying Science to Sustainability,” which brings together college faculty and EcoVillage professionals and educators, are to advance undergraduate learning in sustainability and to encourage students to become involved in science-based community ecological projects, using EcoVillage at Ithaca as a living laboratory. In addition, this presentation will share Ithaca’s experience with faculty development efforts around sustainability and how they have promoted the infusion of sustainability across the curriculum. Through the use of small grants awarded to faculty for summer work, the college has successfully made sustainability one of the key curricular initiatives of the past four years. Finally, the potential for enhancing interdisciplinary learning through collaborations with campus facilities and operations offices will be discussed.
B2. Facilities: Green Buildings and Understanding the LEED Rating System
Steve Bellona
Steve Bellona, Associate Vice President for Facilities and Planning, has been with Hamilton College for the past nine years. During this period, he has managed a variety of renovation and new construction projects including Hamilton’s new Science Center and Skenandoa House, which recently received a LEED Silver Certification. Mr. Bellona served previously in the U. S. Coast Guard in command of two Coast Guard cutters and was Director of Physical Plant at the Coast Guard Academy. He is a graduate of the Coast Guard Academy and received his MSCE from the University of Illinois.
ABSTRACT
Hamilton, a liberal arts college in Clinton, New York, looks to incorporate principles of both sustainability and historic preservation within its 200 year-old campus. The College’s Skenandoa House recently received a LEED Silver Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. It the first historic structure in New York State to be so designated. Skenandoa House is among a host of other campus buildings, which work to focus on preserving our past, present and future.
Murray Levi
Murray L. Levi, AIA LEED™ AP, Vice President and General Manager of LiRo Architects + Planners. P.C. is an award-winning architect with more than twenty-seven years of practice, and a lifelong environmental advocate.
A passionate advocate of sustainable design, Mr. Levi’s work has repeatedly demonstrated that architectural excellence can be attained by applying sustainable design principles. Mr. Levi's understanding of building technology and sustainable design was cultivated through his mentorship as a student of Richard Stein, FAIA, and as an Associate Architect at the Stein Partnership. Since the early 1980’s he has participated in many ground-breaking energy conservation studies, and sustainably designed architectural projects.
With a specialty in projects for educational and institutional clients, Mr. Levi has designed and managed numerous projects of note for institutions including New York University, St. Francis College, New York Presbyterian Medical Center, Kaplan Education Centers, and various city agencies through his work for the New York City Department of Design and Construction.
Mr. Levi is on the Board of Directors of the United States Green Building Council New York Chapter where he is Chairman of the Program and Education Committee. He lectures frequently on the principals and practices of sustainable design and construction.
ABSTRACT
A presentation of the elements that distinguish high-performance of "green" school design from conventional buildings along with an overview of the LEED Green Building Rating System family of products, which was written to facilitate the design and construction of green buildings. Differences between the management of high-performance and conventional projects will be addressed, including the importance of realistic environmental goal-setting to the success of high-performance projects. The application of the LEED Green Building Rating System will be discussed as a tool for process management, environmental goal setting, and as a basis for establishing metrics to monitor the performance of completed projects.
B3. Students: Organizing and Sustaining Campus Relationships
Dan Worth
Dan Worth is the Executive Director of the National Association of Environmental Law Societies ("NAELS"), a coalition of environmental law student groups that seeks to mobilize the university community in support of public interest environmental solutions. Dan also currently serves on the Steering Committee for the Energy Action Network, a coalition of student and youth groups working on climate and energy issues. Prior to joining NAELS, Dan served as the Harvard Law School Environmental Fellow, where he coordinated the Environmental Working Group - a team of Harvard Law School administrators, professors, alumni, and students working to develop a comprehensive environmental law program. While at Harvard, Dan volunteered for the Law Offices of Matthew F. Pawa, P.C., where he conducted research on the recent tort-based global warming cases. Dan graduated cum laude from Boston University School of Law and has clerked for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund in the organization's D.C. and Juneau, Alaska offices.
ABSTRACT
Students represent a vast, untapped resource in the short-term movement towards university sustainability and in the emerging, long-term, modern industrial revolution necessary to aggressively curb carbon emissions.
This session/talk will focus on the efforts of five graduate students at the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UC – Santa Barbara who developed a climate neutral plan for their campus through a 12-credit directed research project to develop in lieu of a master’s thesis. It will also briefly cover other current student campaigns that are emerging in the sustainability student movement.
It will then go on to explore historical precedents of young people and their role in industrial shifts over the past few centuries. From James Watt and his steam-engine, to Thomas Edison and his light bulb, to Henry Ford and his automobile, young people have shaped the world.
The session will close with the prediction that we must, can, and will do it again!
B4. Administrators/Development Officers: Funding Campus Greening Initiatives
Josephine Merck
Josephine Merck is an artist and environmental activist. An alumna of Sarah Lawrence College, she was responsible for the green building of the College’s Visual Arts Center by offering a challenge grant that was met by major gifts from other donors. She is a member of the board of trustees of the Merck Family Fund and the NRDC and president of the Vervane Foundation.
ABSTRACT
A major gift can raise the consciousness of an entire college community while leveraging additional funds for greening campus facilities. A challenge grant is a very powerful tool for helping donors, administration, faculty and students to think about sound environmental practices and engage in the process of changing the campus culture. Sarah Lawrence College's green visual arts center is opening eyes to new ways of doing things.
Mark Orlowski
Mark Orlowski is Founder and Executive Director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a special project fund of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Sustainable Endowments Institute works with colleges and universities to enhance the sustainability of their endowments.
A graduate of Williams College, Mark chaired the Campus Environmental Advisory Committee and served on the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility as a student. Since then, Mark has been an active alumni member of the Williams Social Choice Fund committee.
Reports on Mark’s work with endowments have appeared in the news and business press. Media coverage includes articles in USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chronicle of Higher Education and on National Public Radio. In 2004, Mark was profiled in BusinessWeek magazine as a social entrepreneur.
For more information about the Sustainable Endowments Institute, visit www.EndowmentInstitute.org or email Mark at Mark@EndowmentInstitute.org.
ABSTRACT
With combined endowments of more than $300 billion, colleges and universities have extraordinary power as investors. While many campuses have taken significant steps with on-campus sustainability initiatives, only a few schools have created sustainability initiatives that engage and harness endowments. This breakout session will lead participants in discussion of best practices and opportunities for transforming university endowment investment policies. Topics covered will include case studies of leading schools as well as the Institute's groundbreaking research on university endowments--as featured in USA Today, Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
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