Below is a short excerpt of an interview with Oberlin College's David Orr, who braved a tornado warning in Ohio this spring to talk with AASHE about the innovative Oberlin Project. Read the whole interview in AASHE's newest publication: "2010 Campus Sustainability Review."

In the late 1990s, David Orr organized the design of the Adam J. Lewis Center at Oberlin College in northeastern Ohio, the first entirely solar-powered building on a U.S. college campus. Today, the author, speaker and Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and Special Assistant to the President at Oberlin College is pioneering the next frontier of campus sustainability with The Oberlin Project. This ambitious green development effort aims to revitalize a 13-acre city block in downtown Oberlin. By combining urban revitalization, green development, sustainable agriculture, sustainable energy, education and arts into a single project, the collaborative effort is at the forefront of a national trend to broaden the scope of the campus sustainability movement. AASHE’s Tim Gibbins caught up with David this spring in the midst of a tornado warning in Ohio to learn more about this innovative new project.

Q: Can you give us the background on The Oberlin Project?

A: The Oberlin Project has five goals. One is to transform the local economy in central downtown doing the entire block at USGBC [U.S. Green Building Council] Platinum levels for neighborhood development and use that as a driver for the local economy. This means building the block in a way that ties into local providers for wood materials, energy, food and so forth. The second goal is to move the city and the college to carbon neutrality and reinvent the local energy system in the city. That includes regulation, pricing, incentives for efficiency and deploying different kinds of technology. The third goal is to develop a 20,000-acre greenbelt around the city, primarily for agriculture but also for forestry. The fourth goal is to use the entire project as an educational venture including students from not just the college, but the public schools and vo-tech [vocational technical] schools and a two-year college as well. So we’ve put together a consortium of different kinds of educational institutions. The fifth goal is to devise ways to replicate this across the country in a variety of different ways.

Q: What are some of those ways?

A: For one, we are part of the Clinton Climate Initiative as one of 19 projects worldwide. Second is the development of an ecological design center that is a bridge between the Oberlin Project and other redevelopment efforts around the upper Midwest. Third, we are developing a national network that propagates the idea of “full-spectrum sustainability,” which means a lot of conversations that cross the boundaries of organizations, bureaucracies and disciplines by which we organized the industrial world.

We have created 10 teams throughout the city and five throughout the northeast Ohio region made up of public citizens, foundations, faculty members and government officials working on community organization, energy issues, economic development, development of green buildings, ecological design and so forth. Full-spectrum sustainability means that any particular issue that comes up is going to involve three or four of the different teams. Citizen engagement in the early stages has been pretty good. We are a very typical upper Midwest city with similar rates of ethnic makeup, income distribution and poverty that characterize this region. We have not had much difficulty in getting people to respond, which reflects the vitality of volunteerism and civic spirit that is often underestimated. One of the objectives of the plan is to develop a civic commons that develops participation and leadership throughout the whole community.

Q: What do you think is one of the major drivers of all the volunteers wanting to get involved?

A: I think there is more activism in the public than we have often assumed. People want to get involved, the problem, typically, is that there is just no good way to do it. In our project we began with five, six, seven different things happening, providing multiple opportunities for engagement. The educational teams, for example, are going to be working on curriculum asking what kids need to know at the onset of a climate-destabilized world. There are plans for a new green school built much like the Adam J. Lewis center. Other people are working on the local food system and how the cafeteria is provisioned throughout the school year. The point, however, is that there is a lot more desire to get engaged than has often been assumed.

Q: Part of The Oberlin Project that seems atypical to what we normally think of as a part of the sustainability movement is the inclusion of the arts, and this Green Arts District. What do you see as the primary role that the arts will play in the sustainability movement in the future?

A: The conversation about sustainability has mostly focused on sustainable agriculture or renewable energy or green building, and the list goes on. We’ve brought all of these together into a single pattern where the parts are designed to reinforce the prosperity and resilience of the whole thing. It’s just one big conversation but so far it’s been pretty wonky—full of technical and scientific jargon, a lot of curves going up or down. But such things only appeal to one side of the mind. What it misses is the part of the mind that is creative and artistic. The union between the performing arts, plastic arts, music, drama, literary arts and the sciences may be one of the most vital and powerful things that will come out of The Oberlin Project...

The "2010 Campus Sustainability Review" is the first of AASHE's e-book offerings. Download the publication here.

Below is a short excerpt of an interview with Oberlin College's David Orr, who braved a tornado warning in Ohio this spring to talk with AASHE about the innovative Oberlin Project. Read the whole interview in AASHE's newest publication: "2010 Campus Sustainability Review."

In the late 1990s, David Orr organized the design of the Adam J. Lewis Center at Oberlin College in northeastern Ohio, the first entirely solar-powered building on a U.S. college campus. Today, the author, speaker and Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and Special Assistant to the President at Oberlin College is pioneering the next frontier of campus sustainability with The Oberlin Project. This ambitious green development effort aims to revitalize a 13-acre city block in downtown Oberlin. By combining urban revitalization, green development, sustainable agriculture, sustainable energy, education and arts into a single project, the collaborative effort is at the forefront of a national trend to broaden the scope of the campus sustainability movement. AASHE’s Tim Gibbins caught up with David this spring in the midst of a tornado warning in Ohio to learn more about this innovative new project.

Q: Can you give us the background on The Oberlin Project?

A: The Oberlin Project has five goals. One is to transform the local economy in central downtown doing the entire block at USGBC [U.S. Green Building Council] Platinum levels for neighborhood development and use that as a driver for the local economy. This means building the block in a way that ties into local providers for wood materials, energy, food and so forth. The second goal is to move the city and the college to carbon neutrality and reinvent the local energy system in the city. That includes regulation, pricing, incentives for efficiency and deploying different kinds of technology. The third goal is to develop a 20,000-acre greenbelt around the city, primarily for agriculture but also for forestry. The fourth goal is to use the entire project as an educational venture including students from not just the college, but the public schools and vo-tech [vocational technical] schools and a two-year college as well. So we’ve put together a consortium of different kinds of educational institutions. The fifth goal is to devise ways to replicate this across the country in a variety of different ways.

Q: What are some of those ways?

A: For one, we are part of the Clinton Climate Initiative as one of 19 projects worldwide. Second is the development of an ecological design center that is a bridge between the Oberlin Project and other redevelopment efforts around the upper Midwest. Third, we are developing a national network that propagates the idea of “full-spectrum sustainability,” which means a lot of conversations that cross the boundaries of organizations, bureaucracies and disciplines by which we organized the industrial world.

We have created 10 teams throughout the city and five throughout the northeast Ohio region made up of public citizens, foundations, faculty members and government officials working on community organization, energy issues, economic development, development of green buildings, ecological design and so forth. Full-spectrum sustainability means that any particular issue that comes up is going to involve three or four of the different teams. Citizen engagement in the early stages has been pretty good. We are a very typical upper Midwest city with similar rates of ethnic makeup, income distribution and poverty that characterize this region. We have not had much difficulty in getting people to respond, which reflects the vitality of volunteerism and civic spirit that is often underestimated. One of the objectives of the plan is to develop a civic commons that develops participation and leadership throughout the whole community.

Q: What do you think is one of the major drivers of all the volunteers wanting to get involved?

A: I think there is more activism in the public than we have often assumed. People want to get involved, the problem, typically, is that there is just no good way to do it. In our project we began with five, six, seven different things happening, providing multiple opportunities for engagement. The educational teams, for example, are going to be working on curriculum asking what kids need to know at the onset of a climate-destabilized world. There are plans for a new green school built much like the Adam J. Lewis center. Other people are working on the local food system and how the cafeteria is provisioned throughout the school year. The point, however, is that there is a lot more desire to get engaged than has often been assumed.

Q: Part of The Oberlin Project that seems atypical to what we normally think of as a part of the sustainability movement is the inclusion of the arts, and this Green Arts District. What do you see as the primary role that the arts will play in the sustainability movement in the future?

A: The conversation about sustainability has mostly focused on sustainable agriculture or renewable energy or green building, and the list goes on. We’ve brought all of these together into a single pattern where the parts are designed to reinforce the prosperity and resilience of the whole thing. It’s just one big conversation but so far it’s been pretty wonky—full of technical and scientific jargon, a lot of curves going up or down. But such things only appeal to one side of the mind. What it misses is the part of the mind that is creative and artistic. The union between the performing arts, plastic arts, music, drama, literary arts and the sciences may be one of the most vital and powerful things that will come out of The Oberlin Project...

The "2010 Campus Sustainability Review" is the first of AASHE's e-book offerings. Download the publication here.

Johann Weber, graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in public policy at Georgia Tech, is featured in this installment of the AASHE Bulletin Sustainability Student Diary series. As chairman of the university’s Bicycle Infrastructure Improvement Committee (BIIC), Weber details how the committee facilitated a bicycle infrastructure improvement project on campus. AASHE welcomes questions and invites feedback on each Sustainability Student Diary entry. Submit diary entries of your own for consideration to bulletin@aashe.org.

In the fall of 2010, a handful of graduate and undergraduate students at Georgia Tech from a wide range of departments including Environmental Engineering, Aerospace, Chemical Engineering, Public Policy and Civil Engineering who were interested in bicycling began an active and ongoing discussion about how to make the campus more bike friendly. Many of us had strong environmental motivations, and all of us recognized the ease, enjoyment and bargain that bicycling can provide to students, faculty and staff of a large urban university such as Georgia Tech.

Before this began, the campus had a number of buildings with dramatically insufficient parking, and only two segments of bike lane. We firmly believed that with better facilities, more students would be inclined to ride; a winning proposition for the students, the campus and the metro area of Atlanta, which is infamous for both its congestion and poor air quality.

Through close interaction with a staff member in the office of Parking and Transportation, this general desire to improve campus coalesced into the more concrete task of forming a committee that would provide suggestions for improvements and facilitate their undertaking. This included identifying funding, selecting contractors, and installing them. To do so would require incorporating a number of departments on campus, all of whom had no shortage of projects on their plates already. Yet those departments embraced the opportunity and challenge presented to them, with many offering not only to participate but actively asking to be committee members so that they could be as useful as possible.

The Student Government Association (SGA) approved the formation of the institute-wide committee in January, and our first meeting brought to the table Parking and Transportation, Facilities (responsible for all infrastructure projects and maintenance), Campus Planning, Auxiliary Services, as well as members of the Sustainability Committee, StarterBikes (an on-campus bike cooperative), SGA and the city’s bicycle advocacy group, the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition.

As a committee we identified—based on existing knowledge of demand and usage—where there was a need for more bicycle parking, and identified viable corridors for the installation of bicycle lanes (based on road width and conditions). We then secured cost estimates for each project, and compiled a list totaling around $45,000. Originally, our hope was to push for an increase to the student fee for parking and transportation by $1 per term. This would bring in around the desired amount of money thanks to a student population of more than 20,000. However, meetings with SGA quickly made it clear that while they supported our efforts, they would not support increased student fees and, more importantly, it was unlikely that the logistics of such an action would prove manageable. They suggested an alternative solution: Ask the student body directly for the money. A bill could be drafted to request that money be given to the committee, which could disperse it to the departments involved in the projects. While $45,000 was probably not in the cards, a smaller amount could be feasible, and would be popular since it involved an investment in infrastructure, rather than a temporary support for a small campus group.

So we altered the project list, cutting it down to a more manageable $26,146, including .8 miles of bike lanes and 6 racks (a total of 58 parking spaces). We wrote up the bill and submitted it. It went before the chambers of the SGA in March 2011 and was passed. This was a huge success, proving not only that the campus wanted these improvements, but also that they were willing to work together and devote money to make them happen.

We rapidly followed up this success by constructing a website entirely devoted to bicycling at Georgia Tech (bike.gatech.edu), as well as Twitter and Facebook accounts to supplement it. In addition, Parking and Transportation collected a commuter survey, giving us a baseline mode share for bicycling on campus, and helping us direct future projects. BIIC also created subcommittees tasked with maintaining the website, constructing a bike master plan, and securing funding for further development. We welcomed new members from Campus Police and the Office of Environmental Health and Safety.

In April, BIIC was awarded the 2011 Georgia Tech Environmental Initiative Award in recognition of its accomplishments, and in May we began the process of working with Campus Planning to finalize the precise details of the roadway projects, as well as ordering the racks. This led to the decision to replace downhill segments of lane with sharrows (an on-road marking noting that bicycles and cars will share the lane) to help ease merging points and reduce the need to move the centerline (a costly endeavor).

As of this July, the project details have been finalized, and Campus Planning has taken the additional step of selecting other roads for sharrow installation, contingent upon funding. The racks have arrived, and we are preparing to install them. The website is live, a student survey has been prepared for the fall, and orientation education programs are in the works.

We’ve submitted grant applications to a number of organizations, and are hoping to hear back soon, while also pursuing funding from Georgia Tech. Most recently, we added two faculty members to the committee, and are working to begin the roadway projects as soon as the last details and contracting are ironed out.

In many ways, the first year has been a great success. Looking back on what was available and being done a year ago, BIIC has made huge leaps forward. However, we look at our peer institutions, and we know we have a long way to go. It was also enlightening to see how difficult a process this can be, even when all the stakeholders are committed and supportive. In sum, things are good, but they can always be better, and we will continue to work hard to make Georgia Tech a place that not only educates in and researches sustainability, but practices a more sustainable way of living every day.

Ah, Summer. The season of warm weather and long sunny days, which seem to afford more time to catch up on the backlog of reading that has accumulated since the New Year began. In addition to light pleasure reading typically associated with summer, for many faculty it is also a time for doing ones own research and writing, reviewing others’ research for potential course development and publication, or updating syllabi for the Fall.

Although I am not a faculty member, I do print off research that catches my eye, usually stashing it in a folder until there is some time to read it. I happened to be cleaning off a bookshelf last week in an effort to see which books could be donated when I came across a manila folder with a copy of the below research paper on quality of life and subjective well-being. Though published in 2006, it still is very applicable and I thought it worth highlighting.

An interdisciplinary team of 21 faculty at the University of Vermont and the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics conducted the study, trying to tackle the issue of defining quality of life (QOL) with the goal of figuring out ways to enhance it.
While this topic is certainly applicable to sustainability practitioners (and the interdisciplinary nature of the authors helps illustrate this), the researchers also note the importance and need for further research looking specifically into the intersection between sustainability and QOL studies.

In the abstract to the paper, Quality of life: An approach integrating opportunities, human needs, and subjective well-being, the goal is clearly stated to provide, “an integrative definition of QOL that combines measures of human needs with subjective well-being or happiness. QOL is proposed as a multi-scale, multi-dimensional concept that contains interacting objective and subjective elements.”

The authors go on to say that, “We relate QOL to the opportunities that are provided to meet human needs in the forms of built, human, social and natural capital (in addition to time) and the policy options that are available to enhance these opportunities.”

Towards the end of the paper, the authors acknowledge the need for further research related to sustainability in this area:

“The application of sustainability issues to QOL studies is another avenue of research that is likely to prove integral. The continuation of the goods and services (including aesthetic) provided by natural ecosystems is a key concern for maintaining life functions. The level and quality of Natural Capital inputs needed and their effect on individual needs and overall QOL are issues that require immediate investigation. Answering the question: “What is the role of ecological sustainability for QOL?” could help integrate the social and scientific policy agendas and hence pay double dividends.”

After finishing the paper, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own feelings of happiness, quality of life and well-being. Many of the human needs the authors identify are strongly related and impacted by levels of ecological sustainability (identified as requiring inputs of natural capital). My own personal measurement was of course a snapshot in time, which certainly was elevated by the fact that I happened to be reflecting on this while lounging next to a swimming pool on a warm summer day (meeting and most likely exceeding the human need of leisure).

A few take aways also struck me: how the work of campus sustainability is so strongly connected to issues of improving quality of life but sometimes only implicitly stated; how measuring student, faculty and staff levels of QOL in relation to sustainability initiatives could be instructive to improving programs; and how a closer examination of QOL issues could have long term implications on broadening the conversation and context of campus sustainability.

If there is additional research happening in this space please share it in the comments section below. I am also interested to hear others reactions to the paper (only 8 short pages). The full paper is available here as a PDF.

With computers, scanners, fax machines, and other office appliances on for several (sometimes 24!) hours per day, administrative hubs are prime locations for greening endeavors. Greening the operations of physical offices is among those sustainability opportunities that not only benefit the environment but also save money immediately, making it extremely palatable to those primarily seeking primarily economic gains (or avoiding short-term capital investment) as well as those seeking tangible and visible reductions in emissions.

In addition to non-profits, such as Shanghai-based Roots and Shoots which trains student volunteers to conduct free eco-audits, and private companies offering eco-audit services, higher education institutions have taken a lead in creating green office programs, given the benefit of reducing emissions significantly while engaging students, faculty, and staff in the institution’s sustainability initiatives. Higher education institutions that are participants of AASHE’s STARS program receive a credit for having an educational initiative to engage employees in campus sustainability.

AASHE’s newly launched member-only resource–Green Office Programs–is a compilation of university and colleges’ green office programs throughout the States and Canada. While some campuses have programs centered around training staff to be the sustainability leader for their administrative space, as is the case with New York University's Sustainability Advocate Program, others have student-led office greening programs, such as California State University, Chico’s Sustainability Consultation Of Office Practices (SCOOP) initiative.

Jeremy Friedman, Manager of Sustainable Initiatives at New York University’s Office of Sustainability sees NYU's Sustainability Advocate Program as “not just an easy way to save energy” but as “essential to the larger goal of building a culture of sustainability throughout the campus.”

“For that reason, the Advocate Program affects more than just the staff. It’s really one centripetal force which cuts across divisions within a large urban and decentralized institution. And it helps people understand their personal connection to the collective endeavour,” said Friedman.

Harvard University's comprehensive and renowned Green Office Program has over 2000 individual participants. One of the key characteristics of Harvard's program is the four leaf checklist system. According to Heather Henriksen, Director of Harvard's Office of Sustainability, "the four leaf levels and easy-to-follow checklists are goal-orientated, encourage healthy competition, and inspire formation of Green Teams to rally around Green Office recognition.”

"The Program gives our employees the tools and resources to put into practice every day actions that reduce energy and conserve resources in their workplace. It empowers the community, at every level of the University, to creatively and effectively contribute to our sustainability goals," said Henriksen.

Know of a green office program at your campus that should be included in our resource? Email resources@aashe.org with the name of the institution and a link to a page or article describing the initiative.

With computers, scanners, fax machines, and other office appliances on for several (sometimes 24!) hours per day, administrative hubs are prime locations for greening endeavors. Greening the operations of physical offices is among those sustainability opportunities that not only benefit the environment but also save money immediately, making it extremely palatable to those primarily seeking primarily economic gains (or avoiding short-term capital investment) as well as those seeking tangible and visible reductions in emissions.

In addition to non-profits, such as Shanghai-based Roots and Shoots which trains student volunteers to conduct free eco-audits, and private companies offering eco-audit services, higher education institutions have taken a lead in creating green office programs, given the benefit of reducing emissions significantly while engaging students, faculty, and staff in the institution’s sustainability initiatives. Higher education institutions that are participants of AASHE’s STARS program receive a credit for having an educational initiative to engage employees in campus sustainability.

AASHE’s newly launched member-only resource–Green Office Programs–is a compilation of university and colleges’ green office programs throughout the States and Canada. While some campuses have programs centered around training staff to be the sustainability leader for their administrative space, as is the case with New York University's Sustainability Advocate Program, others have student-led office greening programs, such as California State University, Chico’s Sustainability Consultation Of Office Practices (SCOOP) initiative.

Jeremy Friedman, Manager of Sustainable Initiatives at New York University’s Office of Sustainability sees NYU's Sustainability Advocate Program as “not just an easy way to save energy” but as “essential to the larger goal of building a culture of sustainability throughout the campus.”

“For that reason, the Advocate Program affects more than just the staff. It’s really one centripetal force which cuts across divisions within a large urban and decentralized institution. And it helps people understand their personal connection to the collective endeavour,” said Friedman.

Harvard University's comprehensive and renowned Green Office Program has over 2000 individual participants. One of the key characteristics of Harvard's program is the four leaf checklist system. According to Heather Henriksen, Director of Harvard's Office of Sustainability, "the four leaf levels and easy-to-follow checklists are goal-orientated, encourage healthy competition, and inspire formation of Green Teams to rally around Green Office recognition.”

"The Program gives our employees the tools and resources to put into practice every day actions that reduce energy and conserve resources in their workplace. It empowers the community, at every level of the University, to creatively and effectively contribute to our sustainability goals," said Henriksen.

Know of a green office program at your campus that should be included in our resource? Email resources@aashe.org with the name of the institution and a link to a page or article describing the initiative.

Allie Bussjaeger, a senior at California State University, Long Beach, is featured in this installment of the AASHE Bulletin Sustainability Student Diary series. She was selected as a student keynote speaker at the 2011 California Higher Education Sustainability Conference, held July 10-13, 2011. Her speech, published below, calls on institutions to look to their surrounding communities to spark change toward more environmentally friendly campuses. AASHE welcomes questions and invites feedback on each Sustainability Student Diary entry. Submit diary entries of your own for consideration to bulletin@aashe.org.

On July 11, I had the honor of being a student keynote speaker at the 2011 California Higher Education Sustainability Conference hosted at Cal State University Long Beach. Below is the speech I gave to the conference attendees at the opening plenary. I hope that by keeping the speech in the first person, readers will be able to hear my voice as a student who is passionate about making a difference. While this speech was written specifically for the conference, my call to action and opinions on how to achieve progress are applicable to anyone involved in sustainability:

Hello, and welcome to the 2011 California Higher Education Sustainability Conference! I am so excited to see you here today, I hope you enjoy the next few days ahead of us. As a senior at Cal State University, Long Beach, I would like to personally welcome you to the university; we are so proud to be the host campus for this prestigious conference. I am honored to be selected today to welcome you. There are so many incredibly talented people in this room, many of whom I have looked to in the past for guidance, so it is especially humbling to be speaking to you today.

This year’s conference theme, campus and community partnerships, is particularly special to me. As a student activist who has worked towards creating a more environmentally friendly college campus, I have recently learned that in order to create positive change, it is often best to start by looking towards the surrounding community to spark that change. College campuses are born out of the surrounding community; in a way the city creates the soul of the university. Therefore, it seems only natural that the two entities work together to create change that can affect more people than just those who are a part of the university by expanding to the entire city.

In my experience, it seems that college campuses are their own mini-cities. We have our own governance system, our own president, even our own newspaper. As a student, it is so easy to see the college as a completely separate world from the surrounding community. It was not until my third year at CSULB that I noticed how important the relationship between my university and the City of Long Beach is. For example, while planning ECO Week, a week-long environmental awareness event in the fall of 2009, the people who were most supportive were community members, including small business owners, nonprofit organizations such as the Colorado Lagoon, and many city affiliates such as Long Beach Transit.

By bringing more city-based organizations to the ECO Week organizational fair, students were able to network with these somewhat distant groups, thus expanding their view of Long Beach beyond the campus borders. City organizations told me that by being involved in this event, they felt more tied to the campus community, and they felt more welcome at the university. This example shows that when the campus and the surrounding community work together, positive change will happen that benefits both entities. When residents from different parts of the city are given the chance to share ideas and passions, groups such as Green Long Beach are born, which is a group of highly diverse individuals, from retired citizens to high school students to business owners and parents, all of whom have come together with the goal of improving their home.

Once I broadened my view of my community to extend past the university and into the city, I was able to appreciate Long Beach in a much different way. I saw people working towards achieving the same goals that student groups that I was working with at CSULB have also been interested in; essentially creating a more sustainable place to live. I no longer saw the university as being disconnected from the city, but as its own unique part of Long Beach. Through my involvement I have learned that sustainability and “going green” is about learning to appreciate the resources we have without overexhausting them, and giving back to the environment what we inconsiderately take. I do not interpret the idea of “living sustainably” as reducing our quality of life because we are using less; I see it as improving our quality of life by living more consciously, making us more aware of the life we are choosing to live both within the university and in the community.

I would now like to take a step back and tell you a bit about my journey towards being a student activist. During my time at CSULB, I have been fortunate enough to be involved in the sustainability movement both on campus and in the surrounding community. I first became involved when I joined Associated Students during my third year. My experience as the ASI Conservation Commissioner taught me the “ropes” on campus, and gave me the opportunity to work with a variety of student groups, community members, and staff and faculty members to host environmental education events such as book signings, movie screenings and tabling fairs. While planning these events, I was thrilled to witness how eager the community was to become involved in campus life. I saw the beginning stages of this relationship, and made it a personal focus of mine to see this partnership grow.

Currently, I am going on my second year as a Green Campus Program intern. Through this membership, I am able to network with students working towards sustainability on other campuses, share ideas with them, and even collaborate on projects together like the upcoming 2011 Energy Competition between CSU Fullerton and CSU Long Beach (go Beach!). The Green Campus Program internship has led me to many other amazing opportunities as well. For example, during the summer, I have had the pleasure of being an intern for this conference, as well as working as an intern at the City of Long Beach Office of Sustainability. I discovered both of these internships through the Green Campus Program. I have realized that the Green Campus Program has expanded the community I am a part of, as I am now involved in my campus, City of Long Beach and the state of California. By playing a juggling act with these three internships, I can see how they all complement each other, and how they each allow me to contribute to the growth of my university, my community and, on a larger scale, my state. And to think, all of this happened just by making an effort to expand my sense of community and network with people outside of my world.

I love the community that has developed around the theme of sustainability, yet in order to ensure that this relationship remains prolific, one basic element is vital: communication. Just as the local community and the university must communicate and collaborate together to create change that benefits as many people as possible, we must also remember to do that on an individual level as well. Often, it seems that we tend to focus on our own particular area of sustainability. Because we become so passionate about what we do, we tend to neglect other areas of importance. There are 60 different sessions featured at this conference. So even if you specialize in one area, find a session that is a bit different but complementary to your expertise, and just try it out.

When I first became interested in sustainability, I focused solely on education and outreach. Through networking with people, I am now proud to say that I have experience with energy efficiency, waste management and water conservation. Outreach and education is still my main passion; however now that I have more experience in other aspects of sustainability, I am more confident in my chosen area of expertise. Furthermore, I now see more options for my future career, and am looking forward to the interesting opportunities for employment that may arise. This is the most valuable experience I have learned in the past few years as a student, and while it is a simple concept, the implementation of it has gone a long way for me.

The best way to achieve progress is to welcome change and embrace new opportunities. And of course, the best way to start change is by beginning with yourself. By communicating with each other more, we will be united as a workforce and, thus, the sustainability movement will be more innovative and exciting than ever.

Finally, I encourage each of you to make an effort to reach out to people who may not be familiar to you, and introduce yourself. Take advantage of this rare opportunity to have conversations with others about the rapid advances being made to improve environmental awareness and practices on college campuses throughout California. By meeting someone new, you are further connecting yourself with the sustainability movement, and creating new relationships that will inspire new ideas and projects. Let’s make relationship building an important part of our conference experience as we continue to advance sustainability practices on campus and in our communities. This will benefit our surrounding community and will foster trusting and strong alliances. And that is how progress will continue to develop.

Allie Bussjaeger, a senior at California State University, Long Beach, is featured in this installment of the AASHE Bulletin Sustainability Student Diary series. She was selected as a student keynote speaker at the 2011 California Higher Education Sustainability Conference, held July 10-13, 2011. Her speech, published below, calls on institutions to look to their surrounding communities to spark change toward more environmentally friendly campuses. AASHE welcomes questions and invites feedback on each Sustainability Student Diary entry. Submit diary entries of your own for consideration to bulletin@aashe.org.

On July 11, I had the honor of being a student keynote speaker at the 2011 California Higher Education Sustainability Conference hosted at Cal State University Long Beach. Below is the speech I gave to the conference attendees at the opening plenary. I hope that by keeping the speech in the first person, readers will be able to hear my voice as a student who is passionate about making a difference. While this speech was written specifically for the conference, my call to action and opinions on how to achieve progress are applicable to anyone involved in sustainability:

Hello, and welcome to the 2011 California Higher Education Sustainability Conference! I am so excited to see you here today, I hope you enjoy the next few days ahead of us. As a senior at Cal State University, Long Beach, I would like to personally welcome you to the university; we are so proud to be the host campus for this prestigious conference. I am honored to be selected today to welcome you. There are so many incredibly talented people in this room, many of whom I have looked to in the past for guidance, so it is especially humbling to be speaking to you today.

This year’s conference theme, campus and community partnerships, is particularly special to me. As a student activist who has worked towards creating a more environmentally friendly college campus, I have recently learned that in order to create positive change, it is often best to start by looking towards the surrounding community to spark that change. College campuses are born out of the surrounding community; in a way the city creates the soul of the university. Therefore, it seems only natural that the two entities work together to create change that can affect more people than just those who are a part of the university by expanding to the entire city.

In my experience, it seems that college campuses are their own mini-cities. We have our own governance system, our own president, even our own newspaper. As a student, it is so easy to see the college as a completely separate world from the surrounding community. It was not until my third year at CSULB that I noticed how important the relationship between my university and the City of Long Beach is. For example, while planning ECO Week, a week-long environmental awareness event in the fall of 2009, the people who were most supportive were community members, including small business owners, nonprofit organizations such as the Colorado Lagoon, and many city affiliates such as Long Beach Transit.

By bringing more city-based organizations to the ECO Week organizational fair, students were able to network with these somewhat distant groups, thus expanding their view of Long Beach beyond the campus borders. City organizations told me that by being involved in this event, they felt more tied to the campus community, and they felt more welcome at the university. This example shows that when the campus and the surrounding community work together, positive change will happen that benefits both entities. When residents from different parts of the city are given the chance to share ideas and passions, groups such as Green Long Beach are born, which is a group of highly diverse individuals, from retired citizens to high school students to business owners and parents, all of whom have come together with the goal of improving their home.

Once I broadened my view of my community to extend past the university and into the city, I was able to appreciate Long Beach in a much different way. I saw people working towards achieving the same goals that student groups that I was working with at CSULB have also been interested in; essentially creating a more sustainable place to live. I no longer saw the university as being disconnected from the city, but as its own unique part of Long Beach. Through my involvement I have learned that sustainability and “going green” is about learning to appreciate the resources we have without overexhausting them, and giving back to the environment what we inconsiderately take. I do not interpret the idea of “living sustainably” as reducing our quality of life because we are using less; I see it as improving our quality of life by living more consciously, making us more aware of the life we are choosing to live both within the university and in the community.

I would now like to take a step back and tell you a bit about my journey towards being a student activist. During my time at CSULB, I have been fortunate enough to be involved in the sustainability movement both on campus and in the surrounding community. I first became involved when I joined Associated Students during my third year. My experience as the ASI Conservation Commissioner taught me the “ropes” on campus, and gave me the opportunity to work with a variety of student groups, community members, and staff and faculty members to host environmental education events such as book signings, movie screenings and tabling fairs. While planning these events, I was thrilled to witness how eager the community was to become involved in campus life. I saw the beginning stages of this relationship, and made it a personal focus of mine to see this partnership grow.

Currently, I am going on my second year as a Green Campus Program intern. Through this membership, I am able to network with students working towards sustainability on other campuses, share ideas with them, and even collaborate on projects together like the upcoming 2011 Energy Competition between CSU Fullerton and CSU Long Beach (go Beach!). The Green Campus Program internship has led me to many other amazing opportunities as well. For example, during the summer, I have had the pleasure of being an intern for this conference, as well as working as an intern at the City of Long Beach Office of Sustainability. I discovered both of these internships through the Green Campus Program. I have realized that the Green Campus Program has expanded the community I am a part of, as I am now involved in my campus, City of Long Beach and the state of California. By playing a juggling act with these three internships, I can see how they all complement each other, and how they each allow me to contribute to the growth of my university, my community and, on a larger scale, my state. And to think, all of this happened just by making an effort to expand my sense of community and network with people outside of my world.

I love the community that has developed around the theme of sustainability, yet in order to ensure that this relationship remains prolific, one basic element is vital: communication. Just as the local community and the university must communicate and collaborate together to create change that benefits as many people as possible, we must also remember to do that on an individual level as well. Often, it seems that we tend to focus on our own particular area of sustainability. Because we become so passionate about what we do, we tend to neglect other areas of importance. There are 60 different sessions featured at this conference. So even if you specialize in one area, find a session that is a bit different but complementary to your expertise, and just try it out.

When I first became interested in sustainability, I focused solely on education and outreach. Through networking with people, I am now proud to say that I have experience with energy efficiency, waste management and water conservation. Outreach and education is still my main passion; however now that I have more experience in other aspects of sustainability, I am more confident in my chosen area of expertise. Furthermore, I now see more options for my future career, and am looking forward to the interesting opportunities for employment that may arise. This is the most valuable experience I have learned in the past few years as a student, and while it is a simple concept, the implementation of it has gone a long way for me.

The best way to achieve progress is to welcome change and embrace new opportunities. And of course, the best way to start change is by beginning with yourself. By communicating with each other more, we will be united as a workforce and, thus, the sustainability movement will be more innovative and exciting than ever.

Finally, I encourage each of you to make an effort to reach out to people who may not be familiar to you, and introduce yourself. Take advantage of this rare opportunity to have conversations with others about the rapid advances being made to improve environmental awareness and practices on college campuses throughout California. By meeting someone new, you are further connecting yourself with the sustainability movement, and creating new relationships that will inspire new ideas and projects. Let’s make relationship building an important part of our conference experience as we continue to advance sustainability practices on campus and in our communities. This will benefit our surrounding community and will foster trusting and strong alliances. And that is how progress will continue to develop.

Amid tuition increases, student protest rallies and faculty taking job offers elsewhere, the staggering cuts to the state budget was a running narrative during this year’s California Higher Education Sustainability Conference. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a budget in June that cut higher education by $1.3 billion and it was announced recently that students in all 23 California State University campuses will be paying 12 percent more this fall than they did last year.

It would be easy to associate the words “defeat,” “surrender” and “paralyzed” to California’s higher education situation. But the words ringing through the conference, held July 10-13 at California State University, Long Beach, were “opportunity” “proactive” and “empowered.”

The budget cuts have created motivation during a time that many would consider no longer possible to move forward with sustainability efforts. “Budget cuts support sustainability because the resources that we are draining down the electricity wires or pouring down the drain or sending off to landfills suddenly matters,” said Matthew St. Clair, sustainability manager at the University of California Office of the President, during a Tuesday session. “Suddenly, the University of California cares about its $300-350 million-a-year energy bill in a way that it never has before.”

Now more than ever, it is also important for campuses to look at ways that sustainability is directly supporting budget cuts. Since 2004, new buildings in the UC system have been required to outperform the state energy code by at least 20 percent. To do so, campuses have registered in a priority savings program that provides assistance and credits. By the end of 2010, the system received or was slated to receive $8 million toward projects from utilities for energy-efficient design.

Another example is an energy savings goal passed by UC Regents in 2003. From its start in 2004 to 2010, system-wide energy efficiency projects avoided $21 million in utility costs.

St. Clair also pointed out that the budget crisis has motivated the UC system toward fundamental, systematic strides in sustainability. He detailed the UC system’s Working Smarter Initiative, which has created $157 million in system-wide administrative efficiencies over the past year and is on track to achieve $500 million in positive fiscal impact over five years.

On a campus level, state budget cuts have left campuses like the University of California, Davis in the lurch with—among other things—building operating costs. The university is building a new veterinary medicine building that will seek LEED Gold certification. It is scheduled to open its doors in 2012 with an annual operating cost of $1.4 million. State-funded buildings used to get $9 per square foot in operating costs. That budget has been cut.

“So we’re going to build a $60 million dollar building and open the doors and we have no way to pay for the energy, the water, the sewer, waste pick-up, building maintenance, custodial and grounds,” said Sid England during the “Turning Crisis into Opportunity” conference session. England, the assistant vice chancellor of environmental stewardship and sustainability at UC Davis, said that for the first time, the costs may fall to the dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine.

With the budget crisis forcing creative thinking, the dean has come up with $2 million in one-time funds to reduce the $1.4 million annual cost to something lower for an already ambitious LEED Gold science building. The university is currently examining several areas for reductions including energy, behavior modification outreach, infrastructure improvements and even the consolidation of building space on campus.

Stepping back, California is not the only state that is or will be experiencing a higher education budget crisis. From 1980 to 2000, California experienced the same change in demographics that the U.S. is projected to go through from 2000 to 2050, said Dr. Manuel Pastor during the conference’s opening keynote speech. By 2042, the U.S. is expected to be a majority minority nation and by 2020, youth will make up the majority of the population.

“The bigger the demographic gap between old and young, the less the state is willing to spend on education,” said Pastor, a professor of American studies and ethnicity and director of the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity at the University of Southern California. In California, 63 percent of voters are whites over 65 years old and 70 percent of youth under 18 years old are people of color.

This changing demography is a challenge to the economic future, said Pastor, as it is a shift toward more inequality in the economy. We think of creating a more sustainable planet in terms of how we organize our campuses and utilize public transit, said Pastor, “but there is a connection between issues of social inequity and our environment. One of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions is the way in which we have sprawled across the landscape. Much of that sprawl has been the desire to separate between race and class.”

We need to be dealing with issues of race, inequality and justice as part of dealing with issues of climate and sustainability, said Pastor. He emphasized the green jobs movement as having the ability to marry the issues of economy, equity and environment in a way that can resurrect our economy.

Urging the higher education community to continue its advocacy work toward sustainability policy changes, Pastor encouraged conference attendees to build alliances with people who may not have been initially be on their side, but who might be ready to listen as a result of economic or changing demography concerns: "There is an immediate need to think long term."

For more conference coverage, see "Greening California's Colleges and Universities" on the California State University website.

Amid tuition increases, student protest rallies and faculty taking job offers elsewhere, the staggering cuts to the state budget was a running narrative during this year’s California Higher Education Sustainability Conference. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a budget in June that cut higher education by $1.3 billion and it was announced recently that students in all 23 California State University campuses will be paying 12 percent more this fall than they did last year.

It would be easy to associate the words “defeat,” “surrender” and “paralyzed” to California’s higher education situation. But the words ringing through the conference, held July 10-13 at California State University, Long Beach, were “opportunity” “proactive” and “empowered.”

The budget cuts have created motivation during a time that many would consider no longer possible to move forward with sustainability efforts. “Budget cuts support sustainability because the resources that we are draining down the electricity wires or pouring down the drain or sending off to landfills suddenly matters,” said Matthew St. Clair, sustainability manager at the University of California Office of the President, during a Tuesday session. “Suddenly, the University of California cares about its $300-350 million-a-year energy bill in a way that it never has before.”

Now more than ever, it is also important for campuses to look at ways that sustainability is directly supporting budget cuts. Since 2004, new buildings in the UC system have been required to outperform the state energy code by at least 20 percent. To do so, campuses have registered in a priority savings program that provides assistance and credits. By the end of 2010, the system received or was slated to receive $8 million toward projects from utilities for energy-efficient design.

Another example is an energy savings goal passed by UC Regents in 2003. From its start in 2004 to 2010, system-wide energy efficiency projects avoided $21 million in utility costs.

St. Clair also pointed out that the budget crisis has motivated the UC system toward fundamental, systematic strides in sustainability. He detailed the UC system’s Working Smarter Initiative, which has created $157 million in system-wide administrative efficiencies over the past year and is on track to achieve $500 million in positive fiscal impact over five years.

On a campus level, state budget cuts have left campuses like the University of California, Davis in the lurch with—among other things—building operating costs. The university is building a new veterinary medicine building that will seek LEED Gold certification. It is scheduled to open its doors in 2012 with an annual operating cost of $1.4 million. State-funded buildings used to get $9 per square foot in operating costs. That budget has been cut.

“So we’re going to build a $60 million dollar building and open the doors and we have no way to pay for the energy, the water, the sewer, waste pick-up, building maintenance, custodial and grounds,” said Sid England during the “Turning Crisis into Opportunity” conference session. England, the assistant vice chancellor of environmental stewardship and sustainability at UC Davis, said that for the first time, the costs may fall to the dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine.

With the budget crisis forcing creative thinking, the dean has come up with $2 million in one-time funds to reduce the $1.4 million annual cost to something lower for an already ambitious LEED Gold science building. The university is currently examining several areas for reductions including energy, behavior modification outreach, infrastructure improvements and even the consolidation of building space on campus.

Stepping back, California is not the only state that is or will be experiencing a higher education budget crisis. From 1980 to 2000, California experienced the same change in demographics that the U.S. is projected to go through from 2000 to 2050, said Dr. Manuel Pastor during the conference’s opening keynote speech. By 2042, the U.S. is expected to be a majority minority nation and by 2020, youth will make up the majority of the population.

“The bigger the demographic gap between old and young, the less the state is willing to spend on education,” said Pastor, a professor of American studies and ethnicity and director of the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity at the University of Southern California. In California, 63 percent of voters are whites over 65 years old and 70 percent of youth under 18 years old are people of color.

This changing demography is a challenge to the economic future, said Pastor, as it is a shift toward more inequality in the economy. We think of creating a more sustainable planet in terms of how we organize our campuses and utilize public transit, said Pastor, “but there is a connection between issues of social inequity and our environment. One of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions is the way in which we have sprawled across the landscape. Much of that sprawl has been the desire to separate between race and class.”

We need to be dealing with issues of race, inequality and justice as part of dealing with issues of climate and sustainability, said Pastor. He emphasized the green jobs movement as having the ability to marry the issues of economy, equity and environment in a way that can resurrect our economy.

Urging the higher education community to continue its advocacy work toward sustainability policy changes, Pastor encouraged conference attendees to build alliances with people who may not have been initially be on their side, but who might be ready to listen as a result of economic or changing demography concerns: "There is an immediate need to think long term."

For more conference coverage, see "Greening California's Colleges and Universities" on the California State University website.