cookbook for the (sustainable) university 14 innovations in practice
Richard Engels Anna Harnmeijer
BMD Advies Centraal Nederland Wat kunnen wij voor bedrijven betekenen? Wij ondersteunen bedrijfs voering op het gebied van milieu, kwaliteit en arbo. Bij ons zijn bedrijven verzekerd van een uitvoerbaar, onafhankelijk en betaalbaar advies.
Wet & Regelgeving
Kwaliteit & Zorgsystemen
• Uitvoeren RI&E op het gebied van facilitair management • Opstellen projectplan ten behoeve van het voorkomen van risico’s • Energiebesparingonderzoek • CO2-scan • Geluidsmetingen • Luchtvochtigheidmetingen • Werkplekonderzoek
• Kwaliteit & Milieu zorg • Interne audits • Energiezorg • Klanttevredenheidonderzoek • Opzetten en implementeren calamiteitenplan • Verzorgen van diverse trainingen
Duurzaamheid & Innovatie • Duurzaamheidplatform • CO2-footprint • Duurzaam inkopen
BMD Advies 6 vestigingen in heel Nederland Vestiging Elst Tel 0481 483188 of s.witjes@cn.bmdadvies.nl www.bmdadvies.nl
Hart voor de ondernemer, oog voor de leefomgeving
Foreword “If not our universities and colleges, then who will lead the way to sustainable practice?”
Julian Keniry, Senior director at the National Wildlife Federation’s Youth and Campus programs, USA.
There are currently 64 universities and colleges in the Netherlands enrolling about 578000 students per year. With a combined budget of about 9400 million Euros per year, higher educational institutes in the Netherlands have a substantial influence on the integration of sustainable practices by their business partners and in the wider community. Universities and colleges are our source of innovation: they shape our understanding of the world and the decisions and behaviour of our future work force. Although universities are good at demonstrating the scale of the environmental problems and are breeding grounds for sustainable technologies, the knowledge they generate is only slowly seeping into the daily operational practices of the university organization, let alone generating ripple effects in the wider community. This booklet is thus partly about short-cuts to implementing sustainable alternatives in universities and colleges. Rather than waiting to implement industrialized proven-technologies, universities and colleges can step to the forefront of the societal transition towards sustainability, by becoming test-beds for social and technological in- house innovations. As S.H. Creighton wrote in her book Greening the ivory tower, universities are “microcosms of society”. As organizations composed of multiple actors with different roles, talents and resources, they provide an ideal ‘live laboratory’ to test and showcase these innovations in practice.
This booklet describes a selection of unique projects across the world in which knowledge, leadership and university or college operational management come together. During the making of this book, we glimpsed the enourmous variety of impressive sustainability initiatives, each driven by a small core of passionate and ambitious student, staff or external leaders. Far from being a comprehensive overview of sustainable university practices, we adopt a cookbook formula to describe the process by which a small selection of inspiring sustainability initiatives were developed. Each recipe is an insight into the resources and actors that need to be mobilized to use opportunities and overcome constraints in setting up these iniatives. These 14 innovations in practice demonstrate several common denominators: individual leadership, novel forms of collaboration and simply utilizing opportunities that are up for grabs!
p20 Sustainable Architecture p10 Ctrl-Alt-Del emissions p36 Open source Beer p40 ecoworks p8 Eat less CO2 p12 Unidiesel
p16 Gorillas on the rise p12 Deep Fried Fuel p33 Tufts Recycles! p27 Financing sustainable practices p24 Gung-ho on water quality p22 Campus Climate Sollutions
p38 ECU Earth Day p30 ecological aesthetics p32 Ozzie HotRot
Voor een stageplaats waar je naast het behalen van studiepunten ook bijdraagt aan duurzame ontwikkelingen in de wereld. Stage Commun icatie en Marketing bij CR EM B.V. te Amsterdam MDG Scan Inte rnship Sustainalytics bij Sustainalytics te Bunn ik
Meewerkstage SNS Asset Management bij SNS REAAL te ’s Hertogenbosch NJR Wants You (Nationale Jeugdraad) landelijk
Stage nieuwe communicatie en communicatiestrategie bij FairGround Sessions in Amsterdam
Stagiair Hosting en stagiair programmering bij The Hub in Rotterdam MDG Scan Internship Sustainalytics bij Sustainalytics te Bunnik
Stage afdeling Client Services bij Robin Good te Amsterdam
Stagiaire Initiatiefrijke projectassistent voor scholierenversie Treemagochi bij Stichting Kairos Tools
STUDENT LED INITIATIVES “[As a university employee] you are constrained by your organization.[..] In this respect, students are lucky in that they have the freedom to demand changes, irrespective of universityprocesses and procedures. And so they should!” Guido van Gemert, Environmental Health and Safety officer at Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands
“We invite students to invite us in their organization [...] The university is a learning experience, and we want students to approach us about recycling bins. We might have already picked up the issue, but we won’t tell students. We invite students to point stuff out to us. They have many eyes and see many things. Some of these things we see as well, and others we don’t.” G. Rendall (pseudonym), blogger at insidehigered.com
“We like working with students, they are very energetic, and sometimes take leadership on sustainability issues that are left unattended by the university. [For example,] students here have picked up to need for more awareness about energy conservation. Students are great at raising relevant and overlooked issues.” Guido van Gemert, environmental officer at RUN, The Netherlands.
e en Stage Communicati B.V. te EM Marketing bij CR Amsterdam e uitgeverij Statiaire educatiev re in tu bij Codename Fu Den Haag
DUURZAME
stagebank
Kijk snel op www.duurzamestagebank.nl
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“By involving students in removal of smaller weeds and replanting of the site, we aim to create some feeling of ownership and urban stewardship for the project site.” Beth Mitchell, Environmental Officer on biodiversity, Australian National University
“When students can find ways to incorporate sustainability related issues on ground into research projects or get credit for them they really come on board in a hurry” Jessica Wenger, UVa, USA
“[Working with students] has its ups and downs, but by and large we have been very pleased with the students: it has taken a lot of load from us in having them go out and collecting all the field data. It requires a little more work in terms of organization, but students we’ve had have been pulling up a lot” Jeff Sitler, EHS staff member at UVa
Eat Less CO2 (institute) ETH Zürich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) (where) Zürich, Switzerland (objective) To realize a shift towards a more sustainable food demand, supply and consumption on campus (what is it) Convince your university catering service to offer and clientele to buy more sustainable, cheap and tasty meals.
(recipe)
Realize the potential for CO2 reduction through changing eating habits. Our food production and consumption is responsible for a large amount of greenhouse gases and that the livestock sector contributes as much to climate change as traffic2. Consumers are generally unaware of the carbon footprint of their diet, and although the caterer at ETH offers organic and vegetarian foods, those who choose for sustainable meals are not rewarded in their choice or made aware of its consequences. Vegetarian meals are just as expensive as their meat-containing counterparts.
(ingredients) 1 university with a canteen, Mensa or catering service 1 yummy sustainable vegetarian menu1 4 students to co-ordinate the programme 1 person of authority of choice at your university 1 Jamie Oliver (servings) Reduces the carbon footprint of 15 university cafeterias and restaurants. Promotes sustainable eating habits of 14.000 students and 7.111 university employees
Organize a network of professors, policy makers, students and facility managers. Eat Less CO2 started after winning a prize for ‘most emission reductions’ at a workshop by the Ecoworks Platform for CO2 Projects3. Judith Ellens has started to involve different parties necessary to make a change towards sustainable menu’s in the university cafeteria. The Ecoworks workshop facilitated contact with facilities management, and Judith has approached several university professors to assist in doing a life cycle assessment. Additionally, two Phd students from SustTec4 will provide organizational support in launching event that will put sustainable food in the picture.
(links) 1 www.ivu.org/recipes/indian-root/curried.html 2 www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.HTM 3 www.ecoworks.ethz.ch 4 www.sustec.ethz.ch 5 www.lcafood.dk 8
Design an alternative, sustainable vegetarian menu. Eat-less-CO2-volunteers will compose a low carbon menu consisting of local and seasonal vegetarian products. With this alternative menu, Judith hopes to win the hearts of university caterers to discuss what big wins can be made in menu composition.
Make the university board, facility management and caterer commit to cheap, sustainable and tasty food. A life cycle analysis comparing the carbon emissions from the current restaurant menu with a (partly) local vegetarian local menu quantifies the step towards a carbon neutral campus5. Right now, campus caterers refrain from offering cheap vegetarian food because they think clientele won’t buy it, and because the university does not demand it. By demonstrating the impressive benefits and promoting the project, Judith hopes to mobilize the various actors in the university to make sustainable catering a collective concern and ambition of the university community.
(serving suggestions)
Use customer surveys to reveal which sustainable meals are equally or more preferred by staff and student canteen and restaurant clientele than current less sustainable alternatives. Be pragmatic. Plead for the diet change with the largest reduction potential and easiest applicability. Don’t be a militant vegan, vegetarian or environmentalist. Let your university commit itself to support student research projects on the sustainability of diets and reward students with study credits. Let your university commit itself to integrate newly available knowledge and know-how into the Mensa menus offered. Create a website that receives and displays new sustainable recipes, with a ‘diet emission calculation tool’ and with relevant campus news to involve the university community in the project. Scout the region for local produce and potential partnerships, preferably with your campus caterer.
(thanks to)
Judith Ellens, student ETH Zürich
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Ctrl-Alt-Del emissions (institute) Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) (where) Amsterdam, The Netherlands (objective) To eliminate all CO2 emissions of a big computer room and build the first climate-neutral computer room in the Netherlands. (servings) 50% reduction in electricity spent on lighting 30% reduction in energy used by computers Increased student and staff awareness about sustainable university practices 42.822 kWh of renewable energy generated per year 1 nomination for the Digikring Award 20081
(recipe)
(ingredients) 2 devoted students 1 sustainable movement in the student council 1 computer hall with 248 computers 1 flat roof near the computer facility A dash of willingness among university facility and ICT employees Government, municipal and university goals to reduce C02 emissions. €150,000 financial support from the university Board of Directors
Make sustainability a primary goal in the university student council. Kiesmei, the biggest student party in the UvA student parliament1, took a sustainable university as one of its five primary goals. Eight members of the student council formed a Commission on Sustainability2. Two of them devoted a large amount of their time to sustainable solutions and came up with the idea of a climate neutral computer hall, in which energy use reduction is combined with production of renewable energy3.
(links) 1 www.ict-co2.nl 2 www.kiesmei.nl (NL) 3 www.studentenraad.nl/duurzaamheid (NL) 4 www.studentenraad.nl/csr (NL) For the project presentation movie (NL) see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wu8Fo4b5dM 5 www.klimaatbureau.nl 6 www.senternovem.nl/sde 7 eetd.lbl.gov/EA/Reports/39466/ (EN) or www.studentenraad.nl/csr
Acquire funds and support for the realisation of the project. Both the UvA Board of Directors and the UvA Facility and ICT department have committed to support the programme. Financial support will be provided by the UvA board of directors, the municipality of Amsterdam, KlimaatBureau Amsterdam4 and several other government subsidies supporting renewable energy generation5 Develop a PC Power Management system for university computers6. These configurations allow computers to minimize energy consumption when not in use. Screensavers are replaced by software that automatically puts the screen on standby after a short time of inactivity. Other software will switch computers off automatically at night from a central point. These two measures will lead to a 30% energy reduction. Install windmills and solar panels on the roof of the university building. 8 small-scale wind turbines and 19 solar systems will be installed, generating 42.822 kWh of alternative energy per year.
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Exchange regular TL-lights for LED TLlights. LED TL-lights will reduce 50 % of the electricity spent on lighting. Promote the project among students and university employees. Each computer will indicate that the room is climate neutral. Media attention, a huge ‘energy mirror’, and a grand opening during a university-wide sustainability week will raise the project profile and sensitize the university community to sustainable university practices.
(serving suggestions)
Enable regular communication between students and the university policy makers. A lot of students have good ideas for a more sustainable university, but members of the student council are blessed with the advantage of the right to advise and regularly meet with the university board. Gain university support to expand and implement the project university-wide. The University of Amsterdam has already planned to copy the PC Power Management plan to all other student computer facilities in the university, reducing the electricity bill with €10,363 a year. If all the computers of the university’s employees would be included in the project, cost savings from reduced energy use would amount to €175,985 per year.
(thanks to)
Justus Dengerink, CSR UvA
Deep Fried Fuel (institute)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(where)
Boston, United States
(objective)
To run MITcampus shuttle buses on waste oil
(servings)
Saves the university €3.200 in waste disposal fees Saves the university up to €9.500 in fuel costs Lowers the universities’ carbon footprint Revenue worth €2.200 p/annum
(ingredients)
2 students with backgrounds in chemical and mechanical engineering dedicated to fuelling the university shuttles using biodiesel. 1 program stimulating undergraduate involvement in cutting edge, ongoing research1. 1 multi-disciplinary team consisting of 6 students in environmental engineering, chemical engineering and economics. 10.000 litres of waste oil p/annum. €20.000 in funds from the mtvU/GE ecomagination2 award. €2.400 in funds from MIT and a €12.000 loan from the MIT. 1 solar - powered MBP Bioenergy Vegetable Oil Conversion Unit, worth €12.000. 1 contract with MIT Department of Facilities for selling the fuel. A laboratory to accommodate biodiesel processing on campus grounds.
Dare to dream of converting a fleet of 6 campus shuttle busses from diesel to biodiesel. The Biodiesel@MIT3 project was initiated in fall 2006 by Joe Roy-Mayhew and Matt Zedler, both students in bio-engineering. They realized that waste vegetable oils from campus cafeteria and restaurants could be converted into fuel, reducing GHG emissions and reusing waste at the same time.
group, the university could not decide on where to house the project. Additional university support started to materialize only after the project won the mtvU/GE Ecomagination prize2.
Start up your own biodiesel production facility. The purchase of a conversion unit was made possible by an existing university fund and loan scheme providing a €2,200.00 donation a €12,000.00 respectively. Biodiesel@MIT is Promote the project to win university supnow operating as a non- profit organization and port, and win an award on the side. Although will start producing fuel in spring 2009. To allow the Biodiesel@MIT project was initiated with for start-up irregularities in the fuel, the project the help of both the Universities Environmental will begin to deliver a 5% biodiesel mixture, and Health and Safety office and the Undergraduate build up to provide a 20% mixture within the Research Opportunity Program (UROP)1, the next few years. project struggled for financial resources and accommodation on campus. Because the project group was not part of a faculty or research
(recipe)
(where)
Design an autonomous biodiesel production unit. UniDiesel1 started as an entry in a UNESCO contest called the MondiaLogo Engineering Award2. I. Sarantapoulos c.s entered a unique design for a fully solar- powered biodiesel production unit based on palmoil. The entry received an honourable mention in 2005. The project was also awarded with the 2007 Innovact European Young Entrepeneurs Award3, and the 2008 Oikos International Student Award4.
Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece.
(objective)
To design and implement a functional energy- autonomous biodiesel unit to fuel university vehicles.
(what is it)
Unidiesel collects waste-oils from restaurants, and prevents oils to end up in sewage or landfill. Using a self-sustained waste-oil conversion unit, Unidiesel fuels university vehicles with renewable biodiesel.
Unidiesel
(recipe)
Realize the potential of your invention for improving the universities environmental performance. The waste oil produced in the tourism sector in Crete is a good, free source of oil for biodiesel production. By selling the biodiesel to the university for on-campus use, in time the project can be financially autonomous, while decreasing the carbon footprint of Chania University.
(ingredients)
1 Oikos International Award recognizing outstanding entrepreneurial student projects in the field of sustainable development. 1 award-winning technology design for an energy-autonomous biodiesel unit 3 engineering students, exploiting the full potential of their new technology design €9000 in funds, provided by a Cretan student business initiative fund called UniStep 1 academic community ready to lend a hand 1 building, constructed specifically for the project About 2,500 tonnes of waste oil per year from the Crete tourism sector 1 contract with the university facility department for fuel delivery at €0.80 per litre.
And solve a persistent waste problem on the side. Currently, there is no collection system for waste-oils, nor are there legal requirements for disposal. The total waste flux, some 800-1000 tonnes of oil annually for the city Chania alone, is currently discarded through the sewage system, or brought to a landfill. This disrupts the wastewater treatment plants, and pollutes the groundwater and surface water. Attract funding from a student business initiative fund. A fund aimed at stimulating student business initiatives, Unidiesel started constructing a prototype of their biodiesel production unit. 12
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Sell your product to the facilities department. Biodiesel@MIT has signed a contract with the facilities department to sell the biodiesel at 0,30 $ a litre. However, the project will continue to run as a non-profit organization because of the tax and administrative burden that comes with a business organization.
(serving suggestions)
Charge a fee for the service of waste collection from campus restaurants. This would make the project less dependent on gifts and loans. Before the project started campus restaurants were paying to have their waste oil removed. Biodiesel@MIT collects the waste for free.
Link the project to research and education on renewable fuel technology. The Biodiesel@MIT project is an ideal display for renewable fuel technology, and can complement the existing environmental technology curriculum. Conversely, the project can benefit from ongoing research in the same field. Right now, the link between Biodiesel@MIT and research and education activities remains minimal.
(thanks to)
Sara Barnowski, President of Biodiesel@MIT (2009)
(links)
1 http://web.mit.edu/urop 2 www.ecocollegechallenge.com 3 http://web.mit.edu/biodiesel 4 http://web.mit.edu/environment/ehs/ehs_ management.shtml

The unit has a productive capacity of 60 litres a day, and runs on a 80 watt photovoltaic solar panel, and a solar collector for heating the reactor. Testing has been completed in 2008, and Unidiesel is ready to start producing Biodiesel this summer. And start producing Biodiesel of excellent quality, using only solar power. Unlike most biodiesels, Unidiesel produces fuel that can be used without blending with fossil fuels. Because the energy content of biodiesel is 10 percent lower than ordinary diesel, Unidiesel sells the diesel at 10 percent of the price of ordinary diesel. Still, the business model looks profitable, and I. Sarantoupolous c.s. look to expand the project into a profitable business.
(serving suggestions)
Currently, UniDiesel cannot ask money for their waste collection service, because restaurants have no cost in disposing of the waste. Greek law makes no requirements for the disposal of waste oils, which makes Unidiesels businessmodel less profitable. A change in government policy would place the burden of cost at the polluters instead of the cleaners.
(links)
1 www.mondialogo.tuc.gr 2 www.mondialogo.org 3 www.innovact.com 4 www.oikos-international.org
(thanks to)
Ioannis Sarantopoulos, Student at Technical University of Crete 14
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Gorillas on the rise process by providing lots of nitrogen rich material. The farm was only 30mins away from the campus by truck and the material delivered was composted in an open field in windrows.
(what is it) Gorilla Composting1 is a student-run initiative that gathers organic waste from campus cafeterias, university buildings and individuals, and transports in to a local farm where it is processed into compost. Compost is made freely available to its subscribers. (ingredients) A dozen crazy student organizers willing to work hard on voluntary basis. 350 litres of organic waste per week. Several hundred subscribers, paying an annual fee of 5$. 1 drop-off location on the campus grounds. 1 composting facility at a local farm. Half a dozen professors and environmental engineering students providing the know-how for optimizing the compost process. Several student groups and an alumni foundation that can be persuaded to contribute funds and collectively contribute thousands of dollars based on a student proposal. Support from campus cafeteria managers and facility staff
Drum up members. For a $5 annual subscription, individuals receive a 4 litre re-sealable container, and plenty of sawdust to adsorb excess moisture which can be emptied at an organic waste depot on McGill campus. At the end of the season, subscribers can collect unlimited quantities of premium grade compost for free. Additionally, Gorilla Composting sells a 25$ garden composter, which consumers can fill up without worrying about weekly drop-offs. Gorilla Composting organizes public worm composting workshops and their website explains all about the intricacies of do-it yourself composting. Muster collaboration with waste providers. Gorilla Composting works together with selected restaurants and campus cafeterias to gather organic waste without too much contamination. Restaurant managers were contacted on an individual basis, and readily agreed to provide source separated organic waste for composting, perhaps because they see the mass of food wasted each day. Unfortunately campus establishments did not save money on waste pickup because McGill had a flat rate contract with the garbage disposal company. Garbage and transport companies were hired at double the regular rates, because they were not going to the landfill, so it was considered as 2 trips instead of 1. It cost around $330 for each 20 or 40 cubic yard container.
(recipe)
Realize that it requires unconventional methods to make the university sustainable. ‘Gorilla composting’ is a pun on ‘guerilla tactics’, chosen because the group realized it would require fundamental changes in management to make McGill University sustainable.
(institute) McGill University (where) Montreal, Quebec, Canada (objective) “To construct an organic recycling plan for the McGill community, because composting is a necessity and a responsibility”.
Set up a system that works and is cheap to operate. The reason Gorilla Composting was cheap to operate was that they chose not to install new industrial machinery, complex operation or staff. Gorilla Composting simply dumped 20 cubic yard containers onto a farm. The farm was happy to receive this because it helped their composting
Attract funds to upscale the project. Campus- wide operation of the composting programme required funds for staff and trucks to collect, store and transport food waste. Gorilla 16
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Composting demonstrated that this could be done after receiving $15,000 from the Alumni Association. The campus-wide system ran for over 1 year, recovering waste from nearly all establishments on campus, but ceased in spring 2007 because the university administration refused to take any managerial or supporting role in the system, and the student project ran out of funding. Despite potential savings in garbage costs and improved environmental image, the administration has still not developed the campus wide collection program, although Gorilla Composting demonstrated a functional system, which operated very cheaply. Despite the downsizing, Gorilla now operates a drop off for members who still want to compost in downtown Montreal.
(missing ingredients)
Support from university management is essential. Students currently leading the Gorilla Composting initiative are convinced that an industrial composter is needed to up-scale the project to serve the entire campus with an organic waste collection service. This composter could process 100 tons of organic waste per year and would require modest university funding. In 2009 Gorilla Composting will organize a university petition to demand university support.
(thanks to)
Kealan Gell, waste-crazed MSc. student in Agricultural Engineering, Wageningen University and ex- Gorilla Composter.
(links)
1 http://gorilla.mcgill.ca
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EDUCATION & CURRICULUM Our ‘Campus Environment 2008’ study showed that only a minority of schools are educating the majority of students about natural systems at the very basic level. Even less are translating that into how human beings are impacting natural systems and what can practically be done about that. Only about 4% require all students to take a sustainability class. The most disturbing trend is that if you major in engineering or business or health sciences or teacher education you are much less likely to gain that exposure.
(your vision on sustainability)
On novel forms of education All of those students who are stepping up on social justice issues should be treated as leaders and campuses should pay for them to spend a summer on teaching them basic civics: how does the system work and how do you influence it? Julian Keniry
On the integration of sustainability criteria in curricula Historically, environmental issues have been Julian Keniry, Senior director at the National Wild- remained within the category ‘environment and life Federation’s Youth and Campus programs, technology’; [in architecture] the emphasis USA has been on the design and the technology has been a secondary concern, added to the initial On the translation between knowing and design afterwards. doing Alison Pooley, Program Coordinator at the Centre for Alternative Technology, Wales. It’s hard to know why there have been no behavioural changes [since the introduction of “It is actually nice to have the laboratory in your concept of sustainability]. If we were educating backyard. So often, faculty is running off 100 for sustainability we could say something about miles away to research sites. Our stormwater this transformation into behavioural change, but management site is a teaching tool and case we have not been educating for sustainability! study for urban planning classes, environmental Most of what we know about the translation science classes and civil engineering classes of knowledge into behaviour is anecdotal. But situated right next to our classrooms ”. part of the reason I am doing this work and so Jeff Sitler, EHS staff member at the University of many people that I know are doing this work is Virginia, USA because we were inspired by a teacher. I think faculty are tremendously influential. Yes if it’s a boring course, it might not be transformative, but I think you have to start with education.
(the smallest step)
Julian Keniry
(where we are now) 18
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(recipe)
(institute) Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT), University of East London, (UEL) (where) Machynlleth, Wales (what is it) An environmental organization and a university collaborate to offer Master programs in sustainable architecture and technology. (ingredients) An NGO with 35 years of experience in alternative technology 1 university professor interested in alternative technology 18 students interested in a mix of traditional and modern technologies Recognition from professional architectural organizations “You can legislate for change, you can legislate against people building things out of concrete, but what you canít legislate is the values that underpin why they would want to do that”Alison Pooley
Build a solid reputation as a knowledge centre for sustainable technology. The Centre for Alternative Technology1 started out in 1973 as a community dedicated to eco-friendly principles and a ‘test bed’ for new ideas and technologies. It quickly started to display its own take on sustainable technology in a permanent exhibition. The organization has since grown to employ 90 staff members and 60 part-time volunteers. Dedicated to educating principles of sustainable technology, CAT offers on site activities, expositions and courses to a variety of target groups, including university students. Offer study activities to university students. Cooperation between UEL and CAT started when one university teacher started to include a week long study visit to the centre to the curriculum of an UEL MSc in architecture. Students liked the CAT programme, which included practical as well as theoretical components, and suggested CAT should host the entire course. UEL started hosting the UEL master for one week every month. Since 2005, the course is run fully by CAT staff.
Get the course validated by professional organizations. Altough CAT has received many student inquiries, part of the architecture world in Britain has remained hesitant about the MSc programmes. The Architects Registration Board2 has validated the Masters programme, and The Royal Institute for British Architects3 will validate the AEES in 2010 once the first cohort of students has completed the program.
(links)
1 www.cat.org.uk 2 www.arb.org.uk 3 www.architecture.com
(thanks to)
Alison Pooley and Joan Randle, CAT UK
(serving suggestions)
One of the problems in validating the courses lies in the categorization of course criteria. The issue of sustainability is boxed as a separate criterion, isolated from criteria of design or legislature. By focussing more on design, environmental issues are addressed at the end rather than throughout the process of architectural design. By teaching the MSc courses, CAT promotes a more integral approach to designing buildings.
Develop your own master programs. Since 2007 the CAT Graduate School of the Environment, CAT offers MSC two courses: Architecture: Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies (AEES), and Renewable Energy in the Built Environment (REBE), which are taught by CAT and validated by UEL. Additionally, CAT offers a course leading up to a professional architecture diploma since 2008. The courses are interdisciplinary, ranging from building physics to environmental economics.
Sustainable Architecture 20
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(recipe) Realize the potential of the greenhouse gas emissions management sector. When Campus Climate Solutions (CSS) initiator Alison Erlenbach did a GHG emission inventory for the University of Florida (UF), she realized the lack of skilled consultants in this field. Many of reports to the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, an agreement amongst higher education institutes in North America that compares emission inventory reports amongst signatory universities, were of considerable lower quality than Erlenbach’s work as a student intern at UF. With President Obama committing to combating climate change, Erhlenbach expects the market for consulting in this field will expand rapidly. The ‘2009 Greenhouse Gas & Climate Change Workforce Needs Assessment Survey Report’2 states that there will be a critical shortage of climate mitigation. Win an international prize with a project proposal. Campus Climate Solutions won the 2008 Oikos International Curriculum Change Award3. The prize money (500 Euro’s) brought in some essential funding and made it easier to attract partners such as Carbon Solutions, the Center for Innovation & Economic Development (CIED) and Climate Safe.
Campus Climate Solutions1
Build a network of climate change professors and experts to coach the process of setting up a company. Student organizations are often not seen as full competitors on the market, and Campus Climate Solutions has used this to its own advantage. Although the student consultancy would be a potential competitor for professors or experts from the field, it was easy to obtain their consulting services for free. The community college at Gainesville agreed to host the course at no charge. (institute) Gainesville Community College; University of Florida (where) Gainesville, Florida (objective) To set up a work-and-learn greenhouse gas emissions consulting course (what is it) Campus Climate Solutions (CSS) is a company offering a work-and-learn course open to students and the wider public, as well as emissions consulting services at affordable prices. (Alison Erlenbach, Campus Climate Solutions) “…train people to find real solutions to climate change.” (ingredients) 1 ambitious student initiator 1 community college offering classrooms free of charge to accommodate courses Half a dozen teachers willing to consult free of charge 1 dozen students ambitious in the field of climate consulting 1 government that wants to cut CO2 emissions fast.
Recruit students and get consultin’. Right now, CCS is preparing its first course. Over a dozen students have signed up and local companies are interested in the services CCS has to offer. Students have to pay a $90 commitment fee, which will be refunded when the course is completed. Additionally, the course is offered to part-time students. Because these students will not work as consultants at CCS, they have to pay the full fee of $290.
(serving suggestions)
Expand the business model to other universities, and push universities to change their curricula. Right now, the majority of students in the United States are not interested in greenhouse gas emission consulting, and as a result, Universities are not interested in offering courses in this field. By showing that students can make a good career as emission consultants, the demand for learning these skills will increase, and universities will be compelled to teach them.
(Links)
1 www.campusclimatesolutions.org 2 www.ghginstitute.org/downloadables/Reports/2009survey.pdf 3 www.oikos-international.org/projects/award.html
(thanks to)
Alison Erlenbach, student at University of Florida 22
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(servings)
(institute) University of Virginia (UVA) (where) Charlottesville, Virginia (objective) To verify whether stormwater best management practices (BMPs) on location live up to their design criteria and produce the intended improvements in water quantity and quality. (what is it) The Office of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) works with students and faculty to design, measure, analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of stormwater management solutions and to do baseline assessments for stream water quality.
Improved water management for the river basin community Tens of students gaining study credits or financial compensation and practical experience per year Ongoing development of knowledge in stormwater management
(ingredients) 2 dedicated environmental compliance officers Half a dozen newly constructed ponds and wetlands for stormwater management 1 university administration sensitized to sustainability issues 1 Environmental Health and Safety Office concerned about the downstream catchment effects of its water management with initial internal funding of approximately $5,000 $10,000 from Nitsch engineering2 willing to fund a stormwater monitoring program $10,000 funds from the Boston Society of Architects to match Three university professors sharing their expertise in exchange for practical field experience for their students Half a dozen dedicated and skilled students 3 university automatic samplers
(recipe)
Be curious about the effectiveness of campus stormwater managment. The Virginia University campus is located within Meadow Creek watershed. To comply with water quality laws in the state the Virginia, several stormwater management solutions, such as wetlands, creeks and ponds were constructed as an integral part of the campus landscape planning. Curious about the effectiveness of installed stormwater best management practices, Jeff Sitler, from the Environmental Health and Safety office, developed an idea for a monitoring program1. The director of EHS approved the plan and provided approximately $5,000 in funding to acquire equipment for water quality analyses.
Gung-ho on water quality
Strategically scout for ideal sponsors. The monitoring program attracted $10,000.00 from Nitsch Engineering, the company responsible for many of the stormwater management designs on campus.
Put students to work and reduce program costs. By drawing on students and faculty from the Department Environmental Sciences and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering to carry out storm water assessment, the costs of the program remained minimal. The initial baseline sampling program included quarterly sampling, howeverthe program was reduced to biannual testing when the larger stormwater monitoring program began. Baseline samples were taken at 10 different sites and analyzed for pH, alkalinity, conductivity, turbidity and nitrate, nitrite, iron, phosphate and oxygen content. Attract further funding and extend the project. In 2008 the project proposal was extended in cooperation with the Faculty of the Department of Environmental Sciences and the Department Environmental Sciences and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Using the funding from Nitsch Engineering as seed money, EHS succeeded in attracting $10,000.00 funding from the Boston Society of Architects3. This additional funding allowed the installation of automated samplers for measuring the water quality changes after a storm event, and of transducers for flow measurement. Currently the programme is manned by 2 staff members from the Environmental Health and Safety office, 3 professors and 4 students.
(links)
1 ehs.virginia.edu/stormwater/home.html 2 www.nitscheng.com 3 www.architects.org
(thanks to)
Jeff Sitler and Jessica Wenger, EHS staff at UVA
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Sustainability at UVa really started at grassroots level. We completed a sustainability assessment in 2007 to get a handle of what was going on at the university and see what all the departments were doing. This allowed administration became aware of how much was going on and how much interest there was. It was only after that that administration wanted to take a larger role.
Jessica Wenger, EHS staff member at the University of Virginia, USA.
On being constrained by norms, procedures and regulation University staff feel the constraints on a daily basis; the rules and regulations are the way they are and therefore it’s very difficult to jump out of that. You do need a more holistic integral vision on sustainability to make it work. You can not just solve a problem within the very constrained context of rules and regulations. You must break open these constraints and create the playground to go beyond these restrictive rules and regulations- and that’s scary for a lot of people!
Professor Louise Vet, Director NIOO-KNAW and senior researcher Multitrophic Interactions, Wageningen University.
My one half is an environmentalist, my other half an administrative officer. You need both legs to walk on: you have to work within the constraints of the organization, but you also need to continuously identify and introduce new ideas for improvement. I am taking small steps, but I am walking...
Guido van Gemert, Environmental Health and Safety Officer at Radboud University Nijmegen.
On how to help university staff to make new trade-offs between social, economic and environmental criteria What battles are worth fighting? Which improvements are truly significant and should be the areas where we place our emphasis? We can’t do a million things, we can only do several things very well. Finding that balance between fostering innovation and creative licence on the one hand and being prescriptive on the other hand is very difficult. You can take the energy and creativity out of people by codifying hundreds of policies that they must follow to the letter. People don’t like that, they like to feel that they can innovate and create. On the other hand if you leave it up to them to do that we may not reach our benchmarks.
Julian Keniry, Senior director at the National Wildlife Federation’s Youth and Campus programs.
On dealing with risky sustainable practices At this point we have the technologies and it’s more a matter of putting the incentives in place, the training systems in place and the infrastructure for energy distribution in place. Ground based heat exchange, solar and wind is now proven technology. That’s not to say that there aren’t new technologies that we need to be innovating, I just think it’s more a problem of not tapping the technologies that are there at this point. In ‘Higher education in a warming world’, we were able to use over 100 examples in 32 states to show different approaches to reducing greenhouses gas emissions and how campuses are saving money at the same time..
Julian Keniry 26 27
Extend your payback period. One way to deal with increasing energy prices is extend the pay back period. Campuses show increasing willingness to do this. If they normally require a 3-7 year payback, some of them now say: okay, weíll accept a payback of 14, 15 years in the understanding that energy costs will rise and our payback estimates will change with time. Given that we are feeling the pain of rising energy prices, the notion that these are good long term investments and that they may have a shorter payback period than current estimates may make it seem is gaining popularity.
Energy costs will increase over time. At our NWF headquarters at Reston, Virginia, we are working on becoming climate neutral. We donít want to rely on carbon off-sets; we want all of the reductions to be based on on-site efficiency and renewable energy efforts. Our latest estimate for our groundbased heat exchange project is that it will pay back itself in 60 years. Our president then said: look, thatís wrong: the models are probably off and we are going to see energy costs rising, so basing our estimates on todayís energy prices is just very short- sighted. So now NWF is going to go ahead and invest. We see universities and colleges now starting to work with the expectation that energy prices will rise in the future, meaning that the paybacks they calculate today may look very different tomorrow.
State legislation helps. The state of Virginia does not have a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), so there is not a huge incentive at state level. But nevertheless we see institutions moving forward because energy costs are increasing and taking up a greater share of total costs, so it makes sense to do something about efficiency and shifts to clean energy. Nobody wants to be overly reliant on fossil fuels. But in states that do have an RPS, the cost- benefit argument is much stronger for universities and businesses: they are seeing payback rates that may be double those in Virginia. California has some of the best rebate programs in the USA. You could be looking at a payback period of 40-50 years but because of the rebate programs you are instead looking at a payback period of 20 years, which makes the investment much more attractive.
So: return on investment depends on the formula that you use and whether you buy in to the idea that fossil fuels will become scarcer and energy costs increase. We have been facing supply and costs shocks in the USA and in 2006 the average energy cost increase in higher education institutes was 26%. In that same year Harvard University faced a 40% increase in energy cost. That is a big incentive right there. We all know we need strong climate legislation and by putting a cap on carbon the federal government will further increase the incentive to invest in efficient and clean energy programs.
Financial constraints are a common argument not to choose more sustainable energy alternatives. Julian Keniry, author of ìEcodemiaî on the environmental performance of universities, and co-author of ìGreen Investment, Green Returnî, dispels the myth that sustainable equals unaffordableÖ
Financing sustainable practices in Higher Education Institutions an interview with Julian Keniry.
FACILITY MANAGEMENT & ADMINISTRATION
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From what Iíve seen, outsourcing can have both positive and negative effects on sustainable practice. It all comes down to negotiating specifications and levering change. Campus leaders have stood up and said: if you donít go green we will look for another vendor. There is competition for the business which provides some leverage. For instance, UC Santa Cruz got their vendor to agree to provide all their food from a 200 mile radius. On the other hand Iíve seen campuses that had an external vendor but when the vendor did not comply with their request they terminated the contract and re-internalized campus catering. Just because catering is internally provided doesnít necessarily mean its more green. It may be harder to fire an internal dining service than a contractor!
Use your Buyer Power. George Washington University in Washington D.C. estimates it has 26000 vendors, so they could exert tremendous influence. The question is: are they actually exerting it through the contract specification process? I think specifications for sustainability criteria are very patchy. Kevin Williams explains in his book ëBuying for the futureí how campuses can use their clout to achieve anything they want when negotiating products and services with vendors.
Another way is rotating loan funds of various types: Harvard, Colorado State and Humboldt State University have one. When a project pays for itself the proceeds go back into the fund to be used for other projects instead of losing the money in that fiscal year, which is a disincentive to conservation. If you save money you now get to keep those revenues and reinvest them in further conservation. Those are pretty clever incentives that we expect to become more widely implemented in the future. Thirdly, the University of Michigan, Dartmouth University received large alumni gifts for sustainability projects.
Choose an appropriate funding strategy. There isnít a pattern or one predominant way university sustainability projects in the USA have been financed, instead there is a diversity of ways. One is to work with the local utility sector; and in some states this is driven by grants and rebates. 23 states now have renewable portfolio standards where the state is required to generate a certain amount of clean energy by a certain date. What we are seeing is that utilities are looking to campuses almost immediately because they are big energy consumers and great places to showcase solutions. So reaching out to the utility sector and looking at the state-based incentive structure is one way.
Mix projects with different pay-back periods. Large projects with long pay-back periods need to be mixed with other projects to bring down the average pay- back period, so projects need to be approached as part of a portfolio instead of being assessed independently. Lighting retrofit projects tend to pay for themselves in a couple of years, so if you pull all your projects with their varying payback period together in one project portfolio: solar air pre-heating, window film, photo-voltaics and wind, then you can reduce your average payback. You use the project with the lower payback to help justify and finance the ones with long paybacks. For instance, at NWF our total portfolio payback is estimated at 20 years across all our projects and that will give us a 50% reduction in GHG emissions. For the remaining 50% we will probably have to go all solar photo-voltaic and that will increase our average payback period. We are now looking to private foundations, federal government and our own members for grants to raise funds for that.
Eagan, David J. Keniry, Julian (1998) Green Investment, Green Return: How Practical Conservation Projects Save Millions on America’s Campuses. Reston, Virginia National Wildlife Federation Authors: David J. Eagan D. et al (2008), Higher Education in a warming world, NWF Report, available at www.nwf.org. Lyons K. (2001), Buying for the future: Buying for the future, Pluto Press, London. Bardaglio P. and Putman A. (2009), Boldly Sustainable: Hope and Opportunity for Higher Education in the Age of Climate Change, Washington, DC: National Association of College and University Business Officers. Simpson W. (editor) (2008), The Green Campus: Meeting the Challenge of Environmental Sustainability, available from APPA, www.appa.org.
For more information on finance strategies: Keniry J.(1995), Ecodemia. Campus Environmental Stewardship at the Turn of the 21st Century: Lessons in Smart Management from Administrators, Staff, and Students, Wash., D.C.: National Wildlife Federation.
www.nwf.org/campusecology: NWF Campus Ecology www.nacubo.org: NACUBO www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org: American College and university climate commitment (ACUPCC)
(Links)
Julian Keniry is senior director at the National Wildlife Federationís Youth and Campus programs and cofounder of NWF Campus Ecology Program
(ingredients) 1 dedicated university sustainability program 1 environmental management committee, keen on biodiversity and ecological services Half a dozen ecological landscaping enthusiasts 1 new construction site, with a budget reserved for landscape planning 1 8*17 metre site, suitable for ecological landscaping Less than €3,050.00 (less than a standard landscaping budget) 1 dozen student volunteers for replanting the site (institute) Australian National University, ANU (where) Canberra, ACT, Australia (objective) To protect ecological services and biodiversity within the context of an urban campus (Beth Mitchell, ANU Environmental Officer on biodiversity) “In the urban context you have to identify and respond to whatever opportunities arise…sometimes the landscapes are going to be next to existing buildings or within landscape plans and budgets of new buildings…” (serving) Numerous ecological outcomes: viable bird and amphibian habitats, weed and water management Collective management of weed growth at catchment level 1 award in landscape architecture
ecological aesthetics
(recipe)
sites and often apply clean fill, removing the soil profile, while ecologists prefer to leave the soil profile intact when removing large weeds. The contractor was only persuaded after the realization that the ecological design would be cheaper than the original landscaping plan.
Do an ecological and hydrological assessment of the campus grounds. In 2002 the environmental management committee, which was set up by the facilities and services division of the university and consists of university staff representatives, carried out an assessment of ecological services and biodiversity of birds, frogs, vertebrates, reptiles and mammals on site. In the process of writing up the results, the committee formulated a biodiversity management strategy for the urban areas of ANU Canberra campus grounds.
Stubbornly persist in realizing the ecological landscaping design. Having found agreement with contractors was not enough: overseeing the project in each phase of implementation by subcontractors proved to be essential to prevent and fix conventional landscaping practices from being implemented. For instance, while the pond was designed to collect water from the surrounding landscape, subcontractors installed storm water drains for flood mitigation. The concession was a cap on storm water drains.
Identify opportunities for integrating biodiversity with the built form. Within urban areas, such as the ANU campus, land prices are at a premium. Rather than just conserving significant landscapes, ANUgreen looked for landscaping projects around new buildings that required a landscaping plan and budget anyway. By designing a project within the budget of the conventional landscape planning, decision- makers were inclined to accept their design. The construction of a new Phenomics department offered the first opportunity to integrate ecological criteria into the landscaping design. The committee’s ecological landscaping plans include installation of a water retention and erosion prevention constructions (swales), making use of natural drains, removal of weeds, and planting of certain key species to recreate a specific habitat, in this case an ephemeral pond. ANU green choose the ephemeral pond system over a normal waterbody because it is more productive: once there is water, al sorts of animals will flock the site, particularily invertebrate life, such as dragon flieswhich in turn attracts frogs and small birds.
the first phase of the project. Support only arose once people could recognize the visual results of re-growth of local endemic species resulting from the project. For a recent project ANUgreen successfully raised the project profile and public attention by involving local government, local water authorities, the botanic garden, CSIRO (the national public research organization) as well university staff in the project committee. This broader stakeholder involvement also allowed collaboration between up and downstream water users in the catchment to control weed growth. Students were gradually involved to remove smaller weeds and to replant sites. The results are positive: the site at the Phenomics attracted the whistling tree frog, which had not been seen at the ANU grounds previously.
Learn from each project. The initial project at Promote the project and involve the commu- the phenomics department provided invaluable nity to win community support. People were lessons for the landscaping and rehabilitation initially startled with vegetation removal during projects that were to follow.
(links)
1 www.tufts.edu/tuftsrecycles 2 http://tuftsrecycles.org/surplus
Convince the development contractor to integrate ecological principles. In the eye of the contractor the ecological design conflicted with the aesthetic principles of landscape architecture. Landscape architecture will typically grade whole 30
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(thanks to )
Beth Mitchell, ANU Green
waste disposal fees. The aerobic composter would earn back its investment in 12-13 years. Additionally, the project hosts 2 PhD research projects, and will continue to offer students an opportunity to gain consulting experience. The initiative has won the ACT NoWaste3 Awards for 2007 in the resource efficiency category.
(institute) The Australian National University (where) Canberra, Australia (what is it) The HotRot Organic Recycling project was established as a pilot project to divert organic campus waste from going to landfills to being processes by a university operated composting facility. (ingredients) 1 persuasive environmental manager 1 facility management budget allocated to hire students as consultants 1 HotRot Composting Unit type 1512, manufactured by R5 Solutions Pty Ltd in New Zealand Up to 2000 kg’s of organic waste a day 120 litre and 240 litre green wheelie bins
Pick the low- hanging fruit first. The HotRot project focussed primarily on using organic waste that could be easily collected. By marketing the program university restaurants first, only the kitchen staff had to be trained, rather than the whole campus population. Expand your program campus wide. The ANU pilot project has been finished successfully. The follow-up project, for which ANUgreen is gathering funds, will gather up to 90% of all organic waste produced on campus.
(servings) Diverts up to 500 tonnes of waste per year Provides fertilizer for campus landscaping projects Hosts 2 PhD research projects Employs and provides field experience for dozens of students per year
(thanks to )
(institute) Tufts University (where) Boston, Massachusetts, USA (objective) To set up a university-run, campus- wide recycling program (what is it) Tufts Facility Management works with student interns to separate waste, reuses every product imaginable and informs students on recycling.
Tufts Recycles!
1 www.anu.edu.au/anugreen 2 www.hotrotsystems.com
(recipe)
Realize a potential for environmentally safe waste disposal. Students and staff from ANUgreen1, ANU’s sustainability office, had been promoting the establishment a campus composting scheme for about 10 years, but facilities management objected on the grounds of health and safety regulations. Stored organic waste may generate smell, leachate, and harbour airborne disease vectors. Organic waste composting was also found to costly.
Ozzie HotRot
(links)
Create awareness that leadership in environmental performance costs money. The leadership and persuasive skills of ANUgreen co-founder and environmental manager at ANU, Barry Hughes, convinced facility management to invest in better environmental performance, paving the way for project such as HotRot.
(servings) Saves the university $1000 per year in landfill costs Provides the university and local external community with more than 800 pieces of furniture per year Processes about 900 000 kg’s of paper and cardboard per year for recycling Processes about 11 790 kg’s of electronic waste per year for recycling Substantiation of environmental performance as part of Tufts University’s image Strengthening university organizational commitment to sustainability goals.
Find the technology suitable for organic waste processing in urban areas. The NewZealand built HotRot 1512 in-vessel aerobic composter can process 2000 kgís of waste each day, preventing the need for storage of organic waste on campus. The in-vessel technology prevents odours from escaping, and eliminates health risks from airborne disease vectors. Employ students from various backgrounds as consultants to design the pilot project in detail. Already part of the ANUgreen program is a fund that allows the program to hire carefully selected students as consultants, at 750€ a week. In this way, ANUgreen commits to implementing student recommendations. Any reservations from facility management were finally put aside when a student performed an analysis of the return on investment and demonstrated that the project would save money in 32
(ingredients) 3 ambitious facility managers with leadership skills 1 university ready to embrace student initiatives 1 full time recycling coordinator A dozen dedicated intern students Tens of students promoting recycling amongst the student population 33
Barry Hughes
(recipe)
Half a dozen students start a small-scale recycling program. Students mobilized alumni and staff to help distribute and collect waste bins on a regular basis. Students also set up a JumboDrop service that stores and gives away second- hand furniture left behind by students1. Get the university facility department to embrace the student recycling effort. The JumboDrop service was taken up by the facilities department when they realized reusing furniture is so much cheaper than sending them to a landfill. Dawn Quirk manages Tufts Recycles!2 and explains: Tufts Facilities management took over the student move-out donation program because students were having a hard time running it without proper vehicles and storage.
One facility manager responsible for campus waste management then took leadership in furnishing the main buildings with waste separation bins. When the bins appeared to work and saved money in decreased waste disposal fees, budget and manpower became available to disperse the bins all over campus. Facility managers at Tufts are dedicated to inspire other facility managers to change practices at their universities, and train them to work through the existing organizational structures to improve environmental performance. The strict environmental state laws in Massachusetts further helped to push for a strong university policy on recycling. The facility department expands and develops the recycling initiative. Tufts Recycles!is now a comprehensive, campus wide recycling program run by the facility department of Tufts University. Dawn Quirk is full- time employed manager of the program. The recycling program ranges from organic waste and paper to fluorescent lighting and electronic waste. The program furnishes campus buildings with waste separation bins and mobilizes students to recycle by participating in the nation wide RecycleMania contest, as well as organizing the JumboDrop. Tufts Recycles! latest project is an online university surplus store, which sells computers, desks etc. that would otherwise be thrown away.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
The recycling program sets up an institution for on-going community involvement and mobilization. Although Tufts Recycles! is now co-ordinated by the facility department, much of the work is carried out and promoted by students. About 12 student interns take part in managing the Tufts Recycles! program, and 15 student Eco Ambassadors raise awareness amongst their fellow students, and mobilize them to do their part in recycling at Tufts University. Right now, environmental performance is part of Tufts University’s image, which further strengthens the organizational commitment to sustainability goals.
Based on the recognition that no single institute is capable of tackling all complex and intertwining issues we face, we have established a number of research networks to integrate our efforts and create synergies. We now need to go a step further: connect these networks and create the Network of Networks to promote a higher level of integration. Hiroshi Komiyama, President of the University of Tokyo.
(Dawn Quirk, Tufts! Recycles) “Any project that is now institutionalized at Tufts University really is the product of a few managers or students taking initiative and sticking with it. They are the key ingredient.”
(serving suggestions)
The sustainability issue should be depoliticized to involve non-liberal parties and nonliberal voters in the issue. As a fundamentalist you can make your point but you can’t change the world because you need involvement across political parties to do that.
Professor Louise Vet, Director NIOO-KNAW and senior researcher Multitrophic Interactions, Wageningen University.
[Choosing sustainable alternatives] is not easy because of conservatism in the building world, fixed contracts and regulation. You must persuade and inspire people on an individual basis which takes a lot of time. It must come from themselves rather than me saying it’s a good thing that it should happen! People must be inspired and emotionally concerned about it and it must come close to you. It’s important in a university that students have a very critical eye to what their university as a community and as an organization is actually doing on every front. How much closer can sustainability get to you when, if you use the toilet, you know that whatever you leave there will be used to generate your power supply?
Create a work culture that encourages proactive facility managers to generate, share and implement their ideas. Formalize the task of scouting for innovative grass- roots ideas and activities from the wider university community that could be supported and expanded to generate positive change.
(links)
Professor Louise Vet
1 http://tuftsrecycles.org/surplus 2 www.tufts.edu/tuftsrecycles/index2.html
In a university the nice thing is that the need for sustainable alternatives can also arise bottom-up, because students can ask for it. If the two meet the whole middle layer that is doing the actual operational management should follow. You can involve them by inspiring them and show them what the problem is and why you want this happen: people must be part of the solution not of the problem.
(Thanks to) Dawn Quirk, Tufts Recyles
Professor Louise Vet
The path to sustainable university is one of central leadership; as a university you must show that leadership to the community and to the outside world and they will respect you for that.
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Professor Louise Vet 35
Open source Beer
(institute) ETH and University of Zürich (where) Zurich, Switzerland (objective) To produce an open-source organic beer (Pascal Mages, FreeBeer)1: “..free in the sense of freedom, not price…” (what is it) FreeBeer is an organic beer licensed under a creative commons license. Anyone is allowed to produce their own FreeBeer and even sell it. The recipee is available from www.freebeer.ch. (serves) 10,000 bottles of locally produced open source beer p/ annum Local promotion of the open source concept (ingredients) 1 open source concept 1 innovative organic brewer willing to try something new 1 free recipe for tasty beer licensed under creative commons Half a dozen motivated students with a strong dedication to freedom and openness 1 graphic designer 1 start-up funding from Project 21 (a sustainability collective supporting student sustainability initiatives)2 A dash of funding from Google Inc. and Stepping stone to enable continued production A community that likes beer
(recipe)
Become aware and committed to the open source concept. Freebeer originated in Denmark, where a group of students and an artist collective called Superflex developed a beer recipee that would be open for anyone to produce3.
(serving suggestions)
Meet and bring on board suitable sponsors at an open expo. Pascal met representatives from Google Inc. and from an open source IT company called ‘Stepping Stone’5 at the Swiss Open Source Software Conference & Exposition6. They were charmed by ‘Freebeer’ and agreed to provide financial support for sustained production. FreeBeer had gained its foothold in the Swiss Open Source Community.
Use an innovative business format to demonstrate the possibilities of an open and community- based model. Involve campus catering and make FreeBeer available at campus cafeteria.
(Links)
Choose to provide opensource beer for a party celebrating the opensource concept. Student 21 eventually found a brewer willing to Set up a spin-off company that produces brew their recipee in Zurich, “Wädi-Brau-Huus”4. and distributes FreeBeer on a regular basis. But “Wädi-Brau-Huus” required a minimum Currently FreeBeer offers home delivery in the order of 1,000 litres. greater Zurich area and is available at different events on the ETH campus. For deliveries Sell off 800 litres of beer not consumed beyond Zurich a combination of train and truck at the party. Party guests could only consume is used to reduce the environmental impact of 200 litres of beer, leaving [project 21] with 800 transportation. FreeBeer is offered on menus in litres. The remaining FreeBeer was bottled and Zurich and Bern. The beer is certified organic, sold off to the local community. After the beer and except for the malt, FreeBeer uses regional sold out, people started asking for more of it. ingredients only. FreeBeer is committed to continued and sustainable development of FreeBeer in Switzerland.
1 www.planetmages.ch 2 www.project21.ch 3 www.freebeer.org 4 www.waedenswiler.ch 5 www.stepping-stone.ch 6 www.openexpo.ch
(thanks to) Pascal Mages
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(recipe)
Realize the importance of practical knowledge about the environment. Environmental education projects are an ideal way to diversify your curriculum and bring the real world into the classroom in a strong academic context. Research shows that real-life hands-on learning effectively reaches and teaches children”1. Use the potential of your network. Jennifer Pearson decided to organize an Earth Day for elementary schools after co-ordinating the ìMillion Trees Programî2. As convenor of the local chapter of the National Australian association for Environmental Education3, she already had an extensive network of contacts with local environmental NGOís. When she became a lecturer in the School of Education at Edith Cowan University4, she mobilized this network to organize an event that organizes environmental activities for school children.
ECU Earth Day
Perfect the concept by optimizing the cooperation with your network. Environmental NGOís were enthusiastic about presenting their activities to schoolchildren from the very beginning. However, creating a collective understanding of Earth day objectives and how to realize them was difficult at the first event in 2003. After 5 successful editions, the environmental groups now get in touch with Jennifer months in advance.
(institute) Edith Cowan University (where) Perth, Australia (objective) To integrate sustainability into curricula for university courses in education and give primary school children hands-on environmental experience. (what is it) 18 environmental non-profit organizations present their activities during an activity fair on Earth Day. Earth Day is held at ECU Mount Lawly campus and targets children aged 6 to 12.
Present the goals of the day in a light that matches the goals of your partnering organizations. To obtain funding from Edith Cowan University, Jennifer Pearson stressed the promotional value of Earth Day. Edith Cowan University is very happy with the positive publicity that is generated by the annual Earth Day. The annual activity links the ECU with the annual, global Earth Day at 22 april. The success has been so overwhelming that the 2009 event will be held at the larger Joondalup campus.
(ingredients) 1 pragmatic co-ordinator 1 network of local environmental groups 10 elementary schools 500 kids, ready to learn all about the environment 1 helpful facilities management office 1 few dozen students €1000 in funds from Edith Cowan University Some outdoor space on campus grounds 38
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Mobilize student volunteers. Students help to organize the logistics of the day, guiding groups of schoolchildren through the day and supporting activities facilitated by the ENGOís. Organize an inspiring, educational and fun day. Children are offered five 30 minute activities such as: Environment House: Learn how to make your home environmentally friendly, how to reuse and recycle your household waste. Water Corporation: Learn about groundwater, an important drinking water source for Perth. A hands-on session to find out how water moves through the ground and how we can protect this vital resource. David Manningís Animal Ark: Get up close and personal with a range of native animals and learn how to care for them when they are injured.
(serving suggestions)
Give students study credits for their practical experiences on Earth Day. Earth Day at ECU is an opportunity for future teachers to gain exposure and practical experience in environmental education. Integrating student efforts at the ECU Earth Day into university curriculum in the form of an optional course or field experience would integrate environmental education in the Educational study programs on a structural basis. (thanks to) Jennifer Pearson, Institute of Educational Research and Development (links) 1 www.newhorizons.org/strategies environmental/front_environmental.htm 2 www.menofthetrees.com.au/MTP/mtp_about.html 3 www.aaeewa.org.au 4 www.education.ecu.edu.au/research/ institute/index.html
ecoworks
(recipe)
Recognize the demand for novel ideas for CO2 emission reductions. As president of UniPoly1 in the period 2003-2004, the student organisation for sustainable development at the university of Lausanne, Marc Vogt sensed a need and a desire at inter-university level to increase university energy efficiency. The federal environmental program (RUMBA)2, provided an integrated analysis of resource management in all Swiss federal institutes of technology. Marc Vogt was determined to link this federal program with student initiatives, for example in waste recycling, and to integrate the concept of sustainability in ETH Zurich curricula.
Organize an event that forges new collaborations, and create innovative projects. In a 24 hour workshop session, 104 teachers, students and facility managers worked together to concretize previously generated ideas. To facilitate this workshop, EarthEffect called in the help of Unbla4, a professional conference facilitating organization. For students the event was attractive because for some, they could earn 2 credit points by attending this session. For staff and faculty, it was an interesting project because it gave them the opportunity and the possibility to work together with students and use eventual results in their work. Thanks to perfect facilities, good catering and an inspiring atmoCreate a company providing professional sphere, people liked the intensive character of advice for organizations on participatory the workshop and came up with 17 promising project proposals. The “eat less CO2 project, structures and processes. Together with fellow student at the ETH Zürich Martin Räber, described in this booklet, was conceived during this workshop. Marc founded EarthEffect3, a company that aims to organize the participatory processes needed to improve the environmental perfor(serving suggestions) mance in public and private organizations. Af- The ecoworks project does not end with genter presenting their ideas to a university facility eration of project proposals: the ETH Zurich manager, the ETH Zürich invited EarthEffect has committed itself to implement the best to embark on a project together: to create proposals generated at the 24-hour creative platform organization that brings together session. staff, students and facility and administration to share knowledge and to elaborate on (links) cutting-edge project proposals. ecoworks4 had 1 http://unipoly.epfl.ch started! 2 www.rumba.admin.ch/de 3 http://eartheffect.ch Convince academic staff to embrace your 4 www.ecoworks.ch project. The ideal to integrate sustainability 5 www.unbla.org initiatives into university curricula matched precisely with the scope of the ecoworks project. (thanks to) The ETH Board supported granting students Marc Vogt, Martin Räber study credits for participating in ecoworks, and EarthEffect approached professors to integrate ecoworks into the curriculum.
(institute) Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, ETH (where) Zürich, Switzerland (objective) To bring together the creativity of students, the knowledge of academic staff and the experience of the research and facility staff to decrease the CO2 emissions of ETH Zürich. (Marc Vogt, ecoworks) “A more sustainable university begins with student involvement indecision-making at all policy levels.” (ingredients) 2 ambitious students to found their own environmental consultancy company 1 university dedicated to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions 104 creative, skilled and passionate teachers, students, administrative and facility management staff. 1 innovative model to use the potential of these different actor groups 1 association that facilitates conferences and meetings demanding a radical and creative problem-solving approach (servings) 17 innovative ideas to minimize university CO2 emissions
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Who are we? ‘Morgen’ is the Dutch national student network for sustainable development. It is a small NGO run by students aiming to promote sustainable development in and around higher education. We do this through informing and awarenessraising, supporting and connecting student environmental initiatives and NGO’s, and by organizing student activities. Around 900 people receive our two weekly network mail containing the latest national news and agenda on sustainable development. Our website www. duurzamestudent.nl motivates and informs students about educational, lifestyle and career aspects of sustainable development. Regular activities include organization of an annual student internship market on sustainable development (Share Your World), energy saving campaigns in student housing targeting both student behaviour and energy policies of student housing corporations, annual promotion of sustainable consumption among students, publishing of a quarterly magazine, and a range of seminars, debates and workshops.
Cookbook to a (Sustainable) University is a publication by “Morgen”, the Dutch studentnetwork for sustainability. Acknowledgements Julian Keniry Jeff Sittler Jess Wenger Beth Mitchell Ioannis Sarantopoulos Pascal Mages Dawn Quirk Alison Pooley Joan Randle Marc Vogt Martin Räber Jennifer Pearson Barry Hughes G. Rendall (Pseudonym) Simon ten Veen Louise Vet Caroline Ligtenberg Hiroshi Komiyama Sjors Witjes Sara Barnowski Alison Erlenbach Kealan Gell Guido van Gemert Liz Harmeijer Christopher Baan Tjerk Destombes Justus Dengerink Yoshimasa Takahashi Janny de Knegt Judith Ellens
Editors
student led initiatives
Anna Harnmeijer Richard Engels
Design Ellen Zoete
Print Ecodrukkers, Nieuwkoop We urge readers to distribute, copy, and re-direct this publication for the purpose of Greening the Ivory Tower. Utrecht, March 2009.
facility management & administration
education & curriculum
community involvement
For more information about our current projects, for a complete overview of our partner organizations, or to receive our networkmail, see our website www.studentenvoormorgen.nl or contact us at info@studentenvoormorgen.nl.
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