A team of energy researchers will begin visiting a diverse group of 12 U.S. colleges and universities this week to collaborate on a search for campus-wide breakthroughs that could help slow global warming.
Twelve schools, from Colorado State University to a community college in Bel Air, Md. have been invited first to host a two-day site visit by RMI this fall and later to collaborate with each other, RMI and AASHE in a barrier-busting workshop. They were chosen among many strong applicants because RMI can learn from their diverse range of experiences and their nuanced understanding of both successes and obstacles that campuses need to surmount.
The project is an outgrowth of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, launched in October 2006 at AASHE’s conference at Arizona State University, which has since catalyzed campus-level planning for action against climate change on a large scale.
“As a microcosm of larger human settlements such as cities and counties, a college campus is an ideal place to model future community-wide solutions.” explained Michael Kinsley of the Built Environment Team at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), in Snowmass, Colo. “Rather than reducing greenhouse gas emissions building by building, this project takes a broader look at the campus as a system that can mitigate climate change holistically.”
Participating institutions are:
Two-Year Institutions
Harford Community College, Bel Air, Md.
Richland College, Dallas, Texas
Lakeshore Technical College, Cleveland, Wis.
Four-Year Liberal Arts Institutions
University of Minnesota at Morris, Morris, Minn.
Furman University, Greenville, S.C.
Unity College, Unity, Maine
Luther College, Decorah, Iowa
Research Universities
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo.
University of Vermont, Burlington, Vt.
University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo.
Tufts University, Medford/Somerville, Mass.
Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
RMI’s Kinsley said the institute has partnered with the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) to seek “dramatic steps” to address the carbon footprint of college campuses, and provide integrated solutions for institutions of higher learning to lead the next generation of community planning.
Sally DeLeon, an RMI research fellow working with Kinsley, said the project will include:
- Collaboration with the schools to identify barriers to their campuses going “carbon neutral,” and to map out viable solutions.
- A “barrier-busting” workshop on each campus in the spring to include administrators, facilities and operations professionals, student and faculty leaders, a team of technical experts from RMI, and visiting sustainability professionals from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and other partner organizations.
- Examination of how planners’ scenarios for climate action relate to institutional practices, school governance, financial decision-making, and the social landscape on campus.
- Publication of a comprehensive, web-based framework -- to be called Accelerating Campus Climate-Change Initiatives -- that all schools could consult for guidance on climate action planning. It will be based on the research visits, phone interviews with campuses (well beyond the 12 selected for the workshop), detailed applications that the schools submitted to RMI, and the workshop proceedings.
DeLeon said RMI and AASHE received numerous compelling applications from schools around the nation who wanted to participate. They advised program backers in selecting 12 that as a group had the highest potential to demonstrate learning and make a positive impact, and that would form a diverse group by geography, institution type, demographics, and types of barriers to be overcome.
