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Ithaca College 2007 Campus Sustainability Leadership Award Application

Category

Four-year and graduate institutions 1,000 - 7,500 student FTE

Contact

Marian M. Brown
Special Assistant to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Office of the Provost, 350 Job Hall
Ithaca, NY
607-274-3787
mbrown@ithaca.edu

Governance & Administration

As yet, Ithaca has no formal sustainability coordinating structure, but the campus sustainability initiative, called “Exploring Positive Growth,” is supported through the oversight and coordination of two campus staffers and many volunteers from the ranks of students, faculty, staff, and administration. Marian Brown, special assistant to the provost and vice president for academic affairs, organizes learning events and conferences, develops educational materials, convenes task group meetings, conducts research and data collection, serves as divisional liaison to campus sustainability groups and institutional representative to sustainable community development organizations, writes progress reports, and documents our success stories. Mark Darling, supervisor of resource and environmental management activities, supervises campus recycling and composting functions and coordinates the activities of REMP Reps and interns, including the Sustainability Interns assigned to Brown. One REMP intern provides staff support for the Natural Lands Committee and yet another, with funding from Tompkins County Solid Waste, conducts office waste and energy use audits and offers department training sessions.

The Sustainability subcommittee of the Planning and Priorities Committee, convened by Brown, is charged with ensuring that campus sustainability activities are aligned with the college’s Institutional Plan. Although the term “sustainability” does not appear in this guidance document, first issued in 2001, the Plan outlines goals and objectives that indeed encourage greater sustainability, and the periodic progress reports of the Institutional Plan regularly reference sustainable decisions. During Fall 2006, in preparation for the campus’ re-accreditation by the Middle States Association, the self-study task teams used the campus sustainability initiative as a case study, assessing its effectiveness in engaging our community to adopt more sustainable decision-making and demonstrating evidence of institutional learning.

The work of the Resource and Environmental Management Program is guided by Ithaca’s Comprehensive Environmental Plan, adopted by the President’s Council in 2001. This plan outlines campus “greening” goals, including: support for environmental education to raise awareness and increase action to reduce waste and encourage recycling programs; minimize the use and production of toxins and ensure proper disposal of hazardous materials; conserve energy and other resources; support environmentally preferable purchasing; and incorporate sustainable design in construction and renovation of facilities.

In February 2006, President Peggy R. Williams signed the Talloires Declaration, further committing Ithaca to sustainable development, expanding campus activities to include curriculum development and applied research, and broadening our outreach efforts.

In May 2007, President Williams pledged Ithaca as a signatory to the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. Using the Clean Air – Cool Planet program, Environmental Studies interns have already inventoried the college’s greenhouse gas emissions for 2001-2006.

Ithaca is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, Society for College and University Planning, National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology program, National Association for College and University Business Officials, ACUHO-I, APPA, American Council of Education, American Association of Colleges and Universities, Associated New American Colleges, and numerous other professional organizations representing functional areas of the campus. Student organizations have additionally committed Ithaca to support the Campus Climate Challenge, StepItUp, and Focus the Nation.

Operations

Facilities maximizes efficiency through direct digital control and energy monitoring systems. Electricians relamped four gymnasia, doubling the lumens yet halving electrical use. A Library relamping project provided better lighting for study and work while allowing for the complete removal of about 400 fixtures.

Construction is under way for our School of Business, designed to achieve LEED™ Platinum certification, and ground was broken for the nearby Gateway building that will meet LEED™ Gold standards.

In Fall 2006, Dining Services opened a dining hall line that features organic and local foods. In retail operations, prepared foods are packaged in compostable bioplastics. All catered events are now “zero waste” using either reusable items or compostable materials. Certified fair trade coffees and teas are offered. The “Spotted” program rewards beverage mug re-users with a free refill coupon.

Ithaca offers free bus passes to faculty and staff and underwrites 30% of student passes. The Sustainable Transportation Committee strategizes ways to increase public transit use. Ithaca supplies office space for Ithaca Carshare™ which will install a “pod” of cars on campus. Facilities purchased two GEM™ cars for deliveries. The campus fleet includes two Toyota Prius™ sedans. Transportation staffers “rightsize” new utility vehicle purchases to most efficiently meet needs.

Grounds professionals and environmental studies faculty and students developed an alternative landscape test plot. Scientists conduct research on species biodiversity, soil chemistry, and plant hardiness in the plot. Grounds may replicate this cost-saving method on other problematic terrain.

The Natural Lands Committee guides the appropriate use of three college-owned wooded areas. One area containing unique natural features was declared a limited access preserve, and NL deemed the other undeveloped properties as reserves usable for classroom, research, and recreational purposes.

Staples™ contract ordering system highlights “green” products. The Print Shop contracted to purchase 100%-recycled-content paper for letterhead at no additional cost. Duplicating tested and approved 100%RC office paper for purchase. Information Technology Services, through its Technology Renewal program, replaces computers and network printers on a three-year lease cycle. Most renewal equipment is EnergyStar™ and EPEAT™ compliant. The Bookstore offers recycled-content products, including notebooks and greeting cards, and sells certified sweat-shop-free clothing. The Bookstore recently opened a special sustainability-themed trade books section.

Ithaca maintains a composting program that accepts dining hall food waste and compostable service materials from ‘zero waste’ catered events. The Bookstore collects and reuses packaging materials. Purchasing instituted cell phone recycling and contracts for recycling of surplus peripherals and printers not included in the technology renewal program. Planning, Design and Construction maintains an inventory of used office furniture and components that they reconfigure to furnish new offices. Dining Services disposes of waste cooking oil to a contractor who resells the filtered end product as “veggie diesel.”

Facilities Services integrated GreenSeal™ certified janitorial products and replaced paper towel dispensers with non-electric models.

In summer 2006, Residential Life replaced older laundry equipment and integrated the on-line LaundryView™ monitoring system which calculates the water saved by the new high-efficiency washers, estimated to be over 1.5 million gallons the first year.

Curriculum & Research

The “Sustainability in the Community” academic partnership continues to develop new sustainability-themed environmental studies courses that are then taught by educators from EcoVillage at Ithaca. “Fostering Sustainable Communities”, a partnership course in Fall 2006, created project teams that worked with local community experts to promote student use of alternative transportation, encourage “eco-fashion”, and document regional “green building” case studies.

Faculty volunteers lead the Finger Lakes Project, a sustainability curriculum development workshop modeled after the Ponderosa Project at Northern Arizona University and the Piedmont Project at Emory University. Two Biology faculty, Susan Swensen and Jason Hamilton, who were trained by the originators of the NAU and Emory programs, have customized this locally-based educational program to support their peers’ desire to incorporate sustainability content into courses across disciplines. A highlight of the program is a walking tour of campus to an elevation where participants can view the Cayuga Lake basin, which the leaders use as a backdrop to discuss the geological, historical, cultural and developmental history of Ithaca. Over 45 faculty participated in this day-long, free training program held in conjunction with the college’s Summer Faculty Institute. This year, a significant number of participants represented other institutions, including the Ithaca City School District, Wells College, Monroe Community College, Onondaga Community College, and the University of Rochester.

The Finger Lakes Project includes an annual summer sustainability curriculum development mini-grant competition. To date, more than fifty Ithaca faculty and EcoVillage educators have been awarded $1,000 grants. In 2006, the first Ithaca staff member was awarded a curriculum development grant to prepare a training program for study abroad students about their potential impact on the environment and culture into which they will be immersed. Summer 2007 marks another mini-grant “first” as an Ithaca undergraduate, mentored by an interdisciplinary faculty team, develops a class in which learners and faculty collaborate to address communication and implementation challenges to increasing organizational sustainability. One mini-grant recipient in Math uses government climate and resource data to teach curve-fitting techniques and another developed an “eco-feminism” class.

Using U.N. Decade of Education for Sustainable Development guidelines, a 2005 inventory of Ithaca courses discovered more than 100 courses with “significant sustainability content” across all five schools and many disciplines. Since then, many more new courses have been developed and others retooled to incorporate sustainability, among them a number of Ithaca Seminars for first year students. In 2006, “Sustaining Our Worlds”, a first year course taught by an interdisciplinary faculty team, received Campus Ecology recognition for curricular innovation for its team project approach that studies campus sustainability challenges.

Supported by an NSF grant to acquire geophysical instrumentation, an interdisciplinary faculty team from Physics and Anthropology is working with Iroquois cultural leaders to non-invasively image and map sensitive indigenous archaeological sites. A Chemistry professor continues her research to cost-effectively develop hydrogen fuel using solar technology. A Strategic Business Management professor has twice taken students to the Maquipucuna Foundation cloudforest reserve in Ecuador to work with community members to develop sustainable microenterprise and ecotourism programs.

Campus Culture

Faculty in the Center for Natural Sciences convened the CNS Sustainability Group, focused around supporting more sustainability content in science curricula, providing applied sustainability research opportunities for students, and using their building – which, with its large quantity of fume hoods, is one of Ithaca’s largest consumers of electricity per square foot – as a “laboratory” to model resource conservation measures. CNSSG members actively solicit engagement from students, staff, administrators, and faculty from other disciplines and schools to create broad campus sustainability support.

The Resource and Environmental Management Program steering committee advances our Comprehensive Environmental Plan to further “green” campus operations. REMP Reps conduct peer-to-peer education within the residence halls. REMP Cluster Captains work with residence assistants to conduct floor presentations, update “Installments” and post residence hall notice board flyers, and engage residents’ support for recycling and resource conservation efforts, like RecycleMania and the “Change Your World” fluorescent bulb swap. REMP interns develop educational materials for students, including “Installments,” educational pieces designed for placement inside restroom stall doors.

Around campus screenings of “An Inconvenient Truth”, representatives of Students for Sustainability and the Ithaca College Environmental Society circulated petitions to encourage the administration to purchase “green energy.” College leaders have committed to purchase enough power from renewable sources to offset all the additional energy needed by the two new LEED™ buildings.

Students for Sustainability and ICES form the backbone of the Progressive Alliance along with a number of social justice organizations like Students for Fair Trade and IC Feminists, to ensure that social capital issues are mindfully considered.

In Fall 2006, student leaders developed the ICare campaign, an awareness and action program designed to increase personal responsibility, develop campus pride, and promote greater environmental sustainability by Ithaca College (IC) students. They developed a custom logo and “ICare, so I . . .” branded labels began appearing across campus on light switches and computer on/off buttons to encourage energy conservation, and on dining hall sneeze guards and napkin holders to discourage food waste and support better food choices. Refrigerator magnets designed for off-campus student kitchens encourage responsible partying, including self-control for alcohol consumption and noise levels, and being a “better neighbor.”

The TRANSform program raises funds for sustainable microenterprise development in an Ecuadorean cloudforest reserve through financial sponsorship of campus “catalysts” willing to forego their single occupant vehicle in favor of using alternative forms of transportation to commute to school.

Student interest in the Sustainably Conscious Living Community has risen such that the community will move from its single floor in one building to take over its own residence hall for Fall 2007, with two faculty advisors and expanded programmatic offerings.

Residence Hall Association sponsored two rounds of Energy Challenges, pitting similar style residence halls against one another to reduce their energy consumption. Winning halls received bragging rights, a specially-created “loving cup,” and a pizza party for their efforts.

The Student Government Association developed “sustainability grants” to provide additional funding for student organizations that hold campus events in a sustainable manner and reduce paper-based advertising.

Community Service & Outreach

“Exploring Positive Growth” narrative progress reports are produced regularly, documenting the campus’ sustainability successes. The Sustainability at Ithaca website links to and showcases the disparate elements of the campus embracing sustainability. The “Sustainability Friends” listserve keeps subscribers abreast of the latest news and notices of sustainability events on campus and in the community. A new 4-page quarterly newsletter called “Collective Impacts” provides an accessible and timely means of communicating campus sustainability highlights. The Sustainability Café series offers regular informal opportunities to learn about and discuss a variety of sustainability issues with Ithaca faculty and outside experts.

Community Plunge, Polar Plunge, Alternative Spring Break, and Celebration of Service are community-service placement programs that connect Ithaca students with sustainability-related local and national service opportunities. Recent activities included invasive species removal along local waterways, creating accessible nature trails, constructing Habitat homes, and rebuilding communities affected by natural disasters. One Spring Break team immersed themselves in a North Carolina ecovillage while others served food in a DC homeless shelter.

Ithaca helped found and continues to support Sustainable Tompkins, a regional sustainable development organization catalyzing related efforts within the larger Finger Lakes area. Ithaca has co-sponsored Sustainable Tompkins educational programs targeted toward certain sectors, including a showcase of sustainable technology innovations and a sustainable business “make-over” workshop. During Sustainable Tompkins’ 2006 holiday celebration, many campus success stories were featured in a “Signs of Sustainability” slide show. Sustainable Tompkins leaders are working with the dean of Ithaca’s School of Health Sciences to host a fall “greening health care” symposium for regional medical practitioners.

Ithaca and Cornell collaborate to bring sustainability experts to the area. Ithaca co-sponsored the Fall 2006 appearance of Frances Lappé, author of “Diet for a Small Planet” at Cornell, and Cornell reciprocated by underwriting Tony Cortese’s Campus Sustainability Day presentation at IC. During Cortese’s visit, Ithaca and Cornell representatives worked together with Sustainable Tompkins and Cortese to host a forum with important community leaders to explore how to foster regional sustainable development.

Over four semesters, a history professor fostered a unique service-learning partnership between The History Center of Ithaca and students in his “History of U.S. Environmental Thought” course. Student teams worked with archivists to access original source material in The History Center’s holdings to research a local environmental history “story.” Students delivered their findings during a public presentation at the History Center and their results are incorporated into the Center’s archives.

Ithaca provides start-up support for Ithaca Carshare, a community-developed, membership-based vehicle rental program. Ithaca Carshare is a collaborative endeavor between Cornell, the city of Ithaca, the Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council, Sustainable Tompkins, and EcoVillage.

Tompkins Renewable Energy Education Alliance, convened by Ithaca faculty, unites students, faculty, staff and administrators from both Ithaca and Cornell with interested community members to increase awareness of and support for renewable energy technology integration within the region. TREEA sponsored a Fall 2006 forum on wind energy featuring an expert panel providing insights into bat and avian mortality, noise and viewshed impacts, appropriate siting, and economic feasibility.

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