Guest Blogger: Angelica Quicksey, Campus Liaison for Claremont McKenna College

In a 2007 New York Times article, Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat, called green the “new red, white, and blue.”  He claimed that environmental awareness and activism has become a central topic on Main Street but that we, particularly my generation, still need a greater understanding of and commitment to truly being green.

Start a Green Initiative on your Campus!

On the contrary, the green movement has been gaining momentum on college campuses around the nation for some years now, and today it continues to grow stronger. The next generation is in fact doing more than ever before to create a greener campus and graduating students carry this ideology into the world.

Since its introduction in 2006, 657 institutions have signed the American Colleges and University Presidents Climate Commitment. These institutions have agreed to completing an emissions inventory, creating an action plan and target date for becoming climate neutral, and taking immediate steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Often times, such commitment does not stem from the president’s office but originates among student’s themselves. Most schools have environmental clubs, which spearhead many of the initiatives taken at their respective institutions. Going tray-less in dining halls; reducing energy and water use in dorms; bike sharing programs; these are only a few examples of the slew of environmental-friendly activity that is taking place on college campuses around the U.S.

In addition to these more standard methods, some students have taken more creative approaches:
•    Students at the University of Cincinnati for example, set up an entire farmers market on their campus to promote local food.
•    Claremont McKenna Students took a particularly interesting approach and hosted a party called “Save the Ales,” in hopes of having a positive impact on the decrease in hops growth due to global warming.

Indeed, students play a vital role in increasing the movement to “Go Green.” Beyond these examples, students participate in panels to give long-term direction to their campuses. Such plans integrate sustainability into long-range models for campus development. Today, as campuses continue to grow, build, and expand, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification seems to be almost an epidemic. Such commitment to sustainable structures on campuses serves to show that students not only have a dedication to a green present, but a sustainable future.

Image originally found at UCSB Sustainability.

Guest Blogger: LaRoun Tolbert; OrgSync Campus Liaison for Bowling Green University.

Every year the world is continuing to advance itself and becoming more fast paced. People have become so accustomed to life on the web, we are technological people and our main source of connectivity is via the internet. Meeting up virtually eliminates many barriers and is beneficial for people and the environment.

Online Virtual Meetings are Green & Efficient.

Virtual Meetings Reduce Corporate Expenses
Introducing online conferencing into a company’s program could reduce costs tremendously. For example, meeting virtually can:
• Eliminate the cost of catering and other amenities provided at conferences
• Help large national corporations or national causes cut travel expenses necessary for internal strategic meetings

Virtual Meeting Help Faculty and Administration Become More Efficient
Faculty and Administration can also benefit from meeting virtually and manage office hours easier. They have the option of:
• Holding video conferences with several students at a time to make general meetings more efficient
• Keeping communication open with commuter students by conveniently meeting online

Virtual Meeting are Environmentally Friendly
E-conferences facilitate environmentally friendly or “green” initiatives by:
• Lowering car usage and gas emission into the air by reducing travel
• Increasing sustainability efforts by saving paper and money on handouts that are available online

Now and the Years to Come
Meeting virtually will be without doubt the way of the future. Generation Y will soon be out of college and enter the workforce; this generation was practically raised on the internet. With that said, online activity will pick up speed like a snowball coming down a mountain, thus increasing our efficiency and our contributions to green causes.

Peter Pereira is a guest blogger from the University of Arizona. Pete is an advisor for The Associated Students of the University of Arizona (ASUA) and has been spearheading a sustainability committee for the Arizona Student Unions trying to lessen the footprint left in the desert.

OrgSync hopes to help schools meet sustainability goals by offering the ability for online forms, calendars, surveys, and message boards. As part of our efforts we asked Pete to write a series of blogs entries as a practitioner trying to make his campus green.

Here is what Peter has to say about sustainability:
ACUI has recently come out with a document for professionals entitled “Sustainability Smarts: Best Practices for College Unions and Student Activities.” Topics covered include sustainability rating systems, college tours, sustainability blogs, fair trade, green cleaning, and so much more. It is available via their web site and can be viewed as either a web page or downloaded as a PDF (please don’t print it).

The document contains a lot of information and looks great. They give a lot of “best practices” examples that any institution can adopt if they are interested in learning about sustainability efforts. The only drawback for me is that it is about 70 pages long. I personally lack the attention span to read that many pages in one sitting. However, there is an index so you can skip around if there is a specific topic you want to read about such as fair trade products.

You can find the document on ACUI’s web site: www.acui.org