The Greenforce Initiative, a partnership of Jobs for the Future and National Wildlife Federation, sponsored the event, and hosted a workshop on linking campus sustainability to green career pathways. The Greenforce Initiative seeks to advance green career pathways, geared toward lower-skilled adults, and helps make the connection between on-campus sustainability efforts as hands-on training opportunities for students.

While the Greenforce Initiative partners with ten community colleges in Virginia, during the workshop “Linking Campus Sustainability to Hands-On Training,” we highlighted three.

Germanna Community College new LEED building

Germanna Community College highlighted their new LEED Silver building (at their Fredericksburg campus); students will be giving tours of the buildings to educate the community on the green features (including rainwater harvesting, passive solar, etc.). 

Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave featured their sustainable and edible landscaping program engaging local farmers as well as students interested in starting new businesses in the landscaping industry.

Thomas Nelson Community College solar installation

Thomas Nelson Community College in Hampton Roads spotlighted their new solar installation project for their motorcycle storage containers. Thomas Nelson students helped design and build the solar panel installation (two panels) that will be placed on the top of two containers that store all equipment, including motorcycles, for their motorcycle safety courses. The panels will power lights as well as a ventilation system.

Other colleges and groups featured are developing green programs as well:
- Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) is hosting three renewable energy showcases this spring featuring consumer information on various aspects including geothermal systems, photovoltaic systems, solar water and space heating systems, and residential wind turbine systems. Showcases will be on April 8, 14 and 21. Learn more about this opportunity.

- The Virginia Weatherization Training Center provides training and certification in both weatherization and residential practices at their 14 partner campuses across Virginia. Course offerings include, but are not limited to, air conditioning & heating pump professional, energy auditor, Lead Safe Weatherization Training, and Energy Star Inspection and Procedures. Learn more about the Center.

Learn more about the Greenforce Initiative in Virginia and our community college partners.

Davidson College in North Carolina recently hosted its 8th annual Green Ball to raise money for the Davidson

Davidon College - Credit: Environmental Action Coalition

Lands Conservancy (DLC). The Green Ball is a Davidson tradition, combining contra dance, local food and an auction to raise money for the Conservancy. The DLC is a land-trust organization that works to protect land in and around Davidson, and last year it received $2,300 from 125 participants in the Green Ball. The Green Ball ties Davidson students to their community as the campus Environmental Action Coalition works with local businesses and charities to improve the regional environment, and ties Davidson (both town and college) to the globe by situating the activism of the Green Ball as a conscious attempt to counter worldwide climate change by guarding green spaces in the community.  Learn more about this effort.

In an ongoing project that applies service-learning teaching

Delgado Community College - Credit: Angela Lorenzo

methods to the Horticulture program classes at Delgado Community College, students work to restore the coastal barrier islands suffering from coastal erosion and the effects of 2010’s B.P. oil spill. Using the Delgado City Park Campus Greenhouse, Horticulture students propagate native coastal sand dune plants, which are then re-planted along coastal habitats of Southeast Louisiana by students and community volunteers. Students learn effective propagation methods and care of these native plants, a necessity for land-building and wetlands stability; filtering pollutants from watersheds; and providing habitat for local animal and plant life. Learn more about this effort.

The University of South Florida preserved an area of approximately one square mile comprising a variety of habitats including extensive wetlands(mostly cypress swamp) and the only

University of South Florida - credit: Anne C. Schmidt

large, intact piece of Florida sandhill habitat within 50 miles (sandhills are open dry savanna-like habitats, usually with an open overstory of longleaf pine).  An estimated 400 gopher tortoises  – a species currently listed as of special concern in Florida and being studied for federal listing – inhabit this sandhill area; Eastern indigo snakes  – a federally endangered species – occur in the area but are quite rare. At least 404 plant species are present in the preserved area, including nine listed as endangered, threatened or commercially exploited in Florida, and four known to grow nowhere else in Hillsborough County.  Learn more about this effort.

Colleges and universities across the country struggle with issues related to campus transportation, from bus fleets to

Appalachian State University

parking spaces. Now campuses are stepping up their efforts to tackle some of these challenges in a sustainable way.

Appalachian State University (NC) is implementing an alternative transportation system, with a goal of reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. The new system has successfully reduced the number of vehicles on campus by offering various modes of alternative transportation such as car-sharing, ride-sharing, increased bicycle accessibility and an improved public bus system. Learn more about this project.

University of Chicago, credit Tom McGrath

Launched in Fall 2009, the University of Chicago’s bike share program, “recycles,” provides bikes for students, faculty and staff to borrow for a day free of charge. Recycles has multiple benefits including decreasing waste and pollution, improving the landscape, encouraging healthy living and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the use of single-occupancy vehicles. Managed by UC’s Office of Sustainability, recycles partners with a local nonprofit, Blackstone Bicycle Works, which provides refurbished bikes for their low-tech program. Within the first year, recycles had nearly 1,000 registered users and currently boasts an average of over 100 bike rentals each week. Learn more about this project.

University of Mass Amherst, credit Sarah Zuraw

The University of Massachusetts Amherst is studying the feasibility of converting the buses of the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority bus system, the main public transportation system in the area surrounding the University, to biodiesel. The study will help determine the availability of biodiesel fuel in the Pioneer Valley, as well as the costs that would be involved in converting the buses. Learn more about this project.

This event was organized by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and Jobs for the Future (JFF), in partnership with the North Carolina Association of Community College Presidents Code Green Initiative and the Super Curriculum Improvement Project (CIP) of the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS). Goals of the conference included:

• Support the work of community colleges and other key stakeholders to prepare North Carolina’s workforce to meet employer needs, foster entrepreneurship, and stimulate the green economy
• Advance statewide efforts to integrate sustainable technologies into NC community college campuses and curricula by facilitating networking, peer-to-peer learning, and collaboration among faculty, staff, and administrators charged with making this transition
• Spread models for using cutting-edge campus sustainability initiatives as experiential learning opportunities for students, while conserving resources and cutting costs
• Help colleges make green economic opportunities more accessible through the exchange of best practices for developing programs that address common barriers to success

During the two day conference, participants heard from speakers including NC Deputy Secretary of Commerce Dale Carroll, NCCCS Associate Vice President for Innovation and Biotechnology Matt Meyer, Code Green Co-Leader and President of Wilson Community College Dr. Rusty Stephens, Super CIP Director Butch Grove, Regional Executive Director of NWF’s Mid-Atlantic Office Anthony Caligiuri, and Executive Director of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association (NCSEA) Ivan Urlaub.  Other contributing and participating organizations included the American Association of Community Colleges, the NC State Industrial Extension Service, and the North Carolina Department of Administration.

Throughout the event, attendees were provided with several opportunities to participate in interactive breakout session discussions around a variety of topics related to green workforce training, career pathways, and campus sustainability.  Among these sessions were in-depth discussions to share best practices, challenges, and possible next steps on topics such as: Fostering Entrepreneurship, Climate Change Education, Student Support, Employer Engagement, the Super CIP, Engaging Lower-Skilled Adults in Green Programs, Engaging the Community, Financing Opportunities and Needs, Climate Action Planning, Local and Sustainable Purchasing and Procurement, Marketing Green Training Programs, North Carolina Energy Efficiency Initiatives, Policies Impacting the Green Economy, Sustainability Across the Curriculum, The Campus as a Sustainable Learning Laboratory, and Using Labor Market Information to Strengthen Green Program Planning and Development.

Following the last breakout session on Tuesday morning, participants were asked to break into regional groups (Mountains, Piedmont, and Coastal Plains) to discuss and recommend next steps for establishing regional networks to continue exchanging best practices and foster further collaboration with other nearby community colleges, to advance their work and increase their capacity for preparing the green workforce and supporting a sustainable economy in North Carolina.  Our closing keynote for the conference was Leith Sharp, who is the former Director of Harvard University’s Office for Sustainability as well as the former Executive Director for the Illinois Green Economy Network, and who now serves as the Chair of the Sustainable Futures Academy.  Leith shared her model for driving change and lessons learned from her previous roles with conference participants, providing them with inspiration and practical knowledge for success.

The immediate result of this conference is not only a more connected network of change makers across North Carolina working to build the green economy and create more sustainable campuses in their communities, but also an extensive list of possible next steps to guide the work of the Greenforce and Code Green Initiatives moving forward.  The list of recommendations includes (from short to long term):

• Establish regional subcommittees to organize more frequent gatherings in the future, both through virtual means and in person.
• Create tools to foster communication and collaboration among community college stakeholders, specifically working to connect people in similar roles and around similar interests.
• Provide tools and training to help faculty integrate sustainability across the curriculum.
• Engage employers in designing training programs, supporting students through internships and jobs, and driving demand for sustainable products and services.
• Work with sustainable businesses in North Carolina and throughout the Southeast to negotiate group discounts and state contracts, and encourage more green product and service providers to register with the community college E-procurement system.
• Increase conservation awareness and work to change behavior of students, faculty, staff and visitors on campus, including through human resources and other trainings.
• Help combat lower-skilled students’ fear of failure and the unknown, and foster college-wide efforts to support students during their time on campus.
• Engage Presidents, Upper Level Administrators, Boards of Trustees, Foundations, etc. as well as Business, Community and Congregation leaders around sustainability.
• Increase support and recognition of this effort from the system office and in the community, including establishing a page on the NCCCS website.
• Create a North Carolina green jobs board, helping to connect employers to students and students to employers.  Promote green training programs to students and employers.
• Work together to get grants and other funding sources for collaborative work.
• Strive to establish sustainability coordinator positions supporting all community colleges in North Carolina.

It was truly an inspiration learning about all the amazing work happening on community college campuses across my home state of North Carolina!  Thank you to everyone who helped to make this event possible: NWF and JFF staff, the Code Green and Super CIP leadership teams, the Steering Committee, our speakers and workshop leaders, everyone who participated, and the Bank of America Charitable Foundation for providing financial support for the Greenforce Initiative.  We are excited to continue our work together to move forward with next steps!

Campuses nationwide are making great strides to green their operations and curricula, but one green topic seems to be especially popular for 2011 – campus gardens. Colleges and universities are planting gardens on campus for a few reasons: they provide experiential learning opportunities for agriculture students, a source of local food for dining halls, and green space for the campus and wider community. Several campuses were featured in the 2011 case study database for their campus garden projects, a few highlights include:

Dominican University - Kristen Peterson

• Dominican University (IL) In May 2011, a community garden was launched, engaging volunteer faculty, staff, and students, along with members from the community and children from the campus daycare facility. The garden is an ongoing educational and recreational project blooming before its volunteer’s eyes. It is watered each morning, and shift leaders take a day or two each week to teach others about gardening.  Organic gardening methods are used (compost, in the form of coffee grounds, eggshells and other leftovers, is collected from staff lounges weekly and dispersed around the garden as needed.  As produce ripens, volunteers can take whatever they will use. The remainder is brought weekly to the local food pantry.  Learn more about this project.

• George Mason University (VA) The Potomac Heights Vegetable Garden was introduced in April 2009 with the help of George Mason’s Office of Sustainability. A student club, the GMU Organic Garden Association, oversees the garden and is responsible for outreach and education as well as coordinating volunteer efforts. Mason Dining Executive Chef Peter Schoebel and Auxiliary Enterprises and Campus Retail Operations Executive Director Mark Kraner worked together to arrange vegetables grown at the garden to be sold to Southside, a central dining facility at Mason’s Fairfax campus. Learn more about this project.

University of Minnesota Morris Alumni Relations

• The University of Minnesota Morris has partnered with local businesses, student groups and representatives of Native American nations to establish a garden adjacent to the campus to honor the knowledge and  cultural practices of traditional Native American farming. The garden provides access to fresh, organically-grown traditional fruits and vegetables on campus. The garden was tilled and planted this summer and the fruits and vegetables are being harvested this fall. Learn more about this project.

University of Texas at Austin - Daniella Lewis

• The University of Texas at Austin Concho Community Garden, the first of its kind on campus, provides students and staff with the opportunity to garden, learn and share knowledge about food production, pursue sustainability-minded projects and participate in free classes and events. Food at the garden is grown for individual consumption, for use in UT’s dining halls, for donation and, organizers hope, eventually to supply an on-campus garden stand.  Learn more about this project.

This Thanksgiving, I feel we have so many amazing things to be thankful for… but I will name just 5 of the top environmental/campus sustainability victories I feel deserve mentioning:

Top 5 Environmental / Campus Sustainability Victories 

1.  Keystone XL Pipeline has been delayed:  Two months ago no one thought that this was possible- yet we defied the impossible, we stopped Big Oil and are going to continue to put pressure on President Obama and the State Department to ensure that this pipeline will be stopped for good.

2.  Young Voices are calling for an end to Dirty Oil:  Across the country, the youth are asking for a clean energy revolution.  Just this past week, students in Ohio stood up to the gas industry, telling them that they “We won’t stop until you do.”   From the Keystone XL Pipeline, to fracking and mountaintop removal, young people are at the heart of each of these movements.  As Benjamin Disraeli said in 1844, “Almost everything that is great has been done by youth.”   

3.  Colleges and Universities are beginning to demonstrate that they can become 100% off-the-grid: Butte College in California is now grid positive  and the University of Minnesota-Morris has two utility scale wind turbines and a biomass plant, which is producing enough energy, that when the wind blows they, too, are off the grid.  These are just 2 college campuses, imagine what would happen if all 4100 colleges and universities made a pledge to be 100% off-the-grid!

4.  Sustainable Financing is now common on campuses:  Across the country, student green fees and green revolving loan funds are becoming the norm on college and university campuses.   The funds are then allocated to green projects on campus- new solar panels, better recycling, and improved energy usage are all types of projects students elect to implement on their campus.  These fees offer the ability for students to be creative in their efforts to green their campuses.

5.  Going “Green” is proving to save money:  Up until recently, many folks believed that becoming more sustainable would cost more money.  But colleges and universities are showing that sustainability has a high return on investment.  Millions of dollars are being saved on college campuses across the US .

There are many things to be thankful for this holiday season.  These top 5 victories are just the beginning.  I invite you to share with us what you think are the top 5 environmental victories to be thankful for this season in the comment box or on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Green Roof

National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology staff, Jen Fournelle and Kristy Jones, toured Germanna Community College’s new green academic facility, still under construction, in early November. The new building located at Germanna’s Fredericksburg campus is scheduled for completion in March 2012; green features will include reduced energy consumption, a green roof, passive solar heating, automatic shades, native plantings,  a rainwater harvesting system, and superefficient heating and cooling.

Once the building is complete, Germanna students will give tours for their fellow students, faculty, staff and community members sharing the green features of the building. This educational awareness effort is in part funded by the Greenforce Initiative, a partnership of Jobs for the Future and the National Wildlife Federation. Germanna Community College is a partner in the Greenforce Initiative, an effort to advance green career pathways on campus and tap campus greening efforts as hands-on training opportunities. Other Greenforce partners in Virginia include Blue Ridge, Dabney S. Lancaster, Eastern Shore, Lord Fairfax, Northern Virginia, Piedmont Virginia, Rappahannock, Thomas Nelson, and Tidewater Community Colleges; the Shenandoah Valley Energy Partnership is also a partner.

Jen Fournelle (left) and Kristy Jones (right)

Learn more about the Greenforce Initiative in Virginia.

Check out National Wildlife Federation’s case studies on green workforce training and green buildings.

Image credits: Jen Fournelle, National Wildlife Federation

With the start of a new school year, a growing coalition of sustainability and recycling organizations, including National Wildlife Federation’s (NWF) Campus Ecology Program, is engaging with North American campuses to help them boost recycling by tracking and improving their paper recovery rates. From text books to blue books, paper is essential to successful campus recycling programs. Yet while paper recycling rates have slowly increased over the years, they are not keeping up with demand from manufacturers who need recovered paper to produce new, recycled-content stocks. With over 50% of paper still being thrown away on college campuses, there is a need to dig deeper and find those valuable sources of paper. 

“Fall means getting back to the books, but for many students it also means finding new ways to help green their campus,” states Pam Blackledge, coordinator for the RePaper Project and home of the Challenge campaign.  “The RePaper Campus Challenge provides an incentive and opportunity for campuses to track their recovery rates of recycled materials, and to further their efforts by boosting overall performance by increasing their paper recovery rates.”

Many campuses have already pledged to reach a 75% paper recovery rate by 2015, including Harvard University, CU Boulder, University of South Florida and Central Carolina Community College.  Any campus can join the RePaper Campus Challenge and pledge to reach a 75% paper recovery rate by 2015.  In return those campuses will receive tools and resources to reach that rate, and will gain recognition in public materials.

“The success of the RePaper Challenge relies on its endorsing partners,” says Blackledge.  “We’re happy to welcome national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful (KAB) to the growing list of endorsing organizations.”  

If your campus is interested in becoming involved with the RePaper Campus Challenge, please visit www.repaperproject.org to learn more. To learn more about college and university recycling efforts nationwide, check out NWF’s campus sustainability case study database.

Content for this post was based on the RePaper Project Challenge Press Release, September 7, 2011

See more videos from last year’s competition!

National Wildlife Federation is partnering with Lucid, U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the Alliance to Save Energy to host Campus Conservation Nationals (CCN). Between February 6 and April 23, 2012, participating colleges and universites will compete in a 3-week (your choice of weeks) competition to achieve the greatest possible energy and water reductions in residence halls.

Participating schools will choose to compete against buildings on their own campus, in a state/regional competition or against a select group of peer institutions with savings from all participants accumulating as we strive to achieve a national goal of 1 gigawatt-hour!

We want you to join the competition and encourage each other to reduce electiricty and water usage! Still not sure you’re ready? Join us at 2pm eastern on Thursday November 10 for a free webinar to hear from the organizers. They will talk about the competition and answer any questions that may be holding you back from signing up right now.

Register for the free webinar today!  Or jump in and sign up for CCN!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Since the Kalamazoo Oil Spill last summer, students and community members have come together to shed light on the impacts tar sands oil spills have on the environment and the community.  The Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition (MSSC), the state-wide student network is working together with the National Wildlife Federation and other organizations to ensure that young voices in Michigan are being heard at the White House and with President Obama.

Students with Congressman John Conyers

Students across the state are working to collect 1000′s of video and photo petitions showcasing that they do not support the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Also, students will be holding teach in’s and movie screenings to help seperate the facts from the myths of the pipeline.

To get involved:

1.   Find us on Facebook at Michigan Students Against Keystone XL 

2.   Email Sarah Murphy at allaspiaggia@gmail.com who will get you linked in to the movement!

3.   Sign the No Keystone XL Pipeline Petition