The Sustainable Campus
Initiative
The SCI is a comprehensive campaign to
change curriculum, research, campus facility operations and
community outreach through six consonant, interrelated strategies:
- Education for
Sustainability: the expansion of
sustainability-related instruction in the
curriculum.
- Green energy measures to reduce both energy costs and emissions, allied with the DEP's New Jersey Sustainability
Greenhouse Gas Action
Plan and with the BPU's Clean Energy Program.
- High performance "green" design at a time of major spending for construction & renovation in education which can greatly reduce pollution, total life-cycle energy costs & emissions.
- Sustainable
materials use and "green" procurement.
- Student involvement
in promoting this agenda.
- Outreach and Publicity.
Here are highlights of some activities of the
SCI:
Education for Sustainability
- Several curriculum revisions have been supported by NJHEPS including climate change curriculum efforts at Drew University; curriculum reform at Ramapo College, an undergraduate engineering class in energy audits and reports at Rowan; extensive explorations of campus physical plant as curriculum material at TCNJ and Stockton.
- Recruited 9 campuses (180 participants) to participate in the national broadcast of a Sustainability Round Table in association with the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) in October 2003.
- Development of four NSF-funded "WebQuests" that offer interdisciplinary explorations of real-world New Jersey sustainability issues.
- October 8, 2001
Education for
Sustainability Workshop at Drew University attended
by 75 persons (with representation from 27 NJ colleges)
featuring presentations by scholars on developing a
curriculum of sustainability for higher education.
- Establishment of the NJHEPS Sustainability Education
Committee (presently with 14 faculty representing 10
institutions).
Green Energy Measures
- All fifty-six NJ Presidents sign the "Sustainability Covenant" of the NJ
Greenhouse Gas Action Plan to reduce C02 emissions 3.5% below 1990 levels by 2005.
- Conducted or co-sponsored of over 20 meetings and seminars on all aspects
of energy conservation, efficiency, and renewable energy, with approximately 1,200 participants.
- Established the NJHEPS Energy Technical Team to advise NJHEPS and New Jersey higher
education community on energy conservation best practices
for reducing campus emissions and operating costs.
- Drafted and distributed
"Protocol" and
"Worksheet" by the Energy
Technical Team for estimating emissions from the state's
campuses (presently completed by twenty-four institutions, with cooperation and data from thirty-two colleges and universities).
- Development of joint purchasing agreement on Fuel Cells resulting in $340,000 in savings on the purchase of fuel cells by The College of New Jersey, Ramapo College, The Richard Stockton State College, and Ocean County College.
- Development of purchasing agreement with Community Energy for NJHEPS discount price on the purchase of wind energy.
- Publication, on web and in print, of the Campus Energy Toolkit, a comprehensive guide to technology, finance and campus policies to advance energy efficiency and renewable energy.
- Preparing Energy Reports and Action Plans for 25 BPU Partner Institutions, highlighting past energy accomplishments and providing detailed information on future steps for further energy progress.
- Bi-Annual energy workshops bringing participants from dozens of New Jersey institutions together to share best practices and learn about the technologies, financing, and organizational development needed to create energy progress on campus.
- Supporting the New Jersey Hydrogen Learning Center.
High Performance ("Green") Design
- Established the NJHEPS Green Design Team (17 persons
representing government, the private sector and 4
colleges) to advise NJHEPS and New Jersey higher
education community on energy conserving best practices
for architectural design and construction.
- NJHEPS Green Design Team support and advocacy has contributed to the
construction of three new LEED-certified buildings at Ocean County College,
Kean University, and Montclair State University.
- Rutgers, Princeton, Stevens Institute of Technology, The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, The College of New Jersey, Ocean County College, and Bloomfield College have all worked with NJHEPS to develop and implement
campus-wide green design guidelines.
- NJHEPS’ championing of green design has also contributed to more than eight other New
Jersey campus buildings with green design features, built or planned.
- Development of significant linkages and substantial support for other groups that work in green design throughout the state including the NJ DEP’s Office of Innovative Technology and Market Development; the NJ Department of Commerce, the NJ Sustainable Business Alliance; the NJ Sustainable Schools Network, the US Green Building Council, and initiation of the NJ High Performance Building Design Work Group, which was instrumental in passing Governor’s Executive Order 24, madating LEED compliance for state-funded K-12 school construction.
- Creation of Volume 1: Rationale and Overview of the High Performance Campus Design
Handbook available on Web and in hard copy.
- Creation of Volume 2: Green Design Guidelines.
- Bi-Annual Green Design Workshops
Sustainable Materials Use
- Conducted 3 workshops exclusively on purchasing and three with purchasing as a major component around the state on various aspects of environmentally preferable purchasing including such topics as life-cycle analysis, full-cost accounting, and the "3R's" of paper, with support from the Educational Foundation of America.
- Survey conducted on use of recycled paper and paper recycling practices.
- NJHEPS Paper Campaign results in at least 17 schools using 30% or more recycled content paper; more comprehensive strategies at Rutgers-New Brunswick (Cook College), Princeton, Stockton College and Drew University.
- NJHEPS has worked with the Community College Purchasers Association to offer a joint-purchase option for 30% recycled-content paper.
- PowerPoint presentations developed on rationale, options, and strategies for reducing paper use, purchasing recycled paper, and improving paper recycling (available on Web, at NJHEPS Sustainable Materials Use page).
- NJHEPS works with manufacturers of remanufactured printer toner cartridges to offer special pricing arrangements, and recruits a growing number of university users for this mature, cost-effective sustainable purchasing option.
- NJHEPS works with ESMG and other waste management consultants to provide institutions with cost-effective improvements in waste management, and coordinates with NJ DEP to advance improved waste managment in New Jersey's higher education sector.
- 'Green Procurement' Strategies and Leadership
workshop at Rutgers-Camden November 16, 1999 attended by
procurement and government officials
- The New Jersey Sustainable Business Conference, April
18, 2000, Rutgers Graduate School of Management attended
by 325 persons.
- Organizational meeting for campus administrators
introducing INFORM's Procurement for Pollution Prevention
program, Ramapo College, July 2001
Student Involvement
- NJHEPS lends founding support to RUSustainable, at Rutgers University.
- Support for Earth Day events provided to numerous New Jersey student groups.
- Established student-led intra-campus
group-SUSTAIN:
Students Undertaking Sustainability Through Activism,
Instruction and Networking.
- Student weekend retreat at the Frost Valley YMCA,
March 2000, Claryville, NY attended by 30 students from
four NJ colleges.
- osEARTH (World Game Simulation) at Kean University,
for students from N.J. campuses.
Outreach and Publicity
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