Ecologue

Sustainable Universities at the AASHE Conference (Katie Kasabian)
The 2014 AASHE Conference took place at the Oregon Convention Center October 26th-29th. The conference was a wonderful opportunity to hear about what other universities are doing to foster a sustainable campus culture.

The Sustainability Hut
The University of Florida’s “Sustainability Hut” is a mobile unit that is used to educate students about sustainability through games and activities. The Hut has two solar panel “wings” which provide shade to students and is pulled by a bike. This self-sustaining vehicle is an innovative way to engage students in activities relating to waste, food, energy and transportation.

UF’s Sustainability Hut: http://sustainable.ufl.edu/students/sustainability-hut-2/

Steps to Sustainable Procurement

Portland Community College is one of the few universities that calculates their supply chain emissions from all purchases, then publically reports the results. This approach not only allows PCC to be transparent in their purchasing, but also provides data that allows them to take steps towards reducing their carbon footprint. One cool resource that PCC uses is Carnegie Mellon’s Free Lifecycle Assessment, which allows you to calculate how an institution’s different sectors influence everything from water withdrawals to greenhouse gases.

Link to Free Lifecycle Assessment: http://www.eiolca.net/cgi-bin/dft/use.pl

Campus Eco-Tour
At the Georgia Institute of Technology, they’ve taken the major steps to create an effective stormwater management system on campus. To educate students about stormwater management on campus, Georgia Tech created the “Campus Eco-Tour.” When students download this augmented reality tour app on their smart device, they are able to see sustainability features, like cisterns that students are typically unaware of. Since students created the app, the Eco-Tour is a great example of a university serving as living labs for students to learn through doing.

Georgia Tech’s Stormwater Management Plan: http://issuu.com/billyrayjohnson/docs/m2_designbrief