Ecologue

Last week, Higher Education Board member David Yaden sent this message to stakeholders throughout the Oregon University System, describing recent action by a Board subcommittee: The Board of Higher Education has accepted the final report from the Sustainability Initiatives Committee and adopted the proposed Sustainability Policy for OUS. The policy establishes sustainability as a core […]

Yesterday, OSU again achieved a B+ grade for sustainability practices from the Sustainable Endowments Institute. While a B+ may not seem outstanding, I’m quite happy with it for a couple reasons. First and foremost, between more than 300 colleges in all 50 U.S. states and eight Canadian provinces, SEI only gave out seven A grades this year.  […]

We are looking for song writers who are deeply interested in sustainability issues to play at this year’s “Sustainaball” on November 18th in the MU Ballroom from 7:00-9:00 p.m. The point of this fun event is to spread awareness about sustainability and to connect the arts with a passion for environmental and social well-being. Food […]

Last week was CONNECT Week, a week of fun and educational events that help our new students transition into OSU’s community. Campus Recycling, the Sustainability Office and the Student Sustainability Initiative took several steps to demonstrate OSU’s sustainable reputation and get students involved. All three groups were present with booths and activities at the New […]

Sustainability in a school’s curriculum is crucial to fostering a campus culture that uses resources wisely, out of care for and understanding of the environment. But it is hard to identify what specific classes/instructors have a focus on sustainability. You can read someone’s research and think, “this is sort of sustainability related, but it doesn’t […]

OSU’s Ecologue is considered one the top Green Blogs for students by Online Degrees.org, a leading online degree portal. Online Degrees  allows those seeking a degree to specify their area of interest, and provides a list of universities and colleges in the nation which offer online degrees pertaining to that interest. The organization also gives a profile of each school […]

For your reading pleasure, I’m posting contents from the the January 2010 edition of the Sustainability at OSU Update.  For more information about the update, and to subscribe, please visit this Ecologue post. From our friends at Campus Recycling Recyclemania has Begun – Pitch In to Win! Recyclemania is a 10-week, nationwide recycling competition between […]

In an effort to expand the sustainability conversation to a wider and more diverse audience, the Sustainability Office has started two related programs targeted specifically at OSU faculty and staff. First, in an effort to support wider awareness of campus resources, a newly-created listserv will distribute information that highlights sustainability activities at OSU.  While similar […]

Our students are OSU’s greatest resource. Not only because they are the future, but also because they are intensely interested in how the campus is operated. Due to this ever-increasing interest, the Sustainability Office has begun a series of pilot partnerships with various academic units. In these partnerships, we offer students an opportunity for service, […]

I’ve been asked a few times by administrators to investigate what energy savings OSU might see if we shifted to a 4 day workweek (each day 10 hours).  I don’t plan on posting my rather lengthy response here unless someone requests it.  But the short answer is, there is indeed some net energy savings potential […]