Since its launch, WorldChanging has been known for its innovative and game-changing solutions, and this week they're having a look at colleges and universities.
The feature on School Sustainability is worth a look, as it breaks down some good choices for study in Environmental Law, Sustainable Engineering Conservation Biology, and other sustainability-focused programs both in the US and abroad. There's even a (very short) discussion of "Generation-E," which we've addressed before, student activism, and a quick note on the race between colleges themselves in becoming sustainable as institutions.
While I'm sure a few more posts are coming down the pipeline in the next few days, so far I think the undergrad and grad school listings are the most valuable, particularly for students looking for top-tier training in environmental work. Deeper analysis of institutional sustainability can be found all kindsof places, and youth activism, whatever its stripe, is nothing new around here.
Speaking of campus activism, have you signed the PowerVote pledge yet? Nothing scary (you're not signing away your future children, I promise), it's just a way to show your commitment to clean energy in the looming election.
These 30 or 60 second short videos must relate to climate change and not to the support of or
opposition to any candidate for public office or any political party. Brighter Planet and 1Sky have teamed up with Vimeo to host the contest, and judges include Maggie Gyllenhaal, David Jenkins and Tia Lessin. Winners receive a cash prize the screening of their video on various sites and events. Deadline: September 22, 2008
The Social Development Department of the
World Bank is looking for micro-documentaries (2-5 minutes) on how
climate change affects people's lives and communities around the world,
especially in developing countries, and on what can be done to reduce
their vulnerability and build climate resilience. Categories include Conflict, Urban Space, Social Policy, Migration, Gender, Human Rights, and others. There is a category for Youth entrants (24 and under) and a general category.Winners will receive an all expenses paid trip to Washington, DC, for a screening of their film and a series of networking and learnign events with the World Bank id December 2008. Deadline: October 24th, 2008
Lucid will award its Building Dashboard to a U.S. or Canadian college
or university whose student-led team submits the best YouTube video (3-10 minutes)
demonstrating a creative initiative that engages people to conserve
energy and resources and how a Building Dashboard® would benefit those
efforts. Winners receive a Building Dashboard which can track energy usage in up to three buildings for their campus. Deadline: October 24, 2008
The National Council on Science, Policy and the Environment is seeking short videos (up
to 5 minutes) focusing on how today’s youth are and will be addressing
the challenges that threaten biodiversity. Entrants must be aged 12-25. Winners will
receive one complimentary registration to the NCSE conference in Washington DC, a pass to
Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and select winners will have their video
displayed during the 2009 DC Environmental Film Festival. Deadline: Oct 31, 2008
Show the world how you are confronting global warming on campus: create a three minute video about an initiative, project or campaign
going on on campus or in the surrounding community and share it with
the world. NWF's Campus Ecology sponsors the competition, and winners will be awarded grant money and a spot in Chill Out, our national broadcast in April 2009. Deadline: November 30, 2008
DotEarth, a popular NYT blog which examines efforts to balance human affairs with the planet’s limits, has been discussing the idea of "Generation-E," a new way to think of the young people stepping up to the challenges of environmental work and climate change. Andy Revkin, Science reporter for the Times, uses E for energy and environment. He says:
I’ve heard more than a few sociologists and historians opine that we’re
essentially going to have to grow past our fossil fuel norms and into a
new relationship with energy in which environmental considerations are
integrated seamlessly into how people make choices related to energy.
Maybe this is starting to happen among those who will inherit the consequences of energy decisions being made (or not made) today?
I agree with him, but also added that electronic, economy, and perhaps ego ought to be included to that list of Es. The first is for obvious reasons in a wired world, and the second because it's absolutely ludicrous to talk about energy and conservation without an understanding of global economies and human systems. I also think ego may have a place, since preserving natural resources is also preserving our own home, and perhaps a certain amount of self-interest will lead to a more involved populace. Regardless of how you define your own particular generation, it makes sense to think of your place within the world, and how you intend to live your life within society and the wider world that you call home.
In a later post on the same blog, an enterprising fellow named Paul Horan asked members of this Gen-E to speak up. Paul's invitation, originally posted here, is to young "eco-geniuses" who want to help him define what it means to be sustainable. He's offering a prize, his $600 tax rebate, to six young people at $100 each. It's his version of "stimulating our economy, aiming to serve youth better, by learning to listen to the customer." His site, YESSS, is still a bit scattered, but I'm sure he'd appreciate your input.
So, do you have a genius, sustainability-defining idea? Would you like to elaborate on Gen-E? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
The buzz on green jobs is especially loud in the summertime, when new grads flood the email boxes of HR managers with carefully composed resumes. Luckily, the environmentally-sensitive have more options than they did in the past, and not just in the traditional "forest ranger or nonprofit administrator" range.
This Worldwatch Institute Report on green jobs claims that part of demand will come from the fact that "renewables tend to be a more labor-intensive energy source than the
still-dominant fossil fuels, which rely heavily on expensive pieces of
production equipment. A transition toward renewables thus promises job
gains." We anticipate that these gains will include everything from the so-called "green-collar" hands-on positions to advocacy and strategy work. And then there are the needs in rapidly expanding sectors such as climate monitoring, public transportation, green building, green agriculture, urban planning, energy conservation, education* ...well, you get the idea.
With all these new opportunities come search engines and job sites designed to help everyone from entry-level to experienced workers find their perfect green niche. Even Experience, once of the biggest job search engines directed at graduates, has launched a Green Internships and Jobs section, which promises to plant a tree for every new member.
Need more proof? Check these out:
Cyber-Sierra: Natural resource, ecology and environmental occupations. Earthworks-jobs: "Jobs in oil, energy, mining, geoscience, seismology,
geodesy, earth science, earth system science, environmental science,
environmental engineering, remediation, contaminated land, agriculture,
forestry, ecology, plant science, meteorology, atmospheric science,
oceanography, marine science, geography, hydrology, hydrogeology, soil science,
remote sensing, GIS, geomatics, geotechnical / civil engineering, transport,
asbestos surveying, renewable energy, carbon management, EIA, EMS, waste
management and related subjects." North American Asociation for Environmental Education: Mostly media, education, communications and outreach work. EcoEmploy: All sorts of green jobs, from data managers to naturalists. EnvironmentalCareer: "Helping people work for the environment" Environmental-Expert: Jobs are posted at almost all levels of experience, and across categories such as climate, energy and renewables, environmental management, health and safety, monitoring and testing, soil, waste, and water. Greenbiz: Engineers, project managers, nonprofits, etc. Idealist: This popular nonprofit site is one of the easiest to use, and lists volunteer and intern positions, as well as full-time and contract jobs. Stopdodo: More globally focused than the others, this engine offers environmental job listings on every continent. SustainableBusiness: Focused on the corporate world, rather than nonprofit. sustainjobs: "Sustainability, climate change and renewable energy jobs."
(*If you're looking for something education-focused, there's always AASHE's email bulletin, which contains a few postings targeted to the higher education community each week, NWF's own Career Gateway, and all kinds of specialized listservs and forums.)
So if you're on the hunt, good luck! And if you know of engines that aren't listed here, please add them in the comments.
Same Difference: Unplug Your Cellphone or Skip the Bath
Ever wonder whether your power strip or your shower timer saves more energy? David MacKay of Without Hot Air wants you to know for sure what your actions mean. In the author's own words, "We are inundated with a flood of crazy innumerate codswallop." Ergo, the Brit's new book, Sustainable Energy--without the hot air (free PDF download here)
is designed to demystify and contextualize the energy requirements of
practically every element of modern life, from farming to gadgets.
For example, the average six minutes of driving takes as much energy as
running a bath, which is equal to the amount of "vampire power" that
your phone charger sucks from the outlet if left plugged in for a year. It's a telling comparison, especially considering that each of them saves less than one-twentieth of one percent of the average Londoner's energy usage. MacKay believes that people need to be aware of their own tendency to over- and underestimate the importance of various actions. "We need simple numbers, and we need the numbers to be comprehensible, comparable, and memorable," he says. Everything in the book is therefore converted to kilowatt-hours (kWh), making comparisons like the one above easy.
The book also examines fossil fuels, their impact on the climate, and world energy supplies. Most importantly, it explores possibilities for renewable energy, analyzing each individually, and creating a straightforward consumption versus production graph, which is easy to read but meticulously researched in the details. Sadly, you'll only see Britain's renewables examined in depth, with fewer numbers that are globally applicable.
Now, it would be all too easy to cry hypocrite at a book which includes "without hot air" in the title and then continues for 386 pages. However, Sustainable Energy--without the hot air is eminently readable due to the author's tongue tucked firmly in cheek, and illuminating besides. It's also designed to be very skimmable, in case you're pressed for time. For a healthy helping of common sense, a line-by-line comparison of the
ways we use energy, and a marked dislike for carbon offsetting and
corporate greenwashing, read the book online here.
Several posts over at the Buildings & Grounds blog have caught our eye recently for their focus on environmental initiatives on campus. Part of The Chronicle of Higher Education's site, this frequently-updated blog covers architecture, design, new technologies and construction, landscaping, and of course, sustainability. (Full disclosure: I was May's guest blogger, so a couple of these posts are from me.) Check them out below:
Organic Gardening at Furman University : James Wilkins, sustainability coordinator at Furman, guides the Chronicle through a small garden designed to teach students about sustainable agriculture. Conserving Water at Emory University: Emory's new rainwater collecting system is controversial enough that city planners have required that the water be dyed blue.
Save Energy or the Bear Gets It: A student project at Dartmouth encourages energy conservation with a real-time monitor of electricity usage in the dorms. Residents team up to keep the bear off "thin ice!"
Time to Roll Up Our Sleeves: My final post addresses the nature of symbols within the environmental movement, and a new way of thinking about sustainability.
Today's New York Times profiled the SEED house at environmental all-star Oberlin College. SEED stands for Student Experiment in Ecological Design, and unites eight students in a practical laboratory of sustainable living.
As these students have learned more about the technological and environmental challenges they and their communities will face, they have been motivated to test drive environmental stewardship. Living in a house retrofitted to save energy and conserve water, the students also compost, compete for the shortest shower, study in the same room, and unplug their appliances. Striking a balance between one-time switches and ongoing habit changes, these students have weather-stripped the house and perfected a system for collecting extra shower water in buckets.
Lucas Brown, one of the founding students of the house, notes in a video interview that "Our main goals are to spread ecological living practices. Our first and primary goal is outreach. If the actions of this house end with us, we see that as a failure. Our second goal, which is just as important, is to reduce our ecological footprint here on-site. To know our impact on the world and make sure it's a positive one." Outreach efforts by the students include offering to switch out incandescent bulbs for CFLs in their neighbors' homes, and talking about the changes they're making to friends and guests in the house.
Here at Campus Ecology, we try to find big, manageable ways for campuses to cut their emissions. However, we definitely don't want to ignore the fact that small choices, over time and with enough participation, can yield big dividends. So today's post comes to you courtesy of MIT's Sustainability Office, who concluded that up to 8x as much air is exchanged when using a swing door as opposed to a revolving door. That's 8 times as much air that needs to be heated or cooled, depending on the season. MIT calculated that if everyone exclusively used just two of the 29 revolving doors on campus (as opposed to the nearby swing doors), that the college would save almost $7500 in natural gas bills, and prevent the release of about 15 tons of CO2. Imagine if they used all 29!
Six thousand student leaders from 2000 colleges, universities and high schools all across the country traveled to Washington, D.C. over the weekend as part of Powershift to ask our nation’s legislators how they plan to protect their generation from global warming. After participating in over 300 panel sessions and workshops on the weekend at the University of Maryland, the student leaders proceeded to Capitol Hill where they spoke at a Congressional hearing, paid hundreds of visits to lawmakers and held a large rally on the Capitol steps wearing hundreds of green hard hats.
The green hard hats symbolized the students’ vision of a prosperous economy through the creation of thousands of new green jobs. This is not a distant prospect. The National Wildlife Federation’s report,Higher Education in a Warming World: The Business Case for Climate Leadership on Campus (released November 2007), cites several studies illustrating how hundreds of thousands of exciting new jobs are likely to be created through investments in clean energy in the near future.
Power Shift 2007, the first-ever national youth climate conference, wrapped up today with hundreds of students rallying on Capital Hill. The event was an overwhelming success and the energy level all weekend was palpable. The movement is growing! Thousands of students from all over the US gathered at the University of Maryland – College Park to focus on global warming issues and learn more about solutions. Speakers like NWF President Larry Schweiger, Van Jones, and Nancy Pelosi talked about what we can do to make a difference. The weekend was filled with workshops, panels, and one rockin’ concert!
Get involved today! Everyone can make a difference. Sign up for the next NWF teleconference ‘Engaging Students in Climate Sustainability – A Campus Affair’ or become our friend on Facebook. Talk to you campus administrators or president and find out what your school is already doing on campus. Start your own campus group. Its students from all over the world that are standing up and making a difference. We cannot wait for a change - the time is now to make your voice heard! Power Shift is just the beginning!!
