Even in the dog days of Gainesville’s muggy summer, visitors to the University of Florida might glimpse the institution’s director of sustainability, Dedee DeLongpré, biking to work in a skirt and heels. DeLongpré couldn’t park a car on campus even if she wanted to—she doesn’t own a parking permit.
Not surprisingly given her campus role, DeLongpré is a two-wheeling advertisement for environmental activism. But anyone inclined to dismiss her as merely a do-gooder would be naïve. To be sure, she’s avidly committed to saving the environment. But from her office down the hall from Florida’s president, she applies skills she learned getting an MBA to drive a high-profile effort to make the university a model of sustainability in its operations, education, research, and outreach.
Day to day, DeLongpré collaborates with campus architects and engineers to make sure buildings are designed to “green” standards. She consults with the university’s grounds crew, which is landscaping the campus with low-maintenance, drought-resistant flora. On the academic side, DeLongpré’s office supported the development of UF’s new minor in sustainability and confers regularly with faculty interested in working sustainability into course syllabi. Water conservation, waste reduction, energy consumption, and campus transportation are all part of her remarkably broad portfolio, which also includes efforts to infuse principles of sustainability into UF’s food-service operations, custodial services, and athletics program.
For trustees, the takeaway message in this example is that sustainability has become a central consideration across the board in university business decisions. Passing a tipping point, it has become a pivotal focus of management. What’s happening at the University of Florida is playing out in some form at virtually every college and university (for several other examples, see the sidebar on page 12). Once relegated to the edges of campus life, environmental sustainability has rapidly and definitively moved to be a core focus of campus business. College leaders are increasingly drawing connections between sustainability, institutional missions, and higher education’s fundamental purposes. Administrators readily rattle off statistics about carbon offsets and kilowatt hours. Faculty strive to infuse sustainability into the curriculum. Offices like DeLongpré’s are fast becoming more commonplace as sustainability becomes a touchstone for college and university operations.
That means that sustainability necessarily also has to be a central focus for college and university governing boards. That raises several salient questions. How well, for example, do boards understand the scope of their institution’s engagement in sustainability? What kinds of questions should trustees be asking about sustainability? Are institutions planning for sustainability with sufficient reflection and creativity? Does the institution have a well-considered sustainability agenda and plan? How can board policy decisions best support sustainability in a way that fits the institution’s mission?
Making Sense of Sustainability
To make informed judgments about sustainability, trustees can use a variety of lenses.
Understanding the fundamentals. Some trustees may need to start with the basics. Sustainability is a complex, nuanced realm. On a campus, for example, it can affect core operations, the curriculum, student life, the college’s relationships with everybody from local neighbors to national policy makers—and virtually every other dimension of the institution. “Trustees need to understand how big a deal [sustainability] is,” says Jolene Knapp, executive director of the Society for College and University Planning. While many trustees “get” sustainability, others need to advance on the learning curve, Knapp suggests, to grasp the full extent to which sustainability affects a campus. (Relevant educational resources are widely available; see sidebar on page 14 for some examples.)
Clarifying sustainability itself may also be in order. Many practitioners, for example, view the sustainability movement as encompassing social and economic dimensions as well as environmental concerns. In a rather unique way, sustainability has a foot in both administration and academics. Before policy can be determined, conversation may be needed to define terms and map the parameters of how an institution thinks about sustainability. (This article focuses primarily on environmental sustainability, with the caveat that any effort to sustain a healthy environment necessarily must encompass social and economic factors as well.)
Vision. Michael M. Crow, president of Arizona State University, has said that “More than ever, universities must take leadership roles to address the grand challenges of the twenty-first century, and climate change is paramount among these.” Many trustees recognize the imperative of this challenge from their perspectives as business executives—many companies have widely engaged already in principles and practices of sustainability. Some trustees with relevant experience therefore may have an opportunity for leadership in helping an institution shape its sustainability vision.
Sustainability, however, is a long-term proposition and as such requires a wide-ranging vision. The challenge for a college is to comprehensively rethink virtually all of its systems, operations, educational programs, and research in the context of sustainability. In this broad context, trustees can play a pivotal role in helping a college define a commitment to sustainability that meshes with the institution’s other goals.
And if an institution happens not to be talking about sustainability, Jolene Knapp suggests that “some trustees may want to ask why their college hasn’t been more involved.”
Mission. Trustees may also want to consider sustainability in the context of the institution’s mission. Some colleges have elected to write sustainability into their official institutional mission statements. Pitzer College, a small, private liberal-arts institution near Los Angeles, asserts that it “produces engaged, socially responsible citizens of the world through an academically rigorous, interdisciplinary liberal arts education, emphasizing social justice, inter-cultural understanding and environmental sensitivity.” Pitzer’s president, Laura Skandera Trombley, notes that “sustainability resonates with our college motto, which is Provida Futuri—‘Mindful of the Future.’
Planning. Trustees may want to assess when, where, and how sustainability appears in campus-planning documents. Case Western Reserve University, for example, is finalizing a strategic plan that focuses on four interdisciplinary areas: human health; culture, creativity and design; social justice and ethics; and energy and the environment. As part of the plan, for instance, the university expects to support a new faculty-led sustainability initiative.
Another model can be found at Middlebury College, where in May trustees approved a far-reaching and environmentally progressive campus master plan for the next 50 years. Built on a foundation of sustainability principles, the plan contains many recommendations that support the college’s goal of achieving “carbon neutrality”—the equivalent of no net greenhouse-gas emissions—by 2016, ranging from making the campus more bike-friendly to dramatically increasing the use of renewable sources of energy for heating and cooling.
According to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), whose members work to promote sustainability in colleges and universities, other institutions whose master plans have a particularly strong emphasis on sustainability include many different types of institutions—among them, for example, Bowling Green State University, California Polytechnic State University, Carleton College, Carnegie Mellon University, Emory University, Green River Community College, and Pacific Lutheran University.
Cost Implications. In exercising fiduciary oversight, trustees also should understand the full financial implications of sustainability, from the upfront costs to expected returns down the road. Ultimately, trustees and presidents ought to ensure that their visions for sustainability—and their commitments to sustainability- related expenditures—are in sync.
Sustainability concerns intersect with financial considerations at many points across a college’s operations. Investments in new energy systems today, for example, offer the potential for cost savings down the road, with an added benefit of being environmentally friendly—but can involve a considerable financial commitment up front. Green buildings offer lower carbon emissions and other savings but cost more than conventional construction— and colleges must also weigh whether retrofitting an existing building is better than building a new one. A hybrid campus transportation fleet can save fuel expenses and is better for air quality, but comes at no little expense. Replacing disposable plates and utensils with china and flatware—as Xavier University in Ohio recently decided to do in its food services—creates new benefits as well as new expenses. Equally complex considerations also apply to a wide range of other operational areas, from heating and cooling, water use, waste management, and procurement of supplies to custodial services. In virtually every campus business decision, sustainability plus dollars equals complicated considerations.
Not only do sustainability considerations have long-term budget implications, the payoffs may not be realized for years or even decades, some experts say. Julie Newman, who directs the office of sustainability at Yale University, argues that some investments in sustainability pay off not in dollars but in benefits to the campus and its community. “We have to be better about understanding the externalities of these investments” and not just view them in terms of their “pure cost,” she says.
In strictly dollar terms, though, many institutions already are starting to realize significant savings from sustainability programs. At East Los Angeles College, for example, solar power panels atop a parking lot currently produce nearly 45 percent of the college’s energy, or 1.9 million kilowatts annually, saving some $270,000 a year. The University of Buffalo, having retired the debt from a $17 million investment in a comprehensive energy-conservation project, estimates that it now saves some $4 million annually in energy costs. By moving to a more centralized chilled-water utility, Virginia Tech estimates that it can save a whopping $40 million over the next 20 years.
One central focus for campus sustainability efforts has been the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, modeled after the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, and spearheaded by AASHE and the environmental groups Second Nature and ecoAmerica. College leaders who sign the agreement—nearly 560 so far—agree to create institutional structures to support campus sustainability, complete an inventory of their institution’s greenhouse-gas emissions, and develop a plan to achieve “climate neutrality.” The commitment promotes the design of buildings in accordance with standards known as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), established by the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit organization that promotes sustainable building practices. Signatories also work toward such goals as adoption of energy-efficient purchasing policies, greater use of public transportation, and integrating sustainability into the curriculum; they also agree to report their progress publicly.
Mention “carbon neutrality,” and you’re automatically in the land of carbon offsets. The World Wildlife Fund defines a carbon offset as “an emission reduction credit … that results in less carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere than would otherwise occur.” A new industry has emerged in which virtually any individual or institution can purchase carbon offsets to counteract their own production of greenhouse gases to help them toward the goal of becoming carbon neutral. For example, in 2007 MBA students at Yale’s School of Management offset the carbon impact of required travel abroad by purchasing offsets from five providers. Funds paid for the offsets helped finance investments in renewable energy production, energy conservation, tree planting, and other strategies that limit the production of greenhouse gases.
Offsets are seen by many as a legitimate way to purchase credits that compensate for the production of greenhouse gases. Others, though, dismiss offsets as a strategy that doesn’t lead to changed behaviors or a net gain in sustainability.
Colleges are said to be eyeing their potential for selling carbon credits under proposed federal “cap and trade” legislation that, while defeated this year, is widely expected to come up for discussion in the next Congress. Cap and trade is already in effect, however, at the Chicago Climate Exchange, where a handful of member colleges and universities from across the country can trade carbon credits with businesses and other organizations.
The University of California San Diego, for example, with a highly effective energy-production facility that makes it less reliant on commercial utilities, hopes to cut its greenhouse-gas emissions below a baseline level and then trade the excess on the exchange’s open market. Trustees need to understand this fast-emerging world and its potential effect on their campuses.
Another area worth closer study concerns LEED buildings. While LEED standards are widely praised as workable criteria for environmentally friendly buildings, their particulars have been criticized for containing a point system that doesn’t distinguish adequately between minor and major improvements—between, say, adding a bike rack or a solar panel. The LEED process has been described as bureaucratic and costly, leading some institutions to bypass the formal procedure and declare their buildings “LEED certifiable.” (LEED standards are currently being revised and streamlined.)
There are those who observe that the most sustainable building is the one that’s already built. Noting her university’s distinctive original buildings, Florida’s Dedee DeLongpré identifies a problem that a lot of universities have: “Trying to increase the overall energy efficiency of those historic buildings while preserving their historic integrity is an ongoing challenge.” Several universities helped pilot-test LEED standards for existing buildings (LEED-EB), and more buildings are now earning that certification. The renovation of the University Memorial Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder to LEED-EB standards is seen, for example, as a model for that campus’s future renovation projects.
In considering the use of campus financial resources, it is sometimes appropriate for trustees to help lead the college to adopt sustainable practices. A good case in point comes from Pitzer College. When the college decided to replace several obsolete, poorly constructed dormitories, President Twombley urged fiscal restraint. “My refrain was ‘Yes, we should build as environmentally sensitive buildings as budgetarily possible,’ ” she recalls, but she also cautioned against designs so cutting-edge that they might be unaffordable in the first place or too expensive to maintain.
Pitzer trustees pushed back. “The board was very proactive in terms of encouraging us to think about environmentally sustainable building practices,” Trombley says. Board members were so enthusiastic, in fact, that three trustees ponied up a total of $11 million for the project. In May, the college announced that its three new dorms had earned a rare gold-level LEED certification.
Benchmarking progress. Trustees interested in assessing sustainability might logically look for benchmarks to measure an institution’s progress. Rigorous standards, carefully designed and thoroughly tested, are coming, but they are not available yet.
To date, efforts to benchmark progress have come in the form of a report card on sustainability and several “best green school” lists. The Sustainable Endowments Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on sustainability in campus operations and endowments, made headlines with its College Sustainability Report Card, which gives letter grades for sustainability performance and endowment-investment practices. The Aspen Institute’s biennial survey “Beyond Grey Pinstripes” measures the presence of social and environmental stewardship in MBA program curricula. Newsweek and a few other magazines rank colleges according to how “green” they are. This summer the Princeton Review debuted a green rating in its popular college guides. Experts say, though, that while “best of” lists are valuable in drawing attention to sustainability, they don’t provide the precise measures of progress that colleges and universities need.
The most promising attempt to fill the sustainability-assessment gap comes from AASHE. The association has released beta versions of the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS), a framework designed to establish common standards of measurement for sustainability in higher education. Currently being tested by nearly 100 colleges and universities, STARS will let schools measure their own progress in sustainability and compare themselves meaningfully to other institutions.
Sustainability in curricula. Since society as a whole has an interest in ensuring that colleges graduate students who will be good stewards of resources in the future, trustees also may want to consider how sustainability is linked to the curriculum.
Many institutions find that sustainability activities across campus create an ideal laboratory for learning. Botanists can study sustainable landscaping with the grounds staff. Engineering students can learn from campus engineers who are working to reduce carbon emissions. Students engaged in sustainability research can see its effects in practice in local businesses and communities.
Among specific curricular initiatives, Arizona State University has established a School of Sustainability, the first in the nation. Dominican University of California will begin offering a Bachelor of Arts in Sustainable Communities this fall. The faculty senate at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh approved “the knowledge of sustainability and its applications” as part of its new set of “Essential Learning Outcomes” for all students.
One area in which sustainability has made major curricular inroads is in MBA programs, where increased student demand—mirroring increased corporate interest in sustainability—has led to a spike in sustainability-related programming. Search the latest iteration of “Beyond Grey Pinstripes” and you will find more than 60 core courses in business schools that include consideration of sustainability—and more than 150 electives. Relatively new business schools like the Presidio School of Management and the Bainbridge Graduate Institute have pioneered the infusion of sustainability throughout the entire MBA program.
Contributions to research. Another area that trustees may want to monitor is how a university’s research in sustainability serves local and regional community needs. Sustainability studies take many forms. At the University of Georgia, for example, researchers developed a new technology that can significantly increase the yield of ethanol from readily available non-food crops, such as Bermudagrass, switchgrass, Napiergrass—and even yard waste. Scientists led by researchers at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science were among the first to quantify the amount of excess nitrogen removed from an urban stream during restoration projects, a finding that will help environmental managers accurately measure the benefits of stormwater management and stream restoration. Researchers at Penn State are finding ways in which forests can be logged in environmentally friendly and sustainable ways. Findings from these and hundreds of other sustainability-related studies often have a direct impact on the communities that universities serve.
Looking to the future, Anthony D. Cortese, the president of Second Nature, believes the basic question that trustees should be asking can be framed as follows: “Are we ensuring that there are students who will have the knowledge, skills, and values to help society be healthy, just, and sustainable in the 21st century and beyond?”
In the realm of sustainability, there are few absolutes. But at a time when some campuses now boast their own wind turbines, solar panel “farms,” or biomass stations to convert corn stalks to energy—and especially when considerations of sustainability come into play widely across most major campus business decisions—it is clear that trustees and presidents have the opportunity to work collaboratively to provide insightful leadership on what may well be the preeminent issue of our time.
Sustainability in Action at Colleges and Universities
This round-up demonstrates the wide range of sustainability-related activities under way at a variety of institutions.
Bridgewater State College. Using the Campus Carbon Calculator® developed by Clean Air-Cool Planet, a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding and promoting solutions to global warming, Bridgewater State in Massachusetts is conducting a greenhouse-gas emissions inventory to assess the magnitude of such emissions on campus and identify areas for reduction. Students, faculty, and staff are collecting data and analyzing the global-warming potential of different gases.
Cape Cod Community College. Such practices as the use of solar panels and rechargeable electric vehicles, commitment to LEED standards for campus building/renovation projects, and its pledge- along with all the public colleges in Massachusetts—to the Presidents Climate Commitment helped Cape Cod Community College earn the Massachusetts Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs’ “Leading by Example Innovation Award for 2007.”
Duquesne University. Duquesne launched a new Masters of Business Administration in Sustainability in 2007, infusing financial, social, and environmental responsibility into the practical-skills classes typical of many MBA programs. “Sustainability is the next frontier in business,” explained Dean Alan R. Miciak. “There is a growing body of evidence that socially responsible and eco-friendly business practices boost bottom line profitability. Business education needs to anticipate cutting-edge challenges facing companiesand prepare the next generation of leaders.”
Evergreen State College. In September 2006, the trustees adopted a sustainability section in the college’s strategic plan that calls for carbon neutrality and zero waste by 2020. In part, Evergreen describes itself as “a laboratory for sustainability as demonstrated in its operations, curriculum, and quality of life for employees and students.”
Frostburg State University. With support from the Appalachian Regional Commission, Frostburg State University in Maryland has offered local residents certified training in the design and installation of residential electric generation systems using solar panels or small wind turbines.
Grand Valley State University. This Michigan institution has plans to develop certificate programs in renewable energy, green chemistry, sustainable business, and urban sustainability. The university also plans to establish both a minor in environmental studies and a liberal-arts major that emphasize sustainability.
Stanford University. Trustee Ward W. Woods and his wife, Priscilla, committed $30 million to the Stanford Institute for the Environment, designed to support innovative environmental programs and collaborative research that can advance environmental science and policy.
University of Florida. Water for irrigation of campus landscaping comes from reclaimed wastewater. The university’s transportation fleet includes nearly a dozen hybrid-electric vehicles and 45 Flex Fuel vehicles that can run on gasoline or ethanol. The university recycles more than 6,500 tons of material annually and strives to recycle at least 60 percent of construction debris.
University of Maryland System. The system has launched a sustainability initiative with goals that include reducing energy consumption system-wide by 15 percent and greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. The plan also includes conducting audits of greenhouse-gas emissions for all system institutions and using best practices to reduce these emissions, as well as developing a system-wide strategy for campus sustainability and energy efficiency.
University of Minnesota, Morris. The first large-scale wind-research turbine ever constructed at a U.S. public university is located at the University of Minnesota’s West Central Research and Outreach Center, near Morris. The turbine, which began generating power in March 2005, produces 5.6 million kilowatt hours of power each year for the campus, up to 60 percent of its electricity needs. Last summer, the institution broke ground for a biomass-gasification reactor that will convert corn stalks and other residual materials into a syngas, similar to natural gas, that will help heat and cool campus buildings.
University of Pennsylvania. In July, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership program listed Penn as the top purchaser of wind energy among institutions of higher education. This year the university purchased renewable-energy credits equivalent to nearly 200 million megawatt hours of wind energy, or about a fourth of its total energy consumption. Penn’s president, Amy Gutmann, was the first Ivy League signer of the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment and is also active in international sustainability efforts.
Washington University in St. Louis created the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability to encourage and coordinate university-wide and external collaborative research in the areas of renewable energy and sustainability, including biofuels, CO2 mitigation, and coal-related issues.
