“What I felt was very telling was that many of the young people who attended the event in Cleveland were not up to speed on the pipeline,” says Juliana Goodlaw-Morris, campus ecology manager at the National Wildlife Federation, “however, now more than ever they are ready to take action on their campuses and in their communities.”
For example, when student leaders from all across the U.S. who recently attended the annual conference of the American Association of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) in Pittsburgh, PA, discovered that President Obama would be speaking in the city, they mobilized buses to meet him.

In Ohio, students are organizing at least three trainings to learn how to confront dirty energy projects like the Keystone XL oil pipeline and to advocate for safe, clean energy.

On November 6 at 2 pm (ET) in Washington, DC, students, faculty and staff from dozens of colleges and universities in the Mid-Atlantic region will gather with thousands of other concerned citizens at LaFayette Square in front of the White House to express opposition to the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline and support for clean, safe energy. The President is expected to make a decision on the pipeline proposal in the coming weeks.

Many of the campus leaders are registering for the Nov 6 rally through National Wildlife Federation and will meet up with NWF staff there as well as the staff from Energy Action Coalition and many other sister organizations. Students and others are also submitting hand-written letters to the White House (President Obama is said to read as many as 500 per day), letters to the editor (see Alexandra Costaki’s post with examples), videograms, and online letters.

The college’s announcement recently, covered by Chanel 10 news and local media, that it had become grid positive ahead of schedule, came as a welcome surprise, signaling the first time we are aware of that a campus is generating more electricity through solar photovoltaic panels than they use. 

This is significant for the US and world.  As a leading global source of greenhouse gas pollution, the US is in need of models such as Butte’s that provide a path towards a healthy future. This kind of large-scale shift towards cleaner forms of energy not only provides students hands-on opportunities to gain 21st century skills, it also directly boosts local employment providing jobs for displaced workers and newly trained students (e.g. see Butte’s green jobs center). 

The impressive solar installation is just one facet of Butte’s sustainability efforts.  They have also diverted a larger percentage of their waste than most campuses, restored a large wildlife habitat area, designed buildings that define new standards for energy efficiency, and operate a transit program that reduces traffic in the community.  They won the national green campus awards-Chill Out- in 2008 (see video) and were also a featured school in the national campus environmental report card detailing trends in higher education management, curriculum and operations for sustainability (both programs of the National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology initiative). They are also a signatory to the prestigious President’s Climate Commitment through which almost 700 US college and university leaders aim to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

On behalf of our Campus Ecology team and all of my colleagues here at National Wildlife Federation (along with our partners in the Greenforce Initiative at Jobs for the Future), congratulations and thanks to President Van Der Ploeg for having the courage to set such a bold goal for human health and ecology and to Mike Miller, Butte’s director of facilities planning and management, for helping define a new path forward and assisting others at schools all across the US and world along the way.

Drawing on a 2009 study by the Pew Charitable Trusts and other resources, state leaders reviewed at least one dozen policies that can be implemented or strengthened in each state to advance greener jobs and careers, including the following:

1. State tax incentives (Database of state tax incentives for renewable energy (DSIRE) provides a state snapshot.
2. Loan financing (Renewable Energy World highlights one model in Illinois, while Pew’s study, the Clean Energy Economy, indicates 33 states have some form of loan financing for renewable energy)
3. Rebate programs
4. Renewable portfolio standards (U.S. Departmen of Energy provides an interactive state map)
5. University R&D grants (University Clean Energy Alliance of Ohio and R&D Magazine’s search feature provide several good examples)
6. Energy efficiency standards (Pew Center provides a clickable state map with details)
7. Net metering initiatives (35 states)
8. Regional climate and clean energy initiatives (World Resources Center’s clickable map)
9. Vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards (14, plus DC)
10. Smart grid plans (Lisa Schwartz provides an overview from the Regulatory Assistance Program on the Smart Grid Learning Network at the October 2010 National Governor’s Association Conference)
11. Energy audit and disclosure ordinances (Carolyn Sarno of the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership provides overview of building energy disclosure laws in Washington and New York in August 2010 issue of OnPeak Performance)
12. State clean energy funds (U.S. EPA’s State Clean Energy Fund Fact Sheet)

Thanks to Jan Jarrett, executive director, PennFuture and Nathan Lott, executive director, Virginia Conservation Network for joining me in facilitating this workshop.

The USP applicants, who should hear any day now about grant award decisions, are competing with five other invitational categories for $29 million.  Although not the $50 million requested by Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Congressman Vernon Ehlers (R-MI), or Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a portion of $29 million represents a significant increase in nationally available funding for sustainability education and wouldn’t have been possible without leadership from Jim Elder at the Campaign for Environmental Literacy who, with the American Association of Community Colleges, Second Nature, and National Wildlife Federation, worked to build support for the concept from 250 colleges and university presidents who signed a letter in support of enhanced federal funding to help integrate sustainability across courses, disciplines and operations.

A week from tomorrow, the Department of Education will host a two-day education sustainability summit in Washington, DC to hear from business, higher education, government and community leaders about economic development, career pathways and other priorities for moving the nation’s education for sustainablity agenda forward.

A new guide from NACUBO details how campuses are paying for clean energy and sustainability projects. (Kevin Connors)

Although large scale efficiency retrofits and renewable energy projects are among the few investments on campus that ultimately pay for themselves and generate positive cash flows for campuses, they can carry a daunting price tag and compete with other campus needs for capital.  NACUBO shows, however, that where there is a will, there is a way. Using more than a dozen campus examples, the guide details a suite of 18 financial tools, ranging from clean renewable energy bonds to tax-exempt lease purchases, and provides insights into how they are being employed to reduce the upfront capital required for large-scale sustainability projects in  various parts of the U.S.

This diversity in technique is necessary: there appears to be no single funding source that works for every project.  In the examples Barlow cites, business officers employ anywhere from two to five different financial instruments to fund one large-scale project or a set of smaller ones.  For example, even when Mount Wachusetts College in Massachusetts received a large grant from the federal government to move an all-electric campus towards cleaner fuel sources, it needed to be supplemented with rebates, leases and other tools to meet the project total.

Forming partnerships is the other fundamental step most campuses need to take to meet the budget for large-scale clean energy projects. Business officers often partner with entities ranging from utilities to tribal communities to other campuses, and these partnerships can help lower or stabilize clean energy prices, ultimately making clean, renewable energy resources more widely available.

Because various types of tax breaks represent such a large component of the available financial incentive for clean energy projects in the U.S., Barlow spends a lot of time detailing how business officers work to make it possible for colleges to take advantage of them.  For example, tax-exempt college and universities can form partnerships with commercial entities who can apply a portion of their savings from tax-exempt lease purchases, investment or production tax credits and accelerated appreciation programs to reduce project costs. 

Often, these arrangements involve power purchasing agreements whereby campuses lease renewable energy generation sites on their own land and purchase the power.  Some of the largest installations, such as the 1.2 MW solar array at the East L.A. campus of the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), Barlow notes, are neither owned nor operated by the campus.

Clean renewable energy bonds (CREBs), which can also help finance campus clean energy projects by providing tax incentives to private investors, are also useful, and reviewed in detail in the guide.  Barlow illustrates how University of Minnesota-Morris plans to draw on CREBs to help achieve its goal of becoming energy self-sufficient by 2010, to reduce global warming pollution by 80% and provide student internships and research opportunities in the process.

Although this is noted only obliquely, perhaps the most important partnerships of all are with students and faculty.  Barlow spotlights the role they have played in helping to establish, manage and finance revolving loan funds and the purchase of renewable energy certificates with student fees and class or alumni gifts. 

In fact, given the breadth of sustainability needs on campuses, business officers will probably need to draw more heavily on support from students and faculty than has been the case in the past. Students could, for example, help business officers identify and prioritize conservation, efficiency and renewable energy opportunities across buildings and operations on campus.  They could also survey the range of local, state and federal grants and other incentives available, help interview energy service companies (ESCOs) and other contractors, assist in monitoring performance of clean energy and efficiency installations and help educate their peers.  With members of the faculty serving as project advisors and working closely with facilities and finance departments, students could be afforded a powerful educational opportunity to learn from project implementation and financing, while contributing meaningfully to the goals of the campus.  Barlow notes, in fact, that student and community support for campus sustainability initiatives is a factor in some lending decisions.

Barlow takes an even-handed approach to the often-contentious discussion of renewable energy certificates (RECs) and carbon offsets. He recognizes that these tools have been criticized by some for not harnessing the resource and cost savings potential of on-campus projects, yet acknowledges that some campuses are opting for these measures as a way to cover the gap between current and planned emissions reducing strategies, as a way to invest in the broader local, regional or national development of clean, renewable energy resources, and sometimes, as a way to generate funds for investment in additional clean energy projects. The guide fails to mention, however, that Architecture 2030 and the American Institute of Architects recommend that RECs or carbon offsets not be used to offset more than 20% of an institution’s total emissions.

Embracing diverse strategies and objectives, this guide will be particularly useful for campuses ready to move beyond the traditional portfolio of smaller-scale, incremental energy efficiency projects to larger scale conservation, efficiency and renewable energy conversions.  NACUBO has provided a great service here that will help many campus and other organizational leaders better understand the powerful tools that are available that, if artfully and knowledgeably brought together, can help  move beyond the impasses many are encountering in the  aim to move beyond business as usual to realize a post-carbon economy.

To read the whole report, visit the NACUBO site.

David W. Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College. He is Senior Advisor to the President of Oberlin, as well as a trustee of Bioneers. (Oberlin College)

It is telling that in 1988, before the first proceedings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were published and climate change began to emerge in the media as an issue of public concern, Orr convened the first conference ever on the role of the banking industry in minimizing climate effects and advancing self-interest by avoiding loans for inefficient energy projects.  It would be difficult to identify another author on the modern dilemma of climate change who has studied the issue more deeply, taught more patiently, or worked harder to apply the lessons learned than Dr. Orr.

His latest effort helps us map where we are now, identify our blinders, and discern the best options for the future.  Scientists have identified humans and our penchant for burning fossil fuels as the biggest driver of climate destabilization amidst the complex interplay of variables that influence the habitability of earth. Orr, similarly, helps us isolate the most important questions amidst the din of information about the climate and the human prospect for survival, illustrating how we can better address a number of other social priorities by focusing the policy agenda on energy and climate.  “Adoption of a robust energy policy,” he posits, “is the fastest and cheapest way to improve the economy, environment, health, and equity and increase security.”   

Readers looking for purely technological fixes or who imagine that a series of small shifts will match the scale of the challenge, are encouraged, in an entertaining style, to re-evaluate key trend lines and revisit criteria for effective policy, educational, and design options.  “Realistic hope,” writes  Orr, “requires us to check our optimism at the door and enter the future without illusion.” 

David Orr's previous books include The Nature of Design, Ecological Literacy, The Last Refuge, and Earth in Mind. (OUP)

As in his previous books and essays, Orr’s insights come through the work he’s done: in the last three decades, he’s been a pioneer in local community initiatives such as localizing food and other purchasing and designing buildings that define what is meant by “green.”  The latest effort at Oberlin, described in Down to the Wire, aims to eliminate greenhouse gas pollutants and addresses all facets of the Oberlin community in its larger ecological context, from forests and wildlife to renewable energy and agriculture.  Each new book by Dr. Orr, thus, is also an illuminating new chapter in the application of ideas about social, economic and environmental sustainability, providing powerful precedents that inspire local change efforts all across the US and beyond.

Efficiency retrofits and clean energy on campus, he noted, will create significantly more new jobs than comparable spending on fossil fuels in coming years. A single campus, such as Cornell University, may invest up to a gross $150 million over the next 30 years to achieve its greenhouse gas reduction goals, according to Joseph Grasso, Cornell’s assistant dean for finance and administration. Using the U.S. government’s job creation estimate of $92,000 per job created, Cornell’s investment will not only achieve a net energy savings over time, especially when new regulations require internalizing the cost of carbon emissions, but could create more than 1,500 new jobs in the region.

If all 650 signatories to the ACUPCC agreement invested only 1/3 as much as Cornell, the ACUPCC signatories would collectively represent a $30 billion jobs creation powerhouse, while reducing net energy costs and pollution on campuses and in surrounding community.

How to finance such investments? A new guide to be released soon by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) will detail a range of financing strategies for energy efficiency retrofits and clean energy projects on campuses.

Julian Keniry is reporting from the Climate Leadership summit, a three-day conference focused on implementing ACUPCC commitments, organized by Second Nature along with the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and eco-America.

Like many institutional leaders, Matthews could have opted to design and operate the campus’ two LEED gold rated buildings, O’Brien and Rubloff Hall, largely behind the scenes, with little connection to the students. Instead, Matthews made the student educational experience a core facet of the green building projects, providing training and experience that will give Saint Xavier graduates an edge in the emerging green jobs market. Graduate level interns are trained by Matthews to design educational displays, give tours of the building, help inventory campus greenhouse gas emissions and design the campus’ climate action plan.

It’s not mere busy work, says Matthews. The tasks completed by the students also help move the university towards meeting the targets and timetables of the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), a complex and difficult task that always needs more hands. 

Julian Keniry is reporting from the Climate Leadership summit, a three-day conference focused on implementing ACUPCC commitments, organized by Second Nature along with the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and eco-America.

Starting this week, National Wildlife Federation and partners launch the first of three national initiatives this winter and spring that will collectively mobilize an estimated 300,000 students, young people and community leaders in addressing the global warming crisis in positive ways that will help create a clean energy economy and new jobs:

We will begin with the historic "First 100 Days, A National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions", a program founded by Dr. Eban Goodstein of Lewis and Clark College, involving more than 700 colleges, universities and faith organizations all across the U.S. starting Wednesday, February 5. Featuring such environmental luminaries as NWF’s own, Larry Schweiger, as well as David Orr, Hunter Lovins, Betsy Taylor, Ray Anderson, Dianne Dillon-Ridgely, Jessy Tolkan, and others,the on-line broadcast focuses on policy recommendations for the new administration detailed in the President's Climate Action Plan. It is not too late to register and receive instructions for viewing "The First 100 Days" program. All the instructions you'll need to participate can be found at on the website.

Next, on February 28-March 2, 2009, we will converge on Capitol Hill with thousands of student leaders from all across the countryseeking clean energy solutions and green jobs at Powershift09.

Finally, on April 15, 2009, we will celebrate our peers' cutting-edge innovations for the 21st Century by hosting the acclaimed Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming program at our campuses, homes and offices. Showcasing the winners of a year-long competition, the on-line program features initiatives that dramatically curb the carbon footprint, tap clean energy, create new green jobs and save money. The campus that registers the most people for this program will win a free concert by the Steps!

The Kendeda Fund, Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, Stonyfield Farm, and anonymous donors have helped make these initiatives possible and we thank them!

Image: Fritz Myer