A surge of interest in renewable energy and sustainability in general is prompting educational establishments to respond, not just by improving campus environmental performance, but by offering the courses and training that match a growing marketplace. Elisa Wood reports.
Climate change is the ‘space race’ for this generation, US Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tells young voters. Democratic rival Barack Obama urges them to be the leaders who prevent ‘global catastrophe’, while John McCain, the likely Republican nominee, praises young people for taking on an issue larger than themselves.
As election fever grows in the US these candidates are wisely tapping into a growing pro-green sentiment on college campuses. The groundswell is reflected in the burgeoning number of renewable energy clubs, an array of new class offerings on sustainable practices, and the large number of graduates heading into clean energy jobs.
As a result, students are lobbying administrators to make green energy purchases, erect wind turbines and install solar panels. And administrators are listening, creating strong opportunities for renewables at the nation’s 4100 colleges, which together create a US $317 billion industry.
Recent months have seen colleges announce myriad green energy projects. Babson College, for instance, has said it will become the first Boston-area college to build an on-site wind turbine, the result of a proposal by three graduate students. Oregon’s Lewis & Clark, which already secures 30% of its electricity from green energy thanks to voluntary student donations, unveiled a partnership with Honeywell International to install solar panels at a campus sports facility. Students at the University of Colorado in Boulder agreed to put $50,000 a year in their student funds toward wind energy.
These are just a few of the hundreds of the college sustainability efforts tracked by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), which helps US and Canadian colleges cultivate earth-friendly practices. AASHE publishes an annual digest of green efforts on campuses and the number of colleges in the digest jumped from 250 in 2005 to 629 in 2006, the latest year available.
The Kentucky-based organization is itself an example of how much interest has intensified. Begun just two years ago, AASHE has seen membership grow from 40 to more than 500 colleges, universities, businesses and organizations. Members include big names such as Harvard, Princeton and Stanford universities and MIT for example.
This growth may be just the tip of the iceberg, according to the Apollo Institute’s New Campus Report, which states: ‘College and university campuses are uniquely placed to affect America’s energy future. The higher education sector is a
$317 billion industry that educates and employs millions of people, maintains thousands of buildings and owns millions of acres of land. It spends billions of dollars on fuel, energy and infrastructure. And the footprint of higher education is widening - enrolment between 2000 and 2013 is expected to increase by 23%.’
Among the 200 colleges in North America with the largest endowments, 37% now purchase renewable energy and 30% produce their own wind or solar energy, according to the College Sustainability Report Card 2008. Published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, the report looked at schools with endowments that range from $230 million to nearly $35 billion. It found a ‘green groundswell’ with almost 45% of colleges committing to fight climate change, 59% using green building standards in new construction and 42% purchasing hybrid or electric vehicles.
‘It used to be that the football star won the girls; these days it is the head of the college renewable energy club,’ jokes Ron Kenedi, vice president, Sharp Solar Energy Solutions Group. But, as the expression goes, many a true word is spoken in jest.
Clean energy love
Given the rapid installation rate of on-site renewable energy, AASHE predicts that soon more campuses will have green power than not. ‘In many cases, students are the drivers. It is public awareness, largely around global warming and potential energy scarcity that has led to a demand from students for these changes,’ says Judy Walton, AASHE acting executive director.
Students are promoting clean energy not only by creating campus organizations, but also by uniting into multi-college groups. One ‘very powerful’ group, Walton says, is the Energy Action Coalition, comprised of 50 student-led organizations. The group was instrumental in attracting more than 5500 students to Washington, DC, in November for the first youth summit on climate change. Energy Action said it timed the convergence on Capitol Hill to be one-year before the 2008 Presidential election. The idea was to send a message to the candidates and Congress that a growing youth movement wants bold political leadership on green energy.
More recently, on Valentine’s Day, Energy Action members in Michigan sent cards to state lawmakers as part of a programme called Cleanenergylove.com. They asked the legislators to support a renewable portfolio standard of at least 25% by 2025 and increase energy efficiency 2% annually through 2015. The group also pushed for the state to institute integrated resource planning for utilities, which takes into account energy efficiency options. The group also lobbied for a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants in Michigan.
Energy Action has also called upon students to reject the ritual of heading to the beach to party over the March spring break, due as REW goes to press. Instead, Energy Action members will take a trip to coal country: Ohio and Virginia. The ‘Mountain Justice Spring Break’ offers a chance to help clean a coal-soiled river, protest mountain-top coal removal, and attend workshops on the life-cycle of coal.
‘All over the country students have already set in motion a clean energy revolution on campuses by successfully demanding that their schools phase out dirty energy and commit to efficiency and truly clean energy sources,’ says Brianna Cayo Cotter, Communications Director for the Energy Action Coalition. ‘At Mountain Justice Spring Break youths are making sure that their communities and this country follow suit,’ she adds.
College presidents do seem to be following suit - or perhaps leading the way alongside their students. About 500 college presidents have signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment. Members agree to set up plans that will make their campuses climate-neutral within a specific time period through energy conservation, renewable energy, offsets and other strategies. Pennsylvania’s Lafayette College joined Climate Commitment in January, shortly after technology students finished a two-semester project on how to make the campus green, which offered ideas for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
As part of the Commitment, college presidents must integrate sustainability into the curriculum. This, combined with the growing number of ‘green collar’ jobs, has led to several new courses and degree-granting programmes that focus on green alternatives.
For example, Stanford University, University of Michigan and Yale University now all offer joint degrees through their business and environmental schools. The University of California Berkeley has 250 faculty members and 375 classes available that focus on the environment. In all, the university offers 51 graduate and 35 undergraduate environmental degrees, with energy research as a strong component of many of these. The University of Virginia has integrated sustainability studies into architecture, engineering, business and other disciplines in response to strong demand. Meanwhile, several two-year community colleges are dedicating themselves to training the more than 5000 solar installers the US forecasts it will need by 2015.
To read this full story and others by Elisa Wood go to http://www.realenergywriters.com and click on Elisa Wood.
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