Image: Chevron Energy Solutions

Difficult times call for innovative ideas, and the San Francisco Bay Area may be a cleaner place as a result. Faced with dwindling revenues and budget cuts, the San Jose Unified School District once again turns to renewable energy, breaking ground March 11 on a 3.7 MW solar project to be installed over six school sites.

When the sites come online later this year, the district anticipates saving more than $1.5 million in electric utility costs the first year, $7.6 million over five years and $36 million over the life of the project. Those figures are based on lower electricity costs, state incentives and sale of renewable energy credits.

The project also is expected to reduce carbon emissions by some 3,100 metric tons per year.

Chevron Energy Solutions will build and maintain the system, which could employ about 100 local union contractors. Previously, Chevron and the district worked together on a 2008 project that produced a 5.5 MW installation at 14 district sites.

“Our schools will all benefit from these savings, especially in these tough economic times when they’re needed most,” East Side Union High School District Interim Superintendent Dan Moser said in a press release. “Also, this project reduces our carbon footprint and allows us to incorporate solar into our teaching curriculum so our teachers and students can learn about renewable energy technologies firsthand.”

The installation also will help students learn about solar energy, as teachers use hands-on solar kits and activity guides in the classroom.

New York University released its Climate Action Plan (CAP) today, which outlines the first steps toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2040.

The plan was developed after the university took a greenhouse gas inventory, and it outlines the projects and methods it will use to reduce or offsets its emissions.

NYU officials credited both Mayor Bloomberg’s PlanNYC Climate Challenge and the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) for initiating and helping shape its actions. The school is a signor of the ACUPCC .

The goals:

• NYU will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions per square foot by 30 percent from FY 2006 levels by FY 2017. This plan aims to reduce emissions in “an immediate, ambitious and tangible way,” school officials said.

• NYU pledges to achieve “climate neutrality” (i.e. net zero emissions) by FY 2040 by upgrading buildings through efficiency and conservation, planning for green building, generating cleaner on-site and renewable energy,  encouraging behavior changes and offsetting remaining emissions.

“Across the University – from academics to financial and space planning to sustainability – we are striving to plan for the long-term,” said Michael Alfano, NYU’s Executive Vice President. “This Climate Action Plan fits within that template, relying on a rigorous analysis to point the way toward a 30-year goal of attaining carbon neutrality.”

Cecil Scheib, Director of Energy and Sustainability, noted in the news release that NYU has already made progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, cutting them by 20 percent over the past three years.

“NYU total emissions have dropped from a fiscal year (FY06) peak of 171,000 MTCE to 136,000 MTCE in FY 2009. This decrease in global warming pollution is a measurable component of New York City’s total emissions, and represents a major step toward confronting the challenge of global warming,” Scheib said.

NYU, which is located in Greenwich Village and comprises 14 schools and colleges,  intends to fulfill its CAP by retrofitting buildings to use less energy, and prioritizing those retrofits to maximize emissions reductions.

The school — already the largest university purchaser of wind power — plans to use more cleaner energy by expanding a cogeneration power plant on site, which is expected to mitigate nearly one-quarter of NYU’s baseline FY 2006 emissions. The university will also replace fuel oil used to heat buildings with cleaner energy sources.

NYU is exploring the possibility of adding wind and solar power to its on-site energy plans, projects that it hopes will be financially feasible because of a positive return on investment, buttressed by state and federal incentives.

Whatever emissions the school can’t reduce or eliminate with these methods will be mitigated through local, socially and educationally redeeming offset programs.

NYU’s Manager of Sustainability Initiatives, Jeremy Friedman said that the CAP plan “fuses” the short-term reductions required by the Mayoral Challenge with the broader goals of the ACUPCC.

And the program does not forget the educational opportunities provided by the changing times. NYU expects to foster a campus-wide appreciation of sustainability through expanded course offerings both at the main campus and the affiliated Polytechnic Institute of NYU.

“The size and scope of this problem,” said Friedman, “are equaled only by our collective capacity to confront it together – by reducing greenhouse gas emissions as individuals, and by educating the next generation of leaders in the struggle to create a more sustainable and just world.”

Williams currently has evacuated tube solar collectors on Fort Hoosac, a graduate dorm. (Photo: Williams College)

From Green Right Now Reports

The Roberts Environmental Center at Claremont McKenna College has released an analysis of sustainability reporting for the Top 50 U.S. liberal arts colleges. The report contains a compilation of Pacific Sustainability Index (PSI) scores evaluating the environmental and social reporting of these colleges. PSI scoring is based on the transparency, intent, and performance for both environmental and social issues.

The top 10 in overall sustainability reporting are:

1. Williams College

2. Bucknell University

3. Amherst College

4. Colorado College

5. Gettysburg College

6. Bard College

7. Haverford College

8. Wellesley College

9. Mount Holyoke College

10. Oberlin College

Using the Top 50 liberal arts colleges according to U.S. News and World Report in 2009, the research for the report is based entirely on material released on the colleges’ web sites. This is the REC’s second report on College and University sustainability reporting. The first, in 2007, evaluated only a few institutions because, at that time, sustainability issues were not widely reported on college and university web sites.

The report’s ranking was created by REC analysts evaluating each college’s web site using the PSI and sector specific questions. The index uses a systematic questionnaire to assess the quality of sustainability reporting and is divided into environmental and social categories that contain three types of information: intent, reporting, and performance.

Enertia, a team of three University of Michigan graduate students with a plan to harness vibrations to power small electronics such as remote sensors and surgically implanted medical equipment, won the top prize of $50,000 in the 2009-2010 Clean Energy Prize business plan competition. The small generators provide renewable electrical power while replacing toxic electrochemical batteries.

The Clean Energy Prize competition was established by DTE Energy and the University of Michigan to encourage entrepreneurship in Michigan and the development of clean-energy technologies.

Enertia team member Adam Carver, a dual MBA/MS student at U-M’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainability, said the top prize money “enables us to advance our research and development and business expansion.” He added that the Clean Energy Prize had intangible benefits as well. “The competition encouraged us to carry out the hard work necessary to develop our ideas. Winning the prize also enhances our brand as we seek to connect with various partners and business advisors in the future.”

The other members of Enertia are Tzeno Galchev and Ethem Erkan Aktakka, both PhD Fellows at the NSF Engineering Research Center for Wireless Integrated Microsystems (WIMS) at the U-M College of Engineering.

The other finalist teams were:

• Second place: Advanced Battery Control, which offers a proprietary smart battery management system, which will radically enhance battery utilization in electric vehicles. It received $25,000 in prize money.
• Third place: Green Silane, which provides a low-cost, environmentally benign method for on-site production of silane gas that is used in semiconductor, flat-screen display and photovoltaic panel production. It received $10,000.
• Fourth place: ReGenerate, which manufactures and leases modular anaerobic digestors to institutional food service operators, transforming food waste into on-site renewable energy as well as nutrient-rich fertilizer products. It received $7,000.

South Carolina’s Furman University, one of the schools that has signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, will be using a new form of renewable energy to improve its carbon profile: Student power.

Along with other schools such as the University of Kansas and the University of Florida, Furman is going to tap the energy of exercising students (and faculty) and turn it into electricity.

Fifteen Precor elliptical exercise machines will be installed at the university’s Herman W. Lay Physical Activities Center (PAC). The energy generated by the machines will then be put back into the campus power grid. Thirty minutes on the elliptical will power a light bulb for two to three hours or a desktop computer for half an hour.

The initial set up is expected to cost $15,000 – $20,000 will be a gift from the class of 2010. The seniors, who began their fundraiser this month, plan to raise $30,000 – $40,000 to cover those costs.

Furman, a private university with 2,600 students that was founded in 1826, has spent the last 18 months developing its climate action plan, which calls for the university to become carbon neutral by 2026.

“From the outset, we determined that any effort in this area ought to be much more comprehensive than simply planning to reduce carbon emissions,” said Furman President David Shi.  “Instead, it needed to encompass a long-range sustainability master plan for the university, which would include not only those activities relevant to its carbon and ecological footprints but also the much broader scope of the university’s mission and function, including the curriculum, co-curriculum, and projects and partnerships in the greater Greenville community.”

With the Board of Trustees vote to adopt the university’s sustainability plan last Saturday, Furman University will take many steps to become carbon neutral. “It will take nothing less than a full commitment from the entire university if we are to achieve the challenging initiatives laid out in this plan,” said President Shi.

The climate action highlights five specific strategies that will reduce the university’s greenhouse gas emissions:

• increasing energy efficiency in all campus operations
• creating a campus-wide culture of conservation to decrease energy use
• creating a more sustainable campus transportation system
• investing in renewable energy projects
• creating local carbon offset projects and energy-conservation service projects in the community

Copyright © 2010 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network

In an effort to get kids outdoors, the No Child Left Inside (NCLI) Act, aims to connect children with nature by making it a part of their education.

NCLI became the first environmental education bill debated on the house floor in a long time last year when it passed in the House, but failed to progress through the Senate.

With the installation of the new Congress, NCLI now needs reconsideration in both houses to pass.

Advocates believe it could get a second chance because environmental education has been given a clear opening in the US Department of Education’s budget plan released this week.

The proposed budget includes new funding of $1 billion for programs that improve instruction to support college- and career-readiness standards. Among those eligible for funding are classes deemed important to a “Well-Rounded Education,” which includes environmental literacy.

The Well-Rounded Education category calls for $265 million — an increase of $38.9 million or 17 percent — to consolidate seven current authorities and expand support for the subjects important to a complete curriculum, including history, the arts, foreign languages, environmental literacy, and economic and financial literacy, according to the budget.

“Advancing the environmental literacy of our students is key to addressing today’s increasingly complex environmental and related economic, social, natural resource, and energy issues,” said Don Baugh, Director of the No Child Left Inside Coalition, in a statement.

“It will not only better prepare students for college and the 21^st Century workforce, but help to combat childhood obesity and related health problems by getting kids outside to learn about the natural world.

“On behalf of our entire 1,500 member Coalition, I commend the President and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for recognizing the critical role that environmental education plays in preparing our students for the green economy.”

Copyright © 2010 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Popular brands Sharpie, Paper Mate and EXPO have announced a partnership with TerraCycle to collect and reuse pens, markers and other writing instruments while also helping raise funds for schools, charities, and non-profits nationwide.

Collection centers — called “Writing Instrument Brigades” — will be set up at participating locales, primarily in large corporations and schools where pens and markers are used most. For every writing instrument collected, two cents will be paid to a school, community group, charity or non-profit organization of the participant’s choice. TerraCycle said the collection efforts will reduce landfill proliferation, educate and inspire consumers to get involved, and provide much needed funding to schools and non-profit groups nationwide.

“Keeping one pen or marker out of a landfill may seem like a small contribution, but multiply that by the estimated $5 billion of writing instruments sold in the U.S. each year and it is a big opportunity to reduce waste to landfills,” Ben Gadbois, an executive with Newell Rubbermaid Office Products, which makes Sharpie, EXPO and Paper Mate products, said in a statement. “As the world’s leading producer of writing instruments, it’s not only our responsibility but our moral obligation to do our part to help the environment. TerraCycle offers us an innovative way to repurpose writing instruments after their useful life has expired.”

TerraCycle said the collected writing instruments will be dissembled and/or reprocessed to make new products.

The free program is available to any individual, group or organization. Interested parties can sign up with TerraCycle online to establish a Brigade location and then select the school, charity or non-profit group they want to support. Each Brigade prints a pre-paid shipping label from TerraCycle’s website to ship the collected writing instruments to TerraCycle for “upcycling” into new products. TerraCycle will donate two cents per writing instrument to the collecting Brigade’s chosen organization.

TerraCycle makes affordable, eco-friendly packaging and products from a wide range of different non-recyclable waste materials. It now sells more than 50 products at major retailers such as Walmart, Target, The Home Depot, OfficeMax, Petco and Whole Foods Market. TerraCycle also runs free national collection programs that pay non-profits and schools for recycling many different products.

Founded in 2001 by a 19 year old Princeton University freshman named Tom Szaky, TerraCycle started as an organic fertilizer company and has grown into a multi-category, eco-friendly partner to major consumer package goods companies. TerraCycle develops innovative uses for their waste streams and, by making products from these various waste streams, TerraCycle prevents 1000’s of tons of waste from going to landfills.

Sixteen middle and high schools from 12 states have been named winners in the first round of the third annual Lexus Eco Challenge, an educational program and contest that encourages young people to make a positive difference for the environment. Lexus will award $500,000 in grants and scholarships throughout this year’s program.

Each winning team earns $10,000 in scholarships and grants to be shared among the students, teacher and school. Winners also will participate in the Final Challenge for a chance at one of two $30,000 grand prizes and 14 $15,000 first-place awards.

For each of the challenges, teams are required to define an environmental issue that is important to them, develop an action plan to address the issue, implement the plan, and report on the results.

The Challenge No.1 winning teams that best addressed environmental challenges associated with land and water were:

High School Teams:

• California (Vista) – “Guajome Girls Preservation Foundation” – Guajome Park Academy – Led a massive cleanup effort at the two-mile corridor that protects the wetlands ecosystem near their school. Over a month’s time, the members and various groups of volunteers recycled 1,500 pounds of trash on their school’s campus, preventing it from littering the corridor.
• Florida (Newberry) – “P.A.N.T.H.E.R. – Providing a New Way to Help Environmental Restoration” – Newberry High School – Zeroed in on deforestation and forest destruction. Hosted a tree photography contest, delivered public service announcements, planted more than 600 trees, and distributed more than 1,300 seedlings at their local harvest festival.
• Hawaii (Honolulu) – “P.O.W.E.R. – Protecting Our Water and Environmental Resources” – Farrington High School – Focused on water pollution, specifically marine debris and dumping. Developed a number of presentations for nearby middle schools and partnered with local organizations to assist in local stream and bay cleanup projects.
• Kentucky (Stanville) – “EeK-o Addicts” – Betsy Lane High School – Took on public awareness of land and water pollution as well as pollution prevention methods. School-wide trash collecting project yielded nearly 100 aluminum cans, more than 200 bottles, and five full bags of paper.
• Missouri (Kingdom City) – “North Callaway Digital Outreach Program” – North Callaway High School -Targeted recycling and electronics waste. Organized a collection drive and gathered nearly three tons of used electronics from the community for recycling.
• Missouri (St. Louis) – “Team ECH2O” – Parkway North High School – Focused on informing the community about water conservation in general and water-saving techniques. Worked in the school rain garden, installed water-saving devices in the school, and penned articles for local media outlets about conservation.
• New York (Farmingdale) – “Restoration and Preservation” – Farmingdale High School – Embarked on an extensive monitoring and preservation project to help bring their local parklands to a healthy, stable condition. Built a relationship with nearby elementary schools to spread the word about the project, and secured grants to help continue their research.
• New York (LaGrangeville) – “En-Viro-Forcers” – Arlington High School – Researched and addressed the local area’s lack of awareness regarding the threatened Blanding’s Turtles. Conducted research at their wetlands, held presentations at nearby middle schools, posted a Facebook page, and organized a Turtle Awareness Day.

Middle School Teams:

• Connecticut (Newtown) – “Men In Green” – Newtown Middle School – Spent more than 300 hours tackling deforestation with a mass communication effort, planting and mulching, and utilizing various social networking platforms to spread their message.
• Florida (Lakeland) – “The Green Team” – Lawton Chiles Middle Academy – Addressed endangered species and loss of biodiversity, with a specific focus on relocating the gopher tortoise. After researching the tortoise, spreading awareness within the community, and preparing a DVD presentation for an environmental symposium, the team awaits news on some tortoise relocation.
• Illinois (Manhattan) – “X-treme Green Growers” – Manhattan Junior High School – Organized an “Old T-shirt Drive” and event in their district’s elementary school, where they created 132 bags from the old shirts and delivered 264 “rags” to a local animal shelter.
• Iowa (Charles City) – “Eco Dudes” – Charles City Middle School – Focused on improving energy efficiency in local hotels. Two hotels participated in a program that involved placing bags for recycling and signs promoting water conservation in each of the guest rooms.
• New Jersey (Phillipsburg) – “A.R.O.T – America Runs on Trees” – Phillipsburg Christian Academy – Focused on composting and methods of keeping trash from populating landfills. Successfully constructed a compost site and put together a flier campaign to address composting within their community.
• Texas (Austin) – “Texbridge Eco Leaders” – Burnet Middle School – Directed their efforts toward landfills, waste management, and recycling. Organized and promoted a free market for their school community, where an estimated 65 participants donated between 400 and 500 reusable goods at the event.
• Utah (Holladay) – “Leaf Terminators” – Olympus Junior High – Distributed 200 fliers to their community that detailed environmentally friendly leaf-disposal methods. The members also managed to gather and bundle more than 3,000 pounds of leaves from local lawns.
• Utah (Holladay) – “R.S.V.P. – Recycle at Sports Venues Please” – Olympus Junior High – Organized and promoted a recycling program to address land conservation. Collected 1,175 bottles and cans for recycling, encouraged a local recreation area to incorporate a recycling plan, and collected Pledges to Recycle from 350 people.

This year’s Lexus Eco Challenge launched on Sept. 28, 2009, and concludes with the announcement of the first place and grand-prize-winning teams during Earth Month in April 2010.

Challenge No.2, which asks students to address the environmental challenges for air and climate, is currently underway and has an entry deadline of Jan. 19, 2010.

In addition to the ongoing contest, the Lexus Eco Challenge includes educational materials designed by Scholastic to encourage teachers to integrate creative lesson plans into their classrooms to help teach students about the environment.

The National Audubon Society is kicking off the second year of its Pennies for the Planet campaign, which is supported by TogetherGreen. With a slogan of “Because the planet needs some change,” schools, clubs, groups, and families are encouraged to help threatened ecosystems and wildlife by simply collecting pennies (and nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollars, too).

This year’s pennies will help protect three endangered U.S. coastlines:

Share Shoreline Habitat – California’s Pacific Coast is home to lots of shorebirds, one of which is the Western Snowy Plover. Unfortunately, this bird is becoming more and more rare, because of the loss of habitat. There are only half as many nesting sites now as there were 40 years ago. Through the Pennies for the Planet campaign, signs will be made and posted along California beaches to educate visitors and encourage them to share the shoreline.

Save Coastal Marshland – Louisiana is known for its many diverse ecosystems such as bayous and marshes. However, the marshlands in Louisiana are disappearing at a rate of 10,000 acres per year, faster than any other state. This is caused by people cutting canals, which changes the soil and water flow. Conservationists are working hard to reverse this damage and restore coastal marshland. Pennies will be used to purchase plugs of grass and other marsh plants which keep the new soil from being washed right back into the Gulf of Mexico.

Protect Panther Island – Years ago, these 2,775 acres of Florida land were cow pastures and farm fields. It has now been restored back to its native habitats and become part of Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Home to numerous wildlife, including endangered Florida panthers, wood storks, and gopher tortoises, Panther Island is still in need of the continued efforts to recover the marshland. Money raised will contribute to ongoing education programs, improving the area’s water quality, and the removal of invasive non-native plants.

Along with this eco-fundraiser, Audubon includes multiple environmental activities for kids of all ages; some include a nature scavenger hunt, designing an environmental advertisement, and making an eco-commercial.

There are several incentives for participating in this education and action campaign. Everyone that participates gets listed on the Pennies for the Planet Honor Roll. Based on the amount of money that is raised, you can win wristbands, buttons, bird clips, and gift certificates. The school that raises the most change by Earth Day receives the grand prize, a BioBash.

In 2008-2009, Pennies for the Planet raised $26,186.28. If you made a stack of the pennies raised last year, the pennies would stack higher than the Statue of Liberty. The money raised went to three different eco-projects South Carolina’s Four Holes Swamp, Maine’s Project Puffin, and Audubon Wyoming’s Sagebrush Sea.

Cara Krenzer, Student Council Advisor at Hooverville Elementary School in Pennsylvania, came across Pennies for the Planet last year. After talking with her students, they decided this campaign would not only be fun, but it would be a great way to give back to the environment.

“We decided to have a Penny War where each classroom was given a jug. The object was to collect as many pennies as they could. The catch however, was that other classrooms could put other denominations of money into your jug and all of this money would count against your classroom’s total (only pennies counted towards your classrooms positive amount of money). This event turned out to be wonderful! Students were bringing in jars of pennies that their parents were collecting for years. The mornings and afternoons were like war zones in the hallways where students would ‘bomb’ other classes with dollar bills, etc. In total we raised over $2000.00 to send to the Pennies for the Planet,” said Krenzer.

Hooverville was awarded the grand prize, the BioBash. They had a bird presentation from Zoo America, scavenger hunts, and other eco-games and crafts that educated the students about the environmental projects they raised money to support.

“By far this project and Penny War was the easiest and most successful project our school has participated in. The students had a great time learning about and helping their environment and still show their caring for the environment through items they learned about last year,” said Krenzer.

“We need to nurture tomorrow’s environmental leaders, and it is vital that we give children everywhere the chance to discover what it means to give back and to care for wild places in need of conservation attention,” said Audubon President John Flicker in a statement. “Pennies for the Planet links environmental education with environmental action, which we hope starts them on a lifelong journey toward conserving and stewardship in the future.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The University of Kansas, the city of Lawrence, and ESPN are teaming up to showcase the school’s sustainability efforts. On December 19, 2009, the Kansas men’s basketball team will host Michigan at Allen Fieldhouse for a “Green Game”, which will showcase the crimson & blue’s environmental efforts not only within athletics, but the campus as a whole.

Along with a student produced recycling video, ESPN has produced two videos that will highlight two key sustainability initiatives taking place at the University of Kansas. The first will show the school’s recreation and fitness center, which uses the kinetic energy from 15 exercise machines and then feeds it pack into the building’s electrical grid.

The second video will feature the biodiesel initiative, which takes the used cooking oil from each dining hall and converts it into biodiesel fuel. In just this past year, the fuel was used to power campus lawn mowers and generators.

Coca-Cola has provided 30 additional recycling bins around the Fieldhouse, along with green footprints that will be placed on the floor to guide fans to the bins. Team mascots also will be collecting plastic bottles during each timeout.

Centerplate, Kansas Athletics’ concessionaire, is also greening up the concession stands inside of Allen Fieldhouse. They are now using biodegradable popcorn bags and recycling all used popcorn oil. The used cooking oil will be collected and recycled by Darling Industries, which recycles 100 percent of all the oil they collect.

The city of Lawrence has pitched in, purchasing 8,000 kilowatt-hours of The Bowersock Mills and Power Company’s certified renewable energy certificates.  This is enough energy to cover the estimated total electricity in Allen Fieldhouse during the game.

Many other sustainability efforts will be showcased at the game Saturday. Both basketball teams and the Kansas Spirit Squad will warm up in shirts made from 100 percent recycled material. ESPN will highlight the energy-efficient lighting used throughout Kansas Athletics’ renovated facilities and air sports-related eco-friendly tips throughout the game. There will also be educational tables inside of Allen Fieldhouse that will provide fans with information on university sustainability.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Propelled to action by student protesters who’d been sleeping out in Boston Common for several weeks, Massachusetts state officials introduced a bill this week to study making the state run entirely on green energy.

Students in Boston win fight for clean energy bill (Photo: Ian Maclellan.)

It wasn’t exactly what the protesters had demanded — a bill promising to put the state on 100 percent clean energy by 2020 — but it was a good compromise, student leaders said.

“We’re happy…This is a step in the right direction and it seems very practical and rational to get this task force going first,” said Dan Abrams, who handled communications for the campaign. “This task force is charged with proposing ways to get 100% clean electricity by 2020. We’ve given them the goal and asked them to figure out how to get us there. We know it can happen and we know it needs to happen. We have our own policy recommendations that we’ve come up with from our own research and experts and we would like to see what experts on this task force will propose.”

Mass. Rep. William Brownsberger and Sen. Marc Pacheco filed an “Act to Create and Repower Massachusetts Emergency Task Force” on Monday on behalf of The Leadership Campaign, the alliance of student groups that had pushed for the measure.

It asks the Commonwealth to assemble a task force to research what will be needed to get Massachusetts to 100 percent clean electricity by 2020. It asks that the taskforce be chaired by the SEcretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs and include various elected leaders, state officials and members from these eight “communities”: environmental justice, renewable energy companies, student climate advocates, religious organizations, environmental groups, utilities, business, and academics.

The Leadership Campaign, a project of Students for a Just and Stable Future, is asking for results from the task force in six months, in keeping with the urgency of the issue, as they see it.

Student leaders hope to be working with members of the task force for a long time, Abrams said.

Students for a Just and Stable Future is a network of students across Massachusetts fighting for a strong response to climate change. The group held its final sleepout at a snowy, freezing Boston Common this past Sunday with about 80 people sleeping in tents across from the Statehouse.

Reverend Yearwood, President and CEO of The Hip Hop Caucus and one of many leaders who supported the students in their weeks-long effort (including NASA climate scientist James Hansen and noted environmentalist Bill McKibben) spoke at a rally that afternoon.

“There will be young people who look back 49 years from now to what you’re doing in Massachusetts and say thank you,” he said.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The University of Pennsylvania outlined its plans to become more sustainable earlier this fall in the school’s Climate Action Plan.

Kicking off the plan, Penn has now has chosen ten environmental projects from among ideas submitted by faculty, staff and students.

The projects, funded under the university Green Fund, will not only reduce carbon emissions, but engage the university community and attempt to change behavior.  They will receive varying amounts of money, ranging from $1,000 up to $50,000, and must demonstrate a return on the investment over a period of time. ROI was a factor in the selection process, a spokeswoman said.

The Green Fund projects selected include:

• Mayer Hall Composting – small-scale college composting demonstration project.
• Penn Garden – on-campus vegetable garden project that will serve as an academic and advocacy tool.
• Dormitory Energy Competition – a competition among housing residents for energy reduction and behavior change.
• Going Greener: Point A to Point B – transportation to Morris Arboretum for eco-specific tours and green workshops.
• Sigma Chi Fraternity Window Restoration – update the structure to increase energy performance by reusing and recycling existing construction materials.
• 40th Street Sustainability Smackdown – student teams will submit designs to improve energy efficiency for retail merchants.
• School of Medicine Lighting Analysis and Implementation- installation of occupancy sensors and LED fixtures.
• Ultraviolet Pool Disinfection System – a reduced-chemical disinfection system for Penn’s Sheerr Pool which will improve the water and air quality, as well as extend the life of metal structures within the facility.
• Purchase of T3 Series Three-Wheeled Electric Vehicle – a high-efficiency electric vehicle for security patrol.
• Penn Environmental Group Green Acorn Certification Program – the creation of a streamlined environmental certification process for local businesses and vendors.

“The winning entries represent an interesting range of perspectives and audiences within the Penn community, showcasing the growing spirit of innovation and collaboration surrounding sustainability on campus” Anne Papageorge, Facilities and Real Estate Services vice president, said in a statement.

Each project, she noted, has a leader or leaders and a University sponsor to put the plan into action and document the results.

The University of Pennsylvania will begin accepting new Green Fund applications in the spring.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media