Duke University (Students United from a Global Social Environment (SURGE))
“SmartHome” Residence Hall
Student efforts at Duke have led to the commitment by Duke, in partnership with Home Depot, to build the “SmartHome” Residence hall - http://www.smarthome.duke.edu/ - which will be a living and learning lab for campus sustainability.
Macalester College (Sierra Student Coalition (SSC))
The student’s ability to achieve these victories with relative ease is not a fluke, but rather a testament to the excellent and constant organizing that takes place at Macalester. Large-scale and highly visible events like Campus Wars, where Macalester challenged other Minnesota schools to compete with them in reducing their energy use in the month of February, and a strong working relationship with the President made these wins feasible even without signatures and rallies.
EPA P3 Grant for Green Buildings
Over the summer of 2006, Macalester students also secured an EPA P3 grant for green buildings and installed a green roof on a campus building.
Commitment to L.E.E.D. Building
The college’s President also committed to building Minnesota's first L.E.E.D. platinum building. Timothy DenHerder-Thomas and Oliver Cano were two key students securing these victories.
Reed College (Sierra Student Coalition (SSC))
There were several students involved with both of these successes, but the main SSC contact at Reed is graduating senior Christine Lewis, a long-time SSC leader. Christine helps to run the Green Board, a non-hierarchical group of environmentally concerned Reed students that works on issues like energy efficiency, composting, and general sustainability at Reed. Their strategy is largely an insider one – they have student representatives on the college’s sustainability committee, and have good relations with the administration. The students at Reed College in Portland, OR achieved two Challenge victories during the 2006-2007 school year.
Commitment to building Four L.E.E.D. Dorms
They secured a commitment from the administration that the four new dorms being built on campus will be L.E.E.D. certified. Next, the Green Board will work to convince the administration that the L.E.E.D. certification they committed to should be silver level or higher. They will also continue their work around transportation on Reed’s campus and in Portland – the college has been named as a possible hub for the Portland-wide bike rental program that is being established, and the Green Board students want to ensure that this happens.
University of Kentucky (Southern Energy Network)
Students at the University of Kentucky ran a successful campaign for student approval of a green energy fee with over 60% of students voting approving a fee increase for renewable energy in the spring of 2006. Students from the GreenThumb group continued to work with the administration over the next school year on the fee proposals, which were slated to go before the Board of Trustees in February, but the administration decided at the last minute to take the fee proposal off the table for the meeting. Students worked with the Southern Energy Network to increase the pressure on key administrators from students, youth, alumni and citizens around the Southeast and the nation to approve the fee. After a flood of calls and emails, administrators decided not to approve the fee.
L.E.E.D. Certification for New Buildings
The campus is currently pursuing L.E.E.D. certification for new buildings. Students are continuing to work with administration on the approval of a student green energy fee.
University of Virginia (Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN))
Student Leaders - Kathleen Cacciola, Nathan Foley and Elizabeth Kahley
L.E.E.D. Standard Certification
UVA’s Board of Visitors approved a measure to build all new buildings and retrofit existing buildings to comply with the L.E.E.D. standards. Green Grounds, an active environmental organization, is tied very closely with the architecture school and helped catalyze this change with some help from members of Students for Environmental Action. Kathleen Cacciola, a graduate student, who was the Green Grounds President in the fall before stepping down in the spring semester, spoke before the Board of Visitors representing the views of Green Grounds. She emphasized all the opportunities there were available in renewable energy and transportation access and was instrumental in this policy change. The current Presidents of Green Grounds are Nathan Foley and Elizabeth Kahley and they, along with many other GG members, were involved in completing the assessment of sustainability efforts that they used to push for L.E.E.D. http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=1236
Valdosta State University, Georgia (Southern Energy Network)
Green Energy and Green Buildings Bill Moves Forward at Valdosta
The student group Students Against Violating the Environment at Valdosta State University in Georgia has been very active in attempting to adopt a Clean Energy Program on campus. Their renewable energy and green building bill, after facing multiple attempts by the administration to stop it, was passed by a majority vote of the Student Government Association. The bill is currently awaiting approval by the Fees Committee, chaired by students and administration, before it can be passed on to the President of the University for approval.
Washington University in St. Louis (Sierra Student Coalition (SSC))
L.E.E.D. Building Commitment
The university has committed to all new buildings being L.E.E.D. certified, and they are aiming for Platinum certification for one building in particular. The students are currently working on getting a 20% biofuel blend approved for campus, which would not require any changes to the current infrastructure to implement. The next step to pursue is leveraging the University's electricity use to push the local utility to increase its renewable energy production – Wash U is currently the largest consumer of electricity from that utility.