American University (Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN))
Student Leaders - Claire Roby, Meg Imholt, Charlie Kilby, Rose Davis, Genna Vullo, Anne Morales, Casey Roe, Shilpa Joshi, Dave Smedick, Rachel Voss, Sarah Twomey-Mercurio, Kathryn Carroll
Biodiesel Shuttle Buses
AU is in the process of converting their campus shuttle buses to run on biodiesel fuel. For years, the school's Sustainability Director and others in the Facilities department had been trying to get the school make the switch. Re-fueling issues due to the location of storage tanks were continually cited as barrier to implementation. However, this year students took on the issue on as part of their Bikes and Biodiesel campaign. They drafted a comprehensive transportation policy to be implemented by the university which included a conversion of shuttle buses to biodiesel. The policy was shopped around to administrators and tweaked to reflect changes the school was already making. One finalized, the policy was submitted to higher-level administrators and key decision makers with subsequent meetings. In January, at the beginning of the spring semester, the SGA passed "A Resolution on clean transportation alternatives" in support of the Bikes and Biodiesel campaign. Through out the year EcoSense held a number of events to raise awareness about their campaign and the issues, including a clean car show at their Campus Beautification Day. Next steps for implementation will include physically making the switch to biodiesel and pressuring the administration to adopt the entire transportation proposal.
Duke University (Students United from a Global Social Environment (SURGE))
Sustainable Transportation Initiatives & Bike Loan Program
In addition to these efforts, SURGE has worked with the Duke Greening Initiative (DUGI) and Duke Bike Advocates (DBA) on a number of sustainable transportation initiatives for campus. The Duke campus is quite sprawling with 1 mile of green space between east and west campuses. DUGI and DBA, with support from SURGE, have been working with the Duke administration to promote better transit, bike and pedestrian mobility on campus. During the Spring 2007 SURGE conference, SURGE held a workshop for Duke students on campus bike programs. Shortly afterwards, Duke Administrators committed to the creation of a campus bike loan program that will be initiated in the fall 2007 semester.
Louisiana State University (Sierra Student Coalition (SSC))
Closed Roads On-Campus and Established Bus Routes
At Louisiana State University, the student-run Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO) convinced administrators to close off the nine major roads into the campus and establish new bus routes to increase transportation efficiency and decrease carbon pollution from automobiles. ECO, led by Lauren Stuart and Rachel Guillory, held lobby visits and awareness events to make sure that the school followed through with their commitment to close the main roads on campus to regular traffic.
Free Campus “Gold Bike Program
”The ECO group also created the “Gold Bike Program” through which free bicycles are available for students to ride around campus. These bicycles are now available as a result of ECO’s bike awareness events and their collaboration with the Student Government.
North Montgomery County Technical Career Center (Energy Justice Network (EJN))
First Eastern U.S. Electric Car Conversion Workshop
From July 30th to August 10th, 2007, the first eastern U.S. electric car conversion training/workshop will take place at North Montgomery County Technical Career Center – a local tech school in the suburbs of Philadelphia. This is a workshop to teach tech school teachers how to train their students to convert existing internal combustion engine vehicles into full-fledged battery electric vehicles. This will affect the curriculum at multiple tech schools in the area, creating institutional changes that will enable students to be trained for clean energy jobs of our near-future. This victory was accomplished by sponsoring the workshop with a community organization called Bucks County Renewables (buckscountyrenewables.com). Several teachers are signed up already and there’s space for more.
Oklahoma University (Sierra Student Coalition (SSC))
The lead student at OU is Whitney Pearson.
On-Campus Bike Lane Improvements
To win the bike lanes victory, she and members of her group held tabling events for a couple weeks they collected hundreds of signatures, culminating in a rally on-campus that attracted on-campus media coverage. OU's president, David Boren, saw the news and received the petition and just a week after the rally ensured that fresh lines were painted, signs were added, and bike lane access and routes became more visible.
Portland Community College (Global Exchange)
Bio-Diesel in College Shuttle Buses
The Transform Transportation campaign at Portland Community College (PCC) succeeded in passing a 20 percent bio-diesel blend for the college’s shuttle buses, which run between the 4 PCC campuses. This policy should be in place next semester. To get the college president to agree to this, students met with campus administration, organized student petitions, and held several educational events. We are still working towards increasing frequency of shuttle services, which, in addition to bio-diesel, is a goal of the campaign.
Queen's University (Sierra Youth Coalition)
Emissions offset Fee on Buses
Queen’s has enjoyed a very green year. The new student government Sustainability Officer researched and designed an emissions tax on all Queen’s Tri-colour Express fares. The Tri-Colour Express, which runs weekend bus service to Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto, will automatically add a small fee to all tickets purchased to offset emissions.
University of Colorado at Boulder (National Wildlife Federation)
National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Fellow Alexandra Harker worked with the Colorado School of Mines to propose more sustainable transportation options on campus, thus reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Alex secured satellite images of the Boulder area and presented the Colorado School of Mines with several sustainable transportation options, including: (1) a small mixed-use development that would be complimented by modest surface parking, perhaps around 60 parking spaces. Crucial to this option would be the integration of a major transit demand management effort to reduce up to 500 vehicle trips per day to campus; (2) a two to three story parking structure containing anywhere from 246 to 367 spaces. A transit demand management effort would also be needed to reduce around 250 vehicle trips to campus per day; and (3) a four story 490 parking space structure.
University of Georgia (Southern Energy Network)
Biodiesel (B20) In Campus Buses
After years of work with facilities and administrators, UGA students finally got a victory in their campaign to get biodiesel into the campus bus system. All 47 buses now use biodiesel and the system is one of the largest users of biodiesel in the state of Georgia.
University of South Carolina (Southern Energy Network)
Bicycle Library Established
Students Allied for a Greener Earth allocated money through the SGA for a bicycle library to serve USC students during the fall semester. Working out specifics for the project is ongoing and expected to be completed next fall semester.
Wellesley College; Wellesley, Massachusetts (National Wildlife Federation)
National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Fellow Anita Yip created a campus and community bike program, purchasing five bikes to start. Anita solicited help from various bike shops around campus to help with maintaining the fleet and provide seminars to students, faculty, and staff on bike maintenance. Anita has also been very involved with promoting the bike program on campus – Anita secured an articles in Boston Uncommon, a section in a regional edition of The Boston Globe, and the Henry David Thoreau Foundation’s newsletter Spotlight highlighting her initiative. As part of her outreach, Anita created fact sheets about transportation issues around Wellesley and created exibits for various school events to educate the student body.
Winona State University (Sierra Student Coalition (SSC))
Biodiesel for Campus Bus
Winona State also approved a plan to power the campus bus with biodiesel. The students, led by Callie Runestad, began by drafting a detailed proposal, and they were assisted by an engineering student who was writing a thesis on biodiesel and by a professor who is very interested in the subject. They made the feasibility and the positive impact of the project clear. They then informed students about the proposal through tabling, met with facilities management to gain their approval, and asked the faculty senate and student government to support their proposal. The only resistance they met was in the feasibility of its implementation, and when they were able to answer those questions, their proposal was approved with support from facilities, faculty, student government, and the president.