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Environmental/Sustainability Issues
After releasing a draft of new investing guidelines Tuesday, Hampshire College is poised to join a small list of colleges and universities pursuing "environmental, social and corporate governance investing" -- a proactive stance on investing that favors companies that pursue socially responsible practices -- rather than focusing solely on financial return. Advocates for such a proactive form of investing, including Hampshire, say they are consistent with colleges' missions of fostering social good.
Installed solar capacity in the higher education sector has grown 450 percent over the last three years , according to research by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. AASHE has compiled a database that details hundreds of campus solar photovoltaic installations. There is currently 137 MW of solar capacity installed on U.S. higher education campuses. Since 2009, the median project size has grown six fold, the database shows. Data shows a 40 percent drop in the installed cost of campus solar over the last four years.
The Rochester Institute of Technology wants to help educate a generation of scientists, engineers, and businesspeople worldwide who can help find solutions to those environmental challenges. The university plans to share its model of sustainability education with institutions in five developing countries, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Peru.
While the Obama administration has been pushing green jobs, America's higher education institutions are involved in a related push. Winning the competition for students means green for them in more ways than one. As high school seniors schedule college visits and polish their personal statements, they are paying more attention to a college's green score alongside student-to-faculty ratios, dorms and aid packages.
A Staunton-based solar-energy developer will install two solar photovoltaic arrays on the Washington & Lee University campus. The arrays, which will generate about 450 kilowatts of electricity or enough to power 44 homes, will be the largest solar installation in the state. As part of the deal, the university signed a 20-year power-purchase agreement with the developer, Secure Futures, to buy the solar-generated electricity. Secure Futures will actually own the solar arrays.
Land grant schools have long specialized in teaching agriculture. But across the country, liberal arts colleges are adding programs about food, farming, and sustainability to their curricula. They're not teaching farming per se, but instead want students to think critically about food systems and sustainable practices.
With gasoline prices high again, universities are looking for ways to reduce their long-term reliance on the fuel.
DePauw, a recipient of the 2011 Ball Brothers Foundation Venture Fund grant, will begin a new “Eco Reps” program—the first of its kind at an Indiana college.
The Hawk Cam was mounted by The New York Times's City Room blog in the office of New York University's president, on whose ledge a pair of red-tailed hawks built a nest and furnished it with three speckled buff-white eggs. "To be two feet away puts you in touch with the transcendent," the university's president, John Sexton, said the day the camera began broadcasting in early April. Things turned out a little messier and the spectacle of Bobby and Violet, as the hawks were christened, morphed into a drama about man and his fraught interactions with the natural world.
North Central College is pledging to achieve the state's highest recognition for energy-saving and environmentally friendly initiatives by being among the first institutions of higher education in Illinois to seek gold status under a new Sustainability Compact.
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