Members of Niagara College’s Sustainability Committee attended the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s (AASHE) annual conference in Portland, Oregon. This conference hosts nearly 2,000 participants representing the largest gathering of higher education sustainability professionals and students in North America. This conference is a platform for networking, sharing innovations, case studies, initiatives, educational opportunities, learning outcomes, tools, strategies, theory and research, and leadership within post-secondary institutions that are on track to sustainable campuses.
Alan Unwin (Associate Dean of the School of Environment and Horticultural Studies), Taryn Wilkinson (Sustainability Coordinator) and Gina Pannunzio (Sustainability Engagement Assistant) attended various workshops, keynote speakers and plenary sessions to learn and share best practices for sustainable initiatives on campus.
Unwin and Wilkinson hosted a workshop to provide information and case studies to help professionals communicate the benefits of sustainability projects. The tools that were focused on included Payback Period, Return on Investment, Weighted Sum Averaging and Lifecycle Costing. The tools help prepare individuals to evaluate, explain and approach new projects to demonstrate viability in a project. We know there are economic benefits in implementing sustainability projects, but communicating those benefits in an effective way can make the difference between budgetary approval or rejection.
Overall, the conference is a great opportunity for sustainability professionals to connect and learn from each other. Next year, the conference will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Members of the committee plan to host more workshops to highlight Niagara College as an institute focusing on sustainable practices.
Niagara College proudly joined The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) in July, 2011. AASHE is helping to create a brighter future of opportunity for all by advancing sustainability in higher education. By creating a diverse community engaged in sharing ideas and promising practices, AASHE provides administrators, faculty, staff and students, as well as the business that serve them, with leadership and essential knowledge resources, opportunities for professional development, and a unique framework for demonstrating the value and competitive edge created by sustainability initiatives.
In addition to Niagara College’s partnership with AASHE, an opportunity to be evaluated on the college’s organizational sustainability involvement through the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS) framework earned a bronze rating, fall 2013. To review Niagara College’s submission, click here.
STARS was developed by AASHE and is a transparent, self-reporting framework for both colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. The framework is intended to engage and recognize sustainability programs within higher educational institutions, through their transition of becoming campus sustainability leaders.
