The students and Sustainable Environments Committee members attending the 2008 AASHE Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The Sustainable Environments Committee is the main body on campus working to drawdown greenhouse gas emissions, sequester carbon, and make our campus more sustainable and resilient.
Our motto: “Promoting a sustainable environment by education and example.”
Our current work includes the establishment of a composting program, installation of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, supplying renewable energy, planting more trees and native plants, assuring more local, organic, plant-based food on campus, expanding green job training opportunities, increasing experiential learning opportunities, and hosting educational events.
In 2007, two founding members of the SEC, Penny Mahon and Dr. Curtis Smith, had a vision of creating a committee to move our campus to become more sustainable. Our committee was then founded. In researching sustainability in higher education, we discovered AASHE, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education and their upcoming conference. We approached Dr. Morteza Ardebili, former Provost of the college about attending the conference. He envisioned the campus infusing sustainability throughout the campus in a manner similar to what he was instrumental in developing on our campus for multiculturalism. Seven employees and two students attended the conference that fall. Upon our return, our charge was to create a master plan based on the knowledge that we gleaned from the conference. After doing so, we presented our proposal at a Board of Trustees meeting. We were told that the concept of our plan would be the direction that the college would move in the future.