James Hansen To Speak at
Bergen Community College |  | |
James Hansen will be at Bergen Community College on Sept 22nd at 7:30 in the Moses Center (Technology Building, Room 128). This program is being run by New Jersey Public Policy Network.
Click here for more info!
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Tell Us About Your Campus' Sustaianable Initiatives!!
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NJHEPS, working with The NJ DEP, is making a data base of NJ's sustainable projects in higher education. Please Share with us any projects that are completed or in the works to make your campus more sustainable. We are looking for anything and everything from curricula to buildings to clubs!
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"Unleashing Green Chemistry
and Engineering
In Service of a Sustainable Future"
| A Workshop Sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
September 23, 2011
National Museum of the American Indian
One Bowling Green
New York, NY 10004
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A Message from Michael Kornitas, President
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NJHEPS is moving forward on many fronts. There is great interest again in what we are doing. There is Interest from the State, interest from our sponsors, and interest within. What we need now are the experts in our organization, at our institutions, in their respective fields, to step up and take the lead in the directions that we have set forth. It is time to stop sitting on the sidelines and take action. As with our success in advocating for, and providing resources, forums and information to make our educational facilities more sustainable, we are now moving toward these goals on the academic, and other fronts. Don't be left behind.
Let us know what you are thinking. What is it that you are looking for? What is it that your institution wants? How can we help you while you help us? We hear your compliments. We listen and act upon your complaints. Most of all we want your help in making the colleges and universities in New Jersey an example for the rest of the country to follow.
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A Message from the Executive Director
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Greetings!
While for many, the month of August is a "slow" time, NJHEPS has been extremely busy conducting and planning future events, programs and projects:
- On August 2nd, in partnership with the NJ Department of Environmental protection, we held our video simulcast of a Policy Briefing on New Jersey's Energy Master Plan, State Strategic Plan, and Green Career Strategy. We also launched our planning discussions for our Fall conference to be held Friday, 12/9. Stay tuned for location and registration details. That event will feature the presentation of 5 white papers on key issues of the sustainability agenda for New Jersey's Higher Education Community:
- Curriculum
- Facilities and Operations
- Law/Policy and Regulatiom
- Green Careers
- Green Technology Research, Development and Application.
- We are currently soliciting participants for each of the working groups-which will meet approximately once per month, either physically or virtually, from now until December, to plan and develop the white papers. Our desire is to share NJ Higher Ed's perspective on sustainability with key stakeholders, identify issues, challenges, opportunities and the resources necessary for Higher Ed to play its proper role in driving sustainability in New Jersey. We invite stakeholders in Higher Education, the non-profit, public and business sectors to participate in this effort
- In early November, we are planning a "hands on" workshop in partnership with the NJ Physical Plant Association to help those engaged in energy efficiency projects to complete the necessary administrative processes to enable them to access the financial incentives associated for energy efficiency and renewable energy program available from New Jersey's Clean Energy Program. This will be an in depth session for people to bring their project details and receive step-by-step instruction on the necessary data analysis, form completion and submission process to move these projects forward
- Dr. Daniela Shebitz of Kean University, Principal Investigator in the NJHEPS/Kean University P2 Greenhouse Gas Reduction project, has provided us with a project update and calendar of fall workshops you can attend to learn more about the tools and resources available to you measure your greenhouse gas reduction on your campus, along with the associated economic impact. Although many campuses have begun, or are actively engaged in this process, the EPA region 2 has hundreds of schools, are uncertain about how to best proceed with capturing and measuring the impact of these efforts; this initiative is here to help. Our work on this project would not be possible without the generous support of the US EPA, and PSEG.
For more detailed information about the tools we have to support you with this effort, click here. Please see the article in this newsletter entitled "Autumn Workshops to Track and Lower your Campus GHG Emissions!"
Click here to continue reading this article.
All the best,
Gary Minkoff
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Autumn Workshops to Track and Lower your Campus GHG Emissions!
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On January 1, 2010, NJHEPS and Kean University began work on a partnership project, working together to help institutions in EPA Region 2 to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. NJHEPS and Kean were awarded a 3-year grant designed to update sustainability tools such as the Green Design Guidelines and a "How-To" manual that serves as a yardstick for sustainability management procedures. In addition, there are 18 training workshops supported by this grant. This fall, 7 such workshops will be held at college and university campuses under EPA Region 2 jurisdiction in New Jersey and New York.
Topics covered throughout workshops this fall will include: Green Design Building Guidelines, state & federal incentive programs, Greenhouse Gas Reporting Initiative (GRI), Hospitality Green's Resource Tracking Tool, Clean Air-Cool Planet and other GHG Calculators, and highlights of what campuses throughout the region are doing to track and lower their GHG emissions. We hope to see you at some of these workshops. There is no registration fee and lunch will be provided to those that pre-register.
Here is a list of our autumn line-up of workshops and the main topic of each session. In addition, there is a website for each workshop that provides registration information.
- September 16, Ocean County College in Toms River: Green Design Building Guidelines and incentive programs - http://ku4.eventbrite.com/
- September 23, Kean University in Union, NJ: Clean Air-Cool Planet Calculations and tour of our new LEED Science Building - http://ku6.eventbrite.com/
- October 14, Sullivan County College in Loch Sheldrake, NY: New tools and case studies for sustainability on college campuses - http://ku3.eventbrite.com/
- October 20, Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY: Greenhouse Gas Reporting Initiative and overview of Green Design Guidelines - http://ku1.eventbrite.com/
- October 21, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY: Greenhouse Gas Reporting Initiative and overview of Green Design Guidelines - http://ku2.eventbrite.com/
- November (date to be announced): Bronx Community College: Green Design Building Guidelines and incentive programs
- December 2, Ramapo College in Mahwah, NJ: the NJHEPS Calculator and case studies of tracking and lowering GHG emissions - http://ku5.eventbrite.com/
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us!
Daniela Shebitz (dshebitz@kean.edu),
Terra Meierdierck (tmm@adm.njit.edu)
or Gary Minkoff (gminkoff@njheps.org)
We hope to see you soon!
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NJHEPS Launches Planning of 12/9 Fall Conference-
Seeks Participation from Current Members/Prior Participants in the NJHEPS' Communities of Practice
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Awhile back, the NJHEPS Sustainability Education Committee spearheaded a Communities of Practice Initiative. In the interim, NJHEPS has transitioned to new professional and lay leadership, and decided to migrate those communities into a new set of "working groups" to help articulate and drive the sustainability agenda and practices for NJ's Higher Education Community.
If you are not already familiar with our collaboration with the NJ DEP's Office of Economic Growth and Green Energy, it has resulted in several very successful programs; most recently was our August 2nd, 2012 Policy Briefing (which featured key NJ Government leaders discussing the State's Energy Master Plan, Strategic Plan and Strategy for Green Careers) and Fall Planning Session for an NJHEPS fall conference. Regarding the latter, please save the date of 12/9/11 (location to be determined) for that conference. We were gratified by the strong interest in our 8/2 event and have determined that an appropriate follow-up is to convene a set of working groups to develop white papers on each of 5 key categories-as they relate to sustainability:
- Curriculum
- Facilities and Operations
- Law/Policy and Regulation
- Green Careers
- Technology Research, Application and Development.
A meaningful and diverse group of professionals, faculty members and members of the not for profit and private sector have already expressed interest in participating in this effort. Our working group chairpeople will be reaching out shortly to interested participants to plan an initial meeting to move forward with this whitepaper effort. Please note: participation in this effort is not limited to prior participants in the Communities of Practice initiative; any of our stakeholders are welcome to become involved in this effort. We envision the timetable (in concept) as:
- Mid-September-Initial meeting to plan/coordinate roles and output for the group effort; launch initial drafts of individual/small group collaborations
- Mid October-Conference call to discuss group progress and review content developed to date
- Mid November-physical meeting to update progress and agree to final plans for completion/submission of whitepaper content
- December 9th -Presentation of white papers to NJHEPS and other stakeholders with request for comments from 12/9/11/-1/31/12
- Feb 1st-Final receipt of comments
- Feb 2012-revision/final release of whitepapers to DEP, NJHEPS, NJ Higher Education Community and other stakeholders, media, etc.
Although December is several months away, for this process to be effective, you can see that our schedule requires timely response. Please let us know by Thursday 9/8 if you are willing to participate, so that the Chair of your group will have sufficient time to plan an initial meeting and communicate with your group. NJHEPS will be supporting your group with various communication tools as appropriate; we hope you will be both willing and able to support this important project.
Accompanying this email is a link to a survey tool you can use to rank your interests in these various groups. Please realize that logistics may dictate that we assign you to your 2nd or 3rd choice of group, so please be mindful of this possibility when responding. The survey can be found at https://ramapo.qualtrics.com//SE/?SID=SV_1LV7vorUGqcFV5i
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Recent Events
NJ Policy Makers Headline Policy Briefing and Planning for NJHEPS Fall Conference
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On August 2nd, NJHEPS and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) presented a video simulcast Policy Briefing featuring:
- Hon. Lee A. Solomon-President of the NJ Board of Public Utilities-who reviewed New Jersey's Energy Master Plan
- Michelle Siekerka, Assistant Commissioner of the NJ DEP's Office of Economic Growth and Green Energy, who discussed the New Jersey State Strategic Plan
- Dr, Aaron Fichtner, Assistant Commissioner, Labor Planning and Analysis, of the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, who provided an overview of the state's evolving Green Career Strategy. Dr. Fichtner was joined In his presentation by Tiffany Smith, a Research Economist from the Department's Labor Market and Demographic Research Division.
The simulcast was made possible with the assistance and commitment of our 3 host locations: Atlantic Cape Community College, Mercer County Community College, and Kean University.
Click here to continue reading this article and view Power Point Presentations from this event.
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Thank you for reading our newsletter! We certainly hope you found it worth your while. If you have suggestions or ideas to make it better please feel free to contact us through our webpage http://www.NJHEPS.org. Feedback is certainly appreciated.
Sincerely,
NJHEPS
P.S. - Is something exciting happening on your campus that you would like to have featured in the monthly newsletter or on our website? Let us know!
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