|
|
 NEWS |
|
|
|
|
Issue 29, July 29, 2013
As community colleges redesign and retrofit campuses in greener ways, many forward-thinking institutions are using these projects as hands-on learning opportunities for students. These so-called "living laboratories" merge academics and campus facilities management to provide students with real-world skills and, for the institution, a path to meet its sustainability goals.
The SEED Center and the U.S. Green Building Council's Center for Green Schools released a guide that highlights eight essential elements to building effective living labs. The Campus as a Living Lab: Using the Built Environment to Revitalize College Education tackles some of the biggest challenges faculty face in these endeavors, from breaking down internal institutional silos to engaging industry in curriculum development.
The guide is designed for community college personnel who are interested in launching or advancing effective living laboratory models on their campuses. Faculty, sustainability officers, and facility staff, in particular, will find the information, best practices, and links useful.
The guide also serves as the basis for an October workshop event under the same name. See this issue for more details. We are excited to offer these resources to SEED member colleges!
|
|
The American Association of Community Colleges' SEED Center, Siemens Industry Inc., St. Clair County Community College, and the BEST Center are hosting a national workshop to help colleges build successful green-focused living laboratory initiatives. National best practice colleges and experts will share their experiences and work with participants to develop their own action plans.
The workshop is designed for sustainability officers, facilities directors, and faculty. The event will be a highly participatory deep dive into how these initiatives work and can work better.
This event, to be held at Saint Clair County Community College (Port Huron, MI), will have attendance capped at 20, so be sure to register now! TRAVEL STIPENDS AVAILABLE TO SEED COLLEGES.
|
Are you a college senior administrator? The SEED Center invites you to be part of a delegation of U.S. community college presidents and administrators to New Zealand and Australia, on August 20-September 4, 2013. A core focus of the trip will be on sustainability and the clean economy. See here for details and registration.
There are best practices to glean on sustainability education from the Australian TAFE colleges. And, of course they are looking to your institutions to share some of your successes. Don't miss this opportunity!
|
The SEED Center website has launched a new resource sector! The General Clean Tech sector is a space for resources that encompass multiple 'clean technology' sectors. Such as the Department of Energy's Energy 101 model, for those looking to teach on the fundamentals of energy in their courses. Resources in this sector also encompass workforce areas of the clean economy that are emerging like sustainable manufacturing and smart grid. This allows our members a more streamlined user experience across the board, where they are able isolate resources in our sector specific topics and then utilize the general sector when searching for cross-cutting information. Read more.
|
President Obama injected some fresh momentum into the national clean economy conversation recently when he laid out his climate action plan. Together, the proposed rule and regulation changes would ultimately create more demand for sustainability-related education and training programs at community colleges, many of which were enhanced through the last coordinated federal effort. Read more on our SEED Center study of member colleges and stay tuned for our full survey report coming soon!
|
Featured Curricular Material
The Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems This website provides hundreds of resources-textbooks, popular books, web sites, videos, PowerPoint presentations, and more-to identify the highest-quality and most relevant materials on sustainable agriculture available. This center has also developed a catalogue description and outline for a comprehensive course on sustainable agriculture, appropriate for the community college, state college, or university level. Read more.
|
|
|
|
|
|
What do you think? Send comments, suggestions, sustainability success stories, newsletter ideas,
green economy events/webinars and conferences, and learn more about corporate partnerships.
SEED is brought to you by the American Association of Community Colleges and ecoAmerica and
is supported by the Flora Family, Kresge, and Surdna Foundations and corporate partner Pearson Higher Education.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
