Most colleges speak of their efforts to enhance sustainability.
A working definition of sustainability is inclusive -- encompassing human and ecological health, social justice, secure livelihoods, and a better world for all generations.
Fortunately, some schools are actually pulling this off.
My favorite on this list is New York University.
NYU won the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s (AASHE) annual Campus Sustainability Leadership Award in the four-year and graduate institutions over 15,000 full-time student category. The award recognized NYU as having made the greatest overall commitment to sustainability as demonstrated in its education and research, campus operations, and administration and finance.
Though NYU’s Sustainability initiative has received recognition from other groups, it is especially thrilling to receive this award from AASHE, said Jeremy Friedman, NYU’s Sustainability Taskforce Coordinator.
AASHE’s work to bring together the higher education sustainability community lends the organization real credibility, and it is especially meaningful for us to be recognized by a jury of our peers.
Four Campus Sustainability Leadership Awards are presented annually to institutions that have made the greatest overall commitment to sustainability as demonstrated in their education and research, campus operations, and administration and finance. In 2009, one award was given in each of the following categories:
Submissions were judged on the following criteria:
- Overall impact of an institution's efforts, relative to the institution's size and wealth
- Breadth of sustainability initiatives, especially the integration of social aspects of sustainability
- Extent of student involvement in sustainability activities
- Level of support from campus administration
- Extent to which institution serves as a model for others
According to Paul Rowland, Executive Director of AASHE:
We had a very competitive pool of applicants this year, so this is a significant achievement for each of the campus and student winner said Paul Rowland, Executive Director of AASHE. I am impressed with the continuing interest of institutions and individuals in leading and advancing sustainability.
And Friedman added:
For more than two years, NYU has focused on ‘getting our own house in order,’ launching more than three dozen major new sustainability projects and initiatives to improve our environmental performance and to foster a campus culture of sustainability. This award is evidence that we are now ready to look outward beyond the campus, to hold up our initiatives and best practices as useful models for other universities, as well as cities themselves.
The winners of this year's Campus Sustainability Leadership Awards will be featured in Sustainability: The Journal of Record, and As in previous years, the winners receive additional coverage in other media.
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education works with all sectors of campus, including faculty, staff, administrators, and students. They provide a professional home for sustainability staff in higher education. (AASHE) is an association of colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada that are working to create a sustainable future. Its mission isto empower higher education to lead the sustainability transformation. AASHE does this by providing resources, professional development, and anetwork of support to enable institutions of higher education to model and advance sustainability in everything they do, from governance and operations to education and research.
Award applications are added to AASHE's online library of campus sustainability profiles.