Washington State Higher Education Sustainability Conference
Solutions Roundtable: Infusing Student Life with Sustainability
Friday, February 7, 2014
11:30 am - 12:45 pm
"This Solutions Roundtable invites instructors, campus staff and student leaders to share their lessons of
engaging students in sustainability through extracurricular organizations, campus resources and
research projects. Discussions will include what program design has been most successful for students,
what projects are best for career preparation and how schools can maximize learning experience."
Participants/Speakers
Michelle Song - Edmunds Community College
AmeriCorps member, advisor for student green teams
50 cents per credit per student goes into a green fund which pays for sustainable events, peer
monitoring, etc.
4 student leaders - urban farm coordinator, events coordinator, outreach coordinator,
Recyclemania coordinator
Megan Horst - University of Washington
Instructor of Sustainability Studio
Course enables students to explore sustainability projects on campus for a specific topic, ex: green
athletics, renewable energy
Megan helps students cope projects, develop partnerships, provides program support, etc to
create opportunities for students
Hands on work for students to advance sustainability
Dr E.J. Zita - The Evergreen State College
Physics faculty, Energy systems & climate change
Students do research projects, ex: carbon emissions reduction projects, funded from clean energy
fund committee
20 projects per year - farming, emissions reduction, etc.
Goal to have more projects long term - ensuring a sustainable program for sustainable research at
Evergreen
Off-campus partnerships, would like to have broader reach
Sharon Goodman - The Evergreen State College
85 students working in maintenance program, students involved in sustainability projects for
climate solutions in residence halls - gardens, green cleaning, greenhouse, etc.
Sometimes as academic credit, most are paid
Aubrey Batchelor - Moderator, University of Washington
Sustainability Programs Supervisor, strategic planning, emissions reduction, outreach & education,
metrics & reporting. Developed UW's Green Laboratory Program, advisor for Campus
Sustainability Fund, judge in the Environmental Innovation Challenge.
Monica Carson - Social Enterprises
Solutions Roundtable Session Timeline - 75 minutes
Open - Introduction (Aubrey) - 5 minutes
Speakers (3-5 minutes each) - 20 minutes
Workgroup breakouts -35 minutes
Regroup at end, report out - 15 minutes
Logistics
Room monitor will assist with timing
Aubrey will kick off session, introduce speakers
Speakers will share info about their background & programs
Participants will split into one of four groups, discussion facilitated by speaker:
1. Beginner - Academic program (Megan)
2. Advanced - Academic program (E.J. Zita)
3. Beginner - Administrative program (Michelle)
4. Advanced - Administrative program (Sharon)
Speakers will facilitate table discussion, take notes (can assign to someone at table), offer
advice/lessons learned/tools, etc.
Speakers will identify someone from their table to do a short report of the table discussion to the
whole group. Each table will have around 3 minutes to report.
Short Q&A will follow, facilitated by Aubrey with speakers answering audience questions
Short closing remarks from Aubrey
Speaker Guidelines for introductory remarks
1. What is your background, what led you to your current work in higher ed sustainability?
2. What is your position/role at your institution?
3. Please share an example of a successful program at your institution which engages students
in sustainability.
i. How long has the program been in place?
ii. How was it started?
iii. What tools or technologies were required for the program?
iv. Was funding required? If so, where did the program funding come from?
v. What challenges have you encountered?
vi. Has the program been successful?
4. DRAFT GUIDELINES, PLEASE OFFER INPUT ON OTHER TOPICS YOU WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS
3-5 minute introduction
 I’m Zita, a tenured physics professor at The Evergreen State College. My research is in energy
physics and solar physics. I also teach sustainability and climate change, and I farm organic grass-fed
beef.
 In our Energy Systems & Climate Change program, students design research projects in one quarter
and carry them out the next quarter.
 We’ve been doing this for over a decade, every other year.
 In all of our classes, students bring questions and ideas that they want to explore.
 Student questions and ideas can be transformed into inquiry-based team research projects,
which generate new results. We use a series of short research planning workshops, which will
be available in my breakout session.
 Evergreen’s Clean Energy Fund supports student projects that reduce campus emissions of
greenhouse gases. Writing proposals for funding is part of students’ research planning work in
the first quarter, and the whole classroom community participates as peer reviewers.
 One challenge is to continue great student projects over multiple years. We are interested in
strategizing about Sustainable Programs in Sustainability.
 Hundreds of students have completed scores of energy & climate research projects, e.g.
reducing GHGs on campus. Most students go to grad school or to work in science, industry,
teaching, community service, or to start their own green businesses.
Breakout discussion guidelines
Intros, experiences, shared goals, ideas and activities for the goals
What to get out of session, structured discussion questions. Different angles for deepening sustainability activity, sustainable structures, long term
planning
Share tools and rubrics, lessons learned, challenges, successes
How do we sustain our sustainability efforts - growing our programs and ensuring they last
long term
How do our efforts support our institution's goals or plans, our community, etc. What is our
community?
Strategies for making our work sustainable, building connections across campus and beyond
Ensure audience participants are set up for success
Marketing the program at the college and beyond
Type of projects - behavior, research, policy, social justice, holistic in offerings, outcomes desired
from projects
Next meeting: Monday January 27, 10:00-11:00