Podcasts about aashe

In this episode of Smart Energy Voices, SED's Debra Chanil discusses distributed energy resources in higher education with Lincoln Bleveans, Executive Director, Sustainability & Energy Management at Stanford University. DERs in higher education is a complex topic that can be overwhelming. Lincoln addresses the challenges of energy reliability, resilience, and creating a granular room-to-room energy plan. He also discusses the unique intersection between the university and Silicon Valley. You won't want to miss his insightful observations. You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in... Lincoln's current role at Stanford University [02:55] Sustainability goals and DERs [07:38] Stanford's thermal facility [12:38] Wildfires' effect on energy [17:34] The intersection of Stanford and Silicon Valley [24:39]  Lincoln's journey from municipal to university [29:48] Stanford's sustainability goals As the Executive Director of Sustainability and Energy Management at Stanford University, Lincoln is in charge of energy, water, and the Office of Sustainability. Lincoln oversees everything from 24/7 operations to the long-term planning and positioning of investments to keep the university at the cutting edge. Stanford is one of the few sustainable universities in the world that has a platinum rating from AASHE. Stanford has established zero-carbon goals for its energy supply - that includes not just electricity to the campus, but also electricity that drives a $600 million thermal plant that is the heart of the campus, making both chilled and hot water. Stanford currently has two power purchase agreements with solar farms in California, which will bring the campus to more than 100% renewable in its electric supply as of the middle of 2022. The university also has a goal of zero waste by 2030. Replacing energy sources For many years, Stanford had a cogeneration facility, a standard gas turbine, providing both an electric supply to the campus and on-site generation. It also provided a tremendous amount of steam, which drove the heating and cooling system for the entire campus. Stanford had an interesting problem to solve when the plant reached the end of its life: How do they replace that energy source while moving forward with a more environmentally sensitive solution? Stanford determined that they didn't need power generation on-site or to continue using steam. Instead, they decided they could meet their needs more cost-effectively with hot and chilled water. This conversion required dozens of miles in piping and re-engineering devices for hot and cold water input. Stanford is currently doubling the chiller capacity to match the rapid campus growth and because the climate curve has been steeper than initially expected. Reliability and resilience Stanford is fortunate to be on the cusp of reaching 100% renewable energy. At the same time, they're dependent on a grid that isn't under their control, including two interconnections with the California ISO through Pacific Gas and Electric. One of the significant challenges Lincoln faces in his role is figuring out reliability in the context of intensive electrification and decarbonization. Right now, having diesel generators for emergencies is necessary from a building code perspective but it doesn't make sense for Stanford's broader greenhouse gas goals and is an issue they're trying to figure out. Lincoln views the campus as a microgrid facing that challenge, similar to how hospitals face the same challenge. Obtaining reliability and resilience while simultaneously decarbonizing is one of the big and exciting challenges many are facing now and in the future. Resources & People Mentioned Stanford University | Institutions | STARS Reports Stanford Energy System Innovations (SESI) New Central Energy Facility - Sustainable Stanford Connect with Lincoln Bleveans On Linkedin On Twitter Lincoln Bleveans has been an executive in the global energy industry for over 25 years, focused on electric power and sustainability. His experience spans the globe and the energy value chain, from emerging technologies to independent power project (IPP) development to utility operations. He is an internationally recognized thought-leader, writer, and speaker on energy and sustainability. He is now Executive Director of Sustainability & Energy Management at Stanford University, leading the University's mission-critical operations and world-leading innovation and operations in sustainability, electricity, thermal energy, building energy management, water, and waste. Most recently, he was an executive at Burbank Water & Power, an innovative and high-performing electric and water utility in southern California. He is active as a mentor, advisor, and board for technology start-ups, infrastructure projects, and non-profits. Connect With Smart Energy Decisions https://smartenergydecisions.com Follow them on Facebook Follow them on Twitter Follow them on LinkedIn Subscribe to Smart Energy Voices If you're interested in participating in the next Smart Energy Decision Event, visit smartenergydecisions.com or email our Event Operations Director, Lisa Carroll at lisa@smartenergydecisions.com Audio Production and Show notes by PODCAST FAST TRACK https://www.podcastfasttrack.com

In our third episode, CJ is joined by CANIE board member Adrienne Fusek in her first appearance as CANIE Co-Host! CJ and Adrienne speak with two leaders from prominent sustainable campus associations on the opposite sides of the world: Meghan Fay Zahnisher, the Executive Director at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) in North America and Corey Peterson, the current President of Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS). Megan and Corey reflect on the impact their organizations have had in their decades of work in higher education, address the commonly asked question on how international offices can work with sustainability offices, and their vision for a more sustainable international education sector. Finally, we discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts sustainability work and the road to sustainable recovery.

In this special episode of the podcast, we present a recording of Podcasting for Sustainability in Higher Education from AASHE’s 2020 Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education. Dave Karlsgodt, Katie Boyle and Brian Campbell talk about what it’s like to run a podcast and how they utilize their shows to further the conversation on energy and sustainability. All three delve into the missions behind their podcasts, as well as how and why they pick topics to cover. In this episode that explores podcasting as a tool for sustainability in higher education, our hosts aim to aid participants and listeners in learning how to frame their sustainability efforts in stories, making them compelling to a variety of audiences, from students to senior leaders, academics to alumni.

As UT Arlington's first Chief Sustainability Officer, Meghna works collaboratively to foster partnerships among academic, research, and operational departments at UT Arlington. She leads institutional sustainability efforts in support of the UT Arlington 2020 Strategic Plan- Bold Solutions | Global Impact that is enabling a sustainable megacity that centers on four themes: health and the human condition, sustainable urban communities, global environmental impact and data-driven discovery. She also works to address opportunities to promote sustainability in several areas energy efficiency, resource conservation, waste management, transportation, education, outreach, community engagement, supporting and encouraging student initiatives, and implementing an interdisciplinary and sustainability-focused curriculum. She also teaches courses related to Sustainability to graduate and undergraduate students at UTA. She has spearheaded launching a Regional Center of Expertise for Education in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in North Texas, a program of the United Nations University, and the Institute for Sustainability and Global Impact at UT Arlington.  Meghna Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: How academic/educational institutions can work towards advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals Approaches to engaging with youth and students to educate and create awareness about sustainability Importance of food sustainability programs and initiatives Examples of public-private partnerships with UT Arlington Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Meghna's Final Five Question Responses What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I believe that sustainability is a word of the young generation because they are going to live in this world. What we do now matters to them, so I realized that in order to communicate with the students on campus, or other sustainability folks, you really have to be true to yourself. That authenticity in communicating your vision and values is important in showing these people that you really do care and are not doing this just because it's your job. Sometimes I think that blending those values with the unique goals and ambitions that you have, and even qualities like empathy, can be very motivating to others. I believe that leadership for a sustainability professional should live at the intersection of that spark and your values. You have to be true to yourself and you have to believe in what you're doing to make that connection with others. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? Probably the UN SDG's are something that I'm really excited about because they were adopted in 2015 and the last four years I have seen how people are passionate. Of course, it has its own challenges and disadvantages and there's always something to criticize. But I do believe that they offer this global framework for people to pursue their sustainability goals. They give guidance in terms of the indicators on the goals the United Nations have put forward. It could be your small office, your small campus, small city or even on a regional scale. I feel they are amazing and I think everybody should start adapting them and using them for their sustainability initiatives and program because they have such global implications. What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? I don't know how much time you have to read, but I don't get to read much. But I listen to a lot of podcasts. I'm an avid podcast listener and one of my favorites is called How I Built This. The host talks to these founders of amazing companies on how the company came about. A couple of months ago, I listened to this podcast by Alice Waters who, in 1960, went to France and learned all about food sustainability and how healthy food choices affect you personally and professionally. She came back to Berkely and started this amazing restaurant. Her story resonates with me because I focus on food sustainability and give it a lot of importance. Listening to her story about her struggles of launching a restaurant in Berkeley in 1971 where she was using locally sourced, organically grown food to come up with the restaurant menu options was just amazing. I would highly recommend listening to that podcast on NPR. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? I go to the AASHE website a lot. All universities that are AASHE members have access to the portal. So every time you are trying to implement a project or have some information that you want to share, or you need some information to help out with whatever it is you're doing, I always go to the AASHE portal to check out the information that others have shared. I really like the SDG Explorer, which is a tool for implementing SDG's in operations. I think on campus you do have to interact with students in a language that they understand, so a lot of newsletters, social media and trying to engage with them on a personal level. Those tools have been very useful to me. Where can people go to learn more about you and the work you're leading at UTA. We have a very good, robust website at: uta.edu/sustainability. We post all the information on all our projects. People can go there or they can email me at mtare@uta.edu. They can follow me on Twitter at @meghnatare. About Sustridge Sustridge is a sustainability consulting firm providing consulting in sustainability strategy development, sustainability reporting, GHG emissions calculating and management, zero waste planning and guidance in TRUE Zero Waste, B Corp, LEED and Carbon Neutral certification.

On this week’s edition of Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, steps off the train to bring you highlights from the October 27th Opening Keynote of the 2019 conference of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) out in Spokane, WA. In this keynote, three leaders share stories of their work and how higher education can contribute to the emergent movement to create a sustainable economy - the theme of this year’s AASHE conference. On today’s show we’ll hear from: 1. Shevanthi Daniel-Rabkin, The Democracy at Work Institute Shevanthi Daniel-Rabkin (Shev) is Director of Programs at The Democracy at Work Institute, the think-and-do-tank that expands worker cooperatives as a strategy to address economic and racial inequality. More info at http://institute.coop 2. Aaron Tanaka, The Center for Economic Democracy Aaron Tanaka is a Boston-based community organizer, economic development practitioner, philanthropic adviser, impact investor and the the co-founder and director of the Center for Economic Democracy. More info at http://economicdemocracy.us 3. Marcus Renner, UC Davis Marcus Renner is a doctoral candidate in geography and co-director of the UC Community Economies Network where he is focused on building a sustainable economy. More info at https://cec.ucdavis.edu/uc-community-economies-network More information about the conference is at http://aashe.org As always, our feature is followed by your community action calendar for the week, so get your calendars out and get ready to take action for sustainability NOW! Sustainability Now! airs on FORward Radio, 106.5fm, WFMP-LP Louisville, every Monday at 6pm and repeats Tuesdays at 12am and 10am. Find us at http://forwardradio.org The music in this podcast is used by permission from the fantastic Louisville band, Appalatin. Explore their inspiring music at http://www.appalatin.com

In this episode, we're joined by our good friend, Jim Simon, Sustainability Director at Gonzaga University. Hear Jim's story of turning his passion for the environment into his full-time career. We break down his unique approach to getting students and university staff engaged in campus sustainability initiatives.Headed to AASHE next week in Spokane? Jim is an AASHE veteran and shares his tips for making the most out of this event and hear what sessions he's most looking forward to. If you're headed to AASHE be sure to connect with us. We're hosting an exclusive happy hour for industry folks. Email marketing@luciddg.com to get added to the list.

In this episode, Jane Stewart, the Energy Specialist at Washington and Lee University, walks us through the energy conservation story at the ninth-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It was important to maintain the familial, welcoming culture of the university when considering an energy management program. In this episode, you'll earn how Jane was able to weave resource efficiency and sustainability into the already strong culture of this institution. The result: since the launch of the energy management program on campus Jane and the team have reduced energy consumption by 30% and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 34%. All of this accomplished as the university grew by ~250,000 Sqft. Learn more about the incredible work happening at Washington and Lee and many other innovative organizations by subscribing to The Modern Energy Management Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.Have a story you'd like to share? Email us at marketing@luciddg.com, we'd love to have you on the show!

Julian DautremontDirector of Programs, AASHEHost: Dave KarlsgodtPrincipal, Fovea, LLCProduction Assistant: Sarah BarrFrom energy use to purchasing decisions, waste management to community engagement, it’s no secret that sustainability is a notoriously broad and difficult to measure concept.Creating a comprehensive sustainability rating system was exactly the challenge guest Julian Dautremont and colleagues from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) were tackling when the STARS program was born. STARS is short for the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System and is the most widely used sustainability reporting system among colleges and universities in the United States. (It’s also the sole metric used to determine the Sierra Club’s “Cool Schools” ranking each year, in case you were wondering).If STARS still stumps you or if you’re simply curious about how a broad concept like sustainability can possibly be quantified and compared, join us this episode as Julian guides us through STARS’ creation, current function and challenges, and goals for the future.

Episode Transcript Meghan Fay Zahniser – AASHE Executive Director This is always an exciting time for me and I hope for all of you as well. To start off, I wanted to offer a special recognition of the land and acknowledge that the history in Pittsburgh started with centuries of native American civilization throughout this region. Thank you for having us. We are grateful to be here and excited to be back in Pittsburgh. In the year since we last gathered, we face increasing challenges and it's easy to feel overwhelmed by them. But despite these global and local challenges, the AASHE community, those who are working day in and day out to advance sustainability in higher education, students, faculty, administrators, and staff are still making significant progress. We have more institutions being recognized for their sustainability achievements through STARS than ever before. We now have four STARS Platinum institutions. Congratulations to Colorado State University, University of New Hampshire, Stanford and UC Irvine. To emphasize the important role higher education case in advancing the sustainable development goals, I'm excited to share that the next version of STARS, version 2.2 slated for the launch next spring, will align each credit with the sustainable development goals. This will be a great opportunity to connect to the campus community, not just with a specific achievements noted in STARS, but also to advancing the global goals. After the conference, we'll be excited to launch a new STARS website and benchmarking tool. The ladder is something we've been working on for quite some time and we know has been of interest to many of you. Good news...it's coming. In addition to the progress on STARS, we have more resources in the hub AASHE online resource center than ever before. Thousands of case studies and examples of best practices and lessons learned from our community are there. We also have more ways to engage and connect with you throughout the year with centers for sustainability across the curriculum, various workshops and webinars, the mentorship program and our online community, which just launched this past spring and been incredibly well received by our members. We're working to help connect each of you with the tools and resources you need to achieve your institution's sustainability goals. AASHE's also working to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout our organization and movement. We have a new diversity, equity and inclusion statement that demonstrates how and what we will be working on, including looking at all of our programs to identify ways to better integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion in everything that we do. As Heather Hackman our closing keynote speaker from last year said "We cannot have a sustainable campus without addressing equity and social justice." In addition to improving our programs and offerings, we're also working to expand our partnerships and connect with organizations and efforts that will help strengthen sustainability in higher education education. Ann Erhardt – AASHE Board Member and CSO at Michigan State University We're now joined by Ann Erhardt, chief sustainability officer at Michigan State University and also a board member. So, tell us about the work of AASHE. As a board member, I'd love to just hear your thoughts on the importance of AASHE in Higher Ed and what the organization is working on. I've been a board member for two years and recently elected vice chair of the board. I'm really excited about being a part of AASHE and being a part of the board and helping shape the future of sustainability in higher education, and what we can do as a community across the country. So the work that AASHE's doing right now, everyone's enjoying our conference this week and learning a lot and we reach a broad audience of institutions, whether you're a small college or a major institution. We have something for everybody and I think the real value of the conference comes in coming together and having conversations with each other, sharing information, finding those connections and having a collective nature to it. And I think that's the future of our evolution is working more together towards the future. You're going to be speaking on a couple of panels today. Tell us just a little bit about what you'll be talking about just to give the listeners an idea of some of the sessions that are underway here. One session was with Consumer First Renewables and they are a partner that MSU has had to help construct our large solar carport installation on campus. We have a 10 megawatt system and a Customer First Renewables has been with us through the whole process as an excellent partner. And so, the panel we're on discusses how to get the green light to get solar on your campus or a large scale renewable system, and how that context fits different types of campuses. So, we had a lot of good questions. The other panelists was from Brown, so we had a really good discussion with the audience. Today, I am on a panel with the ISSP, which is the International Society for Sustainability Professionals, talking about the certification programs that ISSP has. They have a sustainable associate as well as a certified sustainability professional. We talked about that and growing that community to really help sustainability professionals really get some leverage and have people understand that this isn't a phase and that this is a science, this is a skillset and people who are sustainability professionals, or employee sustainability as part of their job, it's definitely a value add skill-set to have at any organization. I'd love to hear your thoughts, because you’re on the AASHE board as well as leading sustainability at a university. How do you think these universities, or sustainability professionals and faculty, can most utilize AASHE? How can they really get value from that organization rather than just being a member of the organization? What are some ways that universities can really realize value from AASHE? There definitely has been value since AASHE's inception, which has been over 10 years and I'm really happy to have been this doing this work for this long. Going forward, AASHE will be looking for feedback from our members, and we continually do that, but definitely letting audiences that come to the conference and our members know that it's a two way conversation and we want to know what you need and what value do you need from us, so that we can work that into the value that we provide. So whether you're a university, or a business that's a member, or a student group, or any organization affiliated with higher education, it's a two way conversation and we want to know what value you need from us. So please come and talk with any of the board members or any of the AASHE staff, and let us know what you think and what you need and we'll work on that. Solutions for Evaluating Projects: Quadruple Bottom Line and Financial Models for Carbon Neutrality I'm from the Sustainability Office at Cornell and will be talking to you today about what we call our quadruple bottom line analysis - building off the triple bottom line for sustainability - and how with this analysis we try to use mission alliance with sustainability impact areas to strengthen our carbon reduction project assessment process. So, rather than focused strictly on the single financial bottom line, or some sort of non-rigorous reputational factors and letting those drive our decision making, we try to do a purposeful metrics framework to assess projects across the traditional people, prosperity and planet, and then also our academic purpose. So one way where we applied this at Cornell, we had a proposal from all the assemblies at the university that we should have advance our carbon neutrality goal from 2050 to 2035. So, there was much more of an in depth process and I'm skimming over a lot of it at the moment, but there was a group that got together and said, "Okay, what are some strategies we could use to do this? Is it technically possible and are the tools even out there for us?" We thought there probably were, but what's it going to cost us? Can we do this from a financial and from a real mission perspective without really undermining the other goals of the university. So, a high-level senior leaders group was put together to take a look at that and create what we call the Options for Achieving Carbon Neutral Campus report. It's a detailed technical analysis of what we thought were all the feasible technical options, mostly around energy needs of the campus and particularly how we were going to heat an institution in upstate New York - a major research institute in kind of a harsh climate - without burning something. Not that easy. So, we did an updated financial analysis and we also introduced new tools, one of which is this quadruple bottom line analysis. We also looked at the potential impact of upstream leakage of the fuel source and what might be the risk factors of attributing a social cost to that carbon. What if we have a carbon price in the future? So, we think about all of these things that sort of changed our decision making. Cheryl Wanko – Professor of English at West Chester University Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you're doing at the conference. So, I'm a professor of English at Westchester University, which is a mid-size regional state institution in Pennsylvania. I've been teaching there since 1993. I was hired teach 18th century British literature, I had a scholarly midlife crisis and I'm now slowly turning my research and teaching interests to teaching sustainability. So that's why I'm here. You're speaking at the conference as well and you're talking about incorporating sustainability into the curriculum. Tell us a little bit about that and how you're working on that at Westchester. So, a group of folks back in 2016 decided that they wanted to build on some prior efforts of bringing in experts to talk about sustainability in the curriculum and we wanted to then do it in house. So. We designed this program that we called the Brandywine Project. Brandywine is our region, and there's the Brandywine River that runs through it, so it's place-based education. We decided to design a two day workshop for faculty, in which faculty would work on their syllabus and then submit them at the end of the semester so that we would make sure that we're infusing sustainability content across the curriculum. So my colleague, Eliza, and I ran this two day workshop in January and then reviewed the syllabus at the end of the summer. So, this is one of the ways in which we're trying to infuse sustainability and one of the major ways in which I'm involved campus wide in this effort. A lot of great work happening around incorporating sustainability into the curriculum. AASHE obviously is a great resource for that. I understand this is your first time at AASHE conference. What are your impressions on the conference and are you learning anything else about how others are doing what you're trying to do? Well, this is my first day at the conference and I have to admit looking at the agenda of all the sessions, it's overwhelming but then it's just so encouraging to see so many people in so many ways at so many institutions working on sustainability projects. So, that's my initial response to the conference - it's just an embarrassment of riches. I'm so looking forward to spending the next two days exploring this. We were assigned to present with another group from the University of Kentucky, and so they were in our session and it was so wonderful to hear this completely different way of approaching training faculty and helping faculty see how sustainability can work in their disciplines and their classrooms. So, we were able to and contrast, share strategies and share results in order to improve both of our workshops at our two campuses. Sustainability Employee Discussion on Carbon Offsets and Sequestration Is anybody right incorporating sequestration into their greenhouse gas inventory? Not in our inventory but we do it through our carbon offset projects. So, I work within the Office of Sustainability for Carbon Offsets Initiative and we've enabled like 6,000 to 10,000 trees to be planted throughout the US and we've developed our own offset protocol to try to keep these projects local. So, the way we do the measurement is we engage a peer institution to come take a look at our projects. So, we planted a thousand trees in Durham partnering with Delta Airlines last year and we had American University come verify the number of trees that were planted. As those trees grow, we get other peer institutions to come verify and evaluate the growth of those trees. Duke has a massive forest, I think it's about 6,000 or 7,000 acres of forest and we've actually developed guidance material on carbon sinks that is on our website that I'd invite you to take a look at. We don't count the forest in our emissions footprint, because to do that inventory would be pretty substantial and expensive and we don't consider that to an additional impact on climate change. So, there's no plan for removing that forest and there's a lot of academic value that's gained from having that forest currently. So, when we were initially looking at our climate action plan we were considering, "Well if we just count this forest, we're carbon neutral already, but nothing was going to happen to it." So, there's sort of two different options that we present in this guidance document. One is the tree replacement policy and keeping track of how many trees you have on campus, and then if you're replacing trees that are removed for aesthetic reasons, new buildings being constructed or what damage or a storm or something like that. If you're replacing those, that would occur in the business as usual scenario and any trees you plant above and beyond that, you can count those against your emissions footprint. The other option is, you don't have to do a whole campus inventory of all the trees and track that going forward. You can just designate a plot of land and create a learning forest there. So, you have to show that learning forest wouldn't have occurred in business as usual scenarios and then you can measure how much carbon is there and that will actually count as a carbon sink, because it's additional. Daita Serghi – AASHE Manager of Educational Programs Tell us a little bit about what you do at AASHE. So, I am the education programs manager at AASHE and oversee all of our education and professional development offerings. So, everything from the weekly webinars every Wednesdays at 3:00 PM EST, to the in-person workshops, as well as all the sessions at the conference. So, I managed the call for proposals all the way through review, scheduling and then actually being at the conference. That sounds like a lot of work that you're in charge of and we all see the webinars and all of the great educational material that you guys are putting out. So, excellent work on all that. Let's talk a little bit about the conference here - AASHE 2018 in Pittsburgh. Tell us a little bit about what you guys have put together and what people will be experiencing over the next couple days here at AASHE 2018. We're excited to be in Pittsburgh for the second time. This is the first conference where we're coming back to a city. For AASHE 2018, we have over 340 concurrent sessions, twenty workshops and eight films in the film festival - this is a new type of session that we're offering this year. The students enjoyed thirty-four concurrent sessions for the student summit, which is specifically just for students. We had over 400 students attend that today. We're expecting a total of about 2,000 attendees, and 800 of those will be presenters for all those sessions. So, we're excited to be welcoming them. There will be also about 200 posters for the poster session. A lot of stuff, a lot of information, a lot of schools being represented here and a lot of faculty, sustainability professionals and I've seen a lot of students running around. Looks like it's going to be a great week. How about AASHE in general and the work that you're leading at AASHE? What kind of programs are you leading in the educational space and what can we expect in the next year or so from AASHE? Thank you, Josh. That's a great question. I also want to mention one more thing about this year's conference, and that is that we have attendees coming from almost 20 different countries and I think that speaks to the theme of this year's conference that we went global, addressing the sustainability development goals. For next year, we don't know what the theme will be yet, but we do know that we are going to the west coast in Spokane at the end of October next year. So, I'm looking forward to seeing you and everyone who's listening next year. We will have another great conference and hopefully at least as many sessions and people attending. AASHE in general, we have another full schedule of webinars. We are continuing to plan for the Centers for Sustainability Across the Curriculum Workshops. We have partnered with fourteen different institutions to run curriculum workshops for faculty. Anyone is welcome to attend and this will be posted on our website shortly. We have centers from Hong Kong to Hawaii to Canada and throughout the US. So, this is definitely a good resource for faculty to look into. We also have regular in-person workshops. There is also a curriculum leadership workshop that AASHE is running, as well as a workshop for diversity, equity and inclusion and the connection with sustainability. Another one that we invite sustainability professionals, staff or faculty to come to is a three day retreat that hopefully will be hosted in Boulder, Colorado next summer. You had one of those last year, is that right? Yeah, we have had this for three or four years every summer. What kind of things can people expect at that retreat? I've heard a lot about that retreat. Just take last year for instance. What did you guys talk about and what kind of programs are led at that retreat? Yeah, it's a three-day retreat that combines sessions and workshop type of activities with some retreat activities. So, we're trying to also have people relaxed and especially network with a small group that is coming, which is small compared to the conference. It's about 40 to 50 people in general. It's led by Aurora Winslade, director of sustainability at Swarthmore College, and Leith Sharp, who is running the executive program at Harvard. So, they are the ones who designed the agenda, but we do some sessions on how to transform sustainability from the bottom up and top down, and some strategies on working within your institutions to transform our institutions. Everything is on our website. Go under events and education. Dr. Amy Tuininga – Director of the PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies at Montclair State University Why don't you start by telling us a little bit about what you do at Montclair State? I'm the director of the institute as you mentioned. I oversee programs and initiatives for students to engage with faculty and community members and a large range of organizations around sustainability issues involving food, water, energy, any number of different kinds of sustainability initiatives. Some of them include things like our Green Business Recognition program support system. So, in the state of New Jersey there's something called Sustainable Jersey and municipalities can get points and become certified Sustainable Jersey. One of the ways that they can get points is through initiating a green business recognition program that serves small businesses within communities. So, our students go out into several communities throughout the state of New Jersey and help to support those small businesses in becoming more sustainable and identifying initiatives that they can undertake to be more sustainable. We have logos and they get window clings and things that they can market their business as a green business. So, it benefits the business, it generates cost savings for them and then the municipality gets points towards their certification which allows them to apply for other grants for things like solar and EV charging stations in town. You're here promoting some work in the poster program - your Green Teams program. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that? Our Green Teams Program started in 2016 when I started at Montclair State University. We partner teams of undergraduates with corporations and other organizations. The students come from a range of different universities. Last year we had 18 universities participate in the program and students coming from 42 different degree programs. So, it's students from a variety of different disciplines working together on a team, a transdisciplinary team, to address sustainability challenges that corporations like Honeywell and Stryker and Hackensack Meridian Health face. So, the companies apply to the program and they give us a list of deliverables. In some cases, that's a nonprofit or a municipality that's applying. And then we construct the teams. We have a multi-institution review panel, so we have faculty and staff coming from different universities that review the applications. Then there's a cut and certain applicants that make the cut are invited to interview. Then, we have this same team interview the students and the students are offered a position. So, those students that are offered a position, we then construct teams and we maximize diversity. So, diversity in their academic background, in their ethnic background, cultural, in the languages that they speak, the universities that they come from and the disciplines that they represent on the team. Then, we make sure that the composition of that team also has the background to address what it is the companies are asking for. So, some examples of the kinds of things that companies ask us for are helping them put together a dashboard for waste reduction and tracking their waste and waste reduction rates. We did that for Honeywell. We have companies like Earth Friendly Products ask us for assistance with water reduction and reducing the amount of water that they're using in their manufacturing, treating their wastewater and coming up with new methods. We have companies that ask us to help them with their energy such as New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance and Hackensack Meridian Health hospital systems. So, the students do a lot of research. They put together a lot of information for the companies and the companies actually use it. So, you can find on ADP's website or Honeywell's website, information that the students have put together in marketing materials or infographics. We've worked with Prudential Financial global investment management real estate group, to help them put together a Get Green Guide for their property managers. Some of these resources that we've put together now are available on our website, on our resources page. The companies have said that this would be a good resource for other organizations to use and so they've opened it up and made it available to others and so that's growing right now as well. Where can people go check that out online? So, you can go to our website: www.montclair.edu/csam/iss. You'll find information on the green teams and other initiatives that we have there, but our resources page is there as well. You can also find the student application and the corporate organization application is also there. It's great that you're here and able to share that with everyone because that could be a great program for any school. Tell us a little bit about what you're seeing at the conference. We're on the last day of the conference now. What have you experienced and maybe a highlight from the event? I've met a lot of people that are doing similar work. It's a cross cut of people coming from facilities and training programs and administration and faculty, and so it's nice to have that mix. I've been able to network with people at other universities, similar universities that have programs where aspects of them might be things that we want to think about or we can share ideas. So that's great. Then networking pieces is fantastic, and being put in touch with individuals doing similar kinds of things. One of the sessions that I was just at was about Second Nature and the CRUX network, and the campus community partnerships. They discussed how they developed some tools to assess needs within the community, and that's something that we're doing in the city of Newark in New Jersey. So, I'm very interested in the methods and they've made it open source as well. So I'm excited to learn more about CRUX. Approaches to Carbon Offset Procurement Matthew Arsenault – Duke Program Manager of the Carbon Offsets Initiative Sounds like your job specifically relates to the carbon offset initiative and you’re not part of the sustainability office, right? Well, we are in the sustainability office. That seems great because this takes a lot of energy and attention to even learn what is out there. I'm curious if institutions that have set a carbon neutrality goal ever wish they had set some other kind of goal that doesn't require offsets? Maybe this applies to you. You're prioritizing this last chunk of emissions with offsets. Do people feel like their efforts could be better served elsewhere? It's a great question. I think if given the choice for Duke to have our current status quo, which is carbon neutrality by 2024, knowing we're going to lean heavily on offsets in the early term - to have that or the alternate scenario of having a much later carbon neutrality goal, where maybe we can reduce to net zero internally on our own. Given that choice, I think I would have to choose the situation we're in now. We're going to invest in offsetting projects where we're very confident in their legitimacy and doing our due diligence in making sure that we feel really good about them. We're developing some of our own projects that are developing offsets, so we obviously feel very comfortable about those projects. For Duke, I'm happy we have an early neutrality goal, even if it means using offsets, I'm still happy that we have it. John Pumilio – Director of Sustainability at Colgate University The scope one and scope two emissions are pretty straightforward, right? You can measure that with a high level of confidence. When you start getting into the scope three stuff, you're doing surveys and you're doing estimates, and it gets quite murky. We've experienced this over the past 10 years. With our first greenhouse gas inventory, I'm fortunate because I did the first greenhouse gas inventory and now I'm doing year number 10. So I've seen the maturation of how we acquire data and I remember the glazed look in people's eyes when we first came to them, asking for air travel data. The institution had no idea how much we were traveling collectively, not in dollars spent and not in air tickets issued or anything. It was all over the place. We've come a long way since then to get more accurate data. So, our footprint isn't apples to apples. We've gotten a lot better at measuring our data now. I have the economists that I talk to on our campus who vehemently argue that we should not be responsible at all for our scope three emissions. It's scope one and scope two, and we would be crazy to spend any money on offsets or otherwise trying to offset scope three emissions. Then you can imagine people on campus on the other side of things, who want embedded emissions included or the nitrogen footprint included and all of that. So yeah, the perfect can't stand in the way of good. You need to start somewhere and we are higher ed institutions, and we need to be open and welcome to those criticisms and try to figure out the best way forward as leaders.

Expected to draw approximately 2,000 participants, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s (AASHE’s) annual conference is the largest stage in North America to exchange effective models, policies, research, collaborations and transformative actions that advance sustainability in higher education and surrounding communities. The 2018 AASHE Conference will be help October 2-5 in Pittsburgh, PA. In this episode we learn about AASHE and the upcoming AASHE conference by interviewing two members of the AASHE leadership team: Julian Dautremont-Smith, Director of Programs Meghan Fay Zahniser, Executive Director Julian Dautremont-Smith Complete Interview: Tell us a little bit about your personal life and what led you to be doing the work that you're doing today? I got into this work really in high school. I got really interested in sustainability. I picked Lewis and Clark College in Portland based on Portland's reputation as a real sustainability leader. When I arrived at college, I got involved in a number of efforts to improve sustainability on the campus and did a greenhouse gas inventory with an economics professor. And this was before it was very common. We published a guide that others have used now on how to do a campus level greenhouse gas inventory. It's obviously outdated, but that was really my start in looking at campus greenhouse gas emissions. I also led this campaign to buy offsets to make the college meet the Kyoto protocols targets as a campus. Anyway, that was my first foray into the campus sustainability world. As a result of that experience, I was at the founding meeting for what became AASHE, and so I've been involved, in some way, from the beginning. After I graduated from college, I went abroad for a year and when I came back, I was lucky enough to get a position with AASHE. I was the second employee and worked with AASHE for five years before leaving for Grad school at University of Michigan. Then I worked for a couple of years as a chief sustainability officer at Alfred State College in upstate New York. I worked for a year at a consulting firm that does sustainability in higher ed before coming back to AASHE in my current role as director of programs. Anybody who's working in sustainability in higher education is definitely familiar with the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). But give us just a real quick overview of AASHE and what kind of work you're leading. AASHE grew out of another organization called Second Nature, which is another organization that does a lot of work in this space. They got a grant to create a western regional network around 2002. They brought together a meeting of people who are active in campus sustainability. I went to that meeting as a student and formed this regional network. Over time we realized there was a need for an international association or professional association for sustainability practitioners in higher ed, which is different than what Second Nature was doing. So we expanded our scope and became independent and held the first conference in 2006. Our main role is really that professional association type of work. We do all kinds of things to help members learn from one another, and that really is our core work, is connecting members to one another so they don't have to reinvent the wheel on their own campuses. So, the conference is a key part of that. We do regular webinars and workshops that provide other opportunities for members to connect. We have an online resource center. We do an awards program to recognize particularly strong work. And then our flagship program is something called STARS, the Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System. It's a tool that colleges and universities use to measure their sustainability performance and report on it. So all the reports are public and you can see how an institution scored the way they did. You provide a whole bunch of information and that translates to a score that then translates to a rating. So, you can be a STARS Gold or STARS Silver campus, similar to the LEED standard in that respect. A lot of great programs being led at AASHE. The STARS program has been very successful. I remember taking Hawaii Pacific University through that assessment when I was there back in 2012. Let's talk about the AASHE conference today. When's the conference coming up and where's it going to be and what can attendees expect? Conference is going to be October 2-5 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this year. The goal when we put this conference on is to provide thought provoking and empowering sessions on the full range of topics in campus sustainability. Everything from curriculum to engagement to waste reduction to diversity. We really try to have a comprehensive view of sustainability, and we want attendees to walk away both with new ideas as well as knowledge of how to implement those ideas. The conference is structured around that. So, you'll have an opportunity to hear from several hundred campuses on the work that they're doing and how you might be able to do something similar at your campus. And would you say it is geared more towards students, faculty, staff, or kind of a mix of all? It's really a mix. Part of our role is trying to make sure those different stakeholder groups are working together and there has been, unfortunately, kind of a divide in many ways between the academic community and the operational community. But we see real benefits to greater collaboration. And so at our conference, we really do try to bring both groups together. Students obviously are key drivers of sustainability in many campuses, so having them come in and empowering them is also a key goal of the event. That said, the core group of people who come to the conferences, are probably the paid sustainability staff - someone who's hired by an institution of higher ed to work on sustainability. But we do have a good number of faculty and students as well, a smattering of administrators in other roles in higher ed and then a good chunk of business representatives and nonprofit representatives that work with higher ed institutions on sustainability in some way. Do you know about how many people you can expect this year or how many people came last year? We typically attract a somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,800 folks. So, somewhere in that neighborhood. We have been as high as 2,400. It varies from year to year depending on the location and a variety of factors, but somewhere in that ballpark. So it's a pretty big event. The very first AASHE conference I went to was in Pittsburgh. So excited to have it be held back in Pittsburgh again. A great city and a lot of good sustainability work happening throughout that city as well. Are there tours or anything associated with the conference? There are several. We actually picked Pittsburgh because the convention center itself has a really strong sustainability program, which is something we look for. But in terms of the tours, some of them are focused on the campuses that we work with. So there's a tour of a Carnegie Mellon, Chatham university has a tour of Eden Hall campus, where the whole campus is dedicated to sustainable living. So that's one I think is going to be particularly interesting. University of Pittsburgh's got a tour as well. There is also a tour of the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden. They have a LEED platinum building there and it's just a great site to go see. Julian, so the students, faculty and staff, if you were talking to them right now, what would you say the benefits are of the conference? Benefits are actually pretty similar for all three groups. What we hear a lot is just knowing that you're not alone. Many folks who come to our conference are sustainability change agents, but they're the kind of isolated on their campus in many cases and there's not that many of them. So, coming to our conference is an opportunity to see there are people like you on campuses across the country, and then you get to share with them what you're working on, what your challenges are, discuss common challenges and hopefully work out a solution together. Besides meeting other folks in the field, the other main benefit is really learning from them. We really put together a program that's designed to help build those connections and bring people into connection with leading work that's happening on campuses across the country, so they can do something similar on their campus. There really is an intent not just to like go and listen, but to get some guidance on how to do something on your own campus. One of the biggest benefits I saw was just the networking and the people that you meet. If you're a student interested in sustainability and interested in a career in sustainability, this is just an amazing conference to make contacts. I mentioned Pittsburgh was the first AASHE conference I went to, I think it was 2011, and still to this day I have friends that I met at that conference and actually have a call with one of them later today to talk about some composting projects. From all the conferences that I've gone to in corporate sustainability, higher education, government sustainability, I think AASHE has been the most valuable to me as far as making contacts and making connections that I still keep in touch with. So a huge benefit and a lot of great things to look forward to in October. We're going to end on our final five questions. What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? In the past couple of years, I started gardening. More than anything I've done, gardening helped to make systems thinking applicable for me. So, in addition to the social, environmental and health benefits of growing your own food, I think there's a really amazing learning opportunity. Just really trying to think through the natural systems that operate in your own backyard and how to work with them to grow food. It's been a tremendous learning opportunity for me that goes well beyond what I learned in several classes on systems thinking and related topics in my graduate program. So I've become a big promoter of gardening as a teaching tool. That's a great point. It reminds me of a previous conversation I've had. One of our past episodes of Sustainable Nation was with Matt Lynch who is the Sustainability Coordinator for the University of Hawaii system. He's a permaculture expert and he made some really great points in that interview about using permaculture skills and systems thinking that he learned from permaculture, and how that helps in his job leading sustainability in a large organization. So, definitely would recommend people check out that interview. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I went to a conference earlier this year, put on by the New Economy Coalition, in which AASHE is a member. A lot of work happening in the US around the solidarity economy and trying to redesign economic systems to be more democratic, more just and more sustainable. It blew me away. I was intellectually aware of some of that work, but seeing all of it come together in this conference was really exciting. What I like about it is that it's really about trying to build alternative institutions and have models for what it is we're trying to move towards. I think that is really powerful. Trying to think through, "What would a more democratic, just and sustainable economy look like? How would it work?" I really recommend folks check out New Economy Coalition. They're doing really exciting work. What is one book you'd recommend sustainability leaders read? Don't read the book, read the article instead. Reading widely is really important and trying to understand different perspectives. We all face information overload and I find that in most cases, reading the article or report is going to be more effective than reading the full book because you can read many articles in the same time as it takes to read a single book. Oftentimes, especially with nonfiction, if I read a dozen articles instead of the book, I come away with a more nuanced understanding as a result. So, I really recommend trying to get a diversity of input and perhaps focusing less on the full book. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? Recently I've been really impressed with a magazine called Current Affairs. Content is always sharp, funny and insightful. It's really helped clarify my thinking on a whole range of big picture issues. So, really strongly recommend folks check out Current Affairs. The other person that comes to mind that I really enjoy reading is David Roberts at Vox website. He's consistently illuminating on energy and climate issues, and I'm always eager to get his take on the latest policy proposals or report that comes out on energy and climate issues. And finally where can our listeners go to learn more about you, your work and the upcoming AASHE Conference and Expo? Everything you could want to know about AASHE is all accessible via our website. It's aashe.org. If you want to follow me, I am on Twitter and my handle is just @JuliandSmith. Meghan Fay Zahniser Complete Interview: Give us a little background on your professional life and what led you to be doing the work that you're doing today? I've been fortunate to have been doing sustainability work my entire career, for 20 years at this point. I started doing sustainability work as an undergraduate student at the University of Buffalo. I went to a meeting about an internship to do a waste audit of the campus and essentially that's what turned my whole life and guided my whole career. So, I spent three years at the university. My title then was environmental educator, but I was a part of a team that created what's now their sustainability office. That was back in the late 1990's. I then had the good fortune of joining the US Green Building Council before anyone knew what the US Green Building Council was. That was back in 2002. I was the 10th employee at the organization, which now has hundreds of staff. So, I rode this early wave of green building and supported the growth of the local chapter movement. I was there for almost six years and then moved to Philly where I had a short stint in the for-profit world doing some LEED consulting and education before I really came running back to the world of nonprofit. I've been with AASHE for almost 10 years now. I've held a few different positions within the organization, including STARS program manager and then overseeing all of our programs as director of programs. I have now been the executive director for almost four years. With our podcast, we interview sustainability leaders in business, government and higher education. Pretty much everybody in higher education is always talking about AASHE. Myself, having worked in sustainability in higher education, I also quickly realized the importance of being engaged with AASHE and the resources you provide. So, before we dive into that and dive into the conference, I'd love to hear your perspective on the importance of the sustainability movement in higher education. It's a really big task that we have in higher education lead the sustainability transformation. That's where AASHE had this vision that if we could have every graduating student from a college or university equipped with the knowledge, the tools and the skills that they need to be able to address sustainability challenges, regardless of their career path, then perhaps we'll be able to create this sustainable world that we're all really hoping for. So, we see higher education as such an opportunity for us to really create that transformation, and not just within the operational components of campuses, but really the opportunity is within crafting and molding the minds of these students that are going to learn and having a sustainability understanding, awareness of the depletion of natural resources as well as the integration of economic and social factors including equity and social justice. We're really hoping that if students are equipped and have that understanding and knowledge base upon graduating from their college or university, that we will be able to see a much faster revolution in terms of this sustainable world that we want to live in. With many of the people I interview, we talk a lot about the UN Sustainable Development Goals and how those are being incorporated in government work, in corporations and how they are aligning their strategy with the SDG's. How is this happening in higher education? How are universities and colleges using or adopting those UN Sustainable Development Goals or helping society in general move towards those goals? From our perspective at AASHE, we felt it was really our responsibility to highlight the SDG's so that there are a lot more support of the sustainable development goals within higher education. I've had the good fortune of being able to travel outside of the United States a few different times in the past year, and the frame that is used in talking about sustainability has been the SDG's and that hasn't necessarily been my experience within the United States since the SDG's launched just a few years ago. But we're really hoping to change that and certainly I think there are a number of different campuses that see the SDG's as such a phenomenal teaching tool for students to help give them a broad and deep understanding of what is sustainability. And certainly that was what brought us to wanting to highlight the SDG's as our theme for our conference this year so that we can bring to light a bit more about these global goals and how countries, and various sectors even outside of higher education, are looking to champion the SDG's. I think higher education has an opportunity not only for advancing SDG's, but higher education really has a role in every single one of the 17 goals. Because we're looking to create the leaders of tomorrow in higher education, there's an opportunity for higher ed specifically to play a role in advancing every single one of the SDG's. So, hopefully our conference and bringing the SDG's to a priority within the AASHE community, I'm hoping to see a lot more enthusiasm and support for an advancement of the SDG's. Speaking of the conference October 2nd through the 5th in Pittsburgh, that city is doing a lot of great work around sustainability so it's great you have some tours lined up. But I want to hear what you are looking forward to. What are you excited about for this upcoming conference? It's a great question and I would say, across all of the staff, the AASHE conference is really like the shot in the arm that we need to continue to feel really motivated and advance all of the efforts that we're doing to try and support our members. I think at our heart, what we try and do as an organization is we really are a convener. We're bringing folks together, and just by providing this space for these few thousand people to come and talk about sustainability in higher education, the ripple effects just by bringing folks together is absolutely tremendous. So frankly, what I get most excited about is that energy that I get and I know that the rest of the staff get as well from our members coming together to talk through challenges, to talk through opportunities to talk through lessons learned and shared experiences. Especially in this day and age when there's no shortage of huge challenges that our world is facing, having like-minded folks coming together to support one another, commiserate with each other is a really, really helpful and nurturing environment. Every year here's at least somebody that comes up to me that I usually don't know, who just says, "Thank you for doing what you do at AASHE.". Because again, we just provide this great opportunity for our members and those change agents at universities and colleges throughout the world. These individuals come to the AASHE conference, they get a shot of inspiration and motivation so they can go back to their campuses and keep doing the good work that they're doing. So, I'm most excited just to be able to connect with our members. For those who have never been to an AASHE conference, could you just give a high level overview of what the conference looks like? Is it a lot of keynotes or a lot of breakout sessions? What does a typical AASHE conference look like? You can expect a couple of different keynotes for sure. Lots of exhibit hall time - meeting with our vendors, the exhibitors, the businesses and nonprofit organizations that come to talk within the trade show. Certainly, there are a lot of concurrent sessions. I'd say on the positive side there are so many different tracks that we are offering and there's something for everybody. The downside being that we often hear the complaint that there's too many good things happening at once. So, that's a tricky challenge there, but you can expect a lot of opportunities for concurrent sessions, educational opportunities, tours, pre-conference, post-conference workshops, a couple of different keynotes and certainly a lot of time in the exhibit hall. But we're also really trying to be mindful of getting folks outside and wanting to have an experience within the city that we're visiting and trying to incorporate some wellness activities. We have yoga and we've done yoga a several different years in a row now. We're trying to get some different activities outside. I think folks can expect a conference with a lot of content, a lot of opportunities for networking and really a conference that's trying to reflect the values that we hold dearly, and offering a lot of different opportunities for not just wellness but really trying to minimize our own sustainability impact through offsets, a vegetarian menu etc. So, we're really trying to make sure that our conference is representative of our values and an opportunity for folks to learn a lot but also have some fun. Having too many good sessions is a good problem to have. I've looked through all of those sessions and I would agree that there's a lot of great content that's going to be available and anybody who's working in sustainability in higher education, you're going to find something that you’re interested in. There's so many different ideas and topics that are going to be discussed. So very much looking forward to that conference. Again, October 2nd through the 5th. We're going to jump into our final five questions if you're ready. What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? So, I'll just reflect on my own experience. I am somebody that wants to continue learning throughout my career and I've had a number of different trainings that I've attended. The piece that I continue to find incredibly valuable is communications training. Especially given the sustainability work we're doing, we're trying to change mindsets, we're trying to change behavior and with that I think comes a requirement to have some skill around communicating. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I think the fact that there is a lot of emphasis on equity and social justice, and the interconnection with sustainability. I think there's still the challenge of hearing the term "sustainability" and equating that with operational components - waste reduction, water reduction etc. But the reality of all of those things being really important, but the social and economic dimensions of sustainability being as important and the emphasis that AASHE has been trying to place on the equity and social justice pieces of sustainability. The fact that that's not unique to AASHE is really exciting to me because I think making the sustainability movement more personal and having it not just to be about the polar bears, that of course we are concerned about, but making it much more relatable within our communities, I'm really pleased that conversation is happening much more so now. What is the one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? In my career of trying to get people to function at our best selves and to be highly effective people, a lot of the trainings that I've done and that I've experienced a lot of benefit from, and the books that I've read, come back to how I've improved my own communications. So, Difficult Conversations is a book that I have found really helped me in trying to become a better leader and communicator. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that help you in your work? There's plenty of other nonprofit organizations out there that I look to as examples or models of how are they trying to create more value for their community, or how are they trying to be bold and inspiring to their community. But I think also just within myself to stay motivated and stay inspired, it's really a lot of focus on self-care and a lot of running. When asking about what resources I use, running and meditation are a go-to. So while it's not necessarily something you'd Google, and we try and do this a lot at AASHE, is really to try and pay a lot more attention to our health and wellbeing by prioritizing health and wellbeing. I'm hoping our staff, and anybody that we're working with, is able to be that much more of an effective human. So, those are a couple of my own tools that I use for juggling work life balance, but in addition certainly there's a number of other organizations out there that I'd like to look to and see how they're continuing to try advance the sustainability agenda. Where can our listeners go to learn more about AASHE and learn about the AASHE conference? The AASHE website for sure, aashe.org. That's the place where you can go find more about what we do, our conference, our programs, the STARS rating system, which is probably one of our most popular resources. We have an online resource center and a whole bunch of information that you can find on our website that I think will be useful to anyone in sustainability in higher education, whether it's faculty, staff, students, or senior leaders.  

Mick Dalrymple and the team at University Sustainability Practices help the Arizona State University community reach their ambitious internal sustainability goals. Mick is a seasoned leader, communicator, and educator in multiple fields who connects stakeholders and technical experts to get positive impact work done, successfully. He managed Arizona State University's inter-disciplinary research and marketing work for the three-year, $27M Energize Phoenix program. Dalrymple, a produced, feature-film screenwriter, frequently authors articles and serves as a media resource and public speaker on sustainability topics. Committed to sustainability improvements in his personal life, he continues to remodel his 1975 home towards net zero energy, minimal waste, food production and reduced water usage. The Business Journal of Phoenix named him Green Pioneer in 2009 for his national and local contributions to the sustainability movement. Mick Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: The history of sustainability leadership at Arizona State University Focusing on behavior change to achieve climate goals Moving towards climate positive and regenerative strategies ASU's Circular Resource goals Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Mick's Final Five Question Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I would say always look for the unintended consequence and for the stakeholder that you're not envisioning. Who's affected by the system that you're analyzing and you're not thinking of? Because that's the thing that's always going to trip you up. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? You touched on regenerative design and I'm really into regenerative and also into biomimicry. I just think if nature has got 3.8 million years of R&D, we should be tapping into that rather than trying to pretend we're creating everything ourselves. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? I have no time to read it. If I sit down and read for five minutes, I'm asleep. And so I've got literally 20 books stacked on my nightstand all the way back to Ecology of Commerce that I still have not gotten through because of this lack of sleep. I have so much to do or just running so fast that I can read magazines and articles on the web all the time, but cannot get through books. But Paul Hawken's new book Drawdown is good. I've seen Paul present on that and that to me is the type of work that we need right now - let's take all the pieces apart and figure out how can we address each of these individual pieces and in which ones are the most important to focus on. That's the most practical book right now that we can be looking at. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in the work that you do? I actually have been spending more time lately on the green schools listserv that Brown University keeps, as well as AASHE's new communication platform, because that is something where my peers are out there and for the first two and a half years of this job I was so much in a tunnel just trying to take hold of the fire hose. I'm now starting to look out more at what my peers are doing. Those are fantastic resources to just find out what other universities are doing and what challenges they're having that maybe we can help out with. And then the other one that I'm very involved with is the International Living Future Institute. I think the Living Building Challenge and the Living Community Challenge are really where we need to go. It's all about regenerative design and regenerative thinking and systems thinking. And that's where I go also to get recharged every year is go to the Living Future Unconference. It is very uplifting because our profession can be very draining. So you're going there and being amongst kindred spirits and really kind of talking about successes and failures and challenges and things you've gone through together. It's s a fantastic way to get recharged for the next year. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work that you're leading at ASU? Well, if you go to cfo.asu.edu, and then look for the sustainability tab. That is kind of the gateway to get you to what we're doing. And we do report to the CFO, or under the business services arm of the university, which is a little bit unique I think. But it's a great place to be. And being under the CFO keeps you grounded in the economics of everything at the same time.

Ann Erhardt is currently Chief Sustainability Officer for campus facilities and Director of Strategic Initiatives at Michigan State University. After serving 4 years as Director of Campus Sustainability at Michigan State University, her focused changed to a more strategic role that concentrates on core business integration of sustainability into all infrastructure systems. Formerly the Director of Energy Programs for the West Michigan Environmental Action Council, Ann received her sustainable business/environmental science degree and masters of management and organizational leadership from Aquinas College. She also achieved an advanced study certificate in design and innovation from Ferris State University. Ann‘s 12+ years of experience in the sustainability field and her contagious passion for sustainability make her an invaluable resource and natural leader. Ann has built collaborative relationships with key leaders in administrative and academic divisions as well as external organizations and developed and implemented communications, outreach, and marketing strategies resulting in widespread campus participation in energy conservation and waste reduction initiatives. She effectively engages and brings together diverse stakeholders to implement sustainability best practices and cross disciplinary programs. Ann Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: The importance of systems thinking skills in sustainability leadership Adaptive operating systems in sustainability Using AASHE STARS to guide sustainability reporting Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Ann's Final Five Question Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? More anecdotally, I'd tell them to be open minded and bring their passion to their work. I think also it's good to have a specialty. If someone's really passionate about food systems, focus on food systems and come to the table with that. There aren't many generalists out there, or positions for generalists like myself. I'm kind of Jack of all trades, basically, but I think it's good to know you have a specific passionate interest in one area, whether it's an industry or topic, and focus on that. You'll find the connections through that. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? Two things. I'm really excited about this We're Still In movement. As you know, the United States has pulled out of a lot of these commitments globally, but there are so many universities and organizations that are part of this We're Still In movement and still committed to climate goals and making change. I think that's really exciting. I'm also really excited about the talk of SDG, sustainable development goals, in higher ed. That's been around for awhile, but more conversations within higher ed, or how to apply those on campus and use that as a baseline for moving forward. So, finally seeing this larger impact of what we're doing beyond our own community. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? One of the seminal books that I read years ago that got me hooked, was by Daniel Pink called A Whole New Mind. I do read a lot of texts on sustainability and trends, but the systems thinking and how to approach problems from a different perspective is so important. I read that book and it really changed my perspective on what I do and how I do it. So I definitely recommend most of Daniel Pink's book, but specifically that one. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in the work that you do? Reading and networking. I read a lot of magazines, not just sustainability, but Harvard Business Review, books on engagement, leadership development and all of this ties in. I'm also part of several organizations including AASHE, the Association for Climate Change Officers and the International Society for Sustainability Professionals are just a wealth of resources and contacts. Even more valuable are the people I've gotten to know in this industry because they're always providing insights, information and best practices and just kind of developing this next level of awareness to sustainability. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work that you're leading at MSU? Our main website is msu.edu, but our sustainability page is sustainability.msu.edu, where you'll see a lot of what we're doing from a campus perspective. I also suggest our facilities website, which is ipf.msu.edu, which really gets into the sustainability infrastructure that we're working on. So there's a lot of layers, a lot of places to find information. I am also found on Linkedin, and will connect and be happy to answer any other further questions that anybody has. Contact Ann Erhardt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-erhardt-mm-issp-sa-362b9212/ Contact Josh Prigge: https://www.sustridge.com/

Today we have a special episode of Sustainable Nation. We're talking sustainability in sports and the PAC-12 Sustainability Conference. Consistent with its reputation as the conference of champions, the PAC-12 is the first collegiate sports conference to convene a high level symposium focused entirely on integrating sustainability into college athletics and across college campuses. All of the PAC-12 athletic departments have committed to measuring their environmental performance, developing strategies and goals to reduce their impact and monitoring their progress in engaging fans and communities in greener practices. The PAC-12 sustainability conference signals in elevated approach to enhancing sustainability efforts within collegiate athletics departments, designing new collective initiatives and sharing best practices to transform college sports into a platform for environmental progress. Today we're interviewing two members of the PAC-12 sustainability conference committee, Dave Newport and Jamie Zaninovich. Jamie Zaninovich - Jamie joined the PAC-12 Conference as Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer in July of 2014. He's responsible for all aspects of the PAC-12's administrative operations, including television administration, sports management, championships, football bowl relationships, PAC-12 global, compliance and officiating. During his first two years at the PAC-12, Jamie helped guide the conference through unprecedented governance changes, major increases in its international efforts, and continued high level success of its 23 sponsored sports. Dave Newport - Dave launched the first US college sports sustainability activation with corporate partnership for the Florida Gators when he was the University of Florida's director of sustainability in 2002. Later he became director of the University of Colorado Boulder Environmental Center and founded the nation's first comprehensive NCAA Division One sports sustainability program, Ralphie's Green Stampede. Dave is also secretary of the Green Sports Alliance board of directors, former board secretary of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, an award winning publisher and editor and a former elected county commission board chairman. Jamie Zaninovich Jamie Zaninovich. Welcome to Sustainable Nation. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me, Josh. Looking forward to it. I gave the listeners some background on your professional life but tell us a little bit about your personal life and what led you to be doing the work you're doing today. College sports has been a passion of mine since my early days in Eugene, Oregon where I was a faculty brat, son of a faculty member who played basketball in college back in the day and used to take me to all the games at the old historic Matt Court and Autzen Stadium in Eugene as a kid. So that's really where my passion for collegiate athletics started, and I was not a good enough to be a collegiate student athlete, so of course, decided to be an administrator instead. That's how it works. I've spent the last 25 years working both on campus and in college athletic conferences starting at Stanford and then Princeton University, and now here at the PAC-12 for the past four years. Like I said, it's a passion of mine as is sustainability, so we're really excited that we're at least making some progress in putting those two things together here at the PAC-12. And now the PAC-12 Sustainability Conference coming up in July. Really the first sustainability focused conference put on by a collegiate sports conference, the PAC-12. Tell us a little bit about how that came about and what people can expect at this year's PAC-12 Sustainability Conference. It's really a reflection of our 12 schools who have taken a leadership position in sustainability, and sports sustainability more specifically, in the collegiate space. So when I came to the PAC-12 four years ago, Dave Newport is the sustainability director at Colorado, showed up on our doorstep and said, "Hey, I'm not sure if you knew this, but all 12 of our PAC-12 schools are members of the Green Sports Alliance. That's the only conference in the country that that's the case and you guys should really look at doing something in this space." So, we said, "Yeah, this is interesting." Myself and Gloria Nevarez, who formerly worked at the PAC-12, both have a passion for sustainability having grown up on the west coast. We sort of took Dave's lead. The PAC-12 at that point joined the Green Sports Alliance and started looking at what a plan could be for us to take a leadership position, really reflecting what our schools have already done. So we created an informal working group within our schools of sustainability officers and athletics department reps. They suggested having a first of its kind conference, so we did that last year in Sacramento at the LEED platinum Golden One Arena just ahead of the GSA annual conference, and that went very well. From there we started thinking about do we do this again and what could come next? So we'll have our second event this year in Boulder, July 12th. It's going to be a great group of on campus athletics reps, sustainability professionals and industry folks. We have some really great panels lined up including two former NBA players, in Jason Richardson and Earl Watson, two former gold medalists, in Arielle Gold who just won gold in snowboarding at the Olympics - he's a Colorado grad. And Mary Harvey, who's a former goalkeeper for the University of California, who's an Olympic gold medalist for the USA. She has also headed up, which is now a successful, 2026 World Cup North America endeavor, and she's heading up their sustainability areas. So, we're going to have some awesome panels. The folks that I mentioned will be augmented by programmers on our campuses that have submitted proposals in the areas of fan engagement, student athlete engagement in sustainability, and it's going to be a full day of great best practice sharing, networking and hopefully a lot of learning to move forward what is an important initiative. That's very exciting. Jamie, this is bringing together my two greatest passions in life, the environment and sports. So, I love what you guys are doing and really excited to be there on July 12th. Why have these professional athletes and gold medalists speak? What do you think that sustainability professionals or campus leaders can learn from these accomplished athletes? I think the philosophy of purpose plus sport, and the power of that, has never been more relevant than today with some of the societal challenges that we face. I think those in the sports industry, college or professional, understand that with privilege comes responsibility, right? And if you have the opportunity to make a positive difference, such as those that have had made their living in doing something like sports, then there is a kind of an obligation to find a way to give back. And I think the environment is very front and center. In a lot of respects, it's almost a bulletproof cause and those are sort of hard to find these days. It's one of those causes were there may be some people on the other side, but in general everybody's for a sustainable future. So I think those are the elements that sort of have gotten this into it and I think are there reasons why we're getting at least some attention, still very early days for us, but some attention from folks that want to be involved in it as an endeavor. At last year's conference you had basketball legend, Bill Walton, speaking at the event. If anybody has seen him speak, Bill is very passionate person. At the conference last year, Bill said, "Sustainability is good policy, good economics, and it's good for all of us." From a chief operating officer perspective, can you tell us why sustainability is good for business in the PAC-12? I'm very much a believer in this notion of both doing good and doing well. I think for a long time, issues of social based programs, whether it's sustainability or otherwise, have sort of been perceived as cost centers. Right? Here's something you spend money on and you measure it in the value of maybe the positive PR you get. But what I'm learning, and I think we'll have some interesting news around this at our conference, just to tease that a little bit, is the commercial value around this space in sustainability and purpose based sponsorship and engagement more broadly is robust. And so if you could find the right partners that align with your values, you can drive great commercial value to them and to you, whether that's endemic partners that might be specifically involved in sustainability, or just the DNA of some larger corporations that understand that this is important for the future. I think this has never been more relevant. And what we're seeing in our campuses is this is really market driven. There are students coming to our campuses are not saying, "Oh great, there's a recycling banner. Oh cool, we have solar panels." They are saying, "Hey, where are the solar panels? Where are the recycling bins. We expect this. This is our generation speaking." So part of this is really serving that market as well and aligning interest that way. Absolutely great points. And I think you can kind of see that happening in professional sports. Some of these leagues like the NHL a NASCAR are really stepping out and leading in sustainability. It's pretty clear that they understand the long-term business benefits of sustainability and visible sustainability programs. Is the PAC-12 conference looking towards those professional sports leagues and learning from what they're doing? I think certainly. I think they've taken the lead with their green platforms. I think we want to learn from what they've done and put it in the appropriate context for collegiate, which is similar yet different. But I think one of the advantages we have, honestly, is we have these great institutions that are leaders in research and thought leadership. And it's really about leveraging the power of our campuses around this because they tend to be where great ideas start. In our case we happen to have 12 elite research institutions all in the western part of the United States, in centers of innovation. We want to align what we do with their DNA. So we see that as a real opportunity, If anyone is interested in learning more or attending the PAC-12 Sustainability Conference, where can they go check that out? So just go a PAC-12sustainabilityconference.com or put it in Google and the website will come up. You'll get the full program there. You can register online. We have hotel partnerships in Boulder that are available and we hope to see everybody there. I think this is a really unique space and it's going to be another great conversation. Last year we had an oversubscribed room and Bill wowed them last year. He's a great ambassador. Bill won't be there this year, we're giving them a year off. But we do have some exciting speakers as I mentioned before, and look for a reasonably big announcement in the sustainability space at the conference as well. So I'll tease that up. That's exciting. Jamie, we like to end the interview with a final five questions. What is one piece of advice you would give sustainability leaders? Think big and expand who your partners could be. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I think this notion that we can create a commercially viable platforms that bring together sustainability partners and athletics leagues and teams and schools. How about a book recommendation? Do you have one book you could recommend for sustainability professionals or other professionals? Well, this is a little bit off the radar and it's probably been read by most, but Cadillac Desert is one of my favorite books related to sustainability and the history of water in the western US. So that's a must read. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that you use that really help you in your work? I think it's just people. I'll go back to finding the right partners. Our best resources are our best thinkers and our best people, and that's why our campuses are so valuable to us. Whether it's student athletes, sustainability professionals, university athletic directors etc. And finally, we mentioned where people can go to learn about the conference, anywhere else you'd like to send people where they can learn more about you and the work that you're leading the PAC-12, We have a PAC-12.com website and I'd also encourage people to tune into our PAC-12 networks, which is linked from there. We have a lot of great stuff in terms of what we're involved in, including soon, a link to our sustainability platform. Jamie, I'm very much looking forward to the conference in July and that big announcement. I think everyone's excited about that now. It's so great to hear about the wonderful things the PAC-12 Conference is leading in sustainability. It's just so important to have that top-level support when committing to sustainability, so it's great to hear from you and hear about your passion. Thank you for making the world a better place, Jamie. Well, thank you. And thanks to people like yourself and Sustainable Nation for making this publicly available. We really need that contagion to catch on in this area even more to do well this way. Dave Newport Our next guest is Dave Newport. Dave launched the first US college sports sustainability activation with corporate partnership for the Florida Gators when he was the University of Florida's director of sustainability in 2002. Later he became director of the University of Colorado Boulder Environmental Center and founded the nation's first comprehensive NCAA Division One sports sustainability program, Ralphie's Green Stampede. Dave is also secretary of the Green Sports Alliance board of directors, former board secretary of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, an award winning publisher and editor and a former elected county commission board chairman. Dave Newport, thank you for joining us. It's great to have you on to chat about the PAC-12 Sustainability Conference, which we'll get to in a second, but first tell us a little bit about you. I gave an introduction on your professional life but tell us a little bit about your personal life and what led you to be doing the work you're doing today. Well, I guess most people in sustainability come from very diverse backgrounds in terms of their career and their interests, and I'm certainly no exception. I've been a little bit in the environmental arena, one way, shape or form, for a long time. I think personally, what led me to sports sustainability is the inevitable search for leverage. That is, what's the multiplier effect of the work you do? How many people does it affect? How many people can it potentially effect? And of course, sports, there's no bigger platform on the planet then sports. So moving into sustainability in sports was natural from that analytical point of view for me personally and professionally, but like yourself, Josh, I grew up playing sports. I love sports and love sustainability, so let's combine fun with work and boom, here we are. That's what got me here. That's great. And I understand it all kind of started down in Florida when you were at the University of Florida, director of sustainability, you launched the first US college sports sustainability activation with a corporate partnership for the Florida Gators. Tell us how that came about and how it all started for you. Yeah, that was cool. It was 2002, and I was getting the sustainability program running on the giant University of Florida campus. Had lot of support and a great president to work with, and one day said, "Hey, let's see what we can do in The Swamp, the Florida field. I mean, there's no bigger icon of American College football, then Florida Field and Florida Gators, and we can make a statement that would be great." I went to see the athletic director, Jeremy Foley, a legendary AD for Florida, and he liked it. He didn't see any downside to it, but what we'll do is due diligence as smart guys do. And so he pulled a lot of people and talked it all through. He said, "Yep, let’s go with it and we're going to reach out to our fanbase well in advance and let them know what's going on." So he put in place a great communications effort. The corporate partner at the time was a petroleum marketer. So talk about our odd bedfellows, but it was a petroleum marketing company that has a series of stores across the Southeast and the Midwest, and as far as Texas, called Kangaroo stores. They had a very progressive CEO who was trying to move basically out of the oil business and into the renewable energy business, believe it or not. So they wanted to do build some stores in the Gainesville area that were the first LEED certified convenience stores in the United States. They put in bio diesel, and things like that. They were promoting their greenness so it was a good fit. We pitched them and they liked it. We did a pilot on homecoming, at the homecoming banquet, which was huge, and then in the clubs and suites of Florida Field during the homecoming game. I walked around with the AD there and we just visited with the fans, alumni of the Gators, and asked them how they felt about all this stuff. We got 500 comments back and 499 of them were like, this is really cool. The grumpiest comment we got back was from this one old alumni gentlemen who said, "Yeah this is great. How come we haven't been doing this all along?" So that was the worst comment we got back, and after that everything was golden because athletics figured out, hey, there's no downside of this. People intuitively like it and once you get past the inevitable startup problems in implementation and all the operational stuff, which we solved, the fans like it. And so fan engagement is key and has been part of why we've done this right along, is that fan engagement element is very strong. Sure, that's great. Especially the college level it's mostly young folks and these are the people that are really passionate about the environment and that's great. And then eventually you left and now you're the director of the University of Colorado Boulder Environmental Center. And you founded the nation's first comprehensive NCAA Division One sports sustainability program - Ralphie's Green Stampede. Tell us a little bit about that program. So, at Florida we started the first zero waste program in the NCAA, and then when we got to Colorado we came first comprehensive one. So we do it in all sports, and it's not just a zero waste, it's zero carbon, zero water, zero net energy in new buildings, no pesticides, local food and a few other things I can't remember. We've got four LEED Platinum athletics facilities, which is half of the number of LEED platinum buildings on the entire campus. And we've got the lion's share, like 90 plus percent, of all of the installed solar on athletics facilities. So, the University of Colorado Athletic Department is the most sustainable department on campus, a fact that bugs the heck out of the environmental science people, but it is what it is. When I got to Colorado and told them both to the Florida story, it got me a meeting with the AD at the time, Mike Bohn.  He listened to what I had to say and he said, "Okay, we can do that here." It was about that easy. So I said, "Hey, you know, this was awful easy. How come you said yes so fast." And this I will carry with me the rest of my career. His response to me was, "Dave, what you don't understand is people don't come here on Saturday for football. They come here for community. And sustainability is all about community. So this will work." I will tell you that that is a lesson in how to engage fans and what is really going on in sports, that I now see everywhere. I checked it out, I worked on it and we've done research on it. And indeed, sports is a bonding moment for our fans. That's why you come. That's why everybody's singing the same songs, wear's the same shirts, looks at the same environments and all that kind of stuff. Because we are communal species and we want to be part of the community. So, that added to my repertoire of ways to approach this thing and leverage that fan engagement we were speaking of. That's great. And so now we have the PAC-12 Sustainability Conference coming up July 12th and that's going to be at the University of Colorado Boulder, is that right? Correct, and come on down. Absolutely. So, tell us about that conference. How did it come about and what can we expect? From the time when I started working at Florida and then Colorado in sports, many sports organizations have moved into this space, especially at the pro level and increasingly at the college level. I'm seeing the value of: A) Saving money through operational sustainability and B) Engaging your fans through this leadership. However, no athletic conference or sports network has moved into the space of promoting it as sort of a behavior and a lifestyle, as a conference and as a league, until the PAC-12 showed up. And Jamie's great leadership with PAC-12, and Larry Scott the commissioner, I've met with both of them, and Larry is 100 percent behind this because they get everything I just said. They get the savings, they get the leadership and the fan engagement. And so, they're now talking about this in game. They're talking about it as a conference. They're talking about it as a leadership position, as consistent with the Conference of Champions and other people have taken notice now. So, their leadership is really a game changer in terms of taking it to the next level and using the sports platform to engage fans to be more sustainable at home, work and play. That is the mission. Running a recycling system in your stadium is great. Using that as an influencer to influence those fans that show up for that community every Saturday, as part of being a good fan of their favorite team, to live the life and to embody that as part of their fandom. That's the strategy. That's what the sustainability conference is all about - How do we do our operational stuff better and how do we use it to influence fans? You guys have some famous accomplished athletes who are going to be there speaking as well. Professional athletes and Olympic athletes. Tell us a little bit about who will be there. It's a really good group. We have Arielle Gold, a professional snowboarder and one of our students AT UC Boulder, and part of our Protect Our Winters, and is touring the hallways of Capitol Hill and other places to talk about climate change and how it affects our lives and our sports. So she's obviously our millennial target athlete. Mary Harvey, who I have the pleasure of working alongside of the board of the Green Sports Alliance. She is just fabulous in terms of her overall acumen. She's won gold medals, World Cups, she played with Mia Hamm, she's worked for FIFA back in the day and now she's working with the World Cup, a group here for the United States that successfully landed the World Cup bid for North America in 2026. There's some other great athletes as well. Obviously Steve Lavin, a fabulous coach, ESPN commentator and a spokesman for UCLA. Jason Richardson, another NCAA Championship basketball player and retired from the NBA. Last year you may recall we had Bill Walton show up and give us a keynote and some life lessons, and that was entertaining. I think I've missed a couple, but there's obviously more detail at the PAC-12sustainabilityconference.com. And Jason Richardson retired and left the Golden State Warriors a little bit too early. He kind of missed out on all the fun. Oh boy, those guys are something else. So, Dave, some people may not see the connection, but I actually think there's a strong parallel between sports and leading sustainability, having passion and perseverance, cooperation, teamwork, team building and strategy. What do you think sustainability professionals who were leading sustainability can learn from these accomplished professional athletes? Yeah, I think you said it well, Josh. I think that's exactly right. One of the things that sustainability professionals do is basically giving credit away for everything, and being all about teamwork and not really trying to be a showboat or anything. They're much like hockey players. Where do you hear of an arrogant hockey player? Most of them were like, "Oh man, my team is so great," and all this stuff because they know it's all about teamwork. I think likewise, as you said, in sustainability it's the same thing. We want everyone to be part of it. And so when you do it inclusively and you bring people together to have a conversation about moving forward sustainably, then you bring in people that wouldn't normally be part of that team, and that's the key. That's how you grow the scope of what you're doing, by getting beyond the usual suspects and getting into folks where this may not be what they get out of bed thinking about every morning. But it's important to them when they have the opportunity to be influential in it. And so allowing for that influence, allowing for people who are doing other things, to be part of this and really bringing them in and getting those ideas, that's how you grow the team. That's how you move towards sustainability. And that is all a process. It is not an end game. Sustainability is not an end game. It's a process. The process is the product. And the process is inclusion and teamwork. Very well said, Dave. For any of our listeners who would like to attend the PAC-12 Sustainability Conference, where can they go to find out more and to sign up. So, PAC-12sustainabilityconference.com, or just Google it and it'll take you there. The website is up and running and accepting your reservations. Come on down. We've got all kinds of fun things to do in Boulder on the 11th and 12th of July. And then that weekend, the Grateful Dead are going to be in our stadium playing. So, come for a conference and stay for the concert. Sounds great. Dave, before we let you go we're going to end on our Final Five Questions. Are you ready? Five Questions. Who used to do that? It was the original Daily Show guy. Craig Kilborn. Funny thing about Craig Kilborn, who was actually a great athlete himself and played some college basketball. He's from Hastings, Minnesota, which is the same small town that I'm from. His mom was my middle school English teacher. I remember the first day of class I had with her, she had a picture of Craig on the back of the classroom and said, "That's my son. He's in radio and learn from him. He's a great communicator." Then about a year later I saw him on Sports Center for the first time and I was like, "I know that name somewhere." And it was him, Craig Kilborn. So, he's one of the few famous people to come out of my small town. He's funny and he was really good at it too. And when he left I thought, "he's going to be a hard act to follow." Yeah, he was great. So, what is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Don't think of anything. Have other people think about it and have it be their idea. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? How fast it's growing. I'm old, so I've observed the beginning and there was nobody. There was five of us doing this job when I started at Florida back in the nineties, and now I've lost count. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? If you don't read any other book in your entire life? You have to read Natural Capitalism. Excellent. And we had Hunter Lovins on as a guest a few weeks ago, so everyone can check out that episode of Sustainable Nation. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in the work that you do? Being a member of AASHE and using their website and their member community is a daily thing. I'm looking at their email right now. I think AASHE, again, didn't exist when we started. Now it's booming and all the many people that I've never even heard of are now offering information and gaining information through their website, aashe.org. And finally, where can people go to learn more about you and the work that you're leading at the University of Colorado Boulder, Green Sports Alliance and/or the PAC-12 Sustainability Conference? I'm on LinkedIn. Let's just go with LinkedIn. They will find you on LinkedIn. Excellent. Dave, it's so great to learn about all the work you've been doing and how this sustainability in sports movement really got started all the way back in 2002. I very much look forward to seeing you in Boulder in July. Thank you so much for joining and thank you for making the world a better place. And thank you for hosting us today, Josh. Look forward to seeing you in boulder.  

As Campus as Lab Manager, Caroline works at the campus-based intersection of operational, educational and research activities that result in the advancement of sustainability problem-solving. She designs and implements the Campus as Lab program to encourage and support the Princeton campus community in testing sustainable solutions, engaging all disciplines. Caroline previously served as the Director of the Institute for Community Sustainability at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, IN, where she laid the groundwork for an ecovillage in the community adjacent to the university that is currently in development; hosted regional symposia on infill development and urban food issues in the Midwest; and developed several sustainability and social justice programs. Caroline Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Using the university as a lab for sustainability Benefits of formalizing the Campus as Lab program in the university Engaging students in sustainability programs and research Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Caroline's Final Five Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Get outside of your bubble. I think it's really tempting to want to surround ourselves with people who think like us and sometimes that space is totally appropriate, but try to put yourself in uncomfortable spaces or in front of people who don't think like you do whatever that happens to look like for your individual situation. I think that's the only way we grow. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? Some of the gaps and the end of the Obama era has left, both nationally and internationally, present some really interesting opportunities. So internationally we're seeing leadership from countries that maybe hadn't been on the global stage so much for sustainability. Now they are having the opportunity to step in and fill that gap. And nationally I think we kind of have the imperative to stop using the same language around sustainability that we have, to stop assuming that sustainability is just a good thing and everybody's going to like it to engage. As well as the increased energy and call to action that so many people are hearing to act on these issues. What is the one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? I would recommend, and this is getting a little bit outside of the realm of sustainability, but there's a great book called Doing Good Better by William Macaskill. He talks about this concept of effective altruism and the idea that just because we want to do something, or you want to do some good, we might not automatically come up with the most effective way to do that. So he takes a really hard look at how to do good in an effective way. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in the work that you do? I totally rely on AASHE, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. They're kind of where I got my start in the academic world. I found a job through one of their newsletters. They're an incredibly supportive community, that I found as a great resource all throughout my career and I've been in sustainability in higher ed for about 10 years now. Even if you're not in higher ed, I really recommend following them for some of the best practices and job opportunities and other events that come out of that community. In a closely related is green schools listserv, that's run through Brown University. I also recommend finding good project management systems in general and being well organized in general. I can't recommend one specific one. I've kind of learned a lot from different styles, but especially for this very project based work, I'm finding something like that that works for you, whether it's lists, post-its check in meetings or taking a course. Having strong systems in place to track progress makes all the difference. And then of course, this podcast as well. And finally where our listeners go to learn more about you and the work that you are leading at Princeton. Sure, they can go to https://sustain.princeton.edu/lab. That will take them to the Campus as a Lab page. If they're interested in that community of practice I mentioned earlier you can go to tinyurl.com/campusaslabresources. That is a great compilation of best practices going on all across North America. And then finally, you're always welcome to email me cs35@Princeton.edu. I'm always happy to spread the word about Campus as Lab.    

Jillian Buckholz is the first Director of Sustainability on the California State University, East Bay campus where she is responsible for managing campus sustainability efforts including: an annual greenhouse gas inventory; 5-year climate action plan; comprehensive campus sustainability assessment and plan; project-based student internship program; campus sustainability committee and associated task forces; and educational programming. Prior to coming to The Bay, Jillian was the Senior Programs Coordinator at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).    Jillian Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Leading sustainability as a team of one Involving students in sustainability through internship programs Sustainability reporting and climate action planning Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Jillian's Final Five Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that help them in their careers? Take time to build relationships. It's easy to be excited, especially in a new position and want to do a lot of great work, but making sure that you know where other people are coming from and what their interests and assets are very important. If you're going to be at an institution for quite some time and make some valuable change. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I'm excited how the social aspects of sustainability are becoming more and more a part of the movement. It's not about recycling and energy efficiency. You're starting to see campuses looking more at the people aspect of sustainability and social justice. I'm excited to see more of that . What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? Anything by David Orr and This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein is a good one. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that you use that help you in the work that you do? The AASHE website resource center, their Hub STARS, their bulletin. I'm always defaulting to AASHE whenever I need something. Also, the Green Schools Listserv at Brown University is a great resource. When I was in higher Ed managing sustainability, that was my number one and most visited website was  AASHE. They have absolutely everything you need. I submitted a Sustainable Nation podcast as a tool there, so hopefully that'll be up soon. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work that you're leading at Cal State East Bay? Just go to www.csueastbay.edu and scroll down on the main page, you'll see a big box where students are holding up solar suitcase light bulbs. You can click right there to get to the webpage. I'm on LinkedIn as well. We have @SustainEastBay as a hashtag or a handle for all of our social media, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Matthew St.Clair is the first Director of Sustainability for the University of California Office of the President, leading sustainability efforts across the 10-campus UC system since 2004. Matt St. Clair joins Sustainable Nation to discuss: Leading sustainability for the third largest employer in California Using best practices from campuses to implement change across the entire system University of California's ambitious climate, energy and waste goals Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Final Five Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? Be a good listener. As a sustainability professional, you have to change what people do, what organizations do. And so in order to get people to work with you to make that change, you need to be a good listener to understand the pathways that are easiest to make that change and to gain the trust of the people you need to work with to change things. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? I would say one of the technological developments I'm most excited about is that electric vehicles seem to finally be taking off. And transportation is one of the hardest nuts to crack in terms of a global greenhouse gas emissions reductions. So the fact that we have campuses that are telling me that every year at least they're doubling the number of parking permits to electric vehicles, that's really promising that that EV market is finally taking off. Especially coupled with what I said about renewable electricity now becoming available to power those cars. Now, if only all states could be moving as quickly as California and Hawaii on electric vehicles, that would be great. What is one book you would recommend sustainability professionals read? That is so hard? This is a going back to a classic, but John Mcphee is a great natural history writer and has written a couple books, one of which I'm blanking on the name actually, but it tells three stories of what happens when men feel like they can control nature. The Control of Nature. I knew I'd come to me. I think it provides some common understanding of a systems perspective and the interaction between human and natural systems, that we have to try to bring a greater awareness and understanding with everyone we work with on on sustainability topics. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that help you in the work that you do? Well, working at a university, AASHE the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. It's a great resource. Their weekly bulletin is great. Similarly, the National Green Schools listserv is this great hive or group brain, that all of us in the community access when it's helpful. It helps the whole movement move forward through venues like that to connect and learn from each other. And finally, where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work that you're leading at the University of California? https://www.ucop.edu/sustainability/is our main sustainability website. There's contact information for myself and others in our system wide sustainability team on that website.

Nurit Katz joins Sustainable Nation to discuss: Leading sustainability change in a large organization Updates on sustainability programs and research initiatives at UCLA Information on the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Nurit Katz Final Five responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? One piece of advice,  it's interesting, this wasn't what I planned to say, but recently a colleague, one of our alumni who I regard very highly, um, Jamie Knack, shared a book that she had read called The Power of a Positive No. And I've now gotten it and shared it with my team. And I think in these roles you're pulled in so many different directions, that actually learning how to kind of prioritize how to say no. So many of us are such yes-people that we get really excited to help everyone at all times. And sometimes that in of itself is not sustainable. So as I say to many of my colleagues, you can't sustain the university or the world if you don't sustain yourself. So, I think, you know, learning how to share, redirect and make sure that you take care of yourself is actually really critical to be a successful professional in this field. And then in terms of more traditional career advice, this field changes so quickly that I would really recommend people get out there and attend events and talk to people. So much of what I learned was that way, going to panels, getting out there, networking and it's not as set of a field where you can just read one book or guide on how to be a lawyer. It's just changing so rapidly. And so I didn't even know, for example, that the title of director of a regenerative development existed until I heard you speak on a panel a while back and the role chief sustainability officer didn't exist until some years ago. So I think if people want to stay up to date, they got to get out there, meet people, hear what programs are going on and stay current. Great advice. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability and regenerative development? That's tough. You know, part of why I ended up with a job like chief sustainability officer is that I have always been sort of a jack of all master of none generalist type person. I get so excited about all of it. Water to energy, transportation, food, environmental justice and social equity issues. But I think one of the things that's really exciting right now is people are starting to recognize the importance of separation technologies and we've spent so much of human innovation combining materials and putting things together and there's such great potential in figuring out how to break them back apart again until they're useful parts. And I think there's a lot of untapped potential in that area, which really relates to kind of taking what would be a waste product and being able to upcycle it and use it in new and exciting ways What is one book you'd recommend to other sustainability professionals.  You know, it's kind of an oldie but goody, but I happened to love Ray Anderson's, Confessions of a Radical Industrialist. I think his journey on the sustainable business side is really worth a read, but there's really so many that I recommend to my students and it's really hard to choose. So I guess for today that's the one I'll, I'll throw out there. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in the work that you do? Well, again, a lot of great resources. I am fond of collaborations and sharing best practices among professionals. So we have a group we get together of higher education professionals here in southern California and then more broadly, through the California higher education sustainability conference or through AASHE. So getting together with colleagues both in our sector and across sectors I think is really valuable. You know, lots of good resources through some of those organizations in terms of tools and guides that people can use. We definitely work with a lot of kind of cloud based tools now and collaborative work sharing tools. So those can be handy as well. And where can our listeners go to learn more about the work you are leading at UCLA? So ucla sustainability's website is sustain.ucla.edu. You can reach me and my team at sustainability@ucla.edu. That email address will come direct to our central office. Twitter handle is @sustainucla and it's really an enormous team working on these issues. I'm just a nexus and connector here of just an incredible group of professionals across our operational and academic and research areas. And so I'm happy to be that connector. If anyone is interested in any of the fabulous work being done here, I can help point you to the folks who are working on those programs and we'd love to hear from you.