Archive | Current Events RSS feed for this section

Hydro-Fracturing News

By on May 8, 2013 in Current Events

by Dr. Molly Whitworth
Faculty Member, Environmental Science at American Public University

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just recently announced that it believes the methane found in drinking water in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale communities is not from the controversial practice of hydraulic  fracturing, or “fracking”.  In this region, famous for complaints of methane- tainted drinking water, the EPA reports that the methane contamination is likely from naturally high levels in the soils and underground aquifers, not from nearby fracking activities.… Read the rest

Continue Reading • Comments { 0 }

World Water Day

By on March 22, 2013 in Current Events, Sustainability General, Water

Today is World Water Day.  Water is essential to all known forms of life and the United Nations’ World Water Assessment Programme estimates that each person needs between 20 and 50 liters of water a day to ensure basic needs are met (drinking, cooking, cleaning, etc.).  One in 6 people on Earth, however, do not have access to clean water.  Illnesses from unclean water and poor sanitation, including diarrhea and typhoid, remain the global leading causes of illness and death. … Read the rest

Continue Reading • Comments { 0 }

Silent Running: Making the EVs Louder to Make Pedestrians Safer

By on January 17, 2013 in Current Events, Electric Cars, Renewable Energy, Sustainability General

Once upon a time, say a century or so ago, there was a scourge making its way across the American countryside: the automobile. In his report Automobile in American Life and Society, Martin V. Melosi quoted historical automobile critics as “infuriated with urban car enthusiasts who gave little attention to frightening livestock or disturbing the tranquility of the countryside.” With all the noise these metal monsters were making, a call rose from concerned citizens to do something about these menaces of the public roadways.… Read the rest

Continue Reading • Comments { 0 }

APUS Receives Historic Preservation Award from PAWV

By on October 19, 2012 in Adaptive Reuse, APUS Sustainability Efforts, Current Events, Sustainability in Higher Education

by Beth Gray

The Preservation Alliance of West Virginia (PAWV) held its 2012 Annual Conference in Jefferson County September 27-29 and more than 120 people attended.  Participants visited several of the most historic sites in the county including several of the Washington family homes and historic Harpers Ferry.  A variety of valuable and engaging presentations were also offered to attendees during the three-day conference.  The conference also featured several hands-on workshops including a historic masonry workshop with experts from the National Park Service Historic Preservation Training Center. 

 

American Public University System has made its headquarters in historic downtown Charles Town, West Virginia since 2002 and, as a result, has been diligent with its own historic preservation efforts.  We have written about APUS’ historic preservation and adaptive reuse practices on this blog (see our April article, “Adaptive Reuse at APUS is a Necessity and a Priority”) and were therefore happy to provide an exhibit about our efforts for the PAWV conference. 

We were also honored to receive the Community Preservation Award from the PAWV during the conference’s awards banquet.  Dr.… Read the rest

Continue Reading • Comments { 0 }

APUS Sustainability Committee Retreat Offers Fun, Education, and Inspiration

By on October 12, 2012 in APUS Sustainability Efforts, Current Events

by Beth Gray

Last Friday the American Public University System (APUS) Sustainability Committee had a retreat at CraftWorks at Cool Spring.  The event provided a great opportunity for fun, education, and team building.  The Committee was hopeful that their team building event could be one to use as an example of how even an event like this can be sustainable, educational, and fun.  Friday’s event at CraftWorks did not disappoint. 

CraftWorks is a non-profit organization located in Charles Town, West Virginia.  The enthusiastic employees at CraftWorks work diligently to bring together art, nature, and sustainability in such a way that each inspires the others.  Inspiration is easily found on the 12-acre nature preserve on which they are situated, with studios situated in a very energy-efficient building overlooking rolling hills which abound with butterflies, deer, and other wildlife.  On the property is Cool Spring Marsh and the CraftWorks community works diligently to ensure that the marsh is healthy.  CraftWorks provides community workshops ranging from “Mommy and Me” art programs to summer camps for school-aged children and a master artists series.  The picturesque setting coupled with the unique mission of the organization provided a great venue for the Committee’s retreat. 

The afternoon started with lunch from Fresh Feast on the Farm, another wonderfully sustainable local organization.  Fresh Feast on the Farm provides meal options that are seasonable and made from all locally grown and raised ingredients.  The Committee had quite a treat with the lunch menu including swiss steak from beef raised on the Lyle C.… Read the rest

Continue Reading • Comments { 0 }

APUS Opens New Green Finance Center

By on September 18, 2012 in American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, APUS Sustainability Efforts, Current Events, Green-Building, LEED Building, Renewable Energy, Sustainability in Higher Education

In the latest addition to its headquarters in Charles Town, West Virginia, American Public University System (a fully online university serving more than 100,000 students) is celebrating the opening of its 105,000 square foot environmentally-friendly Finance Center.  The building sits adjacent to the school’s Academic Center which opened in November 2010.  Both buildings were built to US Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED Gold standards, a level above the Silver standard required of APUS as a charter signatory of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC).… Read the rest

Continue Reading • Comments { 0 }

The Progress and Promise of the ACUPCC

By on July 20, 2012 in American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, APUS Sustainability Efforts, Current Events, Green-Building, LEED Building, Renewable Energy, Sustainability in Higher Education, Sustainability Resources

by Beth Gray

As mentioned in a recent article on this blog, the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year.  Our previous article explores the background of the ACUPCC and the progress the commitment has made in gaining support and membership.  Beginning with only twelve founding members, the ACUPCC now boasts nearly 700 signatories from across the country.  At the ACUPCC’s 6th Annual Climate Leadership Summit held in Washington, DC last month, participants were treated to a chronicling of the tangible progress made by those nearly 700 schools to date.  The quantitative progress made is significant and worth noting.… Read the rest

Continue Reading • Comments { 0 }

Students Take Sustainability and Activism to Rio+20

By on July 13, 2012 in Current Events, Sustainability in Higher Education

Last month world leaders convened in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the United Nations’ Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20.  Joining the 190 official delegates from countries around the world (including Hillary Clinton, Vladimir Putin, and Wen Jiabao) were more than 40,000 “civil society” participants.  Many of these “civil society” participants were students exasperated with the lack of progress made at the previous Conference on Environment and Development held in 1992 and often called the “Earth Summit.” 

The events that unfolded during the Rio+20 Conference are interesting and even, at times, dramatic.  Though the United States and Venezuela have had strained relations in the last several years, the two delegations from these countries put those differences aside to form an alliance to block the Oceans Rescue Plan and argue vehemently against a deadline to end fossil fuel subsidies.  Even though Todd Stern, Special Envoy for Climate Change, said at a State Department meeting that “…we [US officials] see Rio as intended to catalyze renewed high-level focus on sustainable development by all the world’s countries,” many have criticized the US for what critics see as a lack of leadership from the world’s most developed nation. 

While many focus on criticizing specific nations including the United States and China, the world’s two largest polluters, for a perceived lack of leadership on the pressing issues related to sustainability and climate change, others have criticized the lack of concrete action coming from the most recent world summits discussing climate change.  Students have often been the driving forces behind social change and so their participation and attendance at Rio+20 is not unprecedented.  At Rio+20, however, students took their activism to a new level. 

… Read the rest

Continue Reading • Comments { 0 }

5 Years of the ACUPCC

By on May 25, 2012 in American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, APUS Sustainability Efforts, Current Events, Sustainability in Higher Education

by Beth Gray

This year marks the 5th anniversary of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC).  The effort originated from discussions at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) conference in October 2006 at Arizona State University.  College and university presidents and their representatives along with representatives from groups like Second Nature and ecoAmerica identified at that time a unique role for higher education in addressing the persistent issues of climate change and disruption.  Within only two months of those discussions, twelve presidents became founding signatories of the ACUPCC and a groundbreaking initiative was established. 

The twelve institutions who served as founding signatories represent a cross section of institutions in the United States.  From Arizona State University in the desert southwest, a very large public research institution to Cape Cod Community College in the northeast and Ball State University in the Midwest, these institutions have committed to advancing sustainability in higher education both through student curriculum and through their own operations.  Despite their geographic and institutional differences the twelve who originally signed the commitment had a common bond: a strong commitment to take advantage of higher education’s unique role in society to make a measurable difference in the state of our environment. 

… Read the rest

Continue Reading • Comments { 0 }

After Earth Day

By on April 13, 2012 in APUS Sustainability Efforts, Current Events, Earth Day, Green Economy, Sustainability General, Sustainability in Business, Sustainability in Higher Education

by Ryan Harding

I am confident that, with Earth Day on the immediate horizon, the nation’s biggest publications have begun to compose those bannerheads that will run on April 22, as the whole news media takes up its annual tradition of, for a day, fixing its gaze on environmental issues. For one day, we will collectively turn our eye to the issue of sustainability, reading retrospectives on the environmental movement, which trace its genealogy, and connect the movement’s past to its present and future, or op-eds on environmental degradation, carbon emissions, and water scarcity.… Read the rest

Continue Reading • Comments { 0 }