Tag Archives | US Census Bureau

Viewing Sustainability as a Management Problem

By on January 11, 2013 in Sustainability in Business, Sustainability in Higher Education

by Beth Gray

Last week, Steven Cohen, the Executive Director of Columbia University‘s Earth Institute, published an article on The Huffington Post‘s Green Blog titled, “Educating Sustainability Professionals.” Though the title isn’t particularly eye-catching or intriguing in itself, Cohen’s perspective on the intricacies of the global sustainability problem is.

Cohen begins by citing the US Census Bureau’s most recent population numbers (released on December 23rd): 314,992,253 people in the United States and 7,060,464,677 people in the world.… Read the rest

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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

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Higher Education Can Make a Significant Impact in Combatting Climate Change

By on January 4, 2012 in Current Events, Sustainability in Higher Education

by Angie Crone

As this year’s 17th conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban, South Africa, resulted in yet another stand-off among today’s leading nations, there are plenty of reasons to share in the embitterment and despair shadowing the climate change community. And while the Durban discussions did lead to a few positive outcomes –the Green Climate Fund and a sustained forum for discussing the issue, for example—the conference, unsurprisingly, was another failure of the global community to come to an agreement of how to slow the heating of the planet.… Read the rest

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