What Are American Colleges and Universities Doing?
American College and University Presidents
The American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment is a high-visibility effort to address global warming by garnering institutional commitments to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions, and to accelerate the research and educational efforts of higher education to equip society to re-stabilize the earth's climate.
Building on the growing momentum for leadership and action on climate change, the Presidents Climate Commitment provides a framework and support for America's colleges and universities to go climate neutral. The Commitment recognizes the unique responsibility that institutions of higher education have as role models for their communities and in training the people who will develop the social, economic and technological solutions to reverse global warming.
Design Schools' Efforts
AIA Pomona Conference
Documentation of the AIA Conference on Sustainability in Architecture and Higher Education is complete and was released at Cranbrook 2007, an AIA/ACSA event that took place June 28-29, 2007. The document plus appendices will also be available online at www.aia.org/pomona.
2010 Imperative
To successfully impact global warming and world resource depletion, it is imperative that ecological literacy become a central tenet of design education. Yet today, the interdependent relationship between ecology and design is virtually absent in many professional curricula. To meet the immediate and future challenges facing our professions, a major transformation of the academic design community must begin today. To accomplish this, The 2010 Imperative calls upon communities to adopt the following:
Beginning in 2007, add to all design studio problems that:
"the design engage the environment in a way that dramatically reduces or eliminates the need for fossil fuel."
By 2010, achieve complete ecological literacy in design education, including:
- design / studio
- history / theory
- materials / technology
- structures / construction
- professional practice / ethics
By 2010, achieve a carbon-neutral design school campus by:
- implementing sustainable design strategies
- generating on-site renewable power
- purchasing green renewable energy and/or certified renewable energy credits (RECs, Green Tags), 20% maximum
Click here for a list of students and faculty who have personally adopted and are committed to encouraging their schools to adopt and implement The 2010 Imperative.
