Sustainability
Climate change, global warming, sustainability, and environmental conservation pose great challenges as well as great opportunities for Consortium colleges and universities. Global warming is becoming an ever larger national and international issue. A major contributing factor to global warming is increased emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, in large part caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
Consortium colleges and universities are taking major steps to address this problem. Within the Consortium, several university presidents have signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment and many others are making large strides to reduce their carbon footprint.
As a Consortium, energy managers from several universities developed an RFP for a joint purchase of alternative energy which resulted in a contract with Constellation NewEnergy for the purchase of windpower while others were already buying renewable energy from windpower. Another member institution is using photovoltaic cells on the roof of a building and many are building LEED certified buildings or renovating existing buildings according to LEED standards.
For other examples of the ways in which our members are “going green”, links to our member campuses are provided below:
American University
http://www.american.edu/finance/sustainability/index.cfm
The Catholic University of America
http://planttrees.cua.edu/
Gallaudet University
http://green.gallaudet.edu/2008/10/asl-interpreted-workshops-water-waste.html
George Mason University
http://sustainability.gmu.edu/
The George Washington University
http://www.gwu.edu/explore/aboutgw/strategicinitiatives/sustainability
Georgetown University
http://sustainability.georgetown.edu/
Howard University
http://www.howard.edu/capstone/oct2009/feature1.html
Marymount University
http://www.marymount.edu/26thstreetproject/green.html
Trinity Washington University
http://www.trinitydc.edu/offices/facilities/Enviromental_Initiatives.html
University of Maryland
http://www.sustainability.umd.edu/