Williams Recycles A Professor

Most American colleges have gotten pretty good at recycling the standard stuff, like paper and printer cartridges. But this fall, Williams College managed to recycle a professor.

Thomas C. Jorling first taught at the college from 1972 to 1977, as director of its environmental studies program. Now, after working in government (New York state's Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) and the private sector, Jorling returned to Williams this fall as a visiting distinguished professor of environmental studies. According to Williams, it is the second time Jorling has circled back through the college.

Jorling has banned laptops and PDAs from his classrooms, but not informed debate: One of his classroom exercises encourages students to weigh why someone might want to go slow on tackling climate change.

Williams' interdisciplinary Center for Environmental Studies will be the hub for Jorling's work. The college also has a 2,500-acre nature preserve, the Hopkins Memorial Forest, where field work is carried out.

Are You Green Enough For The Sierra Club?

Years ago, the commons between dorms was the biggest green element on most college campuses. Now, it seems America's institutions of higher learning are racing to out-do each other with green buildings, locally grown cafeteria food and carbon-neutral footprints.

It was probably inevitable, in this rankings-mad era, that someone would step in to see which colleges were really the greenest of the green. Enter the Sierra Club, with a list of "Cool Schools" that do environmentalism proud. It has named 10 schools to the list, with Oberlin College coming out as No. 1.

It's an interesting list, both for the schools picked and the greening efforts that they have undertaken. But the Sierra Club isn't looking at the environmental science education these institutions are providing and, if you subscribe to the views of Allegheny College's Michael Maniates, greening may just be so much lip service to the environment.

Allegheny Prof: 'Easy Green' Won't Do

Ask somebody to describe their favorite teacher and you likely won't hear a story about a warm and fuzzy personality. The teachers who resonate most are usually tough, and clear-eyed. That should mean a wide audience for Michael Maniates, a professor of political science and environmental science at Allegheny College.

Maniates took to the op-ed pages of The Washington Post just before Thanksgiving to say that all our warm and fuzzy solutions to global warming aren't going to be enough. "Obsessing over recycling and installing a few special light bulbs won't cut it," he wrote. "We need to be looking at fundamental change in our energy, transportation and agricultural systems rather than technological tweaking on the margins, and this means changes and costs that our current and would-be leaders seem afraid to discuss. Which is a pity, since Americans are at their best when they're struggling together, and sometimes with one another, toward difficult goals."

It's a good message, and one that should probably be nailed to a few doors just like Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses to the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg.

Maniates hails from an institution that has been committed to clear-eyed thinking about the environment. Its president for the last decade, Richard J. Cook, once studied remediation efforts at the infamously polluted Love Canal in upstate New York. The environmentalism that Cook has instilled at Allegheny--in the classroom and around the campus--is likely to persist long after he leaves the western Pennsylvania college next spring: Earlier this month, Allegheny was named one of the 11 pilot colleges and universities in the Clinton Foundation's Climate Initiative to green higher ed's campuses.

Texas Students Go For The Cold

When it comes to winter break, most students head for warmer climes. Not so for 14 undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Texas at El Paso. They will be headed to Antarctica on December 13 to do scientific research for three weeks with four UTEP professors.

According to one news report, some of the students on the upcoming trip have already studied the effects of global warming at the Earth's other pole: They spent the summer in Barrow, Alaska examining the shrinking Arctic ice cap.

These expeditions are funded by National Science Foundation grants and a federal program called IPY-ROAM, or International Polar Year Research and Educational Opportunities in Antarctica for Minorities. UTEP offers a bachelor's degree in environmental science, with concentrations in Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Hydrology and Secondary Science Education. It also offers a doctoral program in environmental science and engineering through its Center for Environmental Resource Management.

U Arizona Gets $2.5M To Study Amazon

What is global warming doing to the Amazon? A group of scientists lead by researchers at the University of Arizona has gotten a $2.5 million grant to look for an answer.

The money for the Partnership for International Research and Education--Amazonia is coming from the National Science Foundation. It includes $1.5 million for student stipends and fellowships. Students in PIRE will do field work in tropical ecology and biogeochemistry in the Amazon and at Brazilian scientific institutions. They will also work in the tropical forest biome at the university's Biosphere 2.

PIRE will draw on several departments at the university, from environmental and atmospheric sciences, to evolutionary biology, anthropology, geosciences and Latin American Studies. The University of Arizona offers a bachelor's of science in environmental science, with concentrations in areas such biology, microbiology, chemistry, soil science and hydrology. The university is also home to the Institute for the Study of the Planet Earth, an interdisciplinary center for environmental and climate change science.

Buffalo Gets $3.1 Million Grant

The University at Buffalo has gotten a $3.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation for its graduate environmental science programs.

The grant will fund the work of 25 doctoral students in its Ecosystem Restoration Through Interdisciplinary Exchange program, known appropriately as ERIE. The interdisciplinary program focuses on the ecosystem of the Great Lakes and incorporates U.S., Canadian and Native American perspectives on it. The latter is appropriate, and not only because of the geography: UB Professor Don Grinde is an environmental historian and a Yamasee Indian.

ERIE students will work with seven different departments in the engineering school and UB's College of Arts and Sciences. The university says they may also may work with UB Law School and at Buffalo State College, Niagara University and several Canadian universities. UB was one of only 20 schools selected for the grant, which comes under the NSF's Integrative Graduate Education Research and Traineeship program.

MIT Grad Students Tackle Transportation

I don't know why we are all waiting for Detroit to bring us more environmentally friendly transportation. It looks as if several graduate students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have the matter well in hand.

The students, who are master's or Ph.D. candidates in architecture, urban studies and the Smart Cities project at MIT's Media Lab program, have designed an electric, two-passenger car with America's biggest cities in mind. Ho-hum you say? There's more: These City Cars can be folded and stacked together like so many grocery carts, packing eight cars into a curb spot that might accommodate only one Hummer on any other day. (You can see a picture of it here.) And just like a grocery cart, you would take the first one in the stack, use it, and then return it to another stack. There is a lot of smart technology in these cars, like wheel robots that make it possible to do away with traditional, energy-hogging drive-train elements like engine blocks, gear boxes and differentials.

City Cars have, like doctoral degrees, been a long time in coming. The first mention of the project on MIT's Web site goes back to 2004. But apparently a prototype, which is being produced in conjunction with General Motors (which sponsors the Media Lab), is now due out next spring.

Sustainable Design At Western Washington U

Thanks to the folks at WorldChanging for bringing this twist in environmental studies to my attention. It shows just how far college students are taking their eco thinking these days.

Junior-year industrial design students at Western Washington University are turning trash into treasure--literally. Under a program they have dubbed ReMade, they take industrial refuse and transform it into a new product. Like sushi-rolling mats made from old bicycle spokes or switchplates crafted from street signs. The students must make 20 of each of their designs and then offer them for sale. This year, you can find their work at Seattle's Goods for the Planet and the Seattle Art Museum through December 25.

Western Washington, which is based in Bellingham, Wash., has separate departments for environmental studies and environmental science, both through its Huxley College of the Environment. The industrial design department has just teamed up with Huxley to create a new minor in sustainable design. Western Washington also offers a combined major in economics and environmental studies at its College of Business and Economics.

How Green Is Your Campus?

Want to see the best in environmentally friendly interior and exterior design these days? Then take a trip to America's colleges and universities--like Middlebury College in northern Vermont.

It's not just that these buildings are getting high marks from the U.S. Green Building Council for how environmentally friendly they are. They are great examples of architectural inventiveness and great models of how connected a building can be to its surrounding environment.

The Hillcrest Environmental Center is an 1875 farmhouse. Or, rather, was. A recent report by the Associated Press chronicles how the center, which is home to Middlebury's environmental science program, has been reborn with the marks of Vermont, from an old maple sugar tree as ceiling planks to desktops made from sunflower seed shells. Some 40 professors and 90 students a year will find a home here, the college says.

Is $4 million too much to much to spend on sustainability? Middlebury doesn’t seem to think so.

Environmental Studies Beyond The Science

Studying the environment these days doesn't just mean delving into the science behind the changes in our surroundings. There are environmental courses to be found on a wide range of topics, from film studies to public policy.

So it was that this past year Princeton University's Princeton Environmental Institute, Carl Fields Center and its Center for African American Studies joined forces to look at the emerging issue of environmental justice. The central idea in this field is that environmental problems like air and water pollution weigh more heavily on poor communities than rich ones. This past Friday, the Princeton centers held a free screening of the first two parts of Spike Lee's film about the impact of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, When The Levees Broke; they will screen parts three and four this Friday. On Tuesday, they will host a talk by Majora Carter, the founder of Sustainable South Bronx.

The Princeton Environmental Institute is an interdisciplinary center that coordinates environmental education, research and community outreach by departments in the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences and humanities. It offers an undergraduate certificate in environmental studies as well as graduate and postdoctoral training.

Students Win Prizes For Soil, Water Research

Three college students have been awarded $1,000 each for their environmental research. The prizes were awarded as part of a competition organized by the Adventus Group, a private bioremediation company.

Na Wei, a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was recognized for her study, "Anaerobic MTBE/TBA Biodegradation Under Different Terminal Electron Acceptor Processes." Manmeet Waria from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was singled out for her presentation, "Field-Scale Clean Up of Pesticide Contaminated Soil with Combined Chemical and Biological Approach." The third prizewinner was Rosemary Carrol of the Desert Research Institute, in Reno, Nevada. Her presentation was entitled "Evaluating the Impacts of Uncertainty in Geomorphic Channel Changes on Predicting Mercury Transport and Fate in the Carson River System." The Desert Research Institute is an independent institution within the Nevada higher ed system that has some 500 researchers, staff and students working on research projects all over the world.

Adventus made the awards during the 23rd annual International Conference on Soils, Sediments and Water, which was held at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. "These impressive young environmentalists all displayed superb thought leadership and presentation skills. Selecting the winning themes was extremely difficult, although the industry will surely be hearing more from these students in years ahead," said Dr. Fayaz Lakhwala, Adventus' director of engineering, in a prepared statement. Adventus, which is based in Freeport, Ill., works on soil, sediment and groundwater remediation worldwide.

Job Alert: Brown ES Center Director

Brown University's Center for Environmental Studies is looking for a new director. Its current director, Osvaldo Sala, a professor of biokigy, has announced that he plans to step down from the center next July. Sala is going to be the director of Brown's Environmental Change Initiative, an interdisciplinary research and education program.

According to a campus newspaper report, the center is looking for "a distinguished scholar with broad interdisciplinary interests in environmental issues" to head up its efforts. The CES is the focus for both Brown's environmental studies program and its community environmental initiatives, which have included a community garden.

But the change at CES seems to be coming at a critical juncture for Brown. The building in which the CES is housed, the Urban Environmental Lab, may be threatened by expansion on campus. The community garden has already been lost, although the center is promising to plant a new one in the spring.

The Environmental Education Two-Step

Let's face it: College is ridiculously expensive these days. Some kids are cutting the cost by doing the first year or two at a community college and then finishing their bachelors elsewhere. I've been seeing it in a few different majors, but not in environmental science or environmental studies. Until now.

Late last week, Hudson Valley Community College signed an official transfer agreement with the State University of New York Plattsburgh. Eighteen academic programs are covered by the agreement, including HVCC's associate's degree in biology. Students may apply its credits to a SUNY Plattsburgh bachelor's in biochemistry, biology, ecology or environmental science. And the schools, both of which are located in upstate New York in the Albany area, indicated that there would be more agreements forthcoming between them in the area of environmental science.

SUNY Plattsburgh currently offers majors in both environmental science and environmental studies. There are four degree options in the former, including both a bachelor's of arts and a bachelor's of science in environmental science, a B.S. in ecology and a B.A. with a concentration in environmental planning and management. The environmental studies major combines work in the sciences with courses in social sciences and the humanities. SUNY Plattsburgh also is home to the Center for Earth and Environmental Science, which houses its ES, geology and geography programs.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Al Gore did it, so did Leonardo DiCaprio. Now you can do it too: Make a documentary film about the environment. Better still, it will count toward your degree.

Professor Gregg Mittman has added two filmmaking classes to the roster this fall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. One traces the history of environmental films; the other is a hands-on class in making a documentary.

"I want to open up what we think is a good environmental film and how we might tell other types of stories to change our interactions and attitudes," Mitman said in a news release from the university. "Leonardo DiCaprio's recent film 'The 11th Hour' had so much gloom and doom. Good stories should mobilize our interests into actions."

His courses seem to be doing that. Trailers for some of the student films were shown on Friday night as part of the university's Tales From Planet Earth Film Festival. If you want to get a better idea of what's going on in Mittman's classes, check out the trailers here.

Sustainability Conference At Vanderbilt

I like citizen journalism more and more each day. It allows me to learn about events like the Net Impact Conference that is being hosted this year at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management, and pass that learning along to you.

Net Impact, which was founded in 1993 by MBA students to foster socially-responsible business leaders, is using this year's conference to show what's being done by the business community on sustainability. It has brought together an impressive list of speakers from Yvon Chouinard, the founder of outdoor gear retailer Patagonia to John Replogle, CEO of Burt's Bees and Andy Savitz, author of "The Triple Bottom Line" to talk about subjects like the greening of the music and fashion industries.

The conference wraps tomorrow, November 3, but a group of bloggers from Owen has captured a lot of details about all of the proceedings here. Vanderbilt offers an undergraduate degree in earth and environment sciences as well as master's and Ph.D degrees in Environmental Engineering.

An "A" For Sustainability

Kudos to Harvard University, Dartmouth University, the University of Washington, Middlebury College, Carleton College and the University of Vermont! All of these institutions received an overall "A" grade on the newly released College Sustainability Report Card 2008.

The report card is published by the Cambridge, Mass.-based Sustainable Endowments Institute. It focuses, cleverly enough, on the 200 public and private universities with the largest endowments. The schools were graded in five categories: administration, climate change and energy, food and recycling, green building and transportation. Interestingly, the schools scored their highest grades for food and recycling, with 29% earning an "A" in that category. The report found that 70% of the schools buy food from local farms and that 64% serve fair trade coffee.

You can view the full report card--including the four schools that got overall failing grades--here.