News

THE THIRD ANNUAL SUSTAINABILITY CELEBRATION, held Monday, May 24, 2010, offered the most compelling view yet of how sustainability has become a pervasive and unifying theme at Portland State University.

Dozens of students, faculty, and staff members showed off projects in sustainability during a late-afternoon poster presentation and reception. These projects, many of which received funding through the University's Miller Grant program, tackled topics as diverse as:

• Designing a better, greener, modular classroom for K-12 schools;
• Understanding sustainability through the humanities;
• Developing and launching a sustainable publishing imprint (OpenBook) of the student-run Ooligan Press;
• Addressing urban sustainability one neighborhood at a time, through an emerging "EcoDistrict" concept;
• Helping municipalities and state governments offset carbon emissions and manage carbon markets through a "carbon calculator" tool;
• Bridging urban-rural divides through a sustainable approach to river basin and watershed management.

The program itself, with some 250 in attendance, led with the unveiling and signing of Portland State University's Climate Action Plan by President Wim Wiewel, detailing the University's commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by the year 2040.

Sustainability, said President Wiewel, is a concept "that is still being created as we go along—a concept that we are co-inventing as we are doing the work. I think that with ever year, with every step we take, we learn more about what it means to take sustainability seriously."

Portland State is one of 685 signatories to the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment (AASCU), a major component of which is to develop and submit a campus-wide plan for achieving carbon neutrality. A final version of the document is available online: www.pdx.edu/sustainability/climate-action-plan.

The event was also a first opportunity for many in the campus community to meet Robert Costanza, incoming director for the Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices. An internationally acclaimed ecological economist, Costanza joins Portland State in fall 2010.

"I'm honored that you've chosen me to continue you in your process... of figuring out what sustainability means, trying to determine the solutions to our ongoing and very integrated and complex social and environmental and economic problems," said Costanza. "Portland and Portland State in particular can be fabulous models for how we make that transition to a sustainable society."

Perhaps the most representative element of PSU's commitment to sustainability was the "lightning round" of highlights: two-minute tales of how sustainability has created some solution or success at Portland State. A few of this year's standouts:

• Living and Learning Sustainability: Six sections of the yearlong Freshman Inquiry (FRINQ) program focused on "Sustainability." Jeff Fletcher, systems science, described the work of his FRINQ section, which combines sustainability with a "Living Learning Community." Students in the course live together on the third floor of The Broadway, and explore ways of putting sustainability in action, including waste minimization and energy savings activities. (FRINQ students also presented their work at the poster session.)
• Green Grads: Commencement coordinator J.R. Tarabocchia described efforts to "green" this year's commencement, including green ribbons for grads who take a sustainability pledge, reducing printed materials produced, biodegradable regalia, local and seasonal flowers, and more.
• Community Environmental Services (CES): Shanna Eller touted 20 years of service and applied partnerships with government, schools, private businesses, residents, and public events "to reach toward some of the most aggressive solid waste management goals in the nation." That work included hand-sorting 2.5 tons of landfill-bound waste to help businesses better understand how their recycling programs were performing, and delivered 2,000 complementary kitchen compost bins to Portland households, as part of a city pilot program.

The program, which ran just over one hour, also acknowledged the many programs and students contributing to sustainability efforts campus wide; an update on the Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices; thanks to the center's interim director, John Gordon; successes in transportation and commuting; green building research; and much more.

The 2010 Staff Sustainability Award was awarded by President Wiewel to Joe Dahmen, custodial contracts manager, in recognition of his ongoing efforts to improve operations and energy efficiency efforts across campus. Dahmen teamed up with AmeriCorps member Kelly Larson for "night sweeps" of office lights and equipment left on over the weekend, to better target conservation messages for employees.

The 2010 sustainability celebration, by far the largest in its three-year history, was followed by another poster session and awards event showcasing the six Freshmen Inquiry "Sustainability" sections. John de Graaf, author of Affliction, delivered a keynote address, discussing his new film, What's the Economy for Anyway?

The evening was organized and sponsored by the Campus Sustainability Office, the Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices, and University Studies. Additional support for programs and projects came from the ten year, $25 million grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, awarded to Portland State in support of sustainability and education in 2008.

"It feels to me like PSU has finally made it—we have really launched the campus sustainability program here," said campus sustainability manager Noelle Studer-Spevak. Through establishing goals, pulling units together from across campus (including a melding of operations and academic efforts), and through new partnerships nationally with other universities, sustainability at Portland State is well underway.