[Last Updated: May 25, 2008]

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A Greening Manifesto: Campus Footprinting, Curriculum Development, and Sustainability Practices At CSUN

Ashwani Vasishth

Urban Studies and Planning

vasishth@csun.edu

(818) 677-6137

http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/Campus_Sustainability_Resources.htm

Overview

One ultimate intention is the design, establishment and operation of some sort of Institute of Sustainability on campus, tasked both with the management of the initiatives outlined above, and with research into innovative sustainability practices.

The overarching objective of this greening project is to develop a portfolio of Sustainability Initiatives that, together, help green the CSUN campus. Broadly, three elements are visualized.

• The first involves the development of a protocol that will begin the process of carbon footprinting the campus, with the ultimate objective of moving CSUN to a carbon-neutral state. This could take the form of multiple student-faculty projects, all working cumulatively to generate a carbon budget for the campus.
• The second involves the development of three projects which would shift the curriculum toward a stronger recognition of emerging global change processes—this would comprise of: a) a Graduate Certificate program, administered through the Tseng College, aimed at training professionals in the art and science of sustainability centered around the Clean Development Mechanism for Carbon Trading, Clean Technology Manufacturing, and Green Business practices; b) an interdisciplinary Graduate Degree Program that builds on courses already being offered on campus by various departments, and adding to these in some judicious manner to create a holistic graduate experience that equips our students to deal with changing global realities; and c) a General Education concentration in the area of sustainability planning that gathers together an interdisciplinary array of undergraduate courses built up around existing departmental curricula, aimed at meeting a specific set of Student Learning Objectives.
• The third envisions the establishment of a working group or task force that would consider functional practices both within the academic and the facilities domains, and would generate a set of projects which would, together, move the campus toward a more sustainable mode of operation.

Footprinting the Campus

• Energy Consumption

• Transportation

• Resource Consumption

• Water Consumption

• Waste Generation

• Food

• Infrastructure

Greening the University Curriculum

• Graduate Certificate Program In Green Practices

• Graduate Interdisciplinary Sustainability Degree Program

• Undergraduate Concentration In Sustainability

• Sustainability Student Learning Objectives

Sustainability Task Force

• On-campus Events and Activities

• Programs and Policies

• Recycling

• Conservation and Efficiency

* * *

Activity Breakdown

• Data Collection and Analysis (Survey coordination, alternatives assessments)
• Design and Implementation
• Evaluation and Assessment
• Information Management and Education (Marketing and Outreach?)