This vision is at once philosophical and practical, and our expectation is that the impact of our work will be felt broadly on campus and beyond, evidenced by the establishment of new features and program elements, and transparency in our efforts and progress through time. We will regularly report on progress to support discussion and strategy important to new progress.
New features and program elements of the Center for Sustainable Futures may include:
- Learning spaces, resources, and expanded coordination that support education and community use in the Arboretum, the farm, or other campus location connected to community interests around us.
- The establishment of new open monitoring and data engagement related to climate resilience and environmental justice.
- The development of new climate and environmental justice leadership and experiential opportunities for students.
- The development of a deepened academic coordination for sustainability including funding, professional development for broad entry, and a faculty cohort model in support of sustainability, climate action, and environmental justice.
- The development of dedicated sustainable futures funding proportional to our emissions that supports solutions projects and a central sharing platform.
- The adoption or development of formal building plans
- The development of a formal landscape plan to guide decisions
Ongoing change will be supported in part by open reporting on initiatives and progress made toward goals, including:
- Continued reporting of our Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions on SiMAP, with the potential to add more emissions categories.
- Completed electrification projects and their emissions reductions.
- Completed building or space-related projects and how they incorporate sustainability and climate resilience.
- Total funding available in the Sustainable Futures line for solutions projects and its relationship to our emissions
- Solutions projects funded through the Sustainable Futures Fund and their impacts/outcomes, including decarbonization, adaptation, nature, and environmental justice.
- Projects and activities associated with leadership programs for students and faculty cohorts
- Evidence of education institutionalization using the AASHE STARS Curriculum Reporting tool.
- Categories in this audit document progress toward sustainability education institutionalization and include:
- Course participation
- Department/unit participation
- Availability of funding and professional development for sustainability-specific curriculum development
- Department and program participation in living laboratories
- The existence of a portal that documents applied projects
- Sustainability literacy assessment.
- We may continue to use other reporting elements in AASHE STARS as they are deemed valuable to progress in our operations or culture.
- Categories in this audit document progress toward sustainability education institutionalization and include: