11/11/07 - Friday November 2nd, 5500 college students from all 50 states and some foreign countries gathered on the University of Maryland, Washington DC campus for the largest ever conference on climate change, Power Shift 2007. According to the website the goal of Power Shift 2007 was to take the youth climate movement to new levels. They said of the conference, "at this conference, leaders of our generation will share ideas, learn new skills, make new connections, establish a national voice for our generation, and send a united message to our national leaders: we are moving beyond the same old special interests, empty promises, and inadequate results to embrace a new paradigm that leverages our strengths and achieves what is possible for our future. Something incredible is happening."
Over the four days of the conference there were 100s of workshops, panel discussions and rallies to educate and energize students to create change on their campuses. The conference ended with a Lobby Day on Capital Hill. 1000s of students went to the Hill and talked to their representatives, demanding new green jobs and aggressive climate change policies.
About 30 Lehigh students attended the conference. Not many were able to stay for Lobby Day on Monday but in the three days we were able to attend we learned a lot about what is being done on campuses across the country and what the necessary next steps are for Lehigh. If you would like more information about the students that attended e-mail Sarah. If you would like more information about the conference check out the link below.
11/9/07 - On Wednesday, October 31st and Thursday, November 1st Lehigh University hosted a workshop on Balancing Energy and the Environment. The workshop was hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering. The goal of the event can be found in the description of the workshop given by the organizers. "Providing the energy needed by society while protecting the environment is one of the greatest challenges we face...issues related to energy supply, delivery, consumption, environmental impacts and associated political and economic realities are more visible and crucial than ever. Lehigh has gathered preeminent researchers to explore pressing research needs and opportunities for technology and policy development needed for a sustainable energy future...Our intention is to create avenues for interdisciplinary dialogue and to foster collaboration among the collective body of expertise represented at the event-- within and beyond Lehigh." NASA, General Motors, ExxonMobile, Indianapolis Power and Light, and Air Products were among the many groups represented.
The take home message from the workshop was there is much we still don't know about emerging energy technologies and the university should step up all research on the supply, delivery and consumption of traditional and alternative energy. There was also a feeling among the workshop attendees that national legislation will be passed concerning carbon dioxide emissions in the next 10 years and they do not feel ready to deal with the implications.
For more information visit
10/30/07 - Tonight, a small group of committed students met to begin the long process of forming a "Green Union" to encompass all environmental groups on campus. Adopting the name "Environmental Coalition" (or ECo for short), students representing Green Action, SSD (Students for Sustainable Development), and the Alliance discussed visions for the organization and what steps need to be taken in order to form this group. It was decided to use Lehigh's Global Union (GU) program as a model, and we will be looking at the GU's Constitution and By-laws in order to help ECo develop our own mission statement and internal framework. It was agreed to form ECo under the Environmental Initiative (EI) until it is strong enough to be its own entity (while still maintaining affiliation). The ultimate goal is to have the university hire a full-time campus sustainability coordinator who would head ECo as well as supplement ECo's work on campus. Other ideas included having subcommittees within ECo that would have specific goals to accomplish, choosing one primary focus per year (or semester) that ECo works on, etc.
The full creation of ECo is planned to be completed by the end of this semester. The general process we have established is listed below. The "Founding Committee" (those present at today's meeting and anyone else interested) will meet weekly.
ECo Creation Process:
1. Create internal framework.
-Mission statement, Constitution, By-laws, Club Application process, etc.
2. Talk to EI about legitamizing and recognizing ECo.
-Create $ account.
-Create a "sustainability map" for campus.
3. Plan the first ECo meeting for all interested clubs.
-Announce the 1st focus (predecided). Recycling has been decided on as the first focus.
-Introduce clubs to ECo and it's benefits.
-Begin the club application process.
4. Schedule regular ECo meetings and continue to develop as a group.
10/25/07 - The last 2 weeks have been productive and informative in terms of campus sustainability. In a meeting last week with Director of Facilities Gary Falasca, we gathered information in order to compile a Campus Profile. Mr. Falasca answered all of our questions and referred us to other sources of information that we may need. Many actions and improvements we have requested of Facilities are already in place or are in development. Ultimately, Mr. Falasca cited economics and budgets as both the source and the barrier to environmental improvements on campus. However, we were assured that Facilities does the best job possible and must rely on administration permission and regulations in order to implement substantial changes.
Also, on October 23, interns met with President Alice Gast to discuss sustainability on campus, focusing on the signing of the Presidents Climate Commitment (PCC). After briefing describing the commitment and the requirements it entails, President Gast assured us that both the PCC and the Talloires Declaration are being examined and looked into. Before signing, President Gast wants to be sure that the steps outlined in the commitments are the same or similar to the paths that Lehigh wants to take towards environmental sustainability. However, her vision for Lehigh's future includes surpassing the rather low standards that the commitments require. Enthusiastic about the student-led environmental shift on campus, President Gast is actively examining the different actions and improvements that must be made in order to reduce Lehigh's environmental impact. Meetings and departmental reports from Dining Services, Facilities, Transportation, Academic departments, etc. have already occurred and are scheduled in the upcoming months. She asked us to follow up with her about the commitments as well as about the formation of a "Green Union" for all environmental organizations on campus. Although we did not succeed in getting the PCC signed, we do have the President's promise to continue to examine both the PCC and the Talloires Declaration and implement a plan to improve Lehigh's campus.
10/2/07 - Yesterday's Green Summit meeting was a success! Students, faculty, staff, and administration came to discuss our campus goals, visions, and current actions concerning environmental sustainability. As it turns out, many other organizations and departments have the same goals as we do at the Alliance. The meeting was useful to see what other groups were doing on campus, and it was really great to see the effort and commitment everyone has. At the meeting, we found out that a lot of the actions that we intended to do are already being completed by other groups so now we need to sit down again and re-evaluate our semester plans. Sarah had the idea of being the organizers for a "Green Union" under the Environmmental Initiative - an umbrella group for all environmental groups on campus. We also plan on being part of the push for President Gast to sign the PCC and Talloires agreements. Any changes to our semester goals will be posted. It's great to see that Lehigh is on the right path to becoming more sustainable!
What other groups are doing:
-G. April and M. Scheller - creating a portable "Global Warming Awareness Pavilion"
-J. Slipp of LTS - making a "Greening Lehigh" website and forming a Sustainability committee.
-Community Service Office - runs Cans for Habitat and the Move-out Collection Drive.
-Dining Services (Sodexho) - has made many changes (recycled napkins, eco-friendly soap, switch to fair trade, use of local food, etc.); new marketing strategy will be implemented soon.
-Facilities - use of energy efficient lighting, occupancy sensors, switching from electric to gas heat and water, composting leaves, etc.; plans on starting to use biodiesel as fuel in some boilers.
-Gamma Phi Beta sorority - planning Gamma Phi Green Week in spring; idea to plan a "Go Green" challenge for buildings to reduce electricity usage.
-Green Action - planning Green Week (October), working on improving recycling in residence halls, modifying the wind energy program.
-Leadership Lehigh & Student Senate - working to improve recycling.
-Residential Services - has implemented a recycling program which will eventually expand to every building within the next few years.
9/24/07 - This week, our task is to do an inventory of recycling bins in all of the residence halls on campus. Once we complete the inventory, we will meet with Facilities, the Office of Res. Life, and the Office of Greek Life to discuss the changes that can be made to improve recycling. Our goal is to have every trash bin paired with recycling bins. In addition, it is critical for us to be sure that both bags of trash and bags of recycling will not be thrown together into the garbage.
Some dates to note:
-Green Summit meeting (for any student, faculty, staff, or organization interested in improving Lehigh's environmental impact) - October 1, 2007 from 5-7pm in Lamberton Hall.
-Power Shift Youth Conference - November 2-5, 2007 at University of Maryland. Visit powershift07.org.
For information on both events, e-mail an intern or Alice Kodama (alicekodama@gmail.com).
9/18/07 - Sarah and members of the Green Action club met with the director of Dining Services to discuss changes and improvements to be made. Sodexho, Lehigh's food and dining provider, has already implemented important changes (including a switch to eco-friendly dish soap, installing new napkin dispensers equipped with 100% recycled napkins, selling oil for use as fuel, and introducing "green-ware" into dining halls). In addition to these changes, we requested Sodexho to look into using biodegradable to-go containers as well as composting. Composting will be considered once case studies from other universities are evaluated, and biodegradable to-go containers are not possible at this time due to budget constraints. We will follow-up with Sodexho as the semester progresses.
9/14/07 - After some lengthy discussions and numerous lists, we have narrowed down our list of semester goals. We have decided to primarily focus on recycyling because it is a very visable issue and one that seems to have gained some major momentum on campus. We will also be trying to reduce campus emissions, improve the wind energy purchasing program, and make changes in dining services.
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