Bellingham, Washington and Oregon State University are 2008 Green Power Leadership Award Winners

Article Type: News From: International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Volume 10, Issue 2

Two regions in the US Northwest have been recognized for their investment in renewable resources. The Bellingham, Washington coastal community received EPA’s Green Power Partner of the Year Award for their continual effort to display national leadership in the purchase and support of green power. The community’s purchase resulted in EPA recognizing the Community of Bellingham as the first EPA Green Power Community in Washington State. To date, the community is now buying more than 81 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy certificates(RECs). This amounts to nearly 11 percent of the community’s total electricity use. More than 2,400 households and businesses have enrolled to buy green power through the challenge.

In addition, Oregon State University was awarded EPA’s Purchaser Award for purchasing nearly 67 million kilowatt-hours of renewable RECs that is equal to nearly 75 percent of the total campus electricity consumption. The University’s purchases places the school on EPA’s list of Top 10 College and University green power purchasers.

SUREGEN Project performs well

The project – SURegen (Sustainable Urban Regeneration) is performing well. The project, led by the University of Salford, UK is a £3 million four-year scheme to produce a web-based system that will offer a bank of online information to organisations embarking on regeneration programmes. SURegen is a collaboration between five other universities and ten partners, including local authorities, NGOs, architects, engineers and construction companies. The project will help decision makers in urban regeneration programmes to collaborate more effectively and to learn key lessons from past mistakes by using case studies of best practice.

Play your part – a new web site

The UK-based Academy for Sustainable Communities and Community Service Volunteers has launched a new online toolkit that supports teachers to encourage pupils to play an active role in community projects.

The site includes ideas, resources, activities and teaching aids designed to raise awareness of sustainable communities, inspire young people to play a part in improving their communities and develop the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to devise and run successful citizen projects. The site includes four main areas:

• 1.

  what makes a good community,

• 2.

  what we can do to improve our communities,

• 3.

  planning and carrying out an active citizenship project; and

• 4.

  and celebrating achievements and evaluation.

Further details at: citizenship.ascskills.org.uk/

Climate Change and sustainable energy policies in Europe and the United States

The Institute for European Environmental Policy and the Natural Resources Defence Council have published this report, highlighting the main conclusions of their joint project – Transatlantic Platform for Action on the Global Environment (T-PAGE). This project has provided a platform for debate to stimulate dialogue and exchange of experiences between environmental NGOs,academia and other interested civil society organisations in the EU and US on the most salient issues on the political agenda.

The report encompasses the series of research papers produced during the course of the project on US and EU actions on climate change and energy, which includes: summaries of the EU and US policies on climate change and energy; an analysis of the EU ETS; a summary of the current state of US policy on cap and trade; a summary of policy approaches to promoting biofuels on both sides of the Atlantic; and an analysis of EU and US public perceptions of the environment and climate change. Further details are available at: www.ieep.eu/whatsnew/newsitem.php?item=177

Genderseite: an online resource for issues related to gender and the built environment

The UCL-led UrbanBuzz Programme has recently launched “Gendersite”,a comprehensive online resource for issues related to gender and the built environment. Everyone involved in the built environment world tries to meet the needs of their clients; child-sized furniture is designed for nurseries,disabled parking pays are located next to entrances, and sheltered housing estates are planned near post-offices and shops.

Gendersite has been launched in recognition of the fact that many people remain unaware of the needs of the majority of the population; women. With the introduction of the Gender Equality Duty, there is now a legal obligation to consider these needs. Gendersite acts as an online resource, providing a route to the key information needed to gain a better understanding of gender issues in the built environment. The site lists books, bibliographies, broadcasts,conference papers, journals, reports, unpublished PhDs and more. A series of case studies offer a first point of access to the extensive literature contained in the Gendersite database of bibliographic references. Visit the site at: www.gendersite.org