The “Lighting the Way” celebration, co-hosted by the Noyce Math and Science Teacher Scholarship program, featured a talk by David Shiller, an environmental activist turned sustainable lighting expert who has designed bulbs specifically for Bryn Mawr, as well as the debut of the Bryn Mawr College Sustainability Campus Tour for prospective students.

The celebration began with the tour, which was designed by several students, and concluded in the newly renovated Brecon Hall dormitory, where a “virtual ribbon-cutting” was held and the building’s last two LED light bulbs were screwed in. These bulbs make Brecon the first all-LED lighted building on campus. The bulbs, designed by Shiller, are energy-efficient yet produce the equivalent of a 160-watt bulb. The College is the first place to use the design. “We will definitely be the first, but will definitely not be the last,” said Associate Director of Facilities Services for Project Management and Energy James McGaffin.

At the ribbon cutting, President Jane McAuliffe presented the College electricians certificates of appreciation for their work in the lighting sustainability efforts. She also praised Sustainability Leadership Group members Chief Administration Officer Jerry Berenson, Mathematics Professor Victor Donnay, Sustainability Intern Lee McClenon ’14, and McGaffin for their efforts across campus.

“They say that necessity is the mother of invention and this is the true product of invention and innovation,” said McAuliffe. “We start at Brecon but we don’t stop.”
Residents of Brecon reacted positively to the noticeable change in building lighting. “I flipped on my light switch after coming back from winter break and it was so bright — it was great,” said McClenon.

During his remarks, Shiller, who owns his own consulting business devoted to energy-efficient lighting solutions stressed to students the value of generalizing their skills rather than focusing solely on a specialized career and urged defining career aspirations via a mission rather than a job title. “I think a Mawrter should have a mission,” he said.

As a special message to STEM students, using his own youthful absorption in physics as an example, he stressed the importance of networking and social skills. “Social skills can and should be learned — don’t become socially stunted. Learn how to network,” he urged.

Shiller also stressed the importance of strategy and long-term solutions as a step beyond protesting. “Protesting is fine as a short-term solution, but be in the practice of creating and promoting solutions,” he said. “That is where the money is and that is where the impact is.”

At the conclusion of the talk, Shiller and Donnay presented certificates of achievement to the first class of scholars from the Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program of the National Science Foundation at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges: Dominique DeLeon (Hfd ‘12), Dorothy Shu ‘13, Evren Cakir (Hfd ‘12), Hannah Weinstein ‘13, and Tasnim Aziz ‘13.

The campus sustainability tour was designed in cooperation with the Admissions Office by students with Environmental Studies minors as part of the Fall 2012 senior seminar. Jacinda Tran ’13 and Hannah Rosebrock ’13 led the inaugural tour on Tuesday. Rosebrock highlighted the benefits of the tour in promoting the joint efforts of campus groups to prospective students. “It connects all these different groups on campus and promotes collaboration,” she said. Added Tran: “It raises efforts about sustainability efforts on campus.”

Victor Donnay and students from his Senior Conference on Math Modeling and Sustainability

Bryn Mawr students, faculty members and administrators, as well as representatives from Lower Merion Township (home of the College), gathered in a Park Science building lecture hall at the end of last semester to hear presentations from senior math majors who spent the fall semester looking at the numbers behind several possible environmental initiatives.

Three groups of students from Professor Victor Donnay’s “Senior Conference on Math Modeling and Sustainability” presented the results of studies they conducted over the semester. Two focused on the College — one on the possible advantages of the college contracting to have dining hall food waste composted and the other on the environmental, economical, and human impacts of the College switching to a paperless admissions process. The third group worked with Lower Merion Township and retired transportation engineer Rich Kerr to rate the biking safety of township roads and to look for low-cost ways to make roads safer for bike riders.

The first group to present was made up of Hoang Ha, Wendy Huang, Brenda Martinez, and Hannah Weinstein. They worked with the College to examine the environmental and economic impact if the college contracted to have much of the food waste from the dining halls composted.

As a trial, the College contracted with the company Philly Compost during the fall semester. In addition to using regular trash bins, workers at Haffner and Erdman dining halls began separating out all compostable waste that was then picked up three times a week by Philly Compost.

As the group explained, while such a switch may appear to be a no-brainer from an environmental standpoint, the reality is much more complicated.

While the move to composting dramatically reduced the amount of trash being traditionally disposed of (which is incinerated and produces CO^­­₂) it also produced new sources of CO^­­­₂ emission in the form of the truck that had to come out and pick the compost material up and additional electricity used to power hot air blowers used in the composting process.

“We thought the truck emission might be offset by the fact that we were able to reduce our traditional trash pickups to three a week but those trucks were still out on the road running the rest of their routes,” pointed out Martinez during the presentation.

However, even when taking into account the emissions created by the Philly Compost truck and electricity use, the students estimated that by switching over to composting, the College was able to significantly reduce its overall CO_­­2 output.

The cost for both the traditional trash pickup and composting service during the trial period was slightly higher than what the college had been paying for the traditional trash service alone. However, the student researchers estimate that if the College can cap the number of compost bins picked up each month, it will be able to save money while reducing its carbon footprint.

“The best part of this project was how important it felt,” said Weinstein during a question period after the presentation. “We all want our campus to be as green as possible and it was great to play a part in making that happen.”

Composting will continue this semester and the College is examining making the program permanent, said Associate Director of Facilities Jim McGaffin, who attended the presentation.

The second group of students to present was made up of Alisha Pradhan, Yashaswini Singh, Haverford student Sebastian Tilson, and Julia Yu. The group worked with representatives from the admissions office to examine the environmental impact of the College adopting a “paperless” admissions process.

While 99 percent of the class of 2016 submitted their admissions documents electronically, every application continues to be printed out by the admissions staff. In doing their project, the group estimated that last year the admissions office printed nearly 150,000 documents as part of the application process.

The students determined the move to a paperless system would have a significant positive environmental impact; saving the equivalent of 69 trees a year in paper. They also argued that going paperless would result in enough increased productivity and other savings to justify its costs.

“The bottom line is that a system like the ones we were looking at will allow admissions officers and our financial aid people to do an even better job of evaluating and helping prospective students. The fact that it’s good for the environment is a bonus,” said Dean of Admissions Laurie Koehler, who was working with the group and plans to move forward with adopting a paperless system.

“I don’t think there are many other colleges or universities where students have the opportunity to work on something this significant to the operation of the college,” said Singh during her group’s question period. “We never felt like what we were doing was just a class project because it wasn’t. It was something of real value and importance.”

The third group, primarily using Google Maps and Google Earth, worked with representatives from Lower Merion Township to create a map that grades many of the township roads according to their bike friendliness.

The students — Lynne Ammar, Tapashi Narine, Dorothy Shu, and Linda Yoo — looked at 31 roads, examining factors such as the existence of a shoulder, overall road width, and heavy vehicle usage.

Each road then was assigned a letter grade from A-F, with A being the safest roads for bikers. Only 11 percent received an “A” and nearly 40 percent of the roads received a “D” grade.  A respectable 42 percent received grades of “B” or “C” while eight percent received failing marks.

The good news, according to the students, is with just some low-cost changes like reducing speed limits or painting shoulders of some roads, the number of roads with passing grades could be significantly increased.

“The work you all did shows the challenges involved when you’re trying to take an auto-oriented suburb and retrofit it,” said Lower Merion Township Assistant Director of Planning Christopher Leswing, who attended the presentation along with two other township officials.

“This project and map is going to be a tremendous resource for us going forward,” added Leswing. “Now we can make the argument that not only is this something we should do but it’s something we can do.”

In introducing the presentations, Donnay talked about the fact that the seminar grew out of the College Climate Action Plan goal to expand academic links to campus sustainability efforts.

“Math is not usually the first thing that comes to mind when people start talking about sustainability,” said Donnay. “But good policy has to be backed up with accurate facts and figures. The work these students have done is a wonderful example of how we can connect what we learn in the classroom to real world issues.”

As a result of his educational work connecting math and sustainability, Donnay was appointed Chair of the Advisory Committee for Math Awareness Month 2013, the theme of which is the Mathematics of Sustainability. This event, sponsored by the four main mathematical societies in the United States, aims to increase public awareness of the important role that mathematics plays in a wide range of areas.

For more about the Bryn Mawr Climate Action Plan and other environmental sustainability initiatives, go to Environmental Sustainability at BMC.

Professor Ross’ Statement to Philadelphia City Council

Ross spoke specifically about the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon standard for new power plants.

“From an economic standpoint, air pollution represents theft of environmental services. A fossil fuel-burning power plant needs air to absorb emissions from combustion just as much as it needs coal or natural gas. But, whereas it pays miners for the coal, workers for their labor, and the lenders for financing the plant, it pays nothing for the clean air it fouls, nothing to the children afflicted with asthma, nothing to the elderly confined to their homes on hazardous air-quality days, nothing to homeowners inundated with rising flood waters,” Ross said during his remarks.

“A perfect environmental policy would end the theft by putting a price on the environmental services all of us use and it would compensate innocents injured by the shift to an environmentally responsible economy. But, the perfect is the enemy of the good–so we look for cost effective ways to make things better. By that definition, the proposed EPA Carbon Pollution Standard for New Power Plants is a no-brainer. It threatens no jobs and has no effect on the return to existing investments. It offers future investors a guide to avoiding the worst environmental impacts as they consider how to meet future energy needs,” he says.

Organized by Philadelphia City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown and Penn Environment, the hearing was an opportunity for citizens to comment on proposed EPA regulations to limit carbon emissions from new power plants. Reynolds Brown was a co-sponsor of City Council Resolution 120356, which supports the reduction of Greenhouse Gas Pollution under the Clean Air Act and urges the Environmental Protection Agency to move swiftly to fully employ and enforce the Clean Air Act.

Bryn Mawr College produces a substantial quantity of food waste, and composting it—allowing natural processes to transform it into nourishment for growing plants—has long been an appealing prospect to environmentally conscious members of the college community.

Daniele Arad-Neeman and Karen Leitner sponsored a Plenary resolution supporting the composting of food waste.

Last year, a group of students investigated composting options for the College as part of a senior seminar in environmental studies. The students estimated that the incineration of the College’s food waste releases about 9,000 lbs. of carbon per year, a figure that could be reduced by composting. According to their calculations, the potential benefits of composting outweighed the costs—but they discovered a number of challenges to be overcome.

Now, with the support of key staff members and patrons of the College’s dining halls, the student Self-Government Association’s Sustainable Food Committee has taken a critical step toward confronting those challenges: measuring the amount of compostable waste produced by the dining halls.

A preliminary three-day trial last November established a rough figure of about 350 lbs. of compostable food waste per day for each of Bryn Mawr’s two dining halls. Students who supervised this effort made a report to the College’s Board of Trustees, which expressed its support for the effort.

A more extensive, two-week trial was completed on April 1. This second test involved an agreement with the College’s waste-disposal contractor, which collected the compostable material separately and hauled it to its closest composting facility.

Getting This Far

Nora Schmidt and Jasmine Arnold worked with students and staff on a composting trial.

The idea of composting the College’s food waste has prompted interest for years, says Director of Dining Services Bernie Chung-Templeton, but municipal waste-disposal regulations complicate the issue.

Lower Merion Township supports closed-container composting of household food waste, and any residential landscape waste the township collects at curbside is composted and offered to township residents as a soil amendment free of charge. But food waste on the commercial or institutional scale at which the College operates is subject to a different level of sanitation regulation.

“The regulations are strict about speedy removal of food waste,” says Grounds Director Ed Harman, who has worked closely with the students and Chung-Templeton on the composting trials. “Even if we could obtain a variance, the quantity of waste we generate would require a good deal of space if we kept it on campus through the composting cycle.”

Rising juniors Daniele Arad-Neeman and Karen Leitner, who joined the SGA’s Sustainable Food Committee as first-year students, were aware of these issues, thanks to a senior-project presentation given in the spring of 2011 by senior environmental-studies concentrators Hope Fillingim, Julie Griffin, Dawn Hathaway, Hannah Payne, and Larken Wright-Kennedy.

But Arad-Neeman and Leitner were sure there was enough community support for composting to find a way around those obstacles. To demonstrate student support, the two presented a resolution in favor of composting food waste at the SGA’s Plenary meeting in the fall of 2011. The resolution passed easily, giving the project a new momentum.

Meanwhile, seniors Nora Schmidt and Jasmine Arnold had been investigating composting possibilities on their own. Because of their part-time jobs in the dining hall, they had a sense of how much food waste the College generated.

The passage of the Plenary resolution brought Arad-Neeman, Leitner, Schmidt, and Arnold together, and the composting project became the main focus of the Sustainable Food Committee’s efforts during the 2011-12 academic year.

Support from all sectors of the community was necessary to make the measurement project work, the students say, and they got it.

“We inherited this project from older peers who let us know that it was going to be hard—but also that there were amazing resources for it,” says Leitner.

During both the first and second trials, the Sustainable Food Committee recruited student volunteers to stand near the trash cans in the dining halls to remind diners to scrape their compostable waste into the designated containers.

After the successful completion of the first trial, which set a baseline for post-consumer food waste, Dining Services stepped in, providing posters and other educational materials for the second, longer trial.

Prep cooks in Dining Services were also involved in the second trial, which measured pre-consumer, as well as post-consumer, waste.

“Composting requires some extra effort on the part of Dining Services workers,” says Schmidt. “But they were happy to contribute to the project. Everybody seems to be enthusiastic about reducing waste.”

Communication of the project’s goals and progress were critical to its success, says Arnold: “I learned to think about all the ways in which people might be affected. Keeping everyone in the loop is really important.”

Next Steps

Now that the College has established a reliable figure for the amount of compostable waste it generates, it is in a better position to weigh its options, says Harman, who plans to investigate several alternatives over the summer.

One possibility is collaborating with other local institutions to establish a composting route with the College’s current trash hauler. Harman will also look into finding a suitable composting facility that is closer to campus than the Delaware facility used during the trial; collaborating with other institutions on hauling to a closer facility is also on the table.

“I was not really expecting to have made this much progress by this time,” says Arad-Neeman. “But we got an overwhelming sense that people really wanted this.”

The plan commits the College to a 10-percent reduction of carbon emissions (from a 2008 baseline) by 2020. It is a challenging goal, members of the ESLG point out, particularly because Bryn Mawr’s 2008 baseline carbon-emissions figure was already low relative to its peers. The College began a serious campaign of energy reduction more than a decade ago and had achieved some impressive results by 2006.

Reducing carbon emissions a further 10 percent will require not only changes in operating procedure, but community participation and awareness, says Donnay.

The importance of community participation in energy-conservation efforts is reflected in the ESLG’s draft mission statement, which includes a commitment to “educate all members of the College community (students, staff, faculty) to become knowledgeable about issues of environmental sustainability.”

The educational aspect of the group’s work is critical, says Donnay, “because it is important to incorporate environmental sustainability into the core mission of the College.”

“A lot of our efforts over the past year have focused on community outreach and education,”outgoing Bryn Mawr Greens President Karen Leitner noted in a recent meeting of the ESLG.

ESLG members Victor Donnay and Jim McGaffin, along with students Johannah Cordon Hill and Hillary Tervet, students in the current 360° course cluster Perspectives on Sustainability, have been meeting with members of the campus community on a building-by-building basis to introduce the Climate Action Plan and discuss the history and the future of environmental-sustainability measures and awareness on campus.

“People have been incredibly receptive at these meetings,” says McGaffin, a mechanical engineer who has served as Facilities Services’ point person in conservation efforts. “At nearly every meeting, we’ve learned about some kind of environmental-sustainability initiative or effort that we weren’t aware of.”

The ESLG also recently asked a number of campus organizations and offices that have expressed interest in environmental sustainability to list their own efforts toward greening Bryn Mawr over the past year. A few highlights, including the ESLG’s own efforts, are listed below.

Selected Environmental-Sustainability Initiatives and Accomplishments at Bryn Mawr, 2011-’12 Academic Year

• Environmental Studies became a Tri-College minor.

•  A 360° course cluster titled “Perspectives on Sustainability” is being offered this semester. A lecture series associated with the  360° drew audiences from around campus and sparked considerable discussion of environmental issues; community-outreach efforts associated with the Praxis element of the course cluster include a major environmental-awareness campaign on campus.

•  Professor of Mathematics Victor Donnay will offer “Math and Sustainability: Helping to Make a Green Ribbon School,” at Bryn Mawr’s 2012 Summer Insititutes for K-12 Teachers.

• Acting on a plenary resolution that passed last fall, the SGA’s Sustainable Food Committee conducted a thorough feasibility study of a comprehensive composting plan for the College’s dining halls. A three-day trial in which waste was weighed each day showed the average waste per dining hall per day to be around 325 lbs. Working with Facilities Services and Bi-Co Dining Services, the committee then conducted a two-week trial with the College’s waste-collection service to determine whether Bryn Mawr’s and Haverford’s combined three dining halls produce enough compost to meet the contractor’s minimum requirements for compost collection. Results are expected soon.

• In conjunction with students in a course taught by Environmental Studies Director Ellen Stroud, the Student Landscaping Representatives Lydia Bello ’12 and Stephanie Kim ’12 worked with Grounds Director Ed Harman to create a campus tree tour, part of an educational effort focusing on the importance of plant life to the campus environment.

• The Bryn Mawr Greens’ initiatives included a number of educational events as well as a second season of community gardening on campus.

• In addition to its role in the Sustainable Food Committee’s composting trials, Bryn Mawr Dining Services completed the transition to trayless service, a move designed to reduce food waste and conserve energy that would otherwise be used to wash trays. BMCDS continues to cultivate local food sources and hosts an annual dinner devoted to educating the campus community about local food producers; BMCDS staffers are working with the Alumnae Association to produce a local food, beer, and wine festival for this year’s Reunion.

•  Transportation purchased two vehicles—a Honda Civic Sedan for the College’s rental fleet and a cargo van for Multimedia Services—that operate on compressed natural gas, as does a Blue Bus purchased earlier. The difference in price between the CNG-powered vehicles and gasoline-powered vehicles was funded by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

• To encourage conservation of paper, Information Services implemented a printing quota of 1,200 pages per student per semester.

• Among the many events devoted to raising awareness of environmental issues were the films, lectures, and meals associated with Food Week, a Tri-College effort to which a number of campus organizations and offices contributed.

• The newly formed Earth Justice League has established relationships with student organizations focused on environmental justice at a number of nearby colleges and universities, participated in a number of direct actions, and hosted an activism workshop at Bryn Mawr.

“I chose to apply for the Fulbright so I could continue my study of hydrogen fuel research, the ‘holy grail’ of clean energy,” says Melker. “Sweden is unique in its excellent funding of alternative energy science, and Uppsala University is at the forefront of hydrogen fuel research.”

At Bryn Mawr, Melker is conducting research in photocatalytic hydrogen fuel production under the direction of Assistant Professor of Chemistry Jonas Goldsmith.

Researchers looking into photocatalytic hydrogen fuel production are examining ways hydrogen–which can be used as a power source–can be made using solar energy, water and a catalyst.

Melker’s senior thesis is on the synthesis of Ruthenium and Iridium photocatalysts and Cobalt and Rhodium electron relay molecules and their subsequent hydrogen production capacities.

“Having Anna in my research group has been great. She takes initiative and tackles new challenges with gusto. The opportunity to work with bright and motivated undergraduates like Anna is one of the main factors that drew me to Bryn Mawr College,” says Goldsmith.

In addition to her research with Goldsmith, Melker spent the summer of 2010 at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the lab of Associate Professor Ryan Hayward working on polymer electrolyte membranes, an important component of fuel cells. That work was funded through the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program.

At Uppsala, where she’ll work in the lab of Professor Leif Hammarström, Melker will continue to research photocatalysts that can split water into hydrogen and oxygen, work that is similar to her research.

“Photocatalysts are molecules that get excited and lose an electron when exposed to sunlight. This electron can then be transferred to a water molecule to go on to make H₂. The scientists at Uppsala use an approach that takes its inspiration from nature to create new photocatalysts,” says Melker.

Melker, who will earn a minor in French from Bryn Mawr, is also excited to learn Swedish and study abroad, and hopes to learn her way around by going on runs through Stockholm and perhaps even competing  in a road race like the all-female 10,000 meters Tjejmilen race held each September in the Djurgarden royal park.

At Bryn Mawr, Melker has been a member of the cross country, indoor, and outdoor track and field teams. In each sport, she served as team captain during her junior and senior years. She has been named to the Centennial Conference Academic Honor Roll eight times, with a ninth spot on the honor roll expected at the end of the current outdoor track season. She has also served as a hall advisor and peer mentor.

After her Fulbright, Melker will begin the chemistry Ph.D. program at the University of California-Santa Barbara.

“I feel very honored to have received this incredible opportunity to do research at one of the best universities in the world,” says Melker. “And I am very grateful to my mentors Dr. Goldsmith and Dr. Hayward for showing me how my passion for solving our energy crisis can be put to good use in the lab.”

Given that sustainability is a global problem that often requires local solutions, it also struck the faculty as a perfect opportunity to include a Praxis experience as a core component of this 360°.

“We hope that this experience will give students a sense of empowerment: that they have the intellectual tools to make a difference in the pressing problems facing the world, and the creative mindset to think of new approaches, take charge and make something happen,” says Donnay.

For the Praxis component of “Perspectives on Sustainability,” the 16 students taking part are divided into five groups.

Two students are working with members of the College’s Sustainability Leadership Group to develop an interactive presentation that discusses sustainability at Bryn Mawr. Their presentation outlines the College’s climate-action plan, the many sustainability initiatives that the College has already carried out, and the next steps to reduce energy usage throughout the College. In April, they will present their findings—building by building—and teach community members how to introduce sustainable practices into their everyday lives.

Another group of students is working with the Haverford Reserve to develop informational programs for touch-screen computers that will be located in the Reserve’s Community Recreation and Environmental Center, which is still under construction.  The group is working to provide information on green building and eco-friendly tips, as well as calculations to demonstrate the energy efficiencies of the building.  Another group of Bryn Mawr students already made an impact on the Center when they developed a green energy plan in 2010 that helped Haverford Township win a $300,000 grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to help finance a geothermal heating and cooling system for the facility.

Five students are at FACTS charter school in Philadelphia, where they are developing a curriculum for a gardening elective. This group will apply the knowledge from their 360° classes to their collaboration with a teacher at FACTS on lesson plans for this elective. They are also working to implement a composting system, which the students at FACTS will build in the school’s already-existing garden.

Two groups of students are working at Parkway West High School; one group is designing an environmental curriculum for 10^th and 11^th grades and spends Monday mornings teaching these lessons to the students. They develop the curriculum throughout the week, work with a representative from the Urban Nutrition Initiative as a resource, and send their work to the teacher for approval. The other group just finished a $2,000 grant proposal to the Urban Nutrition Initiative to build an urban garden. The garden would be located near the school and include 12 raised beds for growing fruits and vegetables. The group is currently working to set up a volunteer clean-up day to clean out the lot before the garden can be built.

According to Jennifer Jiang ’13, a double major in math and economics, the Praxis element is the glue that holds the 360° together, a way for students to take their knowledge and make connections to the world outside of Bryn Mawr.

“I like the fact that our final project is something tangible,” says Jiang. “It delivers change; it’s real. The end of the 360° is not the end of these projects.”

Students plan to blog about their experiences in their Praxis partnerships with the community.

Just before spring break, students participated in a one-week workshop titled, “Design Challenge 2012: What a Waste?,” led by planner and architect Korinna Thielen from HCU Hamburg. During that week, students explored one resource and their own patterns of consumption. They then developed a  realistic idea for a sustainable “product,” coming up with concepts such as a biking trail between Bryn Mawr and Haverford College, a new treatment for the so-called “Valley of Death” area in front of the gymnasium that has to be crossed on the way to Cambrian Row, green stations for recycling copy paper, and other concrete and practicable changes aimed at making Bryn Mawr a more livable and sustainable community.

In addition to spending nine hours of class time together per week, traveling to and taking part in off-campus trips and Praxis placements, and working on group-homework assignments, many of the students in the 360°hang out together when they’re not studying.

“We’re like a little family,” says Jiang. “We have such a diverse group of students majoring in different subjects, but we all care about sustainability. I feel like that’s what brings us all together.”

“We are pleased to be able to provide the College and the neighboring community an opportunity to learn about, discuss, and take action on issues of sustainability,” says Donnay. Two distinguished visitors will offer a lecture and a workshop each. All are free an open to the public, but registration is required for the workshops.

The schedule:

• Workshop with Leith Sharp: “Stages of Change: Where Are We Now? How Do We Move to the Next Level?” Thursday, Feb. 23, 1 – 4 p.m., Benham Gateway Building Conference Room. Online Registration
• Lecture by Leith Sharp: “Who Are the Change Makers?” Thursday, Feb. 23, 7:30 – 8:30 p.m., Dorothy Vernon Room
• Multipart Workshop with Korinna Thielen: “Design Challenge 2012: What a Waste?” Monday, Feb. 27, 10 a.m. – noon; Wednesday, Feb. 29, 10 a.m. – noon; Friday, March 2, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Dalton 119. Participants are welcome to participate in any or all of the workshops, which deal with issues of waste. Online Registration
• Lecture by Korinna Thielen: “The Sustainability Grand Challenge 2012: A Proposal for a Sustainability Competition at Bryn Mawr,” Monday, Feb. 27, 4 – 5 p.m., Dalton 119.

The presenters:

Leith Sharp is a longtime advocate of sustainability in higher education. She began her career as a student at the University of New South Wales, where she established one of the world’s first campus sustainability programs. In 1999, Harvard University hired her as the founding director of its Office of Sustainability, where she established one of the largest green-campus organizations in the world. In 2009, she became the executive director of another new organization, a partnership of 48 community-college presidents working together to drive green economic growth across Illinois. Sharp is now the founding chair of the Sustainability Futures Leadership Academy, an international collaboration to advance executive leadership capabilities for driving sustainability into the core business of higher education in both developing and developed countries.

Architect Korinna Thielen is a proponent of whole-systems design—integrating the creativity of multiple disciplines and stakeholders, and creating sustainable and resilient environments in a well-managed process of collaboration and innovation. Now teaching both in Munich (Technische Universität München) and Hamburg (HafenCity University Hamburg), she has a wide range of experience in design and planning, having worked with internationally acclaimed practices in Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK.  At Arup Urban Design in London,  she was the design leader of two major masterplans for eco-cities in the UK. She also worked with Arup Global Foresight and Innovation, a strategic research group exploring emerging trends and scenarios for the future. As project manager at the Institute for Sustainability, she helped develop a proposal for a collaborative research and innovation center, with a focus on improving the sustainability of the built environment.

In his remarks, Ross argued that the new standards, which would start to take effect in 2017, are the single most effective policy option on the table for dealing with greenhouse-gas emissions.  He went on to refute claims that the new standards would raise the cost of new-car ownership, promote the design of less-safe vehicles, create job loss, or represent untoward government intrusion in the free market.

Read the Full Remarks

“In a perfect world, with the price of gasoline reflecting the environmental, national security and public health externalities of fossil fuel consumption, consumers would demand the most fuel efficient vehicles and major auto makers would be rushing to provide them,” Ross told the officials.

However, as Ross explained in an interview this week, when it comes to the price of gas, those realities aren’t reflected in the price consumers pay at the pump.

“Quite frankly, and this is a point I sort of hinted at in my testimony, the biggest thing the country could do to deal with greenhouse gases is get the price of carbon up to the right level so that it reflects the true social costs that are involved. If gasoline cost $6 a gallon, I guarantee there’d be a strong demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles,” said Ross.

“The free market only works if all of the conditions for a functioning market are there.  What you have in the case of climate change and health effects relative to the price of gas is a classic example of externality market failure. That is, the decision each of us makes to use gasoline doesn’t take into account factors like the costs to others in terms of health care and climate change. You’re not paying anything to the citizens of Mauritius because the sea levels are rising,” added Ross, who drives a 40-mpg Toyota Echo and takes the train back and forth from his home in Chester County to Bryn Mawr’s campus.

Ross made his remarks in Philadelphia at the invitation of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Philadelphia was one of three cities chosen to host public hearings to allow comment on the new rules, which will be decided upon by the agencies this summer.

Titled “Perspectives on Sustainability,” this 360° offers a multidisciplinary investigation of urban and educational policies and implementation issues that are crucial to issues of sustainability, while mathematical modeling provides frameworks to examine the evolution and current state of cities in terms of their built environments, their ecological footprints, and their educational systems.

Faculty members taking part in the 360° are Professor Carola Hein of the Growth and Structure of Cities Department, Senior Lecturer in Education Jody Cohen, and Professor of Mathematics Victor Donnay.

Students interested in 360°: Perspectives on Sustainability must preregister and complete this questionnaire at the time of preregistration. This questionnaire must be completed and submitted to the instructors no later than by the end of Friday, Nov. 4 (midnight). Incomplete or late submissions cannot be considered.

Students considering enrolling in 360°: Perspectives on Sustainability can attend a lunchtime discussion with the participating faculty members on Friday, Oct. 21, from noon-1:30 p.m. in the Dorothy Vernon Room of Haffner. Those needing a lunch ticket should contact Cohen via email.

Students must register for all three course in the 360°, and one additional course outside the cluster. Enrollment is limited to 15 students.

360° description from the participating faculty:

Today we are facing numerous and interrelated challenges to the urban and natural environment, including rapid climate change, rising population numbers, and the extreme socio-economic differences that go hand in hand with them. Initiatives from green building to education for sustainability are aimed at reconsidering what is needed to adapt cities to current challenges and requirements.

To assess how planning and design interventions, changes in governance or education in the broadest sense can be most successful, and to provide students with concrete tools to assess the impact of the choices human beings make, our 360° offers a multi-disciplinary investigation of urban and educational policies and implementation issues that are crucial to issues of urban sustainability, while mathematical modeling provides frameworks to examine the evolution and current state of cities in terms of their built environments, their ecological footprints, and their educational systems.

We envision that such a multi-perspectival analysis—as well as the tools and methods of urban studies, mathematics, and education—understood broadly to include the ways ideas are framed, conveyed, taken up, and acted upon (or not)—will open the way for fresh insights into current and possible activism and help par ticipants frame their thinking and actions aimed at improving sustainability within and beyond urban spaces.

Perpectives on Sustainibility Course Descriptions:

Building Green: Sustainable Design Past and Present [Hein] At a time when more than half of the human population lives in cities, the design of the urban environment is a key aspect of environmental studies. Students investigate issues of sustainable architecture and urban design in past and present. The course has a Praxis component allowing students to put their research on historic and contemporary topics into the context of daily life.

Educating for Ecological Literacy [Jody Cohen] This course examines how education can help people deeply understand and constructively respond to real, complex challenges such as managing shared resources. We consider policies and practices that can empower educators, students, and communities to become “ecologically literate” agents of change for a more sustainable and socially equitable world.

Introduction to Math and Sustainability [Victor Donnay] Using techniques of mathematical modeling including dynamical systems and bifurcation theory (tipping points), students will study quantitative aspects of sustainability problems. Students can take the course either at the 100-level (no advanced mathematics beyond high school mathematics) or, by doing additional work, at the 200-level (pre-requisite is calculus).

360° is a new interdisciplinary experience that engages several aspects of a topic or theme, giving students an opportunity to investigate thoroughly and thoughtfully a multitude of perspectives. A cohort of students takes a cluster of classes over the course of a semester, focusing on the history, economic concerns, cultural intersections and political impact of an era, decision, event, policy, or important scientific innovation. 360° participants hone their arguments and insights through writing and research, develop strategies for teamwork that push the limits of their talents and creativity, and work with professors and scholars to promote big-picture thinking.