With sustainability embraced as a university mission and campus culture, students are tracking and evaluating how Roger Williams University measures up in making greater strides toward sustainability from energy conservation to teaching concepts

Dell’Agnese, Courtney

Rodrigues, Jill

English

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Students Leading Effort to Measure Sustainability at RWU

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Roger Williams UniversityDOCS@RWUFeatured News Story The Week at Roger1-15-2019Students Leading Effort to Measure Sustainabilityat RWUCourtney Dell’AgneseJill RodriguesFollow this and additional works at: https://docs.rwu.edu/weekatroger_featured_newsPart of the Higher Education Commons2/13/2019 Students Leading Effort to Measure Sustainability at RWU | Roger Williams Universityhttps://www.rwu.edu/news/news-archive/students-leading-effort-measure-sustainability-rwu 1/2 News ArchiveStudents Leading E ort to Measure Sustainability at RWUCreating a legacy of accounting for RWU’s sustainability e orts, student-led initiative willhelp university track and measure progressMeghan Ormsby (le ) and Hallie Repeta presentingon RWU's water usage for the STARS report.January 15, 2019 By Courtney Dell’Agnese ’19 & Jill Rodrigues ’05BRISTOL, R.I. – With sustainability embraced as a university mission and campus culture, students are tracking andevaluating how Roger Williams University measures up in making greater strides toward sustainability from energyconservation to teaching concepts. What started as a hands-on classroom lesson grew into a university initiative, thanks to the hard work of two groups ofstudents from two di erent academic disciplines who were inspired to create change around the social justice issueof sustainability. It began last spring with students in a public administration course in the politics and international relations program,who were tasked with  nding ways to advance meaningful policy change on campus. According to Professor StevenEsons, instead of working on a case study with which they felt no personal connection, he wanted his students tobecome steeped in learning how to advocate for leadership decisions for a community they hold dear.Recognizing that sustainability is interwoven in everything at RWU, from lanscaping to farm-to-table dining optionsand teaching sustainability concepts in courses, the students decided to  nd a way to measure and celebrate theuniversity’s e orts. They identi ed an international sustainability rating system, called the Sustainability, Tracking,Assessment & Rating System (STARS) program, and brought their idea to former RWU President Donald Farish.President Farish, who led e orts at the university to promote sustainability as a core principle during his tenure,adopted the idea and gave the students his approval for having RWU join the STARS program before his passing inJuly.“The students really took the initiative getting in contact with the President and getting people on board, convincingthem this would be a good thing for the institution,” said Professor Esons. “This is going to help institutionalize theprogram and will create a culture of sustainability – a culture that will become criteria for making future decisions.” The next group of students took up the work the following semester. This fall, students in Professor Esonssustainability studies minor capstone course, Working Towards Sustainability, began the time-consuming legwork ofcollecting the data to report to the STARS program. They had to connect with administration and sta  across the2/13/2019 Students Leading Effort to Measure Sustainability at RWU | Roger Williams Universityhttps://www.rwu.edu/news/news-archive/students-leading-effort-measure-sustainability-rwu 2/2university to gather data in various categories like academics, water use, energy, food and dining, buildings andmore, compiling as many years of information as possible to demonstrate progress over time. Students take questions and feedback from theaudience.While there is still much more data to gather, the students gave a preliminary report to administrators and faculty onDec. 5. About a dozen students, representing a wide range of academic disciplines from biology to constructionmanagement, explained the diverse set of measurements in the sustainability reporting framework and presentedtheir  ndings that RWU has made signi cant strides in its e orts. Among the e orts students highlighted are the campus Green Zones (where grounds receive no fertilizer and areallowed to grow naturally), the student-led Food Recovery Network and Conservation Corps, replacement of lightingwith energy-e cient bulbs, and the myriad courses that incorporate sustainability concepts into the curriculum. Inaddition to talking about what the data shows, the students o ered ideas to improve sustainability e orts in manyareas. “The STARS report is a good way to realize how sustainability plays a part in every single piece of life on a campus,”said environmental science major Rachel Nadolny. “I’ve learned a lot of the nitty-gritty details that can improve oursustainability as a school, but it’s information that can be taken back to your home life as well.”Architecture major Loukas Varas said that all students, regardless of major, should play a part in creating a sustainableuniversity and future.“Even business majors or dance majors or law students should have sustainability become a part of their courses,because then we can talk about it as one unit,” Varas said. “It brings people together and allows everybody to be apart of it. And being a part of something as a whole university can make this grow really fast and become reallysuccessful.”Data will continue to be collected during the spring semester, with the goal of  ling a completed report in March. Atthat point, RWU will be eligible for receiving a STARS sustainability rating and have the annual reporting shared bySierra magazine’s Coolest Schools ranking and The Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges. To date, more than850 institutions around the world have registered to participate in STARS, which is administered by the Associationfor the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.“These students have gained a lot of knowledge in their sustainability courses, but now they’re practicing in takingthat knowledge and transforming it into action,” said Professor Esons. “They’re giving something to the institutionthat will last and keep going, and they’re leaving their own legacy at Roger Williams.”ACADEMICS LIFE @ RWU

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Students Leading Effort to Measure Sustainability at RWU

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