University Action

  • Rhode Island College Uses Solar and Wind Power for Outdoor Lighting and Springboard for New Course

    Rhode Island College Uses Solar and Wind Power for Outdoor Lighting and Springboard for New Course

    Recent steps taken by Rhode Island College (RIC) confirm its commitment to sustainability. In addition to converting all its dormitories to LED lighting, which will save 517,308 kilowatt hours, RIC has installed several street lamps topped with solar panels and a wind turbine. During the day, the lamps convert sunlight and wind into electricity, which… Read More

  • Penn State University Researcher Helps Beaver Stadium and Other Sports Venues Reduce Waste

    Penn State University Researcher Helps Beaver Stadium and Other Sports Venues Reduce Waste

    Penn State University’s Beaver Stadium, home to the Nittany Lions football team, is the second largest university stadium in the U.S. It hosts seven home games each year with attendance for each game reaching anywhere from 110,000 to 150,000. Imagine the waste generated in the stadium and the surrounding parking lots, which together occupy 110… Read More

  • TechAccel Partners with Research Universities to Meet Increasing Global Demand for Food

    TechAccel Partners with Research Universities to Meet Increasing Global Demand for Food

    The global demand for food is rapidly rising and becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. By 2050, the world population is expected to reach 9.7 billion and food demand is supposed to increase anywhere between 58% and 98%. There is substantial confusion and uncertainty surrounding the world’s ability to meet these growing demands. A number of… Read More

  • Eastern Michigan University Reaches Nearly 100% Energy Self-Sufficiency with New Turbine

    Eastern Michigan University Reaches Nearly 100% Energy Self-Sufficiency with New Turbine

    As part of its $19.6 million project to become energy self-sufficient, Eastern Michigan University recently installed an energy-efficient turbine in its heating plant. The service of this new 7.8 megawatt turbine will make EMU practically self-sufficient in production of heat and electricity on campus.   In furtherance of the Co-Gen (co-generation) project, the university used… Read More

  • Unity College Dining Services Wins Sustainability Award for Zero-Waste Efforts

    Unity College Dining Services Wins Sustainability Award for Zero-Waste Efforts

    Unity College prides itself on being America’s Environmental College, and its many sustainability projects, including its quick transition to zero waste in its dining and catering facilities, supports that assertion. The college’s efforts to have zero waste in its dining and catering facilities were rewarded when Dining Services recently won the gold Sustainability Award in… Read More

  • University of Wisconsin–Madison Student Starts Campus Food Shed

    University of Wisconsin–Madison Student Starts Campus Food Shed

    University of Wisconsin–Madison has a new Campus Food Shed thanks to student Hannah DePorter, who was a junior when she first conceived of the project last year. Now, UW-Madison students and staff will have access to fresh produce for free over 7 months of the year. The Food Shed has four large refrigerators, which are… Read More

  • Arizona State University and Adidas Partner to Extend Inclusive Power of Sport

    Arizona State University and Adidas Partner to Extend Inclusive Power of Sport

    The language of sport is unique and inclusive. It has an ability to integrate and unify cultures, races, and identities. After the 1992 Rugby World Cup, which united both white and black South Africans for the first time, Nelson Mandela said, “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire.… Read More

  • Arizona State University Gaining Reputation for Its Sustainability Efforts

    Arizona State University Gaining Reputation for Its Sustainability Efforts

    Arizona State University (ASU) is rapidly gaining a reputation for its strong commitment to sustainability practices. It has won awards for various sustainability efforts three years in a row, starting in 2015 when it received two first-place Crescordia awards at the Arizona Forward Environmental Excellence Awards, which honor projects focused on improving sustainability in Arizona.… Read More

  • University of Illinois Reaping the Benefit of Student-Funded Solar Farm

    University of Illinois Reaping the Benefit of Student-Funded Solar Farm

    Efforts towards environmental sustainability at the University of Illinois are held at top priority. So, when a student group advocated for a campus wind farm and additional student fees to support a move towards clean energy in 2003, they sparked great interest. Due to a $5 million price tag, however, the request was declined by… Read More

  • University of Sheffield Working with Port Said University to Develop Technology to Desalinate Water

    University of Sheffield Working with Port Said University to Develop Technology to Desalinate Water

    A team of researchers at the University of Sheffield in the UK and Port Said University in Egypt are working together to develop a way to desalinate water using entirely renewable energy. Energy 2050, an energy research institute based at the University of Sheffield, is combining biogas, a renewable energy source produced from waste and… Read More

  • Rice University’s New Formula Will Help Prevent Flooding of the Yellow River

    Rice University’s New Formula Will Help Prevent Flooding of the Yellow River

    Two geologists at Rice University, Hongbo Ma and Jeffrey Nittrouer, have developed a formulaic system to predict and mitigate the frequent flooding of the Yellow River, or Huanghe in Chinese. Ma is a postdoctoral researcher from China who joined Rice University in 2014. The Huanghe is the third longest river in Asia and one of… Read More

  • Universities Affirm Their Commitment to the Paris Agreement

    Universities Affirm Their Commitment to the Paris Agreement

    Despite President Trump’s decision to remove the U.S. from the Paris accord, 1,219 U.S. colleges, universities, governors, mayors, businesses, and investors have proclaimed: “We Are Still In.” That number already includes 183 colleges and universities, which is not a surprise, since colleges and institutions have been on the forefront of research and development in the… Read More

  • Do You Know Your Ecological Footprint? Penn State Students Will Soon Learn Their “PawPrint”

    Do You Know Your Ecological Footprint? Penn State Students Will Soon Learn Their “PawPrint”

    What is your ecological footprint? First-year students at University Park, Penn State University’s largest campus, will be measuring their ecological footprint with the help of the PawPrint, a student-centered metric created by Andrew Lau, associate professor of engineering design at Penn State.   Lau brought the PawPrint project to Penn State’s Sustainability Institute’s Reinvention Fund,… Read More

  • Armstrong State University’s Aquaponics Research Center Grows Fish and Plants Sustainably

    Armstrong State University’s Aquaponics Research Center Grows Fish and Plants Sustainably

    Researchers at Armstrong State University have developed an aquaponics research facility that could serve as a model for economic and environmental sustainability. Aquaponics, in short, is a way to grow fish and plants together in a self-sustaining system. It combines hydroponics, which is the growth of plants in water, with aquaculture, which is the raising… Read More

  • University of Minnesota Student-Led Food Pantry Plants Organic Garden

    University of Minnesota Student-Led Food Pantry Plants Organic Garden

    According to the 2015 Boynton Student Health Survey, about 10.2% of University of Minnesota students reported that, within the past 12 months, they had run out of food and didn’t have the money to buy more food. Over the same period, 17.5% percent of the university’s students worried about their food running out before they… Read More

The University Network